lisa ribbon, suzanne craig and katie vang were inside the courthouse. plus nicolle wallace, and catherine christian as special coverage of trump on trial begins.

now. good evening and thanks for joining us for our msnbc prime time recap of the criminal trial of former president donald trump. i'm here tonight along with my colleagues. big night. today's proceedings unexpectedly to me were like that helpful moment in the old agatha christie style british detective story. you've been following along more or less, you know who most of the characters are, you can at least remember most of their names. you know the basic plot of the mystery but then there is this kindness, this great helpful moment in the story where the detective sits down under some stupid pretense with some other character and in their conversation they give you all the answers. it's okay you haven't been playing close attention all

along. they are going to recap the whole story and not only will they get to the big answer, the big whodunit, they will also give you the solutions to all the other little mysteries and red herrings that popped up over the course of the story. that was michael agatha christie cohen today. so, for example, why did michael cohen make the hush money payments to stormy daniels from his home equity line of credit rather than from his bank account? we learned today it's because that account was paperless. no statements related to that home equity line of credit are going to be mailed to his house. michael cohen's wife was never going to see some inextricable hundred $30,000 payment on a statement and question him as to what he was up to. now we know. also, why when the reimbursement was made to michael: for him paying for stormy daniels, why did that

include not just the stormy daniels reimbursement but a bunch of money for a bunch of other things? well, we learned today that this was going to be the last money michael cohen ever received from the trump organization. in these payments they included everything he was owed. they were zeroing him out, he was leaving the company. why was he doing that? because if michael cohen was still a trump organization employee like he had been it wouldn't make sense for him to be getting checks as a retainer for legal services. he would just be getting a salary like he had been for years before. 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 course of us learning about the scandal, all the little mysteries that have popped up our inexplicable sort of sidebars and detours we didn't necessarily understand as the prosecution has laid out its case thus far. michael cohen, today, provided the all is revealed seen in this detective story. tying up the loose ends, filling up the gaps in the story. bringing us to the main event, the big whodunit. michael:, longtime lawyer, enforcer, bully, quote unquote fixer for former president donald trump, the man who was not so much the hitman as he was the underboss, the man who testified today about for example telling suppliers and contractors and vendors to trump university that they would get 20% of what they invoiced trump university for or they would get nothing and they would like it. michael cohen gave testimony today that donald trump was in

the room where it happened in the worst possible way. the one piece of paper that has emerged in this case that is the most important piece of paper of all is this one. this document, people's exhibit 35 is the smoking gun document in this first ever criminal trial of an american president. it is a bank statement showing the wire transfer of $130,000 to the representative for stormy daniels. it is the bank record showing that the hush money payment was in fact made and on the bottom of the bank statement on the right you see what we now know as michael cohen's handwriting showing something else he wants to be reimbursed for since we now understand he is leaving the trump organization at this point he wants to make sure, in this last payment coming to him, this other money the trump organization owes him is going to be included. that is on the bottom right side of this piece of paper.

on the bottom left side of this piece of paper you see different handwriting. this is handwriting from the trump organization cfo. it is him doing the math. this is how much michael cohen is owed since we are going to lie and say this is income for him instead of the reimbursement that it actually is. that means he will have to pay taxes on it. here's how much we will add to what we are paying him to account for the taxes he will have to pay. here is the added additional bonus line because he said he was owed money on his annual bonus and he's never getting another because he leaving the organization. here is the over 12 part that means we will pay over 12 months so what is $420,000 over 12 months, $35,000 a month that is allen weisselberg doing the math. people's exhibit 35. what prosecutors have laid out is that is the smoking gun document that shows the crime. it shows what the payment was really for and how it was

disguised as something else and the business records of the trump organization. it was disguised as something else in order to conceal its nature because it's true nature was that it was a campaign expenditure. that's the prosecution's case. that document shows the crime. we have seen this document before in this trial. today, michael cohen testified for the first time that trump was therefore it. that he, michael cohen and allen weisselberg, the trump cfo, talked it over during which time they made those notes on that piece of paper that's why there's two different sets of handwriting on that piece of paper. after the two of them marked up that piece of paper the way i described they then took that piece of paper and marched it down to donald trump's office on the 26th floor of trump tower and with that paper in hand the three of them had a discussion about what exactly they were doing and why they

