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keep the story of her alleged affair with trump under wraps during the campaign on top of the $130,000 cohen says he paid stormy daniels. manhattan district attorney alvin bragg said trump said they were for cohen's legal fees. >> the grand jury found 34 documents with this critical false statement. why did donald trump repeatedly make these false statements? the evidence will show that he did so to cover up crimes relating to the 2016 election. >> but the former president and defendant has been harshly criticizing the case saying he left everything to his accountants because he was busy being president when he started signs those checks in february of 2017 a few weeks after his

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Trump on Trial New York v. Donald Trump

argue that the defendant failed to produce evidence or failed to call witnesses or fail to introduce documents. the defendant has an absolute fifth amendment right not to testify and has an absolute right not to put on a case in the defense. so what mr. blanch is doing here, mr. trump's lawyer, is essentially what you would expect from any good defense lawyer. telling the jury don't believe what you just heard from the government by telling them that no crime was committed, trying to humanize mr. trump in some ways, and then perhaps leaving dangling a bit the prospect that they will have evidence down the road in the trial to demonstrate the things that mr. blanche is saying. again, they don't have to prove anything. so they do have a slight advantage in their opening statement of saying things that they don't later have to back up. the government must back up everything it has said. >> here's what else todd blanche

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Trump on Trial New York v. Donald Trump

and senior fbi official. chuck, i'm looking at the jury instructions. one of the things that judge merchan insfrukted the jury this morning is what the lawyers say at any time is not evidence. we're about to hear from the lawyers this morning in their opening statements. both sides had the weekend to prepare. what's the goal of opening statements? >> the opening statement -- and it's not an argument, ana. it's a statement. arguments are prohibited during opening -- is really roadmap from a prosecutor's perspective. he or she will be telling the jury what documents might be admitted, what particular witnesses might say. it's a promise to the jury of what they're about to see. if you were going to a movie, you might watch a trailer. the trailer would tell you what's in the movie. in this case the opening statement is the trailer for the trial. it tells you what you're going to see and hear. from a defense attorney's perspective, they can do a couple of things. caroline made the point earlier

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Trump on Trial New York v. Donald Trump

and colangelo promising that the jurors will see evidence of just how concerned trump's campaign was about this story getting out there before the election. in fact, it sounded like davidson and pecker were in communications, a couple of the key players involved in this hush money scheme as alleged by the prosecution that davidson texted pecker on election night, quote, what have we done. what's your reaction to that? >> you know, i think it's interesting. i would have expected it almost working in reverse order here. what's odd about this crime -- well, not odd, but kind of the core crime we're going to be focused on happens first, which is the election interference, and it's months later where we kind of get to the boring documents here. i think what's interesting is that they're basically proving up this core election interference claim which has to do with '15 and '16 and the

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Morning Joe

underscore, this is crazy. you know, the idea that we would give this man access to classified documents again, after the way that he handled classified documents, refused to give them back, i mean, there's just so many things about what we have seen from his behavior since he has been president. i'm not talking about even the person we saw who was president, but what we know about him since he left office that absolutely is disqualifying. i think because there is a numbness to voters, because you have two functional incumbents running against each other, people are depressed by sort of seeing a rerun of 2020, you do have to start showing people just how crazy this is. we'll have to have new ways to wake people up to the insanity of all this. >> sarah, it's donny. i think the ad is fantastic. the work you've been doing is fantastic. you're doing, as you mentioned, a lot of focus groups with republican voters. what seems to be the key button issue or issues that's

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Trump on Trial New York v. Donald Trump

proven wrong by the documents. >> and the phone calls right? >> there's a phone call of trump saying let's pay her in cash. cohen saying, no, we're going to do it my way. also, the way retainer agreements work with attorney ss that, yes, there is sort of an evergreen standard payment, in this case it was $35,000 a month or whatever to get up to that amount, but then the lawyer bills you or invoices you for services renders, and here there is nothing. michael cohen did not -- we all sort of live and die by the billable hours. we have to say what we do, how we do it, when we do it. the invoices here simply show michael cohen saying i'd like that check now for my retainer agreement. he's not done any legal services. i think it's not doing him any service, the defense by trying to really state too much. they don't have to really necessarily deny knowledge and i think they're making a mistake by doing that.

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Trump on Trial New York v. Donald Trump

is saying to the jury. president trump did not pay mr. cohen back $130,000. president trump paid michael cohen $420,000. would a frugal businessman, would a man who pinches pennies repay a $130,000 debt to the tune of 420,000, this was no at payback. he paid more than he needed to so it can't be for a hush money deal of some sort. >> i think that's the argument they have to make. there are going to be facts they cannot ignore. payments have been made. there are going to be bank records. so yes, a defense doesn't have the burden, but a jury needs to have use their common sense and a have a story or an understanding they can buy into. a jury has to say what happens. i think what todd branch is doing here, he has to offer them a counterexplanation. it's not enough to say the prosecution didn't meet the burden. those documents are there. that money went, people received

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Morning Joe

how to run the house of representatives, you've got a candidate who a judge says is guilty of rape, you've got a candidate who another judge says is guilty of, you know, guilty of fraud. >> takes credit for overturning roe. >> yeah. of course, we could talk about roe. again, i'm talking about the stench of corruption. then you have the documents case that even pro-trump attorneys say is a really strong case against donald trump. so, again, i know people get triggered when they see stuff like that. i just think it catches up to them at the end. >> yeah, i think the answer, hunter biden, is not a good rebuke against a president, as you said, who has 91 counts against him and is sitting in a courtroom in new york city. >> i think it is 88, 86 now. only 86 or 88 now. >> that's right.

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Trump on Trial New York v. Donald Trump

story a number of times. the prosecution is going to present sort of an upside down pyramid here. they're going to go big. that's why they're starting with pecker. they're setting the stage with this scheme they're calling it. as a defense attorney, i feel the need to inform everybody the catch-and-kill process is not illegal. the act in and of itself of keeping information from the public in this manner is not illegal. what is being alleged which is illegal is the way they went about accounting for it, and that it was a campaign contribution above the limit for reporting purposes for the federal election commission. i think the prosecution, again, is going to try to paint this picture of things being generally bad in this area. then they're going to hit the documents, the specific pay stubs and the checks and things like that. >> we understand the opening statements have begun. matthew coangelo is saying good morning to everybody there.

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Trump on Trial New York v. Donald Trump

campaign and all these things, and we haven't gotten to yet what's on the piece of paper? what's on the documents? why does it say legal services? what's interesting is that's not as fascinating for a jury. you have to prove up this whole secondary narrative and then later on we're going to get to those boring documents. i think if you lock the jury into that first story and they believe that donald trump was directing and overseeing this conspiracy to interfere with the election, when you get to those documents, it's a lot easier for a jury see why those documents say what they say. those 34 counts can almost become a box checking exercise if you believe that initial experience about that the election. i think that's why we're seeing it in this order. >> vaughn, a familiar name the prosecution just mentioned, allen weisselberg who is not going to be testifying but is one they just brought up. >> reporter: allen weisselberg was the chief financial officer for the trump organization, and folks will recall literally two weeks ago we were standing at

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