The stage is set for a dramatic courtroom showdown on Monday as former attorney Michael Cohen takes the stand to testify against the man he once said he'd take a bullet for, his former boss, President Donald Trump. Cohen is expected to connect Trump to the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels to keep an allegedly damaging story quiet before the 2016 election. Cohen was warned by the judge on Friday to stop talking publicly about the trial after taunting Trump online. Meanwhile, Trump holding a rally on the Jersey Shore Saturday, where he attacked the trial, Biden, Manhattan district Attorney, Alvin Bragg, and Judge Juan Mershawne.

Carried out by radical Democrat district attorney. You know who he is? Fat Alvin. Corrupt guy. Then we have a highly conflicted judge. He's corrupted, highly conflicted, so conflicted. There's never been a judge that's more conflicted.

And joining us now is CNN National Security reporter, Zachary Cohen. Zach, what do you make of Trump attacking both Bragg and Judge Mirshawn? That is, by the way, allowed under this gag order, so it is within what's allowed. What do you also expect for tomorrow?

Yeah, that's exactly right, Jessica. In a lot of ways, this is more of the same of what we've heard from Trump, really over the last several months and even years as he's approached this re-election bid for President. He's attacked prosecutors and judges across all of his criminal cases, trying push this baseless claim that they're conspiring with the Biden administration to target him as some a politically motivated investigation, even though there's no evidence to support the fact that that is not true in this case or in his other cases. But still, look, those attacks have really focused on Manhattan DA and Alvin Bragg and the judge in this case, Judge Mershaw, since this trial started about three weeks ago. And look, as you mentioned, that's not prohibited under the gag order. Donald Trump is allowed to criticize both prosecutors and the judge. And because of that, it's really interesting who maybe Trump did not mention by name or attack during this rally, and that is Michael Cohen, his former fixer, his one-time attorney, who is slated to testify as the key witness in this New York hush money case starting tomorrow. Look, Michael Cohen and Donald Trump have a checkered history.

He started off as one of Trump's most loyal allies. They had a falling out in 2018. Since then, Michael Cohen has been very vocal in his criticism of Donald Trump and recently taunting Donald Trump on social media, even prompting the judge in the New York case to tell Michael Cohen he needs to stop talking before his testimony. So it is interesting that Donald Trump not attacking a potential witness, Michael Cohen, but continuing to go after prosecutors and the judge in this case, which he is allowed to do.

Certainly. Also joining us, criminal defense attorney David Oscar-Marcus. David, good to have you with us as well. Thank you. Prosecutors have waited to call Cohen until the very end of the trial, and so much of this puts him at the center. They've tried to lay a lot of groundwork so that even though he has a checkered past, he doesn't have to be the only one saying this information. They've tried to corroborate it with other witnesses. Can they achieve that goal? Can they bolster his credibility or does he have too much baggage, do you think?

Well, I think every single witness, even the strong prosecution witnesses, have one thing in common. They all hate Michael Cohen. Everybody consistently does not like the guy. And so the defense is obviously going to attack him. If I were the defense lawyer, I would try to let him hang himself. The first question I would ask him is, are you an honest person? Because how is he going to answer that? He's clearly not. And so I think unlike the Stormy Daniels, where it was full on attack and the jurors have to pick who are they siding with. Are they siding with the questioner or the witness? With Stormy, it seemed like they almost were siding with her throughout the cross. This one, the defense has to make sure that they side with the defense, with the questioner. I I think it's going to be much easier to do that with a guy like Michael Cohen.

And Zack, when Stormy Daniels was testifying, we saw examples of where Trump would really get frustrated to the point where the judge had to call his attorney over and tell him to stop with these little outbursts or saying things under his breath. We can hear them. Do you think he's going to have a hard time sitting quietly while Cohen is there on the stand? There's just a lot of tension between these two guys.

There really is. And Michael Cohen testified in Trump's civil New York fraud trial only for a short time. But the tension was very palpable in that testimony, and I'm sure we will see that tension play out in the courtroom on Monday when Michael Cohen is expected to take the stand. But look, Michael Cohen and prosecutors will argue that this is not about Michael Cohen, and in fact, that the jury should listen to what he says about these payments that he made and about the narrative that he creates around Donald Trump's alleged knowledge and involvement in the planning to pay Stormy Daniels and also the subsequent reimbursement of Cohen. That's What prosecutors will argue is the value, the takeaway of Michael Cohen's testimony. Despite his checkered history and his being a convicted liar. They will try to ask the jury to separate those two things. They try to lay the groundwork, as you mentioned, too, by introducing documents, including text and emails that they say, who will support what Michael Cohen testifies to when he takes the stand.

David, how do you think the jury so far is absorbing what's been presented to them? Do you think that the prosecutors have been able to successfully put together their case so far?

From what everybody says inside the courtroom, this jury has been poker faced. They have not given a lot of signs as to how they're reacting to the witnesses. And I will say about what Zack saying. So that's right. The prosecutors will try to separate out his checkered past. But that's going to be very difficult to do. Remember, they need this witness to tie up everything at the end to show that Trump knew that these entries were false. So they're going to need Michael Cohen, or else they wouldn't call him. This is a a very risky witness, but they need him to win the case. And so the defense is going to make it all about Michael Cohen. They're going to want the case to come down to Michael Cohen. And I'm surprised that the prosecution is ending with him, as opposed to trying to bury him in the middle of the case. To end with him is very, very risky play by the government.

That is an interesting point. I also, David, want to ask you about another Trump case while we have you, about the one down in Florida. You know the South Florida courts judges as well as anybody. And so I'm curious what you make Judge Canon delaying the classified documents case there indefinitely.

Yeah, it's going to be a while till this case is tried, certainly after the election now. I mean, Trump has all of these cases up in the air. So it's which one is going to get tried first? We have the New York one now. Will the DC one get tried before the election? I never thought the Canon trial was going to go before the election. Remember, it involves classified documents. It's complicated. It's in federal court as opposed to state courts, so the discovery is very limited. He's got these other trials going on. So I know Canon has been under a lot of other criticism, but the trial date itself, I just think the defense needs to have some time to get prepared. And as a defense lawyer, I'm sympathetic to that.

Zachary Cohen and David Oscar-Markus, I appreciate both of you.