were doing it and he said do it. prosecutor, following the meeting with mr. whistleblower and both of you adding to and ready to people's exhibit 35, what did you do and where did the two of you go at that time? answer, we went to mr. trump's office in order to speak to him about this. when was this approximately? right before mr. trump left for the inauguration. so he was still at trump tower at that time? yes. what did you understand he was engaged in at trump tower at that time? being president-elect. >> was yet meetings at trump tower? yes. what happened when you went to mr. trump's office to have this discussion with him wednesday mark during the conversation alan turned around and said to me while we were talking about this it was -- what we are going to do is pin you over 12 months. i think the indication here from the transcript is that: then sort of rebutted that. it was probably better if i get it in one lump sum.

no, when you do it is over 12 months and it will be paid out to you monthly. did he say anything about how it would be paid out as something? yeah. as like a legal service rendered since i was then being given the title as personal attorney to the president. so was this conversation that you had with mr. weisselberg and mr. trump's office with mr. trump? answer, yes. question, did mr. weisselberg have with him this document, people's exhibit 35? answer, he did. did he show this document to mr. trump? yes. did 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 realize that this conversation had already taken place between the two. when i asked for the 420 mr. trump said it's better it's better to do it over the 12 months. trump defense counsel todd blind your honor, objection to that answer and move to strike.

the judge overruled. overruled. when allen weisselberg laid out the plan of how much you are going to get paid and over what months and showed mr. trump this document, did mr. trump try to renegotiate? answer, no. so he approved it at that point? yes. at some point did mr. trump confirm to you that he was going to give you the title a personal attorney or personal counsel to the president? yes. when in relation to this meeting was that? around the same exact time. was the $420,000 that you were going to receive back from mr. trump going to be payment for future legal services as personal counsel? answer, that was what it was designed to be. what was it actually? answer, reimbursement of my money. question, it was a repayment of which monies? answer, a repayment of the stormy daniels payment.

question, he said he believed this occurred at trump tower some days before mr. trump actually left for washington is that right? correct. did mr. weisselberg have with him this document people's exhibit 35? he did. did he show it to mr. trump, yes. michael cohen testified today 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. quote, he approved it. so, if there's anything in this case that isn't just plainly black letter proven by the documents and records, if there's anything else we have been waiting for in testimony from witnesses this is probably it, right? it certainly wasn't all,

there's a lot to say about what happened today. let's start there. lawrence o'donnell, you were there. >> one other bit we got that is sequential here an important is donald trump, at the time in october of 2016, the final days of the presidential campaign directing michael cohen to make the payment to stormy daniels. he said he directed me to do it, we remember weikel collins federal indictment that everything he did was at the direction of. an individual one who turns out to be donald trump. you have both pieces. you have today's testimony michael cohen saying he directed me to do this, to pay stormy daniels and then you have the payback which occurs after the election, the agreement to the payback. i have to say we were sitting there as this testimony was coming out and we have all seen the document already. michael cohen was able to confirm that is my handwriting on that other side which technically on the record had

never been confirmed. the previous witness who introduced that document identified allen weisselberg's handwriting saying i've been reading allen weisselberg's handwriting for 35 years so that is how that got in. it also got in today the weisselberg piece when michael cohen said i can identify that as allen weisselberg's handwriting because i saw him write it. that's about as good as handwriting i.d. gets. michael cohen explains that's my writing over there explaining to alan what i needed and allen crosses it appear. what we didn't know was the next thing that was going to happen in the testimony is allen weisselberg and michael cohen were going to take that document down the hall and we were going to be and donald trump's office and michael: was then telling us what donald trump said about this and how he approved it and as you put it it was all there. that's where the final elements of what become the criminal

