michael cohen has admitted to stealing from the trump organization, doesn't matter for the case?it may matter a lot to some jurors and it may matter not at all to others. michael cohen is such a proven liar that why would it surprise us that he is also a thief? >> reporter: cohen defended his action saying that he was angry his bonus was cut and felt like he was owed the money. "i almost felt like it was help help he said." and link to the hush money payments made to star stormy daniels that are at the heart of the case. trump has been charged with falsifying business records to conceal the transactions. speak with a marked at legal. >> reporter: blanche marked him as someone who'd used trump's name to help himself. discussing a tv show about himself called "the fixer." i have fix things, but i am no longer your fixer, mr. trump. >> reporter: with the defense repeatedly calling cohen's credibility into question. susan hoffinger reminded the jury that michael cohen is not the defendant. are you actually on trial in this case, she guessed, cohen's answer "no." late today trump lawy

another trump organization employee, debra tarasoff, testifying about mr. trump's process of signing checks including to cohen, which were shown to the jury saying "if he didn't want to sign it he didn't sign it. it was signed in sharpie and it was black and that's what he uses." >> vaughn, the prosecution also giving an indication of the timing of this case. >> reporter: yeah, lester. prosecutors said they intend to call witnesses for about the next two weeks. at that point mr. trump's team will be

this so that i can start my own life again blanche got cohen to admit that he stole from the trump organization. >> cohen confirmed he paid a tech company $20,000 instead of the $50,000 it was owed by trump. but cohen asked trump to be he paid the full amount, which was doubled to cover taxes ultimately, cohen admitted he kept around $60,000 for himself, blanche asks so you stole from the trump organization? yes, sir. cohen replied cohen said he was angry about getting a low annual bonus earlier in the trial, cohen told prosecutors he requested the full reimbursement because that's what was owed and i didn't feel mr. trump deserve the benefit of the difference on monday, cohen admitted it was wrong to have taken the money cohen defended his character during testimony to congress in 2019. >> i understand i have lied, but i am not a liar. i have done bad things, but i am not a bad man after cross-examination concluded prosecutors tried to clean up some of the damage done to cohen's credibility. >> prosecutor susan hoffinger asks about repayments cohen received from trump for the the $130,000 in h

you're a trump organization insider. he was the keeper of that ledger visit, the heart of this case and it includes payments from the trump trust, his personal one, to michael cohen, which were labeled as legal expenses, payments a prosecutor say in reality, we're just reimbursements for money that the fixer and trump personal attorney allegedly funneled so. stormy daniels as part of a scheme to silence her, amir would see chief legal affairs correspondent paul arrayed and also the former manhattan district attorney prosecutor, a karen friedman, agnes hello great to have you both back here. right now. what they're walking through is basically how michael cohen got paid and one thing that stands out and would be my question, maybe if i was a durer as well, if trump was just reimbursing michael cohen as the defenses claimed, why not just do a one for one payment? why are we looking at each of these different checks? >> of him paying michel foucault and $35,000 a month. >> and the year 2017? >> yeah. look, i think it's a gre

awe thent kant authenticated them as the books of the trump organization. it is critical. as adam was saying, linking trump to this falsification scheme this is what is absolutely critical to come through, through cohen's testimony. >> as this critical testimony is taking place, there is some interesting developments outside the courtroom. let's go back to yasmin. tell us what you're learning and what we're now hearing from the house speaker who showed up. >> reporter: so i'm not able to hear exactly what speaker johnson is saying right now. i'm looking over in my -- over my left, in the direction in front of me, guys, because speaker johnson is having a press conference, 50 or 60 feet away from where i'm standing. he's here along with a lot of other supporters of the former president. we have doug burgum, vivek ramaswamy, cory mills, representative byron daniels as well. we have seen over the last couple of days, malliotakis was here yesterday, tommy tuberville was here yesterday as well, along with jd vance and holding press conferences in this kind of cou

he was the former controller of the trump organization. orked at the trump org for 35 years before leaving his post this last year. folks may recall that he testified for several days in the civil fraud trial in 2023 just two blocks down the road from here and is part of the decision from judge engoron, that he was found liable for insurance fraud. he was barred from ever serving in leadership for a corporate entity again. he and trump have a long-standing relationship. where does he fit into the fold as part of this trial? he was the individual who overseas the accounting department of the trump organization. michael cohen in february of 2017 sent his first invoice to be reimbursed upon donald trump taking the white house to jeffrey mcconney who oversaw and made sure that check got back from donald trump to michael cohen for that reimbursement of the stormy daniels payment so he could fill in some of the gaps as the prosecution looks to move on to the actual reimbursement and the actual execution of the funds from donald trump to michael c

