mr. weisselberg say in front of mr. trump how much you are going to be paid in total? it was going to be divided by 12 and its $35,000 a month and that they would actually start making the payments in february, not january, because there was a lot going on with mr. trump moving to d.c., the inauguration and so on. so was it stated did mr. weisselberg state in front of mr. trump you were going to receive $420,000 over the course of 12 months? yes. and what if, in anything, did mr. come say the time? he approved it. he also said this is going to be one heck of a ride in d.c. did mr. weisselberg say in front of mr. trump that those monthly payments would be, you know, like a retainer for legal services? yes. not to mention something before, but i wanted to question you about it. did you say something to the effect that you had a sense they had spoken about this previously? yes. why do you say that? because they always play that sort of game of frick and frack type game. i had been around that office more than enough to rea

mr. weisselberg? because mr. trump had previously directed me to speak to mr. weisselberg about getting this matter handled. hoffinger, why were you letting trump know you were in discussions with a.w. about this? cohen, because we are going to need money and open up the llc and resolve this issue. he was the chief financial officer and every penny that came in or out went through alan's office. true to your knowledge of trump world and do you think it could raise questions in the minds of juror where is this weisselberg character and why isn't he testifying? >> first of all, absolutely correct that through allen and his predecessors everything was run through them. it makes perfect sense that michael cohen would be talking about essentially how do we launder this money. the purpose of setting up the payments and labeling them as legal fees was to wander this payment. now, weisselberg is sitting in rikers island. he's gone to jail for trump twice. if the prosecutors don't call him, and it looks like they're not going to, that's a strategic decision that i think

mr. weisselberg say in front of mr. trump that the monthly payments would be, you know, like a retainer for legal services? >> yes. >> you mentions of the before and i want to question you. did you say something to the effect that you had a sense that spoken about this previously? >> yes. >> why do you say that? >> because they played that game of frick and phrack type game. i and around that office enough to realize the conversation had already taken place between the two. when i asked for the 420, mr. trump said no, it's better to do it over 12 months. >> trump defense counsel, objection to that it's and moved to strike. >> the judge, overruled. >> when allen weisselberg laid out the plan of how much you were going to get paid and over what months and showed mr. trump this document, did mr. trump try to renegotiate? >> no. >> so he approved the? >> yes. >> at some point, did mr. trump confirm he would give you the total personal attorney or personal counsel to the president? >> yes. >> when was that? >> around the sam

mr. weisselberg's say in front of you, mr. trump, that those monthly payments would be a retainer for legal services? michael cohen says, yes, he testified that donald trump approved of the scheme. that testimony, the end of yesterday today. today though, perhaps even more importantly, we are set for the cross that could begin in the next couple of hours with me. cnn's brynn gin grass, who has been in and out of this core for the last four weeks. this is such an important moment. >> yeah, because this michael cohen did exactly what the prosecution needed him to do. he tied everything together so far, any implicated the former president in this payment scheme, any did it in a very cool and collected way, right? the opposite of what jurors have been hearing about him, which other witnesses have said he's a jerk and he was very kohn walking through everything that he did on behalf of the president, according to him. now he said that he would always look for the president's approval. he would seek it. he wanted him to be happy wit

mr. weisselberg have more information about that? >> mr. weisselberg for sure about the entire discussions and negotiations prior to the election, and don junior would have cursory information. >> now here's another one. this one appears to be signed by donald trump. himself. is that his signature? >> that is donald trump's signature. >> so let me make sure i understand. donald trump wrote you a check out of his personal account while he was serving as president of the united states of america to reimburse you for hush money payments to miss clifford? is that what you are telling the american people today? >> yes, mr. chairman. >> one final question. the president claimed he knew nothing about these payments. his ethics filing said he owed nothing to you. based on your conversations with him, is there any doubt in your mind that president trump knew exactly what he was paying for? >> there is no doubt in my mind and i truly believe there is no doubt in the mind of the people of the united states of america. >> and these new documents appear

mr. weisselberg. so that you can speak to him and say, hey, are you going to plead the fifth outside the presence of the jury? of course. right. because of men, you're going to have the artery to come in from the defense, which is a look at allen weisselberg's not here why they had they could have called him to establish the case, did they not want to call him because he couldn't corroborate the liar michael cohen so it's going to be very interesting to note. and i think that the fence will ask for whether it's a missing witness charge or an uncalled witnesses charge, et cetera. it's going to he is subject to some dispute, not to get too inside baseball, but there's also a severance agreement that he signed before leaving the trump organization. prosecutors arguing that that agreements as he, you know, he can't disparage. so we can call him in light of this agreement, defense saying we don't want that agreement admitted to explain anything. so again, very technical, but at the end of the day, to your

