The three-day weekend shows the defense on cross-examination trying to get that one juror to cause a mistrial at the hush-money event. Today’s oral testimony extended into the street. Apparently, Trump never would have paid off the porn star to shut her up if Michael Cohen wasn't a worldwide criminal mastermind influencing Donny's every move.
The defense may have laid a glove on the prosecution's star witness Michael Cohen in the criminal hush money trial, but for George Conway there was no devastating blow that landed.
The conservative attorney tussled with former president Donald Trump's attorney Tim Parlatore on CNN's "The Lead."
Conway claimed a stiff jab from lead attorney Todd Blanche failed to inflict much damage on former fixer and attorney turned Trump antagonist Cohen.
"You know for all looking at the effectiveness of the direct examination from 2015 on past the election and all the corroborated documentation in the corroborating phone records just nitpicking at this one call," he said outside of 100 Centre Street criminal courthouse. "I just don't think it's going to be enough and I have a feeling that on redirect it's gonna get all cleaned up by the prosecution."
Blanche brought some fury when he interrogated Cohen on specific phone records and text messages related Cohen’s damning accusation that he personally chatted with his then boss, Trump, about the $130,000 hush money scheme to porn actor Stormy Daniels.
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For now, Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen — the most important and likely final witness for the prosecution — remains on the stand after three full days of testimony. After a scheduled day off on Friday, Cohen will return on Monday morning, when Trump’s defense team expects to complete a cross-examination that has been punishing, if uneven.
Once Cohen is done testifying, prosecutors appear poised to rest their case. And on Thursday afternoon, Trump’s lead lawyer Todd Blanche predicted the defense case, if they present one at all, would likely be quick. It could wrap by the end of Monday.
There’s one crucial variable, though: Will Trump himself take the stand? Blanche told the judge he would discuss it with Trump over the weekend before a final decision.
If Trump opts to testify, it would likely prolong the trial by several more days. Most legal experts, however, doubt he will take the stand because it would open him to a cross-examination that could prove legally ruinous and politically damaging.
It all means that 14 months after a New York grand jury indicted him for falsifying business records to conceal an affair with a porn star, Trump’s odyssey through the Manhattan criminal courts appears to be nearing a close. The outcome will be an inflection point both in American history — Trump is the first former president to face criminal charges — and in Trump’s bid to return to the White House.
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