here with me msnbc legal analyst and criminal defense attorney danny cevallos. so ken, i know that we've got some updates now. it's moving pretty fast. tell us what's been going on inside that courtroom. >> reporter: that's right, chris. at issue in this final pretrial hearing before the june 3rd start of the trial were a series of motions arguing about what could and cannot be included as evidence in front of this jury. and it seems like the judge basically gave each side most of what they wanted here, for

danny cevallos is still with me in studio.is a criminal defense attorney and an msnbc legal analyst. duncan, i'm going to start with you as the prosecutor in the house, and new to our panel, what has to happen this afternoon? how do they move this case forward now? >> i think the prosecutors need to continue to hammer home the two main points, which is why this testimony is so riveting and important. i thought the cross-examination was largely ineffective. they're trying to portray this lawyer a sleazebag, who peddles in his clients' sexual lee say liaisons for money. michael cohen wasn't acting on his own. he was a conduit to donald trump. what they want to show is a conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws, and they need to show the defendant himself was responsible for it. number one, hammer home that michael cohen wasn't acting on his own and this isn't about covering affairs so his wife didn't find out, this is about the election. if they continue to rehabilitate him on that, they will be fine. that's really all they n

joining me is danny cevallos, criminal defense attorney and msnbc legal analyst, and glenn kirschner,federal prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst. let me go to you first, danny. we just heard joshua steinglass give the sort of remainder of his summation and he's getting to the end. he says the defense wants you to believe michael cohen went rogue. i'm going to give you three reasons why he did not. number one, donald trump is a micromanager. number two, michael cohen is a self promoter, and number three, the beneficiary of the scheme was the defendant. pretty solid. >> those are solid, and it's always good to use bullet points. the rule of threes. there's some cosmic rule if you say something three times it's more memorable if you divide it into threes as opposed to todd blanche's ten-point list, which looking at that list, you could have combined a couple or organized them better. >> and who's going to remember ten things? >> you don't need to. if you seize on any one of those ten things you simply cannot convict donald trump. i get it. when you have a complicated case like this, your

. >> i want to bring in criminal defense attorney danny cevallos. look, this charging conference that is going to come up, what do you expect out of it? >> i expect it is going to be a significant event. there has been a lot of talk of, hey, the defense closes, we'll get into closing arguments, i think the charging conference is going to take a long time. especially in a case like this. this is not like a robbery, this is not a gun case, where it is easy to wrap your mind around the legal concept. even in cases like that, charging conferences can take a while, because the lawyers have very disparate views about what the jury instructions should be. and a lo lot of times there is book of jury instructions and the defense is arguing for a change of those instructions that favors the defense and they're probably not going to win. but, in a case like this, where you have these kind of novel applications of the law, i think there is going to be some hotly contested language, just like lisa pointed out, i think one of the huge pieces of definition that we

back with me, katie phang, danny cevallos, tristan snell.ey, i'm sure you would never put someone like donald trump on the stand because he, of course, can't stop lying. comment if you will on the fact he did not and what impression that might leave? >> back when he promised all i kept thinking was, yeah, i mean, ever since the whole mexico would pay for the wall thing, i don't believe a promise that donald trump was going to make about whether or not he was going to testify. by the way, when it comes to white collar cases often you have defendants who think if i could just get on the stand, i could explain all my problems away. and as the trial wears on, they realize what they're really in for. maybe trump really believed he was going to take the stand. i doubt it. in all likelihood, he was never going to take the stand in his own mind, no matter what he even told his attorneys. in a way, the only person who knew for sure was donald trump because he has an absolute constitutional right to take that stand, and he could have decided right up

. >> i want to bring in msnbc legal analyst and criminal defense attorney danny cevallos who was insideing. so we were talking about the fact that after madeleine westerhout, i mean, you've got a series of people who are basically making sure that evidence is allowed to go in to the case. but i think one of the more interesting things that we really saw, danny, and i want to get your take on the feel and the mood inside the room, was that we can start to see the defense team looking to get allen weisselberg along with michael cohen to be the pair that really is to blame, not donald trump, for the charges that are in this case. am i anywhere near what happened today? >> you're definitely right. i mean, allen weisselberg was a focal point at the end of the day because it turns out the defense is trying to preclude some evidence of an agreement, the separation agreement, but the theory behind it is that allen weisselberg isn't here, so the prosecution, the defense is arguing, it's a really complicated kind of quasi relevance, quasi hearsay evidence, they're trying to keep some evidence out

