Received 150,000 in the leadup to the 2016 election as part of a catch and kill scheme with the national llenquirer to stay qui about her affair with donald trump. That means that Stormy Daniels testimony, the testimony that wrapped up today, will be the only testimony this jury hears that is directly from a woman accusing donald trump of trying to keepsi her quiet about an affair before the 2016 election. Now, there are lots of reasons why ms. Mcdougal might not want to testify, and there are lots of reasons why the prosecution might not want to call on her to testify. Were going to get some expert help unpacking all of that and what that a means for this casen just ar second. But Karen Mcdougal not testifying also makes the testimony we did get today from Stormy Daniels all it more important. And it makes the crossexamination of Stormy Daniels today, makes that all the more m important. Now, the defenses crossexamination today is probably most accurately described by a phrase i am loathe to say. But it really does describe what happened today when Stormy Daniels washe questioned by trumps lawyer, Susan Necheles, slut shaming. Im going to warn you if you have children in the room or you simply dont want to hear about Donald Trumps alleged sex life i mean who could blame you now is a good time to mute your television. This is trump Attorney Susan Necheles speaking to Stormy Daniels. Youre acted in porn and 206 films right and written and Directed 150 Sex Films is that correct . So you have a lot of experience making phony stories of sex appear to be real, right . Stormy daniels, wow, thats not how i would put it. The sex in the films is very much real just like what happened to me in that room. Necheles, youve bragged about how good you are about writing porn movies and writing really good stories and really good dialogue, right . Stormy daniels, yes. Necheles, and now you have a story youre telling about donald ortrump, right . Daniels, if that story was untrue, i would have written it to be a lot better. Necheles, just so i can be clear in what youre saying youve acted and had sex in over 200 porn movies, right . 150ish, yes. Necheles, but according to you seeing a man in a tshirt on a bed in boxer shorts you got lightheadedt and almost faint. You were so upset he wanted to have sex with you you couldnt speak up and say you didnt wany to have sex with him. Daniels, correct. Necheles, this was not the first time in your life someone had made a pass at you, was it . Daniels, no. Daniels continued, but it was the first time they had a Bodyguard Standing outside the door, and they were in their underwear and they were twice my age and bigger than me. Stormy daniels wasnt having any of it today. That didnt stop the defense from trying to use the fact that she is an Adult Film Star to try and discredit her and say her story doesnt add up because, well, shes had b sex before. That isse how trumps defense framed this alleged sexual encounter in court today. Meanwhile, when it came to trumps role in that same alleged sexual encounter, here is how fox has been describing it. The testimony of Stormy Daniels that was salacious, that was theas point of it. Listen, theres no person on planet earth that believes donald trump has been celibate all his life. That is not news. Stormy claims that she blacked out on this tryst with trump but she wasnt any on any drugs or alcohol. It could be she blacked out after having sex with trump, which is a compliment. Truly he screwed the brains out of her. That makes him a sex god. Everything ive heard makes trump more sympathetic, more likable. Do you have a context at all for a tryst between a porn star and a billionaire . Do you have anything to compare thisan against . Stormy called it an imbalance of power. Well, duh, thats why you met him. If he was a mechanic, a high school teacher, you wouldnt have run and slept with him. It was all about the power, it was all about the imbalance. Thats how this transaction works when youre a porn star. Sex god. Sex god. Donald trump, sex god. It is a classic Double Standard. If a boy and a girl have sex even a lot of sex with a lot of people, the boy is considered a stud, a sex god. And the girl is considered a slut. And today the female lawyer for the former president of the United States tried to use that Double Standard to destroy the credibility of someone who allegedly slept with the former president. That was the strategy. And whileas trumps team seemed fairly the intent to get ms. Daniels to revisit all the sleazy details about the sexual encounter during their crossexamination today, they also had the hutspah to say and could prejudice the jury. And then they yet again filed a Mistrial Motion on those grounds. And yet again that motion was denied. Joining me now is duncan levine, former assistant attorney for the Eastern District of new york, and kristen. Thank you both for being here. I was flabbergasted. Kristi, i believe you were down there today. Yeah. She says in a resigned fashion. I was flabbergasted they would make they would really entreat Stormy Daniels to revisitan the stort of sleazy moments in the hotel and then say we need a mistrial because this information has been too prejudicial. Right, the hypocrisy of it. This is what jean merchan was saying when he denied the mistrial saying, hey, in your defense you opened the door. You said she was a liar and said this never happened. And yetth then they go into questioning and the state says, okay, now we have to go into details because that lends her story extent. And then on cross rather than maybe