todd blanche has not proved that. todd blanche has not asked a single question about the money michael cohen received, for which michael cohen says he did absolutely no work and that it was, indeed, payback for which michael cohen has provided allen weisselberg's handwritten notes. calculating the payback. so the essence of the charges in this case have not been touched by todd blanche is cross-examination yet. this is a case of falsification of 34 business records, which were falsified as part of a conspiracy to illegally affect an election. donald trump's handwriting is on 11 of those false business records. the 11 checks made out to michael cohen. there is nothing in cross- examination that is going to get donald trump's signature off of those checks. 12 other falsified business records according to the indictment are ledger entries in the trump bookkeeping system. no, donald trump did not personally make those ledger entries in the bookkeeping system. the bookkeepers who made those entries have testified about how

there were other moments todd blanche had that are perplexing. he said something to michael cohen about karen mcdougal that undermines one of the pillars of the defense. karen mcdougal was the playboy model who had a long-term affair with donald trump, and her story was then suppressed by the national enquirer on behalf of donald trump during the presidential campaign, and the national enquirer paid her $150,000 for her rights to that story so the national enquirer could kill that story. todd blanche actually said to michael cohen that donald trump "didn't think this story would hurt him." what about his wife? their position is that whatever donald trump did in relation to karen mcdougal or stormy daniels was all about protecting the feelings of his wife, not his campaign. but, todd blanche said in court that donald trump did not think the karen mcdougal story would hurt him. why? because his wife wouldn't care? because she knows this is what her husband is up to all the time? and at 3:43 today just before the end of michael cohen's testimony, to

todd blanche says, the public was aware of them. this is because of the 2011 story that in touch magazine did about stormy daniel's blanche's that because the story is already out there in 2011. it wasn't election interference and did not cause panic and the trump campaign, the public was aware of them. so again, the idea that when ms daniels surface in 2016 to cause some sort of panic amongst everybody is not true. it's just not true blanche refreshes the jury on text messages. they saw between dylan howard, that's the editor in chief of the national enquirer. and then stormy daniels manager gina rodriguez, about selling the trump story in april 2016. if there really was a catch and kill conspiratorial relationship, blanche asks, then why did everybody ignore the story in april? why did it not go anywhere for months and months and months? blanche says you didn't hear from dylan howard and you did not here from gina rodriguez so really it's speculation. daniels and rodriguez were more aggressively trying to sell her story. bland says

the same on his hands with the prosecution summation and you should expect various objections by todd blanche because it is a way, remember, todd doesn't get to do a rebuttal. so, by objecting, i would expect that we're going to hear those objections as a way to try to remind the jurors that todd may have a response to what is being said. so, it may be a bit of a bumpy afternoon. >> and, andrew, when you're the prosecution, what kind of -- well, do you change your closing? in some parts you do, but you change the way you open to try to deal with some of these problems right up front, some of the things the defense brought up? >> you know, in some circumstances, you would, but, andrea, the one thing, again, i think this comes from, like, chuck and i have heard so many of these types of arguments, the one thing i was struck by, there was nothing that i heard that was sort of unexpected or unplanned for. and so i just don't expect that this is going to throw josh steinglass, who is extremely experienced, he's done far more jury addresses than i ever have, i don't think he'll be changing anything

worse for todd blanche? donald trump found a way to make it worse today. donald trump went out in the hallway at the end of the day and in effect ridiculed todd blanche's defense of donald trump's violations of the gag order. apparently todd blanche had no intention of even addressing the worst violation of the gag order presented by the prosecutors, which was donald trump's comments and attacks against the jury who he accuses of being 95% democrat without having any idea how many of those jurors might be democrats, how many might be republicans. 12% of them voted for donald trump. judge merchan is not an inpatient judge. there are some who could accuse him of being too patient, like this morning. he let todd blanche say nothing for over 20 minutes today before the judge finally had to interrupt him and say, can i ask you to address the comments that were made about the jury? todd blanche began with the stupidest possible response about the actual words donald trump said. donald trump told the judge, it was