in the trump organization. so, you know, it's -- she's probably, ms. necheles, again, trying to find one or two jurors. that's not really going to play that this was personal even though it was done by my trump employee, in my trump organization, in my business. >> didn't he, peter, baker, refresh my memory. wasn't there a limited trust? he wasn't supposed to be involved in trump organizations, his son was supposed to be running the company, right, when he was president of the united states? >> it was always a murky thing. in fact, he was still in charge. he never fully put it into a blind trust or took any of the pressures that previous presidents took to separate themselves from the business coming into office. jimmy carter did with the farm, for instance. he never fully disengaged from the business. that was a unique moment in presidential history. he profited from a lot of things that happened during the presidency, people staying at hotels and deals made overseas. i think that sort of comes back around. if

the defense of the trump organization, the defense of donald trump, and the defendants in this criminalwas that allen weisselberg was the bad guy. allen weisselberg was greedy. look at what allen weisselberg and blame him, and even then allen weisselberg did not flip on trump. you know, he has now gone to jail for trump not just once but twice. he is the d.a.'s office has done everything they can to try and get allen weisselberg to flip on trump. it's not happening. don't expect him to come in and be a great witness for the state. the state knows they can't call him, and that's why they're trying to find some way to explain his absence to the jury through this severance jury. >> madeleine westerhout, you had a chance to observe today. in many ways although she didn't serve nearly as long as weisselberg has, she is someone who is this young woman, she's trying to make her way in the world. she finds herself surrounded by some of the most powerful people in the world and arguably ultimately, the most powerful person in the world. donald trump going with him to the white house, somebody wh

controller or the trump organization, that's right. i'm a major accounting position and let's talk a little bit about what we just heard. eleia, how significant. is it the mccartney didn't have direct conversations with trump. >> i think it's something that we could have anticipated that the defense would have done. and i believe they tease this in their opening statement and this will be a thread through their tastes that michael cohen himself, leuser and fixer, in effect, went rhoad and carried out these actions by himself and that donald trump did not personally direct the actions. now, prosecutors are trying to establish that the troubling station was running like small business and he donald trump would have known what the reasons for certain payments were. but this is a pretty obvious argument that the defense was going to make. and i think they're going to keep going there. >> jim, trustee, your former trump attorney, let me read to you something that emerged today. in terms of the exhibits that were shown to the jury. and i'll p

if you can stand by for me, testimony is set to resume here any minute is a trump organization employee who was a bookkeeper and instrumental in how these checks that were signed off on by donald trump to pay michael cohen, how those went back and forth from new york to the white house she will be returning to the stand. are special coverage continuing. >> all our we'll be right back moscow pistorius was at the absolute peak of his celebrity in olympic heroes, shocking murder trial, we learned of a much darker individual power would really happen with jesse l. martin sunday at nine on cnn, at omaha steaks, we do burgers differently. we take a premium age take like this, and turn it into up your ground burger like this. so this is actually a rib-eye. this is a new york strip top sirloin beef brisket. and this this is a philemon yawn for a limited time. our burger perfection flight comes with 20 big juicy burgers all for just 79, 99. get it today and omaha steaks.com slash tv this is burger perfection guaranteed today at america's beverage companies are models might still look the same, b

nothing goes on within trump organization that trump doesn't know about and approve. saying to the jury, the prosecutors are when they get to closing arguments, use your common sense. would $400,000 -- which is about what cohen was repaid after the taxes and the roll-out so it's a complete wash for cohen's $130,000, would it make sense for trump, who is renegotiating -- wanting to renegotiate plumber bills and furniture costs, that he would not know about the michael cohen $400,000 repayment. i think what they're saying to the jury is this is who donald trump is. he is a cheapskate. he's a micromanager and it makes no sense he could say this is cohen on his own without his consent. then you'll get other witnesses how it was recorded on the books, how the books were transmitted, what the tax benefits were by doing it this way. >> alan weisselberg's name has come up as recently as today. there are no plans to call weisselberg, at least not by the prosecution. he's in jail. what do you make of the fact that he's being spoken about, but will not be as part of the prosecut

