dismissed, witnessed 19 officially left the stand and we are keeping a close eye at any moment former president will walk up to that microphone. he spoke to us earlier in the day and he's appeared to have a stack of articles he walked us through on the case being very careful not to mention any of the witnesses to comply with the gag order. he sold he mentioned the judge and told us during the first session he was prepared to bring more articles for us so we will listen to them there. also he mentioned his rally in wildwood new jersey this weekend he'll be back on the campaign trail and next week the d.a.'s office two moore witnesses one of whom will be michael cohen and they say it's entirely possible they rest their case so this could conclude soon. we will hear from the defense, closing arguments and we will see what the new york jury decides. all right, happy friday everyone come onto "america reports." >> kaylee, thank you any second

now we are expected to hear from former president trump whose testimony wraps for the day in the historic criminal trial. i am john roberts in washington good friday afternoon. >> hello i'm aisha hosch and he for sandra smith and this is "america reports" here we go. an eventful week in court spending hours listening to adult film actress stormy daniels testify in extreme graphic detail about their alleged affair. >> really hear from the man at the center of the case michael cohen. webex versus afternoon to cover over than we've heard so far. >> aishah: but first let's go live to eric shawn standing live outside the state supreme court work or just wrapped up for the week. hi, eric. >> that it did for the weekend back on monday. you know there is always a call the pit bull for donald trump. he defended t donald trump heatedly all the time but starting next week the defendant

may feel his bites because michael cohen is set to take the stand here probably start on monday. i have been told prosecutors have called cohen to the stand starting sometime late monday morning. and detailing the alleged scheme to pay off stormy daniels and reimburse cohen for paying her so stormy's story would not damage the presidential campaign in 2016. saying that he paid stormy hundred $30,000 and trump paid him back with those checks falsely disguised as "legal fees" for cohen with multiple counts of filing false business records against time. they met in february of 2017 just one month into trump's presidency. the witness who set up that meeting was madeleine westerhout who finished testifying this morning. reports claim that ms. wester out attended that meeting that

she would testify here and that trump and cohen were heard talking about the deal and stormy but i've been told wester house was not even there but instead she was sitting at her desk right outside the oval office door which is why they can never bring up the meeting with her. she was a prosecution witness and legal experts here say she likely backfired on the prosecution. she was not only sympathetic to the former president but praised him in front of the jury saying he was "a great president" "i thought it was really important to show the american people that man i got to know. i don't think he is treated fairly. he is amazing" she said. "i just found him really enjoyable to work for." michael cohen's testimony could take up the balance of all next week. court will only be in session three days. monday and tuesday, they have wednesday off, then thursday and friday there is no court session because judge juan merchan has given a day off so the defendant, the former president,

can go attend the high school graduation of his son, baron, and that graduation will be in florida on friday. get ready for trump versus cohen the main event at manhattan criminal court's on monday. aisha back to you. >> aishah: outside the courthouse thank you. >> john: like an anticipated ufc event let's bring in uc berkeley lot of to law professor. i may have to pause you for a second, john, we are expecting the president to come out any moment now. but let's look to the main event as they were putting it, when he takes the stand here is what jonathan turley said about his expected testimony earlier today, listen to this. >> it's coming down to michael cohen. who would base a case on michael cohen? it's a good thing they don't put their hands physically on the bible anymore because it would burst into flames.

i mean, this is someone who just recently was denounced by a judge as a serial perjurer. >> all right, michael cohen knows an awful lot of other trump administration and a lot about these ndas but is he the witness you want to put your case on? >> no. and that explains what the prosecution has been doing this week. they don't have a case on the law, they have totally concocted these charges which don't really bear on the facts of the case. they know michael cohen is a perjurer and has planted two felonies. he is the worst possible witness a prosecutor would want that's why they spent this week just attacking donald trump's character. the reason they drag stormy daniels into it, the reason they elicited this outrageous prejudicial tear to my testimony is because they want to leave in the jury's mind this vivid reality show that is going to be hard for them to forget so they will want to convict donald trump for being a bad man regardless whether he committed any crime or not.