charges all get put together is in that room. >> it was elegant because the prosecution had done such an effective job of getting evidence entered in to the record because if it's not in the record it can't be used. to lawrence's point, we saw this exhibit before. it had import through the former controller of the trump organization, but to have the nuance added from michael cohen's testimony is what good trial lawyers do. you saw a well executed plan from the manhattan d.a.s office to allow the introduction of certain cell phone records, text messages, emails, bank statements. it all was the corroborating evidence that allowed michael cohen to stand on his own on his own testimony and not have to worry that there was nothing underneath him in terms of a foundation to talk about what happened because his credibility, as we know, is going to be an issue.

we also didn't hear -- we heard few objections today. no sidebars for incredibly aggressive defense that we have seen. no objections. what was the import of that? it was a free-flowing well paced clean the sink examination today. michael cohen was afforded the opportunity to drive the narrative for the way the d.a.s office wanted him to do and the jury was taking notes intensely. at least three of them were feverishly taking notes and looking and that's the last thing i would say. the visual aid of having that exhibit displayed on the screen in addition to when the audiotape was played of the famous i secretly recorded donald trump thing accompanied by the transcript. it is so effective because jurors sit and sit as we do and then they see something and feel the engagement so when they go into the jury room to deliberate people's 35 is something they will tangibly have and they will look at the handwriting. more importantly they will see

a matches with the consultants, the 135, the wire, the gross up . everything fits. today they left to reassess today and the last thing they heard was donald trump participating in the conspiracy. >> doesn't matter they don't have weisselberg testify? they are not going to have him testify. does it matter he can't testify that was my handwriting and yes i was in that room as well with trump and michael cohen and when michael cohen was speculating trump and i had talked about this before here's the truth or the non-truth of that. >> no objections to speculation from defense when they asked michael cohen. jeff mccarney has independently verified and authenticated the handwriting. go ahead, bring in convicted purge your and when you have donald trump take the stand and explain what he really meant? if you fail to bring anybody up to refute the evidence it stays as the evidence.

>> i think the other part that was as black and white is the motive is clearly established. i think he was the 16th or 17th witness. not one person has told a different story other than the compressed period between the drop of access hollywood and election day. the pressure cooker in the campaign to pay the $130,000. we have all this longer timeline and longer arc on the catch and kill which included the doorman and mcdougal. from: his ark was longer back in 2011 he was talking to the boss about running for president and the first thing the boss says is a lot of women will come out. cohen was a fixer of a lot of things that specifically infidelity and women that came and claimed infidelity. >> he was integrated into the campaign and the sort of team trump on that point. he was never a rogue actor in handling measures -- accusations. >> to that point, packer was

the first person who told the story of middle-management cohen was. entering the conspiracy to catch and kill his the innovators, the founders of catch and kill. cohen is the guy that has to make it all happen. he's the guy on the phone with his own banker and we heard that from gary. he's haggling back and forth. he's trying to track down trump on the plane and on the phone with schiller. the conspirators is another sort of undisputed fact. >> there is no counter narrative about the other innocent explanation that explains what happened. >> i thought as i was reading this testimony of john bolton's line about rudy giuliani during the first inauguration is he i want nothing to do with this drug deal they are cooking up over there. it is such a sustained articulation of his lawyer senses like that stuff is not above what's happening over

there and everything be described here is so clearly not aboveboard. there is so much effort being done to do wrong here. when it comes to in putting trump in the room i think the question is it believable testimony? the other thing i thought about is trump is paying a crime penalty. because it is recorded as income it is grossed up to double what it should be that he is going to pay this cheap dude is going to pay the crime penalty to hide the income. do you think $130,000 payment which we know this guy has in his head he's going to look at a $420,000 statement and be like close enough? someone has got to walk through those numbers. if someone comes and says we did the dirt, we did the payment here's my reimbursement it is for 20 not 130. someone's got to go through the math on the paper or there's no way you are saying yes.

