Todd blanche, was going to be terrible. And he actually believes that todd blanche is the worst of the three lawyers and now i have come to agree with that after watching today. My other guest is the person who actually found the 130,000 game going on and started the Criminal Investigation of Michael Cohen. And heres the thing, you know him. You all know Andrew Weissmann. That is who found the 130,000. He started everything that you are seeing in that courtroom. Incredible. The gift that keeps on giving, Andrew Weissmann. Coming up right here. Thank you. Thank you, both. We are going to take you inside the courtroom today for the next hour, but american political history demands that we begin with what happened outside the courthouse today when the Republican Party boldly and bravely rose up in spirited defense of adultery with porn stars, paying off porn stars to buy their silence and Hiding Payoffs To Porn Stars by republican candidates. The Republican Party did not specify whether bans on abortion should include exceptions for pregnancies resulting from republican political candidates having sex with porn stars. At 9 51 a. M. , Michael Cohen was shown an invoice that he created to facilitate Donald Trumps false bookkeeping, recordkeeping, to cover up Donald Trumps reimbursement to Michael Cohen for paying off porn stars Stormy Daniels to buy her silence about what she says was a very brief sexual encounter with donald trump. Question, was this invoice of false record . Answer, yes maam. Donald trump is facing the criminal charge of falsifying Business Records and exactly 15 minutes after Michael Cohen said that the highestranking republican in america stood outside the courthouse where Michael Cohen was testifying about false Business Records and said this. President trump is a friend and i wanted to be here to support him. That means republican Speaker Of The House mike johnson, who is a Southern Baptist and uses his religion to defend and explain everything he does and says, has now proclaimed himself to support a friend who, as johnsons religion would describe it, committed adultery with Stormy Daniels and then arrange to create false Business Records to cover up the payoff to Stormy Daniels. Mike johnson who uses his religion as a sword and shield every day brought not just himself but the full weight of the Republican Party to a microphone today to declare his support for and the parties support for everything donald trump is accused of in this trial because here is what speaker johnson did not say today. I dont believe Stormy Daniels. In fact, speaker johnson did not say a word about Stormy Daniels. Speaker johnson did not attempt to deny a single word of the evidence that has been presented against donald trump and that leaves speaker johnson supporting donald trump No Matter What donald trump did sexually with Stormy Daniels or what donald trump did criminally with Michael Cohen. President trump is a friend and i wanted to be here to support him. That is the profoundly perverted depth to which donald trump has personally pushed the most overtly religious Speaker Of The House in history. No other speaker has ever worn and wielded his religion as his professed guide in every single thing that he does, in every single vote and and everything he says. Religiosity is to mike johnson What Vulgarity is to donald trump. It is the essence of the man. So in supporting his friend donald trump today, mike johnson unwittingly destroyed the facade of his own political religiosity. As mike johnson was debasing himself at the courthouse today, Michael Cohen was asked, quote, was this check stub a false statement . Answer, yes, maam. Michael cohen repeatedly said yes maam to prosecutor susan hoffinger, who asked about all of the checks he received from donald trump as reimbursement of the payment to Stormy Daniels. Each of those reimbursements, each of them was mislabeled as being for Legal Services rendered instead of as a simple reimbursement, which is what they really were. Michael cohens testimony delivered all of the elements of the false Business Records charge in the indictment of donald trump and Michael Cohens testimony also delivered the necessary evidence to prove that Donald Trumps decision to order the payoff to Stormy Daniels was to save his president ial campaign, not to save his marriage. At the direction of was the key phrase that we all read six years ago in the federal indictment of Michael Cohen for an illegal Trump Campaign contribution in that payment to Stormy Daniels for the benefit of Candidate Trump and the Trump Campaign. The indictment and guilty plea said that he made that payment, quote, at the direction of individual 1. Individual 1 turned out to be donald trump. Michael cohen used that phrase today on the Witness Stand under oath to describe that he made the payment, quote, at the direction of donald trump and for the benefit of donald j. Trump. The surprise of the day was crossexamination. There were two surprises. One, donald trump sully Defense Lawyer, todd blanche, had nothing. One of our guests, tim obrien, predicted to me that the Cross Examination would be terrible. He was right. Todd blanche did not score a single relevant point against Michael Cohen. The other surprise was that Michael Cohen maintained his poise and reasonable tone that he established indirect examination by the prosecutor that few of us expected Michael Cohen to be able to maintain under the stress and challenges of crossexamination, but todd blanche presented no challenges. He tried to wake up the jury with his first question. My name is todd blanche. You have you and i have never spoken or met but you know who i am . Answer, i do. Question, as a matter of fact on april 23, after the trial started in this case, you went on tiktok and called Me A Crying Little didnt you . Answer, sounds like something i would say, but the jury already knew that Michael Cohen doesnt like donald trump, so it came as no surprise to them that Michael Cohen who already testified to being profane might Say Something about Donald Trumps lawyer like that. The only person who needed waking up in that room today was donald trump, whose eyes remained closed for about 90 of the day. Wildly beyond what weve seen before. It is impossible for donald trump not to be asleep during some of his long, extended, i closing sessions including Michael Cohens Cross Examination. Donald trump has insisted after being caught sleeping that he is not sleeping, he is just resting his eyes, but no eyes need to be rested the entire day. Even 77yearold trump eyes. And donald trump, so aware of everything his face is doing, when, for example, taking a mug shot or being on public display in any way, leaves his face with his eyes closed in torture. He drifts off into his closed i space. His mouth shifts from a scowl to the look of a collapsing building. The