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us for right now. cannot go anywhere. it is time for the last word with lawrence o'donnell. good evening, lawrence. >> you have been in that courtroom. imagine the session is over, you had for that elevator on the 15th floor and you find yourself on the elevator with andrew weissman, the suburban and adam klasfeld and me, all of whom were in the courtroom today . that is what you are going to get. you will get that ride down the elevator but it will last an hour. >> i was going to say i'm polling the stop the elevator button so that we can get the most out of all of you. >> this is the courthouse table right here. >> right on, thanks, lawrence. >> thanks, rachel. the first thing judge juan merchan did in the courtroom before bringing the jury into the room or bringing the witness into the room was to rule in favor of donald trump on an evidentiary point. donald trump pretends that never happens. he stands in the very hallway of that courthouse right outside the courtroom speaking

to microphones every day ranting about how unfair judge juan merchan is. he appears to hate judge juan merchan, and is very convincing in delivering that feeling. but, he cannot hate the judge because the judge is unfair. he has to pay to the judge for some other reason. even donald trump knows the judge is fair. today, half of the trump lawyer objections were sustained . and, there weren't that many objections because the trial was proceeding fairly under judge juan merchan's guidance . but, the judge did say something today that we know enrages donald trump. it was in the round of the judges good mornings to the lawyers on both sides. he said "good morning, everyone." then he said, "good morning mr. trump." of course, mr. trump is blasphemy to the man who

demands that his lawyers and everyone around him call him by his former official title. good morning mr. trump. it was not a good morning for mr. trump when michael cohen took the witness stand to testify against him. witness michael cohen delivered all of the essential elements of the criminal charges against donald trump in his testimony. district attorney alvin bragg was watching after being publicly called that alvin by donald trump at his rally in new jersey. at the same rally in new jersey, donald trump said he could not call former new jersey governor chris christie a "fat big ." could not call him that. said it out loud, of course. the deep perversion of trump that is on display in moments like that is that extremely overweight people at trump

rallies, and i mean even more overweight than don trump, laughed at that use of the word fat, as if they are living on some other planet where harsh adjectives only apply to people they don't like and can't possibly apply to themselves. such is the madness of donald trump, which apparently contains enough contagion to infect many millions of his followers. michael cohen was once one of those followers. before anyone ever thought of voting for donald trump, michael cohen's view of donald trump was close to worshipful. according to his testimony today, michael cohen felt, "i was on top of the world when donald trump told me it was fantastic." that was donald trump sword, fantastic that michael cohen got vendors who did work through fraudulent

trump university to accept 20% of the amount of money donald trump actually owed to them for work done at the university. the word fantastic came up four times in michael cohen's testimony, always quoting donald trump's reaction to good news, often involving the cover up of bad news about donald trump. according to michael cohen's destiny, donald trump thought this was fantastic. the cover story in the national enquirer entitled "the donald trump nobody knows," "the national enquirer" let michael cohen edit that article as part of the deal with donald trump to publish positive stories about him and terrible stories about his political opponents and to catch and kill any stories about trump having sex with women other than his wives while married to those wives. the word we heard in court almost as much as fantastic today was catastrophic. let

michael cohen paul dudley access hollywood video that showed donald trump bragging about his favorite methods of sexual assault and that is what michael cohen said stormy daniels story would be if it became public before the election. catastrophic. so, in the final days of the presidential campaign of 2016, a scheme was hatched to buy stormy daniels assignments. according to michael cohen's testimony, donald trump told michael cohen "to take care of it." "did you ask him at that time whether he had had a sexual encounter with stormy daniels? did he enter you directly? answer, no ma'am. what did he say, did he say anything in response to that ? enter, no man. question, did he enter anything about what she looked like? he said she was a beautiful woman. donald trump repeatedly told michael cohen "just take care of it." we kept hearing that line today over and over again. according

to michael cohen's testimony, donald trump said "this is a disaster, total disaster. women are going to eat me because this is really a disaster. women will hate me. guys may think it's cool but this will be a disaster for the campaign." that is what donald trump thought the stormy daniels story could be, a disaster for the campaign. michael cohen quoted donald trump saying "what i want you to do is just push it out as long as you can, just get past the election. if i win, it has no relevance. i would be president. if i lose, i don't even care. question, "did you bring up, at the time, the topic of his wife and one of those conversations with mr. trump," "i did." "what did you say to them in substance to him?" "i said to them, how are things going to go with upstairs?" "were you concerned about that?" answer, i was."