certainly not donald trump is saying yes. >> that actually is the closest thing we have had to a counter narrative. the counter narrative is rich people and celebrities, men, we are always paying hush money it's no crime. that has been the counter narrative. that would mean paying $130,000. >> you have connie testifying he got fired for a day or two because he didn't haggle down the bill. it's a great point. here's one that was more than two times. >> when cohen says that he try and renegotiate this when you were in the room and actually getting the final agreement he's going to pay did he try to renegotiate, no. >> weisselberg has had the key premeeting. you're not going to like this number but here's why it has to be this. >> weikel cohen is a witness for the prosecution in this case against former president

donald trump. today what they started is there direct examination. it means prosecutors firing questions at their own witness. that will continue into tomorrow if not beyond. the cross-examination of michael cohen will begin and that's when trumps defense lawyers will get to question cohen. some legal observers suggest today that the expected cross- examination of michael cohen now looming, that effectively might be the entirety of trumps defense. the defense is under no obligation to bring any witnesses to the stand including trump himself. they may not try to mount any witnesses, any defense at all other than what they are going to do to michael cohen and trying to score points off of him. how is it looking that might go for them now that we are seeing michael cohen on the stand? we have more on that and much more ahead on all of this including why divorce lawyers all over the country have their ears turned red today.

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testimony today from michael cohen putting former president donald trump in the room where cohen says they spelled out the details of the alleged crime. they spelled out this ruse of covering up the hush money payments, faking the business records to make it look like

legal fees for michael cohen to occlude the fact what they were doing was making a campaign expenditure. michael cohen today describing the document in which that was spelled out saying that was discussed. the document was brought in to trumps office and trump approved it looking at this same document that the journey and all of us have all seen describing the math behind this alleged crime. it was a sort of incandescent moment in this criminal trial of donald trump but it was hardly the only moment that will stick with folks for michael cohen's first day on the stand. as to whether there was a reason to approve the hush money payment other than to influence the campaign, whether there was some counter narrative that might explain the hush money was being paid for some other reason other than to influence the campaign michael cohen gave brand-new testimony about that today. if nothing else it will presumably warm some divorce lawyers heart

somewhere. now, after you learned from dylan howard and from keith davidson about the stormy daniels story and her wanting to publish that story and the conversations about purchasing that story did you speak to mr. trump? i did. was this also a serious matter at that time? a very serious matter. did you tell him what you had heard from dylan howard and keep rivets in? yes. what was his reaction? he was really angry with me. i thought you had this under control. i thought you took care of this. he expressed to me there is a previous denial. meaning we have previously been able to work with stormy daniels to deny any sexual encounter took place when this first arose in 2011. there is a previous denial. just take care of it. cohen says there was a lot going on at the campaign at the time. he was like just take care of it.

question, did he say anything to you at that time about how this might be viewed if it got out? answer, yes. what did he say in substance? he said to me this is a disaster. total disaster. women are going to hate me. this is really a disaster, women will hate me. guys may think it's cool, but this is going to be a disaster for the campaign. what did you understand him to mean by women will hate this, what was his concern? trump defense lawyer, objection. judge, overruled. cohen, at the time esther trump was pulling very poorly with women and this coupled with the previous access hollywood tape he stated this was a disaster. get control over it. did you have any conversation, additional conversation about a particular strategy about how to get control of it and how to deal with it? answer, he told me to work with david meaning david pecker and get control over this.

purchase the life rights. we need to stop this from getting out. was there any conversation about pushing it to a period of time? yes. during the negotiation to purchase and acquire the life rights, we are talking about stormy daniels, what he had said to me is what i want you to do is just push it out as long as you can. just to get past the election, because if i when, it has no relevance, i will be president. if i lose, i don't even care. question, did you bring up at the time the topic of his wife, milani a and one of those conversations with mr. trump? >> i did. >> what did you say? i said how is things going to go with upstairs. question, are you concerned about that? answer, i was. what, if anything did he say to you about that? answer, don't worry he goes. he goes how long do you think i

