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Fifth Day of Testimony in Trump Trial; Judge Finds Trump Violated Gag Order. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired April 30, 2024 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Right, primacy they call it at the beginning, right, recency. And so the reality is, is that you have to introduce documents. This is a document laden case. There's a home equity line of credit. When was that establish? How was it established? Who established it? What are the documents leading up to it? What are the bank records? What did the bank records say? What are the dates on them? Where are the email? Where are the text messages? You have to tell your story. And so I think it's important with this witness to get all that information out.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: I don't know why you don't think that's juicy. I mean, like, seriously, Joey.

It's great to see you guys. It's all going to start back up. Great to see you, Jennifer. Thank you.

This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. CNN's special live coverage of Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial continues right now.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: You are looking live at pictures of downtown Manhattan, the scene for the next chapter in an American first, the country now sitting just minutes away from week three of Donald Trump's criminal trial. Moments ago cameras captured Donald Trump as he walked down that hallway inside 100 Centre Street on his way into court. We may also get a major ruling at any moment from the judge who is inside that courtroom on gag order violations allegedly committed by Trump in the early weeks of a truly historic trial.

Good morning. I'm Kaitlan Collins in New York.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jake Tapper in Washington. You're watching CNN's special live coverage Donald Trump's hush money cover up trial. The case against Donald Trump will be won or lost on the details and how or if the prosecution fills in the blanks for the jury.

Week three of the former president's criminal trial starts where we left off at week two with Gary Farro on the stand. Farro is the former banker that Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen used to create a shell company Cohen then allegedly used to disguise the purpose of payments to adult film actress and director Stormy Daniels. Ones that Donald Trump ultimately reimbursed Cohen for, says the prosecution. Farro is the government's third witness, who they call next. And how they build on this story the prosecution is telling right now is unclear, but already the prosecution has used its witnesses to support what they've told the jury they will hear from Michael Cohen. Cohen is something of a centerpiece for the case. The man who played point guard for Trump's alleged attempt to silence Stormy Daniels and to make sure her story of an alleged tryst with the candidate stayed secret.

CNN reporters are covering every angle of this trial. We're also closely monitoring another different breaking story this hour, protests consuming campuses across the United States. Columbia University in New York the latest flashpoint where protesters at the school have now barricaded themselves inside a building on campus.

But first let's get right to Kaitlan Collins, who is outside the Manhattan criminal courthouse.

Kaitlan, another big week for the defendant, Mr. Trump.

COLLINS: Certainly, Jake. And I should note that we just saw him go inside the courtroom. He was complaining about those protests that have been happening across the country, talking about them, even likening them to what happened on January 6th, as we have seen the former president continued to speak to the cameras before he goes inside that courtroom.

I'm here as we are covering these proceedings getting underway with CNN's chief legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid, and also former Manhattan district attorney prosecutor Karen Agnifilo Friedman, who is of counsel, I should note, for a firm that represents Michael Cohen, but has no contact with Cohen, doesn't work on his case and there are no restrictions about what you can say about that. We'll talk about that in a moment as we are wondering if there will be further restrictions placed on Mr. Trump.

But, Paula, I should note, we're seeing these proceedings to start right now. Donald Trump has just entered the courtroom. And we are seeing that Donald Trump and Eric Trump are standing. They're speaking. They're separated by that wooden barrier that distinguishes the gallery from the well of the courtroom.

And if you're sitting at home, you may wonder, why do I care that Eric Trump is there? It is notable. He's the first Trump family member to ever attend this trial in support of his father.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. That is significant because anyone who's ever been a criminal defendant knows this is one of the most stressful things anyone can go through. So, to have the support of your family is significant. I'm sure that most of the people in that jury box now who Eric Trump is. They're going to take note of that. I don't think it's going to impact their ultimate decision. But it is significant to see that he has at least one family member here supporting him today. I think that's really notable.

COLLINS: Well also it goes back to, you know, they've been arguing that he did this to protect his family.

REID: Yes.

COLLINS: It was clear from testimony we heard last week that they argued it was to protect the campaign.

