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tv   Anderson Cooper 360  CNN  April 23, 2024 12:00am-1:00am PDT

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the trial in those statements, told by both campaign and white house officialwill, if there's no formalized effort toonitor the daily velopmen of the tria thers no waroom,here are no daily memos, there are no individual staffers who are tasked wh reporting up to campaign and white house brass on what happens each day. til they're getting their information like the rest of us just watching the proceedings on tv. >> wealth, they let's aocit thwhite use. tha you. have i'm wo blier in the tuion room. thks very much for watching the ws continues ne on sien opening atements& rly testimony say about ere thgs areeaded the first ever criminal trial of a former president. >> also tonight, breaking news in one of his three other crinal cases what a witnesses the former president hold his valet and the part and he says he dangled in the classified documents se ps th antisemitism and fear jewish
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students say they're now enduring on campus after >> today's a pro-palestinian demonstrations at some of the country's fomost universies. good eveni. anks for joini us today. 12 w york cy juro and s alternates got their fsteek reved fromhe everyday ld far white-coar charges ty've been chosen to hear a wod of celebrity tyons, pn stars, allege payof, sleazy tabloids and legal fixers safe to say, 34 counts of falsifying business records never looked like this before. and no president or presidential candidate has ever been where ts one is or demonstrably less in control of his owfaith that donald trump which seemed to be written on his face as he sat tough opening statements, then watched his onetime tabloid publisher friend tests to five for the prosecution trump is facing possible present time if convicted and fines for allegedly violating a gag order d trying to explain at he did not with the prosecution alleges, namy, cover up hush money payments to porn star to keep voters from finding out
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this is a se where y pay a exact term they use.'s the >> legal expense in e books. >> they didn't call it cotruction, they didn't y you're buildina building, buhe puts in an inice or whatever a bill and ey pay me go into legal expense. >> i got indicted for that today. as kara scannell starts off, n she was inside the courthouse during the trial. now she's outside. so at was the scenes like? what was it like behind closed doors? >> so interesting, you said donald trump sitting at the defense table, he was taking notes and handing pieces of paper to his attorneys during the prosecution's oping statement. and then when his lawyer took the lectern to address the jury, trump had turned to face those jurors and more than half of them raise their hand when the judge asked if anyone wanted to know pad and a pen, so they were actively involved paying close attention, but also in an
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extraordinary move today, the chief administrative judge agreed to publish a transcript of the proceedings every day, so the public could follow word for word. this historic proceeding as opening statements got underway today i think it went very well prosecutors open their case today saying it all boils down to a conspiracy and cover up that trump orchestted a scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidtial eleion an coved it uby lying ihis dirict attorney, matthew colangelo's ying it was ection fraud, purend simple. >> trump attorney todd blanche argued theormer president is innocent. blanche also claimed there is nothing wrong with trying to influence an election in his remarks, colangelo'a lead prosecutor on the case. so the alleged crimes began at an august 2015 meeting heating between trump, michael cohen, and x national enquirer publisher david the first
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witness to testify in the trial on monday, colangelo's said the three formed a conspiracy at presidential election by the concealing negative infoation aboumr. trump in order to help him get elected the prosution's said agreed to lp by damaging infortion on trump me it go away, a move known as catch and kill at the center of the case, a $130,000 payment to adult film star stormy daniels just weeks before election day in 2016, the prosecution said a sexual infidelity especially with a porn let's start on the heels of the access hollywood tape would have been devastating to his campaign. so at trump's direction, cohen negotiated the deal to buy daniel story to prevent it from becoming public before the election, trump has denied having an affair with daniels prosecutor said trump did not want to write the check himself. so cohen put up the money colangelo's argued trump cohen and former trump organization cfo allen weisselberg agreed cohen would be paid back in monthly
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installments through fake invoices to the trump organization in a nod to cohen's past credibility issues, prosecutors said key witnesses like cohen have made mistakes in the past and encourage the jury to keep it's been open-mind and carefully evaluate all of the evidence that corroborates michael cohen's testimony then it was trump's attorneys turn. blanche said the da's office should never have brought this case. he said the prosecution story is not true, and the jury will find plenty of reasonable doubt. he pivoted to paint trump as a husband and father saying he's a person just like you and just like me, trump's team suggested the payments trump made to cohen. we're not a payback for funds paid to stormy daniels, but instead payments to his personal attorney. trump defended himself against these charges after court on monday so whatever bill and they can make all the legal expense i got indicted for that land shifted blame to cohen saying the reality is mr. trump is not on
