i'm sam stein. i'm in for jonathan lemire. in just hours donald trump's hush money criminal trial will resume in a new york city courtroom. it follows a busy day yesterday after both sides delivered their opening statements and the prosecution's first witness was called for questioning. in their opening remarks the prosecution and defense painted two very different pictures of the former president. prosecutors describe him as having been involved in years of sordid business dealings. they called him a coconspirator in a plot to cover up sex scandals in a so-called catch and kill plan in the 2016 presidential election. and they said trump's actions amount to criminal conspiracy and cover up by scheming with his then-lawyer michael cohen and david pecker, who's a publisher at the national enquirer at the time. the defense depicted trump as a dignified former president and family man, but above they all depicted him as innocent. they stressed no crime was committed. the prosecution then called its first witness, david pecker. a f

the great, legendary sam stein. >> thank you, guys. >> also a very excited sam stein. despite the fact that we are fielding a aa team, red sox are doing pretty well right now. >> better record than the dodgers. >> better record than the dodgers. >> true. >> exactly. >> it's true. >> it matters more now because it's april. >>> anyway, willie -- >> just go to willie for the top story. >> because the red sox did not play last night, mika and i got to -- how many episodes -- >> oh, my god. we binge on a show. >> four maybe? >> it's called "pom royal." >> so good. >> so talented. >> she's amazing. >> willie -- >> when she goes, "you failed." >> you interviewed, willie, carol burnett, the legend of legends. there was a scene with kristen wiig and carol going back and forth. >> she's just going, ah. >> mika and i looked at each other, and i was like, oh, my god. >> yeah. >> she can go -- >> they're spirit animals. >> they're spirit animals. >> yeah. >> she can go toe-to-toe with one of the greatest of all time. it was a pleasure to watch. in fact, the whole crew, everything.

i am sam stein in for jonathan lemire. testimony in donald trump's hush money criminal trial is scheduled to resume tomorrow after several key developments in court yesterday. first judge juan merchan held a hearing at the start of the proceedings to determine if the former president had violated his gag order. prosecutors argued that trump had done so at least ten times and asked the judge to fine him for $1,000 for each violation. trump's defense team argued their client has not violated the order but was merely reposting opinions of others on social media and was, quote, being careful about complying with the order. but the judge expressed frustration with the argument telling trump's attorney todd blanche, he was, quote, losing all credibility with the court. later outside the courtroom, trump told reporters that any violation of the gag order and articles he posts to social media is unintentional. >> somebody writes an article, if i read every one of these articles i'll read some of it and look at the headlines. and t

well, there is that, sam stein.en campaign has been really good on rapid response. >> yeah. i mean, they clearly want to agitate trump. they want to get him on sort of side pursuits. they want to get limb to stay crazy things. and i think, you know, you went down the list. one of the more interesting ones, they've accused him of hiding in his basement during the past month which is an inverse of what trump himself is accusing biden of some the 2020 campaign. clearly, there's like a larger strategy here. they're trying to do aversion, psychological warfare against the candidate himself and it's pretty telling because you can see trump's reaction in realtime on truth social. i will say on the rapid response front, i do notice they quickly moved to go after this fake attack around, you know, branding easter trends, gender visibility day. they were very quick up with it. i think they understand what katty was talking about, these stories, these myths can travel in these sort of closed off ecosystems pretty fast. and it'

and deputy managing editor for politics at "politico," sam stein is with us this morning. where do we begin? >> baseball? >> oh, no. >> willie, yankees -- >> i think we start in arizona. >> baseball. >> judge and soto both went deep. you and sam will be excited to hear that, joe. >> well, we're very excited. i mean, the red sox now have, like, 17 or 18 people hurt on the roster. there was a pitcher who picked up, sam, a rosin bag, and his -- >> arm got chopped off. >> -- dislocated. >> come on. >> no, we have so many injuries. these kids they keep calling up are -- i mean, these pitchers have the lowest e.r.a. combined of any starting staff in baseball. >> crazy. >> it is kind of a crazy season. >> oh, yeah, no, it's nuts. we're, like, trotting out a aaa, maybe a aa lineup at this juncture. so many injury, yet we keep chugging along. alex cora, i don't know what magic he works, and it'll be a real shame when the ownership doesn't bring him back because they're so cheap. >> just -- yeah, give him manager of the year. katty, your household can breathe a collective sigh of rel

