While his own lawyer roasts him. Look, i get the defenses argument that you cant trust Michael Cohen because he hates donald trump, but, to be fair, everyone who has ever worked with donald trump hates donald trump. At some point, you have to be like, i think its trump. We also learned what the defense ordered for lunch today. 14 pizzas, four cheese, five pepperoni, four sausage and pepperoni, and one chicken, bacon, and ranch. No word yet on what trumps lawyers ordered. Boom, boom. Okay. Good morning. Welcome to morning joe. Willie, it is, today, officially, i have triple sourced this, friday. She did. Yes. We did it. Friday, may 17th, everybody. We made it. Welcome to morning joe. Along with joe, willie, and me, we have the host of Way Too Early, White House Bureau chief at politico, Jonathan Lemire. And Associate Editor, the great euGene Robinson. Jonathan lemire going to hang his American Flag upside down because the red sox lost last night. I did text that to you last night. It was a neighbor, a rays fan, that youre doing it for what . You are not. Yes, pictures taken. Well get to it later this morning. No. The Supreme Court justice, samuel alito, American Flag at his home, hung upside down, a signal of distress, done in the days after january 6th. It was a symbol of the stop the steal movement. It was hung at the justices house. He blames his wife. Blaming the wife thing, for people in public eye in trouble, thats going around. Dont ever do that. Im scared of you. I would never do that. Willie, this circles back to these people, and i will say these people, these trumpers, who have spent their entire life attacking people for being insufficiently patriotic. Yeah. Then they lose, and they just hate america. They hate america. Theyre constantly going around saying how weak we are. They hate our military. They say our weak our military is when it is the strongest in the world. They hate our economy. They claim the president of the United States is a socialist. The dow yesterday made all of these people a lot richer, breaking 40,000 for the first time, despite Donald Trumps lies that it would collapse if joe biden was president of the United States. They hate this country. They attack this country. The only time they love it is when their person is in office. And ive got to say, and we have a lot of legal, Brilliant Minds around this table. Our team here, yeah. They can speak to this later if they want to. I will tell you, growing up, one of my friends fathers was a federal judge. I had no idea until i got older whether he was republican or democrat. That was the case in northwest florida, Very Conserative place. The federal judges kept themselves beyond reproach. They never talked politics, ever. In the privacy of their homes, if you ask them an opinion, they would just say, not my job, right . Im a judge. They actually took their oath seriously. For a Supreme Court justice, and i will say, my opinion only, but the guy most likely to have had something to do with the leaking of the dobbs decision. Yeah. Leaking it to the Wall Street Journal or somebody connected to him leaking it to the Wall Street Journal because he wanted to keep Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett frozen in place. I think history will show that. But that aside, for a guy who is a Supreme Court justice, that let that happen at his own home in one of the most fraught times in American History since the civil war, its just sad. It shows how little respect he has for the institution. It shows how little respect he has for the law. It really does. Its disgusting. Its just disgusting. Willie. By the way, we cant overstate the timing of this, which is, january 17th, 2021. Think about where we were as a country. Still completely shaken by what had happened on january 6th. A sitting Supreme Court justice has a flag flying upside down at his home that is a symbol of solidarity, as john said, with the stop the steal movement. We should explain a little here. The New York Times is reporting that a photo of an American Flag outside the home of Supreme CourtJustice Samuel alito has been made public. The flag flown upside down. As the times notes, the inverted flag has become a symbol of Trump Supporters who claim, again, without evidence, that the 2020 election was stolen. Reading from the piece now, quote, the Upside Down Flag was aloft on january 17th, 2021, the images showed. President donald j. Trumps support e including some brandishing the same symbol, had rioted at can capitol a little over a week before. Mr. Bidens inauguration was three days away. Photographs were obtained by the New York Times. While the flag was up, the court was contending whether to hear a 2020 election case with Justice Alito on the losing end of the decision. In coming weeks, the justices will rule on two climactic cases, involving the storming of the capitol on january 6th, including whether mr. Trump has immunity for his actions. Their decisions will shape how accountable he can be held for trying to overturn the last president ial election and his chances for reelection in the upcoming one. I had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag, Justice Alito said in an emailed statement to the times. It was briefly