they got cohen to admit this morning he actually stole from the trump organization and they also showedyou know, the prosecutors pitch up until now has been that, you know, he had this retainer agreement but it was illusory and didn't exist. trump is saying see my private lawyer and it was a retainer agreement. he got millions in legal fees during that 2017, 2018 time period and the way he was doing it was he was basically monetizing his relationship with trump. he was the president of the united states private lawyer and he earned, you know, $4, 6 million in that two-year period. >> harris: legally what happens to a guy like michael cohen? i was before the commercial break asking about immunity or a deal he might have struck. i don't think you get credit if you actually come through with more felonies against yourself on stand, but how does it work? >> well, a lot of this stuff is time barred. and happened many years ago. even if you wanted to prosecute him, it would be difficult to do that. i would think -- i think hell would freeze over before alvin bragg pros prosecute as michael co

corporate controller has allen weisselberg's handwriting all over it, the former cfo of the trump organization, and he writes in it that it was gross ed up for taxes which means they doubled it. that's damming for donald trump. what it shows is these were false. this was absolutely not a reimbursement for legal expenses. you would never gross up a reimbursement because it was coming as income, and so michael cohen presumably would have to pay income taxes on it. they doubled it. he lives in new york city, they said presumably you're going to have to double it for taxes. when you pay taxes, you're left with the money, $180,000. they threw in another $60,000 bonus for him, and that's how you're getting to the $420,000 number, divided by 12 month, you're at $35,000 a month. the falsification of the business records is apart from the math, and that is what the d.a.'s office is going to argue. >> you got into a lot of the testimony we heard before the latest witness who took the stand. it's deborah tarasoff who's on the stand right now. earlier we heard from jeff mcconney, the controller of the tru

money criminal trial, a key witness, just spent about three hours taking jurors inside the trump organizations bookkeeping and specifically the reimbursement of former trump leuser and fixer michael cohen after cohen fronted the money for the stormy daniels hush money deal. briana killer is joining us right now. she's outside the courthouse in new york city. briana update our viewers well, this morning, wall, former trump or controller, jeffrey mecole, walked through cohen's monthly payouts, which were wired for i'm former president trump's personal account. >> those are payments that began after trump was in the white house. and i'm here now with cnn chief domestic correspondent fill mattingly, along with sana when legal analysts karan friedman, agnes low, she's council any firm representing michael cohen, but she does not have contact with him, does not work on his case. and there are no restrictions on what she can say about this case. and karan we should know right now, the court has broken for lunch. they're going to be back around two 15 eastern, but this break comes out testimony that w

"you stole from the trump organization, right?" asked trump attorney todd blanche.aid. >> michael cohen has admitted to stealing from the trump organization. does it matter for this case? >> it may matter a lot to some juror, and it may matter not at all to others. michael cohen is such a proven liar that why would it surprise us that he's also a thief? >> reporter: cohen defended his actions, saying he was angry his bonus had been cut and felt he was owed the money. "i just felt like it was almost self-help," he said. cohen is the sole witness to directly link trump to the hush money payments made to adult film star stormy daniels, which are at the heart of the case. trump has been charged with falsifying business records to conceal the transactions. >> they paid a legal expense, and they marked it "legal expense." >> reporter: blanche cast cohen as someone who used trump's name to enrich himself, earning about $4 million from books and podcasts and even discussing a tv show about himself called "the fixer." >> i have fixed things, but i am no longer your fixer, mr

even getting cohen to admit he had stolen tens of thousands of dollars from the trump organization. and then late today the defense starting its case, putting former cohen legal adviser robert costello on the stand, who told the jury cohen had lied about what mr. trump knew about the reimbursement of hush money payments. but costello's behavior irking judge juan merchan, who briefly paused testimony to admonish the witness. laura jarrett with more on today's legal fireworks. >> reporter: tonight former president trump's defense team launching a fiery start to its case, taking direct aim at the credibility of star prosecution witness michael cohen, calling robert costello, a former federal prosecutor and attorney for rudy giuliani, who advised cohen before a falling out. costello describing cohen as, quote, manic at a 2018 meeting after cohen's home and office were raided by the fbi. while cohen is now implicating mr. trump in an alleged crime, costello testifying cohen told him back then, "i swear to god, bob, i don't have anything on donald trump." directly refuting cohen's testimon

