concessions than the average criminal defendant would get. he is getting delays, he's got access to all kinds of lawyers that are filing this and filing that, delaying every trial, and most people don't have access to that kind of lawyering, do not have access to the concessions the justice system will provide if you can afford it. >> if you can afford it. you can catch the rest of my conversation with john legend sunday at 12:00 right here on msnbc. the rachel maddow show, she will tell us how we got here and what it means, what's broken about the system and we will all be watching. that starts right now. >> it's a lot to live up to. what it all means is never thing you want when you are on television. like rachel is terrible, nose nothing but history, and no one will believe her. >> thank you, i want to under

promise and over deliver. thank you. >> and thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. let's justus jump right in, oka? because here's the thing for everybody that hasn't been paying a lot of attention to this is probably thinking today. if this trial is about something that happened in the lead-up to thepe election in 2016, not the election this year, not the last presidential election, but the one before that, if this trial is about something that happened in the lead-up to the 2016 election, nearly eight years ago, why is it that it's only coming to trial now? it turns out that is kind of a funny story, funny in a bad way, because it turns out this case springs t specifically from onef the worst and most dangerous revelations we ever had about the whole trump presidency. one of the worst things that happened while trump was president, something that for me is absolutely front of mind when i think about what is the worst

that might happen in a second trump situation. and i will tell you why. so it was almost exactly one year e into trump being preside. it was january g 2018. "the wall street journal" broke the story that something that looked really illegal happened in the presidential campaign right before the 2016 election. what "the wall street journal" reported in that 2018 story is that the woman on the right here, a porn director and porn actor named stormy daniels, right before the 2016 campaign, she had been paid $130,000 to not talk about what she says was ash sexual encounter with donal trump. and, you naknow, the alleg adulteress sexual encounter is one thing.g. trump still denies that it ever happened. sex is one thing. money is another. this wasis a presidential campaign. and she got $130,000.

if that money was spent for the purpose of the campaign to help trump get elected, well, there is rules for that. there is something laws that apply to that kind of spending. when that story broke in the wall street journal, michael cohen denied when that payment went to stormy daniels that donald trump or his campaign or his company had had anything to do with the payment. when that story came coout, he said that he o personally paid stormy daniels with his own money out of the goodness of his own gheart. no, no, he didn't have sex with stormyha daniels. wasn't anything to do with that. he just paid stormy daniels himself personally. nobody else was involved. he wouldn't say what the payment was for. all he would say was that the payment would you sayha totally legal,wo nothing to see here. it was all void. nevertheless, the oifbi decided there was something to see. they persuaded a judge there was something to see as well.

theyee got a court-ordered sear warrant to-o search michael cohen's office and they seized business records andhe e-mails d documents. and then michael cohen was told he was going to be charged with federal crimes. and then michael cohen struck a plea deal with federal prosecutors, with the u.s. attorney's office in the southern district of new york. cohen pled guilty to campaign finance violations and other charges. he admitted that he had arranged this payment to ms. daniels and also to another woman that said she had a nine-month long affair with trump. she says he arranged these payments. he coordinated to make sure these women would get paid to stay quiet about their allegations of infidelity in order to help trump's presidential campaign. now, when michael cohen pled guilty, president trump calling him a rat. that's nice. when michael cohen pled guilty,

he admitted in federal court that he hadn't paid out this hush money out of his own accord, out of the goodness of his heart. michael cohen admitted in court filings. he swore in person in federal court that he had been directed to make these payments by his boss, by donald trump. he effectively said, you know, yes, i committed this crime. i committed it in cahoots with my boss because he wanted me to. it was all to benefit him. now, trump was referred to in the court documents in the michael cohen case. he was famously described as individual one. and michael cohen attested in federal court that in the commission of the crimes he was pleading guilty to, o he acted coordination with and at the direction of individual one, aka donald trump. and michael cohen had receipts to back this up, literal receipts. when he was called to testify before congress, you may remember he brought with him c copies of thet checks that wer given to him to reimburse him for making the illegal payment.

