Episode Transcript
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A&E's crime and investigation event, The Pursuit,
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returns with a new, unprecedented season of
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60 Days In. This
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time, we're going in. It's a united front.
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Would you? 60 Days In, new season
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of The Pursuit, a crime and investigation event, only
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on A&E. Hi,
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this is Libby Casey, host of the Trump Trials Sidebar. And each
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visit washingtonpost.com/subscribe. It
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only takes a minute. And as always, thank you
1:37
for being with us. One
1:40
of the stranger parts about Michael Cohen's
1:42
testimony is he uses the language of
1:44
therapy to describe crimes. And
1:47
I'll be honest, it's not a
1:49
good look for therapy. If that's what
1:51
you think therapy is, like he needs
1:53
to maybe get different therapy. We
1:55
will never give up. We will never concede. It
1:58
doesn't happen. I am sorry. Welcome
2:10
to Trump Trials Sidebar from the Washington
2:13
Post. I'm Libby Casey, and here's the
2:15
rest of our team today. We're on
2:17
the Colvin. James Holman. Devlin
2:19
Barrett. And joining us from New
2:21
York City is Shana Jacobs. Shana's our
2:23
New York-based reporter covering courts, law enforcement,
2:26
and criminal justice, and she has been
2:28
very busy day in, day out covering
2:30
the Trump trial. So the
2:32
jury's getting some time off right now, which
2:34
frankly feels a little weird to me. I
2:38
can only imagine how it feels to
2:40
them. But they left the court on
2:42
Tuesday, Devlin, and they're going back next
2:44
Tuesday, the day after Memorial Day. At
2:48
that point, they'll hear closing arguments, hear their
2:50
instructions, and they will begin to deliberate in
2:52
this historic case. Am I the only one
2:54
who finds this incredibly weird that they go
2:56
about their normal lives for the week and
2:58
then have to jump back into it? No,
3:01
it is very weird. I can't think of a break this
3:03
long in a trial I've covered. And
3:06
the judge did it this way because they were
3:08
already going to have Wednesday off. That's been a
3:10
standard thing for this trial. And
3:12
this particular week, they were going to have Friday off
3:14
the day before the holiday because
3:16
a juror had travel plans. So
3:20
the judge did not want to break up the
3:23
closing arguments and the deliberations with
3:25
days off. He thought it was
3:27
most important that the jury be able
3:29
to start deliberating right after they heard closing
3:31
arguments. So he basically picked the lesser of
3:33
two evils. It is strange. I
3:35
do think you run the risk of
3:37
the jurors going home and just
3:39
thinking to themselves on this issue for a long
3:42
period of time. Or the other risk is the
3:44
jurors just forget a lot of the things that
3:46
they have heard and thought about. Just
3:49
watching the jury, they seem very diligent. I would be
3:51
a little surprised if forgetting is much of an issue
3:53
for them. Some of them are very diligent note takers.
3:57
But it is weird. And certainly
3:59
it may. makes for a different kind of closing argument.
4:01
You know, I am almost feeling like
4:03
it's mile 25 of the marathon.
4:06
They're like, take a break. And
4:08
that can either have the effect of recharging you
4:10
and focusing you, or being like, peace out. Like,
4:12
I am done. I am checking out. And what
4:14
do you guys think? I
4:16
also think about what comes after all of
4:18
this. Whatever happens, whether it's a conviction, a
4:21
jury, or whatever, these jurors are still
4:23
attached to this case, right? They're going
4:25
to be hounded by media to see,
4:27
including us. We want to hear if they want to talk
4:30
to us. We want to hear what went
4:32
on, what their thought process was. But
4:35
this is now going to be a part of their life.
4:37
So I feel like even though they're at the end, it's
4:40
maybe the beginning for a lot of them. For
4:43
some of these jurors, it'll be the lead paragraph in
4:45
their obituary that they were a term juror. I
4:48
do think it's always
4:50
perilous to sort of put yourself in the
4:52
jurors' heads, because we have no idea what
4:54
they're thinking. And you
4:57
can game it out so many ways, but is
4:59
there a scenario where there is one juror who
5:01
sort of thinks Trump isn't guilty and is going
5:04
to harden in that view over their week off?
5:07
And really, the other thing is jurors aren't supposed
5:09
to talk to people outside of court, and they
5:11
make a huge, huge deal about that. But
5:15
it's going to be pretty clear. It's such a social
5:17
weekend. It's such a social weekend. And
5:19
so are jurors, as
5:21
inappropriate as that would be, going to be,
5:25
for lack of a better word, lobbied by people
5:27
who know that they're jurors, whether that's close friends
5:29
or family? Yeah, you all are thinking about it from
5:31
the perspective of the legalities of it and the strategy of
5:33
it. I was thinking about it from the perspective of just
5:35
a juror, of just feeling like, oh my gosh, I have
5:38
to put this on the shelf in my mind, but the experience
5:40
isn't over yet. I also think there's a world
5:43
in which it makes the closing arguments even more
5:45
important than they would otherwise be, because there's such
5:47
a long break. And part of what I think,
5:49
as human beings, they might go through when they
5:51
have the closing arguments now and
5:54
I was like, remind me about all this stuff. You're
5:56
hearing it in some ways more freshly. If
5:58
You have closing arguments right after your first. Thermal. For the
6:00
evidence. The. Jurors themselves know what
6:02
the evidence is. I think. There's.
6:05
A chance they might be more persuadable
6:07
by closing arguments because there's more time
6:09
removed from the actual at okay, So in
6:11
that case, that last mile of the marathon or the. They'll
6:13
be like wrapped ever made a gal sort out
6:15
talk about what to watch and as very vital
6:17
closing arguments. On today's episode and also with
6:20
the strongest and weakest parts of the
6:22
case as we've heard it are and
6:24
then we'll go through possible outcomes and
6:26
while I'm not an opinion while down
6:28
on know what you think is going
6:30
to happen, we are not wagering here
6:32
on a do any hear your sins
6:34
and interpretation of where things are headed.
6:36
So let's dive and. First.
6:38
The strongest and weakest parts of
6:40
the prosecution's case. Seen a Let's Go to
6:42
you. You've heard so much of it first hand. What
6:45
are the strength of the case? What stands out to
6:47
you? With. Panned out
6:49
to me is that. There
6:52
is a significant amount
6:54
of evidence that supports
6:56
Michael Cohen story. And
6:59
that is so key to the case
7:02
because of Michael Collins. Potential.