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the hook, is not criminally responsible for something mr. cohen may have done years after the fact, blanche said the prosecution's outline of a supposed catching killed deal with was not a scheme, but completely irrelevant. events. and not illegal in the afternoon as briefly took the stand, he did not look at trump, but trump look directly at him as he testified care what was david what did he talk about on the stand because it was limited his time today? >> david was on the stand for about 20 minutes and he started to describe to the jury how the national enquirer operates, telling them that they engage in checkbook journalism, meaning that they would pay for stories. now he also said that he had to email accounts, including one that he used for confidential and sensitive matters, will be back on the stan tomorrow and he is expected to testify about these catch-and-kill deals at the heart of the case, anderson curves can help. >> thanks so much showing his now jury consultant, jill huntley taylor, former trump campaign adviser, davidai, urban bestselling author and
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former federal prosecutor jeffrey toobin also form and hadn't chief assistant district attorney karen friedman agnifilo, and timmy aganga-williams, who served as senior investment get to counsel to the house january 6 committee. a lot to talk about, geoff. i just re-read your piece from the new yorker years ago about david profile of him, what stood out to you today about, i mean, why is he the first witness? why is he so important? well, you could see that in the way coenzyme talk about the how this case is going to work. >> that's the prosecutor prosecutor, which is this was a conspiracy to help donald trump win the election through the suppression of bad news stories as three of them one of them being karen mcdougal the one alleged affair with alleged affair. the other was adore man who alleged falsely the trump was the father of a child. and the third, of course, with stormy daniels, who is the basis for the charges in the case. and david is the key
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figure in all three of these who basically controlled the money, or at least for two of them he controlled the money for how these stories we're going to be suppressed. and that, that's what that's what colangelo's talked about in the opening statements, and that's what cracker began to testify in his testimony today. and qarrah white is the suppression of these stories matter? >> because at the time hi and what they were trying to do in the opening statement and what they're going to try to do through the witnesses is take the jury back to 2015 and 2016 when none of this information was out in the open and the access hollywood tape had just come out and the campaign very much did not want these negative stories. trump was not the candidate that he is today with the popularity that he has now, he was sort of a candidate that, that was a long shot candidate and he was trying to suppress these stories. it was very important to his candidacy to suppress these negative
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stories on the heels of the access hollywood tape, i think the insiders, like hope hicks, like david, like michael cohen, are going to really take us into what it was like back then and why they were so desperate to get these stories suppressed and the defense said in their opening statement, spoiler alert, there's nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. it's called democracy so what's wrong with trying to influence an election by suppressing these stories. >> well, i think what what the prosecution is going to argue and is arguing that these were unlawful election contributions in part, write that here, donald trump, he could have paid for a catholic kill. that's fine. you're allowed to enter ndas. that's fine. >> what you can't do is getting this kind of conspiracy here to how fons going to impact an election because we have rules and regulations as to how you can spend money election and have it has to be reported. >> donald trump here, the accusation being that he took bunny had it paid out, didn't
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report it like would be required and then engage in this still meant and that's part those business records. so it's the underlying business records crime and it's done to conceal a separate crime here, potentially being this election fraud. so i think that's what's interesting here, is that there's really going to be approving up of initial crime that is charged, that focuses on election schemes or whatnot. and i think later on we're going to get to the lesson kind of the more boring crime which is these documents, these 34 misrepresentations allegedly by the prosecution, but it's all going to come down to why were these payments made was donald trump just a husband trying to protect a wife, perhaps, or was he actually a candidate trying to protect the campaign? and that would make it unlawful. >> urban is lavish chocolate i actually have a little bit of hope there. let's inductively die. explain that. i was like, wow, if a jury has got to buy that, maybe we're gonna get a hung jury. maybe we get a not guilty because that is a lot of ifs ifs that ifs and it's a lot of connective tissue to get the actual crime. hear what
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trump is saying in what he just said was, look it said on the 34 things there signed legal fees or whatever the exact wording of it what i mean if it's a payment to an attorney, he's saying it's legal fee. >> so any payment in tune, attorneys illegal arguments have great jury appeal. >> i mean, they have great jury appeal. >> there's simple. >> they make sense. it's like why i paid a lawyer. that's a legal fee that makes sense. i can influence election, of course. of course everybody does that. that's democracy. he makes these very simple arguments. and no matter how complicated the case is, a jury's going to make it simple, but i felt the defense pointed out what appears to be a real weakness in the government's case. today which is, i don't think the jury is going to have any doubt that this was hush money. i you know, this this whole idea that it was just money to cohen. i think it's ridiculous, but the charge in this case is that donald trump
