Addition of my show. Up next, the beat weekend. Welcome to our special. The new york versus donald trump. We are bringing you this brand new breakdown of the third week of the historic and first ever criminal trial of the former president and current candidate as well. This was a tough week for the defendant. There was gripping, dramatic testimony from the woman at the center of the hush money plot, and of all the witnesses we have seen, she is the most famous through her encounter with trump, and there were testimony and key days of testimony from witnesses who were in trumps orbit, who could speak about what she said and cooperate corroborate it. We are looking at this game and how they try to influence the 2016 election. We can tell you as we recount why it was such a tough week for trump, we also know, according to the public remarks, working off the public evidence, we nowhere near the end of the thing. Two witnesses left according to the das team. We have the star witness, Michael Cohen, beginning monday. Another witness and then they will be ready to rest as soon as the coming week. Michael cohen is central to the das case and he has testified under oath that trump was in on everything. He knew about everything. Everything had to grow through mr. Trump and it had to be approved by mr. Trump. That is what he sounded like last time through legally binding testimony while he was under oath. There is a lot of punishment if you perjure yourself to congress. We expect to hear him be the same. They will rest the case, as i mentioned, by the end of the week. That could change, but it was a confident line, meaning of something unexpected does not happen or there is no issue with the judge or something beyond their control, they expect to have this thing done by thursday. Of course, steps after that, the defense gets to respond and the jury gets to deliberate. Whether or not they can make the case, they are saying by thursday, they believe they will have legally set out all of the evidence, every element of the two crimes they say President Donald Trump committed. This week started with a bang when they clashed with the judge over him getting caught, blatantly violating the gag order and that meant even as they barrel forward, the da only has a few days left, and the judge had to tell the defendant and the lawyer he could face a jail sanction of this continues. Future violations could be punishable by incarceration. Prosecutors are making good on what they said they would do. Follow the money and show the receipts. That is important, as we mentioned. We will get into that with our experts as part of this special, that the witnesses matter because they bring everything to life. If they do not they do not have much without receipts, and they have some signatures from the defendant and other paperwork that is damning, showing this is not a random one off, but a whole plot run through the Trump Organization and through President Donald Trumps personal bank account. We have what he wrote to cohen. Prosecutors called actress Stormy Daniels to the sand, where she told them why she understood trump wanted her silenced at that time. Stormy daniels became a Household Name for shaking the corridors of power. Everybody wants to hear what Stanley DemosStormy Daniels will say. A riveting bombshell. Sometimes icky testimony. You wanted money. That phrase repeated multiple times. I think shaming a sex worker at his it is his motivation to shame her, and it is not working. She will not let her story be mischaracterized. Daniels testified over two days and it was quite detailed, at times graphic, and as an observation, that could sound like an opinion. That was something the judge at times had to patrol. At a legal level, some of the details would be beyond what it was necessary for the evidence to support the das case. This is not like an to be where you can jump around on different topics. The questions and topics are regulated by the judge. Now, within what she did say, she testified testified that when they had their initial encounter about it in public, that bolsters the das case that the only issue with the campaign motivation, part of the crime, they say, not just some generalized hush money. Daniels based aggressive questioning from trumps attorney, who used stigmas that discredit her because of her job. She accused daniels of extorting trump. She said that was false. That was an allegation in the form of the question. She said maybe she made the whole thing up, was not only did she deny, but that would be a tough pill for the jury to swallow when they have seen so much other cooperation cooperation they also said that sharing her story has negatively impacted her and there is a lot of that. They paved the way for other witnesses and some are not as exciting, but they go to what i say they have to prove, not that things happened, but that it was an intentional financial coverup that trump knew about at the time. There is a bookkeeper from his company who said that trump spoke to his former cfo, weisselberg, daily. That testimony was backed up by another staff assistant, who said on thursday that they remembered a couple times where there was a question about a check and trump would pick up the phone and call the now conducted cfo, weisselberg her. She became emotional and said she met