mr. weisselberg chose not to testify. he is in prison for perjury because he is so close to mr. trump, that will be the jury's fair inference, and that's up to the jury to decide and respect that. but the one 30 i would repeat to lord, nobody can say that $130,000 was for legal fees unless the defense can say that and persuade the jury that $130,000 paid to stormy daniels to keep her quiet, was for legal fees. that's evidenced beyond a reasonable doubt, in my opinion donald trump's guilt. >> lady, was i don't suppose you've had a chance to speak with michael cohen at all about how he views the way he was characterized in this trial very, very briefly. >> no, i haven't i've deliberately left michel alone. it's been a very difficult time for him to hear the word liar, liar, liar, liar. when it says if he's the one that is on trial, i believe that the prosecution had it exactly right when they defense tried to turn this into a trial about michael cohen, whereas the fact is the fact is and it's an irrefutable fact that michael cohen is reading a book as a narrator confirming documen

mr. weisselberg to corroborate mr. cohen's story of what happened.s interesting, ana, in this case that the $130,000 was as a result of cohen getting a loan on his own, which he lied to his wife about. so there's a lot to work with here. >> okay. >> it has nothing to do with president trump being the defendant. if joe blow was the defendant i'd feel the same way. >> i hope you'll come back so we can continue this conversation after we see more -- >> i'd love to, thanks for having me. >> thank you so much, william brennan. appreciate you. >> thank you, ana. >>> up next on "ana cabrera reports," while the eyes of the world have been focused on tensions in the middle east, secretary blinken is on the ground in ukraine trying to dispel any doubts about u.s. support. support. we're still going for that nice catch. we're still going for that perfect pizza. and with higher stroke risk from afib not caused by a heart valve problem,... ...we're going for a better treatment than warfarin. eliquis. eliquis reduces stroke risk. and has less major bleeding. over

mr. weisselberg approved it. no. did you ever see a situation where he didn't sign checks? a look, decides i'm not going to give it my signature, and she said yes. >> that's critical because what you can't do now if you're donald trump's defense attorneys is say that, look, his signature had to go on everything so he became a rubber stamp for anything and everything in front of him. it's important to understand that now we're getting closer and closer to the actual legality. everything we have heard so far, it's been exciting and salacious. now talking about the actual crime, we're really getting to it. there's the falsification o. -- of the business records. donald trump can no longer say i was paying michael cohen for legal services. you're paying out of your own personal account. that was a big part of the it. it's going to come out as more documents are presented, and also the why, to conceal another crime, and that's also what the prosecution has been doing during the testimony of other witnesses and what it's been putting out. it will continue to do so to basically ex

mr. weisselberg. >> sandra: if we have something from turley that will begin an hour from now about the cross-examination he asked the question many of us are asking right how badly this cross-examination would be for michael cohen after lying to congress come up courts, banks, and everyone else he writes it will be bad is a reckoning of biblical proportions. can we get your last thought? >> i know he does tend to use matter for us like biblical proportions. in the ag trial it may have been nonbiblical but it was pretty severe by the trump attorney and cross-examination. what did the sitting judge right after that cross-examination that he found michael cohen credible. so whatever they sent him today if he answers calmly and directly the jury will get an impression that i believe judge and ron got. >> john: that's what we will be look forward to. >> thank you. spewing good to see you, thank you. day two of testimony for michael cohen in the new york versus trump trial as they condemn what they call a politically motivated case our laura ingraham has been watching the testimony directly and she will break

mr. brennan's point, where was allen weisselberg?here was keith schiller suddenly michael cohen didn't know well, did i speak to the former president and let them know what was going on or maybe i spoke to keith schiller about a 14 that was driving me crazy. built-in reasonable doubt they'll let me ask you at the possibility of a hung jury because all we know we know that all we need is one of these jurors to not believe that trump is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. >> what's the likelihood you think we'll see that? >> well, it's kind of a balancing test in my mind. i spent eight weeks and that particular courtroom in front of judge merchan with a lot of these same prosecutors in front of a manhattan jury because you only pick from the island of manhattan at least it's been my experience that's not a favorable forum for the former president. and having said that, i agree with randy, there's so much left unsaid by the prosecution in this case that you only need won bianna. if one juror can't get beyond a reasonable doubt this case w