7:04
Credibility as you sit. History of Wine.
7:06
You reconcile a. Wide. Informal
7:09
setting by the Congress. It's just not
7:11
ideal for it's not out of the
7:13
norm mean you have cooperated witnesses who
7:15
are gang members and will kill people.
7:17
I mean it is. This is not
7:20
the norm for a white collar days
7:22
but it is. Ah. United.
7:24
Is Not. He
7:26
was going to be an issue going to the
7:28
trial and call. Who.
7:31
We know is very aware
7:33
you know hair trigger temper.
7:35
he. Was. Fine he was
7:37
naral he was is it was a
7:40
would. You know it was really good.
7:42
It. Was really gives us money in that sense. And
7:46
the song as part of the defense case is
7:48
that it doesn't matter that he was really good,
7:50
he is still a. Liar. He
7:52
lies to get any of you like
7:55
to get himself things like to get
7:57
thought you'd now very very motivated thirds
7:59
of honest. because of what he believes
8:01
Trump did to him. Strongest and weakest parts of
8:03
the case to you Devlin. We all went into
8:05
this case knowing that Michael Cohen was a very
8:07
important part of this case. I
8:10
ended the trial thinking, God, he's even more important
8:12
to this case than I thought when this thing
8:14
started. Because yes,
8:16
the paper is the paper and the paper is
8:18
irrefutable, but Cohen is the one, in some
8:21
ways the only one, who speaks
8:23
to the actual intent of the cover-up
8:26
of the payments. And that's really
8:28
important. I also
8:30
think the other really weak, potentially
8:33
weak part of the case is the
8:35
absence of Alan Weisselberg, Trump's former CFO.
8:38
He's the person who gives Michael Cohen
8:40
his instructions on this, even according to
8:42
Michael Cohen. I
8:45
just think his absence is
8:48
in some ways a real gift to Trump as a
8:50
defense. But
8:52
a lot of Trump's
8:54
defense strategy here is arguably
8:57
not ideal. Trump's trying to
8:59
win every argument on every subject. Most defense
9:01
lawyers would say that's a bad formula. Do
9:04
you think that's driven by Trump or by his lawyers? I
9:06
think most lawyers I talk to believe that's driven by Trump.
9:10
James? The receipts
9:12
of the key thing on the positive side, on
9:14
the negative side, it's
9:16
not just Weisselberg, it's also Keith
9:19
Schiller, the bodyguard who supposedly got
9:21
that phone call that became, I
9:23
think, way more important
9:26
than we had thought going in once Cohen said
9:28
that that was where Trump
9:30
gave his authorization. Ultimately, there's
9:32
only one witness who
9:34
directly connects Trump to making
9:37
these payments for election
9:41
interference reasons. And
9:43
I think the other big weakness in the
9:45
case is the hoops that you sort of have to
9:47
jump through, which is normally
9:50
this would be a misdemeanor, falsifying business records.
9:53
Normally, the statute of limitations would have expired.
9:55
They're making it a felony by
9:58
saying that it was in commission of another crime. They've
10:00
said what that crime is, which is essentially
10:02
election fraud, trying to
10:05
change the outcome of an election. You
10:08
do have to jump
10:10
through multiple hoops. If
10:12
you're trying to raise reasonable
10:15
doubt about why
10:17
Trump did it, even if
10:19
he made the payments, maybe they did that. I
10:25
think that you can see doubts
10:27
percolating potentially in the jurors' heads
10:30
over the five weeks of this. Before we
10:32
hear, Rhonda, what you see as the strengths
10:34
and weaknesses, let's drill down into that
10:37
phone call that you were talking about, James. Devlin
10:41
and Shaina, I don't know if
10:43
either of you were in court when the
10:45
big moment came where Blanche
10:47
was questioning Cohen about the details of this phone
10:49
call. Were either of you there? Shaina was in the
10:52
room. I was in the overflow. Okay. You
10:54
can take us through some of the details, but let
10:56
me just set this up first. There's
10:59
this pivotal phone call, which becomes
11:01
pivotal because Trump's lawyers
11:03
are saying this
11:06
was a phone call to Keith Schiller,
11:08
who's Trump's body guy, who's
11:10
with him a lot, with him all the time. Isn't
11:13
it true that you were discussing not a
11:16
payment that has gone through that's working out
11:18
or that you're working on with Stormy Daniels,
11:20
but that instead you were
11:23
talking to Schiller about these harassing phone calls
11:25
that Cohen was getting, right? He's getting a
11:27
ton of harassing phone calls. This is a
11:29
phone call about that specific issue. Have
11:32
I summed that up decently well, Devlin? Yeah, I think
11:34
that's right. I think what
11:36
was surprising and I think effective about
11:38
the defense presentation was they presented the
11:40
text leading up to the phone call.
11:44
The thing to always remember is that jurors are very
11:46
good about applying common sense to what they're hearing. When
11:49
you see the text and then realize that Keith Schiller
11:51
says, call me, and then there's a phone call and
11:53
it's not very long. They're texting about these harassing phone
11:56
calls. Right. They're texting about
11:58
the harassing phone calls and Cohen initiates the text.
12:00
the conversation shows as call Me. Normal
12:02
people would look at that and say. That's.
12:05
Believable. That's it. That's an entirely normal
12:07
human conversations. With a let's listen to some
12:09
of this exchange Now these are our colleagues
12:12
read the Washington Post were reading from the
12:14
transcripts since the cannot be with cameras in
12:16
the court or audio from the court we
12:18
had due to the transcripts of the end
12:20
of the day and this is Ah, reading
12:22
of the transcript. Now this is not a
12:24
dramatic reenactments, it is just giving us the
12:26
words so we can have a better sense
12:28
of it's the first voice that you'll hear,
12:30
His are the words of Trump's lawyer Ta
12:32
Blanche and the second voice or here is
12:34
Michael Collins words. Five. Minutes ago
12:36
I asked you if you remember harassing phone
12:39
calls and you said no And then I
12:41
refresh your recollection. It's totally sir
12:43
if you don't remember. But now your testimony
12:45
is that you were testifying truthfully on Tuesday
12:47
to a one minute and thirty six second
12:49
phone call and you had enough time in
12:51
that one minute and thirty six seconds to
12:53
update Mr Sure about all of the problems
12:55
you were having with those harassing phone calls
12:57
and also have that President Trump on the
12:59
status of the story. Then you'll situation because
13:01
you had to keep him informed because every
13:03
time you made any decision you read a
13:05
by the boss. that's your testimony. I.