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cause these documents to be filed filed falsely, and donald trump was the head of a very big company and a bookkeeper filled out these forms. how did trump tell the bookkeeper what to do when it appears that trump had no contact with the book, but what were some of these checks done in the white house itself? i'm in trump's sign these chairs, right? i mean, i don't think there's any doubt that trump signed the checks, but the issue is how were they recorded in the corporate records of the trump organization? >> the charge here is that that was false. and how trump made those entries in the corporate records false that leap is something i haven't heard how the government is going to prove it. we have a long way to go but that's something i think is raising a question. is it to influence the election or is stay off the couch, right? i mean embarrass wife and bears family. i mean, is that what it was paying for the argument against that is he then later on after the election, sort of at my understanding, is asked
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michael cohen, do we have to actually go through during pe stormy daniels? so if he was really concerned about his wife finding out, i'm not sure he would be raising the question of whether or not he needed to pay. well, that's that's got of michael cohen get on the stand and testify. and if somebody were about that right. >> but i think the timing context is going to be everything here. i think i do not think they're gonna be able to prove up that he was a caring husband that was worried about what his wife at home thought. i mean, one, there's consistency with the behavior of potentially would still be daniels that he was just caring husband, that the defense lawyer suggested in their opening. but the timing is going to be everything this this will camp it michael cohen had a campaign email address. these are individuals hope hicks, she's not she's not working for him personally. these are folks are trying to get this demanded elected president. and that's a contact by which it's happening. and if after the election he no longer thinks he asked to follow through, he still married to bolonia, so if he was concerned a motivated by protecting information why would the fact that he's now president changed his views if it was really a family personal
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issue, he would still be as committed to protect information i would just simply say that maybe it's not maybe the store is not that interesting once he's elected a lot of other things coming down the pike, right? and it just kind of an adjunct to this, just were quickly to raise republicans look at this and saying, this seems awfully similar to what happened with 100 biden laptop pre the 20 election. you're hearing a lot of that from republicans so it doesn't take as it has enough, don't know with hunter biden? no, no, it does. hold on for a second. let me explain, right. so people will say the biden story was put put out there and saying 75 intelligence officials said that this was all russian propaganda and didn't get in the news. nobody really looked at it before the election, right? there was a conspiracy, a coordinated effort to keep it out of the media until after the election. and people say, nobody peel back the onion that no one is looking at that. and so why, why does trump and jeff again, it seems like playing people in congress are looking at things they just haven't really found anything. so when they do, we can talk about about the conspiracy to keep it out of
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the media before but nobody took it seriously. for the last hunter biden has never run for president, has never been subject to campaign finance regulations. >> we're talking about candidate trump when a president. so i think that's a clear distinction what stood out to you about the former president's? >> did anything stand about the form person's behavior today? >> yeah, a lot stood out to me the main thing though is that he once again violated the gag order. he walked up of court and started talking about michael cohen and tomorrow morning, court is not starting until 11 or the jury's not coming back until 11 because there's a hearing in the morning in order to determine whether donald trump violated the gag order ten other times, but then he walked out yesterday or this morning? i should say. and talked about it again was to talk about witnesses. he's not supposed to talk about the witnesses and so it's going to be can you call him a liar and fraud and a couple other things. and so i think the judge
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>> but like michael cohen, people were sort of public figures now other witnesses and the comments about the jury, he he made some comments about the jury last week, which i think the judge is going to be especially concerned about
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because judges quite properly are very concerned about protecting the anode anybody protecting the safety of jurors. they didn't sign up for this. michael cohen is a public figure. stormy daniels is a public figure, but these jurors are not public figures and private information is already leaking out about these people. and i think the judge quite properly is going to be very concerned about making sure these people can stay to the end. and not just throw their hands up and say, i'm not i'm not going to be part of this. sorry, everyone. >> thanks. karen mentioned, judge them or sean, we want to bring in johnny jones, the form the third, the former chief judge for the us middle district of pennsylvania, joe jones. appreciate you being back with us. what was your biggest takeaway from opening statements? >> well, it's interesting i think the opening statements we're not unexpected there's a lot that the prosecution didn't say and i'm curious about that i think they're kind of playing hide the ball, not