mr. weisselberg is missing. although i think that's a far more complex and nuanced question.absence of evidence is something that can help the defense. >> and, chuck, blanche has gotten him to confirm that he surreptitiously recorded your client so tucked play a privileged recording between you and your client with a third party, that's what you did, right, that's correct. blanche, you certainly didn't tell president trump you were recording, did you. i did says cohen, you spoke about it in 2015 when president trump comes down the escalator. in june he announced you testified. you had a specific recollection about a meeting at trump tower with yourself, trump and pecker and discusses the "national enquirer" and how that could help president trump. correct, says cohen. the "national enquirer" is its placement in supermarkets but you never said that to the grand jury. blanche. >> you understand it's not ethical to record a conversation with your client. there's a lot of new york bar opinions on this. are they playing to the two lawyers on the jury? >> i think this to my michael

mr. weisselberg's san front or mr. trump, that those monthly payments would be, you know, like a retainer for legal services? the answer yes. so jen, those were answers. michael cohen said he approved it in yes. donald trump knew. randy says, if not enough, what's your view? >> well, i mean it is enough technically, but i do tend to agree that it would be much better if there were more detail around it. >> we'll see if prosecutors go back to it to kind of put more meat on the bone sometimes when you get a chance to read the transcript afterwards, you decide that you do want to go back to something. >> i do agree. it would be better and play better if it said, what did he say? what did you say? and he could put a little bit more meat on it, right? like he said. okay. sounds good or works for me. are something that is little bit closer to actual words as opposed to just michael cohen's interpretation of those words. so i think technically they're there, but i don't disagree that it would be better if they got a little bi

mr. weisselberg, was a risk to both sides.he wasn't a risk to both sides, one of the sides would have called him. i have gone around and around with friends of mine, former prosecutors and defense attorneys. we are a bit puzzled, but we have arrived at the conclusion that it was too unpredictable. if it was predictable, someone would have called him. >> katy tur, we have to let you go back. as we are hearing from inside the courtroom, that the jury shows no reaction, let me ask you about your observations of donald trump. were there times when, as some of our folks who are inside the courtroom seem to suggest, that todd blanche made statements that seemed to be playing to the client? >> i mean, he talked about how donald trump was the former president a lot. he mentioned his time in the white house, trying to both placate his client but put in the jury's mind that this is not a normal defendant. the weight of the decision on their shoulders to potentially make donald trump the first former president to be convicted of a crime,

mr. weisselberg came up with that scheme, does that say that donald trump approved or knew of that schemewilliam: cohen says right after the meeting with weisselberg that he and weisselberg went into trump's office with that document, and cohen said it seemed to him like the two had already discussed the plan because trump seemed familiar with the details. but they went over all the details again, how cohen would get repaid in monthly payments plus a bonus, plus some money he owed to a technical services firm, and that in that process, cohen says trump clearly knew what was going on here at approved of the entire planet. this is the essence of the argument, that prosecutors alleged that they falsified these documents to pretend this was all legal fees to michael cohen, because they were trying to cover up that they were hush-money payments. amna: what about tomorrow? what should we expect? william: we are supposed to hear more from michael cohen. there is a more direct examination of him by the prosecutors, and did the cross-examination begins. you and i have discussed this is where micha

mr. weisselberg's written directions on the document. >> and the one that says gross.ch explains why he's paying more than 130,000. >> how far do these two documents go. >> i don't know that any single document proves the case. you have to look at them in their totality. when you see the invoices, the checks, the ledger entries. right, and couple that with the testimony of the various people who handle these documents, i think they will tell the story. they don't tell you that mr. trump, in and of himself, they don't tell you mr. trump ordered this or knew of it. that's where you need michael cohen. >> and they complete the puzzle, that's what the prosecution will argue. one piece of the evidence that needs proof beyond a reasonable doubt of guilt. >> i started as a white collar prosecutor. i'm trying to think of a case in which i had a smoking gun document. i had helpful documents corroborated by testimony. in their totality they moved my case. the notion that you have a single document that sort of does everything for you, those cases tend to plead. >> a thank you no

mr. weisselberg's state in front of mr. trump, you are going to receive $420,000 over the course of 12 months, cohen? yes. hoffinger. and what, if anything, did mr. trump's say at the time? cohen says he approved it and he also said this is going to be one heck of a ride in dc question from hoffinger. and did missile weisselberg say in front of mr. trump that those monthly payments would be, you know, like a retainer for legal services michael cohen says, yes so why or coates is that the most critical testimony from the de well, because we're talking about 34 counts of falsified business records the order is not whether there was an affair or whether the allegations were true about either karen mcdougal are certainly daniel's is about whether or not they intentionally falsified records to suggest that this was more than what mcconney we talked two batches, simple dropdown menu or options were this i had to put legal services down. it was an intentional act. he is alleging, of course, you're talking about always sober and co

