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. this is cnn breaking news. this is cnn news central. thank you all so much for joining us. i'm kate bolduan. john berman is outside the new york courthouse this morning where any moment donald trump is expected to arrive for closing arguments in the civil fraud trial that has nothing short of the fate of his business empire at stake. trump's motorcade, we're watching to see when it will be leaving trump tower to follow that very now familiar path down to the courthouse. he is not as of now going to be speaking during closing arguments after all. this is after a long back and forth that has been revealed in court filings between the judge and trump's attorneys in all of this. donald trump, the judge eventually concluding that donald trump will not be allowed

to speak because he would not agree to conditions -- to the conditions that the judge put in place. including not turning the closing arguments into a campaign speech, john. >> yeah, we're still waiting to see what he does when he arrives at the court. but right now, kate, things are a little bit slowed down. a little bit gummed up. why? because there was a bomb threat at the home this morning of the presiding judge, arthur engoron. now, security in place around this trial, high levels of security. we understand there may be an extra layer around the judge now, but things are moving more slowly than they have to date in this trial. i'm down here at the courthouse, joined by kara scannell and paula reed. first to kara, let's get an update on the bomb threat. >> the bomb threat was called in this morning to the judge's home. local police showed up, the bomb squad was there. it's all clear at this point.

it has slowed down proceedings. the court spokesman says they will continue as planned today, but normally at this hour, we would already be making our way through security inside the courthouse because there are two layers of security because former president trump will be here. so they take high security cautions ordinarily, but when the former president is here, it's another layer. we're already behind schedule in terms of just even getting into the courthouse, getting in through pass all this security. the proceedings are expected to start at 10:00. it looks like we may have a bid of a delay. >> we have seen people arriving. it's happening, just more slowly? >> that's right. this is still going to go on as planned. trump's side giving their closing arguments followed by the attorney general's team. it is expected to all take place today. we're having a later start. there's still enough time built in that it seems like it will finish today. that is the plan, but it is off to a slower start. >> tstand by. we're watching this.

everyone standing by to go in to watch this, maybe a little more slowly. paula reed, when it does start today, what is it we're expecting to city? >> today, the trump campaign is coming to court, is supposed to be closing arguments. they're an opportunity for both sides to lay out their theory of the case. the state is going to show how they believe they have proved their case. these additional charges support their arguments for these specific penalties. but the trump side would likely argue, look, you haven't tied the former president directly to these estimates of his net worth, and also, they're going to argue that, look, banks benefitted from his business. there was talk of trump actually participating in closing arguments. this is not common. this is not how it's done. this is why you hire lawyers. that's what you pay them for. the judge here, he was open to it, but he wanted to put some restrictions on it, and understandably so. you look at what has happened here over the past few months. the former president has come here, he's attacked the judge,

he's attacked the district attorney, he's even attacked the clerk. he had a gag order. he violated it. the restrictions seem pretty reasonable. the judge wanted him to focus on the material, and relevant facts in the case, and not to attack his adversaries. but trump's attorney, chris kiez, says this was untenable. this was not something they were going to agree on, so the judge shut the door on trump participating in closing arguments today, but he'll still have the opportunity to speak. one thing that makes this courthouse setup so different and unique is there are cameras set up inside, and trump avails himself, when he goes in and goes out, of stopping to talk to the press. we can expect he will likely do that today. i'm sure he will touch upon the fact he was not allowed to participate in closing arguments. we can expect as he's done repeatedly throughout this trial, he will attack the district attorney, and he will try to frame himself as the victim of a witch hunt. and you know, his accusers as his enemies. that's what i would expect first

off today. it should be interesting. this is pretty routine, closing arguments in a civil case, but this has been so full of drama and tepnsion and this controvery over his participating in closing arguments adds to that attention, but his return on investment is to create drama. >> the first thing you said, you said the trump campaign will arrive here. >> purposeful, absolutely. >> in a way, this is the 100th county of iowa this morning. this is a campaign stop for donald trump. and he's been using this courthouse as a campaign stump for months and months and months. so whether or not he's allowed to make closing arguments the judge says no, i'm still curious if they may try to tweak it, we can expect him to try something today. >> he has the opportunity. he can talk to the cameras in there, that's what they're for, but we don't expect he's going