and msnbc legal analyst, that's you danny cevallos, and "washington post" senior national political correspondent, msnbc political analyst, ashley parker, and chuck, you're a former u.s. attorney and former senior fbi official and also an msnbc legal analyst. danny, with you being right here as we're reading hope getting emotional on the stand, quite unique, something you would expect given the nature of her? she's a straight shooter. she's tried to be. has said i'm here under subpoena. i don't want to be here. i'm nervous about being here. she's been under testimony about 45 minutes for the lunch break and the better part of an hour. >> witnesses get emotional. there's always a box of tissues close to the witness stand. it is surprising that hope hicks who has withstood the slings and arrows of being in trump's orbit for almost a decade is still getting emotional which shows that those witnesses who worked for or still work for trump are pretty loyal to trump and they don't want to be there. hope hicks, rhona graff, the other witness who testified, it is surprising that hope hicks with all of he

and also joining us is our nbc legal analyst danny cevallos. danny, let me bring you in here real quick and talk what the team will most certainly appeal. how will that appeal process look like for mr. trump? >> as is usual, in most jurisdictions, he will have 30 days from the date of sentence. not 30 days from today. 30 days from the imposition of the sentence in which to appeal. he surely will. then it will go to the appellate division, which is the intermediate appellate court in new york. and then they will set a briefing schedule. that will take months, if not years. >> it's a long process. laura, let me turn to you for a moment. this is one of four different criminal cases we've been watching against the former president. talk through where the other cases stand, if we'll likely see another trial before the election. >> lester, it's only one of four, but it may be the only one to see completion before the november election. the others have been bogged down in appeals and delays, perhaps the most serious the one about trying to overturn the

yasmin vossoughian, danny cevallos, stick with us, we have much more on msnbc, with special coverage of former president trump's hush money trial when we return. trial when we return ♪♪ mom genes. she passed them down to you. but who passed them to her? those mom genes helped make her who she is. show her with ancestrydna. this mother's day, she can see the traits she inherited, the places where they started, and the people she shares them with. best of all, it's on sale for mother's day. get it now, before she has to remind you. nothing dims my light like a migraine. with nurtec odt, i found relief. the only migraine medication that helps treat and prevent, all in one. to those with migraine, i see you. for the acute treatment of migraine with or without aura and the preventive treatment of episodic migraine in adults. don't take if allergic to nurtec odt. allergic reactions can occur, even days after using. most common side effects were nausea, indigestion, and stomach pain. it's time we all shine. talk to a healthcare provider about nurtec odt from pfizer. - so this is pickleball?

joining us now, legal analyst danny cevallos. danny, good to see you.lier in the show, she closed out testimony on friday. closed out the week in an appearance that got emotional. she takes the stand again in a couple hours. give us your main takeaways on friday. who did she help more, the prosecution or defense? >> probably the prosecution, though they never would have called her if they didn't think she was helpful to their case. number one, she doesn't have the credibility issues as some of the other prosecution witnesses, whether it be keith davidson or, of course, michael cohen. number two, she points out that the trump campaign, including her, were very concerned about these allegations of women, about having romantic interludes with donald trump, and how they might affect the campaign. she describes the scene of chaos within the campaign with this concern about what to do about these stories. finally, i thought this was significant, she apparently -- donald trump admitted to her that he was aware that michael cohen had paid stormy daniels. now, a

joining us now to break all of this down is msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos. danny, thanks for coming in today. are there any surprises with the appellate court ruling that judge merchan does not have to recuse himself? >> no. the recusal standard is generally pretty high. after all, judges are political preachers. they're involved in the political process. they are lawyers and politicians who just wear a black robe. after all, that's what they do. whether in the federal system when you're appointed realistically people understand even if you're appointed you have to do some politicking. and if you're an elected judge the same thing has to happen. especially in a county like manhattan, they're involve in the political process. we don't know what the numbers are at the courthouse downtown, but the odds are you're going to get a democratic judge. now, if you're out in grailing, michigan, or deep iowa maybe you get a lot of republican judges in a particular courthouse, but the standard for recusal is high. that being said, this is very unique situation with a defe

joining us now msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos. danny, great to see you this morning. thanks for being here with us at 30 rock. so let's talk about keith davidson and what he had to say on the witness stand yesterday. what do you believe the prosecution is trying to establish with his testimony, and whybl do you think he could potentially be key to the case? >> couple things. one thing he establishes is theh transaction. the transactions between mcdougal and daniels and cohen and/or pecker. in other words, he lays down -- he's book ending the hush money transaction. they begin with pecker or cohen and they end at davidson. literally you had testimony that's where the wire transfers ended up. you might argue on the elements the people induced elements of the transactions. one they couldn't testify too much about is the transactions of donald trump. he's the receiver of the money on behalf of people like daniels, so he wasn't going to have that much information about that, but still a critical witness. i think he's also helpful to educate the jury on this kind of seedy u

get more informed legal analysis than what i just gave you by bringing in msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos. danny, thank you so much for being here again. let's talk about michael cohen and how he did yesterday because there were some -- some sharp differences of opinion in terms of whether he helped or hurt the prosecution. >> i feel like i'm in the minority. i know that moment you just described, the phone call to keith schiller. a lot of folks have described that as a major moment for the defense. i didn't really see it that way because it was a phone call from eight years ago. i expect the prosecution has their -- has lined up with their redirect they're going to get back up and maybe ask a few questions to try and clear that up, but i don't know they even need to because, look, it's just memory loss after eight years. could he have talked about stormy daniels for a minute and a half, maybe, maybe not. but i didn't think it was quite as devastating as others do. again, i think i'm in the minoritywrite, but to me this is cooperating with corroborating witness. these are usually hardened

