Welcome to the beat. I am Ari Melber and I'm happy to be back with you. Out for a couple days and did anything happen? Seems like a lot happened. So I want to catch up with you because we have a lot of developments out of these first two official days of the trial with the jury impaneled and

everyone hearing from both sides and that star witness David pecker. So what are we

learning out of this case? The court today was off, but we have so much that we're learning from, including the prosecution's opening statements.

I could show you some of that right here. Their first witness, as mentioned, was the tabloid star witness David pecker. Now by the end of

this hour I'm also going to get into Trump's defense arguments which are

important to understand and draw on what we've learned from his own lawyers what

they've said in court in public, and sometimes even on this program.

But right now, we look at what the DA's team is telling the jury that they will prove Trump

committed a type of election fraud.

And we'll start with what they said in court.

The DA thinks they can nail this defendant

because, quote, this case is about criminal conspiracy

and a cover-up.

Plain English and people know cover-ups can get you in trouble.

Quote, this was a planned coordinated long-running conspiracy to influence the 2016 election, the prosecutor said, to help Trump get elected.

It was election fraud, pure and simple.

You'll note that use of the word fraud that is something that

Donald Trump faces in civil court where he's been found liable for fraud on the

business records in this case but more importantly on the election fraud

claim where they are arguing that's what makes it a felony.

Prosecutor state Trump led this scheme to cook the books, to hide those secret payments to

Stormy Daniels, and that the hiding showed he knew that he was up to no good.

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