checks signed in some cases by donald j. trump. many of them signed while trump was in the white house. and it was w -- it was all an amazing spectacle, right? i mean, other presidents maybe stooped someone or made get involved in a campaign finance scandal, f but illegal hush mon payments to not one, but two alleged t mistresses with reimbursement checks for one of the illegal payments signed in the white house. i mean, eh. a, gross. b, not your typical presidential scandal. we're already in unprecedented territory here. butce that's not actually the mt important point, right? the michael cohen federal case revelations, michael cohen pleading guilty, coming clean, saying what happened, that left in its wake not just like a slimy trail of, yuck, don't let the kids read the news anymore. it leftws in its wake one legitimately baffling question,

which was, wait, now, who's getting in trouble for this now? who's the one person getting in trouble for this crime? just michael cohen, really? he's going to federal prison for years, and he's the only one? why is that? why is he the only one? you know why that was. we now know why that was. and it's really bad. it's one of the worst things we learned about donald trump's behavior as president and what he waspr able to do as presiden. he tell ourselves all these stories now about,rs oh, you kn, thank god there were adults in the rooman that said no to him. we should be worried if there won't be adults in the room next time. we tell ourselves feel good stories. oh, thank goodness the institutions held, and he wasn't able to wreck the american system of government and the american rule of law the way he wanted tto. really? actually, in some cases, and this is one of them, the so-called adults in the room did

exactly what he wanted, and the institutions did not halt.ed they were corrupted. and there were terrible consequences. and that actually is where this case comes from and why it took so long to get to trial today in new york city. remember,yo this was a federal case. the michaelas cohen case was a federal case.ca when michael cohen pled guilty, the -- the u.s. attorney for the southern district of f new york the federal prosecutor running the office that was investigating cohen, that was prostating cohen, that was a u.s. attorney named jeffrey burr man. here is a lifelong republican. he was appointed by president trump. he worked on the trump campaign and the trump transition. but after jeff burman was fired from the trump administration, after he was fired at the u.s. attorney in sdny, he wrote a book about what happened to him in that job. and one of the things he described in detail was about the michael cohen case. according to jeffrey burman, who

was running that u.s. attorneys office, after michael cohen pled guilty and was sentenced to three w years in prison for thi crime, president trump's appointees at the u.s. t department of justice in washington, the main justice, they started repeatedly reaching down into burman's office, into sdny to try to make the whole case m basically go away. this is from jeff burman's book. it's called "holding the line." he says, quote, while michael cohen had pled guilty, our office continued to pursue investigations related to other possible campaign finance violations. when bill barr took over as trump's attorney general in february 2019, six months after cohen's guilty plea, barr not only tried to kill the ongoing investigations, but ngincredibl he suggested that michael cohen's conviction on campaign finance charges should be reversed.e attorney general barr summoned by deputy over seeing the cohen

case in late february to challenge the basis of the guilty plea as well as pursuing similar campaign financial charges against other charges. khuzami was told to cease all investigative work on the campaign finance allegations until thegn office of legal counsel determined there was a legal basis for the campaign finance charges to which cohen pleaded guilty and until barr determined there was a political interest in pursuing charges against others. the directive barr gave khuzami was explicit. not a single investigative step could be taken, not a single document could be reviewed. if main justice decided there was no legalst basis for the charges, the attorney general of the united states would direct us to dismiss the campaign finance guilty pleas of michael cohen, the manmi who implicated the attorney general's boss, the president. barr's posture here raises

obvious questions. did he think dropping the campaign finance d charges woul bolster trump's defense against impeachment charges? was hehm trying to ensure that other trump associates or employees would be charged with making hush-money payments and perhaps flip on the president? was the goal to ensure that the president could not be charged aftert leaving office? was the goal to ensure that the president could not be charged after leaving office? justice department rules do say, for better or for worse, that presidents can't be criminally charged while they are serving as president. but if federal prosecutors had determined that trump had committed these crimes with michael cohen, right, nothing would stop them from charging trump for those crimes the moment he wascr once again a private citizen. the head of the u.s. attorney's office that did thisth investigation, that brought this case, he says that trump's guys atru the u.s. justice departmen

monkeys with this case. they monkeyed with this investigation onye trump's beha to make t sure sdny would never and could never determine that donald trump committed these federal crimes. this isn't something that like, we had to worry might happen. this happened. and the whistleblower on this was the guy who was running the u.s. attorney's office that got monkeys with. he was in a position to know. another revelation from jeff burman's book was when michael cohen pled guilty, trump's justice department made prosecutorsnt at sdny trip out tons of references to trump in their court tfilings. so, yeah, the big damning document showed that cohen acted at the direction of individual 1. but thef du document was much m explicit about trump's involvement in cohen's crimes.

