that led judge merchan to this conclusion. it is no longer just a mere possibility or a reasonable likelihood that there exists a threat to the integrity of the judicial proceedings. the threat is very real. admonitions are not enough, nor is reliance on self-restraint. the average observer, must now, after hearing defendant's recent attacks, draw the conclusion that if they become involved in these proceedings, even tangentially, they should worry, not only for themselves but for their loved ones as well. such concerns will undoubtedly interfere with the fair administration of justice and constitutes a direct attack on the rule of law itself. again, all citizens, called upon to precipitate in these proceedings, whether as a juror, witness or in some other capacity must now concern themselves not only with their own personal safety but with the safety and the potential for personal attacks upon their loved ones. that reality cannot be overstated. judge merchan accuse trump's defense lawyers of, quote, baseless misrepresentatio

what is the line merchan is walking? why would a facebook post that contains somebody celebrating the 2020 election not rule you out? >> because well, as merchan has said, it's about can he be fair and impartial. now if you're celebrating the loss of the defendant who is on trial, if i'm the defense attorney, i'm going to argue she has a negative opinion about the defendant on trial. now if it's a facebook post from many, many, many years ago, i would still argue that because this still is the defendant on trial. so the next juror, there was a juror who was lock him up, we don't even have to question him. just get rid of him. clearly that's an obvious negative opinion that can't be overcome. >> why would merchan just not dismiss her immediately? i'm trying to figure out why he thinks somebody like that could be fair. >> her explanation was she was going to her car. now the question i would ask but you're just going to your car but you felt the need to post the celebration up on your facebook? so that's sort of not credib

judge merchan has not granted those days off as of yet.feres with one of the jurors wanting to celebrate the holiday, observe the holiday, he will address it then. as of now, it seems april 22nd, 23rd and april 29th and 30th, the court will adjourn at 2:00 p.m. eastern standard time. again, they're just kind of going through the scheduling right now, some of the details beginning the jury selection process. one more thing i do want to mention, there was a motion in place to adjust the jury questionnaire, wanting the prosecution and the defense to hone in on the political affiliations of these potential jurors, those motions, guys, were totally denied. this jury questionnaire that we have in our hands, that stays in place. >> okay. again, as you outlined that jury questionnaire has some very, very specific questions that can get at people's political affiliation and their love or hate for the defendant. yasmin vossoughian, stay close. richard gabriel, thank you for offering your expertise and insights. >>> up next, all the former president'

merchan is off the bench right now.tial jurors are going in. they're going to make their way into the courtroom pews. can you just talk a little bit about the burden that these 12 jurors and six alternates are going to carry through this process? and i wonder how much of that is going through their minds as these questions begin. >> great questions. so i think all jurors in all cases carry a burden. but to your point, chris, this is -- >> the world is watching. >> the world is watching, and here's an overused word, which is actually applicable here, this is unique, and that won't be lost on the jurors. judge merchan did something that i think is wise. while the lawyers will know the names of the jurors, the names of the jurors aren't being made public. and that's got to help. i think any juror, whether you're a fan of mr. trump or you don't think very highly of mr. trump understand that there's perhaps some risk involved here. and so judge merchan was smart to address that early, and to protect those names from becoming

this is the challenge that judge merchan will have to deal with immediately in this case. he has paused his timing on hearing the question of violations of the gag order already, but this one, with jury selection in process, ready to resume tomorrow morning, this one, it seems impossible to see how the judge can wait on that. we will discuss that in a moment with andrew wiseman. it's always important to remember, something about donald trump, and the way he lies, because no one proves just how much donald trump flies better than donald trump, and he did that again today. and this time, he proved that his lawyers are liars, too. donald trump has claimed repeatedly that the manhattan criminal trial that he must now attend has kept him from campaigning for president. his lawyers have falsely represented the same thing, publicly. judge merchan said, at the outset , there would be no wednesday session in the criminal trial of donald trump so donald trump knew all along there would be no session today and today, when donald trump had no obligation in court anywhere in the countr

i'm going to make the decision to read the attacks on judge merchan's daughter. trump posted this to his millions of followers. judge merchan is totally compromised and should be removed from this trump non- case immediately. his daughter, lauren, is a rabid trump hater who has admitted to having conversations with her father about me. and yet, he gagged me. she works for to joe biden, kamala harris, adam schiff, and other radical leftists who campaigned on getting trump and fund raise off the biden indictments. including this witch-hunt, which her father presides over, a total conflict and attacking biden's political opponent through the courts. former d.a. cy vance refused to bring this case as did all federal agencies including elections. that has been disseminated,, that is out there. what, in your view, is the appropriate response? >> that, nicole, is the republican party's nominee for the presidency of the united states, in november of 2024. the republican party has enabled donald trump up to this point. for the past 3 1/2 years, and it's determined to enab

