Tonight Donald Trumps lawyers wrap up the case and his criminal trial as the former president declined to take the witness stand. Then my interview with israeli Prime Minister benjamin netanyahu, as a war crimes prosecutor now seeks a warrant for his arrest. And what is going on with the economy . Inflation may be slowing, but prices remain high in this country. I will ask the head of the Federal Reserve bank of chicago as the 11th hour gets underway on this tuesday night. It evening once again, im Stephanie Ruhle in chicago and we are now 168 is away from the election. In about one week from now, a jury of 12 new yorkers will start deliberating the fate of the first former president charged with a crime. Donald trumps defense team rested its new york criminal case today after calling just two witnesses. Donald trump did not take the stand. The Closing Arguments are now set for one week from today. Then the case goes to the jury. My colleague Laura Jarrett has all the details. Reporter tonight the defense resting its case, with four President Trump choosing not to take the stand in his first criminal trial. Jurors let today hearing only from robert costello, a lawyer who briefly advised Michael Cohen. Prosecutors today again trying to Paint Costello as a trump allied emissary dispatch by Rudy Giuliani to prevent cohen from flipping on mr. Trump. Confronted with emails suggesting he was frustrated, cohen refused to hire him, including one where he wrote continues to flow play us and the president. Is he totally nuts . He is playing with the most powerful man on the planet. Costello suggested monday cohens entire story, the former President Trump wanted to silence Stormy Daniels to protect his campaign was all a lie. Castillo telling jurors that Michael Cohen said numerous times that President Trump knew nothing about those payments and that cohen said he did this on his own. Costello only one of two witnesses called by the defense team. The testimony, all told, running just over 90 minutes. It is a kangaroo court. Theres never been anything like this that ive ever seen. Reporter the judge working with both sides for hours today to hash out critical Instructions Jurors will receive next week to aid their deliberations on the 34 counts mr. Trump basis for allegedly falsifying his business records. The outcome likely to largely come down to whether jurors believe cohen, the only witness to testify that mr. Trump directed the payoff to daniels and then disguised as reimbursements to , all of which mr. Trump denies. The defense spent three days grilling cohen, who has been convicted of lying under oath and was disbarred. If found guilty on lowlevel felonies here, mr. Trump basis anywhere from four years in prison to just probation. And if that wasnt enough today, meanwhile in arizona, 11 trump allies were arraigned for their parts in the pay collector scheme. All the defendants, including number new york city mayor Rudy Giuliani and former arizona gop chair kelly ward pleaded not guilty. With that, lets get smarter with the help of our Leadoff Panel tonight. Susan glasser is here, staff writer for the new yorker. Former federal prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst glenn kircher, and historian john meacham, who occasionally advises President Biden. This evening was just awarded the lincoln leadership prize. You are our legal expert, help us out here. Reminder audience what trump has said about testifying over the last six weeks. Im going to share a bit of it and i want you to comment on the other side. Yeah, i would testify, absolutely. Its a scam. I am testifying. I tell the truth. Yes. Will not stop you from testifying . No, it will not talk stop me from testifying. Do you plan to testify in court . Probably so. I would like to. I mean, i think so. Oh, hed like to . Now he is not going to. He decided he wont, and now a jury will not hear from him. Is the jury allowed to draw any conclusions from that . Is it like taking the fifth . Absolutely not. They will be instructed that a defendant has an absolute right to testify in his own trial and to decline to testify in his own trial, and any defendant who declines to testify, the jury may not consider it and may not draw any negative inferences against a defendant. That is the beauty of our fifth amendment privilege against selfincrimination. But really, the only thing that should surprise us is that we still have the capacity to be surprised. Donald trump said he would be testifying, or at least interviewing with bob mueller, and he didnt. He said he would testify in both trials, he testified in neither. Is it any surprise that he is been telling us all along he would testify in his own criminal trial in new york, and now he has told us all he will not be testifying . He could not withstand 10 seconds of crossexamination from those new york prosecutors. So, whereas we have to embraces right not to testify, it is pretty interesting that he cant even take the stand in his own defense, nor can he call any witnesses of consequence who can tell the jury that donald trump did nothing wrong. No exculpatory evidence, nothing exonerating, and indeed, the costello decision to call him i think was an enormous strategic