with the defense earlier in the week to prepare as a prosecution witness, but that gives you some perspective. That is okay, by the way. The witnesses may have a mixed perspective, no matter who they are called by. The main obligation is supposed to be telling the truth and the jury assesses that. Friday, the judge floated the idea of having that aforementioned convicted trump moneyman, weisselberg, testify himself. That would be a big deal. I mentioned some unexpected things could add time. If you added a witness and you had to arrange him getting out of rikers jail, that might take a little extra time. He is in new york after pleading guilty to perjury for a different trump case. Not this one, but a related fraud case because the allegations of fraud have dogged trump in different courtrooms and that is the second time weisselberg has gone to jail for things he did, that were basically related to him arguably, or legibly, at the behest of his boss, President Donald Trump. They say they have looked visibly concerned at the suggestion that weisselberg come in. They seem to think that he is loyal, but better off not heard from. Now, we are also seeing the way that, day by day, this process can yield different information. The staffer i mentioned, when she testified friday, she said trump would sign checks, sometimes without even reviewing them. That goes to a clash among and across both witnesses and the da and defense arguments because, again, the jurys job is not to root for one side and not only take the first thing they hear as possible. Indeed, they will get instructions before they go into deliberate, that you have to take it holistically. So, together, they have to kind of unspool everything. The outer loop claim is a fair defense, when he is allowed to lodge, but they have to look at all the evidence and the Hand Signatures and the books and the bragging about how involved he is to decide whether or not that, plus the tape about these payments, all checks out or not. We have said this before. If we were using the general standard like two sources in journalism, they would have trump at dead to rights. But there is a higher standard, deliberately so. It is not just two sources or what you think is most likely or what happened reasonably. It is a High Standard on purpose for all defendants. It is supposed to be beyond a reasonable doubt, that he did it, and covered it up, ended with a campaign crying indent. A higher bar and that is why we will be watching this next week as the da brings in cohen. Trump wants to delay this. Unlike every other case he has faced, they have been failing in this court room. Will have a couple special guests that we think will help us really wrap up what has been a bruising week for President Donald Trump. We are back together in just 90 seconds. Seconds. Thanks to the donations. And our family is forever grateful because its completely changed our lives. Nothing dims my light like a migraine. With nurtec odt, i found relief. 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Fisher Investments we have a transparent fee, structured so we do better when you do better. At Fisher Investments, were clearly different. This is not what i want to be known for. As a matter of fact, i had for quite a while and it is overwhelming and intimidating and downright scary a lot of times. Stormy daniels was speaking about this all the way back in 2018 and now for the first time, people of heard from her under oath in his legally binding proceeding. They are joined by a legal analyst, joyce vance, and marissa. Professor, when you look at this week, we are always looking for reflection points and it felt like it barreled forward, and some ways, for all the excitement about Michael Cohen next week, if you were writing a Story Where The Da began to really congeal and focus its case, most of it feels like it is coming next. It might be from the combination of the receipts of daniels this week before even get to cohen saying, yes, what they said was true. It is an interesting rhythm with a prosecution, and you are correct. There is a lot of Forward Momentum but there also some really mundane and monotonous moments, where witnesses have to look at different forms of evidence. There are those quieter moments. Again, punctuated by similarly explosive testimony. I think people are really going to look back on the set of questions that Stormy Daniels answered from the prosecution and from defense lawyer, cohen. There is an undulating pattern. The real star is not any of these witnesses, but rather the documents that they were there to elaborate. The documents were the stars. The documents do not lie. They established a prosecutions story. The witnesses were all there to basically elaborate and give context and color for those documents and to give the jurors a story, and trials are storytelling. The prosecution using these Documentary Evidence decided to tell a broad story and use these witnesses to make that story come to life. Joyce . You know, anyone who has served on a jury understands that judges will say they must not deliberate until all of the evidence is in, until they are all in the room together, and we are treating the case very differently. We are assessing each witness as they testify and every piece of evidence as it comes in. Sometimes, that leads