mr. weisselberg or anyone else's -- or dylan howard's presence. they are not to speculate.etimes that happens. there's a witness who is not there. neither side can say the reason is x. the judge tells the jury, don't speculate why that person hasn't testified. >> karen mcdougal is another potential witness who is not going to be called by the prosecution. thank you. stand by. we will check back. >>> up next, the politics of the hush money trial for former president trump and president biden. we are back in 90 seconds. you are watching msnbc. to happ. you have to make it. and if you want a successful business, all it takes is an idea, and now becomes the future where you grew a dream into a reality. the all new godaddy airo. put your business online in minutes with the power of ai. i told myself i was ok with my moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. with my psoriatic arthritis symptoms. but just ok isn't ok. and i was done settling. if you still have symptoms after a tnf blocker like humira or enbrel, rinvoq is different and may help. rinvoq is a once-daily pill

mr. weisselberg isn't going to be testifying, i understand.ut i think they're anxious for the cross because if you're on the other side, obviously you're looking to get under his skin, and i hope from the defense, excuse me, from the prosecution's perspective, they're going to get ahead of that and handle that before he goes for cross by the defense because we haven't seen the michael cohen today that we're seeing, you know, on his tweets, et cetera. and i think that he could lose a lot of credibility with the jurors if he doesn't handle cross-examination well, and there's so many questions they could ask him to do damage to him. >> and i think here's some context about why they were reaching out to michael cohen to go on an evening cable show to talk about things that involve the campaign and donald trump because that morning, our friend and colleague, tom llamas was interviewing donald trump on a different network at the time, and asked, have you crossed the line in the past with women ever, and donald trump, the candidate, said on october 1

mr. weisselberg's did he have any understanding that those checks were for legal fees or were they for reimbursements? and we know from the weisselberg handwriting, as i've said to you before that document, the jury is going to look at and say, wait a minute, this is about the math stupid. he took four 20 divided by 12 and got to $35,000 a month that he paid michael cohen. if the jury believes that he lied when he said they were legal fees and they were really reimbursements, it doesn't matter what kind of charges are played or attacked. michael cohen has to take. this is about evidence against the man was indicted, and it will be up to the jury today. >> decide the $60,000, though that he stole from the trump organization was part of the overall payment at issue in this whole case, the $420,000 reimbursement which allegedly included covering the payments to stormy daniels, how problematic lanny is that? but you just proved my point. >> do you notice in your sentence and in any sense in the weisselberg document, the word legal fees don't appear where you didn't mention legal fees, you did mention exp

mr. weisselberg and you brought the statement from you and a.w.? cohen, yes, sir. so that is, it appears, now the heart of the case. they're finally getting to that point. it does still feel to me reading it, which, again, it's not complete. this transcript is rough notes coming from our reporters. at the same time it's a little like, okay, where is he going with this. >> danny, back to you, thinking about the issue you brought up a second ago, but now talking about folks' inability to recall. how do you, as a defense attorney, differentiate between someone's inability to recall and someone who may be lying? >> because, simply stating i don't recall, that can be proven at least -- if not false, it can be proven unlikely. a lot of folks think i can come to court and say i don't remember and then i'm off the hook. all good. not always. sometimes through circumstantial evidence you can show that someone's memory loss is just not credible. so to some degree that's happening with cohen. notice on direct, total recall to all the questions the prosecutors asked. i do this

mr. weisselberg's being missing current michael cohen course as a slew of social media posts, insulting dominant donald trump. >> some of them and rather crude and personal terms, you're reporting that the defense will likely point to these social media posts is the prosecution going to try to get ahead of that in some way or have they at all did they at all today in court that's a good question. >> they haven't today, but i would expect they would realize we're only at say early 20 2017 here so the prosecution is still has a ways to go. but yes, i think what we saw with stormy daniel's is the prosecution raised some of those social media posts before cross-examination, and i think because we can expect a similar thing with cohen and cross, that they'll go after just all these sort of names. he's called trump, the crude post, the tic videos the podcast, and the books that this will especially ones cross start. so this will be a major the line of questioning. >> michael, did you hear anything from michael cohen today that you expect the defense to seize on when it's their turn for cross? yeah. i

mr. weisselberg says emil bove, again, for the defense has never been on the government witness list, and then to try to get around it and try to add him to the witness list, they're obviously not happy about that. juan merchan says i don't see how one thing has to do with the other. this is done with some frequency. the only way to know is to put him on the stand without the jury under oath. emil bove, we were entitled to notice of that long before the trial started. merchan asks, you didn't think that was a possibility? not based on the witness list, no. but what is the truth here in a trial about witnesses coming in that maybe weren't or not original witness list? >> there's no rule that you can't call a witness that hasn't previously been on the witness list, if there's prejudice to the otherwise with late notice, the judge may say i'm going to give you a slight delay so you can prepare for this if necessary. it's been pretty clear to everybody involved that allen weisselbergs after critical figure in this whole story. part of the reason prosecutors have repeatedly charged weisselberg

