The stand tomorrow. Laney davis standing by for a preview. Plus, Andrew Weisman watched the testimony this week and they will join me today. Somehow a fictional cannibal was not the most interesting thing he said. Biden spokesperson joins me with her reaction. Later, my friend and colleague stops by to talk about his new book and how small acts of courage of the engines of dem being democracy. Okay. The date was january 12th, 2018. This was the headline in the wall street journal. Trump lawyer a raged 130,000 payment for adultfilm stars silence. Obviously that was a dpraby headline even by 2018 standards. There was a lot going on at the time. The big news that night was actually the sitting president of the United States saying something completely racist about african countries. But that story from the wall street journal, the one about the hush money for the porn star still broke through that night. Quite a story today in the wall street journal. And i quote, trump lawyer a ranged 130,000. The payment to Stormy Daniels was a raged arranged payment. This story makes me want to leave my body. Okay. So, now the story was out there. Rachel is leaving her body as we just saw. We knew Michael Cohen paid the money and clear that he did on trumps pee half. But trump was still playing dumb. Trumps behalf, but trump was still playing dumb. But trump was still playing dumb. [ Inaudible Question ] [ Inaudible Question ] if you could not hear it. That was on air force one. Michael is my attorney, you will have to ask michael. Well, that was april 5th, 2018, four days later, april 9th, the fbi executed a Search Warrant on Michael Cohens home and office. We spoke to trump on the day of the searches. Trump told them to quote stay strong and april 21st, trump publicly encouraged him not to flip in a series of tweets. Most people will nip if the government lets them out of trial even if it means lying or making up stories so i dont see michael did not do that. That did not age too well looking at tomorrow. By august cohen pled guilty, as part of the Plea Agreement he outlined the entire scheme and implicated his former boss. In 2019 he revealed the details of the scream to congress and the country. Mr. Trump directed me to use my own personal funds from a Home Equity Line of credit to avoid any money being traced back to him. That could negatively impact his campaign. I am going to jail in part because of my decision to help mr. Trump hide that payment from the American People before they voted a few days later. The president of the United States thus wrote a personal check for the payment of hush money as part of a criminal scheme to violate Campaign Finance laws. As you just heard him say, Michael Cohen went on to serve time in federal prison for the same scheme he is standing trial for, the same scheme. Tomorrow, Michael Cohen will tell his story on the Witness Stand With Trump sitting a few feet away. This time he will do it after a parade of witnesses and documents backed up his story and laid the groundwork for what he is going to say. Just to remind you. Hope hicks says it would not be in his nature to pay him on his own. He testified a meeting. And six years after we read the story in the wall street journal. It is happening. The wheels of justice do turn. The one it is great to see you, thank you for taking the time. Thank you for that testimony and are remembering the night before the testimony it is relevant to what he is going to face tomorrow. That is such a good lead lets start by a personal note. How is there a feeling about testifying tomorrow . He is confident he is telling the truth. When you have the truth and you dont worry about telling the truth it gives you confidence No Matter What the attack is. He is confident he has the facts and they are fully coberated by others. So, all he is going to be doing No Matter What the attack is, is to Say Something fully coberated by other peoples testimony including friends of mr. Trump, documents, text messages, emails. He is a pretty combative. I dont think he would mind being called combative. We have seen it in the courtroom, seen it on twitter and other things. What tone should we anticipate from him tomorrow . I do remind people when he testified on february 27th, 2019, he was not in front of a courtroom with a judge there to protect him from unfair attacks. He walked into a hearing, live, national, international television. Under oath. On the wall behind mr. Jordan the Ranking Member with reverend cummings the committee chairman. There was a sign. Liar, liar, pants on fire that was the beginning of the vicious attacks including by mark meadows the future chief of staff what did michael do . I must say i helped him, keep his voice down. Tell the truth and most importantly, jen, own that he lied and did evil deeds as he said, for donald trump for 10 years. He said when he opened his testimony, i have no excuses. I am ashamed. I am here to tell the truth. I think that is what we will see. I just want to pause on that for a second. We have seen his combative