april 1st, judge merchan enters an expanded judge order after trump attacks judge merchan family online seeks appellate relief from that gag order. but, on april 9th, an appellate court justice relies -- denies and that really spread on april 10th, trump attacks michael cohen and stormy daniels untruth social. on april 13th, attacking true social. two days later, the d.a.s office files its first motion to hold trump in contempt for his alleged april 10th and april 13th violations. on the same day, judge merchan sets the contempt hearing for april 24th at 2:30 and orders trump to respond to the allegations by 5:00 p.m. on friday, april 19th. now, judge merchan later changes the date and time of that hearing to april 23rd at 9:30. that is this coming tuesday. but, on that same day, trump attacks michael cohen on true social and so does his official campaign website. the next day, april 16th, trump attacks michael cohen untruth social and so does the official campaign website. on april 17th, trump reposts untruth social, fox news' host jesse watters' claim about prospective jurors. on apri

judge merchan is all about business. i like to think perhaps donald trump has met his match in judge merchan. i think he also met his match in judge tanya chutkan in washington. unfortunately, tanya chutkan is no match for the supreme court which brought his d.c. federal prosecution to a screeching halt for no good reason. because there's no constitutional support for the notion that the president is absolutely immune from being prosecuted for crimes he commits against the american people while in office. but judge merchan is all about business. he has put this gag order in place. he's expanded it. will donald trump violate it? of course he will, and the new york law provides that two things can happen if he is found to be in criminal contempt. one, he can be fined $1,000. big whoop for donald trump. but he can also be jailed for up to 30 days. i am not prepared to give up the ghost on donald trump never seeing the inside of a jail cell because there will have to be some punishment if he violates this gag order. >> and c

judge merchan, quote, have you spoken with mr. avenatti about what he means?h responded, no, of course not. to which judge merchan responded, then how can you interpret what he believes? this is coming down to a moment where this gag order and donald trump will be held in contempt for violating the gag order. we have nine more posts to go through. this is just post number one. >> vaughn hillyard, thank you for that update. let's bring back our legal panel. chuck, just a reaction to what we are hearing from the defense now as it is their turn in this gag order hearing. >> it is their turn and you're hearing what you would expect to hear, that it wasn't willful and that mr. trump has first amendment rights to speak, particularly during a political campaign. i don't find it terribly avowing. the fact he was only replying to mr. avenatti doesn't cut it for me. >> do you believe that avenatti is now the subject of the hearing, again? >> wouldn't it be nice if some people, not naming names, but just go away, but in any event, mr. trump isn't just responding to mr. a

judge merchan my other question is this is not a repost at all? mr. blanche, no. judge merchan no. this is something that was said on tv, and your client had to type it out. he had to sit there, use the quotation marks, the shift key, type everything out, then add those additional words. your argument that these are repost and therefore they are not a violation, that does not apply to exhibit 10, is it? mr. blanche, number 10 is not a repost, agreed. judge merchan, so what is your argument as to exhibit 10? >> is ambiguous whether this statement violates the gag order. the gag order sets donald trump is prohibited from making or directing others to make public statements about any prospective juror or any juror in this criminal proceeding. so donald trump cannot make any statement about a juror. no statement at all. that gag order warning could not be more clear. the defense lawyer insulted the intelligence of the judge and everyone there in the courtroom. when he then said "president trump is being careful with your honor's rules and-- the judge interrupted saying, you mr. blanche

so i think that process has worked very well for judge merchan.s a good thing that half of the jurors, that roughly 50 out of 100 say i'm out of here and that they self-select. that means the process is working. so it may take a little while. frankly, it's moving much faster than anybody would have expected, but it's marching along. also, one other thing i would say, two lawyers, yes, normally lawyers do not get on a jury, there's no exclusion, but normally one side or another strikes them, and the reason for that is maybe they're concerned that they might be too closely related to that practice. we're in manhattan, there are a lot of lawyers in manhattan. you're probably going to get a lawyer in the jury pool and ultimately, you know, you can't make generalizations based on the job. we have a couple of different people from different walks of life. got to go with your gut instinct more than you do generalizations about who people are, where they come from, what group they're in. >> we're out of time, carol, but let me ask you really quickly, judg

but after the issue of the six days from now, merchan's decision? >> merchan appears to be scheduling gag orders by the week and that may have been a wise choice because if you schedule them out a week or so, then you just roll together all the alleged violations because they're on an ongoing basis. but, since he hasn't decided on the first gag order violation hearing, that, of course, will govern how he rules in the future as to the next gag order hearing. but it may be the case that he has to just keep holding these, maybe once a week, for all the alleged violations. and the violations run the gamut, some you saw on the board, i can see both sides of saying david pecker is nice. i can see glen kirschner arguing nice is something you say in organized crime, to suggest you better testify the way we want you to testify. messing with witnesses is really delicate business. courts have to protect witnesses and jurors alike. but at the same time, every gag order implicates constitutional concerns and constitutional concerns that are crashing into each ot