"what, if anything, did he say to you about that?" he goes how long do you think i will be on the market? not long. "what did you understand that to mean?" "he wasn't thinking about melania. this was all about the campaign." michael cohen on the witness stand is like donald trump in aa. michael cohen was once, in many ways, as bad as donald trump, threatening people, acting in a gangster like way. on the witness stand today, he was a different person. he said something donald trump would never say, could never say. he used a phrase donald trump could ever use. when michael cohen talked about wanting to at least be considered for white house chief of staff, and he admitted he was not qualified for, he said he just wanted to be on the list, publicly on the list. he wanted people to think he was being considered for the job of white house chief of staff "solely for my ego.

" that is a line donald trump could never speak. "solely for my ego." it explains everything donald trump does, every breath he takes. donald trump could never admit anything like that the way michael cohen admitted that today. that is the new michael cohen, who sees his ego now has one of the problems that drove him in a criminal direction with the egomaniacal and unrepentant donald trump. michael cohen on the witness stand today, in the courtroom, was unlike any version of michael cohen you have ever seen. he was not fighting back at the questions and became belligerent the way he was when he appeared on tv in 2016 as a campaign surrogate for donald trump. he was not something like the gangster he wanted to sound

like when he was calling up reporters then and threatening them during that first trump residential campaign. he was not making fun of donald trump or taunting donald trump, as he has done so frequently and recently on social media. it was not the emboldened michael cohen, who has turned against donald trump and publicly attacks him. it was michael cohen, the lawyer, knowing how a witness should sound on the witness stand. calm, deliberate, careful. clear. sometimes a vivid. as the six hours of testimony wore on, michael cohen became more comfortable on the witness stand and more importantly, perhaps, the jury rapidly became more comfortable with him. every courtroom becomes a community in a multi week trial like this, with the same people coming into the room every day. michael cohen became the new neighbor in that community today. he was not the fault that he

had been in the past. he was not the monster he had sometimes been in the past. he was for those manhattan jurors, who will judge this case very much one of them, everyone living in manhattan was a guy who looks and sounds like michael cohen. most of the guys we know who looks and sounds like michael cohen don't have criminal records like michael cohen. they don't have a dark criminal past like michael cohen. most apartments, apartment buildings in new york have a guy or several guys like michael cohen, you can run into on the elevator at any moment and exchanged a cheerful greeting. the jury did not look perplexed by michael cohen. but, this jury is especially good at not giving away the slightest hint of what they are thinking. michael cohen, more than any other witness who has testified in that courtroom, delivered his testimony directly to the jury today. at all the right times when it could be effective, michael

cohen physically turned toward the jury a little bit, turned his head and his eyes to them to deliver his answer directly to them, creating the effect of someone trying to help the jury understand. given the wild range of public behavior we have seen from michael cohen over the years, the prosecution could not have delivered a better version of michael cohen to this jury today. the real test will come when cross-examination starts tomorrow. if michael cohen can maintain the sober tone he said today, if michael cohen can maintain his calm, deliberate response in the face of attacks, this case will go to the jury as solidly as the prosecution could help for. michael cohen has, at times, been a horrible person. but, the jury also discovered today that he is the son of a

