Of one of the series of fact witnesses that took the stand before the judge dismissed the jury for the day early just a short time ago. Trumps onetime white house aide Madeleine Westerhout earlier testified about trumps reaction to the allegations callings entire situation, quote, very unpleasant. All this is setting the stage for a huge week starting monday with the last batch of witnesses for the prosecution. We now know according to multiple sources that Michael Cohen will be one of them, the man who once said hed take a bullet for donald trump with the critical task of tying all the pieces together before the defense gets its shot and answers the question could trump himself take the stand . Well dig into that coming up. I want to bring in nbcs Vaughn Hillyard outside the courthouse. Phil rucker, msnbc political analyst and coauthor of multiple books on donald trump, Chuck Rosenberg is a former u. S. Attorney, senior fbi official and msnbc contributor, and with me here in studio, jessica roth, former federal prosecutor for the fdny and a professor at the Cardozo School of law. Even though the jury is done for the day, court is not done for the day, and we just got some big news that we expect to call two more witnesses. Its entirely possible, though, that we rest, that the prosecution will rest by the end of next week. What more can you tell us . Reporter right, so the prosecution has two witnesses, Michael Cohen and somebody else, and they suggested they could be done by the end of next week. Now theres no court already this upcoming friday because of memorial day weekend, so over the course of the next three days, monday, tuesday, thursday, you are looking at a lot of Michael Cohen testimony and the expectation that this is the individual who was there from start to finish from the first discussions of this Stormy Daniels sexual encounter story in 2011 all the way up until 2018 when he severed ties with donald trump, testified against him after donald trump all but through him under the bus by saying that Michael Cohen was the one wholly responsible for the 130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels and that he was not a party to it. And so for the prosecution, of course the expectation is that he will be cross examined here. This is going to be an intense weekend of preparation as Michael Cohen prepares to take the stand, you could say a long time coming, six years you could say that he has been in prep for this moment here. But also currently underway, i want to note real fast, chris, is that there is current deliberation as well about an indigenous who will not be a witness, and that will be Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer. Currently they are debating as weisselberg sits in rikers jail himself for having pled guilty to perjury as part of the civil fraud trial, theyre currently in engaged in conversation about whether the prosecution can admit his Severance Agreement into the record in front of this jury from the Trump Organization because the prosecution is contending that it is important for the jury to understand that not only is he in jail. Also, he is not testifying because a part of that Severance Agreement that left him with more than 2 million outgoing that he agreed to not make adverse statements that could damage or hurt donald trump or the Trump Organization. That is what is currently on judge merchans plate here now that the jury has left for the day. Chris. All right, emil bove, i want to go into this discussion were having right now, emil bove whos a former sdny prosecutor but he is now on the trump reel team, saying were not able to elicit testimony that would repeat some of the hearsay thats been offered. This form of impeachment that he entered a Settlement Agreement, we dont think its relevant talking about the Settlement Agreement with Allen Weisselberg. Then they have more discussions about weisselberg. Were looking to explain from our perspective why he isnt here. There are three payments due to weisselberg in a calendar year. If you look at the agreement, the employee promises not to denigrate the company verbally or in writing or in any of its entities. Conroy says he will not communicate with or cooperate with any entity, anyone with adverse claims are to take action to cause any person or entity to file a complaint or a lawsuit of any kind. The bottom line is and this goes to what emil bove, again, on trumps team is saying this agreement is not why weisselberg is not at this trial. Nobody tried to invoke that agreement. How important is it to be able to enter things about weisselberg who was the cfo of trump org but not have him testify . Yeah, this is a really Intriguing Development in the case. The focus on weisselberg, why hes not there and whether any party is going to be able to talk about that and try to offer an explanation to the jury because it does look like one avenue that the Trump Defense team may be exploring is blaming weisselberg and cohen and essentially saying that trump had nothing to do with the agreement about how to reimburse cohen and how to record it in the records of the Trump Organization. If they can just leave that possibility there for the jury, that could create reasonable doubt, and if an explanation is offered thats beneficial to the prosecution for why precisely weisselberg is not here testifying, then that obviously would help the prosecution. If, in fact, the prosecution is able to say, look, the reason hes not here is because essentially trump paid him to not offer testimony that was bad for trump, well, then you can make an inference effectively that he was doing