to get to have a substantive role in closing arguments, because the judge said sure, we can do this. let's negotiate some terms. they wouldn't agree to those terms. anything can happen. that's what we have seen over the past couple months, is anything can happen. >> paula reed and kara scannell, stand by. we're waiting to see donald trump leave trump tower and head down here. we're waiting to see if the reporters can get into the courthouse and into the courtroom because as kara says, it's delayed by about an hour now from what it usually is. i want to bring in former u.s. assistant attorney for the southern district of new york, elie honig, who is our cnn senior analyst, also karen freeman, a prosecutor for the manhattan district attorney's office. elie, i do want to start with you here. as we said, as we have been talking about, donald trump has been told he cannot deliver closing arguments. any chance they could walk in this courtroom behind me and donald trump's attorneys can say, you know what, we agree to your terms. can donald trump speak now?

>> i don't think that's likely at all. here's why. the judge and donald trump's team, we have now learned, have been in a back and forth over the last several days and weeks negotiating this. and the deadline the judge gave donald trump to accept the terms has already passed. i think if they try to pull a surprise and have donald trump stand up, i think the judge is going to say absolutely not. you missed your deadline. i think this is a really important point. you're not allowed to stand up and say whatever you want in court, whether you're a party or a lawyer or some hybrid of those things. no matter who speaks in court, you're constrained by the rules of evidence, by the rules of relevance. i think the judge was absolutely well within his rights to say you're not allowed to get up here and speak about irrelevant issues, to attack people, and we have seen some of the consequences of that playing out in real time. i think the judge was well within his rights to put these conditions, not even conditions, just the rules of the court, on what donald trump can and cannot say, and i think the judge will say you missed your chance. i gave you until noon yesterday and you missed it.

you're out of luck. >> kara, you agree with that? >> i do, although this is a bench trial, which means there's no jury there. and so there's a lot more flexibility and a lot less risk that a jury pool could be tainted by inappropriate information that could come out in a summation. i think there is a possibility that if trump did agree to the ground rules as elie said, those would apply to anybody, including lawyers or anybody who would give a closing argument or a summation because there are rules, civil proceed rules who say you can't bring in new evident, you can't testify, you can't criticize his law secretary because he has a gag order. that would apply to his lawyers as well. and i wonder whether trump has lost faith in his lawyers, and that is why he wants to give a speech, because actually, most of the time, lawyers represent a

party, and you do that so that they can marshal the evidence and make the strongest arguments for you. so as somebody who has represented doesn't typically want to give the closing argument. in fact, i have never seen that when someone is represented. i wonder if it means he has lost faith in his lawyers and that's why he wants to do it himself. >> paula reed, you have a view on that? >> i don't think he's necessarily lost faith in his lawyers, chris kise, his longterm attorney. i think he believes he's his best spokesman and he sees this as more of a campaign event. that's his real return on investment for showing up, as he has here so many times during the course of this trial. is to create drama, to frame himself as a victim, and try to draw attention away from his republican rivals. i see it more as just him once again trying to seize the spotlight and take control of this proceeding, which he has

tried to do numerous times and has been successful in the past. >> as we said, i do think we can count this courthouse as the 100th county in iowa. the iowa caucuses are on monday. nothing that happens here is divorced from what's happening on the campaign trail. unfortunately, one of the things that has happened this morning is the bomb threat at the home of judge arthur engoron. things seem to be moving more slowly because of it, a more slow procedure letting people into the courthouse and into the courtroom itself. we did just see donald trump's motorcade leaving the trump tower area to get down here. it's possible they get down here before anyone is in the courtroom. it's interesting to see how the timing works, but the bomb threat at the judge's house, we're told it will not change the proceedings. they're still going on. do you think it will have any impact? >> other than delay, no, john. i think what the judge is going to want to do here is show this kind of conduct, these threats, do not deter us. they do not take us off the

tracks. we're going to do our job we have to do. we're going to carry on. the judge and the entire court personnel, i'm sure, feels strongly about that. it's worth noting, we have seen so many threats against judges, against proscurements, against witnesses over the years that i think it all sort of blends in and becomes easy to overlook. we should never overlook this. i really want to note, there's a line being crossed here. threats are never okay. they're never legal. but we have now seen sort of crossing over into the personal realm. this threat as i understand it was directed at the judge's home. you don't have to think back very far, just a week or so, because judge chutkan, who is presiding over the criminal case in d.c., she had her home swatted, meaning a false alert was called into police officers to get them to go to her home and cause all sorts of potential danger. so there's really a lot of lines that have been crossed here and we have to call it out every time. this is not normal, not acceptable, certain is not lawful. >> no, it is not something that