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inappropriately with some witnesses. i agree with your panelists and hope hicks this is going to be a very interesting and, maybe a pivotal witness to tie the former president or not to what happened from the defenses i was curious about todd blanches statement why he raised that is a little unclear to me but those are the first takeaway is i had from the from the opening statements i i was surprised that judgment sean ended cord early because an alternate juror had a dentist appointment. i know dozens moments are tough to get in your extended and you kind of want to hold onto when you do get them. but did that seem odd to you? i mean, is it important to balance that your lives with the court scheduled it didn't. >> but i think he's not going to make a habit out of it. >> he's trying to be solicitous and he adjourned a little bit early. you try to accommodate your jurors look,
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they're going be out of pocket. for as long as six to eight weeks. so you have to give him a little bit of latitude. i would think if there's a run on dentist appointments, he's he's got to toughen up a little bit, but that didn't strike me as that odd. >> how much jurors take cues from a judge? meg, hey, run whom i'm going to talk to you shortly. porter from inside the courtroom, the george were intently watching judge merchan today they are extremely responsive to the judge. >> and i thought that in president trump's prior trial in the defamation trial, that one of the things he did is he alienated the jurors because he was running roughshod over the judge and jurors don't like that. the judges there keeper, he greets them in the morning he gives some instructions at the end of the day. you know, he he does things like hill, let them go for tenants to appointments and typically there's a bond between the judge and the jury. so they are
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they feel a certain closeness to the judge, threw the trial that grows by the way, and your son, as the trial proceeds, and karen was talking about this before the trial resumes tomorrow, the judge is holding a hearing on the da's motion to sanction trump for violating the judge's gag order barring discussion of witnesses. how do you think that's going to play out because there's not that many options. the judge really has. are there? >> well i'll, tell you one thing the trial is rolling now. and what judge merchan doesn't want to do is interrupted for a sideshow judges get focused on getting the trial and he knows that he's got these people, they're inconvenienced as i just said, and their lives are disrupted by this. he's you're gonna give everybody some time tomorrow, but he's not going to burn the day. i don't think on sanctions. i think in the end he probably won't sanction the former president. i think what we'll probably do is admonish him, draw some bright lines about what he can and can't say. i think some of the stuff that the former president was doing was too cute by half and
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he's going to say, look, i'm going to give you a warning, but if it continues then you can't do it. and by the way, the statements he made outside the court today your panelists didn't comment on that, per say, but it strikes me that where the president, the former president, is doing is he's testifying outside the courtroom as your lawyer panelists no, that's usable if he decides to testify, he can be impeached by the statements that he's making publicly. again, i think it's attorney can't control, but he should not be doing that in 100 cases, in 99.9 of them the lawyer would not allow the client to go out and talk about the merits of the case and paint himself into a corner. i found that to be very interested. we should point out in the video, we're showing, that's his lawyers standing right next to him. >> i initially thought maybe it was a secret service agent and i realized, oh, no, that's taught that is his attorney. so he's obviously listening very closely to anything that his
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client says to reporters, judge jones. thank you so much coming up next, as we mentioned, trump biographer maggie haberman, who was in the court today. also, there's breaking news in the documents case. a witness now saying the former president promised to pardon his co-defendant, his valet walt nauta, in a second term also, a live report from the campus of columbia university. were pro-palestinian demonstrators have been out in force and jewish students have been living in fear. morehead when you're the leader that's the cleanup and restoration, how do you make like you've never even happened? >> happened brand whatever comes your way. there's a pro for that. serve crow like it never even happened doug hello,
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i wonder what i will be doing? probably still living here with mom and dad. fast reliable speeds right where you need them. that's wall-to-wall wifi with xfinity. preferred better science, better results as much as still photos and courtroom sketches convey about the foreign presence demeanor as a defendant, these historic proceedings are not televise, which is why it's good to be joined now by new york times senior political correspondent maggie haberman, and only has spent time inside the courtroom, but it's also trump biographer. so what do you make the former president's demeanor today? what was it like? >> there? for a couple of things that were striking. he looked very unhappy. he looked very unhappy on the monitors where you can see his face. he looked in court were well behind him so we can't see his face when we're in there, we have a better view when we're in the overflow room. there's overflow room that has monitored and there's monitors in the courtroom too, but it's much easier to see the monitors in the overflow room there right up at your face, it's just different. he looked unhappy when here he left for break. he looked unhappy when he left when court ended for the day it was tense in the room when david was on the stand, it was tense in the room
