Expert witness. Nobodys ever heard of it before. Thats donald trump yet again making false claims, this time doing so yesterday after testimony wrapped up in his hush money trial. The judge cleared the jury out of the courtroom because of the lawyer trump just referenced. Well have expert legal analysis on that very contentious moment straight ahead. Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani and other trump allies accused of Election Interference in arizona are due in court today. Well explain that case and how prosecutors tracked down the former mayor of New York City. Also ahead an update on Campaign Cash of President Biden and donald trump as the rnc ramps up funding to overcome the former president s legal bills. Good morning and welcome to way too early on this tuesday, may 21st. Im jonathan lemire. Thanks for starting your day with us. And we have a lot to get to this morning, and well begin with Donald Trumps criminal hush money trial, which will resume later this morning after the prosecution rested its case yesterday. Michael cohen took the stand for a fourth day of testimony, and trumps legal team once again sought to chip away at his credibility. At one point on the stand cohen did admit to stealing Tens Of Thousands of dollars from the trump organization. Cohen said in 2016 he asked for a 50,000 reimbursement to pay a tech firm but ultimately gave the company 20,000 while he pocketed the rest. On redirect the prosecution asked cohen why hed stolen the money and hed explained it was because he was angry because trump had slashed his annual bonus that year. Prosecutors also tried to Cleanup A Discrepancy from last week when trumps attorney, todd blanche, Accused Cohen of lying about a phone call he made to trumps bodyguard, keith schiller. Blanche argued that the call which lasted just over a minute and a half wasnt long enough for cohen to speak to both schiller and trump, but prosecutors admitted a new photo into evidence that shows trump and schiller standing together at 7 57 p. M. That was just 5 minutes before cohen made the call to schiller and says he discussed the Stormy Daniels payment with trump. So the defense teams second witness of the day looked to further the narrative that cohen was simply motivated by revenge. Trumps lawyers called veteran new York AttorneyRobert Costello to the stand. At one point cohen was considering hiring costello at Rudy Giulianis recommendation. Costello at the time had promised to act as a back channel to former President Trump, but cohen never retained him, the two men have publicly feuded ever since. Cohen testified that cohen told him multiple times that he did not, quote, have anything on donald trump and that he paid Stormy Daniels hush money on his own. Costello yesterday soon became aggravated after several objections by prosecutors, and he began making comments under his breath and rolling his eyes. This prompted the presiding judge, judge merchan, to ask the jury to leave the room before he addressed the situation. He said this i want to discuss proper decorum in my courtroom, okay . So when theres a witness on the stand, if you dont like my ruling you dont sigh jeez, okay, and you dont say strike it because im the only one that can strike testimony in the courtroom. Do you understand that . Costello responded with i understand. But the exchange only grew more tense. Judge merchan said, okay, and then if you dont like my ruling you dont give me side eye and you dont roll your eyes. Do you understand that . Do you understand that . Costello answered i understand that, i understand what youre saying. But judge merchan apparently did not like the Look Costello was giving him and then said are you staring me down right now . The judge then completely cleared the courtroom including press and spectators to talk oneonone. Judge merchan purposely allowed his conversation to continue on record and according to Court Transcripts told costello the following, im putting you on notice your conduct is contemptuous. If you try to stare me down One More Time i will remove you from the stand. I will strike his entire testimony. Do you understand me . Shortly after that exchange, the prosecution began its crossexamination of costello, which will continue this morning. Joining us now former u. S. Attorney and an msnbc contributor barbara mcquade. Barbara, good morning. Thanks for joining us this morning. Lets start with the prosecution, which has officially rested their case. In your estimation do you think they did enough to get a conviction . Well, its hard to say, jonathan, because the jury is really had a birdseye view to this case from start to finish. Theyve heard every word of testimony. Theyve seen every bit of evidence, and so not being in that position its always difficult to predict what a jury might do. They also bring with them their world views and opinions about things. But aside from that, the prosecution certainly has put forth enough evidence for some jury to find guilt here and made out a prima facie case. Thats why the judge denied a motion to dismiss because there is sufficient evidence to prove every element of this case Beyond A Reasonable Doubt and i think thats true even if you discount the testimony of Michael Cohen. Oftentimes jurors will say were not going to even Pay Attention to the testimony of the cooperator. Hes got a lot of baggage, we dont like it. But just looking at the rest of the evidence and using common sense to put this all together, does it make sense to anybody Michael Cohen just paid this out of the goodness of his heart and then sought reimbursement afterwards . Of course not. I think on that basis, yes, the prosecution has made its case and whether the jury will see it that way is another matter. We wept through this remarkable moment with Robert Costello yesterday and his Contentious Exchange with the judge. Lets get your read on that. And Bigger Picture costello and what the defense is doing, do you think its moving the needle with trump at all . It was really a remarkable moment. Most witnesses go into court and they understand it is a place where decorum matters and that they will behave themselves well. And after a warning or two mr. Costello did not heed that warning, and so the judge i think did what judges do, which is make it clear that decorum will prevail in his courtroom. So even after that we saw objections to questions for Robert Costello. You know, just reading the record and not being in the courtroom, he comes across to me as sort of a thug. And it really feeds into the narrative that the prosecution is trying to portray