judge juan merchan acknowledge the fines might not be enough to deter trump and warned more violations could result in jail time. >> judge merchan did exactly what should be done, and probably what was expected to be done. >> reporter: as court began for the first time, one of trump's children, eric trump, joined the former president. prosecutors played videos of trump weeks before the 2016 election, responding to allegations he sexually harassed women, concerned about how it could impact his chances of becoming president. >> i have no idea who these women are. the 5% of the people think it's true, and maybe 10% think -- we don't win. >> reporter: the focus then turned to keith davidson, an attorney who represented stormy daniels and karen mcdougal. both claimed they had sex with trump, which he denied. davidson first described bringing mcdougal's tail, which called a blockbuster story to the "national enquirer" an warned he would bring it elsewhere if they didn't quickly pay her. davidson also quit nomex as it was the "access hollywood" table where trump was caught saying he could gra

and that's why merchan sort of exploded and said mr.nche, you are losing all credibility with the court. this is a judge who lives and breathes the law. he wants to see evidence and legal citations at all times. and so what he was essentially asking blanche to do was direct me, for example, to posts that your client was responding to. you tell me that your client was responding to political attacks on him, direct me to the post that he's actually responding to. he asked blanche to do that eight or nine moved on to a ser of reposts. they're not directing others to make a statement and again, merchan was like, please, help me find the case law that supports your argument. at that point, blanche admitted there wasn't in. it was just a plain language reading of the gag order. that doesn't go over very well when the author of the gag order is the person you're making your argument to. presumably they understand what they meant by their words, maybe more so than the parties do. so it was not a good showing for team trump at all. and you could

. ♪ now, together the names bragg and merchan sound like a slip and fall fehrman. know the kind that lives off filing personal injury claims, workers' comp cases against alleged wrong doers. but, what we're learning today shows us that bragg and merchan should be the ones on the defensive here because both seem intent on inflicting harm. harm against trump. and harm against the faith that we are supposed to have in our justice system. now, if you are wondering why and are almost 250 year history we hadn't ever put a president or a former president on trial, the comments from dismissed jurors should answer the question. >> i couldn't be impartial. our job as a juror, right? is to be impartial. like to be unbiased. >> do you feel like the people that you were speaking with in that jury room that you sat with all day on tuesday, that they can put together a fair and impartial jury because of that sense of duty? do you think that's possible? >> i'm not sure about that. everybody has biases. and, you know, you know, stereotypes in their mind. so you have to be really, y

well, it clearly frustrated judge merchan responded, mr. blanche, you're losing all credibility with this court. the stakes are high, like we find to start, but could ultimately include jail time. prosecutors argue that trump's disobedience of the order is willful. it is intentional, he knows what he's not allowed to do, and he does it anyway. that's what chris conroy said. blanche says president trump does in fact know what the gag order allows him to do and not allow him to do and there was absolutely no willful violation of the gag order. back with us, vaughn hillyard, catherine christian and chuck rosenberg. so, catherine, how often, if at all, and, again, we're just reading it, we weren't in the courtroom, have you seen this kind of exchange, the judge, practically jumped off the page, he was frustrated. >> i've seen it. it doesn't happen a lot, but there are lawyers, usually on the defense side, who, you know, zealous advocates, they have to push the envelope. now, what you don't want as a lawyer, no matter which side you're on, is to

judge merchan's goal and job, quite frankly is to bring it to verdict.e are certain things that are, you know, bumps along the way, and this is one of them. he also wants to take his time to make sure he makes the right decision. the legislature did not give this judge or any of us a whole lot of options with respect to contempt. you can hold someone in contempt by fining them which probably doesn't mean a whole lot to donald trump. or you can send them to jail for a short period of time. that's going to complicate this and slow things down to get to the finish line. so while it appears there seems to be a series of violations by donald trump, certainly judge merchan is going to take his time to get it right and to keep this trial on track. >> you do make a good point. a thousand dollar fine to donald trump is not the same to a thousand dollar fine to most people in america. putting him in jail has implications far beyond what it would mean for a normal defendant who defied a judge's order. you have done more than a few high profile cases of your own. th

we are expecting to hear from juan merchan at 3:15, whether he'll keep that, we don't know.s, and i was speaking to folks, whether or not we thought the judge could delay the sandoval hearing. the hearing is expected to take an hour or so. if they're able to wrap that up, they would then be excused for the weekend and they would start proceedings monday morning, possibly opening arguments. i would say that the instinct that we have right now considering how the judge has run things so far this week, even with what has taken place today outside the courtroom and how horribly tragic it is, our instincts are telling us the judge will likely go forward with the sandoval hearing, even with all of this happening around the courthouse, and only because it seems as if he has wanted to move this trial along, knowing how long it's going to take inside of an election year. we thought the jury selection would take two weeks, it's only taking four days of full court. we're going to have to wait until 3:15 to find out exactly what's going to happen. i'm sure there's a lot of conversations