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when colangelo's the prosecutor was going through the narrative of the case and talking about stormy daniels and access hollywood and karen mcdougal and all of these things that trump does not want to hear about. >> i said this earlier today when recovering this, but i just kept imagining what is going through trump's mind when he's sitting there at the defense table watching david, his former friend, dish who knows a lot of secrets about him going back a long time on the stand. it's it's just it's fundamentally different than what we have seen with trump over many years now, which is a lot of former aides or allies, or advisers going on television or writing books. >> this is, this is a courtroom, and this is under oath and this is david opening his testimony. >> we only heard a little bit of testimony is coming back tomorrow, but him opening saying we practiced i'm paraphrasing, but we practice checkbook journalism. that is a quote. at the national enquirer, we paid for tips about celebrities and so forth. and trump knows what that means
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and he knows what kind of information that meant that david had and david was very poised and i think that he's going to tell a story that the jury is going to find pretty compelling. >> david, essentially made a deal so let me a non-profit has a non-prosecution agreement and so that's why i mean, he's testifying. >> yeah, he's testifying under subpoena. he is not doing this because he was he was prosecutor say he's a coconspirator. he is not there because he wants to be there. but the prosecutors are going to try to suggest that he is testimony those same way they're going to try to say this with michael cohen is credible for xyz reasons and that these are things trump just didn't want to have come out the the fact that foreign president has no family with him, no friends, just got his legal team understand he was he he talked about this. >> he was upset about the lack of proximity keep supporters outside the courthouse. >> yeah. so it has been striking that there's no family because i know that there was some discussion at some point in the last couple of weeks about who would be with him in court and last week, which was just jury selection, there weren't that many people today. there was a phalanx of
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lawyers from his other cases and from the trump org who showed up in court. but i think is because they were next door playing with this new york attorney general appeal he is he is by himself and when he feels boosted his by his supporters. and so he has been hoping for something of a circus around his trial, but the reality anderson is that only two to three dozen supporters, max over the last week have shown up and their position two protests last demonstrates slash whatever across the street from the courthouse, trump started trying to suggest entry social. that's why the number has been so small, is that they're all being blocked. but that's not it. it's the people are not showing up. >> you also wrote a really interesting piece for the new york times about how the trial is strip's trump of control. and i mean, you really see that there was the famous example i'll just the other de of he got up to leave and the judge admonishes him, id, sit down, we're still accession but it's just i mean, for anyone who's been ithose courtrooms, it's a drea i me, it is like it's like old new york. >> it is, it is trapped in amber 1980 tom wolf, new york,
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and it's the new york that trump thrived in. but this is not the part of it. the trump er wanted to be captured by, and he has to sit there. no cell phone board, which is not something he ever handles. well, while he is being insulted or describe negatively, he doesn't have the same methods to push back. remember there is a hearing about whether he is whether the judge degrees of prosecutors that he has repeatedly violated the gag order against attacking witnesses and others in the case tomorrow and there are people around him who believed that this is part ofoal of the prosecution is simply that this process is is so shrinking and small, but courts and particularly state courts are really their own nations. essentially, there are rules that get made from on high and you are at someone else's women will it is your life is not yours. >> thank you. hi, everyone. thank you. >> now, a major development, the documents case. >> it's one that if a witness's account is true, could show what the form
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present did to secure the cooperation, loyalty of a co-defendant and seen as evan perez joined just now with breaking news talk about what you've learned, what anderson, this is a witness who is not identified is only by number witness 16. >> and what the person was totally telling the fbi in a november 2022, interview was that walt nauta has said that he was being offered a pardon that this was an offer those made by the former president's people, it's only referred to as the president's foreign presence. people and it was a characterization of the investigation are really just a part of what the fbi interview says. it says that the nauta was told by the former president's people that his investigation was not going anywhere. that it was a politically motivated and much ado about nothing and said that if even if nauta was indicted if he was charged he was for lying to the fbi that the former president would pardon him in 2024. now, we don't know again, what this person, who