here, that this is someone who came in to intimidate Michael Cohen and to say things like you have friends in high places, you should sleep well tonight, you know, the kinds of things a mobster says to keep somebody in the fold. And so if theyre trying to defeat that narrative, theyre not doing a very good job so far. And barbara, 30second last answer here. After costello, do we have a sense what the defense might do next . Will they rest and we move onto Closing Arguments . Theyve, you know, tried to get in this Expert Witness to testify about the law, but of course the law is not proper for an expert. Experts give opinioness about facts to help a jury, and the judge has said any testimony about the law would be not helpful, so it has to come from him, so i think theyre going to rest. Of course we now Closing Arguments and Jury Deliberations wont begin until next week. Former u. S. Attorney and msnbc contributor barbara mcquade, thank you as always. Im certain well be speaking to you again soon. As usual trump was joined in court yesterday by an entourage of allies. This time around they were less wellknown than his Previous Group of supporters and most were in their trump supporter uniform. You can see it there. Blue shirt blue suit, white shirt, red tie i should say. This group wept outside to hold a News Conference to once again push trumps false claims. But yesterday they were drowned out by aept trump demonstrators and hecklers who were ready with whistlers and cowbells. I was not asked to be here, i chose to be here because prosecution im a Public Defender and im here to tell you after six weeks of unconstitutional my question is why hadnt he been prosecuted . Its lie after lie after lie, and hes making a lot of money. A lot of money. Ill tell you after being all morning in this courtroom its pretty evident this partisan witch hunt has one purpose. That one guy showed up in a blue polo shirt. He missed the memo. Still ahead here what arizonas Attorney General is saying about several fake electors who are headed to court today for their arraignment. Plus well look at the latest effort by Senate Democrats to put the spotlight on Border Security, and well provide an update from iran. All those stories and a check on sports and weather when we come right back. Sports and weather when we come right back im jonathan lawson, here to tell you about Life Insurance through the Colonial Penn program. If youre age 50 to 85 and looking to buy Life Insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. What are the three ps . The three ps of Life Insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. A price you can afford, a price that cant increase, and a price that fits your budget. Im 54. Whats my price . You can get coverage for 9. 95 a month. Im 65 and take medications. Whats my price . Also 9. 95 a month. I just turned 80. 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One of the defendants expected to appear is former trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. The exNew York City mayor Taupted Arizona Authorities On Social Media friday night bragging hed not been served with papers while posting a picture of his Birthday Party while down in florida. That post helped the Attorney General figure out his location and had him served that verynith. Mays responded saying no one is above the law and said she expects to see giuliani in court today. This is a serious case. We expect him to take it seriously. We expect him to be in court tomorrow. I mean we are doing the initial appearances for 11 other defendants here in phoenix tomorrow. We expect him to be the 12th. He can he can ask to appear virtually. We have not we dont know whether hes going to do that or not, but we expect him to be the 12th Defendant to appear in court in phoenix and to take this case seriously and professionally and be in court when hes been asked, you know, by the justice system. Last month giuliani and 17 associates and allies of former President Trump were indicted on charges including conspiracy, fraud, and forgery related to their alleged attempts to change arizonas 2020 Election Results in trumps favor. Those charged include seven socalled fake electors seen here back in December Of 2020 meeting at the gop headquarters in phoenix to sign a certificate claiming to be arizonas 11 electors despite, of course, joe biden actually winning the state by nearly 11,000 votes. Trump was not charged but is named an Unindicted Coconspiratorter in this case. Meanwhile to washington now. Senate democrats are expected to force a vote this week on the bipartisan Border Security package that republicans blocked earlier this year. The legislation is designed to reduce border crossings, raise the asylum standard, and shutdown the border once encounters reach a certain threshold. While the package was met by an endorsement from the Border Patrol union, former President Trump ordered Senate Republicans to kill the bill so he could run on the issue in the general election. Despite the legislation being doomed in the senate, democrats are looking to put republicans on defense when it comes to immigration policy. Elsewhere on capitol hill, republican senators katie britt of alabama and ted cruz of texas have introduced a bill to protect invitro fertilization. If passed the legislation would protect ivf by banning states to receive Medicaid Funding if they restrict or ban the procedure. The measure comes after alabamas Supreme Court ruled in february that embryos fertilized through the treatment should be considered children. Alabamas governor later signed a bill that overruled that and protected ivf access in the state. In response to yesterdays bill multiple Democratic Senators came out against the Legislation Arguing that it contains a series of gop poison pills. And lastly, the massive Container Ship that crashed into baltimore emphasis Francis Scott key bridge causing its catastrophic collapse nearly two months ago has finally been removed. Tug boats could be seen yesterday escorting the dali the name of the ship out of the channel and back to port. Crews first had to pump out more than a million gallons of water in order to refloat the ship. Repairs were expected to take several weeks. President biden praised the operation on social media Yesterday Writesing in part the dali has been cleared from the channel, a mark of progress and a promise kept. It took the grit of workers and officials coming together to get this done. Thats baltimore strong. Still ahead here, the final four in the Stanley Cup Playoffs is now set. 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