Opening statements have concluded in Trump hush money trial

Opening

statements

just ended in the historic

hush

money

criminal

trial

against former President Trump. Trump's attorney, Todd Blan, began his statement by bluntly telling the jury that the former president is innocent and then added a quote: "There is nothing wrong with trying to influence an election, it's called democracy," the charge. Calls case about criminal conspiracy, cites outright election fraud Trump has pleaded not guilty to falsifying business records to hide a

money

payment to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. Bring on ABC News editorial producer, John Santui, political director of ABC News. Rick Klein and ABC News legal contributor Brian Buckmire, for more on this, John, what's the latest news from the courtroom;

We're actually waiting because we took a short break after both the prosecutors and defense completed

opening

statements

. Diane, the day is getting shorter. due to a personal matter involving one of the alternate jurors, so we only

have

30 minutes left of today's proceedings. So, in theory, they could start with her first witness as David Pcker, according to prosecutors, we're waiting to see if that's really the case. happened so far I think the biggest takeaways from the initial statements made by both prosecutors and Donald Trump's defense team, you know, boil down to two different arguments from the prosecutor's point of view, this is election interference. , Donald Trump's behavior, you know, is something that was well known both in the media and the way he talked about women, they referenced infamous acts like a Hollywood tape that came out just a few weeks before the 2016 election and, on the other hand, it is Trump's legal team that is making this argument.

Apparently this is normal business procedure and everyone uses them secondarily. Donald Trump and Michael Cohen had a long-standing relationship as his lawyer. His lawyer informed him that he was paid for that and other services he provided for Donald Trump as a lawyer. I think the other thing we're going to hear a lot in all of these proceedings from both sides is two words, Michael Cohen, and let's get to that, Brian, because the defense wasted no time here talking about Michael Cohen's former lawyer Trump. who made this alleged

hush

money payment saying towards the end of

opening

statements Michael Cohen is obsessed with Donald Trump the prosecution can't be trusted also in his opening statements is former president Trump live uh returning to the room from the court Brian the prosecution also the jury here I say you're going to hear a lot about Michael Cohen, what do you think about that and the level of focus on Michael Cohen just in these opening statements?

So this is what I believe. I think both sides are focusing on a very important element. element of this crime when you

have

the intent to defraud and that will be an important aspect here because of all the witnesses. Michael Conen is the one who I think he can focus on the intent aspect, he can talk about what Donald Trump supposedly told him. as to why he was implementing this cash and murder program and if Michael Cohen can't be believed then the whole case falls apart uh John I, I want to talk and talk to our editorial producer John Santui just to catch up on what is happening because It's interesting that these two cases develop only to separate from each other, there are literally two things happening at the same time, Diane, which is just remarkable right now in court, so let's first start with what's happening in that criminal courtroom with less than half.

With an hour to go until today's

trial

begins, prosecutors have just called to the stand their first witness, David Pecker, the former editor of the national investigation, who they say was working with Donald Trump and Michael Cohen to develop the catch and kill plan, so that really goes. start building his case in a very short time, so obviously he'll be back on the stand tomorrow, but it still shows the speed with which Judge Maran is moving forward in this process with the fact that the openings are already made, they were already in the first prosecutors witness, so that's the criminal case in the New York attorney general case, which was also, as you noted, that happened today, there was a prose argument.

Sorry, lawyers for the New York attorney general, that there were some concerns and issues with the bond company that finally came forward and met with Donald Trump on the $175 million bond that he had paid in that case. Now it seems that Donald Trump's legal team has managed to stop the bleeding for now. In that case they met several conditions. The New York Attorney General's Team. basically I wanted to have stipulations as this moves forward so for the moment we have to see if those conditions are met, the judge gave them several days to do that, my honest interpretation of that I feel like that's going to Basically go your way for now , we have to remember that that is a bond for now.

Donald Trump is still on the hook for the entire nearly half a billion dollar ruling that judge issued earlier this year, of course, that ruling is being appealed by Donald. Trump still isn't clear on when he would actually have to pay if the order is lifted, so we'll have to wait and see what happens, and Brian, I want to take us back now to the hush money criminal trial that we've had. I've been following all morning the opening statements are now finished. The prosecution just called David Pecker to the witness stand. He is the editor of the national chorus, an old friend of former President Trump, and accused in this trap-and-kill plot of essentially agreeing to be eyes and ears for Donald.