merchan is upset because donald trump was muttering in the

no court on wednesday because judge merchan has to do his other cases.ters out there. maybe one or two people that we have seen outside the courthouse. >> yeah. lawrence has been taking pictures of the -- >> we were joking about it. there's nobody there. >> the lack of people outside the courthouse. the trump supporters showed up when he told them to show up, and a lot of those people are still in jail. >> that's true. >> for january 6th. so i do think you can only tell your support toes show up so many times and if they're in jail, that's going to hurt. and that is a little surprising to me. the thing about the three older kids are they work for their dad or at least two of them do. i would think that -- why they don't show up in the courtroom is -- if it were my dad, i would be there. >> well, thank god your dad is not donald trump. >> that's right. very much not donald trump. >> thank gosh, excuse me. molly, thank you for being here. it's always good. >>> up next, there are new in yp criminal case. the mar-a-lago classified documents case. after this

and that's sort of the dynamic that's going on with merchan, and merchan knows that, too. and so the trick for him is to hold out the stick without actually hilting trump with it. incredible. >> and that is something -- we started this segment talking about the ways in which trump is running right up to the line. right-wing media is saying go get arrested, sit in a cell for six hours, it's not only going to be great for your grant, it's going to be great infund-raising. i think trump raised $5.6 million in the first week of the hush money trial, an average of $1 million a day. he knows where his bread and butter is coming from. >> it's so perverse all of a sudden these republicans care so deeply about the justice system. comparing trump's treatment to guantanamo bay prisoners. it's incredible to see how they're waking up all of a sudden to what it's actually like to be a criminal defendant. >> well, as it concerns one particular person who might face jail time. >> that's what this is about. they are worshipping their cult leader. >> why haven't we gotten a ruling from judg

but this morning judge merchan saying this individual has yet to arrive, so that fourth juror is not excused at this time, but there are questions about whether that juror will also continue to serve in this capacity so we could very well be down to five here at this point if, in fact, this juror is ultimately excused. >> as we turn to our legal analysts, vaughn, please stay with us. wave and let us know if you get new reporting as we're discussing what is going on with the jurors who have already been seated. barbara, this is drama before even trying to add people, we're losing people. what's your reaction to what happened with juror number two? >> yes, you know, two steps forward, one step back. it seemed like things were progressing quickly. this is very concerning, as the judge said there's a reason this is an anonymous jury. there is a desire to protect this jury from threats, intimidation, or even coercion by outside forces. but there has been so much detail reported about these jurors that it's probably not hard to figure out if you know something about them. they've been aske

judge merchan responding, i can't fault the people for that.p's lawyer says, what if i commit to the court and the people that president trump will not tweet about any witness. judge merchan, i don't think you can make that representation. carol, just how unusual is this? >> it's a little bit unusual for the following reasons. it's certainly unusual for a judge to suggest that the lawyer doesn't have complete client control, which is what judge merchan was saying, but i think that we have all seen that unfortunately that that is true, not to blame the defense attorneys, but donald trump does what donald trump wants to do. the courtesy of the telling the other side who the next witness or few witnesses are going to be, that is a courtesy that's generally extended because each party wants the other party to extend the same courtesy to them. in this case, the prosecution has said with what they believe to be violations of the gag order that have taken place, they're not going to extend that courtesy. that makes it tough for the defense in a couple

merchan declined the d.a.'s order to name the first witnesses and steinglass did not agree to do so. i was upset with the chronicles of the mafia and the means by which the italian state from a system destroyed by the mafia, we are not car bombs. but this idea that like you were fighting this battle to preserve the integrity against people trying essentially means outside the courtroom to destroy it. it's wild to be in that terrain. >> this is not car bombs but the mafia didn't have million crowd sourced army of millions of people out to docs people. >> it puts relief how common this is a theme of the trump era at every turn. we saw the full culmination on january 6. >> and e. jean carroll who he gets this judgment against him he is out there libelling her again basically the next day and it's only when he has this really significant fine that he in a second judgment that he finally, it takes real pain. otherwise we've seen again he will keep pushing and pushing and which limits he can push past. >> the dangers

i'll see you tomorrow morning said merchan. what are we learning about merchan, glenn? defendant is so dangerous that we have to ask for what are called protective orders, not all that unusual, but usually reserved for some of our nation's most violent offenders, what we do is we will ask the judge to direct the defense counsel not to provide information to the client. that gets a little dicey, but we use protective orders not infrequently, it sounds like judge merchan is not even willing to do that, and what i say is safety first. you know, the system needs to rise up and protect these witnesses. so as a courtesy, i absolutely agree. i would almost always give the defense notice of the order of call. that is who are the witnesses who we are expected to put on the stand tomorrow and the next day and the next day. it's the courteous thing to do, but safety first. so you know, and we continue for whatever reason nicolle, we're all talking about how fines won't mean anything to him. but you know, the law actually has a vehicle to hold a dangerous pretrial defendant account