. >> joining us now msnbc legal analyst, danny cevallos. s bluster there. but let's start with those two rulings from the judge, the decision not to change the gag order and a decision not to grant a mistrial. your take. >> so the gag order no big surprise there. the defense's argument i get it. they're saying stormy daniels is no longer a witness, there's no need to protect her. but that's not really what it's about it's about protecting integrity of the proceedings. when you talk about the mistrial, you've got to make those motions. i'm sure the defense expected that they would be denied. what was interesting was that justice merchan went back to opening statements and used them against the defense saying, hey, if you were denying that the sex happened, you made it an issue in this case, which really highlights the fact that for defense council maybe opening statements should be no more than keep an open mind, remember the burden of proof because you have to be so careful during opening you don't step on a land mine and open the door -- i'

i want to bring back danny cevallos, danny, one of the things we're seeing here from our producers inside courthouse is that the first line of questioning is -- talk about your educational background, and hicks' first words were i'm really nervous and then goes into the bio, the curriculum vitae of what her background is. what kind of witness is hope hicks and so different from all of the other witnesses, the other eight witnesses that the prosecution has brought forth so far? >> i'm betting hope hicks is a good witness for the prosecution, a strong witness because, number one, they're calling her, but, number two, we already know she doesn't have the same credibility and morality issues as some of these other witnesses, whether that be keith davidson, michael cohen, or even david pecker. she may be a very effective witness because she is someone who was just an observer, david pecker said as to one of the meetings, hope hicks was in and out and maybe that's david picker's memory, but what you find is that that administrative person who is in and out is listening when very important peopl

now, i was just on tv with nbc news legal analyst, danny cevallos, who said according to the state lawsre this alleged incident took place in 2016, if that is indeed cassie and that is indeed, diddy, you know, the statute of limitations has passed, in terms of bringing criminal charges against him. at the same time, there is a federal investigation into sex trafficking. we know his homes were raided on both coasts a few weeks ago. he has not been charged with anything criminally. we do not know what those investigators found, if they are planning to bring an indictment against him. danny cevallos did say that this could be roped into some sort of larger federal investigation. >> yeah, what's interesting is that when she made the allegations about him and left him, his defense was very quick to say that these are not true. he came out and said that the allegations against him are disgusting and false and he would never do the things as she alleged. this video, i mean, obviously she alleged more than the violence, but this video, i'm surprised that we haven't seen any swift reaction from

danny cevallos and danny deutsch coming up to talk about and preview michael cohen's testimony today.as compiled a list of responses from elected republicans, when asked if they would accept the results of november's elections. their answers are far from reassuring. it all starts with donald trump who has not committed to accept the results of the 2024 race. senator jd vance told cnn's "state of the union" yesterday he'll accept the results if they're, quote, fair and free. in february, he told abc news that if he were vice president in 2020, he would have told states to submit alternate slates of electors and let congress decide. senator tim scott dodged eight times when "meet the press" host kristen welker asked if he'd accept the next election's result, calling it a hypothetical question. congresswoman elise stefanik said she'll accept results if constitutional, but also said the 2020 election was not because of covid-era changes to voting. senator lindsey graham told "meet the press" on sunday that he'll accept the results if there is no massive cheating. and congressman byron don

house deputy chief of staff under president obama and led his 2012 re-election campaign, and danny cevallos joins me here in studio. he's a criminal defense attorney and an msnbc legal analyst. there is so much to get to, danny. it's been keith davidson on the stand, right? but the focus keeps coming back again and again and again to michael cohen a thousand times. he's been name checked in this trial. a lot of what we heard hasn't been flattering, but is that actually part of the state's strategy here? >> here's the thing, cooperating witnesses or people like michael cohen who is cooperating witness-esque, they always have problems. in the grand scheme of things, witnesses like michael cohen and keith davidson aren't all that bad in the spectrum of cooperating witnesses. these are often people who are hardened criminals who may be brought into court in shackles and prison gear. you don't have that with michael cohen or keith davidson, but the people know that these are problematic witnesses because they seem seedy. michael cohen seems impulsive, rude, and possibly even somebody who makes b

