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CNN Live Event/Special

Opening Arguments Delivered in Trump Hush Money Trial. Aired 1- 1:30p ET

Aired April 22, 2024 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[13:00:47]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: An important day inside 100 Centre Street.

The judge is now off the bench after opening statements and testimony from the first witness in the hush money trial of Donald J. Trump. Minutes ago, the former president walked out of court, trying to put some distance between himself and his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen.

I'm Jake Tapper in Washington.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: And I'm Anderson Cooper in New York.

You have been watching the CNN special live coverage of the People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump, the defense promising to puncture the prosecution's theory of the hush money cover-up case. Trump's lawyers painted Cohen as a liar and Stormy Daniels as an opportunist.

The prosecution arguing that Trump's alleged scheme to keep an adult film actress quiet is election interference, pure and simple, in those words.

I want to turn to Paula Reid and Kaitlan Collins, who are covering this, along with me, here in New York.

About what we expected from the opening statements both by the prosecution and by the defense. We only heard a little bit from David Pecker, but we will have a lot more of him tomorrow. He's really an essential sort of start-off for this, framing the entire nature of the deal.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right.

And I think he could take up most of the rest of the week. So I want to remind people, the scheduling here, it's really unique for this case. Tomorrow, the judge is going to hear arguments about a gag order and whether Trump violated it.

So, court is not even going to start until after 11:00. And it only goes until 2. There's no court on Wednesday. Then we will be back in session Thursday and Friday. But I would be surprised if they get to any other witnesses besides David Pecker this week. He's a great one to start off with.

Not only is he a colorful New York character, but he helps the prosecution frame their argument that this was not just a one-off time when someone came looking for money to keep quiet about an affair. This is, they allege, part of a pattern, an effort to suppress negative stories about then-candidate Trump to help his chances in the 2016 election.

And David Pecker can frame his efforts, his meetings with Trump. Even though he was not directly involved in paying Stormy Daniels, he can set the stage for the criminal case.

COOPER: Also, the timing of the meeting that he and Michael Cohen had with Donald Trump at Trump Tower ahead of the election is important.

It's not as if there was a preexist -- though they had had a friendship for a long time and a mutually beneficial business relationship, it's not as if they had made a deal previously to catch and kill stories, that we know about, for Donald Trump.

It was only in the run-up to the election after David Pecker held this meeting that we will learn about more when he gets on the witness stand, essentially saying, how can I help you, Donald Trump, become the next president?

REID: Yes, I will be your eyes and your ears. If someone alleges you have a kid out of wedlock, we will buy a story and we will kill it. If someone alleges they had an affair with you, referring to Karen McDougal, not Stormy Daniels, we will buy her story and we will suppress it.

He was clearly trying to help Trump get elected to the White House.

COOPER: They weren't having this meeting because Donald Trump was concerned his family would find out information. He was concerned about impacts on the election, according...

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN HOST: Well, that's what they're going to ask him.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: ... we -- we believe that David Pecker will testify.

COLLINS: That's what they're going to ask David Pecker, because Trump's team is basically arguing the opposite of that.

And the question is, can David Pecker speak to Trump's mind-set and what exactly Trump was saying in that meeting? Obviously, we will hear from David Pecker when court resumes tomorrow at 11:00 a.m.

But before that is, the judge going to hold this gag order violation hearing, where he is going to hear from the prosecution. The district attorney, Alvin Bragg, has made clear many times they believe that Trump has violated this gag order time and time again that has been in place for several weeks and then was amended when Trump continued attacking the judge's daughter here, something that even drove Trump's team crazy that he continued to do that and would not stop.

And that's notable, because you just heard Trump talk for about nine minutes outside of court, and he was talking about Michael Cohen. He invoked him specifically by name, not just talking about what Trump's version of his role in this whole process was, but also calling him a liar and going after him and asking why they don't talk about his credibility or lack thereof.

I think that that only adds fuel to the fire of what the prosecution is going to argue tomorrow. And it is a major test for the judge here of how he's going to handle this and what he decides to do. Does he fine Trump? Does he threaten something further if Trump continues to violate this, given a $3,000 fine isn't -- doesn't greatly affect Donald Trump?

[13:05:04]

That's a big question for tomorrow morning.

COOPER: He's sort of damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.

