will listen to each other. i will tell you, my experience has been that jurors take their oath very seriously. what i really fear is that we have diminished so many other institutions that whatever -- if donald trump is convicted, there's going to be 40% of the population that's going to say, it was a corrupt jury, it was a rigged jury. they didn't really listen to the evidence. i think once we start tearing down juries, we are really going down a slippery slope. >> stewart, donna, jeff, scott, thank you all so much for being with me. that wraps up the hour. i'm jose diaz-balart. thank you for the privilege of your time. anna cabrera picks up with more news right now. ♪♪ hello on this friday.

thanks for joining us. it's 12:00 p.m. eastern. i'm in for andrea mitchell. donald trump is back in court right now for day 15 of his hush money election interference trial. over the past hour, there's been a lot of testimony about phone records of key players like david pecker and michael cohen. before that, former trump white house aide madeleine westerhout finished her time on the stand, testifying about everything from how close she worked with trump early in his presidency, including how trump reacted, she says he was very upset, when stormy daniels' story became public. westerhout testified about a key white house meeting in 2017 between donald trump and his former fixer and lawyer michael cohen. cohen himself, a witness for the prosecution, is expected to take the stand on monday. his testimony could last several days. this after stormy daniels sparred with donald trump's attorney yesterday during the

cross-examination after being accused of profiting off her encounter with donald trump. daniels posting on social media, following her testimony, quote, real men respond to testimony by being sworn in and taking the stand in court. oh, wait, never mind. here is donald trump as he headed into court this morning. >> this case is highly unconstitutional. it's presided over by a very conflicted judge. conflicted like i have never seen before. he refused to take himself off the case. it should be a mistrial. >> joining us from the courthouse, vaughn hillyard, who is standing by. also with us this hour, catherine christian, former manhattan district attorney, and duncan levin, a criminal defense and a former attorney for the

eastern district of new york. catherine, we are hearing from witnesses who are kind of custodial, talking about phone records. there was somebody from at&t, somebody from verizon. right now i believe it's georgia longstreet who is testifying. if that name sounds familiar, as it because she has been on the stand earlier in this trial. she's a paralegal from the district attorney's office as they continue to admit some different phone records, some text messages, that sort of thing. what is the prosecution trying to do with these particular witnesses? >> they are very important witnesses. they may be boring. the text messages aren't boring. before that, the call logs, call detail, because they help establish -- first of all, they are necessary witnesses because they are authenticating the documents that are coming in, the call records coming in, the subscriber information coming in. these are messages that corroborate basically stormy daniels, her cross-examination was very blistering.

you have her manager, miss rodriguez, and the edito "national enquirer," all the way until the "access hollywood" tape and corroborating they were dealing. trump's name is not mentioned in any of the texts. but those are very important. they corroborate michael cohen. it was his phone where the call log data was coming from. that will corroborate him. he is expected to testify monday. boring but important. >> because -- i was going to ask about that. because the witnesses are drier, duncan, is it hard for an attorney -- how does an attorney keep the jury engaged? >> in most cases, these are the types of witnesses that are stipulated to by both sides. >> meaning? you don't see them. >> not in manhattan.

>> sometimes not. trump is not -- what's interesting is trump has not stipulated to any of these witnesses. he likes to go out and complain that this trial is keeping him off the campaign trail. this is an area where he could shorten the trial if he wanted to, but he hasn't chosen to do that. these witnesses are -- while they are boring, they are very important because it's not an accident that the d.a.'s office is waiting to call michael cohen until later, because he is one of the most, if not the most problematic witness. they want to wait until they have basically laid down all the pieces of the puzzle until they get to him. when they get to him, he is subject to a blistering cross-examination. they will have established all the minutia at that point, all the pieces that corroborate what he is about to testify to on monday in his direct examination. >> hold your thoughts more on michael cohen and his testimony. we will talk about that in a moment. outside the courthouse right now