lender. Because i think bob costello hurt the Trump Defense more than he helped the Trump Defense. John, the American People will now have no sworn testimony from the first former president , who is running for president , charged with a crime. Can you even put that into context for us . No. In a word, no. We are aware far past where the buses run, as we say in the south. I think one thing that has emerged from this is that the rule of law is being applied. Trump is sitting there, the gag order has been in force. Perhaps not as stringently as it would be for you or me, but the mechanics of the Constitutional Order are going forward. And i think it is hard to say this, that we needed to send that message to the world, that American Democracy was not totally broken. But i think that message is being sent. Susan, the defense case took less than one single day. Does donald trump care more about the defense in the courtroom or the defense against outside the courtroom, on the steps . I mean, did you actually hear anything significant from him . Look, donald trump is always litigating in the port of public opinion. That is his primary venue. And of course there is nothing illegal about lying to the public in the court of public opinion, as donald trump is so skillful at doing. And so, of course it is not a surprise that he gaslight all of us and says he is terribly gagged, he is being deprived of his First Amendment rights and his rights to defend himself by the judge in the case. But then refuses to offer a substantive defense in the case. His litigation of this case, such as it is, is convincing people that even without knowing any specifics is hopelessly unfair, it is a kangaroo court, and that is a message he is pounding over and over and over again, regardless of the facts in this particular case. And i think to johns point, on the one hand, it is important to see the mechanisms of the law being applied to donald trump. A judge seeking to hold him accountable, a jury of perhaps not peers, but of regular citizens being called in. But this is also a sideshow, lets remember that the real case involving donald trump are not, it appears, going to come into court and going to show the world that justice is being applied to donald trump when it comes to questions about seeking to overturn the 2020 election, when it comes to things like taking Classified Information that he wasnt allowed to have after he left the white house. Those questions will remain unresolved headed into the election. This is a case that is very different, and much narrower in nature. Glenn, did the Defense Witnesses do anything to help trump . No, i think they affirmatively hurt trumps cause. When costello was cross examined by the prosecution, with his own emails saying things like, to Michael Cohen, sleep well, you have friends in high places, and we need to keep cohen on the same page. And the one that i think is priceless, and is prosecutorial gold is the one you referred to in your leadin, where costello actually put in an email, cohen continues to slow play us and the president. Is he totally nuts . What should i say to this a whole. He is playing with the most powerful man on the planet. That is ordinarily not the way an Attorney Talks about his client, or his potential client. What becomes clear from all of the crossexamination is that, you know, it looks like bob costello was trying to catch and capture, or capture and kill the information that Michael Cohen could provide that would incriminate donald trump. This was a whole lot of ugliness, and i have to believe , you know, especially after judge merchan had to clear the courtroom because bob costello could not even comport himself as a respectful witness. He was showing contemptuous behavior. The jury is not going to miss all of the signs and signals from bob costello. And i can only believe that donald trump directed his Defense Attorneys to put costello on the stand, because as i say, it was an enormous strategic blunder. John, theres two groups of people i want ask you about. First is the jury. Next week, this group of people after a long, complex trial where they had to sit through long testimony with lots of conflict, they are going to have to make a historic decision. What kind of burden is on these 12 ordinary americans . It is enormous. And it is part of a tradition that stretches back 13th century. It is the common law, it is magna carta, it is that defendants are given the right to be tried, and that juries render these verdicts. Im glad im not there. But i think if you believe in the system, for all of its imperfections, then the system moves on. And unfolds. I love the you always qualify that. If you believe in the system with all of its imperfections. It is, right . Its an imperfect system. As Winston Churchill said, it is the worst of all forms of government, except for all the others. How would you replace a Trial By Jury . Well, what is your take on this other group of individuals, this trump cheering squad showing up almost in uniform, matching ties, performing for him . That almost feels unamerican. Well, it is a cult. The party is not a party at the moment, it is a cult. It is a personality driven, and did you ever think you, john