bs. >> for sure. >> in fact, in this case, set back 160 years, sam stein, to a territorial law put input it into perspective for you. sam, let's talk about what this means politically. we've been talking about the legal consequences, the consequences for women in the state of arizona. there has been some chatter in the last 12 to 24 hours about arizona being in play, seen as a difficult state this time around, perhaps, for the biden campaign, if you look at the polling, but there is some enthusiasm this morning from democrats about flipping the state or holding on to the state, i should say. >> yeah, i feel like this has a huge, huge development from a political perspective. i think to your point, like, there's something just valsly shocking about saying, oh, we're going to go back to an 1864 law. it's hard to even articulate that that's the law that's now on the books. but beyond that, it's, you know, look, florida is a good template here to compare to arizona. florida has a six-week ban. they will also have a ballot measure in november to consider whether it's a constitutional right

just listen to this exchange with king's counsel sam stein. back, i'm sure it's absolutely available in all of the annual reports. it's millions, isn't it, mr crozier? yes, it probably is, yes. andrew, what did you make of those two saying theyjust didn't know? it's astonishing that people who are the managing director and chief executive, both paid 6—7 figure salaries. — executive, both paid 6—7 figure salaries, don't know what's going on inside _ salaries, don't know what's going on inside their— salaries, don't know what's going on inside their own organisation. they are either— inside their own organisation. they are either incompetent or lying, and neither— are either incompetent or lying, and neither reflects well on them. it's astonishing, people may not know but these _ astonishing, people may not know but these people went through — the sub postmasters are the people who ran small— postmasters are the people who ran small local — postmasters are the people who ran small local post offices, they went through— small local post offices,

along with willie and me we have a member of the "the new york times" editorial board maya and sam stein. our top story has to do with pecker. >> i think you're enjoying saying his name. testimony in donald trump's hush money criminal trial is scheduled to resume tomorrow after several key developments in court yesterday. first, the judge held a hearing at the start of tuesday's proceedings on whether the former president had violated his gag order. prosecutors have asked the judge to fine him $1,000 for each violation. trump's attorney said he hasn't violated the order. he was, quote, being careful about complying with the order. but the judge expressed extreme frustration with that argument, telling his attorney saying, quote, losing all credibility with the court. any violation of the gag order in articles he repost to social media is unintentional. >> if i read every one of these articles in complete, i'll look at headlines, all good headlines, the case is a sham. i can't read the whole thing. this is like reading a novel. so i put an article and somebody's name is mentioned. i end u

i am sam stein in for jonathan lemire. when's he coming back? we begin with the latest out of arizona where a state grand jury has indicted 11 so-called fake electors along with several other allies of donald trump in their efforts to overturn the 2020 election. the 58-page indictment includes conspiracy, fraud, and forgery charges related to attempts by the defendants to change the election results in trump's favor. this was the scene back on december 14, 2020, when 11 people met at the republican party headquarters in phoenix to sign a certificate claiming to be arizona's 11 electors despite the fact that joe biden had won arizona by nearly 11,000 votes. the document also describes seven others in trump's orbit who were indicted but had their names redacted such as former white house chief of staff mark meadows, lawyers rudy giuliani, john eastman, christina bobb, trump campaign official boris epstein and campaign official mike roman. now, trump was not charged but described as unindicted coconspirator one. the indictments mark a significant s

nbc's garrett haake is back with us, sam stein is politico's deputy managing editor for politics andarbara mcquaid is former u.s. attorney and msnbc legal analyst. you know, sam, donald trump is used to being the boss of his company. being able to do, to say whatever he wants. that is not the case in court, which is, of course, the judge's domain. how could that unfamiliar role, do you think, play with him? >> well, first of all, i don't think anyone is comfortable sitting in a criminal proceeding. i'll give that to him. but i think your point is extremely valid, which is for 40, 50 years no one has talked back to donald trump. he's run his own company, it is a family business, but it was his. he was a television personality, where the show was literally about him telling people they were fired or hired. he ran for president, to define expectations, in those capacities you don't really ever get told to sit quietly at a table or risk being sanctioned. you don't get told that you are -- your freedom son the line and it is not in your hands, but in the hands of others. this is deeply un