what they wanted to say was trump acted in concert with and coordinated with cohen. when trump's justice department saw that, they were livid. they made sdny cut down this court filing from 40 pages to 21 pages and made them strip out all the most damning charges against trump in order to protect trump from this federal investigation. when they got done with it, the final documenth no longer said that michael cohen had committed his crime, acting in concert with and coordinating with trump, with individual one. instead, the final document said michael cohen acted in concert with and coordinated with one or more members of the trump campaign. one or more members of the trump campaign was trump. but justice department officials in washington, people appointed by trump, made the prosecutor's office take that out.

jeff burman also says he was ordered to investigate prominent democrats at trump's behest including john kerry. burman was told before the 2018 mid-term elections that his office should bring charges against a democratic lawyer that had presidentmo obama's white houseam council. his office looked into it and decided they had not only does something to warrant being prosecuted. hera actuallyng hadn't done anyg at all. he was innocent of what he was being accused of here. afterof burman refused to bring those charges, he put out a late night press release in june 2020 claiming that jeff burman had besigned. he had not resigned. and he said so. he refused to go. and he did that in part because he had just seen what had happened in anothert important u.s. attorney's office after a

total oftakeover there by trump justice department. it was in thetr d.c. u.s. attorney's office that the schemes went even further. barr in the d.c. u.s. attorney's office had succeeded in ousting theed u.s. attorney there and instead installing his own people. that office then immediately move to drop the charges and undo the guilty plea from trump national security adviser michael flynn. they moved tose undo the recommended sentence for roger stone that had just been convicted of multiple felonies. this was the same u.s. attorney's office that also folded toff the pressure to bri charges against obama's white house counsel after berman refused to do it because there was no case there. that case was so weak the jury voted to acquit in less than five hours. that very rarely happens to federal prosecutors, but it happened there becauseec there s no case because trump insisted that prosecution be brought forward. one u.s. attorney looked intoont

and said, are you kidding? there is nothing here. the other one went ahead and did it because that's what trump demanded, even though there was no case. geoffrey berman saw what happened in the d.c. attorney's office and did not want the same thing to happen to the sdny. so he thought. berman puts out a statement saying, oh, no, i haven't and there was this dramatic 48 hours in which twice berman refused to quit, refused to let his office be taken over by trump's attorney general. and then finally trump fired geoffrey berman. and the victory is that after he was y fired, he made sure that s deputy, a normal prosecutor, was promoted to take his place instead of bill barr sending trump guys toil take it over li he did in d.c. but this is -- this is a very

bad black mark on the record of the u.s. justice department. and the result of all of this was, you know, terrible drama, scary revelations about the justice department under president trump. but it was also crucially a federal criminal investigation diverted and delayed and tampered with. federal criminal investigation into the crimes for which michael cohen went to prison wasl stymied. and here's a key point. it wasn't just the federal criminal investigation because while all this was going on at theas federal level, the investigation into michael cohen, then attempted investigation of peoplett beyon cohen who participated in those sameo crimes, trump, the revelation of rutrump's persona culpability for theses crimes, trump's justice department, while all this was happening, they reached down and put the brakes on the whole thing. right. a corrupted federal justice department acting to protect the president, despite findings of law and fact.

while that was happening at the federal level around the cohen case, it had the effect of stymying a potential state prosecution asal well, because w york prosecutors in the manhattan district n attorney's office were also interested in investigating and i potentially prosecuting these crimes that had takenut place. after haall, these crimes had taken place in their city. but the feds, right, this was supposedly their case and they asked state prosecutors to hold off whileec they pursue their federal case in this matter. what we came ton learn, though isar that the federal case wasn happening. it was delayed and diverted and perverted and ultimately stopped by trump's appointees at the u.s. justice department. and,us so, state prosecutors ar twiddling their thumbs wasing tons of times for the feds to supposedly finish this investigation, which is an investigation that's not actually happened because of corruption. it was months after cohen's

guilty plea that federal prosecutors quietly signalled in a court filing that the investigation was over and nobody besides michael cohen would beha federally charged. it was literally two weeks later, twowo weeks after that quiet t admission from the feds that state prosecutors started issuing subpoenas for their own investigation. so if you find yourself wondering why alleged crimes that happened in 2016 are only coming to trial now, well, one of the reasons is that donald trump's justice department succeeded in delaying and ultimately anstymying the feder investigation into the alleged crimes for which donald trump is nowhi effectively facing in new york state trial. in fact, that successful effort by trump's justice department to fore stall any investigation into trump for any charges against him, we can see the legacy of that successful corruption, that successful corruption of the case. we can see the legacy of it in the way the manhattan district attorney has had to charge this case, because one of the big