nature. He has been reprimanded by the judge, even, for some of the things he did on tiktok and outspoken. That is not what you expect tomorrow . That is not what i expect. I remember virtually certain because he knows he acted out of passion, out of reaction to what he was being accused of in the courtroom. He will not be doing anymore twitters and he will be the Michael Cohen that you saw in the testimony. We talked reportedly, recently he will be telling the truth and telling the truth calmly No Matter What they say because he knows everything that he has that is corroborated. We anyhow a lot already. We learned details from david pecker, hope hicks and others. Do you expect we will learn new things during the testimony tomorrow . There may be some things. Remember, i was in the room with the last two or three years and i know the cooberation backing up michael is not what people recognize but i want to remind you of something else. This is not just manhattan da brag who he attacks and his supporters attack the case. It was Donald Trumps federal prosecutors in the Southern District of new york who wrote a public memo. They wrote, donald trump directed, the word is directed to Michael Cohen. He was not only directing him to make the payments to mrs. Daniels but he faced a case that his own prosecutors said impaired democracy. Not hush money for sex. His prosecutors in the public memo said this case is about buying people not to tell the American People before they vote for him to be silence. They are in the face of his own prosecutors and what they said when they charged michael co cohen. She sat right outside of his office. She set up the meeting between trump and co hen. We expect that you will learn about that tomorrow . The details of michaels reaction to a sitting president of the United States in the oval Office Writing a check from his personal Checking Account that by the way we put on tv on february 27th. I thought it would be the end of the hearing, so shocking, a big yawn by the republicans, a sitting president writing a check to implement a crime that someone is about to go to jail for. I am imagining imagine democratic president writing a hush money check. We are going to learn details if michael is able to put some color behind the sensation when he went to see the president of the United States and the word was reimburse, giuliani said it is reimbursement, trump knew there were no legal services, so, that may be the shocking detail that michael can provide. That is an interesting one. Do you not bill legal fees like this, i think you know this well. In part of preparing for testimony like this is preparing for what people are going to attack on you. Of course, for Michael Cohen there is a question that he committed perjury because he denied under oath he committed tax evasion when he pled. He address today to some degree. I asked him about this. How will he handle this tomorrow . Let me say it plainly. I was there when he was forced to plead guilty on a friday night. You have until monday morning or we will not only indict you but your wife for tax fraud. The notebook he kept and a bank account in his building is not criminal tax fraud. He knew at the time he was being overcharged. He was a victim at that point in time. Mr. Trump was not being charged and then when we finally had a chance to say he was coerced into doing that he did so and taking the penalty. Admitting to a crime he said i lied a lie. Now it is time to clear the air. Now he told the trowght. In the 20 seconds left, left he told the truth. In the 20 seconds left, you thought he would go to jail. Are you confident . I dont want to second guess a jury. I think there is evidence to convict and he can not pardon himself, he can be incarcerating. At the time i might have been angrier. I am now more rely ant on trusting the jury system. I would not favor of putting him in jail but accountable. He can not pardon himself No Matter What. Because of the state law here it is a state crime he can not pardon himself for a state crime thank you very much. Thank you. Excellent preview tomorrow as a lot of people will be watching. Thank you for joining me. We will take a look into Stormy Daniels testimony. And we watched it happen. We are back after this it happ we are back after this here, and get six months of disney bundle on them vo stream with six months of disney bundle on us. And watch it all on the new Samsung Galaxy s24 , also on us. Only on verizon. When i was diagnosed with hiv, i didnt know who i would be. But here i am. Being me. Keep being you. And ask your Healthcare Provider about the number one prescribed hiv treatment, biktarvy. Biktarvy is a complete, onepill, onceaday treatment used for hiv in many people whether youre 18 or 80. With one small pill, biktarvy fights hiv to help you get to undetectable and stay there whether youre just starting or replacing your current treatment. Research shows that taking hiv treatment as prescribed and getting to and staying undetectable prevents transmitting hiv through sex. 