will be on the market for, not long. question, what did you understand that to mean? he wasn't thinking about melania. this was all about the campaign. a few things, nicole. women will hate me, guys may think it's cool. i'm going to leave that where it lies. what i want you to do is push it out as long as you can, get past the election. if i when it has no relevance, if i lose i don't even care. that means this explains they are not paying stormy daniels and them not paying stormy daniels almost results in them losing control of this and stormy daniels telling her story to abc news, they have to scramble, michael cohen pays himself. they've almost lost because they've been stringing it out. they want to string it out past the election and never pay her at all. the question about his wife, are you worried about what your wife would think? michael cohen is describing a

conversation with donald trump in which he's trying to elicit is there a reason for us to suppress the story other than the campaign? trump says no i don't care if she knows or if she's mad. how long do you think i will be on the market for? >> he's not the first person to testify to trumps concern with his campaign and the other investigator, prosecutors that had access to david unfiltered testimony was the southern district of new york and they found the same crime taking place. they decided not to charge trump and described his role as directing michael cohen. the facts are not in dispute by the other investigators that looked at this. no one who has come before this journey has testified to any motive other than the campaign and the real crisis, the thing that makes the stormy daniels payment different in addition to the crimes committed in the business records is this is one that happens in the compressed time period. karen mcdougal does come out before the election and you have

all those conversations where trump is telling what to do and i will deny deny deny. they are hyperaware of the political damage and none of the witnesses that have come through have said anything about melania. i have a source when access hollywood dropped. he told me he went upstairs with trump and melania was very distraught. no one knows anything about anyone's marriage so i have no idea. they went for debate prep. i don't think trump went upstairs alone. i think it ended and a subset of that group went upstairs to the residence to deal with the statement, to deal with melania. i think a group -- i don't think ryan went because his vote was to dump trump what i think a few of them went upstairs for debate trap. milani was reportedly crying. we don't know why she was

crying. was she mortified? was she mad at him for getting out? who knows. his concerns about her were very distant second. his political concerns of what he's afraid of being, a loser. >> at opening statements trumps defense counsel did suggest that the reason trump was paying this hush money or the reason this response to stormy daniels rolled out some of the way that it did despite the parts they deny is because he did what anybody would've done. he's trying to avoid embarrassment with implication he's trying to avoid embarrassment to his family on this. it does seem to be rebutted by multiple witnesses. >> one thing unclear to me and i've referenced this before in which they effectively use this when he was under trial for essentially campaign-finance violations for paying off hush money that it was fundamentally about protecting his wife who you might remember was cancer stricken and had a much more

plausible case. what i don't understand is what the standard is for the jury on this aspect of the crime. they clearly falsified business records. there clearly was a hush money payment. there's a huge amount of paper transaction. the motive to it, we have multiple witnesses saying it was about the campaign and not melania but there's stuff in the evidentiary record -- exactly, there's not a bank statement about the campaign. my question is how much whatever fuzziness a juror might feel of whether that is as firmly established as other things affects whether you can find. >> we are all now familiar with these intricacies and the reason this is a felony and not a misdemeanor. you can be charged with misdemeanor falsification. you are charged with a felony falsification of business records when it is used to

commit or conceal the commission of another crime. you don't have to prove the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. if the crime -- it is an illegal campaign expenditure. what is the standard? >> it's a great question because i think a lot of people went into today's testimony if you are reading for the prosecution hoping to have the clarity from michael cohen's testimony. the underlying misdemeanors of falsification of business records is the lay-up as chris says. for what purpose? that's what ponce it up to the felony. that secondary offense, the subject offense of why would you want to falsify those records, you don't have to prove that offense to the exclusion of any reasonable doubt? exactly. that is why you are hearing the campaign component so heavily here. you're not hearing as much of the tax side, you're hearing the campaign because that is