chuck rosenberg, catherine christian, and danny cevallos. yasmin, what is happening right now?reporter: they're talking about the calls beginning in june of 2016. this is when cohen alleges he informed the former president of the united states, his boss at the time there was a meeting between mcdougal. this was the beginning of the payoff by ami. it was october in which the payoff was made to stormy daniels, initial contact between gina rodriguez and ami was october 8th, 2016. that was about six months after this initial conversation in june when cohen informed donald trump as he alleges about the conversations between dylan howard and karen mcdougal, and their settlement of $150,000. let me read you through quickly this moment if i can. you have a recollection of a call on june 16th of 2016, with president trump, cohen says yes, sir. you called schiller and gave the phone to president trump. you don't have a specific recollection in 2016. no, sir. 1,400 a month, conservatively 14,000 calls a year in 2016 and 2017? yes, sir. you were in prison for 13 months, are we talking abou

here with me msnbc legal analyst and criminal defense attorney danny cevallos.ken, i know that we've got some updates now. it's moving pretty fast. tell us what's been going on inside that courtroom. >> reporter: that's right, chris. at issue in this final pretrial hearing before the june 3rd start of the trial were a series of motions arguing about what could and cannot be included as evidence in front of this jury. and it seems like the judge basically gave each side most of what they wanted here, for example, the prosecution is allowed to use portions of hunter biden's memoir as long as they keep it in context. the defense is not allowed to argue that he wasn't charged in this crime in 2018 back when it allegedly occurred. and remember, he's accused of lying on a federal form while buying a gun and saying that he was not addicted to drugs when the prosecution says, in fact, he was. and another ruling in this case is that they don't have to show that he used drugs, the prosecution doesn't, on the day that he filled out that form, only that he was addicted to d

. >> back with us, yasmin vossoughian, danny cevallos, criminal defense attorney and msnbc legal analyst. joining us this hour, maya wiley, former assistant u.s. attorney who is now president of the leadership conference on civil and human right. and misty merits, a defense attorney. good to see you. welcome to the show. yasmin, start us off. what's happening now inside that courtroom? >> reporter: so this is all about the lead-up to august 2018 in which michael cohen pleads guilty and then in a court of law, essentially points the finger at donald trump, the president at the time, and says he made me do it. hence launching the inquiry by the manhattan d.a.'s office, shifting to alvin bragg when cy vance retired. there was a conversation that happened. there was concern from david pecker, inquiries from the "wall street journal," specifically, when it came to involvements of ami, david pecker, dylan howard, michael cohen, and donald trump in the stormy daniels payoff. in addition to the inquiries from the fec, as we just heard about. you guys talking about at the end of the last hour wit

. >>> let's talk now about the legal fallout, and bring in nbc legal analysis danny cevallos and kristenbons feden, starting with you, next on the docket is the sentencing, we mentioned it's july 11th, juan merchan the judge will make this decision, trump said he's facing, when he spoke today, he said 187 years in prison. that's fact check that, that is not true. what are the possible penalties the former president faces? >> the possible penalties are probation, fine, and he could face incarceration, each count carries up to four years in jail. but it's unlikely given his age, given the fact that this is a lower-level offense, and given the fact that he's a first time offender, it's unlikely he's facing jail time. if he is incarcerated, he's not going to get over a century in jail. >> all right. >> sorry, go ahead. >> danny, let's bring you in here, trump and his attorneys have said they are going to appeal, of course we can't just appeal because you don't like the decision. >> no. >> to you, what's the strongest arguments for an appeal? >> strongest arguments are jury instructions, if f

it's being appealed and it will be interesting to see what the appellate court does with it. >> danny cevallos ken dilanian, thank you both. >>> time now for today's cnbc money minute. panera is taking charged lemonade off the menu. >> and a new survey names the top airline for customers satisfaction. bertha coombs joins us now. hey, bertha. >> hey, zinhle and kate. yes, panera says it is phasing out its charged lemonade nationwide. while a spokesperson for the chain said the move was due to a menu change. a lawsuit related to two deaths claiming the charged lemonade contained more caffeine than advertised. >>> astrazeneca started to withdraw its covid vaccine worldwide citing low demand. it was not related to concerns about the vaccine's side effects, the telegraph first reported that astrazeneca applied for the withdrawal in march and went into effect this week. the vaccine is no longer being manufactured or supplied. >>> and delta airlines and southwest airlines received top marks for customer satisfaction in a jd power airline survey today. delta scored the highest in premium cabins while

our panel is back with us and nbc news legal analyst and criminal defense attorney danny cevallos is joining the conversation. judge merchan just finished reading the jury instructions that this group has asked to hear back, and now he says they're on to the read back of the witness testimony that they've requested, those four pieces we've been discussing. danny, when a jury sends a note asking for specific testimony, do you in your, you know, lawyer strategizing sessions try to figure out what it means? are you reading tea leaves, or is it a fool's errand? >> it's a fool's errand. it's hopeless. i mean, you can try, and of course everyone even on your team might have differing opinions as to why or what purpose that note means, what it means. i mean, the words itself seem so straightforward. we want to hear this testimony. but then you're left wondering why? what are they fighting about? who's in the minority in that jury room? is it even an argument, or are they saying i'm not sure i remember exactly what was said. any of those are possible. everything from bitter disagreement to r

