Before you shot. When i saw the clip and they were showing the gravel pit. Someone was outside the gravel pit with a camera, looking into the gravel pit as she was taking aim. A gravel pit photographer. The executioner photographer. Here we are. Thank you, have a good weekend, my friend. There were a lot of memorable moments from the 2016 president ial campaign, a whole lot. One moment that really stands out after all this time is this one. To be clear, mr. Trump had no Financial Relationships with any Russian Oligarchs . Thats what he said. That is obviously what our position is. Donald trumps then Campaign Manager, Paul Manafort, completely rattled by a straightforward question about ties to Russian Oligarchs. It turns out he had a good reason to be rattled. In the weeks that followed that interview, the New York Times published a series of Bombshell Reports definitively showing that prior to joining the Campaign Paul manafort had earned millions in secret Cash Payments advising Russian Oligarchs and prorussian political leaders in ukraine and within days of reports coming out, the scandal forced manafort to resign from the Trump Campaign. Eventually the Shady Business Dealings landed manafort in federal prison until he was pardoned by donald trump in the final days of his presidency. But now Paul Manafort is reportedly returning to the Trump Campaign to help run the Republican National convention this summer. That is even as new reporting today in the Washington Post shows Paul Manafort will do that while pursuing business deals backed by the chinese government. Despite that, Advisors Say Trump is determined to hire manafort, likely handing him a substantial role at the rnc in milwaukee, because trump appreciates that his onetime Campaign Chairman has remained loyal to him, even while serving in prison. Just amazing stuff. And somehow that is not the biggest news about a former Trump Campaign manager turned convicted criminal. Remember that when manafort left the Trump Campaign he was replaced by far right strategist steve bannon. Before the end of trumps term bannon had been charged by prosecutors with defrauding donors in a scam involving trumps border wall. So just like Paul Manafort, trump also pardoned steve bannon. Steve bannon then promptly turned around and got himself indicted again, this time for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the january 6 committee. So in 2022 steve bannon was sentenced to four months in jail. Bannon appealed and the judge agreed to postpone the Jail Sentence while the appeal played out. Today a threejudge panel rejected Steve Bannons appeal. So it looks like former Trump Campaign manager steve bannon could very well be headed to prison at the exact same time that trumps other former Campaign Manager is completing his own journey from prison back to the Trump Campaign. The Trump Campaign to prison pipeline, there is really nothing like it. But that is not the end of Steve Bannons legal troubles. It is not because in addition to his impending Jail Sentence, he is still facing charges in new york for his trump Border Wall Scam and the judge who will oversee the trial for his border wall is, wait for it, judge merchan. The very same judge overseeing trumps Hush Money Trial in new york. We just learned that when it comes to recurring characters from trump world, the judge may be losing his patience. Today prosecutors closed out the third week of the Hush Money Trial by telling the court that they just have two witnesses left a call, one of whom is the star witness, Michael Cohen. He will take the stand on monday. Today judge merchan told prosecutors that he had a personal request for them. Tell Michael Cohen to please stop talking about this case on social media. , as recently as this week, appears to be using tiktok to sell tshirts with a picture of donald trump behind bars. He has also appeared on tiktok wearing the same shirt. Prosecutors told the judge that they have already tried to get him to stop talking about the case. Here is prosecutor joshua steinglass. Judge, we repeatedly instructed all of the witnesses in this case to the extent we have any control over it to refrain from making public statements. The fact of the matter is, we have no control over what they do. We repeatedly asked the witnesses not to do that. Not just mr. Cohen, all the witnesses. The judge responded i would direct the people to communicate to mr. Cohen that the judges asking him to refrain from making more statements about this case, about mr. Trump or anything related to this case or the process. That comes from the bench and you are communicating that on behalf of the bench. All of this is a perfect encapsulation of the challenges prosecutors face by calling cohen as a witness. He is key to trialing to showing trumps involvement in the skin, but he also spent the last few years as a trump critic, which could hurt his credibility in the eyes of the jury. Its the same issue prosecutors faced with Stormy Daniels because in trump world there are two kinds of people. Paul manafort and steve bannon who will abide demands for loyalty, defy subpoenas, do their time, wait for pardons and pray for reentry into trump world, and then there is Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels. Real people with real flaws who can muster the courage to defy trump, become the object of his fixation and end up pariahs in a world they cannot escape. Joining me now is vaughn hillyard, and a former federal prosecutor who is now a Senior Writer for political magazine. Thank you both for joining me. Lets talk about this trial. Just go back out to the big picture. In your Expert Opinion as someone who spent time downtown in the last couple of weeks, how is this trial going for the prosecution . The prosecution got what they needed. A human being who shared a story and stuck by the story. There was no flinching. Despite Susan Necheles, attorney for donald trump, trying to extract discrepancies, you had a woman who said i told the truth and have been for the last 18 years. That is what the prosecution was looking for. Now if you are the jury and you have Michael Cohen share his story, this for the prosecution is going to be key. The hard part for the defenses they may try to paint Michael Cohen as a little figure in Donald Trumps world. Even donald trump left the courthouse today and what did he say . Michael cohen didnt do big deals for me, he did little deals. So you have two options. Either Allen Weisselberg was okay with Michael Cohen calling the shots and having this payoff take place, or it was donald trump directing the order for the payment. The defense for donald trump has to decide in the next weeks. I do think that having a sort of test run if you will, the Character Assassination of Stormy Daniels, it was a useful model for the prosecution as they prepare for Michael Cohen and maybe not useful for the defense doing a trial of how they might treat Michael Cohen. How do you see the week informing what comes next in terms of Michael Cohen . I think Stormy Daniels ended up doing pretty well and i agree. The government got what they needed out of her and i dont think the cross went well for trumps lawyers. I think they really overdid it and im guessing the jury sensed that as well. In terms of Michael Cohen, i do put him in a Different Box. He