the jury spent it hearing from jeffrey mcconney, a former top executive at the trump organization. he handled the reimbursements to michael cohen for paying off stormy daniels. there are a pile of documents we're seeing for the first time, including these checks. if you're familiar with donald trump's signatures, those are checks that were signed by donald trump himself after an explanation about the difference between a trust, which was an account for the company, and a, essentially, private account for donald trump. well, mcconney detailed how he kept notes and bank statements related to cohen stored in a locked door and how the hush money checks had to be sent to the white house for donald trump to sign. i want to bring in nbc's vaughn hillyard outside the courthouse. joyce vance is a university of alabama law professor. tristan snell is with me, author of "taking down trump 12 rules for prosecuting donald trump by someone who did it successfully." charles coleman is here, civil rights attorney, former brooklyn prosecutor, msnbc legal analyst, and republican strategist and msnbc

asked him about a transaction with another company where he admitted to stealing cash from the trump organization. throughout the trial the prosecution painted michael cohen as a bumbling, pathetic character whose only misgivings was his undying loyalty to donald trump. did you lie to congress? yes, i did because i was in the sway of the sven galley hold of donald trump. now you see something different. now there's an argument to be made that actually you're just an opportunistic thief, you pocketed money from your employer. as an attorney, the idea of paying in bags of cash -- look, defense attorneys, i do not like to accept cash. frankly, i refuse to accept cash. it's only asking for trouble. dealing in these sandwich bags of cash, brown paper bags of cash to pay people is already problematic. but the idea that he would grab a wad of cash and stick it in his pocket, i think has moved michael cohen from this figure where he's part tom hagan from the godfather but more like fredo corleone to a guy that is just a thief. i bet that comes up in closing a lot, the fact that he admitted he would willi

not be a household name like hope hicks or stormy daniels, but he's a 35-year employee of the trump organization and he's hitting at the prosecution to prove the case to this jury that falsification of the business records in the checks that were provided to donald trump, provided to michael cohen by donald trump were done with the intent to conceal the hush money payment to stormy daniels before the 2016 election. mcconney is important. he was working at the comptroller at the trump organization overseeing the accounting and the ledger and was the one who he testified today at the direction of the cfo, allen weisselberg, ultimately sent over the approval for the invoices for cohen to be reimbursed. this is at the charges being charged against donald trump. because what was alleged here, and mcconney testified today, was that cohen was not only just being reimbursed for the daniels payment, but there was an apparent agreement to juice the amount, double the amount he was to be reimbursed for the purposes of him being able to consider the compensation as income in order to cover the taxes that wo

invoices, describing the reimbursements as legal expenses saying he was ordered by another trump organizationimburse cohen for the $130,000 payment to stormy daniels. most from trump's personal account from and cross exam he said he had not spoken to mr. trump directly about the business records. another trump employee, deborah, testifying about the process of signing checks including two cohen which were shown to the jury saying if he did not want to sign it, he did not sign it. it was signed in sharpie and it was black and that's what he uses. >> let's get smarter with the help of our leadoff panel. a staff writer at the atlantic and in smb contributor. political investigation reported for the guardian and this guy has been in the courtroom day in and day out. we are blessed to use a week of former new york prosecutors civil-rights attorney. you go, because you were in the room or the courthouse may have been in the overflow room. what stuck out to you today. when you saw the judge look squarely at donald trump and schooled him like a schoolboy for violating the gag order, what was that lik

i did steal from the trump organization. eric trump says this just got interesting. michael cohen is now admitting to stealing money from our company. >> what the big unknown here is, how the jury, hears this, how they're taking that michael cohen has not come off as a saint in this case before, even before you go to the witness stand, what's clear, what's unclear is how the jury takes that and what it does to his credibility in their eyes. that is absolutely the question right now, what's interesting is our colleagues inside they're reporting really for the first time in the entire course of this trial that several members of the jury are seemed distracted disinterested. >> we've never heard that from our colleagues when i've been in there, i've never seen that even on the day it would to accountants testified and they went to individual pay stub and envelopes and it was deadly, boring, but significant every single one of his 18 jurors are 12 jurors and six alternates were paying rapt attention. but the fact that during todd blanche's the end of his cross here befor