let's bring in lisa rubin and msnbc legal analyst, danny cevallos. lisa, i'll start with you.ppeared to be, how stormy daniels held her own and held her ground as defense attorneys tried again to shred her credibility, to poke holes in her story. what were your takeaways yesterday? >> stormy daniels is the rare witness who's better on cross-examination than she is on direct, willie. she really held her ground. that's an understatement. again, some withering attack by the defense, but one of the things that i think is really interesting about yesterday's cross is as our colleague, vaughn hillyard said yesterday, what they didn't attack her for, and the story about her sexual encounter with donald trump was not among the things they tried to peel away or attack. she asked her, for example, for seven pages in the transcript to clarify whether they did or did not have dinner. they also tried to make her say that her story about whether she walked to dinner was or was not inconsistent, but the core of the story remained intact, and the most that they did was say it was incredulous

and msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos. good to have you all with us. >> chuck, i'm curious, your first impressions of what happened yesterday, what americans should be looking at, what they should be focusing on as we move forward. >> yeah, it's going to be hard, i think, for our very divided country, joe, to look at this the way i do. i mean, i think it's relatively simple. the government presented a compelling case. they deducea i adduced the fact wanted, asked the questions, and juries understood it. juries often do. statistically speaking, most juries convict most of the time, and that's what happened here. you know, i was thinking about, believe it or not, a national science foundation poll, joe, that shows about a quarter of americans -- and this has been consistent over time -- believe that the sun revolves around the earth. you know, for those keeping score at home, it doesn't. so i think it is hard to convince people that what happened in new york happens routinely and regularly around the country. juries hear the

let's bring in criminal defense attorney and msnbc legal analyst, danny cevallos. about what we're reading in this document, what's going on in this conference. do you see any wins here for the defense? >> i do see a couple. they're minor wins, from time to time. i mean, for example, i think pointing out -- and this may have gone in anyway with justice merchan, but pointing out the intent to defraud can be something other than it requires an intent to deprive someone of something. it's not just an intent to defraud out there in the ether. but even as i'm describing it, i'm reminding myself why my heart rate is rising listening to a discussion and read along with this charge conference. the charge conference for me is the most stressful part of the entire trial. and it's quietly so, because people don't really know about charging conferences. they know about opening statements and closing arguments and cross-examination. but this is quietly where the case can be made or lost. and it moves quickly. and it's really -- it ends up being more of a philosophical discussion

joining us now msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos and charles coleman. danny, let's start with you here on set. what was your reaction to the verdict? >> any one, any lawyer, anyone who says they knew what was going to happen is making it up. it is really easy now to say i see how the jury had their path to a conviction, and i think a lot of people did say that prior to the verdict, but you never know. no lawyer ever knows, no regular citizen ever knows. you do not know until they render the verdict, and i suspect over the weeks and years as we perhaps hear from some of those jurors, i predict we will be surprised at some of the things they seized upon and some of the things that maybe weren't as important to them. so overall i mean the next big question is sentencing, what will happen at sentencing. and my big question is what will the prosecution seek given that they know that the odds are i think somewhat in favor of a nonincarceration sentence, what political decision will the manhattan d.a.'s office make in asking for an incarceration sentence or pro

so much to unpack with danny cevallos. so keith davidson was the intermediary, this lawyer that negotiated the hush money deals with michael cohen. what did the prosecution get out of this witness? >> this is an area of legal practice they didn't tell us about in law school. but apparently there is an industry where you negotiate hush money payments. that's what keith davidson did. he gave us a look into the seedy underbelly of this kind of practice of law, this kind of contract negotiation. but don't be distracted by all of the celebrity gossip. this was really about the prosecution establishing that michael cohen made a payoff to stormy daniels and the nature of that transaction because that's just one of the elements that the prosecution has to prove. >> they're trying to prove this was all done, this business record falsification, which is the actual charge in the case was done to influence the election. that's where they get keith davidson in. but then he comes up for cross-examination. did the defense score any point

i want to bring in former federal prosecutor renato mar ya tee, with me in studio, danny cevallos. ve so many questions, danny. let me start with the whole goal for the defense, poke holes into michael cohen's credibility and to his story. there seems to be a general agreement, no big holes were poked, so how do you adjust for tomorrow? >> i think reorganize. when you have a witness like michael cohen when there's so much out there, he's tweeted so much, he's said so much, he's written books about things that you can compare and find and you can mine those for inconsistent statements, it can be overwhelming to prepare a cross examination in this situation. and keep in mind, you're not just writing a script. you're writing a script that for every question the person you're asking is looking to zing you, looking to throw you off, and to some degree michael cohen has done that. i wouldn't say he's been combative, maybe not quite so much like stormy daniels, but he certainly is somewhat unwilling to give a straight yes or no answer. some witnesses are like that. >> is that his biggest w