stay away from that and preserve this issue on appeal and saying maybe this is too prejudicial, instead they dove right in and they were getting into it. If your argument was it never happened, im not sure why they were pointing out so many details in this situation whether she would have Concepted Orwo not. It made no sense and was not driving to the point there were inconsistencies. The only winconsistencies they kept pointing to it felt like forever whether or not he fed her dinner. There were some belabored moments in this trial today. The hypocrisy even to the casual observer seemed remarkable. I wonder, though, as we sort of joke about the hypocrisy, or not joke about it highlight it how much of a threat a mistrial is. The fact that Karen Mcdougal is not testifying, duncan, do you see that as evidence that the prosecution isev hesitant to ge into more sexual allegations visa vi donald trump as potential grounds for calling again for a mistrial . Well, i think the judge really called it out because he said ive been objecting to this testimony as its been coming in myself in order to give trump a fair trial, and i shouldnt have to do that. Youre not doing your job. Youve let all this stuff and theres stuff that t came inasmh as donald trump was an uncontrollable client,Stormy Daniels was an uncontrollable witness for the d. A. Office. She was offering so much at one point the judge said why dont you have her talk to ms. Daniels and he said ive been objecting to things myself. There were details about things like mr. Trump not having a condom. Thank you for repeating that, duncan. I know its a family show. That stuff does not need to come into the trial. It is prejudicial. And if mr. Trump is convicted you can be his guarantee for appeal. Hes going torud say i have ineffective counsel. Thats going to be the basis for hiso appeal. The judge pointed it out again today, hey, defense, do your job, object to more things, im basically playing your role. Is that the strategy to get this thrown out ono appeal . You have to object in order to preserve the issue for appeal. So if there is no strategy in not objecting, they needed to object, they didnt do it, they were sitting on their hands. But then the Strategy On Cross was actually gotr into these details and dirty her up and say you shouldnt believe anything she says because shes a porn star, And A Porn Star in this situation being in a hotel room with donald trump couldnt feel awkward because shes a porn star. And just going back to the jury, this is a jury that is a Manhattan Jury, a very highly educated jury. I think most of them are college educated. They have c jobs in finance, in law, in engineering. I mean this is not a jury and theyre split. Theres about seven men, five women split between married and single, but you have to figure, like, this is not necessarily the jury where that is going to play, where and it was just the watone. She was not only when Susan Necheles was doing the questioning, it was not only that the words were insulting and they were, but it was this mocking tone she used. And it was really offensive to listen to, and it was unnecessary. And i feel like, again, that was my feeling sitting there, but i have to think a Manhattan Jury thats that makeup would feel that way, mitoo. Their strategy was to shame Stormy Daniels and theres no way she could have been traumatized i guess is the word or caught offguard by donald trump sitting there in his boxer shorts. Do you think it made her a sympathetic witness . 100 . And remember at the end of the day it really solidified what came outit on the direct examination, which is that trump was almost like a predator. Theres this testimony in direct examination that hes sitting there in a hotel suite in his silk pajamas almost like a hue hefner, her hands are shaking after shess putting on her go heels after their sexual encounter. That was real stuff that portrayed him in a terrible light, and their crossexamination today almost solidified it as attack dogs going after this woman whos been in this situation. And Stormy Daniels, remember, is a witness the d. A. Office did not need to call. They took a risk, and i think tonight theyre celebrating the risk they took in calling her. But they didnt need to call her because arguably at this point in the trial established the elements of the crime. Theyve established the false business records, to defraud the voters and established this conspiracy between david pecker anden Michael Cohen and donald trump. The reason they called her is that it gives voice to this horrific story that trump was so desperate not to come outright on the heels of that Access Hollywood he found out, the Trump Campaign found out these two women Karen Mcdougal and Stormy Daniels were unt to sell the story. The jury got to hear this week what the story was, and its terrible. And now they viscerally can see what the story is, so thats why they i called her. It is a risk because shes a witness who has baggage. She is subject to this crossexamination. I think the defense took the bait,th fell into the trap and made themselves look terrible and bolstered her credibility. They went after her on these details you alluded to earlier, kristy. I guess the idea was to poke holes in her recollection, but these are such small details that seem so meaningless compared to the broader narrative she was telling. What do you make of those exchanges . Os first, i didnt feel they pointed today any inconsistencies. She said, yeah, i met with him at dinnertime, i never said i ate anything. She didnt tell any detail in the