that's why they lead this first. if they were really competent, the prosecution was confident in michael cohen and they thought they had a watertight case he would have been the first witness, not the last witness. >> john let me push back because i'm glad you talked about the jury because they are the ones that matter, right? 12 jewelers. i know you are a lawyer, pretend you are like a juror in this moment right now. in the last several days from what you have heard, forget about all the other stormy daniels stuff and all the other things attacking the former president's character what they are actually talking about, the checks and the history and all the minutia details, as a drover can you really believe that the former president knew exactly what he was signing when he was signing tons, hundreds and hundreds of checks, do you really walk away feeling like this man is responsible? >> aisha i've always wanted to be a juror but the judge always

sent me off before i could. in the space of a juror what i want to say is i want evidence p intentionally committed fraud when he listed these checks under one account versus another account. that is one thing the prosecution has yet to prove. and they next thing i want to see is what law was violated? he has promised to show he is allowed to enforce federal election law and the reason trump engaged in this fraud was to defect the 2016 election. i haven't seen that yet either i want to see who signed the checks come what was trump really thinking, what was his state of mind i think that is really hard to prove your. and was he doing it really not to protect his family, not to protect his reputation, but to actually try to influence the 2016 election? in a state he lost overwhelmingly. >> john: we should point out the jury has been dismissed for the week. the former president and his

legal team and the prosecution are still in the courtroom apparently discussing the motion in regard to a gag order i don't know if it is the gag order or another gag order something about michael cohen as well. he is supposed to be coming out momentarily. before i ask you another question, john, let's just watch here because i am told he is on his way out. nothing at. maybe it takes a little while for them to gather up their notes and everything. we should point out while john you say you always wanted to be on a jury but you were knocked out because you are an attorney. there are two attorneys who are sitting on this jury and a question some people have is will these attorneys try to prejudice the jury or will the jury's try to keep the jury on line in terms of how to weigh the evidence and what can be considered whether or not testimony that was struck from the record should be erased or expunged from their minds, which is a difficult thing to do. many people and said this week that want to hear or see something you can either on here

it nor unseat it. there is boris epstein coming out of court, not necessarily a member of the president's legal team but certainly counseling the president and that looks like the president's head there in the window of the door as we are awaiting him to come out. john, quickly, we will have to interrupt you momentarily. speaking to this idea of there being two attorneys on the jury and whether they might help steer the jury toward the absolute parameters of the judge's instructions or maybe in a different direction? >> hopefully they will remember what they learned in first year of law school which is the government needs to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. that does not mean 51% likely that means 99% likely the government is right. put aside the law, put aside the fact, that is the most important thing those two lawyers can bring to the jury.

to the government not just persuade you but are you utterly convinced that donald trump committed fraud? that he committed fraud in order to influence elections and this was not about protecting his reputation but a violation of federal election law? >> and john -- go here he comes let's listen and this is the former president wrapping up the week. >> there is no gag order to michael cohen. with the judge did was amazing actually it was amazing. everybody can say whatever they want. they can say whatever they want but i am not allowed to say anything about anybody. it's a disgrace. and you have seen it, the media sees it. it is really very sad. if you look at the legal experts and the legal scholars everyone of them say this trial is a scam. it is something that should've never happen.

by the way, it could have happened seven years ago. they bring it right here in the election. nobody sees it, nobody talks about it, it should have been seven years ago. it should not have been brought, but it was going to be brought it should've been brought brought seven years ago. and you know we are talking about 2016. we are talking about something that goes back in charge of 2006. we are talking about 2016 a charge that is 18 or 19 years old. it's all fake the whole case is fake. the judge is corrupt. the only thing it gives us to make him look a little good it gives us nothing and what he did just now is a joke. it's a disgrace. it's a disgrace. so i just wanted to mention right here biden made a claim inflation under trump was 9%, it was not it was a tiny fraction it was 1.4%. and actually going down.