judge merchan warned trump's lawyer that trump was muttering “in the direction of the juror”" saying,that. i will not have any jurors intimidated in this courtroom.” trump is charged with falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 hush money payment to porn star stormy daniels to conceal their alleged affair from voters before the 2016 election. that payment was made through trump's former lawyer and fixer michael cohen. trump denies the affair, and today, he insisted all he did was pay cohen's legal fees. >> i was paying a lawyer and marked it down as a legal expense. some accountant i didn't know marked it down as a legal expense. that's exactly what it was. and you get indicted over that? >> reporter: but prosecutors say trump knew exactly what the money was for, to pay off the porn star and fool american voters. >> david: so, let's get right back to aaron katersky outside the courthouse tonight. aaron, seven jurors seated. both sides agreeing on each of these jurors. they still have to select five more jurors for a jury of 12. and then, of course, select six alternates, as

in his several page order, judge merchan writes that donald trump willfully violated the orders, not only attacking potential witnesses, stormy daniels and michael cohen, but also by discussing the jury and the implication that to a certain extent there could have been individuals who were trying to make their way on to this jury in an effort to taint them. liberal activists that they were referred to. the judge determined that reposts by donald trump, some of those violations were in fact statements made by donald trump. and that he was not cloaked with some protection because he was simply reposting them, but by doing that act, he therefore was affirming the content of those very posts. and now this is notable. number one, 9:30 a.m. eastern time, this upcoming thursday, there is another hearing about potential other violations that the d.a.'s office alleges donald trump has violated. and as you noted, each fine was just $1,000 for each of the violations. and judge merchan in his order made it clear the court in the state of new york does not have the discretion to increase that fin

what you see today is how fair judge merchan is. the "access hollywood" tape scene, we all have seen that cannot be shown to the jury. he said it's presidential. however it can be read to the jury. he also said the deposition that was taken in the jean carroll case cannot be shown, too presidential. the sandoval hearing, the prosecutors are going to ask for prior bad acts. the general rule is anything beyond ten years is considered too remote. so if they ask for prior bad acts of donald trump beyond that, the judge will probably say, no, that's too remote. i don't know what the 13 bad acts are going to ask for. i doubt the judge is going to allow them to ask any questions about the three opening indictments. he of course has a fifth amendment right and there are three open indictments. they're not convictions. the civil fraud trial he should be -- donald trump could be cross examined not he was found liable of falsifying business records why? because he was charged with that here. but he might be liable in the fact the judge found h

number two, i i think more importantly judge merchan indicated he wanted to get started. it's day one. they already burned through an entire morning and part of the afternoon before the jury selection process even began. all indications were that judge merchan was thinking we've got all these people here, we need to get started. yes, there's a contempt hearing but let's do that next week. we've got to get to these jurors. and even with that kind of imperative, they really didn't get started until the mid-afternoon. they maybe got to questioning ten jurors. i mean that is not a lot. everyone who sat at jury selection last week even me they're not even working full beaks, they're taking days off. and we've seen this is moving slowly than i expected. procedurally you have all kinds of additional complexities including a defendant who has to be covered by a secret service detail whether he's in the jury room or going to the bathroom. >> if you could briefly address the sound we played at the top with trump complaining he's not going to be potentially go to his son's high scho

>> jose, early in the trial judge merchan gave trump something called parker warnings. that basically included the warning that although donald trump has a right to be present during his trial, he can waive that right if he engages in misconduct during the course of the trial. so, one thing that he could lose, if he continues to behave in a way that the judge finds not consistent with the administration of justice is to take him out of the courtroom and have the trial continue. i don't think he will do that on a first or a second offense. but that is certainly available to him. the other thing that is available to him is to hold him in contempt of court. again, we know that criminal contempt in new york city can include a punishment of up to 30 days in jail and some fines. i suspect that the sticks that judge merchan has available at his disposal include jail time and banning trump from the courtroom. he's hoping, however, that just the threat of using either of those will keep donald trump primarily in line. >> lisa, how would it actually physically be carried out if y

judge juan merchan explaining, "a fair juror is a person who has no bias or prejudice in favor of or against a party or witness." with trump watching from the defense table, more than half the potential jurors then raised their hand, signaling they could not be fair and impartial -- an unusually high number. those people immediately excused. one of them heard in the hallway saying, "i just couldn't do it." about a dozen other people were excused for other reasons. the ones that were left were then called to the jury box to answer one by one a seven-page questionnaire screening for bias. trump following along, holding the questionnaire in his hand. the judge excused one woman who answered yes to a question about whether she had strong opinions about trump that would interfere with her ability to be fair. a man who works at a bookstore said, "i believe that nobody is above the law, whether it be a former president, a sitting president, or a janitor." the judge allowed him to remain in the jury pool. but by the end of the day, not a single juror had been seated. >> it's a scam. it's a p