holocaust survivor, a holocaust survivor who made it to this country and fulfilled his dream of living a better life here. the jury discovered that michael cohen is devoted to his wife, his son, and his daughter and that michael cohen now lives a life full of regrets and what was donald trump doing during michael cohen's testimony? 10 minutes into the testimony, donald trump closed his eyes, tilted his head back probably trying to communicate to us i couldn't possibly be falling asleep at 9:40 a.m. so don't consider my closed eyes to be proof of sleep. his eyes are closed in the course of the day much, much longer than anyone would reasonably close their eyes for any purpose other than sleep. and, his head tilts to a site sometimes and slumps. when donald trump's eyes were open today, i could see over his shoulder that he was

frequently reading from" of public commentators supporting him, the top of him on the page that i could see him reading was mark 11 in bold print. the right-wing commentator. and, underneath that statement was a statement by mark levin made about this case that donald trump liked. below that, the bold print name of andrew mccarthy was there, a lawyer who said something donald trump liked about this case. if donald trump's defense lawyers come up with this plan of handing him, in effect, fan mail to read it during the trial, it has worked brilliantly because to the jury, it looks like the defendant is maybe examining some important documents in the case because they can't tell what is on the other side of

those papers that he's holding up to his face to read. and, those comments that donald trump spent the day reading, endlessly praising him and attacking this case, are the perfect behavioral corrective tool for donald trump in the courtroom. it means his eyes are open and he's reading and he seems alive instead of a sleeping baby. and, these papers that he holds up to read work with all of the power that a pacifier brings to a two-year-old. they keep him under control. the courtroom has four 60 inch or so tv screens around the room, which show exhibits when they are discussed and the rest of the time, those screens show four different video shots of the courtroom. the top of the

screen is occupied by one box of video showing the judge and another box of video of a much closer focused shot of the witness. and, the bottom of the screen has a box on the left of the screen showing the district attorney's table of lawyers and the podium for the attorney asking the questions and then on the right side of the screen on the bottom is the trump defense table, which requires a much wider shot because it has been extended piece, which includes additional lawyers. and, there is a piece of the white screen that includes the date written out, may 13th, 2024, and under the prosecution box, that side of the video screen, it says new york state unified court system. on the right side of the bottom of the screen, right below donald trump, it says "new york county supreme criminal."

that is meant to be the description of the kind of courtroom you are in. every day, donald trump spent his day on those tv screens, apparently without ever noticing the powerful irony of the words he is sitting on top of on those screens all day. new york county supreme criminal. andrew weissman, adam klasfeld and lisa rubin were in the courtroom with me today, they will all join us, next. save with drivewise and get a rate based on you. you're in good hands with allstate. when you smell the amazing scent of gain flings... time stops. (♪♪) and you realize you're in love... steve? with a laundry detergent. (♪♪)

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prosecutor "would you have made that payment to stormy daniels without getting a signoff from mr. trump?" "no." "why not?" "because everything required mr. trump's sign off. on top of that, i wanted the money back." leading off our discussion, andrew weissman, former fbi general counsel and, chief of the criminal division of the eastern district of new york. also co-author of the best- selling book "the trump indictment." also with us, adam klasfeld, who was a with us in the courtroom today. he is a fellow at just security. and lisa rubin is with us, a msnbc correspondent in the courtroom today. lisa got a better seat than i

did. it is a roulette wheel when you get in there. andrew, i want to begin with a proposition you raised before this testimony. he wrote about it in the new york times." the question of do we need michael cohen's testimony at all? >> i was taking about that because obviously the state was going to call him. one of the things that i think has surprised people, it certainly surprised me, is how strong the case is. starting with david pecker, who said i am a principal and i have this agreement, that was shocking in all its details. the dissemination of false information, which michael cohen talked about today . and, the catching of bad information about donald trump. and, from there, you had the notes that detailed the cover up scheme. you had allen weisselberg's notes. you had hope hicks, who had a damaging information.