I mean, if he does try to make the gag order stronger or penalize him in some sense, it sort of plays into what the former president will say about how he's being treated in the court.

REID: I would argue the most significant part of this gag order has to do with the jury.

Of course, when we were concerned about the safety of everyone, right, it was expanded to include family members, the prosecutors and the judge. We were certainly concerned about them. But the added complication is when it comes to the jury.

Anything -- for example, Trump had at least one social media post where he was quoting a FOX host suggesting that there had been liberal activists planted in the jury pool, something like that. You know that is going to draw negative attention the jury. And the concern there is that, if the identities of these jurors are revealed and a critical mass of them no longer want to participate, there could be a mistrial.

So I think, when it comes to this gag order, it is all significant. The judge has to find a way to enforce it, but the most significant thing for the integrity of this trial is protecting those jurors and their identities.

COOPER: Which is not an easy thing to do.

REID: Yes.

COOPER: We have already seen there was a juror today who had some concerns that was addressed in the judge's chambers. And that alternate juror stayed on.

COLLINS: Well, and Trump's team was saying there at the end, once they were -- once David Pecker had left the witness stand, that they didn't learn until yesterday, they said at about 3:00 p.m., that David Pecker was going to be the first witness who was called to come and testify.

And, obviously, as we know, the prosecution has made very clear that they have been concerned about witness intimidation here and witness harassment and what that is going to look like. And so the question is whether they didn't find out until later because of that very concern that the prosecution has and how they handle this going forward, because Trump's team made clear today they think that Stormy Daniels is certainly going to testify.

They do have the expectation, from what I have heard, that Hope Hicks is going to testify. And so there are people that obviously once -- were once close personal confidants, people around Trump that could be called to that witness stand.

COOPER: Hmm.

COLLINS: So, we will see what that looks like, obviously, as well as how it does affect the jurors.

It's not just the jurors. It's the jurors. It's the prosecution's team. He's gone after the prosecutor who is making the opening argument today multiple times.

COOPER: Kaitlan, Paula, thanks very much -- Jake, back to you.

TAPPER: All right, Anderson, thanks so much. A fascinating day in this first day of the trial of the People of the state of New York v. Donald J. Trump.

Laura Coates, let's talk about some of the key arguments made in the opening statements by both the prosecution, the district attorney, and the defense. What are some of the key statements that you think about?

LAURA COATES, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: Well, let's walk through.

One of them is from the prosecution saying, this case is about a criminal conspiracy and a cover-up. Now, the word conspiracy might strike you, because there's not actually a charge of conspiracy in this case.

TAPPER: Right.

COATES: It's about fraudulent documents and falsified business records. So the jury might be -- it kind of tickles in your head a little bit as to why, but the cover-up portion of it is going to be really key here.

It's about why he did it. Was it for his family's benefit? Was it for his brand? Or was it because he wanted people not to be -- not vote for him? Also, it was election fraud, pure and simple. Here is where they're talking about the underlying crime that he was trying to avoid or trying to cover up actually committing.

Also here is, so what have we done? Right now, we have ended testimony today so far with David Pecker, who, of course, is the head of AMI, who oversaw "National Enquirer." He and another person allegedly corresponded with one another to say that, what had we done?

Now their whole job is about something called a catch-and-kill. This is where you find Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels. Now, if you're the defense team, of course, a little bit different here, their key arguments that he was trying to protect his family, reputation and his brand.

That's not a crime. Notice what you don't have there? Anything about politics, anything about the campaign. But to go to that very moment, he had this to say: "There's nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. It's called democracy."

Well, that would be nice if that was just a bare-bones reading of it. But, in fact, if you're trying to cover up a crime or trying to engage in election interference, that in fact is not democratic. Finally, use your common sense, where New Yorkers -- why we're here.

This is where the jury selection becomes so important. Who is on this jury is going to be vital to trying to figure out how to make your best statements and your actual arguments. What they want you to look at is say what Trump had to say in front of the courthouse earlier, which was, listen, this comes down to this very bare-bones notion, a payment to a lawyer.

I have noted it as a legal expense. That's all this is. And for that, I got indicted? They want you to think about it this way.

TAPPER: All right, fascinating stuff.

Let's turn to William Brennan. He's a criminal defense attorney who used to represent Donald Trump's payroll Corporation.