13:08
Always ran everything by the boss
13:10
immediately. In. In this case, He.
13:12
Could have just been seen. Everything is been
13:14
taken care of. It's going to get result.
13:16
That's not what you testified to. On Tuesday
13:18
you said you had a recollection of a
13:20
phone call on October twenty fourth at eight
13:22
o two pm. we called Mr. Solar and
13:24
he gave the phone to President Trump and
13:26
you told President Trump about the updates the
13:28
you are moving forward with the funding and
13:30
he said okay go That was a why
13:32
you did not talk to President Trump on
13:34
that night. He talks to keep sure about
13:37
what we just went through. You can admit
13:39
it. No. Sir, I can't
13:41
I'm not certain that is accurate.
13:44
That's a reading of testimony by Michael
13:46
Cohen answering questions from Trump's Layer Top
13:48
Lance. Again, that's our team reading. It's
13:50
the words center. Was that a dramatic
13:52
moment in real life? It
13:55
was very dramatic and realized it one
13:57
from i don't know. Twenty Two
13:59
One. Great very quickly. In terms
14:01
of my thing is hop lenses intensity.
14:04
Or in cross. Examination. The.
14:07
Danger of that moment. I mean,
14:09
Michael Cohen stuff for it. He
14:11
just looks incredibly caught off guard.
14:13
like he had not been prepared
14:15
for that. It seem very much
14:17
like he had not been prepared
14:19
for this. The. Danger.
14:21
But But he recovered and he provided
14:23
a plausible answer. A minute and thirty
14:25
six seconds. I mean
14:27
taglines says a satellite a time but
14:30
even if it takes five seconds to
14:32
say just tell the boss as such
14:34
thing we were working on is taking
14:36
generals. That's. Plausible. I think
14:38
the jury might see that is perfectly
14:41
plausible. It took him off a while
14:43
to get today answer because it does
14:45
not seem like he had see. Me:
14:47
Sex in advance. That.
14:50
Said the jury might. Make
14:53
more of that moment. They might
14:56
say that if he didn't remember
14:58
something significant about back on his
15:00
own. Just he was
15:03
easy reconstructing. The entire story
15:05
From Texas To keep you
15:07
know, Workers. That
15:09
the the A is he reconstructing
15:11
the reality. I don't. I
15:13
don't know that they will make that much of it. But.
15:16
It does seem like a possibility that they will
15:18
use that to sort of. We. We.
15:20
Examined. Every other element
15:22
every them for an element of. Microphones,
15:26
Are drug test minds? So deadland incident
15:28
happened during the team's wouldn't make a mistake in
15:30
that Prepping Michael Cohen with those texts and will
15:32
soon as as of lately recovered mean ninety six
15:34
seconds. I mean I were the prosecution I think
15:36
I do. My closing arguments make everyone sit there
15:38
for ninety six seconds and think about how much
15:41
you can actually looks a long time Systems are
15:43
in terms of just like quick messaging back. of
15:45
where the phone call right i think i
15:47
think you'll be obvious i think one been
15:49
same and i are looking for very much
15:51
as how each side talks and closings about
15:53
that i do think make me juri sift
15:55
through ninety six seconds would be an effective
15:57
way to make the case i do think
16:00
the defense in that instance on that issue,
16:03
caught the prosecution out, caught Cohen out, however you want
16:05
to say it. And by caught
16:07
them out, it's not like caught them in a trap,
16:10
them in a lie or something. It's like they didn't,
16:12
they hadn't realized like there's this text chain leading up
16:14
to the phone call. Correct. And look,
16:16
like I think too often, probably
16:19
because of TV and movies, we think of lawyers
16:21
as like these super geniuses. Trials
16:23
are inherently bouncy and
16:25
a bit of a roller coaster and people
16:28
make mistakes. That is part of the process.
16:31
So I think, for all
16:33
intents and purposes, it feels like that's something that
16:35
prosecutors miss. That's something that Cohen wasn't prepared for.
16:39
And I think that showed in the moment. But
16:41
it seemed like they were able to do some cleanup. Sure,
16:44
yeah. And that's not just in the moment,
16:47
but later, because they were able to
16:49
show the jury that Schiller and Trump
16:51
were indeed together like five minutes before
16:53
through a photo, like from C-SPAN,
16:55
right? On that day they were together. Yeah,
16:58
but I mean, I'll be honest, this
17:00
is one of those details that I
17:02
think reporters perceive differently than jurors, because
17:04
anyone who's spent any time covering Trump
17:06
on any level knows that Schiller is
17:08
always with Trump. Like that's
17:10
not some great mystery. That's always been true.
17:13
Schiller, for instance, was with Trump the night
17:15
he was with Stormy Daniels many
17:17
years earlier. He's basically been with
17:19
Trump as far as you can tell from the
17:21
outside world every night of their lives when he
17:24
was in his employment. Again, a
17:26
lot- Was that clear on court, though, to
17:28
the jurors? Well, that's my point. I
17:32
think it's probably helpful to the prosecution. But
17:35
I also think, again, to take things as,
17:37
I always try to perceive things in the
17:39
most common sense way, because I think that's
17:41
what jurors are usually looking for. And I
17:44
think the most common sense way is Cohen
17:46
got caught, wasn't sure what
17:48
to do, and he looked on his face, and this is what matters,
17:51
I think, to jurors quite a bit. He looked on his face like, oh, I'm
17:53
going to get a picture. Oh,
17:55
bleep. What am
17:57
I going to say here? And Shane is absolutely right.
18:00
He did recover well, but you
18:02
can't take back that expression. You can't
18:04
take back that facial expression. And
18:07
if you're asking me what I think they most tarried
18:09
away from that moment, it's not anything Cohen said. And
18:12
it's really not anything Blanche yelled at him. It's
18:14
the look on his face when Blanche says that.
18:18
Rhonda, strengths and weaknesses in the case.
18:21
What do you see as the strength of the prosecution
18:23
and places where there might be holes and room for
18:25
the jury to find Trump not guilty? Yeah, I agree
18:27
with everything that's been said about Cohen. And
18:29
I believe Shana said it. He is both
18:31
the strength and the weakness in all of
18:33
this. His credibility is the weakness. His strength
18:35
is the evidence he was able to bring,
18:38
the tangible evidence he was able to bring. I
18:40
think one of the moments that I remember being
18:42
a standout in the transcript is
18:44
when the jury heard the tape
18:46
between Cohen and Trump, where it's
18:49
about the Karen McDougal payment, but
18:51
it does appear that Trump
18:53
understands what Cohen is saying when he's referring
18:55
to the financing of this payment. I think
18:57
that that's a crucial moment because A,
19:00
it does show that Trump has some sort
19:02
of awareness of what Cohen was doing, or
19:04
at least the jurors might perceive that. And
19:06
also B, because we did not hear from
19:09
Trump, at least formally in this entire trial,
19:12
the jury heard his voice.