we had essentially almost no inflation, but we had 9% inflation, that's a fake number because not every thing was included with biden. and if you add it all up i think it's a 50% inflation tax i call it the biden inflation tax. so he lies and he lies about everything including his golf game. because he can't hit a ball hundred yards. lies about everything, but he came out and i saw this the last couple of days he was talking about the trump inflation, no, his inflation was 9%. that is a tax on the american people due to gross incompetence and it all started because of his energy policies. his stupid green new deal energy policies. and you wait and see. this nation is finished. you wait and see what happens because all of that stuff will be closed up.

he let a lot of my energy policies go through because what they were doing started to go up so high so he let a lot of them continue including the drilling because the prices were going so high for gasoline and energy. now he comes out and he actually says i guess with a straight face but i am not sure he knows what he is saying anyway. it was 9% under trump. in "the new york post" "the wall street journal" couple of others no, it was 1.4 it was actually lower than that and we included everything. they did not include everything. they took some of the worst categories and didn't even include them in the 9%. so what is 9% is actually much higher than that but it's the tax over a four-year period of more than 50%. and i call it the inflation tax. the biden inflation tax. here's another one just came o

out. a friend of mine says biden's big donors viewed over a israel criticism. biden's donors are the ones against israel. so somehow maybe those people, jewish people, that vote for democrats or vote for biden if they are looking at what they are doing the donors to biden are against israel. very much and vehemently against israel, they hate israel. and if that is why biden hates israel because he always has. i want you to start thinking about that. and now you have "the wall street journal" kim strassel is a great rep reporter. if you want to read the story it talks about what is going on here. what is going on here is a disgrace. jonathan turley just came out.

this case is becoming legally obscene. i mean, the articles are unbelievable. and i would hand you the articles but the problem is i am not allowed to because of anything is mentioned against certain people, and you know who they are, certain people anything is even mentioned, he wants to put me in jail. and that could happen one day i will be very proud to go to jail for our constitution because what he is doing is so unconstitutional, there has never been anything like it. story after story, one after another. and this over the last two days. story after story. vanity, big story, jonathan turley, andrew mccarthy, rick gerrit, they are not friends, no one is friends.

the writing source has never seen anything like that. they have never seen anything like what is happening today in this court is a very dark day for new york city and new york state and it is a very dark day for our nation buried in the meantime, i can't meet on the campaign. they could've brought it i told you seven years ago they could've brought it and were going to bring it very remember everybody turn it down. so the district turned it down, washington turned it down, the federal election commission turned it down and do you who else turned it down? everybody turn it down. and then brag came in and he turned it down. he got very angry actually because they came out and what is happening are the pavers looking into that deal? but he got himself into a jam. so what happened is brag turned it down. and then when the election comes

along he says well, remember this. it's a federal case. they turned it down and he is bringing it into the state or the city i guess. work violent crime is all over the place, the city is going to hell and many prosecutors i couldn't even count them looked at me like that, certainly they have had more than 20 prosecutors sitting there over the fact somebody paid a lawyer and in paying the lawyer, so it was a legal expense, that somebody happened to be me, i didn't do the bookkeeping i didn't know about it but a very good bookkeeper marked a legal expense down as a legal expense. they didn't call it construction, they didn't call it building something or electrical cost, they called it

very simply a legal expense to a lawyer who is a lawyer, not a fixer, who a lawyer. legal expense to a lawyer as a legal expense and they said it was marked incorrectly. what else would you call that? it's a legal fee or legal expense so we called it a legal expense. this is what the case is about. it's not about all the other stuff that you can see. we are using that to attempt it has had no impact. to attempt to do something politically but the good news is the people understand the poll numbers are the highest they have ever been and it is ridiculous that i am not going to be out campaigning for another week or two because these thugs, these corrupt thugs and that includes the judge, he should throw this case out. this case should go no further.

every illegal expert the ones like calabrese another one, many of them, they came out and they said this case should not go forward, it's not a case, it is no crime. there is no crime and they failed to show a crime. this is election interference. it all comes down to washington. they have their reps here, you know they have their reps here i'm sure you know that. but this all comes out of washington. crooked joe biden's political opponent happens to be me. and the american people get it. it is a scam. so tomorrow we are doing a bigger rally and it will be in wildwood new jersey we are going for the state of new jersey and we think we can win because what is happening in our country is horrible.