awkward parts ofon this case that's now being tried in new york is that there is a crime that's being described here that's never actually been charged. right? people whoar criticize this cas that is often one of the major issues they will takehe of it. a crime is being described here. but if that crime is such a crime, how come it was never charged, right? the new york d.a.'s case against donaldca trump says these false business records trump created inor his real estate business, right, whente he disguised thes hush money reimbursed to michael cohen isto if they were legal fees. the falsified business records aren't just a misdemeanor. they're a felony because they were created to conceal another crime. what's thehe other crime? well, the d.a. has described what he believes the other crimes are.er one of the implicated other crimes is the federal campaign finance violation that prosecutors sayn michael cohen committedhe with donald trump.

it is an awkwardness for this case that that federal crime was never charged against donald trump. it was only ever charged against michael cohen. right? but the reason that federal crime was never charged against trump, well, it appears to be because the federal investigation into trump's culpability in thi matter was perverted by trump's appointees. so that is kind of this big gaping wound sitting right at the center of this trial, is a constant reminder that it is bonkers that onlyem michael coh and nobody else ever paid a price for this criminal scheme, right? it is also a c constant reminde you know, of something else and something bigger than this case. it is t a big, bright flashing warning right about what we as a country should expect from a second trump presidency. do you know how scary it is to think about bill barr doing this with ongoing investigations

reportedly, with cases that have already been pled to, with sentences that have already been recommended by the justice department after conviction for him to get in there and take apart those cases on trump's behalf because trump told him to? they were able to do some of that. they would very much like to do a lot more of that, which could upend anyic citizen's life in ts country at thefe whim of donald trump. right? do not talk nearly enough about what trump succeeded in doing to the u.s. justice department when he was president. he ousted u.s. attorneys. he got investigations into himself and his allies. kiboshed. he got the case against his disgraced national security adviser thrown tiout, even thou he had already pled guilty. he got a the sentencing investigation for roger stone reduced after r stone's multipl convictions. he got the justice department to investigate and even j prosecut prominent democrats he didn't like even when there was zero case ton be made. that all is worse than anything

richard nixon ever did. and he was pretty bad on that front. it is arguably the worst thing any modern president has ever done to the u.s. justice department, to thee rule of la in this country. it is the kind of scandal we should be keeping front of mind every single day as he tries to get back in the whitehe house now. absolutely the blueprint for where they would start to try toth complete the unfinishe business, right, of the first term if donald trump returns to thedo white house. that isit where this case comes from. right? the tautriest case imaginable coming from the grossest and personal failings. all the while revealing a huge serious problem for this country that we have not yet reckoned with, a core problem for our protection of the rule of, lawa core failing of the rule of law for which not nearly enough people have yet gotten in trouble. we got lots more to get to

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so this was the headline. the headline was "72 hours until all hell breaks loose!" . this was the headline on a fund-raising e-mail the trump campaign sent on friday. not just predicting, but kind of imploring former president trump's supporters that they should show up in new york city at the courthouse for trump's criminal trial this morning. he says in the fund-raising e-mail, if we fail to have a massive outpouring, then all hell will break loose. so, again, that went out on friday. did it work? was donald trump able to get that massive outpouring in the streets that he was begging for today from his supporters? did it work? alas, no, it did not work. this is what it looked like outside the courthouse.

you can see there is a few trump flags. there is a lot of members of the press. there was one flag that says trump or death. there was one guy holding a trump 2028 flag, which at first glance looks like it might just be a call for trump to stay president indefinitely and never leave, until you notice the tiny text at the top of the flag that says don jr. oh, right, should be don jr. in 2028. a monarchy under the trump family, just like america's founders intended. there was also this -- this truck, which circled the courthouse several times, this truck appears to be the same truck or at least a similarly decorated truck to the one trump posted on his social media account a few weeks ago, which featured a decal we are not going to show that shows president biden bound and gagged and tied up like he was being held prisoner in the bed of the truck. so that was there. but it wasn't a crowd.