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this person is we do know that according to this transcript that was that was submitted in court that he worked this person worked for the trump white house and has had very limited contact since leaving them. i will note one last thing here that this person this was a witness who also apparently had talked directly to the former president in and encouraged them to cooperate to return those documents, the classified documents. and it said something like, let them come here and get everything, don't give them a noble reason to indict you because they will anderson has nada or trump responded at all to this? >> not as attorney declined to comment the former president's legal team has not responded, but i will note anderson that this is part of the defense by beit walt nauta to fight against the obstruction charges. >> he is charged with being in a conspiracy with the former president to abstain struck this investigation anderson and
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impress. >> thanks so much up next, we don't trump's one time friend. and according to prosecutors, coconspirator david taking the stand, i'll talk with ronan farrow. who is dotted reporting helps them cover the catch and kill practice of national enquirer sleep. seal. the sheiks difference is real from the light to the dark hold back. >> all in exhale hi dan. >> no, ma'am. >> so chill all night on a cloud like a feather, smooth, soft, nothing better. >> straight. on the night visit, try sheets.com to get 25% off free shipping and to free pillow faces, plus a 69 guarantee hcm is a serious heart condition affecting as many as one in 200 people like me and. me, it can impact how you feel and what you can do. >> i still felt tired on my beta-blocker. >> so i talked to my
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captioning brought to you by gilt visit gilt.com today for up to 70% off designer brands, it has the designers like your heart racing had inside a prices, new every day, hurry. >> they'll be gone in a flash designer sales at up to 70% or so of gilt.com today we've been talking about the catch and kill scheme, the center of the trump trial, which began in earnest today journalist ronan farrow wrote about the practice and as 2019 bestselling book catch and kill pharaoh uncovered the alleged central conspiracy and through rigorous reporting explored other alleged hush money payments made on the former president's behalf including the $150,000 payment david is company made to buy the rights to former playboy model karen mcdougal story about an alleged affair with trump years earlier. >> ronen spoke to mcdougal in detail the allegations and the scheme to kill her story tomorrow when the trial resumes, ronan's reporting will be a key piece of evidence. >> i i spoke to mcdougal and 2018. and the only tv interview she'd done about her relationship with trump. here's what she told me once
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donald trump won the republican nomination, you're saying ami suddenly came back to you with interests to keith? yes. to us for the story. yeah. >> what do you think it was that it was after donald trump was the republican nominee that they came back they wanted to squash story you're saying they wanted to protect donald trump i'm assuming so. yeah. >> if donald trump hadn't been running for president, do you believe this deal would have been made with ami knowing what you know now, probably not. >> no haven't been that you're pretty you're convinced now this was an effort to do a favor for donald trump in the last few months of the presidential race unfortunately, yes how is new yorker contributing writer ronan farrow, author of catch and kill lies, buys, and conspiracy to protect predators. david was obviously central to a lot of your reporting. i'm running. what
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do you make of him being called as the first witness? >> well, he's an obvious choice for a sort of star witness. there's a reason prosecutors are putting him first he's right at the heart of this scheme. he was the guy in the position of power at am i the parent company of the national enquirer and he was present for this meeting that prosecutors have focused on so much in august 2015, where allegedly this whole scheme was brokered and this was a meeting between him, michael cohen, and donald trump. >> that's right at trump tower and the crux of this was that there was a very explicit agreement made that they talk to openly about this being about how can you the enquirer help during the election. and saying, well, we can buy up stories. >> saying i be your eyes and ears essentially exactly. >> so we didn't get it into all of the meat of that in the testimony that happened today, it was very preliminary. he was on the stand briefly, but what he did do was say yes, we bought stories. he called a checkbook journalism. he said he had to personally authorized
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anything over $10,000, which would apply to these pivotal transactions that the prosecutors are trying to establish. and we'll hear more more about that tomorrow. it was initially the defense in their opening statement said that there's nothing wrong with trying to influence an election prosecutors would argue otherwise and the the very meaningful distinction here is whether you are paying to influence the election and acknowledging that as an electoral cost prosecutors are arguing that is not the case, manifests late appears not be the case. right? these were not listed as campaign expenditures. so it is the hidden aspect of it that this turns on. >> i was so fascinated. i mean, i said this earlier to try to imagine what is going through donald trump's mind, sitting there watching david, this guy who knows all his secrets it's more secrets than even what he's there to testify about. >> yeah. i mean, one of the things i reported on was there were ami sources who saw larger lists. i was actually shown from a senior ami source, a