between inflation and horrible economy and the only reason by the way the stock market goes up is i am leading in all the polls. if i were not leading the stock market would be way down but i am leading and based on the fact i am leading the stock market is a-determiner. if i didn't win you have a crash like 1929. mark my words i've been right about everything. if i didn't win you have a crash like the crash of 1929. because the people that are running our government right now are corrupt and incompetent, thank you very much. >> john: all right the president walking away for the week we will see him again tomorrow in new jersey. there is expected to be a massive rally. the biggest rally in a 2020 campaign in new jersey. his campaign hoping to show that is a stark contrast of what has been going on in court this w

week. what the president was talking about, aisha, back in the beginning was after the jury was dismissed it was a discussion because the defense had made a motion to gag michael cohen. judge juan merchan refused to agree to the motion but did tell the prosecution to keep michael cohen quiet so we will see if he does. >> aishah: the trump campaign released a statement about that saying this is a big win for president's legal team in asking them to be quite. i don't know, john, i don't know how big of a win this is. and all the former president is not allowed to talk about michael cohen or the judge but let's talk about both of them. the judge after 15 days told prosecutors they can tell michael cohen to be quiet. all while the president is under threat of jail time for violating potentially violating a gag order. what do you know about this judge? the former president is saying this is a big joke. what do you know about this man?

>> i don't know much about his personal background but just watching his performance during this trial, he is way in over his head. this gag order is a great example. he was violating president trump's first amendment rights. yes, you can restrict what criminal defendants say but there's never been a criminal defendant also the leading candidate for the presidency. that's the core of the free speech is to let us debate and talk about who we are going to elect. and then he compounds this mistake rather than lifting the gag order he says i will let michael cohen speak or maybe i will ban his free-speech rights too read before the trials of his violating two people's first amendment rights. it's a terrible showing of how this judge does not understand constitutional rights. >> john: what is interesting too is the timing and all of this. now, tell me michael cohen now to zip it after he has had the

last couple of months to talk about this is very reminiscent of the judge saying the other day well, you know, the jury probably should not have heard a lot of what stormy daniels had to say. it's like he looks at this in hindsight and goes yeah, well, maybe that should never happen. as a judge shouldn't you have foresight to say wait a minute this is how this can affect this case, prejudice to judge the stomach jury against the defendant and the defendant has a lot of rights as well we have a make sure we i will issue these orders ahead of time as opposed to not even playing clean up afterwards by acknowledging it's a mistake. >> john yoo are right i had even thought about that but that is just like the m.o. from what he did was stormy daniels. he should never have let stormy daniels testify. he allowed her to testify, blamed trout's lawyers were not objecting every five seconds after he had already all the judges at the end saying well maybe i should have done

something about it because he knows now that he is skirting on the line toward a mistrial. he has got to realize after letting stormy daniels after putting the gag order in he is putting a lot of opportunities for the appeals court to reverse him. now he is trying to play cautious because he does not want to be overruled, he does not want a mistrial but he has really mismanage this trial and i can easily see in the appeals court unfortunately long after the election saying this all has to be thrown out because a judge really screwed up the trail. >> aishah: speaking of stormy daniels if we can pull up her twitter post the letter ex post as we away the former president to leave the courthouse she really takes takes a hit other presidencies as roman respond to testimony by being sworn in and taking a stand in court, wait, never mind. the former president actually sat down at mar-a-lago that he wants to testify. it was a very stunning moment i was sitting right there a few wait feet away from him when he said it and my jaw nearly

