'Full 9-alarm fire': Honig reacts to transcript from Trump hush money trial

News.

Now we have the full transcript.

Transcript from the trial today.

And even though

virtually nothing happens in court

without a team of reporters

posting it online

almost in real time,

even the fastest reporter

can capture the scope and the sweep

in the full context

of the complete record does.

Senior

John Berman has been going through it,

including more of David Pecker

testimony in the caption

Kill Scheme in the heart of the case.

Some of it deals with former

Playboy model Karen McDougal.

The story of her alleged

relationship with Trump was caught

and killed by David Pecker.

Before we bring

you details of the transcript,

I just want to play for you

what Karen McDougal told me

in her only television interview

about why she decided to tell her story.

I feel like the contract is illegal.

I feel like I wasn't presented correctly.

I was lied to.

And everybody involved in this deal,

I want the rights back

and I want to share my truth

because everyone else

is talking about my truth, which there

I need to share my story.

Do you have any regrets

about the relationship

that you say you had with him back then?

Yeah.

The only regret I have

about the relationship

that I had with Donald

was the fact that he was married

and John Berman joined me.

John, you've been digging

deeper in the transcript.

What what stands out?

First of all,

this is the transcript of just today.

So you can see how much paper

comes out here

and the part

where they talk about Karen

McDougal was at the very end of today's

hearing, the prosecution

save the Karen McDougal part in in here.

David Pecker recounts

being pulled out of a meeting

from a phone call by Donald Trump to

ask about the various

whispers have been going on

about Karen McDougal.

We don't have graphics in this,

but let me read this to you.

Pecker says in the testimony

he mentioned to me, he said,

I spoke to Michael Michael Cohen.

He said he told me about that time.

He told me about that.

He said he told me about Karen.

He said to me, what do you think this is,

Pecker saying that Trump asked him,

What do you think about Karen McDougal?

Pecker goes on to say,

I believe you should buy it.

I believe you.

Trump should buy the Karen

McDougal story.

Trump said to me, Look,

everything he says, I don't buy stories.

And he said that any time you do

anything like this,

it always gets out, Pecker says.

I still

believe we should take the story off

the market.

Trump says,

Let me think about it,

and I'll have

Michael Cohen call you in a few days.

And this we do have a graphic of later

in the testimony Pecker talks

about how he was

speaking to Michael Cohen.

This is Josh Stein Glass, the prosecutor.

How would you describe

Michael Cohen's tone during those calls

about Karen McDougal?

Pecker says Michael was very agitated.

It looked like

he was getting a lot of pressure

to get the answer, like right away.

Stan Glass asks, What makes you say that?

Pecker says he kept on calling in.

Each time he called,

he seemed more anxious.

Sunglasses. Did you understand?

Did you understand?

As to wear that pressure to find out

more was coming from, Pecker says.

Well, you know,

I assumed he had a conversation with Mr.

Trump, and Mr.

Trump was asking Michael Cohen,

Did we hear anything yet?

You would have objection.

You can't assume so.

As you hear the word assume

objection, Well,

he was jumping up

before I was a witness testify.

I assume this or I assume that that's not

those aren't facts or objection. Right.

I apologize for just

that's my instinct on what I do.

Find the transcript fascinating.

I'm dying to read it.

And actually,

a friend of mine, Jim Walden,

who was a brilliant attorney, he's

the one who filed the motion

asking for the daily transcript

to be released.

The people who aren't too happy about it,

the court reporters who get paid

daily copy to do this.

But you know, again,

these aren't crimes

like nothing that you just spoke about

is a crime.

Michael Cohen, being anxious

is not a crime.

It just means it's something

that they're interested in.

And that'll be when, you know,

you talk about the relationship

changing in 2015.

We now know that

when you declare yourself

for public office,

whether it's city council person

or prison United States,

they come out

they're coming to get you,

which is now why

we don't get good people

running for office anymore

because they go back to high school

and see what you did back then.

So I'm not surprised

that once Trump goes

from being a TV star

and a real estate magnate

to being president, United States,

all these people come out

and yeah, it's

a mutually beneficial society

and they're there to help each other.

To me, the the anxiety of Michael Cohen

was spoke to the pressure

from Trump assumed from Trump.

So I mean, that's

the only reason that that matters.

But the other thing I would just note,

I mean, the Karen

McDougal story is not over.

This is just the beginning

of what we will learn about

this Karen McDougal story.

And when you look

at the charging documents here for Trump,

there are some hints

about where this goes next.

David Pecker ends up paying her,

but at some point

he decides to not get reimbursed

from Trump world.

And I'm curious as to why that happened.

So this is the opening salvo,

but there's more to come.

So again,

you're not going to find the crime A to Z

found in any one paragraph of testimony.

Prosecutors have to build a case here.

And I think two things jump out at me

from that transcript.

One this is a full nine alarm

fire in Trump world

and in the National Enquirer

in Pekar's environment.

They are

I mean, they're pulling each other

out of meetings.

Borderline panicking.