testified that he did very little work for the trump organization which is part of what he says was the reimbursement plan for the stormy daniels deal but of course trump maintains that all payments were legitimate legal expenses and now that cohen confirms that he did work for trump and 2017, he said he didn't expect to be paid for that work but he has agreements with other clients at the time doesn't sort of reflect doing very little work for a lot of money relatively speaking. the questioning of cohen is set to continue momentarily. baback to you. >> sandra: we are getting worried that the judges back on the bench and they are discussing the prosecution's request to enter two skills into evidence. nate outside the courthouse for us. nate, thanks. john. >> john: let's bring in eric herschmann. former assistant d.a. in manhattan. for more analysis on this, eric thanks for joining us good we should point out that he is in jerusalem where he has been living but he has been following this case very closely. eric, i wanted to ask first of all how much damage do you think todd blanche did t

not only the trump organization but also the trump campaign. was specifically asked if her role as press secretary for the trump campaign in those early days who else was involved in press operations. she said, she and donald trump. then she was asked about donald trump's involvement in the campaign. who did she report to as press secretary? she responded, i reported to mr. trump. how involved was he in the media, in the press aspects of the campaign? quote, he was very involved. this is hitting at the heart, from the prosecution, with hope hicks being the one to testify to this in front of the jury, that donald trump was intimately aware and wanted to know the very specific detailed aspects of the messaging that went out in how his campaign was functioning, at least in the early stages of 2015 when his campaign launched in the summer of 2015. >> danny, this is so very specific that hope hicks is giving information on about how involved trump was in media, in press aspects of the campaign and that -- here is a line. we were all just following h

and today, he admitted on the stand he stole tens of thousands of dollars from the trump organizationor a guy like trump that paid close attention, how would that happen. according to a cnn analyst, this is a more serious crime than what donald trump is on trial for, and guess what, that new york da brag, he knew all about it. but the last name is not trump. he hates trump. the media mob is forced to admit that the political witch hunt is imploding take a look. >> i am reeling from the fact that he stole money from the trump organization and the prosecution didn't get it out earlier. >> the prosecution painted michael cohen as this bumbling pathetic character that his sins were misguided loyalty to trump. but now you see something different. there is an argument to be made, that he is an opportunic thief. >> the fact that he was never charged with larceny is important. stealing $60,000 through fraud, which would be larceny in new york state, is more serious of a crime than falsifying business records. >> they minimized it. and the prosecutor misled this jury. >> are you allowed to say

revealing he stole tens of thousands of dollars from the trump organization. a key moment for the defense as it tries to attack cohen's credibility. >> john: he recalls that he told reporters that trump no nothing about the payment a story he knows when news broke . how does all of this appeared to the jury? >> sandra: that is a key question. this hour we have expert analysis to cover everything we have heard so far and are about to hear when court resumes at 2:15 p.m. eastern time here but first let's get to our senior correspondent eric shawn live outside the courthouse for us. hey eric. >> hi sandra. michael cohen admits that it was wrong for him to steal from donald trump. will the jury forgive him? court observers say that this has been a very damaging day to alvin bragg's case. it was cross-examination by trump lawyer todd blanche that brought all this out. blanche showing that cohen would benefit financially if trump was found guilty and elicited more omissions that challenges cohen's credibility. the stunning admission that he stole money from trump. te

"you stole from the trump organization, right" asked trump attorney todd blanche.ir," michael cohen said. michael cohen has admitted to stealing from the trump organization, does it matter for this case? >> it may matter a lot to some juror, and then not to to others. michael cohen is such a proven liar, why would it surprise us that he is also a thief. >> reporter: cohen defended his actions, saying he was angry that his bonus had been cut and felt that he was owed the money. "i just felt like it was almost self help," he said. cohen is this witness to direct trump paid to the witness of stormy daniels which are at the heart of the case. trump has been charged with falsifying business records to conceal the transactions. >> i paid a legal expense, and they marked it legal expense. >> reporter: blanche cast cohen as someone using trump's name to promote himself. even discussing a tv show about himself called "the fixer." >> i fixed things, but i am no longer your fixer, mr. trump. >> reporter: with the defense repeatedly calling cohen's credibility into question, p

instead, cohen leaves the trump organization, becomes the personal attorney to the president which makes the legal retainer checks look like that was how trump was paying for his services as his personal attorney. in reality, cohen was never paid anything for being personal attorney to the president, that's just what they called it, that's just what they called him so it wouldn't look weird that trump was paying him $35,000 checks every month. now that makes sense. also, why did prosecutors go out of their way to point out ben rots berger the former pittsburgh steeler quarterback had been at the golf event with donald trump at the time of the trump stormy daniels alleged sexual encounter? now we know. contrary to trump's denials that he had with stormy daniels michael cohen testified today that when he asked donald trump if anything had happened to him and stormy daniels trump bragged to michael cohen even though he was there at this golf event with big ben, the women there like stormy daniels wanted him more than they wanted big ben. all the little mysteries that have popped up over the