by the way, the defense that decides we are going to cross- examine those people? not really, we are going to cross-examine stormy daniels, who is largely level but irrelevant to the case. so, like this case is really strong. if there was any other case, i wonder if you would actually call michael cohen because he has so much baggage. and, there will be communal, we are going to see cross tomorrow and it's going to be difficult. i do think it is the right call but i think it is useful to think about just how much evidence the state has that is completely independent of michael cohen. in large measure, what michael cohen did today is sick things you knew happened but you are now hearing it. he knew that had to be what happened but there's one thing with that sort of speculating that must be the case and actually hearing it from an insider. it is a useful thing. it will

come with some downsides and you will all find out at the end of the case whether it was the right call. >> lisa, michael cohen brought us into a room we weren't going to get into testimony without him and that was michael cohen, allen weisselberg working out this agreement, hand writing it on a piece of paper and walking it into donald trump's office and donald trump looks at that same piece of paper and says okay, let's do this. >> you must have the same eagle eyes that allowed you to see mark levin on trump's papers. that is where i am open to that point the transcript. to andrew's point, i agree, michael cohen, in some respects, is a superfluous witness, and yet, there are conversations that he was a party to that could not have come into the case but for michael cohen. and, you don't need direct evidence to prove the case but there is so much direct evidence of the underlying conspiracy that if prosecutors haven't taken the opportunity to give these jurors direct evidence of the crime that is actually charged, the falsification of business

records as either done by trump were caused by trump, i think the jurors would have thought, well, what else is there? why are, is this it? so, bringing in michael cohen to talk about that conversation, i thought that was absolutely critical. you are right, they bring in this piece of paper, it is a bank statement from michael cohen's llc that he opens to pay stormy daniels and allen weisselberg scrolls on it exactly how the repayment scheme will go. they walk it into trump's office and that is one michael cohen releases they have already had the conversation about how it's going to go to divide this $420,000.00 into 12 monthly installments and then, here's the question, and, did he say anything about how it would be paid out as something? answer, yes, as like a legal service rendered since i was then being given the title as personal attorney to the president.

indeed, on these documents, the general ledger, the checks, the invoices, what do you see? a description of for legal services rendered, here's my bill for $35,000.00. conversely, back out, here is your $35,000.00 as a retainer for next month. this is critical and hugely important. again, as you noted at the end, what did mr. trump say at that time ? he approved it and he also said this will be one heck of a ride in d.c., a right that michael cohen didn't get to go on. >> adam, as we saw the evidence come in today and, there were times where it was slower than other times, verifying call logs. this was the day where all of that information that the jury has gotten before about what these call logs mean and this phone and called that phone number on a certain day, this was the day when they discovered oh, okay, this was all done so michael cohen can

sit here and say that is me calling donald trump at that moment. >> on that date, at that hour. and, it went very systematically. as you said, michael cohen delivered his testimony very cool, methodical, collected. if you just add up the time that he spent on the witness stand simply responding to questions about the corroborating evidence, it is an avalanche of it. very little of it actually came to the more dramatic testimony, like his testimony about melania trump saying that melania trump had, that melania trump reading some of her text messages related to the access hollywood tape, about some of the other episodes of his not getting paid and how in a very familiar story for trump in many of his scandals built in self and a heap of trouble by not paying people. those were the moments that kind of set the tone of the day. but, the star of the testimony, i would say, was not the

present star witness, michael cohen, but the pile of evidence that corroborated every call, every text message, every tweet, every tape that was placed into evidence. and, he would probably more accurately be described as a central witness being the guide then the star witness. >> andrew, the issue of michael cohen's credibility, what i keep wondering about is applied to what? what exactly, he sent $130,000.00 to stormy daniels. it doesn't matter, his credibility doesn't matter, it is all, the papers are there. we have it all. there is a reimbursement structure to him. he says that his reimbursement. there is no other theory of what it is.