this at trumps behest and he would say nothing that would be helpful to trump. I want to go back into the document, chuck, for a minute, and steinglass, whos lead Prosecutor Says while it is true we could subpoena him, meaning weisselberg, the agreement precludes us from talking to him against the backdrop of what jessica just laid out. How important is this decision from judge juan merchan . Remarkable, chris, that the cfo, right, the guy who handled paper and who talked to cohen and who talked to trump and who ostensibly would know about the deal isnt testifying in a criminal trial, and jessica had it exactly right. An important development. Its a bit mysterious but its hard to imagine as a prosecutor i wouldnt want that guy on the stand. Its really interesting to see how the judge handles this problem. My inclination as a prosecutor would be to try and force the issue, to subpoena weisselberg and put him on the stand and see what happens, but hes not cooperating, and he has, it seems, several millions reasons not to, and so its not a problem that should have surprised anyone. It was apparently i think from the outset that weisselberg wouldnt cooperate, didnt want to, but you know, federal prosecutors like jessica, State Prosecutors like the folks trying this case have ways to force the issue. Maybe less in state court than in federal court, but its a little surprising and a little disappointing that a witness potentially as important as weisselberg may not testify. Well, here we go. Were back into this, and mr. Weisselberg says emil bove, again, for the defense has never been on the government witness list, and then to try to get around it and try to add him to the witness list, theyre obviously not happy about that. Juan merchan says i dont see how one thing has to do with the other. This is done with some frequency. The only way to know is to put him on the stand without the jury under oath. Emil bove, we were entitled to notice of that long before the trial started. Merchan asks, you didnt think that was a possibility . Not based on the witness list, no. But what is the truth here in a trial about witnesses coming in that maybe werent or not original witness list . Theres no rule that you cant call a witness that hasnt previously been on the witness list, if theres prejudice to the otherwise with late notice, the judge may say im going to give you a slight delay so you can prepare for this if necessary. Its been pretty clear to everybody involved that Allen Weisselbergs after critical figure in this whole story. Part of the reason prosecutors have repeatedly charged weisselberg was in part because they were trying to get his cooperation and hes just resisted that again and again. Theyve clearly been interested in his testimony for some time, and he was put on the stand in the Trump Organization trial. So he has been a witness before. I think that the issue here is what happens if, in fact, hes put on the stand . He may well invoke his Fifth Amendment right against selfincrimination. Hes already in prison. That doesnt mean he potentially couldnt have exposure for other crimes or it could increase his sentence depending on what he says. Thats why the judge is saying we would do this. If hes going to invoke the 5th, that wouldnt happen in front of the jury. Donald trump is walk out right now. Lets listen briefly to hear what he has to say. Its amazing actually. Was amazing. Everybody can say whatever they want. They can say whatever they want. But im not allowed to say anything about anybody. Its a disgrace, and you see it. The media sees it. And its really very sad, if you look at the legal experts and the legal scholars, everyone would say this trial is a scam. Its something that should have never have happened. By the way, it could have happened seven years ago, bring it right during the election. Nobody sees that. This is a frequent complaint of donald trump that the trial is a scam. He blames it on people that all of those things are completely untrue. Having said that, what he did say at the beginning does speak to what happened in court right before he came out, and that is the whole issue, Vaughn Hillyard, of Michael Cohen, who is expected to take the stand as we said on monday, and the whole idea of the gag order. So todd blanche, who, as you know, is the lead Defense Attorney said with respect to mr. Cohen stating the obvious regarding the gag order, mr. Cohen continues to speak publicly about this trial and about mr. Trump wearing a white shirt with President Trump behind bars, we request that he be prohibited from talking the same way mr. Trump is not only stop extrajudicial statements from lawyers but witnesses as well. We request cohen be prohibited, again, from talking the way trump is now and theres a week left in this trial. This gets to the heart of what has frustrated donald trump, right, vaughn . About the fact that he feels for a long time Stormy Daniels could say what she wanted. Michael cohen could say what he wanted and make money off of it but donald trump under the gag order is not able to respond. Reporter right rkts and this is exactly what we heard from todd blanche yesterday after court ended for the day, but it was about Stormy Daniels specifically that they wanted and believed that now that Stormy Daniels was off the stand that donald trump should be able to respond in kind to her, and noting that there are voters and reporters that are asking him questions about the case and that he should have the right to respond to Stormy Daniels public statements. There was a new one yesterday when she put on x, quote, real men respond to testimony