us to overfocus on one bit of the evidence or one facet of the case without seeing the Bigger Picture that the jury will have when they begin to deliberate. So, i find melissas assessment to be entirely appropriate when she talks about the trajectory of the case. The prosecution has had, i think, one overarching goal in mind route their entire presentation of the evidence. Their goal is to buttress Michael Cohens credibility before he ever takes the witness stand because the tough part of this case is proving that President Donald Trump new, approved, participated, wanted to use the false Business Records to conceal or aid in the commission of other crimes and at every step of the way, they have masterfully executed that goal, whether it is the way that Stormy Daniels held up beautifully on cross examination. She comes across, you know, not just as astar , but as a mom, a real person with real interest and with an important life story and someone they might not approve of, but who they can listen to and who they can ultimately believe. At the same time, melissa nails the documents. The documents do not lie. They are in evidence and they have weisselbergs writing on them. He may not testify, but it does not matter because the documents are there. You are both talking about the documents and how the Trump Defense or the doubt they want to instill really runs into that brick wall and that is why the da has been having momentum. Joe was a lawyer in the new york case until he left. We did speak with him and i asked him about that. If your defense was like this is money for a lawyer or a retainer and there was no fraud because it was true, the problem is the money did not stay with the loyal. It passes through the lawyer and went to Stormy Daniels. It was to add insult to injury, you have the cfo, talking about taking him out of rikers and he literally writes his plot on paper and says, lets gross it up. Lets lie. Lets commit tax friday fraud. Here is joseph tacopina. I do not think she is a lawyer. She is not a lawyer and these payments were made and they were, according to federal filings, classified on the trump side as legal services. That was false, wasnt it . The payments were made to a lawyer, not to Stormy Daniels. Joyce . Well, that is slicing pretty thin, but it ultimately does not work. In addition to the books, where these payments to Michael Cohen are coded as legal fees and multiple witnesses have said they were Reimbursement Payments to Stormy Daniels, we know that in this california litigation, where Stormy Daniels, she says she did not approve it, but her lawyers sued trump for defamation. She uses that case and she is ordered to pay trumps legal fees and as part of the file, trump actually concedes that the 130,000 is reimbursement for the payment to Stormy Daniels. The prosecution can put that into evidence. That may well be what happens with their last witness. We do not know who that will be yet. That is compelling evidence, along with the trumps tweet that there was discussion about this afternoon, where he talks about, well, my lawyer was handling a private agreement. It all adds up to knowledge and it is all contrary to this defense that trump did not know and that these were just legal payments to Michael Cohen, who somehow went off as a free agent and decided to spend trumps money for him in maybe the slim hope that he would be reimbursed down the road. That story does not make sense and this jury will use their common sense when they deliberate. Right, and if that story does not make sense, that takes us to next week, professor, where there might be questions and issues from Michael Cohen on cross. To believe the Trump Defense, you would think after Everything Cohen has been through, including prison, he is now sticking to a new made up story , perjuring himself again and taking on new liability, and somehow pulling other people into it. I mean, you know, i hesitate to make a musical reference, professor, just kidding. But it is a bit like near the end of the Drake Kendrick lamarr battle. He says some of the things that Kendrick Lamar he had planted it. He claimed negative information about himself, so he would say it, so he could say got you. It is false and i tricked you into attacking me. If that sounds convoluted, you do not have to know all the details. It is so convoluted that people question whether it is true. I put all of that to you, as well as for evidence of the other issue with cohen. He was moved to to say i would direct the people, the da, to communicate to mr. Cohen the judge is asking him to refrain from making any more statements in this case. That is not so great. Your thoughts on any of that . Well, certainly a Minor Deviation for mr. Cohen. You will know what i mean, given your knowledge with the Kendrick Lamardrake beef. One of the things is they got out a lot of dirt on Michael Cohen before Michael Cohen even came into the room. Honestly, the bar is not held for Michael Cohen. If he even performs reasonably well and strings together some sentences that are articulate and makes a colorful case to the jury and stands up on cross examination, it will be a success. Again, the strategy here is to minimize the by making the documents actually do the work of corroborating his story. They did a lot of work, lining up those documents, pr