mouth loses all shape. The lips become unrecognizable under the closed eyes that stayed closed today, longer than they have ever stayed closed in that courtroom. More than 10 minutes at a time. The old man sitting there in the defendants chair, head tilted back to the right. Eyes closed, made it look like a trial at a nursing home. If he were found like that at his chair at a table in the nursing home during lunch, he would immediately be checked for signs of life. His lawyers have given up, given up on trying to keep donald trump awake. The trick that seem to work so well yesterday, giving him printed comments full of praise about him to read, didnt work today. Nothing worked, especially the trump defense. Todd blanche has tried and will continue to try to use Michael Cohens public words to emphasize how much he hates donald trump, but the problem with that, with an american jury, is that Michael Cohen is speaking for at least 100 Million People in america. At least one third of the country and some days maybe half of the country hates donald trump as much as Michael Cohen does. No juror will be shocked that Michael Cohen hates donald trump. They all know people who hate donald trump, as do most americans, but with the prosecution was able to do was tell the story effectively through Michael Cohens testimony about how donald trump and Michael Cohen committed crimes together and that destroyed Michael Cohens life, leaving Michael Cohen with more reason than most americans to hate donald trump. I will always protect mr. Trump, said Michael Cohen in a statement to the media in the second year of Donald Trumps presidency that was introduced into evidence today and that was when Michael Cohen was, quote, kneedeep into the cult of donald trump. Cult member Michael Cohen was stunned when the fbi knocked on his door to serve a Search Warrant in an investigation begun by our first guest tonight, former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann. Michael cohen spoke to donald trump on the phone after the fbi raid and according to his testimony today, donald trump told him, quote, dont worry, everything is going to be fine. I am the president of the United States. That turned out to be the last time Michael Cohen spoke to his courtly his colt leader. Michael cohen set i felt reassured. I had the president of the United States protecting me. Then came the messages from donald trump. Some direct communication and others Indirect Communications through others which Michael Cohen testified he took to mean, dont flip. He was paying legal fees in a joint Defense Agreement with Michael Cohen when Michael Cohen was getting the dont flip the message. It was 11 30 a. M. In the courtroom when Michael Cohen said, dont flip. At that moment the trial took on the familiar tone of a mafia trial. Michael cohen was concerned that Robert Costello, a lawyer who wanted to defend him in the fbi investigation, would not represent his best interest. Michael cohen testified that castillo, who used to work with Rudy Giuliani, wanted to establish a back channel, which he called a back channel, from going to donald trump in the white house. He wanted to be able to talk to his own Defense Lawyer without necessarily telling Rudy Giuliani and donald trump everything he told his lawyer. In an email to Michael Cohen trying to convince him to maintain that back channel of communication, attorney Robert Costello wrote, you are loved with the oddity of the word love and the email being in Quotation Marks. One of those odd use of Quotation Marks you see in Donald Trump Tweets and posts. What did you understand costello to mean you are loved, by whom . Answer, by President Trump. And that is what Michael Cohen always wanted. Donald trumps respect, Donald Trumps admiration, Donald Trumps love. By then Michael Cohen probably knew that donald trump is incapable of love and luckily for Michael Cohen his family was capable of love, even after the horror they experienced of an fbi raid that Michael Cohen brought into their family home. Michael cohens wife and daughter, then in college, and his son, then in high school, did something of an intervention on Michael Cohen. Michael cohen testified that it was conversation with his family that made him decide that it was time to escape the trump colt. By that time, what if anything had you decided about whether you would continue to lie for President Trump . Answer, i made a decision based on the conversation with my family. I would not lie for President Trump any longer. Question, if not for the campaign, would you have paid that money to Stormy Daniels . Answer, no maam. Michael cohen said that the day he pleaded guilty was, quote, the worst day of my life. Donald trump issued a tweet that day aimed at Michael Cohen. Michael cohen told the jury that today, when he testified to congress about paying off Stormy Daniels and being reimbursed by donald trump and showing congress the actual checks used to reimburse him, quote, i apologized to congress. I apologize to the country. I apologize to my family. The final question the prosecutor asked Michael Cohen before handing him over for prosecution was, question, mr. Cohen, do you have any regrets about your past work with donald trump . Answer, i do. Question, what are they . Answer, i regret doing things for him that i should not have. Lying, bullying people in order to effectuate a goal. I dont Regret Working at the trump organization, because as i expressed before, some very interesting, great times. But to keep the loyalty and to do the things that he asked me to do, i violated my moral compass and i suffer the penalty, as has my family. And so, in careful, thorough description through question and answer, Michael Cohens story contained the classic arc of tragedy. Michael cohen, whose father was a holocaust survivor, made the long and unlikely climb all the way up to a meeting with the president of the United States in the oval office. He stood there that they in the white house, floating high up in the thin air with the title, personal attorney to the president of the United States. He reached an altitude he never thought he would reach, but there he was. In the oval office, reaching that highaltitude. A higher altitude than his father could have dreamed for his son or Michael Cohen could have dreamed for himself. Question, while you are visiting the white house, did you have a private conversation with an President Trump . Answer, i did. Question, where did the conversation take place . Answer, in the oval office. Question, did you discuss in the oval office the Reimbursement Payments that were going to be made to you . Answer, yes maam. I was sitting with President Trump and he asked me if i was okay. He asked me if i needed money and i said no, all good. He said because i can get a check. I said no, im okay. He said all right, just make sure yo