19:14
And I wonder if that's going to
19:16
be pretty pivotal. That was the one time
19:18
they were able to hear Trump talk about
19:20
this case. And it
19:22
does appear to look incriminating if you
19:24
listen to it. We'll see if the
19:27
jurors feel that way. But I think,
19:29
Cohen, the strength he brought to the
19:31
prosecution is he did have receipts, literal
19:33
receipts, invoices, and tangible evidence that could
19:35
show what the prosecution is trying to
19:38
prove. Can we look at some of
19:40
those pieces of evidence and invoices? We are streaming
19:42
on YouTube. So for our YouTube audience, you can
19:44
watch along with us. For those who are listening
19:46
on podcast apps or on the Washington Post site,
19:49
we'll explain what we're seeing. But let's just look
19:51
at one of these pieces of evidence that was
19:53
important. Why don't we throw up one of them? So
19:57
this is a check that Donald Trump signed.
20:00
a lot of us know that Donald Trump signature. Why
20:02
do we know it so well? He used to
20:04
hold up, anytime he would sign
20:06
a bill or an executive order, he would hold
20:08
it up and do kind of a 180 to
20:10
show off his signature. And many Americans got checks
20:12
during his administration with that signature on
20:15
it, right? Which he sort of like breached
20:17
norms and put it on there anyway. Devlin,
20:20
why is that significant? So
20:22
that's significant because if I remember correctly,
20:24
that check has a notation on it
20:27
that says legal retainer. And that's sort
20:29
of the heart of the prosecution case
20:31
that these were reimbursements for
20:33
money to keep Stormy Daniels
20:35
quiet. There's no legal
20:37
retainer here. There's no retainer agreement here.
20:40
This is all fake billing, essentially. That's
20:42
the heart of the case. And let's look at another
20:44
piece of evidence that has really
20:46
seemed to hit home. All right. Handwriting, handwriting
20:49
is always important. There's the sort
20:51
of the Trump logo right at the top. Shana, can
20:53
you see this piece of evidence with us? I
20:56
can, yeah. Okay. So there was testimony
20:58
about just whose handwriting is on this
21:00
and what it contains. Talk to us
21:02
about it. The prosecution believes this is
21:04
absolutely key. This might be
21:06
their most important document in
21:08
the entire case. It corroborates
21:11
what Michael Cohen says. We talked
21:13
about this and
21:15
we got together and we jotted down
21:17
a plan. Obviously, this does not look
21:19
like a very formal legal plan, but
21:22
it is something. It is something that exists
21:24
and does not seem to be in dispute that
21:27
this is what it appears to be.
21:29
This is said to be Allen Weisselberg's handwriting.
21:32
We heard that in testimony. Now, even though
21:34
we didn't hear from Allen Weisselberg, we did
21:36
hear testimony from Trump's former comptroller about who's
21:39
handwriting this was in. And if we can just look at it
21:41
one more time, the numbers
21:43
are important, right, James and Rhonda?
21:45
Because we're talking about the payment that he
21:48
made to Stormy Daniels. And then
21:51
it's also inflated. Yeah. And
21:54
so the idea is that Michael Cohen is getting
21:56
reimbursed and then he's getting reimbursed because he's going
21:59
to have to. pay tax,
22:01
plussed up with the terminology
22:03
in court, where
22:05
because he's being
22:08
paid as if it's income for being a
22:10
lawyer as opposed to a reimbursement, like when
22:12
you get your expenses reimbursed, they
22:14
added in the tax premium. And
22:19
Donald Trump had said in the
22:21
past that he did reimburse Cohen.
22:25
And Todd Blanche said, I
22:28
think in opening arguments, that this was
22:30
not a payback. But
22:33
it sure looks like a payback when
22:35
you look at what's
22:37
written down on the piece of paper. Let's take a
22:39
look at one third and final piece of evidence for
22:41
today's show. And we also heard about this
22:43
from Trump's comptroller, Devlin. Right.
22:46
And I believe it's, if I remember correctly,
22:48
it's Allen Weisselberg's handwriting on the left side,
22:50
where they're first sketching out how you get
22:53
because one of the hard things to explain
22:55
about this case to the average person is
22:57
how you get from $130,000 hush money
23:00
payment to a $420,000 reimbursement. Sounds
23:05
like a good thing to me. Now, it's
23:08
the new math. But the point
23:10
is that essentially, in Michael
23:12
Cohen's telling, they threw in some other
23:14
things that Michael Cohen was owed
23:17
for. And so that's how and
23:19
because of the tax issue, they gross up and then
23:21
you get to the $420. So
23:23
for those of us who aren't watching, this
23:25
is an account statement from First Republic Bank.
23:27
It's a statement. But then there's the handwriting
23:30
scribbled on the sides. And it's
23:32
a color. Right. And I think
23:34
I think what's important about that obviously
23:36
is it's the it's the statement from
23:38
the original payment to Stormy Daniels. And
23:41
then you get all these other notations
23:43
getting you up to a different figure.
23:45
And obviously, that's meaningful evidence because it
23:48
draws a straight line. Why would you write
23:50
this on this particular document if this was
23:53
not the money for this repayment?
23:56
I want to look at one thing there. There's plus $50,000 paid to
23:58
Red. Finch for
24:00
tech services. Okay, why you're laughing
24:03
Devlin. This was one of this is one
24:05
of the other ways in which Cohen is both a
24:07
great and terrible witness. He never
24:10
he never helps he never does 100%
24:13
of anything like he never completely helps
24:15
he never completely hurts. So one
24:18
of the things that Michael Cohen was paid
24:20
back for according to his testimony was a
24:23
services provided by a company called
24:25
Redfinch. There was a
24:27
CNBC poll about important business leaders in history.