that was when he testified about his work for the former president and the trump organization. meanwhile, president trump's lawyers indicated who they want to call as a defense witness, bradley smith. smith is an election law expert and former chairman of the federal election commission. smith is on record saying he thinks the payments to stormy daniels are not campaign contributions. that as prosecutors allege but instead they should be classified as personal expenses and if the jury considers them personal expenses, that would undercut a key prosecution point. smith has compared this case to the 2012 prosecution of former north carolina senator john edwards. he faced charges that he misused campaign funds to try and hide his affair with his mistress, that exploded during the presidential campaign in 2008. it turns out that senator edwards trial ended in an acquittal and mistrial. judge merchan this morning in arguments discussed this situation saying he would restrict what smith has to say saying he doesn't want a battle of campaign experts. we'll see how he rules on that. mea

two then president trump, the former charge of security, the trump organization, along relationship withyou make of this? so this is a crucial phone call, a crucial moment in this trial. >> michael cohen testified on direct examination being questioned by prosecutors that on october 24, 2016 at 8:02 pm, he was shown phone records. i had this crucial call. i called keith schiller cell phone. he was donald trump's right-hand man. and then schiller put me on with trump or put me on speaker clinton. remember and i basically said to trump, okay, stormy daniels situation is resolved on cross-examination. now, donald trump's lawyers got up and they confront to michael kohler with a series of texts. and if we look at the timeline, we can see that basically lead up to that 8:02 call all and then after the 8:02 called, and what they reveal does that you, michael cohen were texting with keith schiller leading up to that 8:02 pm call about something totally different about this 14 year-old who was harassing you a text and then you had the call at 8:02 and then right after the call, cohen sent the ph

donald trump was elected president, was there going to be a continuing role for you at the trump organization? cohen says my service was no longer necessary as i was special counsel to mr. trump, and he was president-elect. actually right up stairs in his building where he had his office, michael cohen did, as special counsel to the president. hoffinger asks after he was president-elect, was there a discussion about a job, assistant general counsel, did you want that? michael cohen says no. hoffinger, did mr. trump ever offer you chief of staff, michael cohen says no. hoffinger, was that disappointing. cohen says i didn't want the role. i didn't believe the role was right for me or that i was competent to be chief of staff, i just wanted my name to have been included. it was more about my ego than anything. i would have liked to have been considered solely for me ego. hoffinger, did you pitch to mr. trump another role for you. personal attorney to the president. there were outstanding matters that we were dealing with and every president has a personal attorney, and i could deal with other ma

in terms of the payment to stormy daniels but he said, "neither the trump organization or trump campaign was a part of the transaction with with clifford. and neither reimbursement of the payment directly or indirectly buried the payment to miss clifford was lawful and not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure in any way." i remember having a phone conversation with cohen when he told me that he took out a home equity loan to pay for all of this. put all along the same lines of what he told "the new york times" and yet he was out there on the stand and now here he is out on the stand telling a completely different story. what is the jury to make of all of that? >> exactly. let me tell you what's going to happen. the real testimony starts with the letter, john. he is going to -- the prosecution has to deal with all of his lies and the fact that he is a convicted felon. he is reversing himself. how we deal with that is going to be very interesting and let's not forget the elephant in the room. the cfo, allen weisselberg. he just made reference to alan weissberg. they won't even

he wanted to establish this was donald trump's organization that donald trump was the man in charge of everything there. so this was right at the beginning in a question during the time you worked for the trump organization, who ran the company? mcconney answered president trump colangelo, asked before 2017, what was mr. trump's role in the trump organization icon? he says, well, i'm not sure he was he ran the organization. he was the brains behind it. he i don't know how to answer that question. glandular. when you work worked there, did you consider mr. trump your boss or mcconney says, yeah, it's almost like even conceive of anything other than donald trump being paramount in this organization? >> this is someone who i know. he's been on the witness stand before he testified in the trump civil fraud trial. he actually got emotional and broke down on the stand during that because he was talking about why he left the trump organization, why he chose to retire anyway basically saying it was because there were so many subpoenas and investigations and how overwhelming this whole process