Mr. Brennan, always good to see you. What are your thoughts on the decision by the prosecution to call David Pecker, the media -- the tabloid media magnate, as the very first witness, and to do it right before court would recess for the day? There was only about half-an- hour left.

WILLIAM J. BRENNAN, FORMER TRUMP PAYROLL CORPORATION ATTORNEY: Well, good to see you, Jake.

[13:10:00]

My thoughts, having been in that courtroom, 15A, with Judge Merchan, is, he runs a tight ship. And when the openings were finished, he wanted a witness on that stand.

But, Jake, it's all about sources. In this particular instance, I believe the publication this man is referring to or he owns or represents is "The National Enquirer" with an E. They have made their business on UFOs and Elvis sightings.

So I think you argue that to the jury. And then we have Mr. Cohen. You have got a polluted source. So I think the defense will take a lot of time stressing that to the jury. And I agree with Laura. You don't leave -- as a juror, you don't leave your common sense at the door. And we're not talking about "The Atlantic" or "National Review" here.

We're talking about "The National Enquirer," you know? It's a shaky paper to begin with.

And this is how they make their money. So if you can shift the focus there a little bit -- then, when his former lawyer gets on the stand, when you go through his list of convictions and show what a polluted source he is, I think the defense can make a lot of hay with that.

TAPPER: So, the defense, in their opening statement, definitely was trying to make a lot of hay out of Michael Cohen's reputation and proclivity for truth.

They said his entire career is based on attacking Donald Trump. They also went after Stormy Daniels, suggesting that she's an opportunist and that the rendezvous she has talked about and written about in her book with Donald Trump never happened.

How aggressively would you suggest you think that they're going to go after, the defense is going to go after David Pecker, the publisher of "The National Enquirer"?

BRENNAN: Well, I would probably be more clinical with "The Enquirer" fellow, Mr. Pecker. On the former -- the lawyer, the former lawyer -- I believe he's no longer practicing -- I think, Jake, you said his entire career was based on attacking Donald Trump.

Actually, most of his career was a sycophant to Donald Trump, hitching his star to Trump's wagon. And then, when things didn't work out for him, he turned on the former president, and he's now making a second career out of attacking Donald Trump.

And I think that gives the defense a lot of fodder to cross-examine him.

TAPPER: All right, Bill Bren...

BRENNAN: With Ms. Daniels, I would probably be very businesslike.

TAPPER: Bill Brennan, good to see you, as always. Thanks so much.

It has been an historic day in the People of the state of New York v. Donald John Trump. We're going to have all the courtroom highlights next.

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[13:17:01]

TAPPER: Welcome back to CNN's special live coverage of Donald Trump's hush money cover-up trial.

Tomorrow, David Pecker, the publisher of "The National Enquirer," will be back on the stand. Today, the prosecution and the defense were presenting two very different narratives they plan to tell the jury about what exactly happened on the Trump campaign in the final stretch of the 2016 election.

Let's get right to CNN's Kara Scannell, who was one of the CNN reporters inside court all morning sending us these updates that we have been poring over.

Kara, give us a sense of what the mood in court was as Donald Trump sat and listened to prosecutors, his own lawyers, and David Pecker.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jake.

So, when Donald Trump was there sitting in the courtroom at the defense table, as prosecutors spoke and described their allegations in this case, what they believe the evidence will show and asking the jury to return a verdict of guilty of the former president, Trump sat there relatively still.

He was looking ahead. In front of him is a screen which shows the view in the overflow room that shows the bench where the judge is sitting, Trump sitting at the defense table, as well as the witness stand. So, Trump seemed to be watching himself watching the trial as he was looking and hearing the prosecutors lay out their evidence.

When it was his attorney's turn, Todd Blanche, who got up to speak and say that Trump did not commit any crimes, that he is just like you and me, as a husband, he's a father, and that he was not part of any conspiracy, Trump was more engaged. He was turning, looking at the jury, looking at his lawyer as he was pleading his side of the events.

And that is Trump's attorneys arguing that he was not part of any business record falsification, that he didn't know how accountants were booking these and noting these records in the general ledger, trying to distance Trump from the allegations in the case.

He also spent a lot of time just trying to discredit some of the key witnesses before they even take the stand, notably Michael Cohen, saying that Michael Cohen was obsessed with Donald Trump and his entire financial livelihood depends on trying to take down Donald Trump.