is vaughn hillyard. i want to hear what's happening in court today ahead of the michael cohen testimony. just let us know where we left off with that former trump white house aide, madeleine westerhout. did we learn anything more from her? >> reporter: she was an interesting witness in this. she was technically called by the prosecution. she met with the district attorney's office for three hours. she acknowledged she had a one-hour zoom two nights ago with donald trump's defense team. you could call her a favorable witness to donald trump in many terms. she's somebody that published a book on donald trump upon leaving white house in 2019. she characterized her relationship with donald trump and his family as being cordial and good. yet, it was the prosecution that brought her forward. when you look at the custodian of records and the execution of the checks from donald trump in the oval office, back over to michael cohen in new york, for

that $130,000, they need to show to the jury the number of individuals and how those checks ultimately made their way back to michael cohen. she didn't reveal anything too telling. we should know, there were questions. maybe she was in the oval office where she heard donald trump say something to the extent of, we have to get michael cohen his checks for stormy daniels, there was none of that testimony. this was still -- when we talk about a records case, that's the evidence and testimony she was able to bring to the table. i think it's interesting that we were talking about the howard and rodriguez texts. howard is somebody we anticipated testifying in front of the jury. clearly, over those two weeks from the time the agreement was made between michael cohen and stormy daniels' team and the point of the actual execution of the financial agreement on october 27, that nearly 2 1/2 week spread, dylan howard was

engaged in these text messages with the manager for stormy daniels. they were not going to go through with the, quote, trump deal. but dylan howard, according to david pecker, his colleague, is in australia with a health issue and would not be able to be here to testify. that could very well be why we didn't have these text messages entered into the record until a few moments ago, because we will not see dylan howard speak the text messages into the record. >> vaughn hillyard, thanks so much for the update. just noting, there's a different paralegal who has taken the stand to testify. similar testimony, talking about call logs and those records. a person with the d.a.'s office. he sets up subpoenas and analyzes records. he was assigned to the trump case.

the document they are looking at is a list of phone records and contact lists for weisselberg and pecker and donald trump. that's what's happening right now in this testimony inside the courtroom of donald trump's hush money trial. madeleine westerhout was an interesting witness because of her really affection for donald trump and also she was considered the gatekeeper of trump in the white house outside his oval office and got to witness him in action on a day-to-day basis. she was in charge of filtering communications and setting up some communications for him. she testified today specifically about his ability to multitask and how he often was multitasking, is how she described it. including not always paying a lot of attention to what he was signing. was that a good point for the defense, do you think? >> what's interesting is her testimony changed pretty dramatically from yesterday to today. yesterday on direct examination, she said, yes, he looked at

everything he signed. he was paying attention to it. laid out this whole fishy thing where the checks were being sent to his body man and being brought into the white house. today on cross, it came out really, no, he sometimes was multitasking, on the phone, not paying attention. she's testifying under a subpoena. she works for trump's former national security advisor, robert o'brien. she's clearly a defense-friendly witness. she acknowledged she spoke to trump's attorney. she's kind of trying to be as helpful as possible. at the end of the day, i don't think that the jury is likely to buy this notion that trump is so distracted by it that he wasn't paying attention, because of all the other pieces the d.a.'s office laid out, the things that -- excerpts from the book, "how to get rich and think like

a millionaire." this is somebody paying attention to $35,000 checks he is signing. i think it's unlikely to make a huge impact with the jury at the end of the day. she's trying to play both sides of this as well as she can. >> right now in the testimony in the courtroom, they are entering into evidence text messages between michael cohen and hope hicks, or phone calls between michael cohen and hope hicks along with between cohen and howard and michael cohen and david pecker and michael cohen and others who are in that trump world who we have heard from or heard talked about during the course of this trial. looking ahead to michael cohen's testimony on monday, catherine, are there any pitfalls that the prosecution needs to avoid, or how will they navigate the challenges of putting somebody like him on the stand? >> they have to hope that a jury will take the word of someone