is good for the system, good for the country, good for defendants or people who are charged with crimes or in civil cases like this. it just is a plain bad thing. karen, there will be legal arguments made today, in the midst of all this drama, in the midst of a campaign, there will be legal arguments. you can see shots of a microphone. one of the things we have heard is letitia james speaking before court. i don't know if she's going to be here today. >> i think that's a safe bet. we have consistently seen her address the media when she comes to court each day and when she goes out. look, that's a little unusual for someone who is overseeing a case like this, who is arguing politics stop at my door. they're more tamped down than the trump press avails. >> at this point, paula, stand by, obviously, we will cover this throughout the morning. it still seems to be moving a little slowly. we are waiting for donald trump to arrive here and then to see

what he does, kate. >> john is right there on the courthouse steps. we'll bring you all of the key moments from inside the courtroom. we'll have reporters inside in real time from that courthouse in new york. including as john was talking about, moments from now, we'll have donald trump arriving to court for the closing arguments in this civil fraud trial. we'll get back there. plus, campaign, legal, it's all the same thing. also this happened last night. nikki haley, ron desantis, the big debate. they attacked. they called each other liars again and again, and attacked again. did donald trump get off easy, though, again? back to iowa we go. we're also watching another courthouse this morning. this time in california where joe biden's son hunter biden will appear today on tax charges. we'll be right back.

all right, welcome back. i'm john berman along with paula reed. we're outside the courthouse in downtown manhattan where donald trump will arrive shortly for closing arguments in his civil fraud trial. you might have heard he wanted to deliver part of the closing arguments himself. the judge has said no to that. we're waiting to see how trump responds when he arrives and what his legal team does. we did just see attorneys with the attorney general's office arrive and walk up those steps. we have not seen attorney general letitia james arrive just yet herself. now, this is a courthouse, but it is also very much a campaign stop. at this point, there is no distinction between what's happening in court and on the campaign trail, with the iowa caucuses just a few days away here. standing by with paula and i right now, is cnn's kristen

holmes who has been following the trump campaign. talk to us about what they see with today's events. >> look, there's still a question of whether or not he was going to actually speak. if you remember, they said he was going to testify in his own defense, be the final witness. his lawyer went through all of the processes to do that, and then at the last minute, they said he's not going to, but it dit exactly what it was intended to do, which is get all the attention on donald trump. look at this day. we're a day after a debate where nikki haley and ron desantis were on the stage, four days now from iowa. he wants all of the oxygen sucked out of this race. you have a two-man race for second place. he doesn't want any of them getting any traction. and that is what they're doing here. >> i see attorney general letitia james now arriving in her car. i don't think you can see it in the camera shot yet. she's walking up to where the microphones are, about ten yards away. let's see if she goes and speaks at the microphone. letitia james, of course, brought this case and has been speaking on the way in. today, it does not look as if

she will, paula. >> that's surprising because she usually avails herself as she heads in and comes out to kind of set the tone for the day. of course, former president trump with an enormous bully pulpit is also talking about the case, attacking her, the judge, the clerk. she tries to reset at the mics, remind people why they're here, the strekt of her case. she, she walked right by. a little surprising but maybe trying not to contribute to the circus-like atmosphere, because as i said before, it is unusual for a prosecutor to address the press going in and out of the high-profile case like this. >> kristen, very quickly, again, the trump campaign, big picture, how have they seen these legal stops working for them. >> they think it's working for them very well. look at what we have seen. even when he was arrested in georgia, that was also the day after a debate. they turned all the media attention to him. now, i do want to be clear. none of his advisers actually want to be dealing with these

legal things. they're not lawyers. however, they're playing the hand that's dealt and they have seen it's working for them. skipping the debates working for them. playing up these court appearances, worthing for them. donald trump knowing he can suck the oxygen out of any room. remember what we saw on tuesday. that did not work for him. that was a federal court. he was basically not seen at all. there is no aerial shots because in washington you're not allowed to have any aerial coverage. he wept straight into a garage, no cameras in the courtroom. what did he do? they scrambled last minute to get remarks that he would be on camera, and by the way, that's what everybody used, those pictures of donald trump. they know that. donald trump is a master of one thing and that is taking control of the media narrative. that's what they're trying to do. whether or not he's actually going to speak today, i don't know the answer to that. would there be a way he says at the end, they told me not to. i'm not going to do it? who knows, but it would have turned the entire media cycle

