Trump's hush money trial wraps up Day 2 of witness testimony

it's been a fiery start to today's historic criminal trial of a former president Court just wrapped with Donald Trump facing those felony charges of making hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels as well as allegations that he violated a gag order the jury now hearing testimony from former National inquir publisher David pecker who prosecutors say was the eyes and ears of the Trump campaign and taking part in the scheme to buy and bury all those unflattering stories about his good friend Donald Trump Pecker's testimony follows the combative hearing about the gag order with judge Juan Maran repeatedly admonishing Trump's attorney saying they weren't answering questions and that a lack of evidence is causing them to lose credibility with the court prosecutors are asking the judge to hold Trump in contempt now upping the claims that he violated the gag order 11 times let's bring in our executive or editorial producer John sanui also our legal contributor Brian Buck me all right so John pecker testified about this meeting with Trump and Michael Cohen back in 2015 tell them that he would make arrangements to kill any unflattering news stories about Trump including that false story from a Trump Tower doorman who said Trump fathered an illegitimate child with a maid remember when that story all came out let's talk about how important this is to the case if at all well it's important because what it's doing right now Kira is prosecutors are trying to build out this case to say listen we've indicted Donald Trump for this incident and situation regarding Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen however however what they are building out right now this was not a one-time thing that Donald Trump Michael Cohen and David pcker did this at least three times during the 2016 presidential campaign once with a doorman and two times with women who said they had extramarital affairs with Donald Trump that being Karen McDougall a former Playboy Playmate and Stormy Daniels the adult film star Daniels the only one a part of that because of the way the payment to Daniels was documented in the Trump log the Trump payment method saying that it was for Legal Services to reimburse Michael Cohen for those payments made to Daniels now obviously a big part of today that has just been striking I mean take all of that aside for a second is just to hear David pecker on the stand here as you well know we have not heard from David pecker until the last two days for the first time in nearly 10 years and of course it's just revealing because they talk about this scheme that was developed and how he himself said as has been testified by others and which is the reason Donald Trump was indicted here is that he served David pecker as the eyes and ears for Donald Trump and Michael Cohen any time a negative story came to his attention either directly or through sources that could hurt Donald Trump he'd catch it he'd kill it he'd make it go away and what prosecutors are showing by introducing the evidence of the story involving a former doorman at the Trump organization along with these other women is that this was something that happened quite routinely and Brian I had a chance to talk to Michael Cohen today asking about what he thought about what de uh or what David Becker was saying on the stand and he said after the Trump administration had me remanded to solitary confinement for a total of 51 days all right Trump is coming out to camera so this could fold in perfectly let's listen to what Trump has to say I'll come back to you Brian can't even allow articles to be put in as an example these are articles that were over the last day and a half they're very good articles they say the case is a sham and it should to be tried it shouldn't have been submitted and I don't even know if you're allowed to put them in we have a gag order which to me is totally unconstitutional I'm not allowed to talk but people are allowed to talk about me so they can talk about me they can say whatever they want they can lie but I'm not allowed to say anything I just have to sit back and uh look at why a conflicted judge has ordered me to have a gag order I don't think anybody's ever seen anything like this I'd love to talk to you people people I'd love to say everything that on my mind but I'm restricted because I have a gag letter and I'm not sure that anybody's ever seen anything like this before and even having to do with articles somebody writes an article if I read every one of these articles incomplete I read some of it and I'll look at headlines all good headlines that the case is a sham but I can't read the whole thing I be reading this is like reading a novel so so I put an article in and then somebody's name is mentioned somewh deep in the article and I end up in violation of the gag order uh I think it's a disgrace it's totally unconstitutional I don't believe it's never not to this extent ever happened before I'm not allowed to defend myself and yet other people are allowed to say whatever they want about me very very unfair having to do with the schools and the closings that's Biden's fault and by the way this trial is all Biden you know this is all Biden just in case anybody has any question and they're keeping me in a courtroom that's freezing by the way in a courtroom all day long well he's out