his response in the hallway today directly contradicted todd blanche , directly destroyed todd blanche's credibility, and again, in the principal argument in the defense of his violations of the gag order, were somewhat weak after the judge tells todd blanche he's lost that ability. how can it get worse for todd blanche? donald trump found a way to make it worse today. donald trump went out in the hallway at the end of the day and in effect, ridiculed todd blanche's defense of his own violations of the gag order. apparently, todd blanche had no intention of even addressing the worst violation of the gag order presented by the prosecutors , which were donald trump's comments and attacks against the jury, who he accuses of being 95% democrat even though we have no idea how many of them might be democrat or republican. 12% may have voted for donald trump. judge merchan is not an inpatient judge. there are some who could accuse him of being too patient, like this morning, he let todd blanche say nothing for over 20 minutes today, before the judge finally had to interrupt him and say, "can i

left the room they want on their lunch break and there was a conference here in the judge scolded todd blancheor what he said here. he said, i'm going to give a curative instruction. i think that saying that was outrageous, mr. blanche, please have a seat for someone who has been a prosecutor as long as you have i've entered defense attorney as long as you have, you know that making a comment like that is highly inappropriate, it's simply not allowed, period. it's hard for me to imagine how that was accidental in any way. it's also interesting that as soon as steinglass said objection and it was sustained todd blanche didn't need instruction about what the objection was about. he knew instantly what he had said was inappropriate. right. i mean, because he corrected himself by just taking out the prison pardon i like to push the envelope in summation, but that's you can't say jail. >> you just you just can't say j. you can say you use your common sense. people don't tell you to check, leave you come since outside. we all know what happens at the end of a trial that's not for you to decide. it's

the call was, quote, to discuss the stormy daniels matter and the resolution of it but today, todd blanche did something the prosecutors had apparently not done, or at least not discussed with michael cohen and their questioning of him on the witness stand. blanche read previous text messages. cone had received shortly before he texted schiller they show that cohen was responding to a 14-year-old crank color who had been pranking him by phone for days. cohen texted schiller and him about the prank calls and wanting help from schiller about the calls. and that appears is why he then called schiller blanche appeared to have trapped cohen arguing that the subsequent call between him and schiller last only 90 six seconds in question whether in this quote comes to us from our reporters in the room, you had enough time to update schiller about all the problems you were having and also update president trump about the status of the stormy daniels situation. it's important to remember that cohen had never mentioned this 14-year-old crank color and testimony. blanche directly stated that he lied un

i'm wondering about todd blanche.n though you can't read the minds of jurors, you know when a lawyer is connecting. you know when a witness is connecting. you know when they are paying close attention. what's your thought today and particularly about todd blanche and the way the jury is observing him? >> well, i think the color that katy tur gave is my impression as well. there was, i agree, the striking moment when you heard the voice of michael cohen on his podcast, which was distinctly different than the in-court michael cohen. that doesn't mean michael cohen is lying on the stand. but it is useful for the jury to see that that is not what -- he is not always in the mode that he is in the courtroom. for every day that he has been on, whether on direct or cross, he is unflappable. even on cross-examination that mentions his wife and as andrea pointed out, cross-examination with texts with his daughter, which i personally think is playing poorly. the cross there is about essentially the daughter thinking how great he

i think todd blanche will make a mistake. he said it's going to go to the end of the day today, to bring it to the end of the day today. unless there's something new we don't know about, and i don't think there is, less is more, and there probably won't be much of a redirect. >> and vaughn hillyard, you're there at the courthouse, you have had a parade of house republicans today, the speaker yesterday, which was controversial. and he made some statements, scott long on the hill interviewed him afterwards and he repeated some statements from donald trump about the whole area being warded off and according to your reporting, there have been about 20 people there, you know, pro trump supporters, but nobody is blocking them from getting anywhere close. in any case, so today you've got sort of a parade of stars. i use that in air quotes, lauren, matt gaetz, far right caucus, right? >> reporter: you had these individuals, matt gaetz, lauren boebert, bob good, eli crane, andy biggs leave the courtroom and address reporters, and esse

todd blanche is pushing michael cohen on. what title you want it. but as michael cohen told his daughter that trump wasn't happy with the title that he was seeing gang, which was blanche pushing cohen to admit that he wanted to be a special counsel inside the trump administration does the jury factor that in though if it was someone who who clearly wanted something and didn't get it. and then this could be seen as vengeful posturing after that, could that resonate with this? sorry? >> i will check on runs, audio, make sure he can hear us as he is sending outside the courthouse were here on the other side of the courthouse. >> and paula, i mean, this is very clearly plea atactic that you're seeing todd blanche use of trying to get co-ed to admit this even though it's not this has nothing to do with the checks and the payback because had already happened at that point, michael cohen had already paid stormy daniels by the time all of this was happening, going back and forth. >> and heal. >> it reminds you, michael cohen was so upset when he got his bonu