trump did not get his massive outpouring of trump supporters today. he got a few dozen people, not many. there were a bunch of anti-trump protesters, though, including these folks who were gathered behind that banner that says, no one is above the law. they were there. trump has repeatedly and explicitly called on his supporters to show up to support him at his arraignment, at his court hearings and now at his criminal trial. he really wants. it does not seem to be happening, which on one hand feels like a relief in terms of security concerns. on the other hand, it feels like it has to inflect somehow the dynamic inside, that the dynamic outside in the streets is really absolutely a huge disappointment for trump and his campaign. joining us now is lisa rubin. i know it has been a long day. thanks for being here. >> rachel, thank you for having me. >> so you are a legal correspondent for us here on

msnbc. before that, i know you describe yourself as a recovering lawyer. you are an experienced lawyer. was this a normal day in court today? >> partially what was extraordinary was how normal it was. i was saying it was moments of the mundane and extraordinary. there were moments blistering in their boringness and even the former president appeared to be bored by them. i think that's a generous description. that includes when jurors were reading off their answers to the jury questionnaire because, of course, when somebody is not reading the questions to them and they're ticking off what the answers are, it is not the most scintillating thing to listen to. there was argument specific to this case and the former president and specifically listening to the d.a.'s office outline some of the evidence that they would like to present and on which they wanted some clarifications from judge marshawn was fascinating because

it shows you just how thoroughly they have researched this case and found documents and evidence to support the general scaffolding of the story that michael cohen has told. >> let me ask you about something that happened right at the end of the proceedings today, lisa. it was right at the end of the day. and at the beginning of the day, they had had that discussion you were just describing about what evidence is going to be allowed. it does give us some sense of the scaffolding on which they be make their case. at the end of the day, an unexpecting scheduling matter came up. trump's lawyers asked if they could skip coming to court when the supreme court in washington will hear this case where he's claiming to be immune from prosecution. trump is a defendant. he's not required to attend any supreme court case. in fact, he didn't go to the last supreme court case about his eligibility to be on the ballot. it seemed from your notes that you sent me about what was going on and what you could see there,

it seemed like the judge sort of took -- not took offense necessarily, but seemed to react strongly to that request from trump's lawyers. can you explain why that was and what happened there? >> well, there are a couple things, rachel, that happened. one is this was the third request from trump today alone to skip a particular day of trial. he also asked for permission, for example, to skip trial for his son baron's high school graduation. he said he doesn't want to have to be here on wednesdays because that is a day the judge will traditionally not hold trial and trump wants to go out and campaign. the judge said, look, i will try to take wednesday off, but if this is moving slowly, i reserve the right to call you back here on wednesdays. that's more of a courtesy to you and something i do to ensure i can keep my other cases moving. but in terms of the moment where the judge appeared to take up bridge it was because todd blanch said, we don't think we

should even have to be here. he was suggesting they never thought that this case should be heard now because trump is a candidate for president and also because their contention is that trump can't get a fair hearing here in manhattan because of all the pretrial publicity. because the judge has ruled on those oceans, he was particularly offended by the accusation or the contention that they shouldn't have to be here, and he sort of reeled back here and said -- see, i'm almost reeling back in my chair. you don't think you have to be here? and then he got quiet. if you have ever had a relative like this, i do, the judge gets quieter as he gets angrier. it's almost scary. that's when he made it very clear, trump is required to be in his courtroom by law. this is a state criminal proceeding, and despite the fact that he's got other legal things going on, including in front of the united states supreme court, he must be here on april 25th. >> wow. yeah, and you're exactly right. there is nothing like a family

elder getting yelled at is one thing. there is nothing like a family elder that brings the volume down to the point where all you can do is wait to see if you will still have your life at the end of the sentence. i have been there. i know that feeling. that's exactly the feeling that i got when you sent me that note. thank you for explaining what happened. lisa rubin, our tireless, tireless correspondent on these matters. stay hydrated, my friend. thank you so much. >> thank you. i want to turn now to catherine christian, who has lived the life of these prosecutors who were in court bringing this case today. she's a former manhattan district attorney. i appreciate you taking time to be here with us. >> i'm glad to be here, rachel. >> can you tell us. i guess i'm most interested in your overall impression of how today went and, again, a version of the question i asked lisa. was this a normal day in court? was this the kind of proceeding, the kind of pace, the kinds of