But let's talk about who's going to be on the witness stand today. It's Gary Farro, this banker who helped Michael Cohen. And last week he was talking about Karen McDougal and her payment that they tried to facilitate. Do we expect it to get to Stormy Daniels this morning?

REID: Yes, that's what I would expect. Now, of course, this banker talking about setting up an LLC for consulting, not exactly as exciting as tabloid king David Pecker talking about hush money payments to former Playboy models. But this is significant because at the core this is a paperwork case.

[09:35:02]

And here he's walking through how Michael Cohen set up this shell company and also the intention that he at least put forward behind it. And I expect, over the next hour or so, he's going to walk us through likely those 34 documents at the heart of this case, because remember Trump is charged with falsifying documents, 34 counts. So that's why he could be a really significant witness today.

COLLINS: And, Karen, standby because I want to ask you about the gag order and why we haven't heard from the judge on this yet. But we also have Elie Honig here with us, CNN's legal analyst, and also a former assistant U.S. attorney.

And, Elie, you know, we're here on week three, but can you just bring us up to speed so far on what we've heard in this trial, because we've obviously been tracking this minute by minute as we are seeing these updates. The judge just now greeting Mr. Trump as he does every morning with a good morning, Mr. Trump. But can you just walk us through what has set us up to get to this moment today.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, Kaitlan, let's go through some key takeaways from the first two weeks of this trial. Now, to this point, the government, the DA, has called three witnesses. They started off with David Pecker. Pecker, of course, is a longtime friend of Donald Trump's. He was the chair of AMI, the company that published the "National Enquirer."

And Pecker took the jury inside the seedy world of the "National Enquirer," of what he called checkbook journalism of putting stories out designed to help or hurt certain prominent people. And he went into detail on this practice of catch and kill, paying to silence stories. Three specific examples. One involving a doorman who had a story that turned out to be untrue about Donald Trump and two involving women, Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, who allege that they had sexual affairs with Donald Trump. And he -- David Pecker told the jury, the reason we did this in 2016 was because of the campaign.

Now, on cross-examination, Donald Trump's team scored a few points relating to David Pecker. They got him to say that checkbook journalism, this was common. This wasn't something that was just invented for the first time for Donald Trump. They'd been doing it for a long time, for a lot of different people. They also pointed out certain minor inconsistencies in his testimony. Nothing that would worry me too much as a prosecutor. And Trump's team used David Pecker to score a point against Michael Cohen.

COLLINS: Hey, Elie. Hey, Elie.

HONIG: Yes, go ahead.

COLLINS: I know you've got -- Elie Honig, I know you've got a bunch of great slides for us, but I need you to stand by for a moment because we are getting an important update, and that is that the judge has found Donald Trump in contempt of violating his gag order. And he is handing down his written decision to the parties so far.

This is a notable moment in this trial. This judge had heard a hearing on this. First, the first ten violations that prosecutor said. They still have another hearing that's expected to happen this week on Thursday on four more violations. And we are hearing from the judge that he has fined Donald Trump $1,000 for each violation of this gag order.

Karen Agnifilo Friedman, this is incredibly significant because we were wondering where the judge's decision was. What do you make of what he's decided -- how he's decided to carry this out?

KAREN FRIEDMAN AGNIFILO, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: So, it's not surprising that he held Donald Trump in contempt in violating the gag order because it was very clear that he did violate the gag order multiple times and continued to. The judge, however, was taking his time to write a written decision, which I look forward to reading and talking about when I see it. And that's what he has decided to -- how to handle this. And I'm sure he's warning Donald Trump what he can and cannot do in the future.

Notably, he did start the morning saying, you can go to your son's graduation, before he held him in contempt, which if you recall, Kaitlan, prior to this, he never said he couldn't go, he just said I'll let you know whether or not you can go. And today he's letting him know.

COLLINS: Despite Trump claiming publicly that he had barred him from --

AGNIFILO: Correct. Exactly.

COLLINS: I mean what do you make of that and the timing, because he did -- he started with the good news and then he got too, well, I have also found that you have violated this gag order and I'm going to fine you, obviously $1,000 for each violation. We'll see how many of its all ten of them.

And we're told by Jeremy (INAUDIBLE) that Trump did not visibly react as the judge was reading this decision, Paula. But I think the question has always been, what will actually deter him from violating it.