We didn't -- we saw Trump passing a lot of notes back and forth to his attorneys, but he didn't react in any audible way or disruptive way in the proceedings, which the judge has made clear he would not allow.

When the first witness taking the stand is David Pecker, he is a longtime friend of Donald Trump's. When he walked into the courtroom, he actually came through a side door and walked right behind where Donald Trump is sitting on his way to the witness stand.

Now, Pecker answered the prosecution's questions. They just were starting to set the table of what's to come, establishing what AMI is, American Media, the publisher of "The National Enquirer" at the time, and David Pecker's role, saying that he was the one that had the approval of any, as the prosecutor put it, juicy story, so just beginning to set up what will be the description of the catch-and-kill scheme that prosecutors allege this was all a part of and that all began in 2015 at a meeting at Trump Tower. [13:20:02]

So, David Pecker, a key witness here, mostly, though, just setting it up. And then, when he left for the day, he walked past Donald Trump's table, nodded, smiled, said hi toward the table. We couldn't see from where I was sitting if Donald Trump reacted to that.

But they are longtime friends. And Pecker said that he was testifying today under subpoena, and he has received immunity for his testimony in this case, Jake.

TAPPER: And, Kara, tell us about Mr. Pecker's demeanor. Did he come across as a credible businessman? What did he seem like?

And, also, how much were you able to discern the attention of the jury? Were they focused on the case?

SCANNELL: Well, I can tell you that, when the opening statements were being given, the jury's eyes were locked on the lawyer and the prosecutor who was speaking at that time.

Right before openings began, the judge asked if any jurors wanted a notepad and pen so they could take notes, more than half of the hands in the box went up. So that took a moment for them to distribute the notebooks and the pens, so, clearly, the jury wanting to engage on this, wanting to take their own notes in the case.

So we saw them paying attention then. And then, when David Pecker was testifying, it began with the prosecutor trying to establish certain things, indicating we're going to see some records of phone calls. And so David Pecker was asked to give the last four digits of about six different numbers.

He confused one and laughed at times, and the prosecutor said to him: "Don't worry. This isn't a test." And Pecker has a very loud laugh. So that was a moment of levity in the room, where we saw even Trump's attorney react laughing, but we couldn't see any change in expression on Donald Trump's face, but the jury, again, paying attention for about the 20 minutes or so that Pecker was on the stand.

He will be back on the stand tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. to continue his testimony. Before that, prosecutors and the defense attorney, there will be a hearing over whether Donald Trump violated the gag order in this case by comments he has made about some of these witnesses.

TAPPER: All right, Kara Scannell, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Let's bring in presidential historian Douglas Brinkley.

Professor Brinkley, good to see you.

You said last year when Trump was indicted that this trial would be, in your view, a defining moment in U.S. presidential history. It's certainly unprecedented. Now that we are here, does it still feel as weighty as you thought it might be? DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: It does, but what one

can always underestimate is how Donald Trump can use media culture to his own advantage.

Very few politicians would do the courthouse step strategy, in the sense of he's using it as a podium and a fund-raising opportunity. And I also think underreported, Jake, is the Palm Beach crowd of Pecker and Trump and others, Newsmax. They had formed their own Cayman Island-like financial enclave down there.

These are a lot of global pirates finding ways to hide money and know each other's secrets. So the thought that Pecker is going to somehow stick a knife into Donald Trump and then say howdy to him down in Palm Beach next week, it seems to me unlikely.

But we -- at all costs, we have got to remember, and as you're rightfully doing on CNN, this has nothing to do with Joe Biden right now. This has nothing to do with Donald Trump's reelection. This has to do with very likely guiltiness on Trump for business fraudulence and for hush money payments, which could have very easily, this act, have changed a presidential election.

So the stakes are high. Trump wants to just use New York as a stage, whether it's at a bodega or at the court, and then, looking at July 15, Milwaukee Republican Convention, when he feels he will fully own the Republican Party.

TAPPER: We just saw Mr. Trump exiting his motorcade and going back into Trump Tower.

Doug, is there a comparable moment in U.S. political history to what we're seeing this morning?

BRINKLEY: Well, it depends how you want to look at it, Jake. If it's about sex and politics, yes.