The other thing is it

establishes a really important chain

of communication

because this is one

of the rare instances.

There's a few

where David Pecker has direct contact

with Donald Trump.

Most of it's with Michael Cohen.

And the weakness

that Arthur just pointed out is, well,

how do you know that Michael Cohen

was truly acting

on Donald Trump's behalf?

You can't assume you're right

and you're

maybe Michael

Cohen was just a free agent.

I mean, Michael

Cohen is not super reliable,

but the chain here is David Pecker

makes contact with Donald Trump,

who essentially hands him off

to Michael Cohen says

Cohen's going to handle

is you to go and do your thing.

I'll have Michael Cohen call you

back in a few days.

One of the things, though,

that David Pecker said today

and correct me

if I'm wrong on the stand, was that

according to him,

Trump was very detail oriented

and actually paid attention

to a lot of the mundane details

of this transaction.

He's not saying that

he was aware

that the line item was a legal fee, but

he's indicating

Trump was very much involved in this.

And what you just read,

John, also backs that up.

Then,

according to Cohen and Bill

Cohen will probably testify,

is that Donald

Trump is breathing down his neck

very closely

following the Karen McDougal.

He talked about how he would sit

with Trump in Trump Tower

on the 26th floor

and Trump's

assistant at the time

would come in and bring him

invoices and checks,

which I thought was

a really notable moment

I have that I could read

and Donald Trump would sign it.

I can read that.

This is from page 1002 of the transcript

signing checks. Stein Glass.

Joshua Stein Glass.

The prosecutor asks,

Did you have occasion over the years

to observe Mr.

Trump's business practices?

Pecker responds Yes.

Josh Stein Glass asks, In what context?

Pecker responds, I was

I had a meeting with Mr.

Trump in his office,

and when I was there,

his assistant, Rona,

brought in a batch of invoices

and checks to sign.

And I observed Mr.

Trump and I notice that he reviewed

the invoice and looked at the check,

and then he would

he was signing them

that tells you a couple of things.

First of all, it's very important that

the prosecution

establish that Donald Trump

signed, knew

what knew

what the corporate records were.

That's what this whole case is about.

The other thing that tells you

is that

David Pecker is not on Team Trump.

He didn't have to give

that kind of testimony.

That was

he was burying Donald Trump with that,

you know, when I interviewed Jeffrey.

Well,

I agree with you, but I'll tell you why.

I'll tell you one good reason,

because jaws in 2000

shark moves on the

Remora fish is all alone.

Well, okay.

I agree with.

But you could also be anything

you could have figured out

a way to charge him

But but wait a

you know,

did David pick horse before the cart?

I mean, this is witness number one.

He has even been cross-examined, yet

there is still a lot of road

love to go here.

And I think what they're

establishing, though,

is that Trump paid

very close attention to all.

We all know his finances.

He doesn't part easily with his money.

I was looking Karen

McDougal wrote a lot down

about her

relationship with Trump

when they were having

this alleged affair, which Trump denies.

But she wrote down

that Trump was so careful with his money,

he was so worried about

creating a paper trail

of their relationship

that she would book her travel

when they would meet

places and Trump would reimburse.

I mean, let's just

step back for a second.

If a guy, a married guy

is having an affair and and having sex

allegedly with a porn star

and it's starting to unravel,

he's going to pay very close attention,

I would imagine,

to every detail

of how this is being hushed up.

I mean, is this not just

this is not something you would do?

I don't care

if he's the top

executive of whatever you would think.

This is actually something

I would actually want to

know all the details.

And that's I guess this

he wanted to know.

He wanted he he says at one point

to Michael Cohen,

this has to be paid in cash, doesn't he?

I mean, at one point he's

talking about this

needing to be done in cash.

That's not a tape

that Michael Cohen

that we're going to hear

soon in this trial,

Michael Cohen

secretly recorded Donald Trump

a shady move. By the way.

I asked

I four

defense lawyers

in the green room with me today.

I said,

have you ever

even thought about

this is absolutely something

that threatens your marriage?

Are you going to leave it up to

Michael Cohen?

Well,

the guy can go every detail

without checking, like being an overlord.

That's what a commonsense,

rational person would do.

But the tape

that we're talking about here

that Michael Cohen makes up,

Donald Trump

actually suggests Donald Trump is like

just get it done.

He's not in the weeds

In fact, at one point,

Michael Cohen says, no, no, no, no, no,

I got it.

Alan and I are going to handle you.

Don't worry about it.

We're going to pay him.

You don't worry about the how and the

how is the crime.

So when that tape comes up, that's going

be a problem. For the prosecution.

I also think that,

you know, part of the thing

about Trump

paying attention to details is more to

what Caitlin was saying,

which is the amount of money,

even for a very rich person

like Donald Trump,

he didn't really want to part ways

with $150,000

for Karen McDougal, 130 for Stormy.

He did not want to part ways

with that money.

He has

to pay his attorney

he tried to get out of it

once the election was over.

So it's really about

the dollars here

that was concerning to him.