24:30
Donald Trump was low on the list. Donald
24:32
Trump wanted to be higher on the list
24:34
according to Michael Cohen. And so Michael Cohen
24:36
paid this tech services company to basically as
24:39
far as I can tell as a non-technical
24:41
person, spam the ever-loving heck
24:43
out of this poll to get move Donald
24:45
Trump higher up the list. Their
24:47
bill for that was somehow $50,000 because
24:49
Cohen had a personal relationship
24:54
with the person with the person who
24:56
ran Redfinch. Trump
24:58
wouldn't pay because the poll essentially got
25:00
shut down before he could you know
25:02
reap the reward. Like he was only
25:04
number nine. Right and there was this
25:06
whole weird discussion in testimony about like well we don't want him
25:08
to be number one because that would look weird we just wanted
25:10
to be hot like I so he reached the pinnacle
25:13
of number nine but then it didn't even matter anyway because they
25:15
shut the whole thing down. Right and Donald Trump doesn't
25:17
want to pay the 50 grand. He didn't get
25:19
his money. Michael Cohen feels like he's in a
25:21
bad spot he says because this is his friend
25:23
who did the work and so Michael Cohen in
25:25
very Michael Cohen fashion decides to
25:28
pay his friend 20 grand in cash in
25:30
a brown paper bag how any of that
25:32
ever look good never I have no idea
25:34
but anyway that's what he does also also
25:36
also also he
25:39
takes that money out in a series of withdrawals from
25:42
the bank which I
25:44
think Shane and I would both agree sounds an awful lot
25:46
like a kind of crime called smurfing
25:50
it's technically it's called structuring but most
25:52
lawyers use a shorthand called smurfing it
25:54
just I don't think the
25:56
jury will pick up any of this but it
25:58
just stinks it just like Even the
26:00
simplest things with Michael Cohen somehow end up
26:03
sounding weird. Okay Devlin, so he pays this
26:05
guy $20,000 But on
26:07
that sheet it says redfinch was paid $50,000
26:10
right and this is where he hurts himself again as a witness because
26:14
What what he admits to understand is that
26:16
while he did get paid $50,000 by Trump for
26:20
redfinch He basically pockets
26:22
the other 30 and
26:25
because it's doubled up grossed up for
26:27
tax purposes What Trump really gives Cohen
26:29
for redfinch is a hundred grand. So
26:33
It's a little hard to explain but essentially the way
26:35
to think of it is Michael Cohen's pockets 30 grand
26:38
and in the process He's basically
26:40
stealing 60 grand
26:42
or so from Trump organization because the
26:44
Trump organization is overpaying quite a lot
26:48
to manage both Cohen being
26:50
Cohen deciding and Sorry,
26:52
it's just it's a mind-blowing weird small
26:54
detail this case when he's asked about
26:57
that He admits that he
26:59
stole and he calls it self-help One
27:03
of the stranger parts about Michael Cohen's
27:06
testimony is he uses the language of
27:08
therapy to describe crimes and I'll
27:11
be honest It's not
27:13
a good look for therapy if that's what
27:15
you think therapy is like he needs to
27:17
maybe get different therapy Yeah, it's very strange
27:19
You know she did so the prosecution had brought this
27:22
up where they like tried to like deflate it right
27:24
make it like a non-issue But then Todd Blanche brings
27:26
it back later So I
27:28
want to play that reenactment I'm not gonna
27:30
call an reenactment the recreation of
27:33
that part of the testimony and then I want to get your
27:35
response She knows so the first voice you'll hear
27:37
are the words of Trump's lawyer Todd
27:39
Blanche the second voice You'll hear are
27:41
the words of Michael Cohen and they're
27:43
talking about these payments for legal
27:45
services and other things Let's pay.
27:48
Let's play the tape. You never gave the
27:50
$30,000 that was owed to the guy that
27:52
owned redfinch. Did you? No,
27:54
no, sir So you stole from
27:56
the Trump organization, right? Yes,
27:58
sir, and you didn't just steal the $30,000,
28:01
right? It was actually because it was grossed
28:03
up. It was $60,000. Yes,
28:06
sir. Meaning if you had been
28:08
honest with Mr. Weisselberg and said, I'm only owed
28:10
$20,000, and he grossed that up,
28:13
that would have been $40,000, not $100, correct?
28:15
Correct. And
28:17
you told multiple prosecutors in the district attorney's
28:20
office that story, right? Yes, sir. Did
28:22
you ever have to plead guilty to larceny? No,
28:25
sir. Have you paid back the Trump Organization
28:27
the money that you stole from them? No,
28:29
sir. And you're hearing a
28:31
reading of the words of Michael Cohen
28:33
and Todd Blanche. Shana, was
28:36
this a gotcha moment from Todd Blanche?
28:38
Because he really, he accuses Michael Cohen
28:40
of stealing this money. He says the
28:42
words out loud, basically. Instead of using
28:44
the words of therapy, he uses the
28:47
word of crime. Yeah.
28:49
It was the first time what
28:51
we saw in that chicken scratch paper was
28:54
actually framed as theft, you
28:57
know, brand larceny. But it
29:01
was just another egg in the
29:03
basket to, for
29:07
Todd Blanche to argue to the jury that this
29:09
guy is so dishonest, you can't believe a word
29:11
he says. He steals from his boss who he
29:13
claims he was loyal to, who he
29:16
once claimed he was able to bullet for. You
29:18
know, it's just not a good look. It
29:21
also sort of, the other aspect of
29:23
this, and
29:26
I'm not sure if the defense will argue this, is that
29:28
the fact that they gave him $40,000 with
29:31
the tax stuff, all that, I mean, it was
29:33
still, he still made out better than he
29:35
would have if he just got reimbursed $130,000.
29:37
It kind of
29:39
seems in some ways
29:41
like it's a Trump to Cohen
29:43
payoff. It's a Trump to Cohen
29:46
hush money payment, because their relationship
29:48
was ending, even though he came
29:50
on as a personal attorney during
29:52
in 2017 when Trump took office,
29:55
he wasn't doing any legal work for him. He did a couple
29:57
of minor things that I think he said he didn't even charge.