campaigning that's probably an advantage because he can't campaign nobody nobody knows what he's doing he can't put two sentences together but he's out campaigning he's out campaigning and I'm here in a courtroom sitting here giving uh sitting up as straight as I can all day long because you know what it's a very unfair situation so we're locked up in a courtroom and this guy's sat there campaigning if you call it a campaign every time he opens his mouth he gets himself into trouble so that's the story I have unconstitutional gagod by a highly conflicted judge that should recuse himself very simple on the schools should have never happened what's going on in this country now should have never happened but of course course the Ukraine war would have never happened the Israeli attack would have never happened inflation would have never happened we have the worst president in the history of our country and he's the one that has Us in all these different lawsuits thank you very [Applause] much all right Brian buckmire Donald Trump sure is testing his trial gag order isn't he he's saying that it's unconstitutional there's this gag order that's in put on him let's get two things straight clearly when he wants to talk he's going to talk but we should also mention this gag order is not unconstitutional uh let's lay out the facts here Brian yeah so I'll continue with that in that uh Speech I think he did a much better job than than in previous ones I don't see a very clear violation there but I will go through some of it he says uh can't talk about people who talk about me well that's the part that judge michan was saying you're losing credibility with me because when his defense made that argument the judge asked okay so what is he responding to what are the points that you're saying he has to push back on that are now considered political speech rather than a violation of the gag order and the defense couldn't come up with a single uh example of where Donald Trump was pushing back on something that someone else had said so that's one thing uh as as it stands right now he's not in violation of the gag order that that that order has not been uh brought by the judge to say what his decision is so that's that's false there but the problem with what he just said is well what he just said may not be a violation of the gag goer he may have just incriminated himself once again because if I'm his defense attorney one of my chief arguments would be is that five of those I think eight of those posts of the 10 uh are reposts of an article and there's an argument to be made that Donald Trump himself didn't post it maybe someone else is handling his social media but he just said I put the article up there and it mention someone's name and that's a violation and to me judge Maran could be saying you know what Court's done for the for the for the day I am now writing this decision the judge simply needs to just turn on the TV and says there he is he admitted to the violation he admitted that he knew the article had that person's name he admitted that he's the one that put it on uh social media he's admitting to the violation and he's literally writing the judge decision for him all right now let's get back to the the key witness that was on the stand started yesterday and then today that's David pecker the former uh head of the national inquire good friend of Donald Trump uh being asked about you know the by and bearing of all these stories that that would hurt uh the the former president as as he was uh getting ready to to run the White House um so Michael con was mentioned a lot I started to read what Michael had had texted me earlier saying that after the Trump administration had me remanded to solitary confinement for a total of 51 days I learned that I am much stronger than I imagined strong enough to ensure that truth will prevail over Donald and his acolytes incessant lying and denigration of me in the court hallways or in his untruth social platform regardless no one is above the law so depending on well what pcker continues to say and what he said today Brian I mean doesn't that just strengthen what Michael Cohen has has said all along corroboration is a big part of this case both for the prosecution and defense because the more that can be corroborated as to what Michael Cohen and David pecker say through whether it be recordings that the prosecution says they have through their opening arguments or just through documentations and ledgers the further away the defense has the ability to say that these people are liars and you shouldn't trust them so yes that does help um but to the defense that any good defense attorney can flip a bad into a good uh if I'm the defense attorney I'm pointing to the fact that look Michael Cohen is using his blow horn to attack his quote unquote acolytes his defense attorneys and using the media to push his agenda isn't that the same thing that Donald Trump is doing and I think they're going to make a big whataboutism of that and they can maybe do some push back I we'll see all right Olivia we now I see that we have uh you with us now you were inside the courtroom uh what stood out to you today well we heard earlier from pecker today about the meeting where he h determined with Donald Trump and Michael Cohen that they were going to buy these negative stories and bury them and now really stunning testimony from David pecker here