who has been convicted for lying, who has just -- the civil fraud judge found him credible, but three weeks later the federal judge refused to terminate his supervised release because he was in-credible. he found him not to be credible when he testified under only in federal court and he wasn't guilty. they have a lot of that baggage. they can overcome that with all of this corroboration, of all of the other witnesses who said, yes, michael cohen did what he said he did. what he has to say is that donald trump directed him. michael cohen is the only witness that the prosecution has who is going to say that donald trump knew about the payoff, knew that it was to keep it from the electorate from knowing, knew that the entries were falsified, they weren't legal expenses. he is the only witness who can say that. the argument is, he is lying

about this, but he is truthful about other things, that all the other witnesses corroborated? that's the problem. they have to hope michael cohen behaves himself. >> right. >> because he has -- >> he is a wild card character. >> he has been tweeting and podcasting and writing a book called "revenge." they have to hope he is in control of himself and doesn't put on a show and ruin the case. because then he blows up because of his ego. he is a mini-trump, which is i would argue in my summation. that's why trump chose him as a lawyer. that excerpt from the book yesterday where trump said the woman was disloyal and so he has been devoted to making her life miserable. michael turned on him, so, therefore, he has to make his life miserable. that's the reason why -- like stormy daniels said that she hates trump. hopefully michael cohen will

admit how he feels about donald trump. he says i feel like he is a mentor, then he is not credible. he has to own that he is not happy with trump anymore. >> given michael cohen's unpredictability, is that a challenge for the defense? especially because he knows how to push donald trump's buttons. donald trump is sitting right there in the courtroom. the judge has admonished trump for some of his, i guess, expletive reaction to stormy daniels. >> he is problematic for both sides. like the defense has this uncontrollable client, the prosecution has uncontrollable witnesses. we saw that with stormy daniels. the judge had to say, could you please direct her just to answer the question? she had to speak to her in the hallway. they have uncontrollable witnesses. he is a problem for both sides. i think for the defense at the end of the day, they are trying to set up -- this came out a little bit in madeleine westerhout's testimony.

they are trying to set up the defense it's allen weisselberg. they are stuck with this first republic statement that came out during the testimony of mcconney, the former trump controller, who had scribbling in weisselberg's handwriting that shows the grossed up numbers for this reimbursement. that document -- i think the prosecution will argue on its face shows the false business records, shows it on its face because it was grossed up. that's in weisselberg's handwriting. they will try to argue, this is weisselberg. donald trump, who is on trial here, no one else is on trial here, and you have to judge donald trump, and there's no evidence of it. michael cohen is a key witness for them to distance their own client from it. the problem is, as catherine points out, there's so many breadcrumbs that corroborate what michael cohen is going to say, text messages and the audio

recordings. they have set up this road map. so when michael cohen testifies, he is going to be corroborated by 100 pieces of evidence. that's the challenge the defense has in this weisselberg did it defense. >> what about weisselberg not taking the stand, catherine? is that going to ultimately be a problem for the prosecution? >> neither defense nor prosecution want him to take the stand. the jurors might wonder, where is allen weisselberg? we know where he is. they are supposed to know what they hear in that well of the courtroom, not that he committed perjury and no side would have him testify. there will probably be an instruction to the jury not to speculate as to mr. weisselberg or anyone else's -- or dylan howard's presence. they are not to speculate. sometimes that happens. there's a witness who is not

there. neither side can say the reason is x. the judge tells the jury, don't speculate why that person hasn't testified. >> karen mcdougal is another potential witness who is not going to be called by the prosecution. thank you. stand by. we will check back. up next, the politics of the hush money trial for former president trump and president biden. we are back in 90 seconds. you are watching msnbc. to happ. you have to make it. and if you want a successful business, all it takes is an idea, and now becomes the future where you grew a dream into a reality. the all new godaddy airo. put your business online in minutes with the power of ai. i told myself i was ok with my moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis symptoms.