mr. weisselberg it was no abuse and what happened with president trump and that you were not a victim. daniels, yes. and this is what you were saying in 2018, right? daniels, yes. necheles, and you said the worst that trump had done was break promises you never believed he would fulfill. necheles continues, trump offered to buy you a condo in tampa and feature you as a contestant for "celebrity apprentice." you said the worst thing he did was not put you on "celebrity apprentice," right? i said the worst thing he did was lie. and then necheles continues, you didn't say anything about feeling faint. so, you know, what strikes me about this is this idea that she had -- maybe had some kind of intimidation by donald trump, kind of was presented during the direct testimony the other day and i had spoken -- we spoke with some other legal analysts who said that could be kind of a hairy area for the prosecution, because donald trump is not accused of sexual assault in this trial. those charges are much more serious. the fact that the defense is revisiting this with daniels and the fact that sh

mr. weisselberg told you that was being gross up because you're in a 50% tax bracket.idn't claim that on your taxes, did you. that's when the objection was created. objection sustained. blanche then asks for a bench meeting, which is currently underway. vaughn hillyard, a lot of this. again, we've been hearing it over and over again. is a repetitious need to establish the inconsistencies with cohen's testimony and actions. >> right. and again, we are back at the compensation michael cohen from donald trump here. so we keep going back to some of these pieces here and i just want to underline when we came into today, the defense for donald trump indicated to judge merchan they only had about an hour of cross-examination left, yet we are about halfway through our number three now and we could very well hit the lunch break in cross-examination continuing here. for michael cohen, it was interesting. danny was just talking about his response to his journey being directly connected to donald trump. it was very reminiscent of what stormy daniels said under cross-examination fr

mr. weisselberg were available and truthful and cooperative. apparently none of those things are true. the government would have to be very careful about immunizing someone like him and probably thinks that they have other ways to prove the documents at issue in this case, the assistant bookkeeper, rebecca manochio is one such way. this is what they need to prove. stormy daniels was important for some context and little else, and again, i agree completely with renato. i thought the cross examination of stormy daniels was a long walk through dry sand, if anything it only enabled her to tell her story over and over and over and may have made her more sympathetic to the jury. >> but, chuck, i know it's hard to imagine how these jurors are responding. we're not seeing them, and those of us not in the courtroom are not seeing the reactions, but how attentive to bookkeeping and these kinds of very dry, you know, this dry testimony from a witness who was a junior bookkeeper sending checks through fedex to the white house, how hard is it to establish the importance of that to the jurors who ha

mr. weisselberg not testifying undermine the prosecution's case at all. >> well, i do think that's gonna be a big theme of the defense summation. i expect the defense to say, where's the man who really knows? obviously the the de was afraid to call him the de didn't call him. the de has a burden of proof here. the da should have called them, by the way, when i say de, people people should have called this witness. so i expect they're really going to hammer on that missing witness idea. absolutely. >> what do you think of the case so far? do you think the prosecution has met the burden and proved that not only was worthies, business records false, but it was done in issue in the service of a different crime, hiding information from the public, election interference. >> now that is exactly the right question. so i think the misdemeanor of of business records has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt. the felonies a little tougher because you have to say that trump knowingly and willfully intended to violate the election law of the state of new york by unlawful means. and the unlawful mea

mr. weisselberg's state in front of mr. trump that you were going to receive $420,000 over the course of 12 months cohen responded, yes. and then the dis and what, if anything, did mr. trump say that time? michael cohen said he approved it, so jake, that is the most important piece of testimony that we heard yesterday michael cohen link donald trump directly to the payment and to the cover up the reimbursement. so when michael cohen picks up today, i think we're going to hear more about that testimony and count on the defense team going back there during cross-examination probably later today, jake interesting stuff. >> elie honig, thanks so much. come join us at the panel here and let's talk about this with our panel. first of all, let me start to him again, go with you reportable vips there today include the house speaker, and we should know he's not the speaker of the republican party. he's the speaker of the entire house of representatives , democrats and republicans. and yet he is, he is there to support president trum