let's go the vaughn hillyard and also with me is danny cevallos. vaughn, start with the testimony we heard today. >> reporter: text messages from election night 2016 that were brought before keith davidson as well as this jury to look at and text messages at 3:00 a.m. when it became apparent that donald trump was going to be next president of the united states. a certain exchange there from keith davidson representing storm ya daniels and karen mcdougal to dylan howard the editor in chief of the national enquirer and keith davidson texted howard, quote, what have we done? to which howard responded, oh, my god. showing this jury that these two individuals knew by striking these arrangements that they were intending and ultimately had an impact on the 2016 case. ultimate reimbursement of the funds to michael cohen of that payment to stormy daniels. they were questioning what the actual motives of keith davidson were and insinuation and implication that potentially stormy daniels' story was made up. not only financial gains for stormy daniels but for

. >>> joining us now is yasmin and also with us danny cevallos. yasmin, what has the jury heard so far today? >> reporter: let me read for you some back and forth kind of encapsulating what the jury has heard today. asking would you have made that payment to stormy daniels without getting the sign-off from donald trump. no. >> why not. everything considered donald trump's sign-off. he painted the picture of the lead-up to the election, in which conversation were had to pay off stormy daniels. phone calls made after the former president michael cohen alleged with michael cohen, tried to delay a payment to stormy daniels. saying they were going to go public with this story unless they got this subsequent payment. cohen alleged that they should pay now. michael cohen became the payoff. there was also the recorded phone call between michael cohen, allen weisselberg, the former president as well, that was played for the jury today. let's play that for you now. >> i'm all over that and i spoke to allen about it, when it comes time for the financing whic

joining us is criminal defense attorney and msnbc legal analyst, danny cevallos, and criminal defense attorney and former senior staff at the manhattan d.a.'s office, duncan levin. the first time they have seen the checks that were the reimbursements to michael cohen. they saw a check for $70,000. that was to pay him back for the months of january and february, those first installments of the reimbursement, so to speak. i'm curious as to, first, i'll start with you, duncan, how you see this latest witness, and how she fits into the big puzzle. >> well, you know, we have spent the first half of this trial really focused on this conspiracy to violate the federal election laws. that's what the first part of the trial was about. now we're moving into falsification of business records. you would expect it to be sort of the more boring phase. that's what the charges are about. and it hasn't been. it's anything but. we are hearing testimony about checks being sent to the white house and him signing these things in the oval office. while it's a little dry, the math here is really what's impor

let's get right to dasha burns outside the courthouse and with us in studio is danny cevallos. in that note? >> reporter: so, four requests from the jury in that note, number one, they're requesting david pecker's testimony, the publisher of the enquirer regarding a phone conversation with donald trump while pecker was in an investor meeting. the trump tower meeting with cohen in 2015 and they want cohen's testimony about that trump tower meeting. they also want pecker's testimony about his not finalizing the transfer of karen mcdougal the playmate who alleges an affair with former president. not transferring her rights to mr. trump. what happens next from here, guys the jury is going to be brought back in and they're going to hear a reading of those traps scripts, of that testimony, there's a palable, nervous energy in the room, according to our colleague lisa rubin, both legal teams are going through their binders looking for these moments that the jury is requesting, the jury will be brought back in, the court right now is also looking for that testimony to make sure they ca

joining us now, msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos. so good to see you again. with the importance of cohen's testimony for the prosecution. >> arguably he's the whole case. up until now the witnesses were a window dressing or pre-butt to michael cohen's credibility. if he had zero credibility, you could make the argument he alone would be able to testify for the prosecution because presumably he's going to provide direct evidence. that means essentially donald trump told me to do things that are crimes as opposed to all the other circumstances, which, by the way, is powerful evidence of donald trump having the requisite intent of committing all these other crimes. that's when you have doctors and witnesses describing the payments to deal with it by cohen and repayment by trump. what they ooesh tried to do is minimize his accountability with documents. perhaps in a comedic moment, several comedic moments throughout the trial, michael cohen has been hit with shrapnel by some of the prosecution's witnesses who designed him. someone at one point put together a scre

danny cevallos, catherine christian, we're here, chris and i, and katy tur is on her way back.y with us, we're going to take a short break. you're watching coverage of the trump trial on msnbc. p trial onc (ella) fashion moves fast. setting trends is our business. we need to scale with customer demand... in real time. (jen) so we partner with verizon. their solution for us? a private 5g network. (ella) we now get more control of production, efficiencies, and greater agility. (marquis) with a custom private 5g network. our customers get what they want, when they want it. (jen) now we're even smarter and ready for what's next. (vo) achieve enterprise intelligence. it's your vision, it's your verizon. (vo) you were diagnosed with thyroid eye disease a long time ago. and year after year, you weathered the storm and just lived with the damage that was left behind. but even after all this time your thyroid eye disease could still change. restoration is still possible. learn how you could give your eyes a fresh start at tedhelp.com. >> tech: does your windshield have a crack? trust sa