Trump, once he decided to run for office, sought out negative stories against the president, against former president and then-candidate Trump, and essentially made them disappear, often paying people off, how much does this testimony weigh in the broader case that occupies us? what we legally call the foundation and from there it is built I am the one with Donald Trump, if you believe the testimony, built the foundation of this trap and kill plan and then from there you are simply building from the proverbial home. Well, there is the basis, what do we do? We get this story and then they're going to go into the details of this story and then how they can eliminate that story based on the payoffs and finally, Come to the Stormy Daniels story and they're going to do the same thing and they're going to continue to show how this scheme of trapping and killing Throughout this process, they will then get to the actual crime that prosecutors are trying to prove. this case is the cover up here is the outline here is the cover up this is and hopefully we'll see an underlying offense of why it's a felony and an explanation of how these charges fit together and then that will be the prosecutor trying to prove his case More beyond a reasonable doubt, it kind of touched on my next question, but why is it so important for them to prove that David Pecker is alleged to have been involved in a payment to Karen McDougall, a payment to a bouncer who had derogatory information against him? former President Trump that ended up apparently not working out, why do they need to show that since those cases are not at the center of this case, which is the payment to Stormy Daniels, that they don't necessarily have to? but it definitely strengthens your case that much more.

They could go straight to that and be a very boring case. Here's the star Daniels, here's Michael Cohen, here's the elements of the crime, but his ability to have prosecutorial discretion and prosecute. a case the way they want and the way the law allows them to construct this entire scheme shows how this entire entity, this Company, operated, and it creates less ability for the defense to attract Coes because if they just presented the story from Stormy Daniels, a defense attorney like I would say, well no, this is just a run-of-the-mill reward, there was no plan, there were no multiple instances of this happening and then this is just a legal expense and that's why I think For the prosecutor they are trying to build an iron cloud case with the multiple trap and kill schemes that they say Donald Trump participated in, Rick, the judge also ruled today that if Trump decides If he decides to take the stand, it is something that Lawyers may advise against it, but politically, what do you have to consider?

In this decision whether or not to testify in your own defense, well first, I never thought I was going to take the stand in this case, he said, um, he told reporters about a week and a half ago that he would be happy to do it, I remember him saying Same thing about Muller's investigation and look, I think he says yes, maybe he personally would like to, but as Brian and others have been pointing out all morning, it would be a bad legal move. taking the stand I would also say it's a bad political move because you have great potential if you're not on camera, you have great potential to be at greater legal risk of contradicting something that's being said outside and your facial expressions.

It would be analyzed without him having the benefit of having broadcast everywhere. He can go out and talk all he wants and he will continue to do so and has continued to do so, so I think this makes it a little less likely that something that was not likely to happen will ever happen. I don't think he's going to take the stand and John, what are you hearing about Trump's behavior inside the courtroom so far and how do you think Trump's team is going to feel from day one to now, well, so far, from the behavior, a lot of passing notes, is what our team is reporting right now, leaning in, you know, touching their lawyers, obviously, we talked earlier about shaking. his head which I think is interesting and speaks a little bit about what we were discussing earlier when you were asking me about the family or other people who joined um, it sounds like the legal team that was discussing the New York attorney general's case , who was just a few blocks from where they are now joined Donald Trump in the courtroom.

We saw Alina Haba, obviously another member of his legal team who was working on that case. I'm told that Alan Garton, who is the Trump organization's top lawyer, is there now. with them and that plays with the conversation that the three of us were having a little earlier. Those are people who are a little more familiar with Donald Trump. Allan Garden has worked for Donald Trump for almost two decades. Alina Habba has been with him for the last few years. years there are a little more familiar faces that I think in those moments of trying to keep it calm because especially now this is really important in the sense that David Pcker was an old friend of Donald Trump he was not a business partner he was not Someone you saw by chance when you went to play golf in Bedminster.

This is someone you've been friends with for a long time and they think that someone who is your friend and who helped you is taking a stand to divulge everything about your personal situation. Life, these are all going to be very difficult Donald Trump Witnesses, let's be clear, but this is not like the Michael Cohen one, where someone has been so open and public attacking you, pcker, has not said anything about Donald Trump in the last few 8 years. Today is going to say a lot Brian, what do you think are the next steps here? So the next steps are based on the schedule.