toward that. >> again, sucking the oxygen out. could be an expensive suck. could cost him $370 million in this courtroom here. stand by. let's go back to you. >> coming back to john and everybody down at the courthouse, as there will be many developments coming out from this new york courtroom as this trial, as these closing arguments get under way. the campaign trail, what's happening in the courtroom, they are related. not unrelated. we're just four days now from the iowa caucuses, which is the first big test in the republican primary. and this morning, trump's rivals nikki haley and ron desantis, they're hitting the trail hard after last night's cnn debate, and talking about hitting, haley and desantis spent most of the debate hitting at each other, going after each other in every possible way. >> he spent more money on private planes than he has on commercials trying to get iowans to vote for him. if you can't manage a campaign, how are you going to manage a country? >> do not trust nikki haley with

illegal immigration. that's like having the fox guard the hen house. >> he can call me whatever name and be demeaning as much as he wants. it doesn't change the fact that ron's lying because ron's losing. >> leadership is about getting things done. stop making excuses. make it happen. >> if leadership is about getting things done, how did you blow through $150 million in your campaign and are down in the polls. >> we don't need another mealey mouse politician who just tells you what she thinks you want to hear just to get your vote and then to get in office and do her donors' bidding. >> the person left most unscathed last night, the front-runner, donald trump, again. joining us now, terry sullivan, campaign manager for marco rubio's presidential run, also founding partner of firehouse strategi strategies. cnn commentary s.e. cupp. i look forward to this every time. after every debate. >> so do we.

>> was there a moment of most impact in this debate? >> wow. it was like watching two drowning victims, like, grapple with each other to see which one was going to get the last gasp of air before they went under. again, the most impactful moment is when donald trump decided not to show up. i think this is the first time they both did so poorly that i think they might be better off that trump didn't show up because he would eviscerate them. >> what was poor about it? you think they're getting worse, not better at this? >> they both have been getting much better in the debate. nikki has always been a strong debater, and desantis has gotten better. but they just were reading a script. they literally were given by their campaigns the opo research book and just memorized stuff. nikki going back to, go to rondesantislies.com over and over again. they seemed stiff and uncomfortable. they seemed as uncomfortable to deliver the attacks on each

other as i did watching them. it was really awful. >> s.e., give me your take. did one get the better of the other on the stage? obviously, they want to be the best alternative, the chief alternative to donald trump in every contest going forward, specifically four days from iowa. did one of them get the better of the other? >> well, look, i think ron desantis improved a lot. i actually thought it was a great debate. i thought the questions were really substantive. policy over personality. and we learned a lot about what they would actually do policy wise on a whole host of issues. that was really hard to get at when there were ten people on stage or even three plus vivek r ramaswamy. the american people were the winners last night. i thought what nikki haley did subtly but importantly last night was to reach for independents. she very subtly tweaked

positions to appeal to moderates. she did that on abortion. she spoke about compassion. she did that on immigration. she talked about compassion toward migrants. she did that on ukraine, distancing herself from trump and desantis and a lot of people in the republican party. she did that on a number of issues. you know, make no mistake, she is conservative. she made conservative arguments. but they were different than ron desantis'. they were different in many cases than trump's. and in a state like iowa, where there are more registered independents than registered republicans, and they can vote on monday, i think that was a smart thing to do. >> let me add into this, terry, did you just grimace? >> look, i understand the strategy and you have to go where the votes are. but the folks that are going to come out to caucuses in iowa in the subfreezing temperatures and stand there for hours to debate

with their neighbors about who they're going to vote for, there's not a lot of passionate moderates who cau caucuses, on either side. it will help her in new hampshire, but it's not going to help her when she gets to south carolina because only republicans can vote there. her numbers in new hampshire, she's only closing the gap with trump because she's doing so well, beating him amongst independents but losing sig competently amongst republicans. so that's the play, that's the hand she's been dealt. she's got to play those cards. i'm not sure that it is a pathway to a victory, to run to the center at this point. >> well -- >> let me add one more thing about what has happened overnight. not only do we have the last debate before the first votes. we also have chris christie who has dropped out. i want to play for everyone how he did so publicly and then there's the hot mic moment caught before he went out.

