Congress. Well have the latest on the talks between Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer. And take a look at new polling which shows President Biden making up significant ground in a swing state. Good morning and welcome to way too early on this wednesday, may 22nd. Im ali vitally in for jonathan lemire. Testimony in President Trumps hush money trial has officially finished. Former President Trump did not toifr in his own defense can spite telling the press multiple times he really wanted to. Yeah, i would testify, absolutely. Its a scam. Its a scam. Mr. Trump, are you going to testify . Yes. Will the gag order stop you from testifying . No, it wont stop me from testifying. The gag order is not for testifying. Do you plan to testify in court . Probably so. I would like. I would think so. When asked why he didnt testify the former president refused to answer. Watch. Why did you decide against testifying in your case . Did you not want to take the stand . The im will now take a week long break for the Memorial Day Holiday and then return next tuesday, may 28th, for Closing Arguments. Judge juan merchan asked the jury to confirm if theyd be able to meet the following day wednesday for deliberations. Wednesdays are usually an off day on the trial calender. Hes not yet confirmed whether court will be in session that day or not. But the defenses final witness was attorney Robert Costello thawho took the stands for a second day yesterday to finish up his crossexamination by prosecutor susan haufen jr. Costello testified about negotiating to represent Michael Cohen after the fbi raided cohens properties in 2018. During crossexamination costello came under fire for how he characterized his relationship with cohen, raising questions about his credibility as the prosecutor used his own words against him several times with emails to back it up. For example, haufenger asked whether he touted his ties during the Rudy Giuliani meeting. Costello replied that wasnt true. He then showed him an email he sent to cohen two days after their initial meeting where in he mentioned giuliani all without Calling Trump to testify and without using its testimony to refute any of the allegations against trump, choosing instead to mount its entire case on questioning cohens credibility. And though hes not testifying, hes still talkingf. Donald trump reunleashed a new line of attack against judge juan merchan upon leaving the courthouse yesterday. The former president accused the judge of hating him and having bias against him because of, quote, where he comes from. The judge hates donald trump. Just take a look. Take a look at him. Take a look where he comes from. He cant stand donald trump. Hes doing everything in his power. Judge juan merchan was born in columbia and moved to the u. S. When he was 6 years old. Joining us now msnbc justice and Legal Affairs analyst anthony coley. Former President Trump did not testify in this own defense despite being adamant multiple times he was going to. I understand thats best legally but is there a down side for jurors not hearing from him . Its certainly his right. But i dont think anyone following this matter closely was surprised donald trump did not do what he said. On this issue of testifying, every time he testifies under oath, it doesnt work out to his favor. I think back to the e. Jean carroll matter where he tries to undermine her credibility. He says shes not mine type and misidentifies marl maple with his ex wife. Prosecutors would have been aable to ask him about prior bad acts, the e. Jean carroll defamation, they would have been able to ask about the fraudulent Business Practices for which he was found liable in the trump organization. For all of those reasons legally speaking donald trump was never going to take the stand, and he had the good sense to lirsen to his lawyers on this one. Yeah, i was going to say it would be a question of listening to his lawyers or not. And of course when we talk about the e. Jean carroll case were talking about in that Case Depositions instead of closing testimony. Still under oath. Exactly. Thats an essential point. But Closing Arguments are scheduled for next week here. Kind of lay out the best Case Scenario for both sides especially as we watch the very short time for the defense in this case calling again only two witnesses and saying lets rest. Yeah, that was an interesting way to end end their defense, right . I mean you have a situation here where Michael Cohen really took some punches from the defense. Right, we know that he was a convicted felon. We know that he was a liar, but we also learned based on this crossexamination that he was a thief. He stole from the trump organization, and so most criminal Defense Attorneys would have stopped there. Instead they decided to put up Robert Costello to further undermine his credibility. That did not work out too well. He came off as you noted in this lead in as really like a twotiming friend who was carrying Donald Trumps water. This isnt surprising because documents really have been, ali, the star witnesses of this case. And he was he was completely undermined by his own words. In terms of what next, i think were going to hear from judge merchan by end of day thursday about what these Jury Instructions going to be, and then this trial will end up in the hands of the jury. Theyre going to hear Closing Arguments on tuesday, and its going to be in their hands probably by wednesday. Look, im glad you said documents are the stars of this trial because as someone whos covered trump world for a while it was always clear you never knew who was being honest and everyone was double timing everyone. So the fact you have the evidence in this case to back it up is so important because a lot of these characters are just that, theyre characters. And im interested today see how they fare in front of a jury certainly as we go to deliberations here. Msnbc justice and Legal Affairs analyst anthony coley, thank you for joining us. Good to see you. Donald trump was joined again in court yesterday by several lawmakers and for the first time his son, donald trump jr. Trumps son eric had been the only member to attend the trial. According to forbes at least 25 members of congress had been in court with the former president since the trial began. A lot of absences up here on capitol hill. Don jr. And his fathers allies held their routine conference outside the court to spread trumps false claims about the case. Ethats where one republican law make took flattering the new president to a new level, comparing him to pope. They dont want Donald Trump Holding rallies because what happens at his rallies . This is five weeks sittingane courtroom where he should be reaching out to the courtroom and who shows up . Tens of thousands of people show up at trumps rallies. The democrats hate it. Theres not another person on the planet that can do that other than the pope, the pope. In fairness that sounds like the gakales we do with troy nels on a regular basis on capitol hill. A trove of documents are offering insight into the