the theory the prosecution got up in opening and said is what the crime is. >> that standard seems to me watching this all develop to matter a lot. i do think if you were going to ask me -- they have established to me beyond a reasonable doubt so far -- clearly this was clearly fraudulent and covered up this thing. i think they have also established it was for the campaign. have they established in my mind to the same level of rock solid as that other thing? i would probably say no. >> they don't need to. >> having testimony for an s.a.n.e. trump was in the room when they talked about the falsification gets you there. >> these things can be both. that's the most important part. jurors can think he did it for both reasons and as long as the campaign is one of them and certainly if it is the dominant one than the cases made. they don't have to completely

exclude some sort of motivation involving his wife. however, this is important. the evidence so far has excluded. michael cohen, under oath, in evidence said he wasn't thinking about melania. you cannot get a clearer statement than that. this will be important, the judge will instruct on this. nothing the trump lawyers said in the opening is evidence. everything the witnesses said is evidence. the defense attorney cross- examination questions are not evidence. what the cross-examination questions are going to be you lied about that? cohen will go no. you lied about it isn't evidence. they cannot and will not put donald trump on the witness stand who is the only person alive who can present evidence against what michael cohen has said. it has to be trump saying i

never told them to do it and i absolutely did not reimburse him. i was paying him to be my lawyer. trump would have to give you that indirect testimony from the defense. the likelihood is you're going to go to the jury with nothing but the evidence presented by the prosecution. >> you think it is a 0% chance trump testifies? when we come back we will look at what michael cohen had to say about the rest of trump world by name as he made the case he did not act alone. we will also surprisingly to my mind at least be talking about the other appearances of the former first lady in today's trial testimony. that one comes as a surprise. we will have that portion of the transcript and an explanation when we come back. stay with us. rage. for countless americans, the complex specialty care they need has always felt... just out of reach. ♪♪

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welcome back to our prime time recap of the criminal trial of former president donald trump. prosecutor, i would like to direct your attention now to october 7th 2016. do you remember where you were that day? yes. where were you? i was in london. had he remember that you are in london? i went to london for my daughter's 21st birthday as well is for my anniversary. while you were in london did you become aware of the release of what's known as the access hollywood tape? yes. how did you become aware of that coming out or that it had come out? i received a phone call. from hope hicks. who was hope hicks at the time? communication director for the trump campaign. do you also recall receiving at around that time an email from steve bannon about the potential release of the access hollywood tape? yes. who was he at the time? campaign manager for the trump campaign. do you recognize this email?

it's an email between me and steve bannon as well as hope hicks jason miller kellyanne conway david bossi. does it relate to the release of the access hollywood tape busty mark can you tell the jury what you understand this bottom email to be? this is an email from david farren told of the washington post and it's to hope hicks with the subject matter of urgent, washington post query. in general what is he communicating to hope hicks and what is he asking her for? he's asking her for comment in regard to the leak of the tape from access hollywood. is there a transcript of the access hollywood tape attached to the email to hope hicks? there is. does hope hicks forward that email to some other folks? she does. what does hope hicks say in the email she forwards on. answer, need to hear the tape to be sure. then followed by deny deny deny. question, does that get

forwarded now as we scroll down does that get forwarded by mr. bannon on to you? yes ma'am. while you were in london did you have several calls with hope hicks about this matter the access hollywood tape? i did. at one point did mr. trump join a call with yourself and hope hicks? on that day on october 8th? yes. did you also have another separate call with mr. trump on october 8th 2016? yes. do you have a separate memory of where you were and what you were doing when you had these phone calls with him? yes. i was with my family and friends in london. were you having dinner? i was. did you step out to take these calls? i did. what if any discussion do you remember with mr. trump about the tape and the strategy for dealing with it? he wanted me to reach out to all of my contacts with the media. we needed to put a spin on this. the spin he wanted to put on it

was that this is a locker room talk, something that melania had recommended or at least he told me that's what melania had thought it was . use that in order to get control of the story and minimize its impact on him and the campaign. what if anything did you do at that point to try to assist the campaign with that effort? i reached out to members of the media. he told her that he told mr. cohen that the locker room talk defense which became the defense, that spin about with access hollywood tape was all about michael cohen says trump told him it was his wife's idea. it was her phrase, locker room talk. the other thing important about this exchange besides that is our assertion is that it shows michael cohen was not a rogue employee. he was not a solo operator,