placed by mrs. Alito in response to a neighbors use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs. Joe, there you have it. Wait a minute. Youre going to hate on america because of something a neighbor did . Youre going to blame your wife . Make up that excuse . What is this . My wife was mad at a neighbor. Blaming wives. Anybody care to jump in here . I want to know, what person, let alone woman or wife, would do that in response to a problem with a neighbor. Eugene, a neighbor upsets me, comes out and upsets me because the rays beat the red sox. They truly suck, and so im mad. Im not hanging my flag upside down. Right. None of this this is dumb as when i heard about the dobbs leak. Nobody believes him. No, nobody believes him. Speaking of. He says briefly, you know, that the times story had neighbors suggesting that briefly meant for a period of days, this flag was flying upside down at Justice Alitos house. The idea that, you know, a yard sign that says something rude, apparently said something rude about President Trump, is enough for a Supreme Court justice, who is supposed to be nonpolitical, supposed to be, you know, less political than caesars wife, would do this. Ill just say, do this, not allow his wife to go out and run up the flagpole, but would do this. Now, of course, as alito always does, try to sort of brazen his way through it. I mean, ill just say it. I have thought for a long time that alito is the worst justice. He is one of the worst justices that we have seen on the Supreme Court since the days of, you know, taney and the other justices that enabled decades of jim crow. I mean, hes just his opinions have always struck me as intellectually dishonest. Coming out with a predetermined result. Now this. It is just stunning to me, stunning. Its not just that it was a few days after january 6th. While the flag was flying upside down, the court was contending as to whether or not to hear a 2020 election case. Lets also remember, of course, judy thomas, the wife of clarence thomas, part of the same stop the steal movement. Now, you have two justices potentially compromised on this issue as we head into another election which could end up before the court again. Right. Chuck, ideology is irrelevant. Again, ive known progressive federal judges. Ive known conservative federal judges. They hold themselves beyond reproach. This is really again, for the time, its just unbelievable. Something you said earlier, joe, really resonated with me. You grew up in the Florida Panhandle and a floridas father was a federal judge. No idea what his politics were. I spent my professional life in Federal Court around federal judges. I have never seen or heard anything that would suggest to me that ideology played a role in their decisions. Some of the judges were great. Some were good. Some were mediocre. They got some stuff right, got some stuff wrong. But ive never seen politics infect their work. By the way, i can extend that a little further. It was true of the federal prosecutors with whom i worked. We never had a political discussion in two decades in our office. Ever. Ever. Same with the chuck, i want you to underline that fact. People have to understand, that despite what they see from i will just say this from Justice Thomas and Justice Alito, people take their oaths seriously. Conservatives, moderates, progressives, they see themselves as officers of the court. Dammit, they held this country together after january 6th. Among my colleagues were liberals, moderates, progressives, conservatives, all stripes, but we never discussed it. In fact, i remember once, joe, walking through our Office Parking lot and seeing a Bumper Sticker on someones car which startled me because it was a political Bumper Sticker. I had never seen that ever before. Turned out, that particular federal prosecutor borrowed his spouses car because his was in the shop. That was the only time i even saw a Bumper Sticker in our parking lot expressing a political view. It was so unusual that i noticed it. Yeah. Also with us, we have former litigator and msnbc Legal Correspondent lisa rubin. How ya holding up, covering this trial . Its a lot. All day, every day. Msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos. We also have to talk about the criminal Hush Money Trial with former President Donald Trump. Right. Which well get to now. It could wrap up next week. Well find out from the experts here. Star witness Michael Cohen is set to return to the stand on monday after trumps legal team tried to hammer away at his credibility yesterday. Court is in recess today, so the former president can attend his son, barrons, High School Graduation this morning. Lead defense attorney todd blanche says cohens questioning will likely wrap up on monday. The prosecution has said it does not plan to call any additional witnesses, and the defense says it may not call any either. That means closing arguments could begin as early as tuesday, clearing the way for Jury Deliberations by the end of next week. But hold on a second, willie. Lisa, am i wrote about that . You shook your head. I was talking to someone in the control room. Im lifting the curtain, im sorry. Go ahead and communicate. I wanted to make sure the information was