has lied to every branch of the federal government. Stormy daniels has not done that and he is also the governments on witnesses throughout this case have been criticizing him, calling him dishonest, self aggrandizing, selfinterested. Nobody has been saying that about Stormy Daniels, at least not the governments witnesses. So he is in a Different Box and i expect trumps lawyers to take a very aggressive tack with him and i think it will be more effective than with daniels because they have so much more to work with. Whether it will be sufficient to get the client off or hang the jury, of course we dont know, but it is going to be tough. It will be a tough few days for Michael Cohen. Let me follow up with that. In terms of the strategy that the prosecution might employ to, you know, get ahead of whatever the defense is going to try to do in cross. Will they address his Character Flaws headon in the opening days of this trial or his time on the Witness Stand . Most certainly. That is a very good question, because the prosecutors in this situation, they like to sort of air out the dirty laundry on direct examination, when they have the witness, so they can frame the questions and ask more sympathetic or helpful questions to the witness, framed more generously. And get that stuff out to take the sting out before the defense brings it out, so you can expect they will be trying to get ahead of this in their direct examination. I was struck by prosecutor steinglass thing effectively to the judge, we know Michael Cohen is acting crazy and we dont have any control over him. Right, this is a witness who is technically there witness, because they will bring him forward. He is their star witness. He is the star witness, but he will go on tiktok and where what shirt he wants. He will do his own thing. This is not to they chose as the witness, it is who donald trump chose as the witness and the reality is, you are going through the history of donald trump and who flipped on him and who has not flipped on him. I think it is such a prudent conversation because if you go back to 2018 when this was becoming public, those around donald trump didnt think that he was ever going to cross the boss. Not only did donald trump deny it, but you had Rudy Giuliani going on Shannon Hannity in 2018 and saying Michael Cohen had an arrangement with donald trump and the word from Rudy Giuliani, i feel bad, he is being victimized like this. Hes a good man, that Michael Cohen. So the jury is about to hear those words back in 2018 when this was becoming public and they will also hear the words of Michael Cohen, the guy who flipped. I do wonder in terms of cohens tiktok habits. The fact he is wearing the t shirts. I understand this isnt his case, but in a way it is his case. This is his credibility on the lawn on the line. I find it surprising that someone who last week said im going to take a pause and tap out about saying crazy things on trump for now because it is about credibility and not messing this trial up for the prosecution and yet there is something, i dont know what it is, that draws him back over and over again to the detriment of his testimony. His conduct has been very sub optimal from a prosecutors perspective and it is not entirely academic. The question posed about what is driving him to this, the defense will have an answer. They will say he is motivated by money and hatred of donald trump and you cant believe a thing that comes out of his mouth. Unfortunately we learned today, you called it up in the transcript, the prosecutors have been trying to tell him to cut it out for a long time now. So you can pretty much guess with a fair amount of confidence that trumps lawyers will ask how many times prosecutors asked him to stop doing this. How many times he ignored it . Probably hundreds. And why he thinks he is free to flout instructions from any government entity. They could not compel him, but i am sure they implored him to cut it out and the fact he didnt will be a problem among others with his credibility. As we talk about witnesses for the prosecution, the defense has one, is that right . Just one witness they are going to call and it is the fcc commissioner. I did not know this, but to judge merchan ruled in march that smith is not allowed to offer Opinion Testimony regarding federal Campaign Finance laws nor may he testify or offer an opinion as to whether the alleged conduct in this case does or does not constitute a violation of the federal Election Campaign act. What is the point of this witness . He cant talk materially about any of the things trump might want to talk about. And imagine trump sitting in this courtroom after watching three weeks of testimony and imagine donald trump who openly suggested he wants to testify himself and it is quite angry at individuals who testified, sitting and allowing just one witness to go forward and then not even being himself. Im not sure if donald trump will ultimately testify, but for a man who sees freedom on the line or political repercussions for november, it is hard to fathom that donald trump will be able to resist the pressures or his legal team, even if advising him not to do this, for him to sit there and acknowledge this. It feels like they are waving the red flag. They come up with one witness who is, in your terms, sub optimal. Bradley smith. Is this bad lawyering . What does this strategy say to you . To put it in some perspective, it is not that unusual for defendants to have very few witnesses. Of course the government bears the burden under the law to prove its case and some lawyers, some Defense Lawyers incredibly think that if they put on a defense case, the jurors might be weighing each side and it could alter their perception. That is one reason among a variety of reasons that we often dont see defendants put on a case at all. With respect to whether or not smith will be called, it is unclear he will be called given the constraints the judge put on him. It is also unclear whether trump will have other witnesses. My assumption is that bradley smiths testimony got litigated because the defense would have had to provide expert disclosures to the government i had of the testimony. They wouldnt necessarily have to do that for fact witnesses, so it is possible trump could have other fact witnesses, i dont know. It is also possible there will be zero witnesses or trump could be the only witness. That remains to be seen and his lawyers dont have to make that decision until the government rests its case. It is super useful that differences dont have to call a lot of witnesses, but at the same time it is donald trump, who you point out is so ready to go to the stand in his own defense. How do you stop him when this is the last witness they are going to call . For donald trump politics is usually going to battle. He did it in his business and politics. For him i guess the question is if he thinks he can do it in a courtroom. Selfcontrol at the end of the day for this trial. We are going to see or you are going to see. Vaughn hillyard and ankush khardori, thanks for your time. We have a lot more to get to this evening, including how Donald Trumps 2024 Campaign Strategy is looking a lot like 2020. Part one, undermine faith in elections. Part two, take power no matter the results. 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