by being sworn in and taking the stand in court. Oh, wait, never mind. Those were the words of Stormy Daniels, essentially making a call to donald trump, okay, if you want to talk about me, then go and testify under oath just like i did in this court. Now youre seeing with Michael Cohen, the attorney for donald trump also making the case that he should be able to respond to Michael Cohen. Two weeks ago cohen posted on his social media account he would stop publicly talking about the case. He is maybe limited a little bit more, but he is not wholly stopped from talking about this case. Now Donald Trumps attorney clearly on the behest of his client wants to be able to respond to their public attacks of what they say are attacks against them. One of the things weve learned in reading your books, phil, and just observing donald trump is that his mood and how he feels about the way hes being treated can often have a great impact on the way he treats the people around him. It can also have a great impact on how he tweet, what he says, now, for example, when he comes out of court, and im wondering what your raeding into what youre seeing and hearing from him and the level of frustration he has about this. Thats exactly right that his mood dictates how he behaves. The Policy Decisions that he made as president. What weve seen the last few days especially in this week of trial is a lot of anger coming from former President Trump, and you see that in the comment he was just making a couple of minutes ago. This feeling that hes not being permitted by this judge to speak his mind to say what helps to say in a way that some of the witnesses have been. Obviously this has been a tense subject of much debate throughout this trial from the beginning with this gag order and something that trump has really pushed back against both in his social media posts but also in the pleas from his Defense Attorney, but i assume this is a line were going to continue to hear from trump as he uses it to really try to make the point to his political supporters that somehow this trial is rigged against him, that this isnt fair, that the judge is not treating him fairly, that he is being persecuted by the criminal justice system. Thats the argument trumps making. Its not backed up by evidence, of course, but when you see this frustration and this anger from trump, it all feeds into that broader narrative that hes trying to portray in front of his political supporters. But do you also see, phil, over the last couple of disa a kind of restraint. He does have that threat of jail hanging over him, the possibility but not likelihood he could join Allen Weisselberg at rikers. He has not made statements that were so directly inflammatory potentially as others he has made in the past. Do you think that judge Juan Merchans gag order and threat of jail is now at least now working . Well, that is whats changed this week, the threat of jail became a possibility that the judge laid out earlier this week, and trump has been slightly more restrained than he was earlier in the trial and certainly than he was in the run up to the trial. Were still seeing these flashes of anger and frustration, but youre right. Were not seeing the same kind of inflammatory and directly personal attacks and commentary that were used to seeing from trump almost certainly because of that threat of jail time, which is absolutely the last place where donald trump would like to see himself end up. So i want to go to you, chuck, the last thing juan merchan said or at least the last thing that we have immortalized in our document is they were asking them to please control these witnesses. He said i would direct the people to communicate to mr. Cohen that the judge is asking him to refrain from communicating in this case. We will do so and that came after Joshua Steinglass said we have repeatedly asked the witnesses not to do that, not just cohen, and we have no control over what they do. What about the prosecution and Michael Cohen who is set to take the stand on monday . Chris, the prosecutors must hate the fact that cohen is talking, and i am certain that they have asked him not to do it repeatedly, and cohen, like mr. Trump seems like someone who is beyond the control of the prosecutors and beyond the control of the judge. So why would prosecutors hate the fact that their key witness is talking . Because he is giving the defense team so much more fodder for Cross Examination. His biases, his anger, his inconsistent statements. I mean, put aside for a moment, if you will, chris, the fact that cohen is a convicted felon and a liar. I mean, he is, and that is Fertile Ground for Cross Examination. But all of the anger, all of the animus, all of the bias and all of the inconsistenies that continue to emanate from this man just makes it more difficult for the prosecutors and easier for the defense team on Cross Examination. So have the prosecutors asked him to stop . Assuredly and repeatedly, and he apparently is incapable of it. If i were a prosecutor in this case, i would be very upset and very angry with mr. Cohen. Is he hurting himself, jessica, as a witness who already we know and by the prosecutions own statement carries a lot of baggage. Arguably it is. It depends on how effectively the defense uses these prior statements as they continue in their Cross Examination of him and whether the jury becomes aware of them. Would you expect that they would . Well, i think its a doubleedged sword . Do they want to put before the jury more statements by Michael Cohen that are essentially bad for donald trump . I mean, yes, they go to his bias, but that b