REID: So, one of the things that could deter him are conservative voices suggesting that he should stop violating the gag order and use that time at the microphones to campaign. It's something we have seen over the past few days is just that. Now, it doesn't mean that the targets of his ire, like Michael Cohen and (INAUDIBLE) one of the prosecutors who used to work in the Biden Justice Department are not going to base any criticism, but we saw last week they were getting sort of creative in their way to work around. Instead, relying on GOP allies on The Hill to amplify some of these complaints that Trump and his lawyers have about one of the prosecutors, about the judge. That is one -- again, one of their creative attempts to get around the gag order.

COLLINS: Yes. And, Jake, obviously a notable moment here as the Trump team was also waiting to see how the judge was going to handle this. And he started off the first morning of this trial this week by saying, yes, the prosecutors did meet the burden of proof here.

TAPPER: Yes, that's right, Kaitlan. And let's dive into all of that.

And Laura Coates, as we await the hearing begin today of -- Gary Farro is back on the witness stand right now, and the judge has called for the jury to be brought into the courtroom.

[09:40:04]

And when that testimony begins, we will bring you that -- those updates, one after the other.

But, Laura, looking at what Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, his comments where he was either retweeting, requoting, talking about the jury, talking about the quote/unquote two sleazebags who were witnesses, there really wasn't any factual matter about whether or not he had violated the gag order. It was just a question, I suppose -- here's the Michael Avenatti post. Michael Avenatti, of course, famously one of Trump's nemesis. But here he is, he's in prison, may possibly be angling for a pardon should -- should Donald Trump be re- elected. And Donald Trump, on April 10th, said, thank you to Michael Avenatti for revealing the truth about two sleazebags who have, with their lies and misrepresentations, cost our country dearly.

I'm not going to go through all ten of the alleged violations of the gag order, but -- or nine, I'm told, but it's not really a question as to whether or not he violated it. He was told he was not allowed to talk about witnesses and there he is talking about witnesses.

LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: Which poses the question, why would it have taken so long then for the judge to come to this conclusion? We knew that the writing was on the wall, it was an inevitable conclusion based on what you're saying and beyond. And, by the way, the words, thank you, Michael Avenatti, coming out of the mouth of Donald Trump, is just really asking him to think about it for a lot of reasons.

TAPPER: Just to remind people, Michael Avenatti represented Stormy Daniels.

COATES: Oh, he -- didn't he famously take a bigger -- have a huge poster board I think of Michael Cohen or Donald Trump's face and bring it on air to say, where is your client? I want to talk to this person about these issues.

TAPPER: But, by the way, just -- I'm sorry to interrupt, but I'm going to be doing that throughout the show because of the news coming in.

COATES: It's OK. I've got kids, they do the same thing. It's fine.

TAPPER: We've got news coming in from the courtroom again, if anybody in New York who has control over the judicial system wants to let cameras into the courtroom, please do. I don't like interrupting people. The judge just hold Mr. Trump to take down all of the offending posts.

COATES: Wow. Now that's significant, especially now. It's been ten minutes and the court has resumed. He's made these decisions already. He knows he has other hearing coming on Thursday. There are four additional violations. This is going to be a stark warning. The question will be, of course, whether $1,000 per fine is going to be him saying, OK, thank you, put it on my tab, I can do that, or will jail time be an actual incentive for him not to do something about it.

And it works two ways though, right? Of course you have a judge's order saying that he must remove them from Truth Social, and two offending posts from his campaign website by 2:15 p.m. today, before court is out of session, which I note the judge wants to be able to look and see if he, in fact, is complying before he leaves his sight. I would suspect you would have more consequences if it does not.

But again, the graduated risk of having jail time over your head would be the ultimate penalty. This is a former president of the United States. Will that happen? It's unlikely.

TAPPER: Elie.

HONIG: Yes, this was an obvious call. These were straight down the middle violations. There was no gray area or, well, you could see it either way. The only question for me is, why did it take this long? But now the judge has ruled. And I think the bigger question is, what happens next time? What happens if Trump posts more of these attacks on witnesses and jurors and other people who are off limits? I mean the judge, in his defense, I guess, has very limited tools.

