Trump on trial: New York vs. Donald Trump Day 1 Highlights

Today is the first time that Donald Trump has been seated as a defendant for the actual start of any criminal

trial

, we are approved of indictments, indictments, all those pre-

trial

motions and the many failed attempts by Trump and his lawyers to delay the day of trial today in New York. lost those efforts and this defense table is not where it wanted to be today, but Manhattan da Alvin boasts has now achieved results that other prosecutors were frustrated boast of covering up a year-long campaign and charging it as a felony plot. About 500 New Yorkers showed up. Today, as potential jurors in this case, they may not remember the many details of this now seven-year-old story.

Most of the action in the courtroom will involve selecting 12 jurors and six alternates. This day ended without any jury having been selected yet on this first day. of the trial immediately dove into evidence about Donald Trump's possible criminal motives. Lawyers clashed over how to reference that Infamous Access Hollywood tape that prosecutors say motivated then-candidate Trump to pay Stormy Daniels on Election Day. He wanted it done beforehand for a campaign purpose, that's a sign. of the many fireworks ahead that could captivate this jury and the nation watching, so here we are. April 15, 2024 now sets a legal precedent and marks American history.

Other people who have served as president have been investigated, impeached and accused of all kinds of wrongdoing, but none, none of them ended up at the defendant's table for a criminal trial where Donald Trump sat today. This is not a forum where the defendant is in control, the judge is in charge and the jury decides and that was immediately clear today when the defendant Trump largely sat down. Subdued and motionless, his public outbursts silenced his political bluster in the legal pause. Donald Trump is presumed innocent. The burden of proof falls solely on prosecutors, but starting tonight and in the coming weeks, Americans will be presented with this momentous trial, the evidence, the testimony from both sides of the process.

In this case, no one really knows what will come next, we don't know what the legal outcome will be, we don't know how a mistrial that would not convict the defendant, we don't know how that would impact voters or if a conviction of Trump would bring a prison sentence or if a conviction would affect voters in general Donald Trump faces four accusations in total, we have covered them and remember that three of them refer to alleged electoral crimes, crimes about abuse and attempts to obtain or maintain power, those three in DC Georgia and New York, now there's New York, his case turns out to be the first to go to trial and could very well be the only one to go to trial before this year's election, so the stakes couldn't be higher. .

Our entire panel is here. To get into this tonight, I want to bring on Rachel Mat, who joins us remotely first. Rachel, what does today mean and the beginning of this test. First of all, I think it was an excellent summary. Ari. I think you've put what's at stake. exactly true, I mean it took us a long time to get here, the origin of this case is that before the 2016 elections a lot of time has passed, that in itself is a bit of a scandal, I think that's part of what I'm doing. I'm going to talk about that on my show tonight at 9:00 p.m.

ET, but we finally got here. You know, the wheels of Justice grind slowly. I didn't think they would do it so slowly as to apparently shake the defendant. Sleeping on the defense table today. I mean, I have to say. Yes. It wasn't there. I don't know if he was asleep. It's possible that he was, you know, meditating or just resting his eyes or something. I do not know but I like it. those are those headlines that you know on the front page of the New York Times, front page of the Washington Post, front page of the Huffington Post, front page of multiple news outlets today, coming out of this thing about Trump appearing to fall asleep on the first day of his trial.

Those are going to stay, I mean, I know it's not the most important legal thing, but we're in the middle of a campaign and you know, the age issue is the main thing that the Trump campaign wants to use against his opponent, the whole Sleepy Joe business. this is like you said Ari, this is the most historic thing Donald Trump has ever done, no president has ever been a former president has been criminally charged and the first day the headlines that came out were that he appeared to fall asleep and to me, that's just I mean it's crazy, it's also a reminder of how scary, as scary as it is, and and grim and important, this is that we're also dealing with someone who is fundamentally a buffoon and this will be as much a reminder of that as all things are. more serious things at play here, you know, this is a guy that we've already mentioned today, like the alleged lover and the other alleged lover and the bouncer who is making the accusations about the alleged love. child with the third alleged mistress and then I mean and the crux of this is not who he slept with the crux of this is his alleged criminal conspiracy with the national Inquirer I mean, this really is a fundamentally buffoonish person um and this will focus that on the minds of the American people in a way that you know staying awake in court today might have diverted it, but this is what we have, go to the election with the candidate that you have, yeah, and Rachel, this is going.