mr. weisselberger. he add up a lot of numbers and donald trump as a sitting president of the united states wrote checks for $35,000, signed from his personal checking account. an that is an issue whether he therefore has responsibility for falsely claiming when you round up all the numbers including the $130,000 of hush money to $420,000, and you divide by 12. there was no possibility that was for legal services. it was reimbursement as rudy giuliani called it. that was the second issue. was there legal expenses and did trump know they were falsely booked. and he doesn't have to be there to write down the number. he knew that it was falsely booked because he miscalled them legal expenses when he knew perfectly well, you don't take a round number and divide by 12 and weisselberger's confirmed handwrites. whatever the cross does in attacking michael and fellow panelists attacking michael as a liar, he lied for donald trump. no excuses. he said i'm ashamed and i was sitting behind him in that shot. that is

mr. trump actually left for washington, is that right? answer correct. did allen weisselberg have within this document, people's exhibit 35? he did. did he show this document to mr. trump? yes. michael cohen testifying for the first time that just before leaving to be inaugurated as president of the united states, donald trump reviewed the smoking gun document that laid out the crime. he then talked in detail about the crime with his cfo and with michael cohen and he said, "do it." he approved it. so, if there's anything in this case that is in just plainly black letter proven by the documents and records, if there's anything else that we've been waiting for in testimony from witnesses, this is probably it, right? it certainly wasn't all, there is a lot to say about what happened today, but let's start there. lawrence o'donnell, you were there today. >> the one other wizard we got that is sequential here and important is donald trump at the time in october of 2016, the final days of the president campaign, directing michael cohen to make the payment to stormy daniels. he said

mr. weisselberg's notes where it's grossed up to $360,000, is that double $180,000? yes.t's the hush money payment. what possible -- just tell me what the strategy is to try to -- i feel like we have spent so much time on the strategy of impeaching cohen as a character witness. how do you impeach these checks? >> you can't impeach the documents. that's what makes the documents the star witness. mcconney, tarasoff, they are local color to explain why the documents are important. they will distance donald trump from them. you saw this a little bit with the cross examination of mcconney. it's weisselberg who is telling you to do this. he is the one directing the plus up. he is the one who is trying to compensate for the fact that michael cohen isn't going to be made whole if he gets paid $130,000. he actually took $130,000 out of his own pocket and needs to be made whole. they are trying to put distance between donald trump and that's the length of allen weisselberg. you will see over and over in the cross-examination of these witnesses, who are critical for making these doc

mr. weisselberg? mike many cohen no, doubt. do you have any doubt that mr. i have no doubt. would you have made that payment without mr. trump's sign-off? no. on this matter of the 24th phone call being muddied up, one way that he succeeded was in sort of convincing us in the moment that you couldn't talk about two things in 90 seconds. i may be in the minority, but i checked my -- i don't have a call in my log longer than about 2 1/2 minutes. i'm a working mom. so most people may be kinder than me and stay on the phone longer. but i don't talk about less than 11 things in those 2 1/2 minutes usually. why was that so damaging and do you think they successfully got this part of the case back on track? >> she 100% got it back on track. her redirect was phenomenal. i mean, it was as yasmin said surgical. we had just been treated to an entire morning of kind of more long meandering questions on cross where you're not even sure where the line of questioning is going. you can kind of guess but he doesn't really close the loop. and then came susan hoffinger point b

mr. weisselberg's absence from this trial is a very common, so exactly. so the defense is going to have a field day with this. they're going to say no weisselberg crucial player. they didn't call them prosecutors want to be able to say, but here's why. and one of the things by showing the severance agreement, they want to say essentially the trump oregon donald trump have paid this guy a huge amount of money is severance and that's why he remains loyal to them and that sort of ways into the decision not to call them one other thing to note is ely's right. >> you don't the defense doesn't have to put on any witnesses. they don't have to cross-examine witnesses. they don't have to open. they don't have to do anything. and it's always the prosecution's burden. however, if they choose to put on a defense and they choose to put on witnesses, the prosecution can make the argument. they chose not to call out and weisselberg and you can hold that against them, mr. weisselberg is in prison right now and not available to anyone. beauvais says, as they haggle over th

mr. weisselberg stated this $420,000 was to be paid to cohen over 12 months.nald trump say in response? susan hoffinger is asking, cohen said he approved it and added, this is going to be one heck of a ride in d.c. went on to continue by being clear that allen weisselberg with donald trump in the room directed michael cohen to send a monthly invoice. so that is where we leave off today. tomorrow morning we could expect to get to that february, 2017, white house meeting where michael cohen has publicly said he went to the oval office to talk with donald trump about actually getting that first check because, again, one of the lines, the themes here, closing months and weeks, was frustrations over not getting that reimbursement. that's where we expect to pick up tomorrow morning. >> and sue, for our viewers to know while vaughn was giving us his reporting there, we had a picture up for a few seconds of trump, he is speaking outside the courthouse. we are monitoring it so you don't have to. so far i'm not hearing any news -- >> a great line. >> if it has, we will