I think they finished today around 12:30, so Pecker will be on the stand. I don't think it's yours. The direct examination is going to end and therefore you will finally have to come back tomorrow, the direct examination ends sometimes tomorrow morning in the afternoon, then the cross-examination and then it is up to the prosecution to choose their next witness and depending I understand, they're probably going to go into that similar direction going from the foundation that they build, so that whoever tapped in terms of getting the next story and how they got that story, one witness will be able to testify about that and then the next witness or the same witness may speak. about how that story went and eventually got paid and then recorded and then we'll move from one story to the next and ultimately we'll reach out to Daniels and Michael Cohen to try to tie all of this together, the most important thing to me is how they intersect .

The exams are going to take place because we can evaluate where the direct exams are going to go, how the defense is going to make the holes here and we already have a small roadmap from the initial statements. Oh, I was going to ask. What do you think the opening statements revealed in terms of where that's going? Well, we understand what democracy is in the eyes of Donald Trump and that influences or at least as lawyers it's probably more accurate to say it and that is the ability to influence an election, but it also comes down to credibility, which I think is An important aspect of this case, will you believe Stormmy Daniels, who was paid for her silence, that she has a possible book deal and other financial incentives, and I'm sure the defense will? weave that into a narrative like why not believe them and then Michael Cohen there's also a very clear pattern here and the defense we have a jury charge it's Latin it'sIt basically translates to false in one thing false in all things and if you can take Michael Cohen there and show that he was false in one thing and get a jury to decide that he could waste all of his testimony;

It's a big victory for Donald Trump, but I don't think the victory here is a failure. I think the win here is a hung jury and that would be huge for Donald Trump if he could do that. I don't think he's that far away, John, I see you shaking your head. I think this is a point nodding Donald Trump shook his head No, but you know, I think the point that Brian made, which is important and is something that prosecutors just said in court, is that you mentioned Stormy Daniels and his book. Michael Cohen wrote a book.

Michael Cohen is a podcast and one of the things that the defense team is going to say is that and they say it in a quarter already in its opening is that Michael Cohen is obsessed with Donald Trump, his livelihood is based on taking down Donald Trump and They have enough, you know things that Michael Cohen has said and done, published a book podcast, etc., that would support that right. He has also been part of multiple legal cases involving the former president. I mean, he was. You know they were filing motions today. but he was called to testify as part of the New York attorney general's case here it is again now the flip side of that if you're a prosecutor it's because he was his lawyer he was involved in everything I mean Donald Trump would call Michael Cohen the fixer, It's true that something needed to be fixed and it was a little out of bounds of the courtroom, call Michael, he'll take care of it.

I mean how many times I heard Donald Trump say, oh, just call Michael, he'll fix it, that's the relationship they had. The problem is that where we got to today is that part of that relationship crossed the line Rick, how much do voters care about any of this? It's not clear, I mean, look, we haven't seen it in your audience in such a way. So far we've seen polls that suggest that people don't seem to think that the circumstances around Stormy Daniels' hush money case are necessarily criminals, but we've seen people say that if Donald Trump is convicted they're less likely to vote for him, so both things may be true and we'll have to see how that plays out.

I don't think we can underestimate what it means to have comprehensive coverage examining Donald Trump's personal situation. life in uh in in in minute and often very uncomfortable details I don't think we can underestimate what it means for Donald Trump's own activities his own actions outside the courtroom as a result of this has given him a new platform, e.g. to repeat false claims about the last election. I also don't think we can underestimate what it means to simply have him in a courtroom for so long without having control of his environment. This is not what we are used to with Donald Trump. this is a different type of news cycle that he's dominating it's not happening on his own terms Brian David Pecker is on the stand now, what do you think prosecutors need to hear from him or are they trying to get those initial conversations out of him?

What you need to do is take a look or the prosecutor, uh, the prosecutor's office needs to take a look at Donald Trump's mindset at that time when that deal was constructed. What is the purpose of this trap and kill plan? If I'm a defense attorney, I'd say Hello, I'm running for public office. I'm Donald Trump. I'm a billionaire. I'm trying to protect my family from negative news. Are they the defense that will be able to change that narrative towards that? cross-examination or the prosecutors will be able to stop Fromm and say no, this was completely about bad press and winning the election, it was about killing stories, it was about trying to defraud the public, the issue that underlines why it is being done this.

It's going to be huge for either side to win, okay, John Santui Rick Klein Brian Buckmire, thank you all and we'll follow this test all day. We'll bring you updates right here on ABC News live.