I agree with you, Laura, there's no realistic way the judge is going to imprison Donald Trump over gag order violations.

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Well, our team in the courtroom, Kara Scannell --

HONIG: Yes.

HUNT: Is sending this in. She says the defendant is hereby warned, court will not tolerate continued willful violations of its lawful orders, and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose an incarcitory (ph) fine (ph).

HONIG: Yes.

COATES: Yes. (INAUDIBLE) necessary -- necessary.

HONIG: So, he's laying down the law. He's literally saying that I will draw a line somewhere. There you go.

TAPPER: Bill Brennan, do you disagreeing with the judge's move here at all?

BILL BRENNAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: No. And I think Judge Merchan is unfairly taking heat for the delay. Having spent some time in that room with him, he's a contemplative man. He's very deliberate. But he's also in a tough spot, Jake. He has a unique defendant here, a former president, first time in history. And the idea of jail could have an amazing ripple effect. So, what he may be doing is, he's probably balancing, let's get this trial close to a verdict. Let me dribble out the thousand dollars per count. Let me see if that works. And it's a sliding and ascending scale.

What he could do, though, Jake, because Judge Merchan suffers no fools, he could, if this continues to happen, say, well, here's how we're going to do it. We're going to finish the trial. And when the trial's over, regardless of the verdict, you're going to spend a couple days in jail. I mean he could do it.

So -- but I -- if he does it during the trial, its anarchy.

TAPPER: Somebody -- I don't know if it was you or a different person who had previously served as an attorney for Trump, but somebody said a different way that Judge Merchan could do it is not tell the defense who the witnesses are any -- any -- you know, the next day or the day after that as another punitive measure, saying we don't know -- you can't get your client under control, therefore we're no longer going to tell you who the witnesses are ahead of time, which would put them litigiousness in a disadvantage.

[09:45:09]

BRENNAN: Well, as Elie will back me up, anytime you're in a trial, Elie was a former prosecutor, you'd like to get a complete list of witnesses. And it's a subjective thing. It's -- sometimes it is case specific or prosecutors specific, where some prosecutors will just say here. Here's day one, day two, day three, day four. That didn't happen in this case. From what I understand, there was some concern about these tweets and these statements. So, I think they were giving the next day's witness.

TAPPER: Yes.

BRENNAN: But it's important that the defense know who's coming up because you have to prepare for that particular witness the night before.

TAPPER: Yes, just another tool in Judge Merchan's limited arsenal. And Jamie Gangel, right now a prosecutor -- prosecuting attorney

Rebecca Mangold is showing emails from First Republic Bank about the opening of the Essential Consultants bank account, that's the LLC that Michael Cohen set up with his banker, Gary Farro. This is all about establishing that there was this shell corporation --

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Right.

TAPPER: Which Michael Cohen gave a purposely boring name to, Essential Consultants, so that they could then allegedly you hide hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.

GANGEL: So, as we say previously on homeland, just to go right, you know, back, we -- this banker is laying out what happened. There was another shell company. He didn't fund that shell company. Then I think it's a couple of weeks go by, maybe a week, and he changes the name of the shell company and sets this up. To me, and the lawyers can address his, but this is the underpinnings of the case. It's the black and white. It's the facts. It's laying the groundwork.

Can I just go back to Judge Merchan?

TAPPER: Let me just interrupt for one second --

GANGEL: Yes.

TAPPER: Because the type of business listed on the account document was, quote/unquote consulting. And Gary Farro says that's consistent with what Michael Cohen told them the purpose of the business was in a call.

I think one of the things going on here, Jamie and then Kasie, is that Gary Farro is explaining that he had no idea what this was for. He was just setting this up for his client, Michael Cohen. He knows nothing about the purpose of this, other than he was asked to set up an LLC and he did so.

GANGEL: Just -- just to go back to Judge Merchan to underscore what Bill said about having something hanging over your head. I'm sure none of you ever got in trouble as a child. But for me, the worst part were the hours when my mother said to me, we'll talk when I get home. And, you know, that's what 2:15 in the afternoon is. But it really is, I think, according to people I've talked to who know the judge very well, that was part of this. He was taking his time and I think the three lawyers will also agree, the judge always wants the lawyers to control their client. There was pressure on them too.