for more on this i want to bring in entertainment correspondent chloe melas, and legal analyst danny cevallos. chloe, first to you, interestingly, cassie detailed something quite similar to this incident in a federal lawsuit and we've also heard from cassie's lawyers, what's the latest on this? >> her lawyers have come out with a very strong statement saying this is the evidence right here that they were talking about in their civil suit, that this is gut wrenching video that is only further confirmed the disturbing and predatory behavior of mr. combs. they go on to say the words cannot express the courage and fortitude ms. ventura has shown in coming forward to bring this to light. it's unclear who leaked the video. it's very unclear how this footage remained under wraps for so many years, since 2016. in this federal civil suit filed by cassie, casandra ventura who dated sean diddy combs for over a decade, it details an incident that took place in 2016, at a hotel, in california, with very similar details to what we're seeing in this video. nbc news has not been able to independently verify

. >> danny cevallos, you are a defense attorney, and the moment from todd blanche before the lunch break raised his voice and said that was a lie. it got the attention of the jury. but from my perspective, e couldn't tell if the jury was amused at the circumstances, the catching of michael cohen in a misremembering of facts or if they were chuckling at todd blanche and his performance. >> two may have been related. todd blanche may have planned it in a way so it would be timed with this moment of high drama as he's asking a question that he thinks is important that he wants the jury to listen to. lawyers never, we talk about it a lot, like we can figure out jurors. the reality is none of us ever know what a juror is truly thinking. if you ever talk to them after the trial, you're shocked at what they focused on or what direction they were heading. i can't tell you how many lawyers thought they had juror number five in the bag, and find out juror number five couldn't stand them. if lawyers could predict what lawyers do with accuracy, you wouldn't have a world where 90 plus percent of crim

. >> danny cevallos and rehema ellis, thanks so much. >>> appreciate it. >>> delegations from israel and hamas have arrived in cairo to resume talks towards a cease-fire agreement. >> yesterday you may remember israel rejected a proposal that had been agreed to by hamas saying that the deal was, quote, far from its requirements. the new round of talks now comes as overnight israeli tanks pushed into the southern gaza city of rafah taking control of its border with egypt. nbc news international correspondent raf sanchez joins us now live from tel aviv. let's start with rafah. the tanks rolled in a day after they ordered civilians to evacuate. what can you tell us about the operation now, and what else is israel planning? do we know? >> reporter: zinhle, israel says this was a limited operation with tactical military goals including seizing the palestinian side of the rafah crossing but then also this is designed to put pressure on hamas in the cease-fire negotiations saying this is not the beginning of the large-scale ground offensive against rafah that prime minister benjamin netanya

leading us off this hour is nbc news correspondent vaughn hillyard and nbc news legal analyst danny cevallos lower manhattan outside the courthouse. vaughn, court ended earlier than it usually does or at least has in recent days. walk us through what happened on the stand today and what you are expecting come monday. >> reporter: right. the prosecution did not call another witness because of their marquee witness to expect this upcoming monday. madeline was the executive assistant inside of the white house for donald trump first two and a half years. she was the gate keeper. she testified meeting between michael choen and donald trump and the pecker and donald trump in 2017. to make an account that there were phone calls placed at certain times between different individuals like michael cohen, keith davidson. >> danny what do you expect michael cohen will testify about? what do you think the jury will focus trying to hear from him and just walk us through what stood out to you today as an attorney physically inside of the courtroom? >> reporter: if you're the jury, for weeks now, you've been

. >> let's bring in danny cevallos. >> this is a question i put in the category of disbelief question. the real reason todd blanche is asking that question, when the rally ended, you have 90 seconds to update on the 14-year-old. and stormy daniels. to demonstrate how unbelievable it is to the jury. the problem is you should only ask that disbelief type question when the answer yes would be so insane. mr. cohen, isn't it true you claim to have invented the frying pan, and michael cohen says i did, i'm telling you i did, he looks like he's out of his mind. this is not that question. this is a question that goes to the heart of the point, and allowing cohen to reaffirm that, yes, in 90 seconds, i did have time to complain about the 14-year-old who's prank calling me, and hand over the phone to trump to update on the stormy daniels. yeah, it's true, i did, in 0ir9 90 seconds. the only reason they ask the question is for disbelief. this isn't the time to ask a question like that. all it doesn't is give cohen the opportunity to say yes. double down. you can only ask a question like that if