dropped. do you think you should? do you think it's a good idea and that his lawyers will let him? >> aishah i have the same reaction you did. my jaws dropping now. there is no way donald trump should testify. but what you should also see of this week 'asked events the way stormy daniels testified the kind of prosecutors though my questions prosecutor asked her they are trying to goad president trump into testifying. is a fifth amendment right against self-incrimination he does not have testify because then he would be under oath because they would have them committing perjury and send them to jail. i think what we saw now, i'm glad to see the former president is aware of that i think he did not violate the gag order instead to turn the platform around and attack biden. attack or a bad job he is doing it and use it as a campaign platform to make his case, to be reelected. don't get sucked into fighting

with stormy daniels under oath in this kind of sordid trial. >> john: as we saw that came out of the courtroom. >> aishah: he is trying. >> john: the president is using his campaign form because where do you get so much free time? all three cable networks are covering it from everybody else is covering it as well. john, great to spend time with you and i must say if i thought of something that you didn't it's absolutely proof of the dash even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while. >> i know it and you know it. >> john: think of all the eyeballs on front. when it comes out of the courtroom and compare that to the number of people watching him in the campaign. >> aishah: whoever is watching him should get a pay raise because i started noticing that about a week ago more than a week ago that he is starting to come out and hit the day of issues. the day of topics. what's happening in the world?

oof course israel ammunitions with the former president of his very, very smart, take advantage of all the votes you have because you are cutting into your own i mean this court case cutting in the so much crucial campaign volunteers was really curtis because dana perino former press secretary for president bush said about three weeks ago i think on the five she was saying if i was the trump campaign i would be using every opportunity i had in front of the cameras to campaign. i would be going out and doing local events around new york. he is tied to the city so we can't go to pennsylvania but you can do things around new york and all of a sudden it happen. >> someone was listening over there. >> i think so. we will take a quick break will be back right after this ease you back in to the dating scene. that includes having a smile you feel good about. fortunately, aspen dental specializes in dentures and implants made just for you.

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may be one more witness and then the marquis witness in this case, michael cohen expected to be coming up on monday. what would be an abbreviated court week will only be in session monday and tuesday because they have wednesdays off and form a president trump is going to be in florida thursday and friday for his son, baron's graduation. the chief political correspondent and fox news computer reader joins us now so first of all if you could tell us about the defense motion to gag michael cohen who has been out there talking even though the judge previously told him to keep them quiet. the judge would not grant the motion but telling the prosecution to keep the witness quiet. >> i'm surprised the they have not tried this earlier. michael cohen has been in the trumpet bashing business for several years now. end of the defense has tried to downplay the fact their star witness seems to absolutely hate

trump come his former employer. michael cohen wrote a memoir and the title of it is called "revenge" and that is kind of the way he is with donald trump. and we know early in the trial he was saying all sorts of things about twitter, he was being invited on msnbc all the time to talk and he kind of stopped fat but even after being warned to be quiet he just did a tiktok in which he has a t-shirt on showing donald trump behind bars. so, you just can't shut the guy up. >> i think we have the video. we can pump it up. it's incredible. i want to be real for a moment here. most americans wouldn't you agree are not watching this as feverishly as we are. but what they do know is that there is a new york city d.a. progressive who is going out to the presidential nominee in

court and the two star witnesses are a pornstar and a convicted liar so hasn't he artie won that is in the court and public opinion because when you look at that, i mean, what in the world is happening? >> when your facing of a maximum of 186 years in prison you don't just want to win and the court of public opinion and you don't want to go to jail. i think what is interesting here is we talked years ago. >> john: there is trump walking out of the courthouse. >> we talked a year ago about whether multiple indictments would hurt trump's political prospects and they didn't, they actually helped in the republican race. then what about when he is really on trial in a courtroom what will that do? and we are finishing up week four and we have seen no effect in the polls, none of it. the big question is if he is convicted what happens then? and we do know there are a

number of polls that show people who might be willing and open to voting for trump erie we have seen them say well, if he were convicted of a felony i would have to rethink that and maybe not vote for trump erie it >> john: i thought that was only 4%. >> it could be enough. >> it could be enough. >> you are right it's not a huge part of the electorate. >> john: it's not like 50% will say oh, no. >> because so many people believe he has been unfairly targeted. as far as his supporters are concerned, him being unfairly targeted by four prosecutions now just fits into a pattern they saw it the entire presidency if it comes up to the trump-russia matter when they thought he was unfairly targeted. >> it's not just reporters it's so many americans who are not trump supporter's, immigrant americans looking at this and outraged and almost want him to beat everyone in these trials because they don't want to go down the road of these third world countries where this kind of stuff is happening and