30:00
Trump for that. There was no retainer. There
30:02
was no actual personal-attorney
30:05
relationship. I mean, Cohen had moved on
30:07
to other things. So it
30:09
does kind of seem like Trump
30:11
and Weisselberg had constructed this
30:13
in a way that they were sort of paying
30:16
off Cohen to never talk about the things he
30:18
had done for Trump, including paying
30:20
off Stormy Daniels. That could be a
30:22
significant thing if they decide to print
30:24
it that way. So part of
30:26
this closing argument phase will be reminding the
30:28
jurors of testimony like that. So James, what
30:30
do you think the prosecution and defense need
30:32
to do to stitch things together in
30:35
the closing argument? The
30:39
prosecution needs to tell
30:41
the jurors, remind the jurors that Michael Cohen is
30:43
not on trial and
30:46
that he's a terrible, flawed
30:48
guy, but he did this
30:51
thing to help this guy that's on trial
30:53
commit a crime. And he also has
30:55
motivation to get the money back, right? They've not
30:58
painted him like Hope Hicks in particular
31:00
was used to paint Michael Cohen as
31:02
not a generous giving guy. Right. They've
31:04
shown that he does
31:06
favors for people when it benefits him ultimately.
31:09
Yeah. And he wants the money back. And
31:12
he had his own interests. It was about
31:14
Michael Cohen, not about Donald Trump. On
31:17
the defense side, you just have to create
31:19
reasonable doubt. You just have to, that's,
31:22
you don't need to convince 12 jurors. You
31:24
only need to convince one or two that
31:28
maybe this wasn't about the election. Maybe
31:30
this was about Malani. Maybe Allen Weisselberg was
31:32
freelancing and Trump was signing checks that were
31:34
being sent to him. He was busy. He
31:36
was president to
31:39
reimburse Cohen, but that
31:42
maybe this was something that was sort of happening
31:44
behind Trump's back that he was vaguely aware of
31:46
that he didn't really know was about
31:48
the election. And
31:51
that Cohen is lying about
31:53
this just as he's lied about everything else.
31:56
Devlin, what will you be watching for and listening for?
31:59
So. I think what I'm
32:01
going to be listening for is in some ways, I
32:03
think I understand what the prosecution argument is going to
32:05
be. That you have a paper case
32:07
here and Michael Cohen fills
32:09
in some critical blanks and
32:12
while you may find Michael Cohen to be
32:14
a jerk, he is a credible jerk on
32:16
this point. You don't need to like Michael
32:18
Cohen, you just need to believe his version
32:20
on like a few key points.
32:23
I think in some ways the defense, I'll
32:25
be much more curious to see what the
32:27
defense argument makes because in
32:31
a lot of trials, the defense struggles
32:33
to come up with an alternate explanation
32:35
for events. I
32:38
actually think the defense here for
32:40
all of Trump's odd
32:42
insistence on things that aren't relevant to
32:44
guilt or innocence. I think the
32:46
defense here has actually done a fairly good
32:48
job of coming
32:50
up with an alternate explanation for these events. Their
32:53
alternate explanation is Michael Cohen is a
32:55
lunatic and a liar and a thief. You
32:57
just can't put anyone away
32:59
on what he, on his word.
33:02
I think the strongest argument you can make as a defense
33:04
in this case would be whatever
33:07
you think of Donald Trump, you would
33:09
not want someone you care about to
33:11
be convicted on the word of someone like Michael
33:13
Cohen, period. The system
33:16
has to stand for that principle, otherwise the
33:18
system breaks down. I'll be
33:20
honest, I think there's a world in
33:22
which they don't make that argument because
33:24
that argument acknowledges that Trump may be
33:26
human or may be a
33:28
flawed person. One of
33:31
the ways in which this trial has been weird is
33:33
that Trump has clearly wanted to argue things like he
33:36
never slept with Stormy Daniels. He has
33:38
wanted to wage fights that aren't critical
33:40
to this case. I'll
33:42
be watching to see if he keeps using
33:45
the defense closing argument, the most
33:47
important thing they do in this entire trial
33:49
to try to score points that matter to
33:51
his ego because that would be very dangerous,
33:54
I think. Shana, what
33:56
are you going to be watching for and listening for because
33:58
you'll actually get to witness. the closing arguments.
34:00
Yeah, definitely said it really well. The
34:04
Senate has to do a
34:07
very good job of mainly
34:10
describing Michael Cohen
34:13
and making him look like
34:16
a completely unhinged lunatic who
34:19
can't be trusted and is always, always
34:21
hustling. He's a hustler who's always
34:23
taking advantage of whoever he has to
34:25
in order to make money primarily. The
34:28
other thing is I think they will
34:31
try to focus on the idea that
34:33
this isn't campaign-related. It's
34:35
personal. Trump would
34:38
have paid off Stormy
34:40
Daniels in a different situation in a year other than 2016
34:42
and other than now. But
34:46
I think they have to do a good
34:48
job of constructing a narrative that says this
34:51
was not anything to do with
34:53
the election. This was
34:55
someone not wanting their reputation
34:57
tarnished by
35:00
this woman. That
35:03
said, there's stories from so many
35:05
other women. It's
35:07
not something that was really—you got to have control of that
35:09
narrative against that
35:12
Trump engages in misconduct
35:14
with women. But
35:17
they still—I mean, the jury doesn't know any of that. So
35:20
the defense can paint a picture
35:22
of this is just something
35:24
any rich guy would do to protect himself and his
35:26
business and his family. All
35:29
right. Well, coming up next, the jury instructions and how
35:31
vital they are to this whole process. And
35:34
we'll get our panel to weigh in on what
35:36
could actually happen. Stay with us. Your
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Front. You know, we signed up for this. Would
36:15
you? 60 Days Inn, the
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premiere is Thursday, May 30th at 9. One of
36:20
the receipts of a crime investigation event only
36:22
on A&E. What is the most important
36:24
crime that you've ever seen? So
36:28
jury instructions may seem like housekeeping or
36:30
detail, but in this case especially, they are
36:32
very important. Devlin, why are they so important
36:34
this time around? And every time,
36:36
let's say. Right. They're always important. I
36:39
think they're particularly important in this case because
36:41
the legal architecture of these charges are so...
36:44
Let's call it unique. This
36:47
is like a Russian nesting doll of crime.