As you say, it goes back to 16, so I have one more question about that and then I think Chris seemed to want to react to your point about courtroom decorum, um, but Rachel in 2016 you advised everyone since then. what they don't do what they say even when what they say is so outrageous that sometimes it deserves a certain amount of reaction understandable um what he says is everything testifies what he says is go ahead, but what he does is he tries in every way, even in a last losing motion this morning to avoid the same Judgment Day in this process that we are now going to cover yes, that is exactly correct the Motions to delay this to recuse the judge to move the venue to move it to the Federal Court to get the Los charges dismissed, I mean, these are all things that a defendant is eligible to try properly.

Defendants have many rights and can exercise them all without prejudice against their case, but he is desperate to make this go away and move forward. the way back to the original investigation here when he had control of the US department of justice, particularly when he had his friend Bill bar in the US department of justice. Bill bar took notable steps, I think, at the level of the National Scandal to try to carry out this investigation and this case. go away in Trump's name, there's a reason this case has bothered him from the beginning and you know, look at how they behave when confronted with him, not what they say when they try to downplay his importance, well, just until Rachel's point about the dynamics of the campaign.

The dynamics of the optics of all of this and the and the um sustained rest that apparently happened in the courtroom. I mean, I feel like if you call your opponent Sleepy Joe, you have a job for the rest of the campaign, which is like you have Like a Clockwork Orange, those puppies like to be open at all times, but it's also interesting imagine, I mean again this man who I believe is not a particularly emotionally regulated individual and does not have a tremendous degree of self-control and discipline in a situation that To your point, AR, he does not control the things in which he does not control the pace of the conversations that happen outside of his realm, but he has to sit there and watch it, I mean, I can't really think of anything that's It's more of a nightmare in some ways for him, just on a personal level, like no, you don't have , like the encouragement that you don't have, you're not getting like little hits to the ego from some responses on social media and you just have to sit back. there and seeing this day after day, I mean, this was day one, it's weeks and weeks of this, so on the most human level, I was watching the reports today and thinking about the sheer psychological torture, I really mean that is. this and then also the point that he keeps making, which is true, although not for the reasons that he says, which is that he is not on the campaign trail talking to people as if he were not doing events with farmers in Michigan or some.

Whatever state rally he's doing, he's sitting in a courtroom in New York where he's charged with felonies and felonies where a serious case is going to be filed. MH, yeah, I mean, it caught my attention seeing him in the courtroom, obviously, cameras. They are not in the courtroom, we did not see it, but we did see the photo of him in the courtroom. He looks small in that photo, rough around the edges, a little rough around the edges in that photo, I think it's fair to say, but he was also treated as any defendant would have been.

He has been treated that is how our justice system should work. He walked those same dark and gloomy hallways as others did. He had to face the judge and answer some simple questions. That's not him in Chris's Point, controlling his own narrative and screaming. The public and that caught my attention. He surprised me a little. The other thing I thought was surprising is that this whole case has been understaffed, since this hush money case we're all talking about is so many legal cases. At that time, the hush money case, the hush money case, and today really brought to the surface not only the details about this particular case, but also Karen McDougall, in that case, the reward, like Rachel mentioned, the National Inquirer paying people to prevent stories from breaking. that tells you it's a case of character, so if you look at the fact that the backdrop of this is a political campaign, we don't know what the politics will be, but I wouldn't say this was particularly good.