>> reporter: i think danny cevallos has been the other one with me here taking the bet on -- i could see him in a situation deciding to do so. for three reasons specifically. number one, donald trump believes he's the smartest man in any room, he's smarter than any military general that he had while serving in the white house. donald trump also likes to be his own spokesperson, as you have heard multiple individuals testify over the course of just this trial alone. also, if you go back to the e. jean carroll trials, there's the first trial where he was found to have sexually abused e. jean carroll. he chose not to testify. for the months that followed after that there was regret. you saw the regret come out this january when he wanted to testify in the defamation suit, and judge kaplan made it clear that he would not be able to try to litigate whether he committed the offense, that that had already been determined by the court of law. he could only testify to the actual defamation claims being made against him which was met with great eyre by donald trump. he was only able to testify

legal panel here for the next couple of hours, msnbc legal analyst and criminal defense attorney danny cevallos, former assistant new york attorney general adam pollock, and former federal prosecutor jessica roth. >> so, danny, what is your reaaction to what is going on so far and why the decision by the prosecution to go in on every single one of these checks? >> they need to go through each one of these checks because these are the documents. these are the documents that presumably were falsified and so they have to introduce all of these documents and they especially have to introduce them with michael cohen, because michael cohen is a witness that is fraught with risk because of his credibility problems. so, you need to support his testimony with documents. it is why they called him near to the end. not for a moment of high drama, but instead because they needed to introduce all of these other witnesses, documents, and evidence to presupport michael cohen, when he inevitably gets lambasted on cross examination for all of his inconsistencies and his lies and his motivational lies. so they in

we'll check back in. >> let's bring in right now msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos.he? he's saying, we've been through this ten times. i've been telling you all along i don't want to put you in jail. don't test it. this is not working. i don't want to put you in jail as a former president and a possible future president, but i may do that. i know you've got a job to do, but the judge says i've got a job to do as well. it seems like a long windup, but it looks like he may be willing to throw that pitch at some point. >> zero surprises from justice merchan here. i didn't expect that he would jail trump on this hearing, on this decision. i think he's going to give him at least a couple more chances, because contempt violations are about a continuum. you start with admonitions. then you say, well, here's your maximum statutory fine of $1,000 in new york. one interesting thing to me is that he verbalized what i think everyone knew, this judge and every judge with the trump case is thinking, which is, i do not want to try and put an ex-president in jail, not for an hour, n

the courthouse, also with us in studio, two criminal defense attorneys, msnbc legal analyst, danny cevallosnd duncan levin, former senior staffer at the manhattan district attorney's office. okay. duncan, what is job one for michael cohen and the prosecution team as they move forward? >> they have got to keep him under control. he is an uncontrollable witness. the defense has an uncontrollable client. the prosecution has been dealing with uncontrollable witnesses. they saw it first a little bit with stormy daniels, she was veering off course with the questioning. >> some would say more than a little, but okay. >> and the judge had to say to the prosecutor, please just have her answer the questions. they're going to have -- michael cohen is so well prepped for this testimony, he is going to be able to stick to the questions, but i think what they are trying to do is deflate the defense's story. they're trying to make sure that the bad stuff that's going to come out on the cross comes out first on the defense and the direct testimony. they want to make sure that the jury has already heard a l

here with me in new york for the hour, danny cevallos, criminal defense attorney, catherine christian, former assistant manhattan district attorney and jeremy solan, former attorney in the manhattan d.a.'s office. vaughn, kick us off, we have a witness on the stand right now, who we'll get to in a moment, but, again, this morning we expect stormy daniels at some point today to take the stand and the judge before the jury was even called in already set some parameters around her expected testimony. fill us in. >> reporter: right. some could say this was a long time coming. this began all the way back in 2006, the celebrity golf tournament in lake tahoe, when donald trump met stormy daniels. adult film star. and that was when the alle alle one night stand took place. fast-forward to 2016, it has been chronicled by many people around the effort to silence stormy daniels' story with that $130,000 payment that she was prepared to come forward and share her story publicly in the weeks before the 2016 election. now, today, may 7th, 2024, stormy daniels herself is inside the very courthouse w

. >> i want to bring back our panel, vaughn hillyard, danny cevallos, catherine christian, and jeremy soland. okay, jeremy, i just got new statistics in, are you ready? are you sitting down? >> i am sitting. >> the total cohen time on the stand, 12 hours, 52 minutes. total cohen cross, 4 hours and 40 minutes. high point, low point so far that the jurors may take away from this? >> i think the low point, depending how you're defining this is the cross. i don't think the cross has hammered home what the defense wants to hammer home. the high point for the prosecution is he was contrite, yeah, he lied. again, may not want him to be your neighborhood or date your daughter, but he told you what it is, and you know what, we can back it up with hope hicks within reason, phone call logs and documents within reason. it's going well for the prosecution. proof beyond a reasonable doubt, we'll see. it's going well. >> 13 hours is what we're approaching and we have a little ways to go about what you expected. does it just feel long? >> i had colleagues that would give six hour summations and acqui