when judge merchan pressed mr. blanche on what specific attacks trump was responding to, blanche struggled to answer, which led the judge to say i've asked you eight or nine times to show me the exact posts that trump was responding to and you have been unable to do that even once. blanche's response, president trump trump has been very careful foocomply with your honor's rules. judge merchan, you mr. blanche, are losing all credibility, i have to tell you that right now. joining me the manhattan d.a. joyce, what are the implications of losing the confidence of the judge in like 48 hours? >> so, yeah, i mean it's never a good thing, right, alex? i think we're all trying to find different ways to express the fact this is the worst development for donald trump's lawyers this early in the trial, and their client has forced it upon them. if donald trump were a normal defendant, his lawyers would have taken him out of the courtroom, sat him down, and had a meeting with him where they would have said to him we cannot def

here in new york, judge merchan is getting blunt with donald trump.tinue violating the gag order and go to jail, he says. merchan ruled that nine of donald trump's social media posts stepped over the line, fining him $9,000. but also concedes that more needs to be on the table to deter someone of donald trump's wealth. defendant is hereby warned that the court will not tolerate continued willful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose incarceration. judge merchan will consider four more alleged violations thursday. first, there has been more testimony today. a banker is off the stand. now on the stand, another lesser known witness. first, it was the head of c-span's archives. now a man who produces court documents. eric trump is in the courtroom today. the first member of the trump family to make an appearance at this hush money trial. he is in the gallery just behind his father. vaughn hillyard joins me from outside the courthouse and catherine christian and former u.s. attorney ch

they were cited in front of juan merchan. that is why they have set the date of the hearing on tuesday to go over the violations and see what judge juan merchan says. if you find season held in contempt of court because he violated the gag order. i imagine and assume that prosecutors in the case will watch the rally incredibly close. you think about the timing of this. this is the first campaign rally happening after this trial is up and going before opening statements happen on monday. i imagine the former president is coming armed and ready to deliver not only part of his defense if he decides to take the stand but also likely to attack manhattan d.a.s office and their case here. >> the other hat you are wearing is being outside of the courtroom all week during the jury selection. what were some of the biggest takeaways for you with opening statements set for monday? >> reporter: emotion. many of the potential jurors understanding the gravity of the situation of the trial they were going to oversee and eventually decide the

merchan doesn't care.ignores those rules. >> steve: sounds like the trial will start in about 10 days. thank you for getting up early today. >> you bet. >> ainsley: u.s. border patrol agents arresting another 182 chinese citizens for illegally crossing our southern border on tuesday. this is part of a concerning increase of the chinese migrants encounters at our border. fox news contributor and former secretary of state plomp says the ccp is aware. >> absolutely certain, we know for sure that we don't have any idea who they are. not only are they mostly got-aways, but even the vetting that we are doing of them is just a handful of simple questions and then we release them more than are chinese nationals arrested at the southern border. that's more than 6,000% of an increase since president biden took office. now to some shocking video of a deadly elephant attack in af africa. massive wild animal charge ago group of tourists who were there on a safari. hey, hey, hey, hey. hey. hey. hey. six people were on b

the judge merchan just overruled that objection.tter understanding of how that scene played out. to the discussion that you were just having, what todd blanche is trying to paint donald trump as an unwitting actor here. somebody who was unaware of exactly how the ledger was being filled out, exactly what he was writing checks for and that michael cohen was not getting just reimbursed, he was getting paid because he was his long-time personal lawyer. he is trying to make the case that the ledger is much like a checkbook, and it's just a little denotation here, trying to make out donald trump to be a more sympathetic, unwitting actor in all of this, someone who is being unfairly indicted and charged and prosecuted and that the focus of the hush money payments in and of themselves and maybe salacious, but that in itself is not a crime. todd blanche here trying to make donald trump seem to the jury as somebody who is an innocent man who is being unfairly victimized. >> and vaughn, as you were speaking we're hearing that merchan the judg

it is a disgrace. >> during yesterday's hearing judge merchan pressed blanch. when he could not, the judge scolded him, saying he is losing credibility with the court. trump is allowed to criticize merchan and alvin bragg but not others connected to the case. prosecutors said trump broke the gag order when speaking about his former lawyer conan o'brien michael cohen. trump said we have a rigged judge working for democratic party and refuse to this case. judge merchan should immediately be removed. yesterday in court chris conroy said the d.a. office is not asking for jail time. they did note trump appears to be angling toward that. we'll see what judge merchan de decides. >> jacqui: we'll watch for that decision to come down. >> dana: donald trump and president biden clench ing respective primaries, biden took 90% in the closed primary. in gop race there were 100,000 voters casts ballots for nikki haley, who suspended her campaign last month. summer lee survived her primary against a centrist challenger. the match up is officially set. republican dave mccormack