Visual Optics Day for Donald Trump I mean, can we go back to sleep? a Republican told me at 2:30 after Maggie hman appeared on CNN, who was they really? Maggie in the courtroom, many of our reporters and 2 Craig was on my show was in the Overflow room but mag hberman is in the courtroom reported that he collapsed and fell asleep for a moment now I have a newborn Me I fall asleep everywhere except on live television I have like a mountain of sympathy for not being out of place, it is actually deeply relatable, however it is clear that the entire Croc of the campaign against Joe Biden not only on television and the speeches, but all the smears, all the attacks, all the smears of Joe Biden are about his weakness and Donald Trump fell asleep. on the first day of his criminal trial today and if the sides were reversed that would be everywhere oh my god I'm serious it's just for me the asymmetry of the moment was a stark contrast when only Republicans were calling me and they said, what are you going to do to make Trump fall asleep?

I was like wait, what I can't, I can't analyze it like what you need 11 sources that you fell asleep on Maggie on, you know, CNN says it, the other thing about today is that Trump is running for the crimes of which was accused in Two Jacks he runs for the Insurrection he starts his rallies with you know they owe it to the insurrectionists and I together forever, he knows me and them he runs to steal classified documents saying when president, he can do it because of the presidential records that he is not presenting about having sex with Stormy Daniels and Caren McDougall and paying for the national investigation to detect and eliminate those stories, not about these facts because he doesn't want these facts in front of the country Rachel, you were nodding, go ahead, I was just going To say about the national investigation or part of it, I mean things that we learned about the fact that the National Enquirer has to be central for a president, you know, for someone who was a president and whoever wants to be president again is crazy when Alvin Bragg has defined this Trump criminal trial in those Stark terms, our special coverage continues and our panel is back with Rachel Nicole Jen Alex and Chris, our legal experts and others joining.

In short, and Rachel wanted to start there because many intelligent and informed people have debated over the past year and also which accusation against Donald Trump is the worst, which criminal trial should begin first. Most candidates, I should say, in both parties, are not running. currently charged with crimes or not, most people who are running for Congress are not waiting for criminal trials before election day just to restart that and we wanted to start with you and that da Bragg statement, it's really the only time he has spoken about this. in detail when he announced the charges um because his job is not to compare and contrast the entire country says there is evidence of a crime in his jurisdiction uh and that's what he says it's the only thing he had to think about and that's why We're here today, yeah, and I mean, I think when we think about the schedule here,I mean, I think it's important to remember that these positions have somehow been in the queue that has been lined up for five and a half years. since Michael Cohen five and a half years ago pleaded guilty in federal court to federal campaign finance violations that the prosecutor said and Michael Cohen admitted under oath were committed at the behest of an individual who was Donald Trump.

I mean, this crime was described in federal court. with evidence to support it almost six years ago and what happened between then and now that finally in a completely different court system in New York state court, Trump is finally being held accountable for a crime that occurred so brazenly and so obviously and so long ago and that Saga itself is partly the story of Trump's political power and how he chose to use his political power to protect himself within the criminal justice system, part of that is being a sitting president when they're not going to bring charges against him, but part of it is he's also a sitting president who uses his power over the US justice department to thwart investigations and whitewash federal criminal court documents so they don't reveal as much information about him. as if, as if otherwise, they were going to do it.

This just happened a long time ago, the fact that it took this long is a testament to how Trump has been able to manipulate the justice department, the US Department of Justice and the US criminal justice system. generally speaking, for their own benefit. It is almost a miracle that we brought this case to this court. The fact that there are three more stacked behind him simply tells you about the litany of alleged criminality that this candidate drags with him this election season. and to Rachel's point, I mean, Rachel is the person who I feel like I have learned the most about the extent to which the bar association and the Department of Justice acted in an outrageous manner, entitled to kidnap Jack in the normal processes so that the person named as an individual does not amount to anything, but I also think that when you look at the chronology here there is a clear trajectory and the line that is the 2016 election was the subject of two different criminal conspiracies, this criminal conspiracy that Michael Cohen presented to M in federal court and the Russian criminal conspiracy to sabotage the election, which has been charged with, you know, accusations from Russian foreign nationals who will probably never face justice after no one really in Trump's orbit has been punished for that right. then he tried to run it again with Ukraine in the run up to the 2020 election, which was discovered and ruined and he faced impeachment for it, which he was acquitted of, he didn't actually face any real accountability.