former presidents are being thrown in jail. there's a lot of outrage they're not just amongst his supporters. thank you for coming on, byron. standby here. thank you. as we watch folks leaving the courthouse that is the former president's motorcade now moving through new york city. we are going to bring in judge pirro cohost of "the five" she was in the courtroom all day today and witnessed the action firsthand right there not far away from formal president trump. judge, i want to get your initial reaction to what we just learned the judge telling the prosecution they can just tell michael cohen to be quiet but will not order a gag order on him. >> first of all let me tell you it was a very drab courtroom on this very drab day with very drab testimony. the only time it was really

excitement was when the defense got up, the attorney for the president said your honor, michael cohen is still going out there and talking about the president and we would request that at least there be some balance in terms of the gag order. the judge gets up and to my amazement the judge directed the prosecution to tell michael cohen that the judge does not want him to be communicating. and in any way on any public forums and i am sitting in the courtroom saying to myself wait a minute, you are the one in the robe. you are asking the prosecutor to ask a witness to not talk about the case? when you are the judge and you have an obligation to gag him? you gag the former president of the united states, you robbed him of his ability to speak, and you are letting michael cohen who is a convicted perjurer and fern to buy the judge as a

serial liar to continue to talk and you don't have the chutzpah i will use that instead of another word to be tell him to be quiet it blew my mind. more than that seeing the president today was my first day in the courtroom. seeing the president the former president of the united states sitting at a defendant's table in a court room with the shades down and beat up tiles, everything is messed up in it and you are listening to drab testimony that is not even connecting him to the basis of what this crime is all about. and i said to myself why am i sending here? and then i said why is he having to sit here? this whole thing is a farce. they are prolonging it so they can keep him off the trail as long as they can and you know what? i am a prosecutor. in my dna. i understand what it takes to prove a case.

but this is beyond anything i have seen in over three decades as a prosecutor, judge, and adea. >> john: you know we made this argument with several others it's keeping trump off the campaign trail but he is getting more exposure from being in court than he likely would on the campaign trail. has wall-to-wall coverage on three news networks. on the front page of every website and disfavor across the country so plenty of eyeballs or seeing him and taking advantage by campaigning in the hallway of the courthouse there. >> well, there is no question about it but you know donald trump, john, you covered him when he was president. you know he is the man in the fight he wants to be in the fight he wants to go out there and work. he has the energy and i was sitting there thinking i mean i have known in many, many years. how could he possibly say here for 4 hours just sitting listening to testimony? that is not in his nature.

that in itself is punishment but i agree with you. when he does go outside the courtroom, he talked about things that americans are interested in like what is going on in the college campuses, what is going on in terms of joe biden and what he is doing but at the same time it's not who he is. the american people want to see him and they should be entitled to see him. they should not be prevented from seeing him and that is what this is all about. >> judge let me tell you about michael cohen their star witness on the way on monday. this guy i mean this guy is a sound bite machine. he loves talking. i don't know how a gag order would work but he is on tiktok every single night with all the emojis and things going off so when he takes the stand on monday, how does the defense got a hold of him in case he is going to take advantage of that moment and he is going to want to go on for days and days and days to get his point across so how did they get a hold and

control over michael cohen? >> first of all, you say zip the gag order wouldn't work i mean it would have to work but the judge does not want to gag him it's that simple. but at the same time i think the most important thing is to let this jerry see who michael cohen as to let this jerry see he has said has said x, y, and z and abc on the same statement. so it is just a question of letting him out talk himself. but also, you know, michael cohen cannot say the same thing five different ways and we realize he has such hatred for donald trump. he despises the man. so that is all going to come out and i looked at the jury. look, they are a regular ordinary people. i think it is an unusually young jury but at the same time i think they have been attentive enough to realize what is going on here. and i think they may be able to