meacham, would be saying that about the Republican Party . Does that make you sad . Of course it makes me sad. I have voted for republicans for president. I am george h. W. Bushs biographer. But talking about him in this context is like talking about the peloponnesian war. It is that far back. Right . So no. But it is that. And you saw even when things kind of work, you sort of saw the tension, right . You saw Speaker Mike Johnson do the deal on ukraine. Educate himself. Say he wanted to be on the right side of history. Everything you want from a public figure. And what does he do . He shows up in manhattan to show his guilty. Now he is facing voters, i understand the forces on that. I have never been on a ballot, i get it. But i get the reason hes doing it. I dont get the ultimate reason. What the party is doing right now is they are putting the shortterm power sentence, short and midterm Power Incentives over the longterm good of the experiment they are sworn to protect. And that is a position that, look, i wouldnt want history to be judging me if i ended up having to pay fealty to donald trump. Sadly, we have to go to commercial, because if we didnt we would definitely get into the peloponnesian war. You know, susan is very good eye. Guess what . You and susan are sticking around. Glenn, thank you for joining us. When we returned, my interview with israeli Prime Minister benjamin that yahoo. He responds to the Icc Arrest Warrant and who will govern gaza after the war. And later, with court out for the holiday weekend, will trump be able to stick to his strict gag order . My guess, absolutely not. The 11th hour just getting underway on a tuesday night in chicago. Chicago. And i realized, my memory was just changing. 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They took the time to answer all of our questions. They really put us at ease. End clogged gutters for good. Call 833. Leaf. Filter, or visit leaffilter. Com today. Heres to Getting Better with age. Heres to beating these two every thursday. Help fuel today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need. Without the stuff you dont. So, heres to now. Boost. Annika. I found the bomb. Ok johann. There should be a blue wire and a yellow wire. So, heres to now. Cut the blue one. Theyre both blue visionworks. See the difference. One day after the International CriminalCourt RecommendedArrest Warrants for both the leaders of hamas and israel, i sat down with Prime Minister netten yahoo. Authorization. Mr. Prime minister, we have a lot to get to. Lets get right to it. What is your response to the icc seeking an Arrest Warrant for you . Well, i think my response is no different from President Biden, who said this is outrageous. And many people across the political spectrum in the United States and leaders of necrotic countries Around The World have called it exactly that. It is a Road Executor who is out to demonize The One And Only jewish state. And he is doing that by first applying a false symmetry. He is equating israel democratically elected leaders with the Terrorist Tyrants of hamas. That is like saying well, i am issuing Arrest Warrants after 9 11, i am issuing Arrest Warrants for george bush but also for osama bin laden. And in world war ii, i am issuing Arrest Warrants for fdr but also for hitler. Things a lot. That is a false symmetry and it is totally absurd, it is a travesty of justice. Another thing he is doing, he is using also false accusations. He is saying we are drying out gaza. Drying out gaza . We are supplying now, before the war, 7 of gazas water, and now 45 of the water. Nearly half, to make sure they have water. He is saying we have a deliberate policy of starvation. Deliberate policy . We supplied half 1 million tons of food and drugs. 20,000 trucks. Yes sir, but hold on. We have already heard usaid has said yemen is present. We have heard from cindy mccain, who runs the world food program, who has said there are massive famines there. Are you saying that they are lying . I am saying that cindy mccain, unfortunately, is misinformed. And im saying that the facts prove otherwise. We have flooded gaza with the humanitarian aid, before that we supplied it with more than minimal amounts and we fixed the road beds, we fixed the border crossings to make sure that all these, all this food and all these supplies go in. We have enabled air drops, we have enabled maritime routes. We are building a port. The whole thing of a deliberate Starvation Policy is ridiculous, and it is put forward by a guy who does not check his facts. He is receiving it, as do others, from the unrest and other agencies and palestinian sources. They have said just recently that they discovered, well, they sort of were misinformed. That 10,000 casualties that were supposed to be women and children, now they say well, we dont know that. But sir, we cant discount that there has been massive suffering and deaths. We see it with our own eyes. But of course, the reason we are all here is because of what happened on october 7th. Because of the hostages that are still being held. So lets talk about the path forward. As President Biden says that your failure to plan for who will govern gaza has already allowed hamas to pop back