>> i feel no differently today because this is a fight for the soul of our party and the soul of our country. why have we resisted the calls to drop out of this race? because unlike some of the other candidates, we're fighting for something bigger than ourselves. >> she's going to get smoked, and you and i both know this. desantis called me petrified -- >> both of you, i want to get your quick take. s.e., thoughts and impact here? >> christie's speech was unconventional for a concession speech, which is usually, i had a good run. i was honored to be here. you have a great field of other people to choose from. no. this was parting shots at everyone, from obviously the

front-runner to his other competitors, to senators and congressmen he named john barrasso, tom emmer, who he thinks endorsed trump but know better, to even the electorate. he sort of scolded the electorate for buying trump's lies. this was, you know, a really powerful, i think, impactful speech that unfortunately no one in the republican party, the republican base, cares about. because the thing that chris christie cares about, honesty, hypocrisy, honor, integrity, these things do not matter in the maga base anymore. so while this mattered to people like me, disaffected conservatives, i think this probably fell on some deaf ears. i don't think that his opponents are going to change course because they were scolded by chris christie. >> look, terry, he never broke through with voters, just look at the polling. so impact, maybe neglidgeable,

but he was the only candidate out there taking on trump directly. what do you think of what he did? >> he absolutely was, but it goes back to authenticity. at the end of the day, as sankmonious as he comes across now and lecturing everybody in the free world about how they kowtowed to donald trump and nat stood up to him, he was the first person in 2016 to endorse trump after they dropped out. stood there behind -- i wish we had video of it, stood behind trump after endorsing him, looking sheepish and awkward in 2016. he led trump's transition team. his thing about oh, i'm not going to endorse nikki because she refuses to say she's not going to be his vp, that's because he's jealous he didn't get picked to be vp in 2016. it's really sad. >> so the campaign continues. let's see where we head next. thank you, friends. really appreciate it. talking about campaign,

talking about donald trump and where his campaign is taking him, which is arriving any moment now to a new york courthouse to attend the closing arguments in his civil fraud trial. we are there live. john berman is on the ground. we'll get you back to john just after this. and a bit of deja vu for house republicans and the impossible job of being house speaker. why republicans are now threatening, maybe revolting against house speaker mike johnson as he hopes to avoid a government shutdowown.

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all right, you are looking at the new york courthouse on the right of your screen, inside the manhattan courthouse on the left. the steps out front where any moment donald trump is expected to arrive to attend closing arguments in his civil fraud trial. we're keeping a close eye, as you can see, on all of this. cameras everywhere we can have them, and where it is allowed. while in washington today, senate democratic leader chuck schumer is expected to make some moves, a first step on a bipartisan stop gap spending bill. the goal here is what amounts to a band-aid to avert a partial government shutdown that's set to be triggered next week on january 19th with a chance of a full shutdown two weeks later. here's the deal, this doesn't mean it's a final deal yet, even if they would pass this short term deal, but even this holdover move is becoming a hard sell in the house for speaker mike johnson. hard line republicans are

balking. one republican, warren davidson of ohio, calling it a surrender, even questioning why johnson got the job as speaker if he goes along with this. lauren fox is on capitol hill. you have a ton of great reporting on where things stand, what it temperature is, what the heck is going on. can johnson find a way forward as the right flank is rebelling once again? >> it's an extremely chaotic place right now in the house of representatives. and despite the fact they are in the second session of this congress, there is a sense that it looks a lot like the first year of republicans being in control of this body. meanwhile, they do have this spending deadline coming up on january 19th. and mike johnson, he's already cut a deal on the top line funding numbers with majority leader chuck schumer. he announced that deal over the weekend. his argument to his conference behind close closed doors is

this was the best deal he could get under the circumstances and yet he's still facing this extreme pushback from his right flank, who held the floor of the house of representatives hostage yesterday when they voted down yet another procedural step, this is a tactic they have used in the past. it was a bill that is unrelated to the funding fight, but it is a way for them to register their displeasure with the speaker. meanwhile, johnson defending himself to our colleague, manu raju, yesterday. here's what he said. >> are you worried that one of these guys is going to make a move on you? >> no, not at all. i just met with all those guys. they're close friends of mine and we agree on the principles. i'm a life long hard core conservative. i want to get as many policy wins as we can, but the reality is we have a small majority. >> and that is the underlying reality. he's really walking a tightrope between what is practically possible given the fact that this deadline is coming up, given the reality many of these members who are frustrated with