, and way he explained he did it by leading trump organization to believing he was owed more money, tens of thousands more in reimbursements than what he was entitled to, he admitted to roughly 60 thousand. a pretty big revelation from the disbarred attorney who at the time was representing the trump organization and was to be acting with his client's foremost interest. now we're moving forward with defense's case in chief we have bob costello, judge said today, that moving forward to the end of the week we can expect closing arguments to be next week, we can expect the case to last over the holiday weekend, into next week, but it seems like we're nearing the finish line. larry: great reporting thank you lydia hu, we appreciate it. we'll have more w with former prosecutor andy mcarte -- joe biden trying to buy the election by pumping green money that no one wants in to the swing states. that is a subject of tonight's riff. 3 biden bills for total of 15.4 billion dollars in government spending, mostly for green energy, being injected in states like arizona, pennsylvania, michigan and else

and the way he explained he did that was by leeding the trump organization into believing he was owedore money, tens of thousands of dollars more in reimbursements than what he was actually entitled to. if my math is correct, he stole he admitted to roughly $60,000 from the trump organization, a pretty big revelation coming from the disbarred attorney at the time representing the trump organization was supposed to be acting for his clients at foremost interest in the forefront of decision making. we're moving forward, with, excuse me with the defense's case in chief. as i said we have bob costello. the judge said moments ago, earlier today, move forward through the end of this week we can expect closing arguments to be next week. larry, that tells us we can expect this case to last over the holiday weekend into next week. but it seems like we're nearing the finish line, larry. larry: wow, great reporting lydia. thank you ever so much we appreciate it. folks we'll have much more on this with former prosecutor andy mccarthy later in the show but first another topic, joe biden is trying

because the trump organization foolishly, as a legal matter, requested those invoices from michael cohen, who had no expectation or intention to have to provide invoices for his reimbursement. after a trump financial official requested invoices from michael cohen, michael cohen sent those invoices and what made them falsified business records of donald trump's is that those invoices were then attached to other falsified business records in each one of those payments. those 34 falsified business records according to the district attorney are the crimes that are charged in this case and todd blanche has yet to say a single word about a single business record. that the district attorney says is falsified. and so the stories of weathering cross-examination of michael cohen today are, if you know anything about what the word weathering actually means, not true. it was an excellent cross- examination for 5 to 10 minutes, excellent, and then it was another four hours and 20 minutes where michael cohen continued to hold his own in his way in a case that is not so much about michael cohen as it i

so now we know from this testimony they want to keep it separate from the trump organization.t defeats the purpose of paying the money if it's attached. that in itself might not be illegal, but the question is the why. why do you want to keep it separate? why are you calling it something different? the threshold issue is are these falsified business records. you have to prove that first. then was this in furtherance of another crime. this is going to be the challenging part for prosecutors because he's going to have to say we thought we might be breaking the law. we intended to falsify these records because we believed it could be violating campaign finance law. >> it's really important just to

earlier today, cohen admitted to stealing from the trump organization. or, as my guest, matt whitaker, said last hour, embezzlement. cohen also lied about trump to congress and secretly recorded their conversations. we knew all that, and now the defense is hoping all of these details, along with the new one of how he was embezzling cash from the trump organization, will leave jurors with a single conclusion: the prosecution's star witness cannot be trusted. this is "outnumbered" trade i'm here with my coasts, emily compagno and kayleigh mcenany in fox news contributor and editor in chief of the federalists, mollie hemingway. and 32nd undersecretary of the army and attorney patrick j murphy. for today, it has been a devastating stretch for the state's star witness, michael cohen. here's the final witness praises are going to end on this messy stew. and lawyers for trump have been released going after his credibility. you can do it with a play hammer. you wouldn't have to hit it very hard. he lies as he breeds. jurors could begin deliberating as soon as nex

there's -- it seems like a group of potentially trump employees, trump organization employees who are down here who are, we believe, here to support donald trump. one of the big questions i have, vaughn, is do any family members show up with donald trump today? eric was the only family member, the only one in the courtroom yesterday. don junior was there, ivanka wasn't there. we have never seen melania at this courthouse. does his family show up with him today? >> it's our understanding don junior is out of the country. eric trump was with him yesterday, including at a fund-raising dinner last night. ivanka has not been here. it lasted six weeks. there was every opportunity to be here. melania not said a word. ivanka said, i love you, dad. this is a moment for a man who was on trial for six weeks inside a lower manhattan courthouse to not be seen with his family. eric trump the only one. this would be a moment if they were to appear with him you would think they would be here. >> inside the courthouse as the verdict was read, eric shook hit head. when donald trump got up -- he was mos

