Trump trial bombshell: First former U.S. president ever prosecuted faces hush money music next week

When the OJ Simpson trial began in 1995, it captivated a global audience in what was essentially the first reality TV show, pulling in all the themes celebrity, wealth, tabloid culture and how the rich and famous can often buy their own version of criminal justice. On Monday, the same issues will be in play in another trial, one that will also capture the attention of viewers around the globe. The first criminal trial of a former U.S. President, Donald Trump. This one centered on murder, but rather around the falsification of business records to cover up an alleged affair with an adult film star before the 2016 the 2016 election. Now, let’s just let that sink in for a moment. Not only is a former president facing a criminal trial for the first time in our nation’s history, but this historic criminal defendant could again become the president in a matter of months. NBC News has obtained a list of the potential witnesses who could be called to testify at the trial. For the prosecution. There are names that are expected, like Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, who took out a second mortgage to pay off Stormy Daniels, who engaged in the alleged affair with Trump and then was reimbursed by Trump with a check handed to him in the Oval Office. And there’s Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who also allegedly had an affair with Trump, both at a time when third wife Melania Trump had recently given birth to Trump’s fifth child. But also on the list are people who are or were part of Trump’s inner circle who could corroborate Cohen’s testimony, including Trump’s trusted aide Hope Hicks, Trump’s longtime assistant Ronna Graf, and former directory of Oval Office operations Madelaine Westerhau. And for the defense, we know of only two potential witnesses at the moment who could take the stand, a former FEC commissioner and Donald Trump himself. Joining me now is Catherine Christian, MSNBC legal analyst and former Manhattan District assistant District Attorney. I’m just going to make you the DI just keep on elevating you. I’m just making you, you’re my DA. Let’s talk about this, because it does feel like this trial will in some ways maybe be the trial of the 21st century. It’s the only one that’s going to probably go to trial for Trump before the election. How much of A spectacle do you think it will be? I think it’ll be a big spectacle. Just fact that it’s Donald Trump. Yeah. Now the first two weeks, 2 1/2 weeks are gonna be boring because it’s jury selection. So no witness is gonna be called. Well I’m saying it’s boring. But of course Donald Trump is gonna take every opportunity he can and every break and after the cases, right. To walk out and talk, walk out and talk. But it’s basically going to be like watching paint dry in that it’s jury selection. Yeah. Which is the. I think trial lawyers will tell you is the most important. It is the most important thing. You win a jury selection. Yeah. So it’s very important. But it’s not exciting. It’s not going to be Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen. Well, it’s not exciting to most. But I’m a nerd. It is exciting to me because I do believe wardier and jury selection is the most important thing part because the the for Trump, I anticipate he’s going to try to do things like half his Lord’s excuse, exclude anybody black, right. He’s going to try to get them to include people who love MAGA, people who watch The Apprentice. Like what are the kind of questions you think that his lawyers will try to ask to try to get him an ideal jury. Well he well they won’t because then remember the prosecutor and the defense can strike people and don’t have to give reason. They have 10 each. It’s called peremptory challenges. Right So and you can also challenge people for cause. So clearly someone who’s like I’m a Magda. You know you know it’s you can exclude them for you can exclude them in terms of them knocking people off because of their race. Typically you think the prosecutor is the only one that can be challenged with that. It’s called the Batson challenge. Yeah. There’s also in New York defense can also be challenged. You can as a defense attorney just like everybody black. No, no no everyone. All the Asians offer. All right. Blacks off. So I anticipate the prosecutors making that point to to the judge say your honor the every single black person why are they all off. Yeah. Who are normal. Let’s talk about some of these witnesses. So we’re talking about obviously Michael Cohen Stormy Daniels. We know that’s going to be big. And Karen McDougal we talked about them. David Pecker, I find interesting because he’s the American media CEO. So he was the one they arranged to buy the life rights from Karen McDougal to pay off and kill and they did it differently. They didn’t do catch and kill through him. In this case Michael Cohen did it himself. How could that be an interesting witness for the prosecution it’s he’s very relevant because he was part of the conversations about the whole. How do we suppress this negative info nation? So he was very part as part of the National Enquirer, yeah. So he’s going to be providing the background, right? Let’s play Karen McDougal real quick. This is her and her interview about why she sold her story. Why do you think it was that it was after?