One of the remarkable things Vaughn Hilliard that I heard
the defense do this morning was to say
Access Hollywood was personally challenging for Donald Trump.
One of the exhibits was from C-SPAN and it was
Trump at a podium saying this is going to kill
me with the women,
the women, my women are going to.
What are the pieces of evidence?
Again, I said this five weeks ago.
The jury's going to be asked to not believe what
they can see with their own eyes hear with their
own ears and read in front of them.
Take me inside how this is playing out right now
in the
prosecution's. I don't know if this is a rebuttal to
that argument,
but but they're pushed back to the arguments made this
morning,
right? Literally as we're speaking right now.
They're going through the Access Hollywood tape in that timeline
in which the defense I was in the courthouse during
that part and I was just actually right before coming
onto your show is in the courthouse listening to Josh
dying glasses presentation.
And I think if you're comparing also these two individuals
and how they explain this moment in time to the
jury,
they're diametrically opposed to one another.
You have, you know, on one hand,
the defense for Donald Trump,
Todd Blanche, suggesting that it quote,
makes no sense that anybody would think that somehow a
National Enquirer story would change the outcome or influence the
2016 election,
which on its head doesn't make sense.
Then why David Pecker was meeting with Michael Cohen and
Donald Trump at their request inside of Trump Tower and
why he made the commitment to be their eyes and
ears. And inside of that Trump Tower meeting,
David Pecker was the one who testified that he would
inform Michael Cohen of any salacious stories involving women and
notify him so that he could have them killed.
And then you go to Josh Steinglas here as we
speak currently playing this out for the jury as well.
And this is where they are using not only the
exhibits,
but also making the case that Donald Trump's motive in
this case was Stormy Daniels,
because again, they're talking about the conspiracy here.
And what was the motive to falsify the documents in
the motive with Stormy Daniels.
And that is where the prosecution was questioned as to
why they got into the salacious details.
But Josh Steinglas has already made the case to the
jury here that those details were important because it showed
why Donald Trump took the that he did in why
he used Michael Cohen, who we should note in the
last hour,
the prosecution has made the case,
served as a liaison and was a known liaison not
only to Dylan Howard and David Pecker,
but a liaison to the Trump campaign,
a liaison to the Trump Organization,
all but working as a deputy.
And in a moment of crisis there around the moment,
the hours after the Access Hollywood tape,
who did Donald Trump turn to as well as in
those weeks after the Access Hollywood tape drop,
he turned to his deputy,
Michael Cohen. Let me read.
I want to be clear to our viewers,
this is not an official transcript.
These are notes from our reporters,
our colleagues inside the courtroom.
So they're they're as close as can be
accounting for for perhaps some grammatical stuff.
So prosecutor doing just what Bond is describing,
quote, four weeks before the election,
the campaign was rocked to its core by the release
of the Access Hollywood tape,
a video of a presidential candidate discussing how to grab
a woman by the genitals.
It was another example of them trying to make the
case about Michael Cohen.
But it isn't that Hope Hicks told you that the
news was so big it eclipsed the coverage of a
Category 4 hurricane bearing down on the East Coast,
Stein Glass. So I guess it was like a Category
5 hurricane.
Endorsements were reconsidering and the Republican National Committee considered replacing
Donald Trump.
Preparations for the debate were halted as they entered into
damage mode.
It all began with this e-mail from Washington Post reporter
David Farenthold with a transcript of the Access Hollywood tape.
The e-mail asked for the campaigns comment and Hope Hicks
testified that her initial instinct was to deny the legitimacy
of the tape.
Once she realized it was real,
the strategy quickly shifted from deny,
deny, deny to spin
Lachlan
to relive all this seems like something that the defense
in some ways invited.
I mean, I'm guessing the prosecution would have done this
anyway,
laid out the motive for the cover up because the
business records are where the sort of original said the
original criminality comes in and the motive and the campaign
fraud is the underlying crime.
But to relive all this is the most damaging stuff
in Donald Trump's eyes.
This is what Donald Trump didn't want the viewer,
the voters to know. And I think it's been quite
effective just to go back to that meeting at Trump
Tower in August of 2015,
as that scene said it just to reinforce how important
it is when Michael Cohen meets with David Pecker and
Donald Trump and they,
they come up with this scheme to,
to catch and kill negative stories.
And I, I think that was very important to bring
it back to,
to that because this morning we just heard all Michael
Cohen's IR and it was very mirandering.
But to bring it back to that meeting at,
at Trump Tower, I think was essential to just kind
of get the juries heads back to where this conspiracy
starts.
And then that is the reason that we're here with
the the Stormy Daniels payment.
I just want to say that Hope Hicks in discussing
the Access Hollywood tape,
did such an incredible job of showing how crucial it
was that they then make the Stormy Daniels payment.
She set the tape. She was that was a Category
4 hurricane.
And then to hear Donald Trump's lawyers this morning in
court say
it was just sort of another thing going on,
like there was other things going on.
I actually wrote down instead of I just.
I I said the idea that the Access Hollywood tape
was not a big deal is comical.
I wrote a note to myself like it was such
a huge deal and and they've just tried to dismiss
it.
Yeah. So Josh saying this had a great line to
your point about
saying what cause say she thinks one Hope Hicks barely
came up in the defense survation.
So one of the things that you listen for as
the prosecutor is not just what is said,
but what's left out. It was remarkable.
And so sues point about exhibits 35 and 36
barely addressed, I mean in the most superficial way.
So that's a huge hole.
Hope Hicks every damaging statement not addressed.
I mean, I was just like you have to say
something.
Nope, nothing on Hope Hicks on on this category 4
Josh Sanglas had a great line.
I think let's just get back to you think it
was no big deal.
Hope Hicks, which he said directly the jury no motive
to life anything a motive to Curry favor
with the defendant said, Well,
if it's it was it
it clips the news of a category for hurricanes.
So he said so that makes us a category five
at the very least.
Just to remind people she's running public relations.
She's in charge of the image and it was
it was a disaster. There's no what?
I mean, it always boggled my mind that the defense
decided to basically hand her tissues and then destroy Stormy
Daniels,
who didn't have eyes on any of the criminal acts
of the fraudulent business records.
What was behind that? So,
yeah, of course then that came up
in the course of the the sort of beginning part
of
Steinglass's summation was sort of saying this was,
you know, you saw something very bizarre where they basically
tried to destroy her for
Stormy Daniels. But, you know,
nothing was said about. And this was Josh Steinglass just
saying,
you know, but David Pecker says all of these incredibly
damaged things,
damaging things, nothing how pix is all these damaged things,
nothing saying, you know, this is like the two witnesses,
they decide they have to go after a Stormy Daniels.
And the other side of that that he mentioned that
I thought that was very powerful was he said that
the people closest to Donald Trump had the most damaging
information. And I think that that was a really great
note that he struck because Hope Hicks was damaging her
testimony was and so was David Peckers and two people
who were still, you know,
in the Kylie of and they have entered off the
stand and said,
he's still my friend and he's still my mentor,
my mentor, which again, makes it so effective that they're
going back to where we started with this to David
Pecker.