to wrap to today where he walked the jury through the first time that he ever caught and killed a story for Donald Trump it was in late 2015 and it was a Dorman who worked at Trump Tower was shopping a false story that Donald Trump had fed an illegitimate child with a maid at Trump Tower and you can sort of see Donald Trump's face his head is shaking as he's sitting at the defense table when pecker first says what that allegation is and pecker walks through what they did with that story he said that he immediately picked up the phone and called Michael Cohen when his team became aware that the allegations were being shopped and that he determined that it was an important story that it could damage the campaign and as such uh that they should buy it and he said that Michael Cohen said that uh you know the story was absolutely not true potentially in new nugget he said that Donald Trump offered to take a DNA test to prove that it wasn't true but pecker said that that would not be necessary that they were going to buy it and I want to read this quote Cohen responded very clearly pecker said he said the boss will be very pleased saying the boss meant Donald Trump so tying Donald Trump into this effort very very closely and of course here we know that that story did end up not being true there was no uh illegitimate trial that Donald Trump had with a maid at Trump Tower but the really telling part of this testimony is when the prosecutor Joshua Stein glass asked him why are you paying $30,000 to bury an untrue story and pecker ultimately testifies because if the story got out to another publication it would have been embarrassing for the campaign and the prosecutor says so it was a way to lock it up and pecker said that is correct and it was the first time that we have really heard the telling of that you know instance which is one of the three key instances that prosecutors are laying out here really stunning Kira so John who could be the next stunning interesting controversial uh non-stop watch television witness to take the stand after David pecker I mean Kira how much time you got there's a lot of definitely fascinating witnesses that could take the stand here we're talking about former assistance to Donald Trump we're talking about longtime AIDS like hope pick um we are obviously also talking about Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels they both will take the stand and remember Kira Donald Trump and Michael Cohen have faced off just within the last couple of months Michael Cohen took the stand of of course as you'll recall during the New York attorney general civil case earlier this year and it was described as our team that was in court then I was in court for some of it as well extremely tense between the two because you have to remember this and Cara I know you know that said you were texting Michael Cohen earlier but just for our viewers at home think about the person in your life that is the most loyal someone that would never flip on you somebody that you told your deepest dark at secrets to and then they're on a stand telling all that is what Michael Cohen has done so so far to Donald Trump and he will do on this in a case that Donald Trump has told people around him at the end of the day he just finds more than anything else embarrassing and Michael Cohen is going to shine a huge light on the thing that Donald Trump is embarrassed the most by so legally Brian you know I've seen a lot of critics out there following this and the fact that this is the first of the number of cases that are out there concerning Donald Trump and this one is so salacious and has all the interesting characters it's the one that goes back what six years that day that that Michael Cohen's office was was raid and then you know it's been a domino effect ever ever since then um but what do you think of the criticism that this case against Trump um is not only a legal embarrassment but also a historic mistake there are some attorneys out there that are that are saying that what do you think of that thought I I'm of different Minds in some respect effect I see some of their criticism specifically as to the argument as to what is the underlying crime and even in the opening statements I'm trying to find that myself as well and that being that there is this falsification of business records uh for the purpose of concealing another crime I see that as an issue however what I would say is as as the legal Community we may be able to think of arguments but why aren't the defense attorneys themselves making that the other criticism I see is that of selective prosecution but that goes to prosecutorial discretion prosecutors can choose to bring cases they do or do not want to bring But ultimately when I see the criticisms and I see them I hear them I push back on them I listen I try my best to be as fair and balanc and and looking at this case as possible I always come down to the same conclusion put 12 people in the box and prove it if you can't do that then what are we arguing about if this case is such a sham then then the jury will find that and if not the court of appeals will

Channel: ABC News

Views: 99,387

Keywords: abc, abcnl, gag, hush, money, news, order, p_cmsid=2494279, p_vid=news-109541910, testimony, trial, trump, violations, witness

Id: wT_NG3hjAqE

Length: 15min 24sec (924 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 23 2024