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larger list of trump's stories. some of them more consequential than others, not all of these were barn burner. some of them morgan, about his feud with rosie o'donnell is all of the stuff they had amassed over the years, but they really did keep tabs on that. and during the election, they made sure that that list was in a safe. there were sources who claimed that there was shredding of certain documents. so people at am i knew that they did as you say, have trump's secrets and that that could be a source of leverage gen. potentially collaboration with him. i think it's a pretty startling about face for trump to have to listen to this stuff in court. >> what do you think was in this for david? i mean, was it proximity to donald trump's? he did he really think that they were friends would proximity, i think is the answer. >> and this was a tried and true model for david and the national enquirer. they used these tactics, this combination of carrots and sticks will buy up stories for you, maybe will threaten you that we're going to expose those stories. maybe we'll buy them up and keep them secret for you with other celebrities before there's a
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laundry list of famous people that they did this with as the election junior, they saw an opportunity to do that in a much more consequential setting right at the heart of power in this country. and then i think very quickly they realized that this was something that could backfire as it clearly has in, as president on trump. thank david by having him to the white house i mean, sort of giving him the the grand tour, there were some early acknowledgment of the alliance, but it's also true that by the time the stormy daniels transaction came around and this is after the transaction over the rumor of a love child at trump tower, the transaction around karen mcdougal, this other affair at a certain point, it started to become a harrak to the people inside the national enquirer that there was too much heat around this. >> there was too much risk, and i think that's why you see the stormy daniels transaction looking so different through colon and there was a report that the $3,030,000 was too much and sort of pass it onto
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cohen. >> it started to get both overly expensive and risky he looking risky specifically in the sense that it might ultimately have the potential to put people in legal jeopardy. >> what else do you think i mean, what's the most important thing you think will be used for on the stand tomorrow. >> i think speaking to that meeting. and what was said in that meeting and pushing back on what we already heard in the opening statements today from the trump defense team, which is, hey, this is just a guy trying to protect his personal life, trying to protect his marriage by saying no, there was a meeting that catalyze this in which it was explicitly said this is about helping donald trump during the election that's something that david can speak to in an almost unique way and while michael cohen, who is also going to be called as a witness, can speak to it, too, and different way. he's also a more fraught kind of witness. he's been accused of lying and various formalized settings. he's admitted to lying and various formalized settings. i think that will be
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explosive and painful testimony as well, but david today especially came off as sort of sober sanguine. he said he was there under subpoena, but that he was going to tell the truth. and i think prosecutors are relying on that sense of relative credibility. he has been fascinating. thank you so much. appreciate it still ahead and the pro-palestinian protests get some charges of anti-semitism is working heighten tensions and arrested some of the nation's top universities. while vl lab report from columbia university were protests are now in their sixth day. we'll be right back suppose time in prison he didn't inside before. >> yeah, have you ever tried to tell anyone why did it to me? i'll story. >> you got one oh, yes murphy's law and you lift as you wouldn't be in jail that woman is a red country deserves of compassion. >> i'm pregnant this, is. the playground to just go easy on
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columbia university there is a jewish group here that's actually giving out free matzo as they get ready for passover. >> and just across from them is the encampment, which has stirred so much emotion here on the campus with some of the jewish students feeling unsafe i consider myself a very brave person, but i won't deny that i've been physically intimidated and harassed i've felt lie this is not a welcoming environment. i think this is very difficult time for a lot of jewish students judges seventh of october over the weekend, the protests turned rowdy disturbing videos show some protestors harassing jewish students amid all this, a rabbi linked to the university urged jewish students to stay home saying recent events at the university
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have made it clear that columbia university's public safety and the nypd cannot guarantee jewish students safety this is the center of color i'm being university with their calling the gaza solidarity encampment and an occupation here at the school as they want certain demands to be met by the school in terms of there are support of israel. why is it important for you to be out here sleeping out here yeah, just to show solidarit alreadbeen arrested ood and obviously,he people in gaza, th is thtarp area. this is where many of t dical supplies, the food, there's coee here, there's other goodies thatust sential needs that many the people mayeed. who had been out here for veral days. >> so i'm jewish a lotf