and, there will probably not be another theory of what it is introduced in evidence. sure, in cross-examination, there might be but that is not evidence, as the jury will be told. this issue of michael cohen has lied before, we might have some ability struggles with him, about what? >> that is the key problem for the defense is that there is no counter narrative at this point. there is no other story and you are going to hear that argument in summation from the government, which is tell me the other story that accounts for all of this evidence. on the other hand, this issue of central witness versus critical witness is going to be the key defense argument, which is if he is a critical witness, it is a hard case to win because you have to win proof beyond a reasonable doubt. so, they will be pointing out things saying, well, do you have to find that the conversation in the white house that we are going to hear tomorrow where donald trump says yes, i understand the

repayment scheme, i understand the actual charge here, which is that these were false business records, and that was, and these were going to be accounted for as fake legal fees, that, do you really have to believe michael cohen? that is what the defense wants. they want it to be a battleground on michael cohen's credibility and that is where the state wants to say, he is sort of a nice sort of tour guide through other evidence that you don't absolutely need because, you know, he is going to have a difficult time tomorrow, even if he is just great on cross, he has to admit enormous baggage about committing perjury and just, to be clear, committing perjury and making false statements, not just for donald trump. he has done that also when it is in his own interest. that is just not a witness who

you say i'm going to believe him no matter what. that is where all of the mountain of corroboration is really important. >> lisa, what else did you see in michael cohen's testimony today that we should be highlighting? >> the ghost of allen weisselberg. when we talk about comparatives. >> he's still alive. he has a ghostly peasants in the courtroom. >> he is a ghostly presence. >> a kindle of today but he's not in the courtroom. >>, a low information juror, and jurors in this case absolutely are, they were deliberately selected because they are not high information, high-intensity people, if i don't know where allen weisselberg is right now, and that is by design, i'm going to be wondering where is this guy? this is the guy that michael cohen told us every penny came in or out of the organization went through him. it was typical for everybody to discuss financial matters with allen weisselberg. when they were talking about

repaying david pecker, a deal that eventually fell apart, how many conversations did michael cohen say he had with allen weisselberg about how to structure that? 10 to 12. if i am jurors, i'm wondering where the heck is allen weisselberg right now? >> we will squeeze in a quick break and we will be right back with more. th more. treatment. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in many people whether you're 18 or 80. with one small pill, biktarvy fights h-i-v to help you get to undetectable—and stay there whether you're just starting or replacing your current treatment. research shows that taking h-i-v treatment as prescribed and getting to and staying undetectable prevents transmitting h-i-v through sex. serious side effects can occur, including kidney problems and kidney failure. rare, life-threatening side effects include a buildup of lactic acid and liver problems. do not take biktarvy if you take dofetilide or rifampin. tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines and supplements you take, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, or if you have kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis.

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michael cohen told the jury how he and donald trump kept trying to delay paying stormy daniels. michael cohen "in the specific

case, used the holiday as a way of just, once again, trying to delay it, which is until after the election. "and the reason for that?" "because after the election, it wouldn't matter." "according to who?" according to mr. trump." adam klasfeld, michael cohen established and reestablished, in his testimony and how much this one's an election based action, that this, stormy daniels needed to be silenced for the election. >> that is why he also told that story about melania trump. his dispensing with the defense theory of the case, it was about his wife. nevermind every other witness said it is not about melania trump. that is the whole point of the exchange of how is it going upstairs? trump didn't care about that. that is consistent with what every witness has said so far, corroborating michael cohen.

so, it just goes to show, it was another, i want to go back to something i said a little bit earlier, lawrence, about another key moment talking about patterns repeating. one of the patterns is, of course, trump being his own worst enemy by not paying people. it was a key moment of the trial today where michael cohen was asked about getting shortchanged on his annual end of year bonus. he said, he was asked how do you feel about the situation of him cutting your bonus and then not repaying you yet for the stormy daniels payout? this was a moment, i wanted to call attention to it because as you said, with such a cool and collected, almost actuarial direct examination but here conveyed just how angry he was and was one of the only times when he can fill you emotion. "i was truly insulted. personally hurt by it. i didn't

understand it. it made no sense. after all that i had gone through in terms of the campaign as well as things at the trump organization, in laying out $130,000 on his behalf to protect him, it was insulting that the gratitude shown back to me was to cut the bonus by two thirds." he was asked, "would you tell the jury about her conversation with allen weisselberg about that? " right after opening it "i had to take a double take and then immediately went to allen weisselberg's office in the back in some very colorful language expressed to him and truly angry i was. this makes no sense at all but i missed quite a few expletives." a couple pages later, in the only moment of the transcript where the stenographer's outfit and there was laughter in the courtroom, he added "i was even for myself, unusually angry."