HUNT: Well, and this is one of the most interesting things about the story in "The New York Times detailing some of the reported tension between the lead lawyer for Donald Trump here, Todd Blanche, and his client, right?

TAPPER: Yes, get us up to speed on that because maybe some people don't always read the beautiful pros (ph) of Maggie Haberman, as we do.

HUNT: And Jonathan Swan. Yes.

Well, so it's another classic -- and for anyone who's covered Donald Trump, you know he's always attacking his lawyers privately, right? Like, the government councils that worked for him in the White House, Don McGahn, Pat Cipollone, came in for some of the toughest, most aggressive criticism from him, and he has cycled through lawyers --

TAPPER: Behind the scenes.

HUNT: Behind the scenes.

TAPPER: Yes.

HUNT: And he has cycled through lawyers publicly, as we know. He found a bunch to try to defend him after January 6th, Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, others. Todd Blanche, and I'm sure Elie -- I think you worked with him --

HONIG: Yes. Yes.

HUNT: At the Southern District of New York, very respected. A veteran guy who surprised many of his friends when he went to work for Donald Trump. And now "The Times" is reporting that Trump is upset that Blanche is not being sufficiently aggressive in his defense. He's not attacking the jury and the judge.

TAPPER: The prosecution right now showing documents that Michael Cohen provided to the bank, showing that the LLC was created in Delaware. And let me just take a quick pause. I'll come right back to you.

HONIG: Yes.

TAPPER: I'll go to either one of my Philly boys here. Well, you're actually technically from Jersey.

BRENNAN: He's a carpet bagger from Jersey hill (ph).

HUNT: That doesn't count.

TAPPER: Why -- again, just to remind people, why Delaware? Why, when you're setting up these shell corporations, why, on either one, jump all to the --

BRENNAN: Delaware is --

HONIG: Favorable tax rules.

BRENNAN: Delaware has made a cottage industry of being a favorable place to incorporate. That's why a lot of the major credit card companies, banks, holding companies are down there. So, it's a very lender friendly state. That's why I think it -- per capita, it's the number one state in the union for corporations and companies to be based in.

[09:50:04] HONIG: And to Kasie's point about the tension that's reportedly happening between Donald Trump and his lawyer, Todd Blanche, this happens all the time. I mean Bill can talk to this as well. There is always a tension between the defendant, who usually wants his lawyer on the attack, go after everybody, this is my liberty at stake, and the lawyer, who sometimes will say, well, hang on, we need to be strategic here. It doesn't make sense to go after Rhona Graff (ph), for example, they administrative assistant who testified last week. We're saving our fire, the defense lawyer will often say, for the most important moment, in this case from Michael Cohen. And it does seem that is Trump's attorney's approach.

TAPPER: All right, let's go back to Kaitlan Collins outside the courtroom in beautiful Manhattan.

Kaitlan.

COLLINS: And, Jake, I should note, we are now seeing the first image of Trump in court today. Obviously, as you noted, there are no cameras inside at the courtroom. Something that is a much frustration to us as broadcasters. But we are seeing images of Trump in the courtroom with his attorneys. As you can see here, he is seated at the defense table. And that is where, you know, just moments after that, the judge said that he had, in fact, violated his gag order nine times to the tune of $9,000 as a fine. And also the judge saying that he must remove the offending posts by 2:15 p.m. Eastern this afternoon. So, obviously, Dan Scavino has to get to work.

And, Paula and Karen, as we're reading through this, the judge is using Trump's own words against him and saying that Trump himself has bragged about the audience reach that Truth Social has and where those posts go. And he's saying that the idea that re-posting something is not a statement of Donald Trump's, it just belies common sense. And he's saying that the issue of re-posting appears to be a question of first impression. And lacking the legal authority to guide this decision, this court must, as a defense counsel, rely on legal -- rely on common sense. AKA, anything he reposts is considered a violation of the gag order right here.