the deal he cut are members who don't vote for spending deals really no matter what is inside of them. that is the challenge for johnson. not to mention the fact that anything the house passes has to get through a democratic controlled senate, has to get signed by president joe biden, yet another democrat. that is why johnson feels like he has very little room to maneuver right now, and it's why he is in the position that he's in. kate. >> with the slimmest of republican majorities and a reality that folks have got to face. it's a divided congress with a democrat in the white house. they have got to work together or the government shuts down. lauren, keep close, let us know what happens today on all of this. also, fresh off that surprise appearance on capitol hill yesterday, hunter biden is in california today where he's expected to appear in federal court this afternoon on charges of tax evasion. the president's son faces nine counts in what special counsel david weisz says was a scheme to avoid paying more than a million dollars in taxes.

cnn's evan perez is in los angeles. he's got the latest on this for us. evan, what is this all about today? >> reporter: well, kate, this is the first time we're going to hear from hunter biden. we expect that he and his lawyers are going to enter a not guilty plea to those nine counts. three of which are felonies. remember, just six months ago, hunter biden was just minutes, minutes away from sealing a plea agreement with the federal government. prosecutors agreed to reduce everything to a couple misdemeanors and another deal covering his purchase of a firearm at a time that he was prohibited from owning firearms. now, we have hunter biden facing two federal cases now. he's being prosecuted in wilmington, delaware, for that gun charge. and now he is going to be facing these nine counts here in los angeles. as you pointed out, from the show that we had yesterday in

congress, this is the legal part of this, but hunter biden, of course, is also a big figure in the political story as republicans try to use some of the facts that you see in these cases or hear against hunter biden and against of course his father, the president of the united states. kate. >> evan, thank you so much. we'll stick close to this. evan will be watching it all for us in los angeles this morning. president trump has just arrived to court for closing arguments in the now $370 million civil fraud case against him in new york. there's a live look inside the courthouse where we'll once again likely see the president walking into the courtroom very soon. we have also just learned about what he is planning for later today. stay with us.

i'm john berman along with cnn chief legal affairs correspondent paula reed. we're outside the courthouse in lower manhattan. donald trump has arrived here at the building for the closing arguments in his civil fraud trial. what you're looking at on the other side of your screen, live pictures of the hallway outside the courtroom where donald trump has gone to the microphones to deliver campaign speeches before going into the courtroom for the various proceedings over the last few months. paula reed has been here for much of it. just remind us why we're here. >> this is a civil case. this is about money and the trump organization's ability to do business in the state of new york. here the attorney general has accused trump and several other individuals, even his two sons,

of fraud. of lying to banks and insurance companies to get more favorable terms for loans. and on their taxes. now, the judge has already found them liable for fraud. so right now, they're focused on penalties which could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars and also some other charges. now, today specifically, is for closing arguments. this is the end of the case where both sides present their theory of the case to a judge, again, not a jury trial. this is going before a single judge, but there was talk of trump potentially doing some of the closing arguments. the judge wanted some restrictions based on trump's prior conduct here at court, attacking the judge, attacking the district attorney, attacking staff members here at the court. they would not agree to those terms. at this point, trump is not expected to participate in today's closing arguments. >> basically, the judge said you can give a closing argument, you can't give a cambane speech. >> you have to stick to the relevant fact and you cannot attack your accusers.

that seems pretty reasonable, but he has attacked, again, pretty much everyone involved in the proceeding, trying to frame himself as a victim and as our colleagues are reporting, this is as much a campaign event as a legal proceeding. >> one of the things, and you're looking at live pictures outside the courtroom, we're showing you this because donald trump does often speak before going into the courtroom. one thing i'll be looking for, if the attorneys walk in and say we agree to your terms. let him do the closing argument again. that is one of the interesting possibilities here. paula, stand by for one moment. we're joined by kristen holmes who covers the trump campaign, which is one and the same thing with everything we're seeing here in the courtroom today. you're getting new reporting or you have new reporting on what trump plans to do today. >> that's right. i'm told by senior advisers he is planning to make remarks. nothing is a done deal. everything is still fluid. they're setting up those plans