but the crushing blow to todd blanche's motion and to todd blanche's work as a lawyer in this case came when the judge explained to him with donald trump sitting there listening, that todd blanche lost this motion for a mistrial with the very first thing he said in this trial on the first day. judge merchan. mr. blanche, in your opening statement, your denial puts the jury in a position of having to choose who they believe. donald trump who denies there was an encounter and stormy daniels who says there was. the people did not have to prove that a sexual encounter occurred. they have the right to rehabilitate ms. daniel's credibility and corroborate her story which was immediately attacked. the more specificity she can provide, the more the jury can weigh to determine whether the encounter did occur and if so, whether they choose to credit her story. judge merchan pointed out that he himself objected on behalf of the trump lawyers in instances when they failed to object. and on his own, he stopped lines of questioning. judge merchan explained that stormy daniels had explained in her int

judge explained to him with donald trump sitting there listening, that todd blanche lost this motion for a mistrial with the very first thing he said in this trial on the first day. judge merchan. mr. blanche in your opening statement your denial puts the jury in a position of having to choose who they believe. donald trump, who denies there was an encounter, or stormy daniels who claims there was. although the people do not have to prove that a sexual encounter did occur, they have the right to rehabilitate her credibility and story which was immediately attacked on opening statements. the more specificity ms. daniels can provide about the encounter, the more the jury can way to determine whether the encounter did occur and if so whether they choose to credit ms. daniels' story. judge merchan pointed out that he himself objected on behalf of the trump lawyers and incidents where they failed to object and on his own they stopped lines of questioning. judge merchan explained that stormy daniels explained in her interview with the district attorney that seeing the movie, bombshell, mad

his instruction was written by the prosecution and todd blanche did not object to it, because blancheof it really struck me. the judge said to the jurors, i want to give you an instruction. you heard mr. blanche asking and substance that you not send the defendant to prison. you must disregard it. you may not discuss, consider, or even speculate about matters relating to sentence or punishment. if there is a verdict of guilty, it will be my responsibility to impose an appropriate sentence. and then this last line of it. a prison sentence is not required for the charges in this case in the event of a guilty verdict. i read that sentence as devastating to the defense, because the judge said to the jury, in effect, you can find this defendant guilty and he might not go to prison at all, which lightens the burden of the jury. >> okay, so, a couple of things. one, judge merchan in terms of what he did outside the presence of the jury, he said i want the government to propose something. so he did not automatically do it. i totally agree with you that todd blanche, knowing how improper it wa

lots of risk there the trial, of course, now focuses more towards trump's lead defense attorney todd blanche, and the witnesses who we may or may not call to the stand maybe next week and we'll of course, have our eyes on whether donald trump takes the stand. >> alex, ryan, todd. thanks very much for that report. we'll be right back the russia for trying to spy on us. >> we were spying on them i was friday. friday this is a war. >> but secret war, secrets and spies, a nuclear game premier sunday, june 2 at ten on cnn. >> when your business throws you a surprise, don't throw in the towel with funding, you can count on biz to credit, makes it simple and convenient to solve problems. >> you never saw coming when trouble bruise bus to credit is the solution, viz to credit funding. what's next water would help with this dry spots. that's known disease, but scott healthy plus will cure lung disease going around. >> so like other people have it and it's not pick up a bag of the newscaster field are healthy plus lawn through today sure i'm a paid actor and this isn't a, real company, but there's no

that was a big achievement for todd blanche on cross-examination.evement looked smaller today when on redirect by the prosecution they went over that again. michael cohen said, yes, of course, on the phone calls with donald trump you could talk about more than one thing. but the big, shocking thing left out of this defense is absolutely zero explanation for the $130,000 entry on that piece of paper that calculates how much michael cohen will be paid which the defense is insisting is not, not a payback. they're trying to insist this was absolutely legal -- michael cohen is being paid as a lawyer for the year of 2017 and this is how we're paying him. there's no reimburse. in those paychecks at all, no reimbursement at all. that just completely falls apart when the defense has nothing to say about the $130,000 that went into that calculation of what that reimbursement the prosecution says those reimbursement checks would be. >> lawrence, what about what the defense and the prosecution were arguing with judge merchan after the jury left for the lunch br