we will see what judge juan merchan says .own the gauntlet and put him on notice. but, this is explicitly trained, it seems, as a provocation. >> melissa murray, the jury, this is his second public statement about the jury. very specific, specifically, clearly a violation of the gag order. >> 100%. i think judge juan merchan is presently interested here in securing the privacy and the safety of the jury. this is a civic duty, a public service. no one is asking to be here. they are doing their duty and he wants to keep them safe. this is going to be the place where he lowers the boom. this will not be tolerated going forward. >> andrew, the day began with judge juan merchan in his chambers with the lawyers from both sides and a juror , an alternate juror, one of the jurors who, over the weekend, got scared and thought this is more than i can take. made a call to the court saying i don't know if i can do this. the judge wanted to hear from that juror today. we have seen the transcript. so, completely understandable how this juro

where does that leave juan merchan? >> it leaves juan merchan in a very difficult situation because essentially right now he has to not only be a judge for what is going on in his courtroom, but there are expectations of him, nationwide. what i said to nicole yesterday, this is a massive collective action problem, where you have a problem that everyone can see, and it is happening from coast to coast or at least state to state. we have seen this happen, in georgia, in new york, in d.c. >> by the way, much of the rest of the world is watching as well. >> correct. and yet he is the one person right now who is in a position to do something about it. what is really tricky here is to the extent that he does do something about it, he then lends credence to the motion that trump wants to make now and said yesterday, he's going to try to make, to recuse judge merchan from the case, thereby postponing and indefinitely delaying this trial. i have confidence that if trump i have lat violates this order, there will be consequences.

judge juan merchan will rule on this monday and tuesday.is going to have a hearing because donald trump is still fighting his gag order and prosecutors want to hold trump in contempt for violating the gag order. let's start with the sandoval hearing, charles. what do you expect the judge to say? can you explain to folks who maybe didn't see you earlier this week, how run-of-the-mill normal this hearing is? i have heard people say, why does trump get to hear all the evidence about him to make a decision. people should know that is how the process is. >> we will go to law school for 30 seconds. with this case stood for is that you have to present any uncharged bad acts that you seek to question the defendant about should they take the stand. in this case, just like other cases, if you try cases in new york state, you will almost always have a sandoval hearing because you want to prepare the other side to know, if you put your guy on the stand, these are the things they will be subject to having to answer questions about. in many cases, it can

judge merchan told blanche to his face he was losing all correct. and here is my colleague with all the details. >> reporter: tonight, mr. trump's long time friend david the former publisher of the national enquirer offering the jury a rare glimpse into the underworld of tabloid tactics as they seek to show he covered his business records to pay off stormy daniels with hush money. says he agreed to serve as the eyes and ears for rumors that could hurt mr. trump adding what i would do is pub accomplish positive stories about trump and negative stories about his opponents. there was a series of glowing headlines about then president trump a. admitting today the enquirer made up a story linking cruz's father to the man who assassinated jfk and a completely untrue story about mr. trump fathering a child with his housekeeper so the doorman couldn't take the story elsewhere. the day began with the judge taking the defense team to task over mr. trump's post on social media. targeting cohen and stormy daniels. the state seeking to hold mr. trump in criminal

judge juan merchan will rule on the questions on monday. me now is hugo lowell with the guardian. he was in the courtroom this morning, and charles coleman, former brooklyn prosecutor and now legal analyst and host of the charles coleman podcast. good to have you both here. hugo, you first here. cameras were not allowed in the courtroom so we need you to give us a sense of what it was like inside and what stood out to you in this first wake? >> it was surreal with former president trump being the first former or current president to go to trial. it was a semiinal moment and the enormity of the moment was not lost on any in the courtroom, the reporters or the jurors when they filed in to the courthouse and effectively looked at trump, looked at the prosecution team and had to go through the voir dire process. to give a sense of how this worked, there was a pool of reporters in the courtroom and then everyone else was in an overflow courtroom. and next week when things get to trial, things will change. the entire press corps will be in the co

i think judge merchan is going to stay on the case.d, there is nothing substantively new that will change the outcome, and therefore this is an attempt at, number one, another delay but number two, controlling the narrative and the public to say, if i end up getting convicted, i had a biased judge, this was rigged from the start. but it's not going anywhere. >> given that judge merchan rejected trumps recusal request last year, why do you think he's doing it again? is it simply a delay tactic, or do you think they have a shot at creating or running enough water to get a recusal? >> for anyone who is paying attention it will not muddy the water. i think charles is right. this is an attempt to reach the public, and to say i'm innocent, and i can only be convicted because i have this unfair judge. there is no merit to it, and it also will not cause much delay. i can't imagine this being an appealable order, and the trial will start promptly in nine days. >> do you think it's a sign, charles, that donald trump is frightened by the beginnin