yes and noes from a judge that you would expect in a typical d.a.'s case or does this really feel different? >> it was normal. it was interinteresting. some of my colleagues who were former federal prosecutors were shocked because it is very different in the federal system. the judge is the one who does all of the questioning for the voir dire, and it's really much more smoother. in the state system, in new york state, the attorneys take a part of it. also, in the state system here in new york, there is a lot of preliminary matters that happen right before jury selection, like what you heard this morning. issues about what evidence the prosecutors want to bring in. there is also, i think tomorrow is going to happen, something called a sandoval hearing. what is a sandoval hearing? whenever a prosecutor wants to cross examine a defendant about prior convictions or prior bad acts, they have to give notice to the defense, and then the judge will decide which ones, if

any, the prosecutors can question the defendant about. and that will be another hearing, which also happens before jury selection. so this happens. and in a case like this where you know you have a high-profile defendant who there is strong feelings on both sides about him, it is going to be much more long proceeding. so you had 96 people who were brought in as perspective jurors. 50 of them sort of self-identified that they can't be fair and impartial. so they're gone. so now you are left with 46. that's not shocking on a case like this. and according to donald trump's lawyer, 80% of them should have self-identified and that you only had in manhattan only 50 out of 96 is not bad. and the judge is moving along as fast as he can. he is a very fair judge, and he's a very smart judge, and he does move things along quickly. wednesdays he has off because he's the presiding judge of

manhattan mental health court. so in addition to this trial, he has a heavy duty calendar of those cases which requires patience and special attention. so that's why on wednesdays this court is not in session for the trump trial. >> those pending motions that were handled by the judge today before the voir dire started with potential jurors, they were substantive and interesting. we got to hear argument between the two sides about, you know, what aspects of x alleged affair could be described in front of the jury, and we got to hear discussion about whether or not the alleged illegal, i will say, alleged illegal agreement with this publishing firm, the "national enquirer" publisher and meetings could be brought in front of the jury. it was all really interesting stuff. when we have the sandoval hearing, would you expect that to also be, for lay observers, a

substantively interesting thing about what's going to happen in the trial about the strength of the evidence and, indeed, about the contours of the alleged crime? >> yes. and what you will see, which is what you saw earlier today, is how fair the judge is. the "access hollywood" tape which many of us have seen and we don't have to describe what donald trump said, he said that cannot be shown to the jury. it is too prejudicial. however, a transcript can be played or read to the jury. he also said that the deposition that was taken in the jean carroll case cannot be shared with the jury. again, too prejudicial. we'll see the same thing at the sandoval hearing. the prosecutors are going to ask for a number of prior bad acts. the general rule is anything beyond 10 years is considered too remote, so they ask for prior bad acts beyond that, the judge will probably say, no, that's too remote.

i don't know what the 13 bad acts will ask for. i doubt the judge is going to allow them to ask any questions about the three open indictments. he, of course, has a fifth amendment right and they're indictments. they're not convictions. the civil fraud trial, he might be cross examined about the fact that the judge found him not credible. you may recall he was called back about whether or not he violated the gag order, talking about the judge's court attorney. he certainly, donald trump, should be cross examined about the defamation verdicts, lying about someone, false statements twice, jean carroll one verdict and the other verdict, again defamation. so i anticipate that the prosecutors will ask to cross examine donald trump about that. that is, of course, assuming donald trump testifies. but this is a very important

hearing because cases, convictions have been reversed because defendants have said, i would have testified but for the fact that the judge told the prosecutors they could cross examine about every bad act. so it is a very important decision that the judge is going to make. >> yeah, it is important in terms of fairness to the defendant. it is also important to those of us watching this in terms of understanding the elements of donald trump's past that may be starting to haunt him in court for the first time ever. the former assistant district attorney in the man hallen district attorney's office, that gave me a clear sense of what to watch for and what to keep an eye on moving ahead. thank you so much for watching us. >> you're welcome. all right. we have so much more to come here tonight. stay with us. uch more to come here tonight stay with us shingles doesn't care. shingles is a painful, blistering rash that can last for weeks. ahhh, there's nothing like a day out with friends. that's nice, but shingles doesn't care! 99% of adults 50 years or older