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welcome back. as donald trump is balancing his new york criminal trial with his presidential re-election campaign, the presumptive republican nominee has been blaming the case and the trial for keeping him off the campaign trail. trump plans to use the break from the trial this weekend to hold a rally in wildwood, new jersey. this is friendly territory. he is not going to swing states. what does that tell us about his strategy? let's discuss with jeremy peters, and peter baker. thanks for being here. peter, where do you see this taking us in terms of what trump's strategy is here, where he is going this weekend, and how he has been spending his time outside the courtroom? >> new jersey is convenient for him. he has a home there. it's not a swing state. it's not about new jersey. it's about getting supporters riled up. his words at these rallies are

communicated beyond the confines of whatever arena he is in. he is speaking to his supporters regardless of what state he happens to be in. it's telling he is not in wisconsin or michigan or pennsylvania at this point. that's where you will see -- you have seen a lot of president biden in those states, recognizing the singular importance to the fall election. broadly speaking, i think the trial so far, polls don't suggest it had much of an impact. a lot the voters factored it in, baked it into the cake. they assume he has done things wrong with women. that's been a career-long, lifelong motif going back to his tabloid days in new york. the question is whether he is convicted and whether that might change votes. you don't have to change a lot of votes to have an impact in the right states. for the moment, people are watching to see how the jury decides this. >> peter, you spent so much time in the white house covering trump. you wrote a book about the trump

presidency. you observed him closely. i want your reaction to this -- trump looking through newspaper articles that have been presented for him in the courtroom. >> he is a reader of news about himself. he is a big consumer of that. no question about it. we saw that in white house when he was there. he reacted specifically to articles. he wants to know what people are writing about him. he has an old-fashion view of that, even for his if i delt fi social media. i'm sure he is looking to the coverage and reacting to it. sometimes he changes his strategy as a result. he will yell at lawyers for not being aggressive enough. >> jeremy, as trump hits the campaign trail, judge merchan has said, jail time is on the table if he continues to violate the gag order. what do you think? will we see a filtered former president on the stage tomorrow? >> i don't think so. every time trump has been warned

in this trial, he has continued to double down. he is somebody who is time and time again outside of the trial shown himself to be unwilling and unable to control his conduct. he is going to continue to lash out. i don't think we should expect to see anything different in terms of behavior from him. i will say that, going back to our conversation about the impact on 2024, one thing i think that's gone underappreciated here is the fact that this trial has not been televised is doing to how people are consuming it. largely, they are not consuming it, because if this were on television, it would be like the o.j. trial of politics. we would be on the cable networks all day long. i think that really could have contributed to -- it could have damaged trump much more significantly than it appears to

be damaging him now. >> although, coverage has not necessarily been scarce, as we have continued to read from our google doc every day and bring the latest to our viewers, since we don't have cameras or audio in the courtroom. jeremy, going back to the campaign, this was an interesting thing we learned today, according to some new reporting in "the washington post." trump's former campaign chairman, paul manafort, who was pardoned, is likely to rejoin trump world. what would that look like? what does it say about donald trump's thinking here? >> paul manafort was brought in in 2016 to really steady the ship of what was then a really, really dysfunctional, chaotic presidential campaign. despite his criminal conviction, paul manafort was seen as somebody who was rather

competent and able to channel some of trump's better political instincts. this could be helpful for trump. of course, he always prefers to have people around him who are loyal and who have been with him before. that certainly would be paul manafort. >> guys, gotta leave it there. thank you so much. happy friday. after the break, our team of legal experts will break down the pivotal testimony we are hearing today as we look ahead to michael cohen in the trump hush money trial. stay with us. zyrtec allergy relief works fast and lasts a full 24 hours so dave can be the... deliverer of dance. ok, dave! let's be more than our allergies. zeize the day with zyrtec. here's to getting better with age. here's to beating these two every thursday. help fuel today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need...