and nearly all day today todd blanche tried to undermine mr. cohen's credibility as a witness. blanche spent half the morning recalling different episodes when michael cohen lied publicly, lying to congress, lying in court, lying about whether or not he sought a party, if it essentially forcing one: to admit that he has been untruthful. blanche also tried to paint: as something as a renegade, a man who spent the 2016 election cycle casting out on his own, speaking to the press both publicly and privately, without donald trump's consent, or his supervision. blanche tried to call into question michael cohen's memory, his ability to recall key moments in this case. and that all built to what was probably the biggest moment of today, when the defense managed to cast doubt on a key part of commerce story. you have to go back to 2016 when donald trump was running an unusually clean campaign for president. and one of his unlikely campaign surrogates was his personal attorney, michael cohen. >> these are donald trump's words, he's going to stay true to who he is and he is going to end u

todd blanche talking about the "access hollywood" tape. government wants you to believe, says todd blanche, it was so catastrophic that it provided a motive for president trump to do something criminal. president trump did not react to the tape in any way that the government is suggesting. i want to get your take on that statement by todd blanche as someone who lived it. >> i'm curious what the prosecution will argue here. as somebody who was covering the campaign in the moment, the "access hollywood" tape, from the outside looking in and from conversations in the campaign and those in the rnc, that was catastrophic. donald trump's campaign thought it was over at that moment. there were a couple people who thought he could power through. steve bannon, maybe donald trump himself and a couple others. for the most part, the campaign went silent. the top aides were not to be found. the campaign team couldn't even reach these top aides. trump tower -- i went to trump tower after this tape came out. it was empty. there was nobody inside, save fo

todd blanche, let's go back to him and his closing argument. aid this, you cannot send someone to prison based on the words of michael cohen. merchan said i think that statement was outrageous, mr. blanche. it's simply not allowed. it's hard to imagine how that was accident elin any way. the jury doesn't determine punishment. it's not them that does that. merchan tells the jury to disregard the improper comment. if there's a verdict of guilt, it will be up to me to impose a sentence. a prison sentence is not required in the result of a guilty verdict. this is unusual. todd blanche knows it. >> he knows better. this was not inadvertent, this was not a mistake. he wanted this out there. it's the idea of playing up jury sympathy. you don't want this guy to go to jail for this. the thing of it is that the jury never gets to decide what the actual sentence is. the jury can determine guilt, is a fact finder, but it doesn't ultimately determine punishment, as the judge said today. that's his job, and it's an open question whether in the event of a conv

todd blanche knows it. >> he knows better. this was not inadvertent, this was not a mistake. he wanted this out there. it's the idea of playing up jury sympathy. you don't want this guy to go to jail for this. the thing of it is that the jury never gets to decide what the actual sentence is. the jury can determine guilt, is a fact finder, but it doesn't ultimately determine punishment, as the judge said today. that's his job, and it's an open question whether in the event of a conviction juan merchan is going to sentence donald trump to time in prison, but ultimately, it is not a consideration that the jury is supposed to take into account, and todd blanche, a former prosecutor, knows that. >> harry, it is not lost on me that todd blanche took that chance, probably because donald trump wanted him to, with even

todd blanche has called up a lot of drama for him, but that is not his natural state. he is generally that every man you want to have a beer within his natural state. josh steinglass can bring the drama but again, he's not allowed volume, highly theatrical guy and we know who judge merchan is now. he is sort of a grandfatherly, parental figure who when he gets angry almost talks more softly for effect so given that we are in this courtroom with a lot of people who don't necessarily have huge personalities, huge voices, to play those recordings of: where he is talking at a speed that seems unreasonable and talking at the pitch with venom in his voice to your point was very jarring to hear. >> we are going to cover a lot of prosecution. the one thing i say about the prosecution is that the evidence the prosecution has is very familiar to our audience. that is been available to us for a long time. we've been presenting most of it here for a long time. what we were sitting around waiting for is what is the defense. now that we've heard today's most cogent presentation of t

yeah, i should say i worked alongside todd blanche and alvin bragg, who's now the day we're all there at the same time. todd is a soft-spoken person for the sdny. >> some of us you may have heard and to be the southern district southern district of new york and to be charged confident are charged todd is a modest person. he soft-spoken but don't mistake that for any sort of weakness in the courtroom. he was the chief of the gangs and violent crime unit at the southern district of new york. and when the moment comes and this will be a moment, i expect them to go at michael cohen, no punches there's something so fundamental about in cross-examination. >> there's a big difference between the question mr. cohen, where were you on tuesday? the open-ended friendly question. and mr. cohen, on tuesday, you are committing a crime brian, and when the questions like that, the pointed leading questions that are allowed on cross not allowed on direct really start very quickly. even the most dismal one witness can get flustered, rattled, and lose their and i ask a question of the attorneys here whi