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there was a picture on the front page of the "national enquirer," which does have credibility, and they're not going to do pictures like that because they get sued for a lot of money if things are wrong, okay? a lot of money. and there was a picture. all i did is point out the fact that on the cover of the "national enquirer" there is a picture of him and crazy lee harvey oswald having breakfast. this was a magazine that, frankly, in many respects, should be very respected. i mean, if that was "the new york times," they would have gotten pulitzer prizes for their reporting. i've always said, why didn't the

"national enquirer" get the pulitzer prize? >> why didn't the "national enquirer" get the pulitzer prize for breaking the big news that ted cruz's dad killed jfk? i mean, that really was a -- you have to admit that's a scoop. look, world exclusive investigation. it's not even like somebody on another continent also has that, just the enquirer. no, that of course came after the "national enquirer"'s big scoop that hillary clinton had been caught on camera having gay romp at seedy motel. seedy romp caught on camera at this hotel. that was right around the same time they reported on hillary clinton's secret hitman. hillary hitman. they broke the news that hillary clinton was hooked on narcotics.

they broke the news of donald trump getting revenge on hillary and his evil puppets. it says muslim obama, weird kane, meaning tim kane. mob connections. shady deals. gay double life. boy, that really does sound like pulitzer material. that was right around the time they broke the 10 deadly secrets of hillary clinton every american must know. jail clinton now! donald trump says give them the pulitzer prize. of course they should. that is what a publication called the "national enquirer" gave donald trump during the 2016 election. today on his criminal trial in new york where he is accused of making business records to cover up a payment, prosecutors asked the judge if they could introduce evidence related to trump's arrangement with the

"national enquirer" during that campaign. an arrangement that didn't just produce the quality, pulitzer contender journalism i just showed you. they described the arrangement between trump and the "national enquirer" in 2016 as an unlawful conspiracy to influence a united states election. judge marshawn ruled today he will allow the introduction of that evidence, the scheme that donald trump cooked up with the "national enquirer" of all places. as a legal matter, how does that narrative help the prosecution win their case? why is that legally relevant? that's next. 's next.

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help fuel today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need... ...without the stuff you don't. so, here's to now. boost. joining us now is someone who was in the courthouse today, someone who did win a pulitzer prize for her coverage of donald trump's financial scandals. let's bring in diane craig. thank you so much for being here. i know it's been a really long day. >> well, thanks for having me. >> prosecutors today got permission from the judge to present evidence at this trial about donald trump's relationship with the "national enquirer" and how he worked with, basically, in coordination with the enquirer during the 2016 campaign to boost his campaign. what is your sense of why this is important to the prosecution's case and what is your sense of how important this

evidence is to potentially winning this case? >> i thought it was really significant. it is hard to say in this what is going to be the most significant thing because it is going to depend on the testimony. but i thought this was significant because we're not now just going to learn the role that ami had in a very narrow fact here, you know, the stormy daniels payment, the karen richardson payment and the offered payment to the doorman. we're going to learn that donald trump and david pecker went back years. and that during the 2000, and it could even be beyond the election in 2016, but that they had an agreement where david becker would do the catch and kill for stories with donald trump, stories that would never appear, the ones we heard a lot about, but also that he was involved in stories that

involved marco rubio, ben cruz, hillary clinton. i don't know where that list ends, but i think we will hear a lot more about this relationship. these guys have known each other for years. they both have very large estates down in palm beach and have gone back a long time in terms of training information that went right into the "national enquirer." donald trump would help them out on stories. they had a very mutually beneficial relationship for years, and i think the jury will hear a lot about that. >> why is that not a story of biassed press? and instead, it is a story that prosecutors say was effectively an illegal conspiracy, a criminal conspiracy to influence the election. how does money make it a different thing than just a story about a weird tabloid? >> right. because you hear a lot about the "national enquirer" buying stories, and we have known they do that.

maybe not in so much detail. but he paid a fine to the federal election commission because he paid the -- he paid the money to karen cdugal and it was about corporations interfering in an election. in this case, the lawyer for the d.a. said today, and a quote here i've got said there was a deal struck between ami and the defendant to put their thumbs on the scale to control the flow of information that would reach the electorate. and that's what we're going to hear, and that's why he was pushing for all of this to get in, to really set the table for exactly what donald trump and david were doing. it wasn't just these few payments. it was a larger scheme. >> suzanne craig, pulitzer prize investigative journalist at "the new york times," thank you so much for being here. i really appreciate it. all right. we'll be right back. ate it all right. we'll be right back. ctor. i'm just a regular person. some people say, "why should i take prevagen?

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