judge kaplan, judging goren, judge merchan, about the district attorney. he did not say a word about the witnesses. >> he's remove the offending posts and posts and i expect he'll pay the fines. so it'll be interesting to see what happens thursday morning, but i don't think judge marchand will be pushed to the wall on this interesting on trump's remarks after the trial today, i want to play a brief extra of what he said. listen to this order is not only munich, it's totally constitution totally unconstitutionally says, how do you respond to that? >> well first of all even the even a gag order that is unlawful is not to be contested by violating it you can appeal it. you can do all kinds of things which the defense attorneys already have. and the gag order has been upheld not only that, i'm confident that it would be upheld in the future, it's really quite limited as you can see, mr. trump is able to carry on about all kinds of things about the case about the gag order, about the judge, and all of that. and that's well within his rights. so his complaint ab

does judge merchan respond?straint on trump's constitutional rights. >> laura: mike, i have got say michael cohen should keep that little emoji hat on because he needs one of those little cap guns too when he does that put that hat up as a backup? that's the funniest thing i have ever seen. we are supposed to actually take him seriously. well, i can't get it big there all right, mike, great to see you. what's it going to take to be trump's v.p. one of the contenders rising on the list. he's with us next. ♪ >> laura: axios is reporting north dakota governor doug burgum is moving up the v.p. ladder. why? what do we know about him? since becoming governor of north dakota in 2016 he signed a six week abortion ban and enacted the largest tax cut in the state's history. before that a pretty successful businessman. he worked at microsoft as a senior vice president and founded a venture capital firm. he joins me now. governor, great to see you tonight. i'm going -- tough first question, gov, you are the governor of nort

as to the gag order, josÉ, judge merchan said he will reserve his judgment on whether donald trump hasted it and it's not his timeline on when he will make the determination if donald trump is find and he could warn donald trump that he could serve jail time. >> unbelievable, charles, and this is in the morning before the first witness takes the stand. how would you describe the morning? >> this is not the start you want if you are donald trump, and i have been talking to a number of us on the panel, and i am surprised that todd blanche did not have a better explanation and response for some of the questions that judge merchan has thrown at him. these are not complicated things. while i understand that you are primarily focussed on donald trump and his defense at trial, you have had several days to put together a plausible arguments as to why you should be able to win this hearing against the prosecution and their motion, and in the response that he was responding to stormy daniels, you could put together a few tweets if this was the answer that you planned to give. quite frankly, i am

what do you see as being the options for judge merchan here with trump? >> what we saw yesterday, sam stein, from the prosecution i think was an effort to dispel this notion this case was about hush money payments or book errors. this case was a criminal conspiracy to keep valuable information out of the hands of voters in an effort to cover it up. and the prosecution for their part, matthew, one of his super powers is able to explain complex legal matters in ways people can understand it. as for this direct question about judge merchan, i would say that this gag order -- what we know about gag orders i think the justice department right now -- the justice system right now is under a tremendous stress test, if you will. and to pass the stress test, what judge merchan, what everyone, all the judges need to do is treat donald trump just like they would every other criminal defendant. and so one of the options you laid them out well. financial penalties, stern talking to, or incarceration. i don't know know that the first step that judge merchan is going to

yes, judge merchan must be concerned for himself and his family. night, laura loomer, the instigator of the post about judge merchan's daughter, judge an goran's wife, but taking a step back from his family, one of the things he does in this order is connect the threats being made to the fear that would strike in the heart of any participant in this trial including potential jurors. he says the pattern of attacking family members of presenting jurors and attorneys serves no legitimate purpose. it merely injects fear in those assigned or called to participate in the proceedings that not only they, but their family members are fair game. and that is a fair thing to say. if you're a member of the jury pool here and you fear you might be selected, when you see donald trump go out and go after merchan's daughter and you know he's got a statutory right to your name, it's not too far a bridge to think that could be me, the people i love. >> this is one of the things i thought would be hard for any trial of donald trump is seating a jury because if those n

she's known judge merchan for more than 15 years. >> are you surprised, judge, that merchan has not already ruled on the gag order? no. i'm not. and i'll tell you why originally, when we first had these alleged violations, i thought it would be one and done and we'll be finished. but then while this is pending and he does a hearing to which the defendant is entitled. there was no summary summary violation here when the defendant persists and continues to decide he's seen seemingly violating the order. what's the point? what's the point of doing it? to rush it, think about it for a minute. the goal judge merchan's goal here is to make sure both sides get a fair trial and to get a verdict. and to do that without with as little incident and as much grace as possible. this hearing and these get this gag order violations or to a great extent, a sideshow there are plenty of people out there, maybe some at this table who want to get trump, no matter what, right? they want to see him in jail, or they want to see him held responsible for this, they want his blood. i get that judge merchan has not on