tell the difference between some someone who's telling the truth and someone who isn't paired with stormy daniels everyone was like she was great and then you go to the prosecution case and you say you know there is a screw loose up there she talks to dead people. so, you know the court process is the one truth finding process we have. and i think it will play out hopefully it probably will when it comes to michael cohen. >> so judge let's see what it is in the know gag order against michael cohen but admonishing the prosecution to keep the witness quiet. i mean, i talked to john yoo about this a couple of minutes ago. this is a judge who makes rulings about things after they have already happened. he sees that michael cohen has been out there saying all this stuff about trump wearing a t-shirt that has the image of trump in a prison orange jumpsuit behind bars and he says oh, yeah, maybe you should keep your client quiet in the same way as on tuesday after

stormy daniels lays out the salacious tale in court he says yeah, may be the jury should not have heard some of that. why is this judge waiting until the horse is out of the barn to make these rulings? >> john, think about it. why? because he doesn't mind these rulings coming out. because he doesn't mind michaemichaeldonald trump i wrie he's not in control what's going on or maybe he is. this judge, and i've never seen this in my life, this is my wheelhouse. to tell the prosecution, to tell the witness that "i rode it down that quote the judge doesn't want him communicating. you know, the judge does not want him talking. and call him on behalf of me and tell him i said it. judge, if you have a backbone, you tell them. it's your courtroom but he

doesn't want to. i think the answer is clear. and that is the sad part of all of this. >> aishah: all right judge, we will see if that resonates with any of them especially the lawyers in the classroom. in the courtroom thank you for being there with us today and for your insight we appreciate it. >> john: judge, thank you and more on all this coming up after the break, stay with us my husband, barney, and i have been married for 32 years. i think the most important thing in life is to stay healthy. i noticed i was having some memory losses. i discovered prevagen. since i've been on prevagen, i've noticed more clarity, more sharpness. the recall mechanism is a lot more concise. i've been taking prevagen for almost 10 years. it's wonderful. prevagen. at stores everywhere without a prescription. but with stearns & foster® that's only part of the story. we handcraft every stearns & foster® using the finest materials,

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if you look at the legal experts and the legal everyone will say this trial is a scam. >> john: former president donald trump just a few minutes ago complaining about the fact judge juan merchan would not grant the defense's motion to issue a gag order on michael cohen perry dated go so far to tell the prosecution to keep their witness quiet. not sure why he did not issue that order himself. fox business miss lydia who was in the overflow room of the court today where she gets to hear the testimony live at that happening. what was your impression of the day? not quite as fiery as tuesday and yesterday but still important nonetheless. >> yes, john that's it's at the right today was an important day as the prosecutors kind of made their way through a lot of weedy testimony talking about documents related to phone calls and text messages but all of this is really important to lay the groundwork for what is to

come on monday which is testimony for michael cohen. what is may be the prosecutor's star witness, second to stormy daniels or right up there alongside with her, he is really important to this case because he is going to pull together all the various threads. it seems like all roads and all three locations went to michael cohen. by way of example, john, one of the pieces of evidence or phone records of all the various parties and michael cohen's phone records alone show him talking to keith davidson, talking to hope hicks, dylan howard come the former president donald trump, aaron weisel berg, the point that being michael cohen would be the one to answer for the prosecutors. why did they want to buy a max stormy daniels' story? why was she asked to sign an nda? and reportedly as it relates to the actual documents these are about falsified documents after all. why did he structure his invoices so they ran 12 months

in the following year each for reimbursement of $35,000 for each month to reach $460,000 when the payment was only $130,000? was he providing other types of legal services? not all of that being said even with that testimony which we believe will be fiery and full of explosive moments considering the animosity between trump and cohen, defense will very much have a field day taking jobs, taking blows that michael cohen and as many credibility issues. as we know he is convicted on tax charges, perjury, not known for his veracity and truth keeping, john. today is an important day tedious to lay the groundwork for the. >> john: i was saying if you were trump's defense attorney and had him on the stand what would you do and he very tersely said i would in all my mike davis rate him so we will see