Everything leading up to January. 6 when even after losing the election he tries again to use essentially any means necessary and any means necessary for this man, it's kind of agnostic about the means, I mean, it could be legal, it could not be legal, it could be ethical or dubious or gray area or scandalous, but he is just trying to do everything he can to gain power is true in 2016 at the fulcrum of The facts of this case is true in the run-up to 2020 is true after the 2020 election all of that is a story about someone who never faces responsibility for his insatiable thirst for power and his willingness to do anything to, quote, win even after losing and this is the first of those stories.

Well, Nicole explains why the story that the jury and The Power that the country hears is very important. I'm curious what you think, but I would say that if it becomes just a sensational story, you can probably find one or more jurors who aren't there, but if it's a story about democracy, which is what da Bragg said and you just to speak with evidence that it turns into something bigger, it's cheating, right? I mean, sports just went through one of the biggest stories in a decade with sh Otani, right, being taken off the field, literally, for, for, stealing, I mean, it's a crime that everyone can understand .

Stealing, cheating, lying, these are easy crimes to understand and I think the reason Donald Trump has worked so hard to keep this one from going to trial is because it's an easy crime to understand. The jury will ask whether Trump did some things that are pretty easy to understand, and going back to Rachel's point, the first people who found Trump responsible as a conspirator were the Department of Justice and Jeff Burman. writes about this in his book how involved the Justice Department leadership in Washington was in editing the sentencing memo that describes Donald Trump as an individual over and over again Michael Coen paid the money to benefit an individual Michael Coen, you know everything Co, you know And I repeat, I'm not a lawyer, but for some reason I always get chosen to serve on juries.

I mean, the jury will be asked to examine Michael Cohen. Michael Cohen did not have sexual relations with the stormy Daniel. Michael Cohen did not become president. Donald Trump, Michael Co went to jail. I mean, one of these things is not like the other. I think the story is pretty simple, a pretty simple crime story. Rachel, you have been summoned. Go ahead, I was just going to say, I mean, Nicole. I've heard you say that clearly before about Michael Cohen and it always makes me a little sick, but it's very true in a very fundamental sense, like he's super gross, but this is Trump we're talking about, he always has a super gross element.

My ears are turning red like I'm being raised by that little, sorry, raised in the suburbs, very Catholic, I can't handle it, but the basic idea here is very true, like thinking about the fact that Michael Cohen went to prison For this. Michael Cohen did not have sex with Stormy Daniels Michael Cohen did not run for president Michael Cohen did not receive any benefits from this why is he the one having sex? He's the only one who's gone to prison for it, especially when it wasn't like he made it up. this is his own idea to please the boss, he is essentially admitting that the boss advised him to do this, that this was part of Trump's effort to get elected, keeping this information away from the public during the election, it just can't be like a fundamental question of justice and I think Nicole and AR are right as a fundamental question of justice, no jury will look at this and say yes, the only guy who should go to prison for this is the guy who had to have to do it. zero out his home equity line of credit so he can do this for his boss because the last time the boss had to pay hush money to another alleged mistress, he tricked the editor of the tabloid that gave him the money that time, so this time.

I have to do it, yes, you are the one who should be punished, it just doesn't make sense, you can't tell yourself any story about that where there is a crime that has been described, admitted and litigated in court and the one that ends in the only one ends up in jail for that's Michael Cohen, but we start with how the defendant Trump is struggling to run his campaign while he's trapped inside this courtroom today, a challenge on the part of the defendant. his own creation because he is the one who delayed this over and over again in other cases, now he is in one in this unfortunate period for him, today we learned that Trump must be present for basically the entire trial, which could last six weeks or more , as the judge ruled. example against defendant Trump's request to skip certain days and the campaign plans more traditional events on weekends and uses the Court's day off on Wednesdays to raise funds.

The tension with C's campaign schedule goes far beyond the calendar. The evidence shows that voters are repulsed by this damning evidence and the entire ordeal of a criminal trial and that may be why Trump delayed and delayed and delayed today so it wouldn't happen sooner; It is also, of course, the reason he accused rivals in both parties of alleged crimes and it is the reason most people see this trial and the accusations here as pretty. Seriously, many Republicans say they would oppose Trump if he were ultimately convicted. Those opinions are a reminder that many people oppose electing a convicted felon to the White House and defer to the courts, not public debate or hyperbole, to actually find out whether any defendant is running for president. the office is guilty I want to bring in our panel starting with the aforementioned Lawrence Odonnell, who joins us, Lawrence, it's great to be here.