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thanks for staying with us, as we continue to follow all the new developments this afternoon with donald trump's criminal hush money trial nearing the end of week four today. former trump fixer and lawyer michael cohen due to take the stand monday with several days of testimony expected from him. joining us, mary mccord, paul butler, former federal prosecutor, and barbara mcquade. vaughn hillyard is back with us as well. let's start with you, vaughn. what's the latest out of the courtroom? >> reporter: there's another paralegal from the district attorney's office who is being used to enter records in before

this jury. one of the phone calls that was acknowledged here and a reason why the prosecution would bring this individual forward to openly discuss these records was one particular phone call that interrupted an audio recording, or we believe -- or the prosecution contends interrupted the audio recording taken by michael cohen when he was with donald trump ahead of the 2016 election, that september. folks will recall he and donald trump -- it sounded as if they were talking about the karen mcdougal payment of $150,000 being executed before the call suddenly got cut off. there were questions about whether he edited it, deleted the back half of it. what this phone record here that is being admitted into evidence shows is that potentially there was an incoming phone call that would have cut the audio recording. this is the minutia that's fundamental to building out or at least for the prosecution undercutting claims made by donald trump's defense team.

they are going further through records right now under cross-examination. this paralegal in the d.a.'s office is clarifying in response to donald trump's attorney that, yes, they went through and deleted phone calls and they went and narrowed down their tracking or the number of calls that they reported and put together as part of the presentation requested by the district attorney's office by the prosecution. that's because there were hundreds of thousands of phone records. not all were necessary to pertinent to the case here at hand. >> vaughn, thanks for that update. i love this little bit of reporting coming from our lisa rubin there inside the courthouse. when trump's attorney referred to this witness on the stand from the d.a.'s office, his work with all these records as tedious, the paralegal responded, honestly, i kind of enjoyed it. he replied, respect. mary, all of the phone records are setting the stage for

michael cohen's testimony. what are you looking for with cohen and donald trump and their dynamic as they are in the same room again come monday? how closely do you expect the judge to watch trump's behavior in the courtroom? >> well, i think to start with your last question first, i think the judge will be closely watching that. i think he will be watching both of them. remember that a couple of times when the judge rules on motions to hold donald trump in contempt for violating the gag order, the judge warned the purpose was to protect witnesses, to protect jurors, protect the integrity of the proceedings. to the extent that any witness -- here he was speaking about michael cohen and stormy daniels -- to the extent any witness would use that gag order as a sword instead of a shield, he might think differently about the gag order. by that he meant, michael cohen had been out posting on social

media and speaking out. the argument was made with some affect to the judge that certainly mr. cohen didn't need the protection of the gag order. he was swinging himself. the judge rejected that for the time being, saying he is worried about the impact on other potential witnesses. i think he is going to be looking at mr. cohen and mr. trump to try to make sure that order is maintained in the courtroom, that they -- neither one gets out of line at any time and says something that should not be heard by the jurors. i think if there are those types of acting out by either the witness or the defendant, you will see the prosecution or defense make objections or the judge potentially intervene on his own. >> paul, based on the time line expectations the district attorney's office has provided,

cohen could be one of the last witnesses. how does he fit into the plan as far as laying out the argument for the jury? >> the boring witnesses today with setting up michael cohen in a very important way. remember, he not only pled guilty to lying, but the judge found that he lied again when he was pleading guilty to lying. these records that are being established today, text messages, phone logs, social media, even voice recordings, those are what you call receipts. they are corroborating michael cohen in a very -- in a way prosecutors desperately need. he was also corroborated by hope hicks, by david pecker. what prosecutors hope is that during these long days when michael cohen will be on the stand, in some ways it will be