it is the todd blanche moment on the phone call that you identified as happening at 8:02 and todd blanche insisted to you based on text messages that were part of the record before that that when you got keith schiller on the phone and asked to speak to donald trump about the stormy daniels payoff, that in fact you were calling him about harassing phone calls and phone treatment you were suffering at the time and surely you spent that whole time talking to keith schiller about the harassing phone calls and/or testimony changed. you talked about it to keith schiller and then to donald trump and there were legal analysts on other networks who were saying that was it, that was the knockout punch. michael cohen is destroyed. i'm not talking about fox. your credibility was supposed to be destroyed in one question and answer and i am wondering for those of us out here, what was it like sitting in the witness stand, in the witness box when you saw how that was landing? did it feel like it was landing like a knockout punch or something that you had to try to repair? >> not even close. when the qu

and to that point, you just had todd blanche before this bring up that didn't you say something like at? and he said, yes, i did he did refer to them as trying to extort trump. and now referring to the daniel statement, blanche asked and make no mistake. this was a completely legal binding contract, but cohen agreeing, hush money paid payments, legal contracts between consenting parties, legal even when they involve sex and porn stars and so on. and what the defense is getting at here is that they use the term situation earlier in the trial. was this a contract with consideration of thing of value exchange and then put on paper between parties. that's all this is. i think this this is the defense's argument ladies and gentlemen, don't get lost in all this minutiae about campaigns is people contracting with each other perfectly legal and even common what shady but maybe shady. but as he said, this happens all the time. >> the nondisclosure agreement thank you all so much for walking through this de with us. obviously, a very important one today in this criminal trial of former presiden

todd blanche had a pretty big reaction. he dropped his jaw and went -- he opened his eyes and went -- and he made a movement with his head. so i wonder if that was, as you heard, his version of stretching it out or to put steinglass into this position. daniel, i know this is a purely speculative question, but in your experience, what would you guess if you were forced to, how would you -- how long will the jury have this case? how long will they be deliberating? what is your expectation? >> i think if they get the case tomorrow, whether they finish tonight or tomorrow morning with the summation, they will get the case on wednesday. i think this jury is going to be extremely careful and deliberate. i could see it goes into early next week. >> you're killing us. >> on the other hand, if they get this case tomorrow, before the lunch break, i think that we will have a verdict before tri. i think they will want to be done with this case. they do not want to have it going into another week. they will want to be done by the weeken

i don't care what todd blanche says. it means nothing to me. i don't care what don, ivanka, eric, don jr., it doesn't matter to me what any of them say about me. i know who i am, and i knew what i needed to do. so in this specific case, it was a very -- and i had said it, it was a very foolish strategy. and he's not really known as a defense attorney. i think it's only his second defense trial. not a good strategy, and proof positive of that is the 34-count verdict. >> the defense counsel we're talking about todd blanche did an interview on another cable news network this evening. i'll let you guess which one. and he said in that interview that every decision in the case, every substantive decision in the case is one that he made together with trump. >> makes sense. >> well, i was going to ask you if you see trump's fingerprints on some of the decisions that you're describing here. >> absolutely. the term gloat, it's a donald trump fourth grade, playground, bullying type of tactic. what's that? >> don't you have an acronym for todd? >> i did. i

one, donald trump sully defense lawyer, todd blanche, had nothing. one of our guests, tim o'brien, predicted to me that the cross- examination would be terrible. he was right. todd blanche did not score a single relevant point against michael cohen. the other surprise was that michael cohen maintained his poise and reasonable tone that he established indirect examination by the prosecutor that few of us expected michael cohen to be able to maintain under the stress and challenges of cross-examination, but todd blanche presented no challenges. he tried to wake up the jury with his first question. my name is todd blanche. you have -- you and i have never spoken or met but you know who i am? answer, i do. question, as a matter of fact on april 23, after the trial started in this case, you went on tiktok and called me a crying little -- didn't you? answer, sounds like something i would say, but the jury already knew that michael cohen doesn't like donald trump, so it came as no surprise to them that michael cohen who already testified to being profane mi