what they do when he is on the stand. lydia, great to speak to you appreciated. >> thank you. >> aishah: let's bring in jay town former u.s. attorney for the northern district of alabama. jay i know you've been watching this with us and i can't wait to get your reaction to judge mershon telling the prosecution to tell him to be quiet but no gag order. >> it's quite the profile on courage proving time and again throughout this trial and on i think you are making a very good point that he seems to react after the truth basis after the bell has been wrong whatever metaphor you want to use. so it is the same thing with michael cohen. he is has gagged the former president of the united states was the presumptive nominee he will be the nominee for the republican party come july. he has gagged him under the guise under the integrity of this process inside this

courtroom, okay, fine. that's what you have a gag order. this is constitutional to make unconstitutional let's pretend it isn't. not unaware of what stormy daniels and michael cohen of been saying throughout the last year, certainly throughout this trial. it has been brought to his attention but he has refused to acknowledge it and faced with what cohen has been doing this week now they know he is a witness on monday the judge says look, just elements from me. he could have ordered it from the bench, judge jeanine pointed that out. again not exactly a profile encouraging this but just sort of continues to shine this bias through. >> john: one aspect of this that i don't that has been aired much is way back in 2011 stormy daniels was trying to stall her story to in touch magazine or apparently some $15,000. the story did not ever run.

potentially one of the reasons why it did not run was because they called up the trunk magazine to get comment, michael cohen apparently threatened to sue them if they ran the story. that was back in 2011 that michael cohen was looking to have the story squash. president trump was not even thinking about running for president at that time. may be had talked it a couple of times kind of teasing folks so if they wanted the story squashed in 2011 what was the reason for that? and was not the same reason they wanted the story quashed when it reemerged in 2017? i didn't have anything to do with the campaign in 2011 but suddenly when they do the same thing in 2016 it's all about the campaign according to him? >> it's an excellent point and look i was prosecutor what most would consider a high level for a few years in the state of alabama and as a united states attorney. prosecutors all over the country are looking at this case.

they are looking at the theory that alvin bragg and his team have cobbled together and they are embarrassed at how this case is actually decimating the trust and confidence we all need as prosecutors in our justice system. i don't believe, john, when alvin bragg is sliding into his 58 regular suit every morning that he actually thinks about that. i think he is more thinking of how he is trying to scuff up or embarrass the former president of the united states. we are four weeks into this trial, three weeks of witnesses, maybe a week or so more to go and i have yet to see a shred of evidence that donald trump is guilty of any element of any of the crimes that could possibly be alleged here. all the legal experts are still confused as to what all the crimes being alleged are. again, certainly back to judge

mershon notice pleadings are a thing. you should know what the charges you are facing. we still don't know and judge mershon doesn't seem much to care about that even more than he does what michael cohen is saying on tiktok. >> one last quick answer if i may. would you advise the former president not to testify? >> well, it really goes back i mean early on i think trump would get on the stand and would tell the truth. but because mershon is proven just because from stormy stormy daniels, all of this tawdry and salacious detail that is completely inadmissible but they allowed it anyway, judge mershon is proving where might this go outside the scope of the testimony? >> john: we have to run but thank you for joining us we will see you again soon. >> thanks, guys.

>> john: michael cohen gearing to take up the stand next week. how is the trump team preparing? we will ask trump attorney will sharp just ahead. standing up... even walking was tough. my joints hurt. i was afraid things were going to get worse. i was always hiding and that's just not me. not being there for my family, that hurt. woo! i had to do something. i started cosentyx®. i'm feeling good. watch me. cosentyx helps people with psoriatic arthritis move, look, and feel better. it targets more than just joint pain and treats the multiple symptoms, like joint swelling and tenderness, back pain, helps clear skin, and helps stop further joint damage. serious allergic reactions, severe skin reactions that look like eczema, and an increased risk of infections, some fatal, have occurred. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine or plan to, or if ibd symptoms develop or worsen.

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