president s handling of classified documents after he left the white house. Well dig into those details. Plus what senator leader Chuck Schumer is saying about a failed plan to bring the bipartisan border bill back to the floor for a vote tomorrow. Those stories and a check on sports and weather when we come right back. When we come right back ah, these bills are crazy. She has no idea shes sitting on a goldmine. Well she doesnt know that if she owns a Life Insurance policy of 100,000 or more she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. Even a term policy. Even a term policy . Even a term policy find out if youre sitting on a goldmine. Call Coventry Direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect. Com. And theyre all coming . Those who are still with us, yes. Grandpa whats this . Your wings. Light em up gentlemen, its a beautiful. Day to fly. Welcome back. Newly unsealed Court Filings reveal Donald Trumps lawyers found classified documents in the bedroom of his florida home months after the fbi searched the same property. Trumps attorneys discovered four classified documents and two folders with classified markings on them all while conducting a sweep of maralago in december of 2022. Months earlier in august of that year the fbi executed a Search Warrant on the property. That came after trump ignored a federal subpoena ordering him to return classified material that hed taken with him upon leaving the white house. Trumps lawyers also told authorities in june of 2022 that there were no classified documents at maralago after they were allegedly misled by their own client. The former president faces 40 Felony Counts relating to the matter, but theres no current trial date thats been set. In a court ruling the District Court judge wrote that the government had, quote, sufficiently demonstrated that trump had obstructed the fbi search. Trump and two of his associates also charged in had case have denied any wrongdoing. Former obama advisor and pod save america cohost dan fifer is warning about a second trump term could have specifically on the Supreme Court. Take a look at this. Think about the stakes of the Supreme Court. If donald trump wins he will almost certainly get two more appointments. By the end of trumps term, second term were he to win thomas will be 82, alito will be 78. Theyre definitely retiring. Theyre definitely retiring. If trump wins again. And Justice Sotomayor will be 74. So he will definitely get two appointsments. That means he would have appointed five Supreme Court justices all of whom will be around the age of 60 when he leaves office. That is a maga Court Majority that will rule for decades. We can win the next however many president ial elections and absent something sort of extraordinary happening, trumps fingerprints will be all over the Supreme Court. And so i think we should make this a big issue. And we know this works because in 2016 that vacant Justice Scalia seat he held open was one reason that republicans did not like trump at the last minute were willing to hold their nose and vote for trump because they cared about the Supreme Court. So i think we can do that in reverse. The court certainly something that trump often talks about on the Campaign Trail especially in relation to the way that he was able to return the roe decision or rather the court was because of the people who he put there. Meanwhile, at a Weekly Press Conference yesterday Senate Minority leader Mitch Mcconnell was asked about a upside down u. S. Flag outside the home of Supreme CourtJustice Samuel alito, that in it days after the january 6th capitol attack. Heres what Mitch Mcconnell told us as we were gathered at the capitol. It seems to me there are just nonstop attacks on the Supreme Court. Week after week after week, and so im not going to dignify that with a response. We need to leave the Supreme Court alone, protect them from people who went into their neighborhoods and tried to do them harm. Look out for the Supreme Court. Thats part of the job of the administration. And staying on the hill, Senate Democrats are moving ahead with a vote on the bipartisan Border Security package that was killed by republicans earlier this year. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer says he spoke with President Biden and house Speaker Mike Johnson urging them to support the bill. This comes as some republicans who originally said they would support the legislation are now saying they wont as they believe democrats are playing political games. Remember this was a bipartisanly negotiated bill in the first place with Many Republican wins in it according to conversations i had at the time. Take a listen, though, to schumers argument as to why he believes now is the time to support the legislation or at least force republicans to vote against it again. For years our republican colleagues have insisted that the only real Term Solution to fixing the Southern Border was for congress to pass legislation. We democrats agree. Congress must act. We should not let this moment pass. Border legislation is just about the hardest thing congress ever wrestles with. Bipartisan border bills are rare opportunities here in congress. Thats precisely why we have it in front of us this week. I urge everyone not to let the politics get in the way. Still ahead well turn to sports with a look at the highlights from a thrilling game one in the nbas Eastern Conference Finals. Plus well show you a fans attempt to catch a Home Run Ball that cost them tragically their nachos. All of that and a check on the forecast when we come right back. Forecast when we come right back so this is pickleball . Pickle ah, these guys are intense. With e trade from Morgan Stanley, were ready for whatever gets served up. Dude, you gotta work on your trash talk. Id rather work on saving for retirement. Or college, since you like to get schooled. Thats a pretty good burn, right . 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And its yours free just for calling, so call now for free information. Tatum trying to get free. Throw it in the corner, fake brown fires up the three. Bang, bang, jalen brown knocks down the three to tie the game. Jalen browns tying three pointer in the final seconds of regulation brought the Boston Celtics back from 13 down in the second half and cept last nights Series Opener against the Indiana Pacers into overtime. Jason tatum scored ten of his game high 36 points in that extra period as the celtics took advantage of 31 turnovers by the pacers to win game one of the Eastern Conference Finals 133128. Thal series remains in boston for game 2 tomorrow night. The Western Conference finals, meanwhile, tip off tonight in minneapolis. The Minnesota Timberwolves fresh off a game 7 knock out of the defending champion Denver Nuggets will host the fifth seed Dallas Mavericks in game one. And turning now to hockey, the third round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs opens tonight at Madison Square garden. The President S Trophy winning New York Rangers will host the Florida Panthers in game one of the