lawyers here saying they could have inoculated him more, just to illustrate this on thursday, todd blanche trump's attorney, pointed out a series of things that cohen had said false under oath. blanche. so just as it relates to that issue, you lied under oath, correct? cohen? yeah. blanche. and you lied again when you met with the special counsel on august 7, correct? cohen? correct. blanche and you as we talked about in november, november 29th of that year, 2018, you pled guilty to lying to congress, correct? cohen i did. that's a lot. and those are all that's not just like lying to your bookie. that's lying under oath before like official proceeding or lying to us, line to the media, line to anybody in your life that is a very, very big deal. you're right. >> and that was just one example. elie just laid out what we're going to see today. so there's going to be more icing on that cake, if you will. so the inoculation that the prosecuted prosecution did in their in their direct they're going to have to do even more so in their redirect. and it's an open question whether or not they can cl

do you think todd blanche? she's doing a good job at undermining pick up michael cohen's credibility i think he's doing what i expected he would do. >> he's trying to say over and over again that cohen is a liar, that cohen has a motive to get trump and he's repeating that as a mantra over and over again that he's out for revenge. he wants to see cohen behind i'm sorry, trump behind bars. so it's not an unexpected cross-examination little bit disconnected. it's a little bit all over the place. it's been a little bit difficult to follow. but other than that, he's making the points you would expect them to make, all of which is helpful when he gets to summation, are you surprised and do you think it's wise for the prosecution to and their case with michael cohen given the givens when it comes to his credibility i think so. they wanted him to tie up all the loose ends to be the one who could say i was in the room with president trump. and this is what he said. so you needed that dramatic ending because because up

todd blanche.is happening behind me when i am crossing a witness. i don't have any control of that. i mean, they are members of the public. to be clear, the lawmakers are not sitting in public seats. they are sitting in seats reserved for donald trump's defense team. joining me now is adam schiff, member of the house judiciary committee. congressman schiff, thank you for being here. i imagine you have some thoughts about your fellow house colleagues who have been trekking up to new york city to stand outside of the courtroom and weigh in on this trial. >> i have so many thoughts, and let me start with the speaker. because i have to say, i was flabbergasted that he would go and make that pilgrimage, stand outside the courthouse, and basically lie about what was going on inside the building. it is bad enough that he lacks the self-respect, that he feels he needs to go and kiss the ring in such a public and abasing way, but also for him to denigrate the justice system, for him to make, to knowingly ma

todd blanche is continuing his closing arguments. ow coming he hammered the point that unlike cohen's testimony in stormy daniels testimony, this was the trump organization bodyguard essentially. blanche emphatically says it was a lie about that charge conduct with stormy. it was a lie. michael cohen got caught red-handed. he said the call to the bodyguard was really about arresting calls from a 14-year-old. that remains to be seen too by exactly he was frightened of a 14-year-old prank. that is what is going on. we will keep you posted and keep tying into these developments as they occur. onto the democrats concerned. they seem to keep growing. according to politico, they are in the fold phone recount mode. the outlet, there is still a path to win this. they don't look like a campaign that is embarking on that path right now. the frame of this race is what is better? we lose that every day of the week and twice on sunday. that one is far from alone. a former client advisor is warming that democrats should be afraid. watch. >> there's

todd blanche said i asked you questions about appearing on tv on that day, i think that was joy reid,ch says, to be clearly when you did the interviews the the indictment was unsealed. cohen says i read it through the "new york times" article. blanche says you were not supposed to talk about it. by the time you went on cnn, it was public. yes, says cohen. there's a series of messages between cohen and the 14-year-old with the phone number redacted. the 14-year-old harassing him. the number you are communicating with, these are the texts we spoke about before lunch. cohen says the number has been sent to secret service. so that's keith schiller apparently responding to that -- >> they're basically going back to some evidence they introduced right before they broke for lunch, and this is a series of text messages. that is text from cohen to the 14-year-old saying to him your number is going to be sent to secret service, and, you know, warning him. >> and this was harassment. >> it's a rehash. >> why he was calling keith schiller according to the defense, the cross-examination. >> they'r