mr. allen weisselberg the cfo closest to donald trump, not testifying wrote on a piece of paper. the number $130,000 times two so that the income taxes would make michael cohen hole had the number one 30 times to his two 60 he added up to other numbers that were owed to michael cohen for a total of $210,000 multiplied by two divided by 12 months equals $35,000. there's no way those were legal fees. those numbers are corroborated by other witnesses as to why he was paid. and we have allen weisselberg speaking with authenticated handwriting. and we don't eat michael cohen's testimony. >> well, but what about this phone call? i mean, did he lie to the did michael cohen lied to the jury about the phone call where he said that he told donald trump about stormy daniels, but actually the text messages show that he was concerned about a pranking teenager. >> well, first of all, the phone call has nothing to do with the document that says donald trump didn't eat less very relevant to whether or not donald trump knew because right now we're talking about allen weisselberg. another it is no

mr. weisselberg about the retainer agreement and the fact that there would not be what and the fact that there would not be one all took place in the meeting you had along the meeting? and with trump, blanche asked, yes, sir. i said cohen, if you would have had one, would you have had one between you and your client plan to ask? correct. says cohen, who would that have been blanche asked mr. trump, cohen said blanche is now showing emails to cohen from allen weisselberg on january 31, with the subject note and mortgage modification agreement for trump park avenue condom minium. thank you. weisselberg says to him, you never stopped on for stop by for a bro hug. anyway, please. anyway, please prepare the agreement discuss so we can pay you monthly weisselberg rights. blanche pulls up an email from weisselberg to jeff mcconney that is the his right-hand man, weisselberg, right-hand man, that laura was just talking about noting that the checks were signed off by donald trump junior and eric trump asking why they signed and not trump because they were the trustees, cohen said blanche confirme

mr. trump's guilt had already been corroborate and proven through other witnesses include exhibits, through allen weisselberg's notes on the actual documents that were actually the bank records that michael cohen had. the notes about how the repayment would be made. all of these things. so i think that is going to be very, very important for them. the defense on the other hand is going to hammer michael cohen's credibility and try to suggest that michael cohen was acting completely independently to the extent there was a conspiracy here, it was a conspiracy between michael cohen and david pecker and, you know, keith davidson, but not donald trump. >> the michael cohen acting

mr. weisselberg's is not going to give favorable information to the people.his is a man who went to jail rather than cooperate with them. so then the question becomes whether the people would make that request and they can't really write the defendant has no burden. so i don't know that he will say much about it. certainly there will not be a standard missing witness charge as a result of that. it's not appropriate here. >> judge joel kahn visor, great to get your perspective. thanks for being with us thank you coming up, it is primary de in both fulton county or rather in georgia. i should say. and both fulton county district attorney fani willis and judge scott mcafee are now up for reelection. we'll discuss the impact this could have on the state's election subversion case against the former president. >> and some and 18 other co-defendants. when we come back every weekday morning, cnn five things has what? >> you need to get going with your day. it's the five essential stories of the morning in five minutes or less. >> cnn's five things with kate bolduan

mr. trump and allen weisselberg frick and frack. they did everything together. there was nothing that was a surprise. they would pretent. it was bad acting. it was acting 101 where allen would come in and say, donald, we're going to pay michael in 12. oh, yeah, yeah, that's a great idea. as if he didn't already know what was going on. the concept of grossing it up was in order for me to take it as income, which i did, and i paid my taxes on my 50%, right, city, state, and federal tax. that's what -- that's how they wanted me to do it, so i said, okay. that's what i did. >> lawrence o'donnell is standing by and wants to ask you a question. lawrence, let me throw it to you. >> michael, thank you. >> lawrence, are you going to go through my entire life history too? because i'm a new yorker as well. >> exactly. well, you know, michael, i have to say, on that point after your first day of testimony, one of the things that i said on the show that night was that the michael cohen that i saw in the courtroom that day every new yorker knows that guy. every new yorker kno

key issue is, for the defense, they have to figure out an argument for how is it that allen weisselberg and mrinvolved in this scheme. there is no question about that. you can't argue that they weren't. they have to say that they kept it from donald trump, where they had nothing to gain, everything to lose. donald trump has already said that he admits that he paid the reimbursement to michael cohen and if you were going to try to do that scheme, remember, the way that it gets carried out, donald trump has to sign the checks. so you are saying i'm going to not tell him, try to carry this out for a year and keep him in the dark, but for a year he is going to sign checks not for $130,000, but $260,000 for someone who was a micromanager and a penny pincher, which is also a given in the trial. he is proud of being a hands-on person and sort of counting every single penny and you are thinking they were not going to tell him. so i just think that is a very hard thing to get a jury to believe when they are going to be instructed to use common sense. >> tim, we have all seen a flawlessly attentive jury