Alright, your thoughts and the point that we talk a lot in terms of law, legality and crime, people talk about the Insurrection as a crime um, but polls suggest that a lot of people are waiting for the judicial system to decide if he is yes Well, I don't think it will have any impact on his campaign schedule. He is already the laziest presidential candidate in history. This is a presidential candidate. campaign that can spend entire days doing nothing or making a video that takes eight minutes of his time at home uh and we saw how he is going to campaign, he is going to go out to those microphones that they should not have in the court and he is going to campaign in court every day, before trial, after trial, you've never seen a criminal defendant have that option before, yes, every time you enter or leave the courtroom, we will make sure there is a whole bank of cameras here and microphones so that you, as a criminal defendant, can say whatever you want about the case and the big problem with that in this particular case is that Donald Trump is not going to testify, he is not going to testify in any of his cases, especially not this one, but he will actually testify in court every day going to the only thing we can see, since we are not allowed in the courtroom with cameras, he will be the only one televised. participant in this trial and anything you say would be, as you know, inadmissible in the courtroom uh and everything will be relevant to the courtroom it will be relevant to the way people perceive what is happening in the courtroom and the prosecutor we are not going to follow him to that microphone, there is no plan in the district attorney's office on how to counteract a criminal defendant going to a national microphone every day at least twice and there is, and his answer is that we do not know. we work in the courtroom, the minimum that should have been established is that that microphone setup is simply not in court and the judge could have controlled it, they didn't, so the guy who will never testify under oath will be out there in front at the microphone campaigning, indeed, every day of the trial and the joy is still with us as we watch that campaign, let's contrast your thoughts on what Lawrence says and the danger to Trump that if he really did what he says, he would. do and testified that it would be out of control, it would be subject to the rules of evidence and it might not turn out so well, it might not turn out so well and I think Lawrence makes a very good point: you know there is the Donald Trump has a lazy aspect Absolutely, but he's not lazy when it comes to talking and talking.

This is terrible for the campaign because the fact in this case, as viscous as it is, takes us back to the first time he ran and The problem that began the same month he began running for president I reviewed what he was accused of to Michael Cohen in Jeff's sessions Donald Trump's Department of Justice by the way, this was not by some liberal justice department Michael Cohen was indicted by Donald Trump's Department of Justice justice department in June of the year Donald Trump starts running for president June 2015 starts running Michael Cohen doesn't join the campaign but is given a campaign email within the first month of Donald Trump's first campaign he and David Pecker start talking about squashing any story he can be negative about women, they start doing it quickly until the following summer, Karen McDougall comes out in June and starts saying she was going to talk, they buy out her limited life rights or at least offer to participate. $125,000, now we're talking June before the election, they can't even close that deal before Stormy Daniels comes out and says she's going to speak too, so there you go, let me read this little thing real quick.

What I am going to read is from the accusation against Michael Cohen. Cohen caused and made the payments described here, i.e., through David Picker to Karen McDougall and to Stormy Daniels, or made them directly to Stormy Daniels to influence the 2016 presidential election. In doing so, he coordinated with one or more members of the campaign, including through meetings and phone calls, about the nature and timing of payments as a result of payments requested and made by Cohen, neither Woman One nor Woman Two spoke to the Press before the election accused him of campaign finance violations Ari they accused him of that crime and they named Donald Trump without using his name as an individual the problem for Donald Trump is that all the facts in thiscase as you know As disgusting as they are for us to think, it all comes down to the fact that the entirety of his initial campaign for president was plagued by this problem of his relationships, outside of his marriage to women, and then you get to October, When Access Hollywood The Tape Drops, It's Very Clear When You Just Read The Allegation Against Cohen That This Was A Crisis For Donald Trump's Campaign, It's Very Hard To Take It Out Of These Facts And You Can Say Whatever You Want About Michael Cohen, The Reason why he is a convicted felon is This is what he wasn't before he did this for Donald Trump, everything he did is a crime they will try to use to impeach him.

