Is being cheered on by his allies and a lot of potential vp picks are raising their hand to be second in command and say this is all political persecution, a two two-tiered system of justice filled with lawfare as they like to claim but that just i mean, it s not the case. we ve got the evidence to show and exhibit number one, senator bob menendez, he is on trial for corruption federally, a sprawling case involving gold bars, envelopes of cash, and a brand numerous 80s convertible menendez announcing the speaker, he has actually changed his far as two independent but that was just this week for years, he has been one of the most powerful senate democrats and he is facing a federal charges and federal child with those brought by the doj, not some local or state prosecutor democratic administration and today, a witness for the prosecution testifying that he directly bribed the new jersey senator exhibit number 200,
when you re there, you re also communicating to her colleagues. yes, we sort of have a bizarre pony express situation now where we are allowed to use some electronics, so we can use our phones in the physical courtroom because there is a concern that somebody s going to take that even though we ve been admonished not to, but we can use our laptops, so we can send messages via email or dm but we can use our phones so we are all sending color from the courtroom about tone, how things are going, what we are observing. i often focus on the jury. right away, the jury is looking at each other like some stuff is about to go down here. they have been a sleepy morning. everybody was feeling monday and all of its glory then bob costello gets on the stand in the afternoon and we are off to the races so because he was so contemptuous of the judge and the process and did not like being interrupted this is a former federal prosecutor who really felt like he should be respected and he thought the
And what was it like to witness the showdown between cohen and trump s defense lawyers during what turned out to be just a brutal cross examination. let s go back inside the courtroom with our msnbc and nbc colleagues. the jury has been waiting for this moment as long as we have. it s highly anticipated. they ve come face to face before in the civil fraud trial, but this is criminal. this is different. and he is the only one who can tie donald trump directly to this crime. he is the lynch pin of the prosecutor s case and he s given up the goods. he s put him from trump tower the oval office in a way that nobody else can. there s a few moments that really stood out. the fist moment when trump s lawyer, todd blanche, gets up and asks cohen did you call me a little crying [ bleep ] or whatever it was, and the judge immediately instructs them to approach as the d.a. s office raises an objection.
He is the linchpin of the prosecutor s case, and he is giving up the goods. he has put him from the trump tower to the oval office in a way no one else can. a few moments really stood out, the first moment when trumps lawyer, todd blanche, gets up and asks:, did you call me a little crying or whatever it was? the judge immediately instructs him to approaches the d.a.s office raises their objection. everybody was talking about what a strange way that was for blanche to open the proceedings. where you prosecute cases where everybody has their hands dirty. that is michael cohen at the time he was working for donald trump and doing these things for him, it always captivates and captures the interest of the jury when they hear from the fixer, when they hear from the henchman, when they hear from the guys that did the dirty work for the king pen. i did not notice any interaction between the former president and michael cohen, but i did notice how closely michael cohen is making eye
Friday night. thank you all for being here. lay begin with you here, andrew, because this claim that there is a two two-tiered system of justice, we can all agree that there are inequities in our justice system period full stop. you can cannot convince me otherwise but this allegation that this is only targeting trump or republicans, or maga is just patently false absolutely right. and i think you had great examples of that there. i would also want to point out that part of this narrative that we re hearing from the former president and his supporters is that this is the result of some sort of political persecution, election interference. the fact is that donald trump was indicted in new york and in three other jurors its actions not by joe biden, not by any attorney general or any prosecutor. he was indicted by groups of 23 of his fellow citizens who got together on a grand jury, reviewed the evidence, heard the entire investigation, and voted that there was probable cause to believe he committed a crime in new york. he was then
What we re observing about tone, how things are going. i often focus on the jury, because i m interested in what they re picking up on. right away the jury s looking at each other like stuff s about to go down here. really? it had been a sleepy morning. everybody was sort of feeling monday in all of its glory, and then bob costello gets on the stand in the afternoon and we re off to the races. because he was so, i think, contemn wous of the judge, this is a former federal prosecutor who really felt like he should be respected. and he thought susan, the prosecutor, was challenging him in a way he didn t like. and he didn t like being interrupted when she was objecting, and most of those objections were sustained. and so in the room, the tension is boiling, okay? and it finally, the judge sends the jury out. and i thought, oh god, here we go. but then, robert costello is giving it back to the judge. and the judge got so upset he clears the courtroom from the press, which is highly unusual, okay? usually, if there s a security situation, that s one thing.
To the witness stand. here each and every witness, no matter hostile to donald trump or friendly, had to walk by his first row of surrogates on their way into the courtroom, flanked by courtroom security officer, and then those of them who had counsel, their counsel them then followed thereafter. in some cases, trump really wanted to have an interaction with them, as with his former executive assistant. in other case, the body language was as hostile as hostile can be. michael cohen looked like he wanted to vault over the courtroom little doors so that he could avoid being even proximate to donald trump so. i thought that entrance and exit was really fascinating to watch. so katie, had a question for you as somebody who s spent so many years as a criminal prosecutor. lots of people talked about how there should have been cameras in the courtroom or at least audio. let s leave that aside for a moment. sure. how do you think, if there had been cameras, that might have affected witnesses, the lawyers on either side, or even the defendant, donald trump, if
Don t like the way that he s making those decisions, they can elect someone else. and then next time but the results of any of these individual cases are not designed to decide elections. they re designed to determine accountability under the criminal laws of this country. good point and yet we have people we will accuse any elected official who is a prosecutor in particular, i like the appointed align prosecutors that if you ve campaigned in a certain way than they assume that you re only goal is to please a particular constituency that he has been very direct in saying that was not his goal here, but we ll see how the voters alchemy, judge that but let me talk about this. a hunter biden case because it is history in the making. a sitting president s child in a criminal trial it involves some of the same narrative, same statements is would never have been brought at the last name, wasn t there? this is a trump depth charge or this is never a standalone shot wherever it could be, a lot of these things have been said about the hush money trial as well. and there s a lingering question that is actually in both when it came to trump, would he
Prosecutor was challenging him in a way that he didn t like and he didn t like being interrupted when she was objecting, most of those objections were sustained and so in the room the tension is boiling and it finally, the judge sends the jeering out and i go oh, gosh, here we go, but then robert castillo s giving it back to the judge and the judge got so upset he clears the courtroom from the press, which is highly unusual. usually if there is a security situation, that s one thing. this is not that. the judge was fired up and i think he was worried about what he might say so he clears the courtroom for only a few minutes. it wasn t long, but we all come back in and he still kind of rolling his eyes and for the remainder of the afternoon. there is a period where everyone is out of the courtroom other then you have the defense team, the prosecution table but then the public and the press are out of the room. not all of the public.
Of courts dispersed and hung around one afternoon, and that was it been a very good day for them. and they were just a hoop. and abbe lowell is looking more, more angry. he seems actually i mean, i know he gets paid a lot of moneyd ey. he s highly regarded, but he seems a little disorganized. and in fact, he was, you know,se sort of shouted by one of the witnesses today, one of the gun store employees who just said how annoying it wasndt that prosecutor that hunter biden s defense team had been a messs defens to deal with ande had to call them and he should be asleep because he s too shifhiftt worker and he s sick f it. and so abbe lowell has you know ,i don t know if he s done such a great job. maybe this is part of his technique is to show the jurors that 100 doesn t have that s like a defense team. r asbut that image is undercutut by the the sort of biden family presence in the courtroom. you know, joe biden dressed to the nines.