finds it just becomes part of the official record for Donald Trump now in court today my colleague Morgan um maai was in court and she was uh sending information to us saying that inside the courthouse inside that courtroom there that Donald Trump was leaning in and he was listening intently to the judge he was also listening as prosecutor spoke and then Trump had the opportunity to speak as well and he said quote this has been a very terrible experience and a setback for the New York court system he says the payment that he made to
his former fixer Michael Cohen the $130,000 that Cohen had paid to Stormy Daniels and then Trump reimbursed him for Trump continues to say it was only a legal expense that he never did anything wrong he did not break the law he goes on to say what he has said many times in the past he called this a political Witch Hunt to try and keep him from running for the election again this time around he said they tried to prevent him from doing that they tried to prevent him from winning he said it was just a
political Witch Hunt and in the end it did not work because he won the election in November he said that the people of America understand what happened here and that quote I was treated very very unfairly now Donald Trump and his legal team they had their political strategy is they tried to stretch this out as long as possible they kept delaying this case and delaying this case and delaying this case in the hope that it would get delayed beyond the point from when he is going to be inaugurated on January 20th and then the case
would have basically gone away until uh his term was over four years from now uh that strategy in the end did not work because it got him to this day today and he ended up getting sentenced now was early on Wednesday morning that his legal team had appealed to the US Supreme Court to intervene on his behalf saying that he was protected by Presidential immunity and that any actions he took would be protected because that's what uh the US Supreme Court ruled back in July that presidents enjoy the benefit of uh presidential immunity however the
prosecutors in this case the Manhattan District Attorney's office they have maintained all along that he does not uh enjoy presidential immunity and the reason is most of the activity happened before he became president it happened during the campaign so at this stage I'm going to try and put my ifb back in here uh Bianca can you hear me now can you talk to me for a moment so I know that I can hear you y can totally hear you thanks for breaking that down for us okay good um and I have Morgan McKai here now
thanks Danny go ahead put that on just do it uh I I have my colleague Morgan maai here Morgan come on in now Morgan you were in the um and thanks for racing down so quickly I know it's been crazy inside so um you were inside the courtroom he was not here physically he was here virtually so you guys were watching him on a monitor but do me a favor talk to me about his demeanor because I know at one point you said he was really leaning in listening intently exactly now he walked inside um
or excuse me uh the judge walked inside um and when he sat down on the bench um that's when we saw um president elect Donald Trump uh sitting in a window screen um on on both monitors at the front of the courtroom and then in front of the benches of both lawyers now um the judge kicked off uh remarks uh you know welcoming everybody then prosecutors took their turn and um they outlined just the intensity of this case and they also said that you know they must be mindful that Trump is going to be sworn
in as president but they say that his actions dur before during and after the trial really uh eroded the trust in the justice system and they said that uh if there was any other defendant they might be asking for a little bit of a Hersh or sentence but they say because he is set to take office that they understand that the only sentencing that makes sense is unconditional discharge then uh the judge gave um Todd blanch Trump's lawyer a chance to speak and blanch really said that this case is very inappropriate he said it was
only brought forward once Trump made it clear that he was planning to run for president and he said the only sentence that would make sense is unconditional discharge although they disagree that any sentencing would be making sense and they also confirmed that they will be appealing this and then the judge gave Trump a chance to speak and he said that um he was uh Pro he was persecuted throughout this entire trial he called it a Witch Hunt he said um he referenced a gag order that he was under uh prohibiting him from being able to
talk about the case and was just very um upset about that as well and he said that um they are going to be appealing but um he was just very uh disappointed about how everything was handled by prosecutors and everyone involved now when Trump was talking did he appear angry um did he appear belligerent or was he more humble in his speaking well and so that was one of the things prosecutors brought up was that Trump hasn't shown they said any remorse for his actions uh now Trump you know he he wasn't as we've seen
him sometimes a little more animated a little more frustrated uh he was pretty even toned um you could tell he was obviously still frustrated to be there um he was leaning forward um and he was actually leaning forward throughout the entire thing when he was speaking he was also leaning forward and he was just uh very clear that um you know this was very unfair to him and he spoke about how uh he uh was only this case was only brought forward after many prosecutors turned down bringing forward this case and he said that the