>> well, todd blanche can say that. if there's anything predictable about a criminal trial is it's unpredictable. you can't say we didn't know and it's our turn. there's always going to be wrinkles in a case. the people want the opportunity to respond. they have certain evidence that's relevant, and maybe they should have anticipated it, and maybe we shouldn't be having this conversation, but certainly they should have that opportunity, and i think they're going to get it. >> how much of a problem is this memorial day holiday weekend. this would be a prosecution witness on tuesday morning, and then you would have the defense going, and it's pushing it. there's no trial on wednesday and there's only half a day on thursday, and this is already delaying the closings until next tuesday. >> at least. >> could they do their charging hearing on wednesday when the jury is out? >> they could. they can certainly do that, even if there's going going to be testimony thursday morning, as you said, i know they can work thursday morni

todd blanche hammering on the idea that the testimony of michael cohen is a part of a larger revengeour , noting his comments on a podcast saying donald trump was about to get a taste of what i went through and i promise it will not be fun. michael cohen will return to the witness stand for more cross-examination on tuesday morning. joining me to break it on down is a legal analyst and cohost of the sisters-in-law podcast, and the author of the book, " attack from within." and we are joint by -- joined by anna. a number of jury trials, i have to start with that quote about gated and get out on the cross and how todd blanche has been e going for more than seven hours. can you remember what has landed in terms of a fatal blow at all through the cross- examination of michael atcohen >> yes, it seems that todd blanche has partaking in what ik call rookie mistakes . that is, going on too long, not having a specific plan, and asking one question too many. you know, as you suggested, the strategy of an effective cross- examination is to pick out a o few key areas of impeachment, contradicti

that's where todd blanche is focusing his actual attacks. of course, everything that speaks to the intent, for example, the testimony of michael cohen, you will attack that as well to make the argument the facts are what they are, and you have to deal with that. as far as intent, which is what the jury has to look at to make a decision, that intent is going to be something they are going to hammer home as not something the prosecution is going to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. that will be their roadmap, if you will, to get to a hung jury. >> david pecker was the first witness the defense called, blanche said he submitted a declaration under the penalty of perjury saying the agreement was lawful. he's talking about a prosecution agreement pecker made in this case with the prosecutors. he told you he didn't keep anything from his lawyers when he talked about it, and you know he has a deal with the prosecutors in the case and they provide him with immunity. blanche goe on, the d.a. gave the terms and if mr. pecker gave false testimony the ag

when you have todd blanche get up and say michael cohen is the mvp of lies. the greatest liar of all time. maybe he was the greatest lawyer of all time. when you hear that you are like, maybe you chuckle but that's all you've got? that's what it is. i take umbrage with the idea that this was too long. the prosecutor made it clear commons is only shot. if the jurisdiction in florida, fear the prosecution, you get the sandwich. prosecution, defense, prosecution rebuttal. you do not get that here. you get to fence to go first and then prosecution. you know steinglass had a prepared but he had to pivot based on what he heard or maybe he didn't hear during the defense closing argument. that's why think you saw it a little longer. you knew it was going to be meaty because he sought in the openings. lawrence, when he noted that 49 second reenactment, there's a power in being able to stand in front of a jury. i have done this in trials i've done before when timing is in dispute and there's no way you could i.d. the defendant, victim, because you only saw the defendan

in to how michael cohen didn't directly answer a lot of the questions, at least at first, the todd blanche posed to him. so blanched asks him, you've also talked extensively on may a culpa, his podcast, your desire to see that president trump getting convicted in this case, correct cohen says, sounds like something i would say. blanche says, well, sir not asking you if it sounds like something you would say i'm saying did you have you regularly commented on your podcast that you wanted president trump to be convicted in this case. >> cohen then says, yeah, probably. >> and then blanche says, do you have any doubt? cohen says no, then blanche says so why did you answer? yes probably. cohen says because i they don't specifically know if i use those words, but yes, i would like to see that blanche says, and so yes, you want to see president trump getting convicted from this case, correct cohen says, i would like to see accountability that's not it's not for me, it's for the jury and this court blanche says, i didn't ask what you wanted to see or nazi about accountability. i said, do you want