right. Willie, were looking now at what happened yesterday. Another day of crossexamination of Michael Cohen yesterday. He testified he spoke directly to former President Trump on the phone about the payments to Stormy Daniels. Cohen asserted he contacted trump through trumps bodyguard, Keith Schiller, On October 24th, 2016, about the hush money payments. Its about two weeks before election day. Defense attorney todd blanche pressed cohen about Phone Records, showing he texted schiller that day. Cohen asked how to handle a teenager prank calling him. Cohen said he did not remember that message. Blanche said, quote, do you recall texting Keith Schiller at 7 48 p. M. . Who can i speak to, the dope forgot to block his call on one of them. Do you recall that . Sounds right, yes. Then schiller simply says, call me. Cohen called schiller immediately after for a conversation that lasted only about a minute and a half. Blanche accused cohen of lying, suggesting he did not speak to trump during that call about Stormy Daniels as he had testified. Cohen, however, insisted both topics for covered, despite the short length of the call. The defense tried to paint cohen as having a vendetta about trump. Heres a portion of his podcast played in court. I truly [ bleep ] hope this man ends up in prison. It wont bring back the year that i lost, or the damage done to my family, but revenge is a dish best served cold. And you Better Believe i want this man to go down and rot inside for what he did to me and my family. Lisa, you were down at the courthouse again yesterday. We talk about the podcast moment, but lets go back. It was confusing as you listen to it. What was todd blanche, the Trump Defense team getting at between the text between Michael Cohen and the bodyguard, Keith Schiller. There was a narrow implication and a broader one they were trying to draw. Cohens testimony about the phone call On October 24th between him and Keith Schiller, which he testified was really a call to trump about the Stormy Daniels settlement, wasnt true. They presented him with Text Messages and phone call records that hadnt been part of his direct examination. The insinuation was, you manufactured this. When you said you talked to keith, in order to talk to trump about finalizing the storeny daniels settlement, that didnt really happen, did you . You had a minute and 30 second long phone call, juxtaposed with the texts about the 14yearold prank calling you at the time. It is clear you called Keith Schiller to complain about that, to get Secret Service involved, to get security involved in these harassing phone calls. It had nothing to do with Stormy Daniels. May or may not be true. It is also true that two days later on the 26th, there is indisputably calls between Michael Cohen and donald trump. I expect on redirect, well hear a lot from the prosecution about that. Michael cohen certainly notified donald trump and spoke with him for some longer period of time as he was finalizing it. The broader implication that todd blanche was trying to draw is if you cant trust Michael Cohen about this phone call, can you really trust any of his testimony about the conversations he had with donald trump at the time . After all, this was nearly eight years ago. Isnt it really the case that Michael Cohens recollection is not organic but is, rather, the construction of multiple sessions upon Prep Sessions with prosecutors from the manhattan d. A. s office who have constructed a memory in Michael Cohen that didnt organically exist about a conversation that never happened and others, as well. Danny, i have expressed at times skepticism about this case even being brought. I will say, though, yesterday, when commentaors were talking about how this was a perry mason moment, i was like, no, its not. A juror isnt going to go, eight years ago, a minute and a half conversation, da, da. It seems to me, the bigger problem is the podcast where he says he wants the guy to go down. The prosecution can clean this up on redirect, cant they . I agree, but you and i are in the minority. The vibe ive been getting is folks feel that was the perry mason moment. To that, i say, when it comes to cooperating witness types like cohen and cohen, if we step back, isnt even close to the worst kind of cooperating witness you normally have on the stand. Right. These are hardened criminals normally. Right. This is not cohen. So the prosecution knows he is going to get dinged on things, especially because a lot of these allegations happened eight years ago. Juries will forgive Memory Lapses. Of course. From that long ago. I wasnt in the courtroom, but from what i could see, i think this is something that, one or two things will happen. Either the prosecution will choose to clean it up on redirect, or, joe, they may not even think it is that big a deal. They may go for the better moment, which is to stand up and say, were good. We have no further questions for this witness. I just didnt think it was that damaging. The prosecution is going to concede, essentially, and they have, cohen is flaky. Cohen is a guy that, you know, isnt the most reliable person, but hes believable on these issues. You know, ive been guilty of this before myself in cases, where you find a factu