not to mention he is a convicted serial liar and thief who stole from the trump organization. >> brookeved to dismiss the case arguing there is no evidence connecting trump to false business record. judge merchan will decide on that at a later date. defense will rest today and closing arguments are expected to begin next week. >> todd: you would think he would lie about the fact he stole 30,000. nope, i did it. >> carley: only time he told the truth. >> todd: a town being taken over by highway for the homeless, after a church allowed them to turn an old school into a tent city. >> we have home lszless people 234 and out, we've lost our sidewalks and streets. kids can't play in front yards no more. we lost our neighborhood. >> todd: patrick murphy lives near the homeless highway. what do you mean by highway for the homeless, describe what it is like. >> the last few months, we've seen enormous swell of homeless people up and down our street. there is a mission that offers services a block from us and now old acatholic high school that s owned by the diocese. we are the highway between th

. >> cone admitting to stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the trump organization. cohen also testifying that would benefit it would benefit him financially if trump were not convicted in this trial? the defense is now calling the star witnesses in this trial, including robert costello and a legal adviser who michael cohen was infrequent contact with during the timeline of events surrounding this case, judge juan, were shown now really just a short while ago, that costello can testify about potential so quote, inconsistent statements made by cohen during his testimony. thanks very much for joining us. i'll be back later today, 6:00 p.m. eastern in the situation room. the lead with jake tapper starts right now cnn breaking news welcome to the lead. i'm jake tapper and the prosecution has rested its case and now it's donald trump's term his defense team has called a witness, robert costello and attorney. what one point advised michael cohen that stella has claimed in that cohen's lied about him under oath during this trial. this comes after a shocking revelation on the

he helped himself to the trump organization piggy bank and admitted clearly he stole from the trump organization will play with the jury and whether it's even relevant to them is not clear. i think it illustrates the mixed bag that is michael cohen as a witness. on one hand he's intimately familiar with the misdeeds of donald trump and the defense exposed themselves to michael cohen's explanation of it. on the other hand, it also forced michael cohen to admit that in addition to the various misdeeds of which we've heard him confess over the last few days, he also happened to steal $30,000 from the trump organization. >> one of the things i got from sitting next to you, lisa, and this is my first time at the courthouse, is what we've talked about. it's very hard to judge even with great explanations what the back and forth is. it's so different when you're in the room, you can hear the intone nation of the voice, that's one of the times that todd blanche did press it by saying you stole from the trump organization, right? michael cohen, yes, sir. not even belying any emotion or thought about it.

they were generated by cohen, sent to trump organization, so he could get paid. jessica, there is the whole aspect of what is illegal and what is not illegal about this. and the focus, i presume, the prosecution, to turn it toward, well there is a secondary crime here. >> right, government has to prove a number of things that trump was involved in the scheme to falify business records. and the government will argue it was to conceal violation of federal election law, primarily, though potentially also as an alternative state tax law. or federal tax law. and in any event, i think that what you see the defense doing here is trying to just create some confusion and if they can do that with at least one juror, because at the end of the day, this is a fairly complicated case, legally. then they may have the seeds of at least a hung jury. and there are 34 counts as well. if they can create doubt with respect to trump's connection to some of the records, including, for example, the invoices submitted by michael cohen, which are the least connected to trump and the trump

another trump organization employee testifying about mr. trump's process of signing checks, including to cohen, which were shown to the jury, saying, if he didn't want to sign it, he didn't sign it. it was signed in sharpie, and it was black, and that's what he uses. now the prosecution indicated today that they still have the number of witnesses to go. about two weeks, they expect, to continue to present their case against the defendant donald trump. at that point, the defense team for donald trump will be able to present its own defense. and of course the outstanding question of whether the former president himself will take the stand to make his own case under oath. >> vaughn, thank you. >>> the boeing star liner still on the ground this morning after last night's launch attempt was scrubbed because of a problem with the propellant valve. but whethen it does happen, it l have a crew for the first time. >>> let's check back in with michelle grossman to get a look at the weather ahead for the week. good morning, michelle. >> we're looking a