. >> lawrence, can i just ask you in terms of todd blanche's summation. a lot of reporters described that as hard to follow. as being because he wasn't going chronologically the way the exhaustive summation from the prosecution went. that blanche's summation, it was sometimes hard to know what he was getting at. was it hard to follow? >> well listen, i have watched an awful lot of criminal lawyers in my life trying and struggling to defend a guilty client. that's what it looks like. there is no good way. no easy way. i don't know how todd blanche could have done better. given the facts that he is loaded down with. given the complexities he failed to deal with and the da pointed out this point i have been making steadily. it is an argument in conflict with itself. because, the defense argument is michael cohen was paid this big paycheck in 2017 and it had nothing to do with reimbursement to stormy daniels but we know and the defense knows that the calculation of how much he would be paid was based on a document handwritten by alan weisselberg that includes

somewhere in his closing argument, todd blanche suggested to the jury that trump could go to jail if d. apparently merchan blew up at him saying that was outrageous mr. blanche. someone who has been a prosecutor as long as you have, someone who has been an attorney as long as you have knows that is highly inappropriate and he will issue a curative instruction to the jury. did you hear that judge? >> i didn't hear it to be honest with you. i'm stunned sitting here and i was in there. but that's very simple. you give a charge to the jury and you say would either this sentence may be or whatever my options may be are not your concern as i have told you from the beginning. you've decided what the facts are. i give you the law and you make a decision based on the facts and the law. so there is no need the guy is very thin-skinned, this merchan i know we did have a breakdown over it but here's what i thought was so incredibly strong this morning. todd blanche spoke in very simple language and addressed everything he possibly could in his summation to the jury. it was simple, it was not hist

todd blanche says let me ask this in a different way. you were told to stay away and not communicate with him and his family. cohen, i was told not to speak to president trump but not his family. not that i couldn't see his kids. i just didn't. >> okay. this is totally misleading. when a criminal investigation occurs and i know this, both have done on the defense side and the prosecution side. the, everyone getting lawyered up. so president trump had lawyers. michael cohen had lawyers. all of those lawyers will say to their clients, do not speak. the principal should not speak to each other. it goes through counsel. oh, see, you were suddenly shunned is really wrong. that is not what goes on in a criminal investigation. no one's shunning each other. in fact, the fact that all of them have counsel and are being told don't speak to each other is in the interest of everyone in the conspiracy. it's standard practice. to make that a motive of oh, see, you were shunned outside of the group. that's not what happened. >> people in donald trump's

when todd blanche says you can't use michael cohen to send someone to prison. >> he was livid. his was improper, there's no way you wouldn't know this, mr. blanche, you've been a prosecutor so long. what blanche did was slip in a reference to don't send trump to prison, which has a dual purpose. it could make them think we don't want the former president go to prison. and it could make them afraid for themselves. and after the jury left merchan was absolutely livid and he gave a curative instruction that was stronger than you normally would give here. he actually told the jury that this law doesn't necessarily provide for a jail sentence, something you would normally tell the jury just don't think about sentence. but he was so livid at blanche and blanche had no choice. and this of course in front of trump at the end of his closing he basically -- they had to take whatever the prosecution wrote, and that's what they wrote. >> harry, one more question. we're still going. how's everybody holding up? >> yeah. so merchan, that was his final comment. he says, i've been watching the j

let me read from the transcript right now, todd blanche asks in the time you spoke with costello to now there was a change in whether trump org was paying for lawyers. blanche, what happened that caused you to write to costello. there were significant influences from trump org to payment. you wanted costello to talk to giuliani about what was happening. cohen, i expressed to him that the nonpayment was becoming an issue and to let giuliani know to pass to president trump it was becoming an issue. blanche, you wanted costello in june of 2018 to communicate to giuliani that nonpayment was becoming an issue. cohen, yes, sir. did you have any doubt it was you who initiated that communication with mr. costello. i don't recall if i asked him to reach out to giuliani other than i expressed to him. around the time your relationship ends, cohen, yes, sir, and blanche, you met a couple of times. privileged communication. where are they going with this, misty? >> i think they're trying to undercut the prosecution's testimony, which basically set this up as michael cohen was communicating with cost

>> i have so much sympathy for todd blanche. trial work or being on trial as exciting and raucous, and dramatic, i have to confess, i don't. i think it is soul crushing. todd blanche and his team, they're in trial all day, and when the trial ends, the work begins. they're going to be at the office preparing into the wee hours for they don't know what the next day, and the last thing you want when you're on trial is some client making your life more difficult for you by giving his uneducated opinion about how you're doing at your job. trump wants this mythical roy cohn figure, and lo and behold, he hasn't been able to find that figure, and i think because that myth really doesn't exist in the modern courthouse, when you go around a modern courthouse, you can find that lawyer who has a reputation for fighting on every point and making outrageous arguments. he's usually someone that barely has any clients and can only get court appointments. this is not somebody that's going to be at the top, the pinnacle of criminal defense. the i