mr. weisselberg is in there but i don't think it's that consequential. i think the prosecution has done a very good job of laying out the facts of the case, and also a very good job of explaining where the trip wires are in terms of how you pass into criminality. so i don't think you necessarily need allen weisselberg to be there, but you're right. he's decided to serve time in jail rather than give testimony, and he's entitled to do that. >> do you does it make sense? you kinda the loyalty that michael cohen had to donald trump for so long. i mean, i mean, from his own testimony, he was bullying. he was you know, it's growing over a lot of people on behalf. the direction of donald trump and when trump would all to kinda get the praise of donald trump, according to cohen's testimony does that make sense to you? that's kind of loyalty to a guy like down from who clearly doesn't show much loyalty to anybody else. >> well, listen, it doesn't make sense to me and it wouldn't make sense to you, anderson, but i think there's a big underlying lesson in this. do

mr. trump reimbursing him for paying off stormy daniels, an arrangement developed by trump organization cfo allen weisselberg months earlier. i was sitting with president trump and he asked me if i was okay. he asked me if i needed money, and i said no, all good. he said because i can get a check. i said no, i'm okay. he said all right, make sure you deal with allen, cohen testifying. later saying he was frightened when the fbi raided his home and office in 2018, saying mr. trump told him, "don't worry, i'm the president of the united states. stay tough" which cohen took to mean don't flip. but cohen says he turned against mr. trump after consulting with his family. "my wife, my daughter, my son all said to me we're supposed to be your first loyalty." cohen has been disbarred and convicted of lying under oath. and tonight the defense zeroing in on his motives. trump attorney blanche asking cohen if he was motivated by fame. cohen suggesting that's not fair to say. blanche then quoting this excerpt from cohen's book, quote, i wanted it all, power, the good life, public acclaim, fame. "those are my words," coh

mr. trump and allen weisselberg frick and phrack. they did everything together. there was nothing that was a surprise. it was like bad acting. acting 101 where alan would come in and say we are going to pay michael. that's a great idea. as if he didn't already know what was going on. the concept of grossing it up, which i did and i paid my taxes on 50%, city, state, and federal tax. that is how they wanted me to do it, so i said okay. >> lawrence o'donnell is standing by and wants to ask you a question. let me throw it to you. >> michael, thank you. >> lawrence are you going to go through my entire life history, too? because i am a new yorker as well. >> exactly. michael, i have to say on that point, after your first day of testimony one of the things i said on that show was that the michael cohen i saw in the courtroom that day, every new yorker knows that guy. there is a guy like that to lives in all of our buildings. we all know that guy. i want to emphasize this for the audience. i have a question about what people think was the most dramatic part of the cros

mr. weisselberg who hatched this plan and donald trump's simply sign checks and was none the wiser so far. >> he's done some of that. has he completely succeeded? i don't know. >> there's something that michael cohen keeps saying. >> it sounds every time he gets hit with an alleged lie from the past, he says things like it sounds like something i would have said right? so he's kind of adopting it without really saying, yeah, i said it i mean, i would hit hard on that if i were todd blanche, i'd say, well, if he said it sounds like something, i would have said i would've said, well, di would just keep pushing him until he either s cool or admitt or backs off and right now, judge, i mean, that's a great great point because that is michael cohen is kind of admitting it without acknowledging that he he did make that comment. >> we'll see i'll todd blanche handles it today, but right now, there's a pretty lengthy sidebar going on its own, 9402 and right now, susan necheles is sitting the defense table, one of trump's attorneys chatting with him. the others are up there speaking with the judge

. >> go meet with go meet up with allen weisselberg and figure this whole thing out following that conversation with mrump, did you in fact, of some discussions with allen weisselberg about trying yet to figure out about how the payment would be made? yes. >> and what and substance did you discuss with weisselberg and the different options well that i had the opening of the company all set up. >> now it just needed to be funded to which weisselberg turned and said, can we get ami to pay it? i said no they've already expressed to me they're not paying it. they said we need to come up with a way of how to fund it. i said, we need to do it immediately at some point. >> did you have a conversation with mr. trump about the fact that you are willing to pay for it, at least initially yes. allen and i spoke to mr. trump. >> we expressed to him that i was going to front the money for it to which he was appreciative and good good. >> did you have a sense from mr. trump that you would end up being out the money or you would get actually paid back he stated about it. don't worry about it. you will get the money ba