anti-climactic, because the jurors will have heard this from other people. >> that's true. cohen has been a really big figure in this trial, even before he takes the stand. even if the jury hasn't heard a lot from michael cohen, maybe they are not plugged into cable news or social media leading up to this, if they don't know very much about him going into the trial, is there a concern from either side that now jurors might have an opinion of him even before he takes the stand? >> i suppose so. his name has been lurking out there throughout the trial. even some testimony that he was not well liked. i imagine that to the extent the jury formed any opinion of it, it might be negative. as paul said, the goal is to make him as responsible for as little as possible. what we are seeing today and what we have seen in some prior witness testimony is the dots. it's going to be up to michael to connect those dots. by putting these dots in first,

before michael cohen testifies, you are not relying on him to establish that any of these things are true. he is just going to be the one who explains some of these things and what was happening and providing context. in this way, i think the prosecution has done a good job of setting this up so he doesn't have to do a lot of work and the jury doesn't have to believe a lot he has to say because there's been this pre-corroboration. i think the government would be wise to lean into any unlike -- he is not on their team. he was on donald trump's team. that's the way prosecutors deal with witnesses who are not likeable and were former criminal associates of a defendant. we didn't pick this guy. the defendant picked this guy by associating with him. i imagine we will hear words along those lines. >> thanks you all so much. when we come back, we will take

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while we are watching the latest from inside the courtroom at the donald trump hush money trial, and testimony about text messages around the former president, they are admitting into evidence a voicemail of some sort. we know a lot of this is connected to michael cohen, who is expected to take the stand on monday.

back with us, katherine christian and duncan levin, our great legal minds here for the hour. we know cohen has spent a significant amount of time with prosecutors going through sort of prep sessions with them. what kind of prep sessions are you going to see, should we expect, this weekend? >> they now have been given a gift of extra time, because court sending at 1:00 today. i suspect that the work is going to start immediately after court is over for the day. they are going to start prepping him more. they have prepped him a lot. i think what they are going to be prepping him now and over the weekend is more in respect with what's come in to the trial. they have probably prepped him prior to the beginning of the trial. now a lot has come out. they have seen what some of the lines of questioning are going to be. what they are prepping him on -- he is prepped on his direct. what they are going to be prepping him on is the cross. after he testifies on direct,

they can't talk to him anymore. there's a rule that you can't talk to a witness after you are done with your direct during the cross. they will not be able to talk to him. now is the last chance to talk about preparing for the cross. i suspect that's what they will work on this weekend is understanding a little bit more what the defense is going to be about, what kinds of questions to expect, that's what they're going to work on. >> catherine, after we had a chance to see how things went with stormy daniels, does that dynamic inform at all the approach that prosecutors or defense teams will have going forward with cohen? >> i would stress to him, no volunteering information. just answer the question that you are asked. nothing more and nothing less, particularly on direct. he has been prepped for direct, i think, months of that. i would remind him again. no smirking. be tough. that's how -- if you have a witness like that, don't be a smart alec. be who you are. i know it's being a smart alec.

show respect for the court. we know how you feel about donald trump. just answer the question and that's it. >> how difficult could it be for the judge to navigate the michael cohen testimony? we saw him step in during stormy daniels' testimony. >> this is a very involved, smart judge. if michael cohen goes far afield, he will stop him. mr. cohen, stop. just answer the question. that's on his direct and on his cross. >> the lawyers for donald trump have now twice -- even during stormy daniels' testimony or around her testimony, have tried to call for a mistrial. the judge rejected it so far. do you see any vulnerabilities in how the prosecution has handled this case at trial? >> not with respect to that. what happened is that theobjectt of the testimony that came in.