especially on issues as nicole points out things that related to alleged infidelity. michael cohen was on the team, he was part of if not leading the whole team response. that was also made clear in this printed exhibit filed for the first time in court today. this is right before the election, the election was november 8th this was november 4th. this email exchange between hope hicks and michael cohen shows hicks trying out different types of denials she wants to potentially issue to the wall street journal about the story they are about to write about these infidelities and the cover above them. she's running these proposed denials by michael cohen. he responds with his own and says instead say this. these accusations are completely untrue and just the latest despicable attempt by the liberal media and clinton machine. prosecutors throughout this trial have not just allowed, they have basically

invited testimony from earlier witnesses including from hope hicks. they've invited these witnesses to disparage or say how much they didn't like or didn't respect michael cohen. today, they show the receipts of him not operating alone, him being totally part of team trump responding to allegations, being consulted at the highest levels of what the response should be. he was a key part of the whole team's response when it came to allegations from women. how does that part of his testimony today and this evidence introduced today help the prosecution? >> i am endlessly intrigued by the sinister role hope hicks laid behind the scenes because other than bill, there's no one whose reputation has been more successfully laundered before or after trump then hope hicks. hope hicks gets a transcript of access hollywood, she's in the room where he's talking to

himself in the third person i understand. of course we are going to deny. the first thing she writes when wall street journal calls with mcdougal is deny and if you read her draft responses they are more bombastic, more partisan and more nasty. cohen edits her down. hope hicks is sort of the surprise stash it shouldn't be a surprise but a sharp elbow paid liar for donald trump and cohen is a moderating force on the campaign which is stunning. the melania thing i heard at the time that melania goes out and does an interview where she says that and i think she says it in an interview. i can't remember if it's in his hostage statement that night. i can't remember if he uses it but she does an interview. they get her to do an interview and she uses that line in an interview she does i think maybe after the debate. that is their line. tragically, because the other

stories stay silent in their minds they think it does work. >> the melania question is kind of important on this point because melania will, through the questioning of defense, they will try to use her as a reason donald trump wanted these things to not come out. what you are seeing their is melania trump and this testimony will be uncontested, donald trump will not take the witness stand and say melania didn't say that, melania will not take the witness stand and say she didn't say that. it will be uncontested in the record. this is melania trump after seeing what -- how donald trump brags about his favorite method of sexual assault. this is worse than what you are learning about stormy daniels, this is worse than susan mcdougal. this portrays melania as a team player in the cover-up, let's get our guy through it

which means why would you ever worry about melania when the stormy daniels story comes along? >> which matters if the defense is going to count on putting in a mind of a single juror a counter narrative that makes this whole hush money and falsification of business records scheme something that is innocent because it wasn't criminal, it was just designed to protect melania and the family rather than to influence the campaign. if that's what they're going to try to do it seems very hard to do that now given the testimony about mrs. trump's own contributions to the defense and to what trump explained about how he didn't care whether she knew. >> here's how defense would do that. they would put the wife on the witness stand, she would be in tears saying this crushed me, this was devastating when i learned stormy daniels it was the most horrible day.

that is the way a defense would actually get that into a case like this. >> or she would be sitting behind him every day of the trial showing her support even if she doesn't take the stand but her absence screams volumes of a lack of belief in donald trump. >> our prime time recap of the only criminal trial in history of an american president continues right after the break. we have much more to come, stay with us. since my citi custom cash® card automatically adjusts to earn me more cash back in my top eligible category... suddenly life's feeling a little more automatic. like doors opening wherever i go... [sound of airplane overhead] even the ground is moving for me! y'all seeing this? wild! and i don't even have to activate anything. oooooohhh... automatic sashimi! earn cash back that automatically adjusts to how you spend with the citi custom

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