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focus has been on like, you know supporting jewish students who have been facing ti-semitism. >> but there hasot beei wa to cus on paltinian students whoave be feeng anti islamic sentiments. h d you ve parents feel about good proud of me. >> and i'm proud of them for that last week over 100 protesters, including some students, were removed from campus by new york police at the behest of the university, and arrested on suspicion of criminal trespass the move stirred more tension on campus. >> and by monday morning, colombia's president, minouche shafik declare that all classes would be virtual for the day, and that a reset was needed. i am deeply saddened by what is happening on our campus. she wrote in a statement, these tensions have been exploited and amplified by individuals who are not affiliate good with columbia, who have come to campus to pursue their own agendas many of the students
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here are saying who are graduating are saying they're not sure what graduation is going to look like this here. and those who are part of the encampment are saying that they intend to be here for graduation, that they are not leaving addition pro-palestinian protests are taking place at universities across the country including yale nyu, and mit and today anderson, a number of faculty members and employees of the school actually walked out to stand in solidarity with the students who are protesting in the middle of the campus but also they're protesting what the school did here in ordering the arrest of those students last week, anderson shimon prokupecz. thanks very much. just a head. how will the far right of the republican party respond after house speaker mike johnson stood up to them on aiding ukraine. that and with the former president just said about it now hi, it's christina again. i'm here to tell you about an all new special offer from my friends at jacuzzi bathroom model that
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ukrainian aid vote over the weekend, ukraine's president volodymyr zelenskyy today. thank johnson and others for the tens of billions of dollars in the city of kharkiv near the russian border, which has seen a lot of shelling a giant tv tower crash to the ground after a russian missile strike. zelenskyy told president biden by phone today that the russians are trying to make the country's second-largest city uninhabitable. melanie zanona join us on the aftermath of this weekend's funding fight. so how much support does green actually have them? hardliners? >> well, at this point there are only three republicans who have officially signed on to the motion to vacate the speakership, but greene is hoping that as republicans return home to their districts this week for the recess, hear from their constituents and see how angry a gop basis that there will be a pressure campaign that pushes more republicans into her camp. but anderson and one republican who does not appear eager to join greene in her effort is donald trump. he had previously said that he stands by the speaker. and tonight, he said that he continues to defend johnson's
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leadership. >> take a listen we have a majority of one. >> yes. okay it's not like he can go and do whatever he wants to do. >> i think he's a very good person. it's a tough situation when you have one, i think he's very good man. i think he trying very hard now, greene is one of trump's biggest cheerleaders on capitol hill. so he's being very careful to not directly criticize her or to tell her to back off, but even just having trump staying neutral in the fight and reiterated his support for for johnson is a big boost for the speaker since trump does have a lot of sway over this republican party and a green does force a vote. would democrats jumping to save johnson so democratic leaders have not officially committed to putting up the votes to either block or kill a motion to vacate. >> but find the scenes there is real interest in helping johnson and that is because democrats really admired that johnson defied his right flank, put this package of foreign aid bills on the floor there was really serious doubts about whether johnson was ever going
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to do that. and so the conventional wisdom, at least at this point as that democrats ultimately will throw johnson some type of lifeline and what's greens next move so the house is out for the rest of this week, which means the earliest that she could force a floor vote on removing johnson is next week, but she still has not i even recruited a replacement for johnson, so that's could work towards his advantage. >> anderson, who are the others who are along with with with with green in this gosar the other two republicans that's paul gosar of arizona and thomas massie of kentucky, all hardline members of the house republican party. they are trying to build support. that is why green hasn't moved forward just yet on her motion to vacate. she does say that there's a couple more at least behind the scenes, but we'll have to wait and see whether anyone else comes out in the coming days and weeks, anderson. all right. melanie zanona. thanks. the news continues here on cnn front next opening de of trump's trial. and it's getting ugly fast, name calling salts flying between trump and what will be
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a star witness? >> michael cohen. this is the first witness is starting to testify. the david helped trump's case russia's new it girl, stink television now fawning over marjorie taylor greene, even though she tried but failed to sink american aid to ukraine. here what they are thank tonight about quote-unquote moscow, marjorie and melania trump. now selling more jewelry. >> is it to help her husband pay his legal fees let's go out the front and good evening. >> i'm erin burnett outfront tonight. we begin with trump's trials spilling out of the courtroom on a de, when the prosecution and defense laid out their cases for the first time to 12 jurors and the six alternates in the room. and it's on this momentous de that former president trump and his former fixer, michael cohen, are now in a free-for-all? know did actually start in the courtroom. >> it was during opening statements, trump was watching as his lawyers were tearing into the key wetness they said,