meanwhile just across the street in lower Manhattan another court case has been overshadowing the senior senator as a jury deliberates in the first ever trial against a former US president deciding whether Donald Trump is guilty of 34 felony charges for allegedly falsifying business records to hide that he reimbursed his one-time fixer Michael Cohen for paying off adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 elections who prosecutors say took the money in exchange for staying quiet about an affair Daniel said she had with Trump deliberations come after Marathon closing arguments and weeks of explosive testimony describing tabloid deals and claims of conspiracy for more on what this historic decision could mean I'm joined by former Federal prosecutor Chris Gramiccioni Gramiccioni, Chris good to see you typically we're talking all things Menendez not the case today this trial has been really prosecution driven did the defense do enough to make their case in what was 10 hours of closing arguments that's the $20 million question and anybody who tells you that they can predict what the jury is going to do I'm sure they got a bridge to sell you in Arizona so um it's just impossible to kind of predict what a randomly selected jury from a cross-section of New York citizens will do and there's also a lot that we're not privy to I mean and we're just following along in the media as as we can but they are privy to the evidence that was submitted they are privy to the jury instructions so it is impossible to tell but as like I always say if you're a defense attorney it only takes one to hang a case so we'll see yeah and of course the judge specifically instructed these jurors not to base their decision off of Michael Cohen's testimony um alone a a big moment there what happens though if there is a guilty verdict is jail time a possib ility for a former American president so again not to be the one without answers jail time is a possibility for anyone convicted under the the felony version of that statute uh the question whether any defendant much less a former sitting president and a current Republican candidate for president is going to get it is entirely another thing um we're talking about like uncharted waters here it's a complete unknown um but thankfully we still have to see if the verdict will return um you know favorably for the state or otherwise uh so Chris uh is there grounds for appeal from Mr Trump's team based on everything that's been presented I I think so and I I think been following along think so as well every time you hear the defense attorney make an objection what they're doing is they're making a record of trial so if there is a conviction goes up on appeal you have to preserve issues for appeal if you if you don't object to them the only way you can have them looked at an appell at court is if what's called plain error exists but if you Lodge an objection you're basically signaling to the appell at court this is a legal problem and we're reserving any and all rights we might have on appeal with it so throughout the trial you've seen them do that it's it's a bit of a strategy to decide how much or how little to object because it tends to drag out the proceeding and and annoy the jury a little bit but you do have to make a record as an attorney um so they've they've tried to walk that line this of course is one of four cases against Mr Trump is there anything that we should draw from this uh as we look to the Future uh and Beyond the election for what we might expect in the other cases well I it's really difficult to compare it to the others because um the one down in Atlanta is obviously a different state jurisdiction and then the other two are federal cases um I I I think a lot of us that were following these cases against the former president thought that this would be the last case to go forward in New York but because of uh other you know issues and those three other trials this this is the one that's presented that's been presented first um so I I tell you it's it's difficult would if if there is a conviction um he would still have to ultimately face trial in those other trials um but if if he's elected president you know all bets are off you have no idea how that's going to how that's going to go forward so a little bit of unbroken ground here uh no doubt about that U Monumental decision uh awaits Chris Gramiccioni, joining us thank you so much for your time sure [Music]