36:49
He's charged with a crime that is based
36:51
on a different crime, which itself is based
36:53
on a third crime. And that third thing
36:55
is probably a federal crime, although the prosecutors
36:57
have been given a lot of latitude to
36:59
argue to the jury that could be based
37:02
on a number of different crimes. I
37:04
don't know how the jury is going to process that. You know,
37:07
I obsess about the common sense of jurors. I
37:10
don't know what common sense creates
37:12
that Russian nesting doll. So
37:15
I just think it makes the charge that
37:17
much more important. And there are
37:19
multiple lawyers on the jury. There are two lawyers
37:21
on the jury, yes. And that
37:23
could be very important. I
37:26
think that's one of the great unknowns
37:28
of this process is how do those
37:30
lawyer jurors think about what they've seen
37:32
and heard. Shaina,
37:35
what did we learn in sort of the process of
37:37
hashing out what some of these jury instructions would be
37:39
like? So there
37:41
is this idea that the law says
37:44
that somebody can be guilty of falsifying
37:46
business records if they cause a false
37:48
entry. That is what the prosecution,
37:50
I think it's actually just
37:52
going to be part of the charge. It's sort of
37:54
something that's indisputable. What is disputable
37:57
is how... how
38:01
campaign finance law gets
38:03
explained to the jury. Again,
38:07
they're going to try to use
38:09
common sense, but it is going to be
38:11
about whether the
38:14
payments actually constitute it,
38:17
what constitutes a campaign
38:19
finance violation. And
38:22
there's arguments over that still, and we're
38:24
going to find out the final instructions,
38:26
maybe in the next few days. I
38:29
think the defense and the prosecution are
38:32
very far apart, the defense leaning toward the
38:34
idea that it has to be
38:36
entirely about the campaign. It has to be,
38:38
obviously, about the campaign in order for that
38:40
to be a campaign, an election
38:43
law violation, as opposed to the prosecution,
38:45
who firmly believes that it can be
38:47
just a partially about even protecting
38:51
a campaign or involving somebody. It
38:53
has to be partially about an
38:56
expense related to
38:58
the campaign. So that this, even if he
39:00
thought this was partly personal to protect Melania
39:02
and his family or whatever, that
39:05
doesn't matter because it also
39:07
benefited his campaign and they're going
39:09
to say that that's clearly the reality
39:11
here. And James, legal definitions are really
39:13
important. And in fact, Trump's team wanted
39:15
to have a witness testify, but he
39:17
was not allowed to because there was
39:19
concern that he would provide legal definitions
39:22
in a way that really the judge
39:24
wants to have control over. And ultimately
39:27
wasn't able to testify. The
39:29
judge also got angry at Robert Costello, who
39:31
was the defense's witness for doing
39:33
what the judge thought was basically offering analysis
39:36
of the law. There
39:39
were sort of two interesting moments
39:42
on Tuesday when they started talking about what's
39:44
called a charging conference, which is
39:46
basically how you put together these
39:49
jury instructions. And Judge
39:52
Mershon seemed poised
39:54
to rule against prosecutors on what
39:56
could be critical on this standard
39:58
that the
40:00
jury needs to find that the
40:03
falsified record entries were reasonably foreseeable,
40:06
that signing these checks and making
40:08
these payments to Michael Cohen, it
40:12
was reasonably foreseeable that this was going
40:14
to lead to falsified business records. And
40:17
the judge seemed skeptical of that.
40:19
On the flip side, Bershaun
40:22
also grew annoyed when the defense team tried to
40:25
get language in the instructions
40:27
basically saying that Trump made these decisions
40:29
based on the involvement of his lawyers.
40:32
And the judge's pushback on that repeatedly
40:34
over months and really
40:36
has rejected what would be
40:39
an advice of counsel defense. And that's where when you
40:41
look to what are they going to say
40:43
in the closing arguments that you could
40:45
imagine Todd Blanche saying, look, Michael
40:47
Cohen was Donald Trump's lawyer. And Michael
40:49
Cohen told him this was OK and that
40:52
this would pass legal muster. And Trump just
40:54
was following bad legal advice. And
40:56
the judge rejected that. I talked to a top Trump
40:58
ally this morning who was feeling
41:00
really good after the Cohen testimony wrapped up,
41:02
but was feeling a lot less good after
41:05
this charging conference. And
41:08
the feeling was that the judge was limiting
41:11
in unhelpful ways the
41:13
arguments that they could make and
41:15
to tee up these instructions where
41:17
they could kind of push the jury toward a
41:21
certainly a hung jury as much as not.
41:23
No one expects an acquittal. OK, James opened
41:25
the door. He cracked open the door to
41:27
just what could happen. I
41:30
want to hear from you in a minute, Rhonda. But James, since you opened
41:32
the door, what are the options of the table here?
41:34
That's where you're talking to all these people who are
41:36
following closely. Devlin and Shane
41:38
have obviously been in the room and absorbed every minute of
41:40
it. It
41:43
seems like there's an
41:45
acquittal, an outright acquittal seems super
41:48
unlikely. That would mean that all dozen
41:50
of the jurors have to agree that
41:53
Donald Trump did not commit a crime.
41:56
OK, let's pause there. Devlin, agree? So
41:58
this is going to sound a little snotty. I will say this.
42:01
I think people make a lot of... This
42:03
is the normal process. Humans want to guess
42:06
at outcomes. I think what happens
42:08
a lot with trials in my experience is that we
42:10
all make guesses. We are
42:12
all proven right or
42:14
wrong in the near future. But what also happens
42:16
is as soon as the verdict is in, everyone
42:19
immediately recalibrates. They were like, oh. Well,
42:21
it was always going to be... It
42:23
was always predestined that the outcome would
42:25
be X. I just
42:27
want to go on record because I'm pretty sure we're recording
42:30
this. I have no idea what the outcome will be. I've
42:33
been surprised by juries. I've been
42:35
not surprised by juries. I don't
42:37
know. All right. Let's take it back
42:39
to the options on the table, though. There's acquittal, which James
42:41
is guessing is like a hard no. What are the other options,
42:43
Rhonda? Yeah. And I just have to say, I agree
42:46
with Devlin. We don't know anything. The jurors are the
42:48
only ones who can give us an answer whenever they
42:50
have an answer. So, of course, there's
42:52
acquittal, which he'd be being clear. There
42:55
was a hung jury, which would, you know, just
42:57
one juror would disagree with the rest of them
42:59
and throw it into a situation where the judge
43:01
would likely call a mistrial. And then, of course,
43:03
you would have conviction. I think
43:06
one of the things you have to remember
43:08
in those listening and watching us is this
43:10
case includes 34 counts
43:13
that are very similar to each other. So,
43:15
if he is seen... If
43:17
he is convicted on one count, it is
43:19
likely that the other counts will follow suit.
43:23
Although we just don't know. We don't know.
43:25
But at the same time, this is not
43:27
like a case you might have watched on
43:29
TV where it's one count, you know, wire
43:31
fraud, one count, something else. This is all
43:33
very uniform. It'd be really hard to split
43:35
the baby on these. Right. Right. I
43:37
think that's true. Although, remember, there are batches of
43:39
documents. Like, these counts... Like, there's basically three batches.