He did it for one individual, so all the facts in this case will be both. I think it's disconcerting for independent voters, who will be reminded and brought back to their original view of Donald Trump as this, uh, this undisciplined cheater who cheats in his marriage and who cheated in the election. I hate to disagree with Lawrence, but I'm going to At this point because I believe and we've all talked about this a little bit. The more sometimes you see Donald Trump, the more people see Donald Trump, the more we saw the sleepy Donald Trump today a little bit, he didn't say anything particularly memorable on camera there may be many days to come in the next few days, but there may also be saying things that are very crazy and that I think can also influence independent voters that we don't know yet.

I'll say what Joy says. I mean one of the most interesting things about this and Rachel also mentioned this: the national Inquirer of all of this, which is a big part of this story that we tell. Tonight on the show, who was number two in the national investigation? She said in the New York Times article she wrote. It was the 133-page statement of facts that made me cry. This is the guy who is number two in the investigation. National Inquirer is doing well for the role they played in trapping and killing and not just one story, multiple stories and that says a lot about who Donald Trump is so we don't know how the public will consume it.

New Yorkers don't talk about it. on the streets today, but it tells you about his character, it tells you about who he is, it tells you about his willingness to do anything, like Chris said before, to hold on to power, I mean, and the other part, I think Okay. With you, Jen, we're going to get some new information here. I mean, not only is Bragg going to have Michael Coen on the witness stand for weeks and weeks, we already have a list of potential Witnesses, you know, Carrick. McDougall will be up there Keith Davidson, Karen McDougall's lawyer and Stormy Daniels, the entire Ami editorial infrastructure will be up there and the national chorus will be up there Dave Pecker Dylan Howard um Jeffrey McCan the compensation controller For the Trump organization, these people They have a new perspective on a very modern story and if there's one thing this country loves it's a great story, can I add two more?

I mean Mateline Wester, how do I say the same thing? Right and I hope these are people. I mean, my Wester house was literally outside the Oval Office, you can't get any closer to the Oval Office than the desk I was sitting at, she saw everyone coming in, she saw everyone coming out, she could look through the little people in the Oval Office and see. who was there, she knows a lot that Hopix was on every phone call she was on, so what will we learn? We don't know, but we'll certainly learn more about how they strategically discussed this in the campaign as a means to help their campaign and that seems to be part of the story here and to the point of how important this was to the Trump campaign, this issue.

It was something Trump was trying to use against Hillary Clinton's candidacy because of her husband and that's why we'll remember it in the debates. It was Donald Trump who decided I'm going to invite women who have made accusations against Bill Clinton that was his debate strategy to invite women as guests on Trump's side of the debate who have made accusations against Bill Clinton that's how important Donald Trump and the campaign are. of Trump believed this issue was and he did it before they bought stormy Daniel's silence so he's the guy who brought these women to Thea's now stormy CPS danels and us to that because that will destroy that debate strategy to bring in Those Women, I also think about going back to where you started in the survey about how people are evaluating this.

I think Lawrence, you're right, you're going to have this kind of unrestricted problem, it's going to be the cameras and then what's going on inside? the courtroom will be under the rules of evidence and, but the camera is still a todri in a disgusting story. My instinct is that ultimately the outcome and the verdict matter more than anything else. It seems to me that if I had to bet what the political effect of this will be is that a guilty verdict will hurt him considerably and anything less than that will not help him or could help him and I mean, going into this configuration of That's my level is that the people who are persuadable or the soft middle, whoever is in the middle, is looking at the guidance of the system to say what it determines is the verdict.

Hello everyone, MSNBC has a new and improved app. They will receive alerts and analysis in real time. Live blogging. In-depth essays. Featured videos. the best 2024 election coverage download the new MSNBC app here's how to do it tap the App Store on your phone press search in the bottom right corner type MSNBC click the MSNBC app click get or the cloud icon and enjoy it