>> andrew, i took that to be one of those human michael cohen moments. he's not kidding about who he is. even though he was talking about anger, what he was showing was hurt. he wasn't angry and talking about anger. what were you thinking sitting there beside me, you were watching this witness in court for the first time. a lot is going to turn on cross examination, what were you thinking watching this witness ? >> michael cohen joins a lot of people who have become cooperating witnesses against their bosses. you know, the underboss of the gambino family against john gotti. the cfo of enron. this can you go on and on. rick gates with respect to all

manafort. people think this is easy, you just want a lighter sentence. it is not. you really have to be honest with yourself and look at yourself dispassionately and warts and all and you have to be, you not only have to confront that but you have to confront it under oath in a public spotlight. i thought there were these moments, that was one of them, where you saw, as you said in the opening, sort of a different michael cohen, where he really had to come to terms with that and be honest with himself and because lots of people, including myself would walk around self-deluded. i think one of the things that you quoted in the opening where he said when i got praise from donald trump, it was like i was on top of the world. i was sort of really struck by that. it sort of explained him then and it also explained him now in terms of that relationship and what it meant to him and the loss of that relationship and it goes to the loss that

you were describing. it was reported. >> we have to squeeze in something you owe, i owe the audience, which is what you told me at the end of the show thursday night about how juries get used to strange witnesses. >> okay. so, sammy, i put them on the lot and he testified in lots of gambino cases. the first day he would testify, it's like a lion is on the loose in the courtroom and the jurors are just like a cast and sitting back. the second day , they are sort of looking over. by the third day, they are going, they sort of get used to it. similar to what you were saying, they are going to be used to seeking and being able to judge michael cohen and that is actually an advantage of a weakness who is on for a long time. you really can't be anything but yourself and the jurors see that. >> quick break and we will be

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you never know with that company. i am all over that. i spoke to allen weisselberg about it. when it comes time for the financing. >> what financing? >> we will have to pay. >> pay with cash. >> that was about karen mcdougal and the "the national enquirer" . but, it was leading up to stormy daniels. >> it was. lawrence, one of the things i thought was really interesting about that phone call was that is not the first time we've heard it. referred it originally because a forensic specialist in the da office plate it to authenticate it. why? the trump team didn't want to stipulate that some of the things that are pro forma, phone records, tax text

messages, phone recordings or what they say they were. as a result of that, the jury got to hear that fun recording not once, not twice, but three times for the first time through the forensic specialist, today, a second time, all the way through. and, then, on direct examination, she played snippets of it at a time and asked michael cohen to annotate and what did you mean by this and this and this. our friend david, according to michael cohen, that is clear reference to david pecker. some could be run over by a truck, that is trump, what happens if david pecker is no longer in control of this locked cabinet or even the karen mcdougal agreement anymore. all of the stuff, that was a reference to the locked cabinet and karen mcdougal. then, what is allen weisselberg doing being mentioned in that conversation? repetition is the flipside of the trump teams stipulations. it makes it more intelligible for the jury when you've heard something not just once but three times running. >> adam, there is nothing like hearing the defendant's voice in a recording like that, in a

conspiracy. >> absolutely. and, hearing and, just moving off of something that lisa just said, just to take back to the first time we heard it, hearing the defendant's voice on tape, hearing the witness on tape, it was during cross-examination that trump's attorney , emil bove, had advanced the theory that this was somehow falsified. when you put all of this evidence together, having the jury kind of process that explanation that what is the competing theory that was set a little earlier today? you have to, when you see all of the evidence laid out through michael cohen's testimony for hours and hours, text messages, phone messages, it goes into, you have to imagine a series of coincidences that michael cohen is calling trump and hope hicks and keith davidson, all of these opportune times that reaches to a level of coupon on

style conspiracy theory that i don't see how the defense will thread that needle. >> andrew, with a witness like michael cohen they have told his story, they gave a little biographical opening. they have not included his criminal record. they've not included all of the dark sides of michael cohen the character. shortly the prosecutor will do that before handing him over to cross-examination tomorrow. >> this is a strategy difference between what happens in the manhattan district attorney's office and i think every federal prosecutor and certainly the way i was trained where we would do that up front. and, there are upsides and downsides. the upside of doing that is you are up front with the jury as to whom they are going to be hearing from and it doesn't take them by surprise. the downside is that the jury might stop listening.