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Drilling her about tray asked her, you have a lot of experience about making a phony story about sex being real, right . Daniels said that is not how i would put it. The sex in the films it is real. Just like what happened to me in that room. And a dig at trump she pointed out if that story was untrue i would of written it to be a lot better. Of course, the defense was hellbent on denying the affair they argue that the details of the affair were not relevant to the case. That was the basis of not one but two requests of a mistrial this week. Both rejected by the judge. Claiming that the affair did not happen gives them the right to coberate the corroborate the story. They are joining me now, happy mothers day to you, let me start by saying. Thank you. Absolutely. So, andrew, i mean, trumps defense, spent three hours, we all watched, trying to discredit daniels, far longer than their questions of pecker, hope hicks, it seems clear they mate want to use the scope of the arguments to use during the arguing for a mistrial. How concerned are you about that possibility . Or their ability to make that argument . Reporter not concerned at all good. Reporter i think the first step is, you know, they only have to worry about that if there is a conviction. One of the things that your intro gets to is what is happening on the defense side here. Direct testimony, hope hicks, direct testimony as someone close from the president about words coming out of his mouth to her about the scheme. Those are the witnesses that needed to be crossed. Those are the witnesses that you have to come up to something to say to the jury about why they got it wrong. They misremembered or they are lying. Yet, the person who was subjected to this Cross Examination was Stormy Daniels. And, you know, frankly, her testimony if you believe it or not it is not relevant. We know donald trump would want to surpress stop information about like what the doorman said about him, he has ail legitimate child. But it was under this catch and kill agreement. It was really odd to see this sort of hammer and tongue Cross Examination. It was an odd choice to go after her and not the witnesses who are actual he damaging. You brought my temperature down, sometimes you bring it up, i appreciate that. Let me ask you, the defense seems to be fixated on denying the alleged affair. After her, after her, after her, was it necessary . The right strategy . What is your take on that . Reporter it really felt so unnecessary to andrews point. The cross is trying to argue that essentially being a porn star is the same as being a liar with the quote that you mentioned. You know, you make up phony stories about sex that is what you do for a living you are just a liar because you are a porn star. That failed. They argued being a porn star meant she was a prostitute or she would just be open for business and could never feel uncomfortable by any unwanted advances. That also failed. And i think alienated five women on the jury. The only thing that she was somewhat effective is that she was motivated by money to sell her story. To that i say so what . I still believe that the encounter happened and i also believe that she wanted to make money from it. A guy who is the song to his reality show is For The Love Of Money is he going to ask a jury to think she is a liar because she had a reality show and wanted to make money from it . He can not say she is talking candles dont believe her when he is out there selling. I dont think they scored points of anything. I really do think they alienated jurors i like how you phrased that. Michael cohen, one of the states last two witnesses, taking the stand tomorrow. A lot of hemming hemming hemming and hawing about it. What are you worried about . Crossexamination. What he expects happens, i got the sense more of what he hopes happens then we will be fine. He needs to maintain his cool. He needs to not be thin skinned. He does have some areas that he really does have to worry about in terms of answering questions. You mentioned one that is, you know, his having lied. He lied to a federal judge pleading guilty and he has to own that. That is not a crime. Not something he did because of trump. That was something he chose to do. He is going to have to answer why he tape recorded some conversations but not other conversations and you know, that is an effective line of crossexamination. He just needs to be frankly like Stormy Daniels that is smart, careful, and unflappable. As we observed she got better on crossexamination. Humanized. You saw just how effective she was but she was unflappable. That is not a characteristic that people associate with Michael Cohen. Not typically. Thank you, and thank you. People see you on tv all of the time. They dont see all of the questions you have to us on greenroom and on text and phones when we are trying to explain it. Thank you, we will be watching this week. Coming up, not a playbook for campaigning against a guy that is stuck in court at his own criminal trial. The