REID: Yes, even trying to quote people. For example, one of those concerning posts was what appeared to be a quote from a Fox News host about the jury being infiltrated by liberal activists. That was incredibly concerning because there were worries that that could prompt threats against the jury. But here the judge completely knocks that down, saying, look, you're trying to quote someone, but it's clearly, you know, your own words. They uttered a statement. You placed it in quotes. The purpose was to call into question the legitimacy of the jury selection process in this case. He says, this constitutes a clear violation and requires no further analysis.

So, the judge clearly not having any of it with Trump and his team's attempts to work around this gag order.

COLLINS: And, Karen, I should note the hearing is underway. The witness is back on the stand. It is Gary Farro, the banker for Michael Cohen. And he said it took about five or six hours to open the account for Essential Consultants. That's the one that was ultimately used to facilitate the payment to Stormy Daniels. He said it was -- everything was urgent for Michael Cohen.

So, as we're monitoring this and looking as Trump -- Trump is whispering with Todd Blanche, his attorney here that they were just talking about "The New York Times" reporting on the tension between them, Todd Blanche is the one who was arguing to the judge that Trump had not violated the gag order, that reposts weren't necessarily an endorsement of Trump. And the judge is emphatically disagree with that.

AGNIFILO: Yes, it's really interesting that this morning it was reported that Trump wants his lawyers to be more aggressive and attack witnesses more. But this particular order makes clear of the gag order that not only Trump can't do it, he can't cause others to do it. If he wants to do it in court, that's one thing when you're cross-examining a witness. But outside of court, his -- this gag order actually applies not only to Trump, but to anybody else. He cannot -- he cannot go after witnesses.

COLLINS: Well, and it doesn't seem to bode well for Thursday's hearing, where there are four more violations that the judge is going to take under review.

AGNIFILO: Thats correct. And people were saying, why did it take the judge so long to rule? But he -- and when you read the -- the decision, you see why. He actually took his time and considered each of the ten posts individually. And he only found him in contempt of nine of the ten. So, he was really considering all of the arguments that Todd Blanche made on behalf of Donald Trump, and really parsed out what -- what it was in terms of what was going to be in violation of it. And really what he says was, there can be no doubt whatsoever that defendant's intent and purpose when re-posting is to communicate to his audience that he endorses and adopts the posted statement as his own. I think that's pretty powerful.

COLLINS: And I should note that as we're monitoring these updates from inside the courtroom, the banker is testifying that he did not know that what Michael Cohen was trying to do was on behalf of a political candidate, opening up this account to pay that six-figure sum to Stormy Daniels here. That could be incredibly important as they are getting into the heart of this case. As Paula noted, it's a documents case. And he is saying there would be additional scrutiny if they had known it was related to a political candidate.

And I'm glad that that's what's happening inside the courtroom, Paula, because the judge is also noting here that Trump is a political candidate, and they want to take efforts to make sure that his speech isn't curtailed while he's out on the campaign trail.

[09:55:08]

And they say, for that reason, they exercise discretion when expanding the gag order and didn't issue it until the eve of the trial because of that. And I should note, and that ties directly to what we're hearing from the witness right now saying, you know, eight years ago we didn't know that Donald Trump was a candidate for president and that that was who this was going to benefit essentially.

REID: Yes, it's an important point and it's going to be interesting to see how Todd Blanche handles this argument on Thursday.

We have an update from inside the court. They're saying it is an industry that we do not work with. I believe that's referring to the adult film industry. Out of the banker there for Michael Cohen talking about the purpose for this LLC being set up.

But Todd Blanche, in the last hearing, and it was a disaster. They were trying to focus on their broad strokes arguments about political speech, the unfairness of the process, and the judge wanted to focus on each individual -- each individual post. So, going forward, it appears on Thursday, Todd Blanche may have to adjust his approach if he wants to be more successful for his client.

COLLINS: Yes, and we'll see what that looks like. And I should note, the prosecution is now showing emails to and from Michael Cohen confirming that bank account transfer of $131,000 from a home equity line of credit, as we know that he used to disguise it from his wife, also because he believed it was an easier method. He made the transfer within 23 minutes of opening that account. It speaks to that urgency that Trump's attorney was working with in the final days before the 2016 election.

Also, of course, we're been talking about the judge fining Donald Trump for violating this gag order. We have much more of CNN's special live coverage right after a quick break.

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