now. after closing remarks, separate location, he's going to have some kind of press event, which is completely unsurprising. again, i really want to go back to what we saw on tuesday. that was a learning experience for his entire team. they had book ended this event, being the debate, with two court appearances and a town hall in the middle. tuesday did not go as planned. donald trump said he was fine with going to court and not being on camera originally. obviously, that didn't work out as they scrambled to have a last-minute press event. that is because these are in fact campaign events. they are an opportunity for him to say this is election interference, that all of the legal troubles he's facing are only because that's what we're going to hear today. the answer is unclear on whether he's going to deliver closing remarks. just last month he said he was going to testify. his lawyers went through all the

processes. he said he was going to be the final witness. everybody put the media coverage on the fact that he was going to testify again. then at the last minute decided not to. whether or not he'll stand up here, it still will suck all the oxygen out of the room, just the appearance of him testifying. that changes the media narrative a day after the debate when two of his rivals are fighting for second place and nikki haley is really seeing a rise in the polls. he has the ability to take the oxygen out of the race. that's what he's trying to do. >> it's interesting. people don't give their own closing arguments. that's what you pay lawyers for. it's clear today he wantis a bigger return on investment than he got on tuesday. federal court, you don't have a gaggle of reporters in the hall way. that's what we have here.

it's fair to say he'll address reporters. another press event trying to make sure he gets as much attention as possible. >> as a political matter, it doesn't matter whether he delivers the cholosing argument. he got what he wanted. our special live coverage from outside closing arguments in the trump civil fraud trial continues right after this.

donald trump just arrived to a -- sorry, looking down to see who might be walking in. let's keep an eye on that camera in the new york courthouse. donald trump will be entering that courtroom very soon. i'm going to keep an eye on this. there's quite a bit of activity. he's arrived at the new york court for the closing arguments in this civil fraud trial. now the judge in that case has found that donald trump is liable for committing persistent -- here he is. let's listen. >> thank you very much. as you know, this is an

unconstitutional witch hunt. it's election interference at the highest level. it's a disgrace. in coordination with the white house and joe biden because he can't run a campaign fairly. we're going through it. it's indeed a terrible witch hunt. we'll have a news conference later on. as you know, i want to speak. i want to make the summation. at this moment the judge isn't letting me make the summation because i'll bring up things he doesn't want to hear. it's a very unfair trial. i don't think anyone's ever seen anything like this. we have a situation where a statute was used that doesn't give me a jury. i have no jury. i have no rights and nobody thinks it's constitutional. legal scholars are writing about it. it's something they've never seen before. it's interference. it's political interference. it's something that shouldn't be allowed. i am hoping to speak and to help

my lawyers reveal all of the defects of this case. it should never have been brought. very strong financial statements. they thought it was the opposite. they had no idea. then they saw them and it knocked their socks off. they couldn't believe it. great financial statements. everything's good. we have a level of detail in our defense that nobody's ever had. this is a case that should have never been brought, and it was brought. it's very unfair. it's very bad for new york state. companies are fleeing. people are fleeing. the streets are crime ridden. letitia james, all she thinks about is get trump. she's been dreaming about it for years. it's not the way a state should be run. this is a state that's been in big trouble. all the businesses are fleeing. the people are fleeing. the people that pay taxes. the people that don't pay taxes are coming in.

we'll have a news conference today. don't know the time. we'll notify you. sometime in the early after at 40 wall street we'll give a news conference where we can have a microphone, because we don't have a microphone here. even that they don't want us to have. we'll see if the judge lets me speak. we'll see. thank you very much. >> donald trump speaking before he heads into closing arguments of the civil fraud trial against him. saying, repeating much of what we've heard from donald trump in the past going in. calling it a witch hunt. calling it election interference interference. making it clear once again what is happening in the courtroom is a campaign strategy for donald trump. john berman is outside the

courtroom. ana ana navarro here with else. also, s.e. cupp. donald trump saying he wanted to speak, but not allowed to and attacking the whole process and trying to incorrectly connect it to joe biden what he's up against in this new york courtroom. >> reporter: yeah. as you said correctly, this was a political speech filled with some legal inaccuracies as he was describing what was taking place here. paula reid was with me watching this in real time. let's talk about the legal inaccuracies so they can jump into the political discussion. >> he's alleging a conspiracy between the state attorney general and the white house. we know the new york state attorney general letitia james has attended meeting