I mean, our country went through a lot with Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton. But this is larger than Stormy Daniels or Trump and a hush payment. I mean, Cohen's already done his jail time. He's turning on him. We're in New York, a state where Donald Trump has largely fled his business assets from.

Yet, on the same hand, he very well made double down on buying advertisement in New York, thinking he could put that state for play come November. So it is a very strange, muddled situation.

But I think that any time I see Trump standing on a courthouse, it brings back bad memories of politicians to me like George Wallace in Alabama and segregation. It's not a good idea that you have to be in a court dealing with hush payments to a porn star.

Yet, yesterday, the former first lady, Melania Trump, was putting out Mother's Day jewelry. We are in a very confused America, where pop culture, tabloid culture, celebrity, death, disaster, trial, it's all intertwined into a big ball of entertainment.

[13:25:09]

TAPPER: Voters are going to be bombarded over these next few weeks with all these images of Trump as a criminal defendant.

Do you think it will impact the campaign, and, if so, just negatively for Donald Trump, or might he be able to successfully use this as part of his campaign argument that he's under attack from the bad guys?

BRINKLEY: You know, I don't think this helps Donald Trump in the election against Biden come the fall.

Short term, it does have the sugar effect of fund-raising. And he's playing the victim, and he knows how to do it quite well. This isn't an alien city to Donald Trump. Trump Tower is still in operation and making deals down there. He really knows every block of New York.

So it's not like you're entering a foreign country or a zone of discomfort. And so he so far has overplayed this to his advantage with his base, and to be expected. But I don't think this helps Trump. Any time you mention any of these people, Pecker, Stormy Daniels, I mean, it's -- it's not something that's going to excite you to vote for Donald Trump, particularly with the world that's coming apart at the seams right now with wars everywhere.

TAPPER: All right, Douglas Brinkley, thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

Let's talk about the trial right now with my panel.

And, Laura Coates, obviously, we're just on day one, early, early days yet. What are your basic thoughts so far?

COATES: Well, what sticks to my mind is the idea of cooking the books. That was the most important line to me in terms of the prosecution to make sure that they are making it as plain as possible, so everyone can understand.

They cooked the books to try to avoid having you know the truth about why the payments were there. They have got to continue to make this as folksy and plain as possible to get this away from being a business records case, and much more in line with what the jurors can relate to.

TAPPER: Dana?

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: That the prosecution is laying out, yes, in part, it's about cooking the books, but they're also very blatantly openly saying this was about the election. This is about trying to hide very important information for the voters in order to win the election.

TAPPER: Jamie?

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Thirty thousand feet, I'm just going to restate the obvious. Beyond the process, beyond the evidence, beyond the opening

statements, I think we have to keep remembering that this was the People of the State of New York v. Donald Trump. This is history.

What is truly remarkable is that a former president is on trial.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: This is refreshingly normal.

What we saw play out today is not that different from what you would see in any given criminal trial, except for the fact, of course, that the person sitting at the defense table is the former president of the United States. But this is our process. And, thus far, it's working.

And I think it's hard for anyone to legitimately say that the process thus far has been corrupted. This is how it works in criminal courts every day, and it's good to see it happening that way so far in this trial.

KAREN FRIEDMAN AGNIFILO, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, look, you're going to have witnesses all come in. They're going to raise their right hand. They're going to swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, and they're going to be cross-examined.

And at the end of the day, the 12 jurors sitting in that box are going to be the ones who determine the guilt or innocence of Donald Trump.

TAPPER: Jim, any final thoughts?

JIM TRUSTY, FORMER ATTORNEY FOR DONALD TRUMP: Yes, if this is a new normal, God help us all.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUSTY: But, look, about Cohen, there's one thing that I think sticks out from the prosecution's opening statement that could come back to haunt them.

And that is, they tried to distance themselves from Cohen's credibility, but they sugarcoated it maybe a little too much. They said, people make mistakes. He has a history.

If I'm on the other side, when I get to closing argument, I'm pounding away about perjury not being a little mistake.

TAPPER: Interesting.

And then it's much more from the epicenter of Donald Trump's hush money cover-up trial. The CNN reporters who were inside the room where it happened have all the latest. Wolf Blitzer and Erin Burnett are going to pick up our special CNN live coverage after this quick break.

We will be right back.

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