there was all sorts of stuff that came in that was prejudicial that judge merchan stepped in on his own and objected to parts of the testimony, told the witness to reign it in. >> how unusual is that? >> it happens. the judge is concerned about maintaining the trial record and not having this overturned on appeal. the judge is watching that. dressed down the lawyering in front of trump, his own lawyers at the end when they moved for a mistrial, i don't know why on earth did you not object to any of that? it was shocking that they really let so much of stormy daniels' testimony come in without objecting to it and then turned around and made a mistrial moment. i'm sure that if trump is convicted, this will become a basis for his appeal. i don't know it will be success, but a basis for his appeal, ineffective assistance of counsel. they let all this come in. we might expect the same thing

from cohen. they did a bad job during the direct of letting all this extraneous stuff come in. that really hurt them on stormy daniels' testimony. >> keeping an eye on what's happening in the courtroom. they moved to re-direct testimony for this witness from the d.a.'s office, a paralegal entering phone records and other evidence like that. catherine, quick though, same question to you, if you see any potential vulnerabilities for the prosecution and how they handled this case. that's exactly where my head went. we know there will be appeals. >> i thought it was a very smart -- it was smart not to call karen mcdougal. they don't need her on her direct going off like stormy daniels. let's stay out of the hotel room and sex with donald trump. that's not what this case is about. no need to call her. we know she was paid $150,000. the prosecution has done everything they could do. they are doing a good job. it will be up to the jury whether or not they have proved

it beyond a reasonable doubt. i was saying to duncan, we haven't got to the proof of the crime. i'm assuming there will be a witness to explain how it was an illegal campaign violation. >> stand by. let's go back to vaughn hillyard. another witness has now taken the stand. vaughn, where does that leave us? >> reporter: exactly. we are looking at one more witness for today. the question is, who is that final witness? the expectation is that we're going to be able to wrap this up here by the 1:00 lunch period. i'm falling along with you as we go here. we do have one more witness. i'm not misstepping on that, am i? >> you are right. we can see that it looks like -- you are right there's a lull right now. jurors at this time we will stop is what judge merchan is telling them right now.

he said, giving them the usual, don't discuss the case, keep an open mind. he is letting them go for the weekend. we are learning in real time, court is now about to wrap up for the day. the judge dismissing jurors. end of testimony. no more witnesses on this friday. giving them instructions as they head into the weekend to try to stay away from any kind of coverage related to this trial. when they come back, it's going to be michael cohen on the stand on monday. right, vaughn? >> reporter: right, michael cohen will come back. we will potentially have one other witness that would come before him. but michael cohen should take up the better part of next week here. we are looking at potentially days for the details that stormy daniels was able to provide over a day and a half, michael cohen was involved in every single element of this alleged scheme here, the reimbursement scheme from the beginning.

coming up with the idea of the story in the first place, the effort to buy her story. also all the way back in 2011, when "in touch" magazine was looking at her story. this for the prosecution is going to be key. michael cohen may be the one that is able to ultimately link all of this up together, as you were talking about, without weisselberg coming to testify himself here. he is going to be crucial to outlining what was -- he said publically was the direction of donald trump to go and execute on this and he was not just a lone actor but instead donald trump was party to this decision making process and that he was simply acting on the behalf of his boss, donald trump. >> vaughn, thank you for the latest update. let me go back to barbara mcquade, who is standing by. it's the end of week four. your top takeaways. >> i think that the government is probably very pleased with the way this case is coming in, especially getting through

stormy daniels. i can imagine that she was seen by them as a high-risk witness, perhaps by both sides. i think she not only did fine, she did exceptionally well. she held up on cross-examination. i think she really brought home in a way that i had not previously appreciated the nature of the sexual encounter with donald trump. this was not romantic. this was a very harvey weinstein-esque moment. you can see why donald trump was desperate to keep that from voters. i think the key now will be michael cohen's testimony, which is teed up nicely for monday. the jury will go home after a strong fourth strong fourth week, which is where you want as the government lawyer, where you want them to be. >> and duncan, catherine, both of you, what will you be watching for with cohen's testimony come monday? >> well, first, if i'm the prosecutors, i'm going to tell