43:42
And so I agree with you because they're all the
43:44
same count. It's all the same activity. You're far more
43:47
likely in a case like this to have all or
43:49
nothing. But I
43:51
do think the batches are the one caveat to that where
43:53
it's like, I mean, I guess in theory, the jury could
43:55
decide, well, we'll give them a little there and take a
43:57
little there. Jurors negotiate
43:59
sometimes. Cohen, there's checks. Right. There are different
44:01
batches of documents that are counts. And then there's
44:04
ledger entries, right? Yeah. OK.
44:06
And Shaina, let's bring this to
44:08
you for how
44:11
the jury may be mulling all this over
44:13
and thinking about this. And your
44:17
thoughts on what you'll be
44:19
watching for as the jury finally
44:21
decides. So
44:23
they're only human. Of course, they're thinking about
44:25
it. They're not supposed to be talking to
44:27
anyone about it, including their spouses, their partners,
44:29
their friends. So that's their
44:32
mandate. Hopefully, they're not doing that.
44:36
They will. It's going
44:38
to be very interesting to see
44:40
what notes they sent. If
44:44
they ask for testimony readbacks, it's going to
44:46
be interesting to see which witness they want,
44:48
what readback, which part of that witness's testimony,
44:50
if it's not the whole thing. I
44:53
mean, there is a possibility that we'll be
44:55
getting there for hours or a day or
44:57
a day and a half listening to a
44:59
court reporter reread what the jury already heard,
45:01
reread the transcript. But
45:05
if they ask for one thing or another, I mean,
45:07
there's a possibility that they just give them a laptop
45:09
with every piece of evidence on it.
45:12
It's just never kind of a
45:14
standard thing in New York State
45:16
courts. So they're going to be sending us
45:18
cues. Obviously, the cues are
45:20
not for us. They're for them to
45:22
get through their process. And we're all
45:24
going to sit around and guess what
45:26
it means. It may not
45:28
mean anything. Devlin's right. It's
45:31
very, very impossible to read what these people
45:33
are thinking. Also, we're
45:35
people who have been watching a lot
45:37
of trials. And we know the system.
45:39
And we have a different view of
45:42
it than they do. There are a
45:44
couple of lawyers on the panel. But they're also
45:46
just regular people who don't do this for a
45:48
living, who don't
45:50
witness this kind of thing on a regular basis. So
45:53
they may have a completely different perspective.
45:57
And all of the experts and all of us. who
46:00
have nothing else to do while we're waiting and
46:02
sit around and talk about it. I
46:04
mean, we may be entirely wrong about what
46:06
they're thinking and what direction they're at. Shannon,
46:08
if Trump is found guilty on just one
46:10
count, even if there's
46:12
some weird quirk where he's exonerated on all the others
46:15
or they can't come to a decision on the others,
46:17
he will be convicted of a
46:20
felony, the first former president to be convicted of
46:22
a felony. Do you have a sense that the
46:24
jury has that weight bearing on them? I
46:28
do think so. I think they're diligent people.
46:30
I think they're very smart. I think they've been, I
46:32
mean, we've watched them take notes, many
46:34
of them taking notes the entire time. They look,
46:36
there are times when they look around the courtroom
46:39
just to like take in the scene. They see
46:41
all of us. They know that they're a part of
46:43
history. You know, that might be
46:46
an impression to varying degrees.
46:48
You know, one juror might realize it more than
46:50
others. And
46:53
some of them have expressed being intimidated by that. I
46:55
think there was one juror early on who came in
46:59
after they were kicked and said, this is really, I
47:01
have concerns about what this is gonna
47:03
be. And you know, like they
47:05
get it. They're human, they're smart.
47:09
You know, Manhattan is a borough of a lot
47:11
of educated people. They understand what's
47:13
going on. They see the cameras, they
47:15
see, or they, I'm sure they know there are
47:18
cameras. They see them when they're leaving and
47:20
they see a sea of us in
47:22
the courtroom. They know what this is. I
47:25
don't, they have to put that
47:27
aside in order to reach a verdict or try
47:30
to reach a verdict. And that's a huge ask.
47:32
That is a really big responsibility
47:34
for 12 regular people who are
47:36
going to go back to various,
47:38
you know, routine jobs. So
47:42
I'm hearing James say he doubts an acquittal.
47:44
A clear acquittal happened. And I'm hearing the
47:46
rest of you say it's complicated and we'll wait to
47:48
see what the jurors decide. I
47:51
could see a guilty, I could see any outcome. I
47:54
would put it as a very low probability
47:57
of that. But
48:00
I'm watching Juror 2 who said that they get
48:02
their news from Truth Social. All right. Do
48:07
you want me to weigh in on that? Look,
48:12
every time I've ever interviewed a jury after
48:14
a verdict, I've always thought I sat
48:16
through the whole thing and I'm still not as smart as this
48:18
person. I
48:21
have possibly too much faith in jurors.
48:24
I hope very, very much
48:27
to learn what they think after. I hope they talk
48:29
in some fashion. I think they probably
48:31
will have to just for their own sense
48:35
of well-being. I
48:38
just think jurors are smart and I look forward to
48:40
learning what they decide. Devlin,
48:42
Shaina, James, Rhonda, thank you
48:44
so much. Really appreciate all
48:46
of this. Devlin, Shaina and
48:48
Rhonda will be in New York next week covering
48:51
the final twists and turns of this
48:53
historic trial. We'll
48:55
be here live when the verdict
48:57
is announced. You can catch us on
48:59
air. We'll be broadcasting on youtube.com/Washington
49:02
Post. We'll also be on
49:05
the Washington Post homepage. Our team of James, Rhonda
49:07
and others will be checking in with the reporters
49:10
who are in the court when
49:12
they're ready to come out and they finish
49:14
filing their stories. You can read all of
49:16
Devlin and Shaina's reporting as the days go
49:18
by here. Catch them at the Washington Post
49:20
website through our daily coverage and of course,
49:22
even subscribe to the Trump trials newsletter, which
49:24
lives far beyond this moment, Devlin. You and
49:27
our colleague, Carrie Stein are in it for the
49:29
long haul. We
49:31
will have a new episode of the Trump trials
49:33
sidebar when the verdict is announced as
49:36
well as next Thursday. Even
49:39
if the jury is still mulling it over and reinterpreting
49:41
evidence and reexamining it, we will be
49:43
here to update everyone with all the
49:45
latest. I'm Libby Casey and see you
49:47
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