i've never really had that experience. here, it's going to come at the back end and there's no question that they are going to go over that. it would, you know, they are experienced. you will hear tomorrow at the end of sort of what i'm going to call the fact portion of his testimony, you will hear about all sorts of crimes. if she's smart, she will bring out that they are not all for donald trump because you want to pull the teeth on that. so, they will, tomorrow, they will learn both from the prosecution a lot of bad acts, crimes he has committed, including perjury, and then they will, there will be a lot of cross-examination. for instance, the tape recording will be used to say that he will do something behind donald trump's back. there will be a rough cross- examination but that's part of the system. >> lisa, one of the challenges of this from the defense perspective is whatever you

think of michael cohen, and whatever that defense wants the jury to think of michael cohen, donald trump hired him. donald trump kept him on for 10 years. donald trump made him a republican party official for a while, in fact. this guy is here because donald trump made the choice for him to be here. >> donald trump tested him from the very first interaction that they had. michael cohen testified today that first he did some unpaid legal work for donald trump that he understood would be unpaid. than he did what was then about $100,000.00 worth of work on a complicated bankruptcy transaction for which his firm expected to be paid $100,000.00. he goes to trump tower to talk to donald trump about paying the bill. what does trump do? he offers them an opportunity to come work at trump tower. what does michael cohen do next? he doesn't even go back to his law firm to collect his

belongings. he literally just says yes, i would be delighted to. he testified today that trump sent people from the organization to go to his law firm and get his stuff. he started that very minute. from the outset, michael cohen knew donald trump was and donald trump knew who michael cohen was. they were in's from the beginning in this really dastardly transactional relationship. it is funny to hear michael cohen say today how disappointed he was and how hurt he was because it was always about credit for michael cohen. >> adam, the question is, who is michael cohen going to be tomorrow one cross-examination ? >> if the civil fraud case is any guide, you will be a lot more contentious, he's not going to be the same cool, collected. just to set expectations as to what we've been through this rodeo before. i expect he's going to try to fight back, if there is some suggestion that he is revamping his story. and, one of the marks of this, and this is a very interesting facet of this, is that hope hicks kind of boxed in trump's

defense, to a degree, when she said that, essentially that michael cohen was too selfish to really, to follow trump's script for what this was that michael cohen was freelancing, that he was doing this on his own, he was protecting his boss, that the entire defense theory of the case thrives on this idea of michael cohen's selflessness pre-2018 and a way that the event hope hicks, a trump loyalist, this is inconsistent with the evidence. it is a counterintuitive way of turning one of michael cohen's biggest weaknesses and a mark of credibility. >> that will have to be the last word. at this very moment, the last time we convened at this table, donald trump posted on social media something about this show and me, left you out of the line of fire and if we are

lucky, we have his attention again tonight and we'll see what his typing in the next couple of minutes. thank you all so much for being here tonight, being in the courtroom with me today and guiding me through this. we will be right back. back. or visit leaffilter.com. (♪♪) this is a hot flash. this is a hot flash. but this is a not flash. for moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms due to menopause... ...veozah is the first and only prescription treatment that directly blocks a source of hot flashes and night sweats. with 100% hormone-free veozah... ...you can have fewer hot flashes... ...and more not flashes. veozah reduces the number and severity of hot flashes day and night. don't use veozah if you have cirrhosis, severe kidney problems, kidney failure, or take cyp1a2 inhibitors.

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