interviews she had and didnt point to anything that was really contradictory, thats one. And these are small details and happened 20 years ago. You expect witnesses and, duncan, weve both seen when you meet with witnesses sometimes recollections fade that are not the keyre details. Details she has been consistent. So, again, this was really not effective. And the other thing, again, they opened the door by calling her a liar in the opening. When you do that, yeah, the jury would want to hear from her about what happened. So herar going through the stor again, that was a defense tactical error. But do i think that will lead to ank mistrial or an appellate issue, not necessarily. I meanis these are retained lawyers. These are very good lawyers with strong reputations. I dont think it will get that far, but they have definitely been sitting on their hands and not making very good Strategic Decisions during this trial. Ive got to talk about not good Strategic Decisions. Today theres been a lot of back and forth on the gag order. Judge merchan was asked to amend the gag order, merchan said no. Earlier a few hours ago Stormy Daniels tweeted real men respond to testimony by being sworn in and taking the stand in court. Oh, wait, never mind. Is that duncan . I think, look, theres a problem in the fact that the witnesses are not subject to this gag order, and weve been seeing tweets from Michael Cohen attacking mr. Trump as well. So i think there is a bit of a disconnect between the fact that he cant say anything and that they and that the witnesses can. That being said, theres a long history here of mr. Trump incitingtr violence against not only the witnesses but the d. A. s office, the members of the d. A. s office staff, the judge and his family. Theres a real background here. Theres a reason this gag orderr exists, and i think at the end of thets day hes right not to modify the gag order, because theres more witnesses coming. And if you lift the gag order right now, these witnesses coming up are going to know the minute their off the stand are going to be subject to all these attacks. It cannot stand given the history of these Violent Attacks on people. And i think theac judge is righ to just keep it in place and keep it as it is. But maybe Stormy Daniels dont poke the bear on twitter, just a lay persons advice there. Please dont go anywhere. We still need youce badly. We have a lot to get to tonight including what happened after Stormy Danielsin left the witne stand. We learned a whole lot about trumps financial habits. And heres a hint, he really, really doesnt like spending money. Also tonight republicans are furious about President Bidens latest move inn gaza. Someone should tell them its a move several republican president s have made many times before. That is ahead. Stay with us. Any times before that is ahead. Stay with us sh we had more cash. You think those two have any idea . That they can sell their Life Insurance policy for cash . So theyre basically sitting on a goldmine . I dont think they have a clue. Thats crazy well, not everyone knows coventrys helped thousands of people sell their policies for cash. Even term policies. I cant believe theyre just sitting up there sitting on all this cash. If you own a Life Insurance policy of 100,000 or more, you can sell all or part of it to coventry. Even a term policy. For cash, or a combination of cash and coverage, with no future premiums. Someone needs to tell them, that theyre sitting on a goldmine, and you have no idea hey, guys youre sitting on a goldmine come on, guys do you hear that . I dont hear anything anymore. Find out if youre sitting on a goldmine. Call Coventry Direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect. Com. With Stormy Daniels testimony now complete, the prosecution appears to be moving to second phase of its argument, showing that donald trump was aware of and engaged in ms. Daniels Hush Money Payments. They began by calling madeleine westerhouse, trumps former assistant who testified to trumps frugality and his purchases. Here she is about trumps assistant. It says please note the frames are on the pricey side about 650 minus a 15 discount. Does djt want to spend that much . 650 for the billionaire. Does djt want to spend that much. Again a selfproclaimed billionaire and also a sitting president attending to the matter of his Golf Club Dues at the winged foot golf course. Prosecution, whats the total amount of the invoice. Westerhout, 6,749. Do you want me to look into it or do you want to continue paying annual due and the food minimum . And then the prosecution had westerhout read trumps hand written response written in his signature sharpy. Prosecution, whats written below the note in mr. Trumps handwriting. Yes, asap, okay. The not so subtle point here is if President Trump was personally attending to his Golf Club Dues and would have been concerned about the cost of a 650 picture frame, then he likely would not only have been made aware of the multiple 35,000 Hush Money Payments that were cut on his behalf, he almost certainly also would have been involved in signing every single one of them. Back with me now are duncan levin, former District Attorney for the district of new york, and kristy greenberg, former deputy in chief of the Criminal Division of the sdny. Are these 650 picture frame, the fact he had time to leaz with his assistant about the Golf Club Dues, are they indicative of the point the prosecution is trying to make . I think so. Writing out and signing a check for 35,000, so if he cares about 650, and 6,000, he certainly was