him no tv, no podcasts, no tweeting this weekend. just keep your mouth shut. just talk on the stand, and i'm going to be looking to see his behavior on the stand if he just answers the questions and gives the answers and doesn't go rogue. >> will it be a mellow michael cohen or this wild card? >> he's not a mellow person. i'm not saying be a phony, but be respectful to the court and the process. >> duncan. >> this is a highly prepped witness on both sides. the defense has been complaining all along they haven't had a chance -- their threatening of the witnesses, the prosecution hasn't given them a witness list of who's coming next. everybody knows who's coming left. they have a gift now of several days to prep, and they can really focus on it, and you can be sure that both sides are ready for the questioning and it's a matter of the prosecution controlling him, making sure he answers the questions and the defense really going at him, and

i think we are going to have for as much as they had a huge unforced error with their cross examination of stormy daniels, a cross examination that really belonged to a different era. it was just a disaster. >> and you think the unforced error in that was what? >> it was an unforced error to shame her. to try toy to say she was selling herself as susan necheles said, she shot back, i wasn't selling myself. i was paid to be a dancer. it was an unforced error from their perspective. they cemented and solidified what happened on direct examination with her which is that the sexual encounter showed donald trump to be a predator. he's sitting there in his hotel suite in silk pajamas and stormy daniels is testifying about how her hands were shaking as sh was putting on her gold heeled

shoes. it cemented all of the direct testimony. they have to be careful to cement all of that with michael cohen on the cross examination. >> we're just learning from the courtroom after the jurors been dismissed. there's some conversation happening with the judge and the lawyers and one of the prosecutors has just told him that they expect to call two more witnesses, and it's entirely possible that they rest their case by the end of next week, i want your reaction to that and two more witnesses, one of them's michael cohen. who could the other one be? and do you think they'll save michael cohen for last? >> it sounds like they will. the next witness might be another boring person to establish records and to set up the jury for the most exciting star witness, michael cohen. so ana, there's two different aspects of donald trump's personality, their intention that michael cohen is going to have to address. one is good for the defense. he likes to keep his hands clean. prosecutors want jurors to think he's a mafia don who want other

people to do his dirty work. in this case it was michael cohen and allen weisselberg. the other aspect of trump's personality when it comes to money, he's very hands on. that's helpful for the prosecution. michael cohen will be able to tell the jury about that. >> i'm also looking that it appears the defense is objecting to an exhibit that the prosecution is trying to admit. it's a copy of a severance agreement for weisselberg. paul, why would the defense object? >> yeah, it's a good question. a severance agreement for weisselberg. it sounds like the prosecution is going to say that weisselberg is getting a good deal because he was standing by his man donald trump. that's number one. number two. again, the cross examination of michael cohen is going to be amazing. it's like when drake says this 0

to 100 real quick, that's how this defense attorney is going to cross examine michael cohen and so they're concerned about documents because documents corroborate michael cohen, so any kind of receipt that the defense can get excluded from evidence, they're going to try to do that. >> thank you all so much for being with us. catherine christian, duncan levin, barbara mccade, thanks to vaughn hillyard as well. andrea is back on monday. i'll be back in my usual 10:00 a.m. time slot and i appreciate all the time you spent with us this week. we'll see you back here. have a wonderful weekend. have a wonderful weekend busines. we need to scale with customer demand... in real time. (jen) so we partner with verizon. their solution for us? a private 5g network. (ella) we now get more control of production, efficiencies, and greater agility. (marquis) with a custom private 5g network. our customers get what they want, when they want it. (jen) now we're even smarter

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good day, i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. it is the tale of the texts and phone records and emails all laying out in black and white what prosecutors believe will take a sordid but not illegal story about sex into a crime story. within the past hour or so messages between stormy daniels' manager and the "national enquirer" were read out loud in court for the first time. the text chain laying out details of the hush money deal at the heart of the case against donald trump, at one point revealing that daniels was initially pushing for a quarter of a million dollars. that testimony coming courtesy