only reason that district attorney Alvin brag brought this forward was because he made a campaign promise now the judge uh he he called it um the case the whole trial a paradox he said outside there were protesters and inside though when the door was closed Trump was just like any other criminal defendants that he has handled in the past and he said that um under the law he is required to sentence Trump and he said uh that in um one power that Trump's uh presidential office does not have is the ability to erase a jury's
verdict He also mentioned briefly and I heard you talking about it earlier is that president itial immunity ruling by the Supreme Court and that is uh something that they had to take into account and why they had to delay sentencing for so long but he said he looked at all of it and he said it didn't change the fact that a jury had found Trump guilty uh 34 counts of falsifying business records in an effort to uh influence the 2016 presidential election and try to cover up the payment so that it would not have any
type of negative effect on him while he was running for president the other thing too you know you're talking about the Manhattan da office you know Alvin brag prosecutors again and you just alluded to this is that um they made the point of saying that the jury was quote unanimous and decisive and that must be respected that you can't go ahead and just throw out the entire case um and that the president does not enjoy presidential immunity in this case because the actions that he took that he was convicted of happened before he was inaugurated
uh in uh in 2016 exactly and um but Trump's uh lawyers have have been arguing that uh some of the witness testimony that was used during the trial some of the evidence that was used during the trial was during the during the time that Trump was in office so they said that should mean that the entire case would be thrown out but uh prosecutors argued that um there was a lot more to the case than just uh the couple of tidbits of information um there were some emails there was also um some people that were
with Trump in office uh were testifying as well and so they said that all of that together that didn't account for the entire uh entirety of their Cas that they brought for it and which Trump was ultimately convicted for right and in court today and you heard this firstand again because Morgan was inside the courtroom watching all of this happen and again the president um appearing virtually he was not physically here um but that the prosecutor also Point uh brought up the point that uh uh president-elect Trump has threatened to punish anybody involved in this
case talk to me about that so he did he said uh the prosecutor said that um Trump has threatened to punish anyone involved uh he said that um you know Trump has threatened to uh dismantle certain parts of the justice system he said that um Trump uh really eroded the trust of the American people in the justice system and was continuously attacking those involved um you know Trump didn't really go into detail in response when he was speaking about that point um as we've seen on social media he has um made several attempts uh to
uh threaten at times um even the judge is a law clerk uh and uh that's another thing that prosecutors brought up was that Trump was found in violation at least 10 times of certain things like his gag order for example um and you know before that which led to the gag order was because of some of these comments that he was making so and what was Trump's demeanor when the prosecutor was talking about that about him threatening people anybody that's involved with the case and also the court clerk and he's also made many negative comments
about Judge Juan Maran himself exactly um you know he was again just uh when it started he leaned forward and he just stared very intently at his screen and was just leaning forward uh and you could tell I his face was just more you know looking down at the screen than anything else um but he wasn't super um agitated he wasn't leaning back you know during the trial he would Lean Back quite a bit he would cross his arms and he would like Huff or at certain points uh but this time around you know he
was actually um very demure he was very uh just really focused on what was happening but not really reacting okay Bianca I understand that you have a question what is it and I can relay it to uh Morgan yeah I think the question actually maybe more so for you Linda cuz just wrapping this up we know that he's got no penalty for this hush money case however he still will be the first president that will become a in the white house so what implication does that have if any considering the way this previous election just
went okay well it's it appears at this point it's not going to have any implication at all he won the election the American people knew what he was charged with they knew that he was convicted in this case 34th uh felony counts last May and apparently they didn't care because they reelected him and he is going to be inaugurated on January 20th and again his legal team tried to stretch this out beyond that inauguration on January 20th but their legal strategy in this case didn't work appreciate that Linda again just to wrap this up as
we have to leave right now no probation no jail time and no fires according to Linda as she said there as hum Trump was not given any penalty for his hush money case but again still the first president as a felon entering the white house we're going to
