4 great misses in Donald Trump's hush money trial including judge bashing and unreliable witnesses
WASHINGTON, DC: Legal experts who have been following Donald Trump's hush money case say that during the 20-day trial, there have been moments of strength on the part of the prosecution, defense attorneys, and even the judge, but there have also been occasions when they have stumbled or been taken off guard.
An attorney's errors may have a greater impact on the outcome of a trial than their accomplishments. On May 28, the jury will hear final statements before deliberating to provide a decision about the guilt or innocence of the former president. Here are the 4 great misses in Trump's hush money trial.
1. Trump, the demanding defendant
Jim Walden, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice said, "Whatever else Donald Trump may be — a great businessman, a great reality TV show host, a great politician — he’s a dumb lawyer." Like many other New York attorneys, Walden felt that Trump seemed to have had an excessively significant part in the defense plan, frequently at the expense of his prospects of winning.
Several attorneys claimed that Trump's worst error was his repeated attacks on Justice Juan Merchan of the New York Supreme Court both outside of court and in the courtroom through his contemptuous body language. Walden said, "The thing that I think Trump just doesn’t get is, even if you don’t like the judge, the jury is going to like the judge. When you’re super disrespectful to someone the jury sees as a professional person doing their job, that’s a self-inflicted wound."
2. Poor witness preparation
The Manhattan district attorney had a torturous journey before accusing Trump of 34 charges of falsifying corporate documents. Many attorneys have questioned the viability of basing a historic indictment on actions that federal prosecutors had looked at many years prior and determined did not warrant filing charges against Trump.
Federal prosecutors declined to charge Trump for two main reasons, according to people familiar with the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations: first, the Justice Department's prosecution of a case with what they believed to be stronger facts against a different politician, former senator John Edwards (D), had failed. Second, the key witness, Michael Cohen, was simply too untrustworthy.
The district attorney's case is based on a convoluted premise that Trump fabricated documents about his payment to Cohen to conceal an election-related offense. The team's one new prosecutor, Matthew Colangelo, joined the case with little experience, and the stakes are high.
Legal experts believe that Cohen's confrontation with text messages on the stand, which cast doubt on his testimony two days prior regarding what he claimed to be a 2016 phone conversation with Trump regarding a plan to pay $130,000 in hush money to porn actress Stormy Daniels, was the worst moment for the prosecution.
The texts to Trump's bodyguard concerned phone harassment, which is a completely other topic. This raised doubts about whether Cohen had enough time to discuss the hush money scheme with Trump during the brief phone conversation that ensued.
Walden said, "The prosecution blew it by not preparing Cohen better for those text messages. That’s what witness preparation is all about, and it seemed to me that Cohen was really poorly prepared for that."
3. Instructing the defense
Trying to figure out whether words or questions from Trump's attorneys were directed at them by the former president has become a bit of a joke in New York legal circles, especially when it comes to Stormy Daniels' cross-questioning. Throughout the lengthy interrogation, Trump's attorneys attempted to paint her as a conceited individual seeking attention and financial gain from her fictitious past sexual relationship with Trump.
Many defense attorneys have contended that the strategy was erroneous and might backfire with the jury because Daniels was unaware of the main points of the case, which are several payments Cohen received in 2017 to make up for the hush money, which the prosecution claims amounted to criminally falsified business records.
However, Trump's attorneys persisted in attempting to prove in court that Daniels and the former president never had sex, reiterating the former president's long-standing assertion. Prosecutors claimed that by making that choice, it became possible to question Daniels about what transpired that evening and expose the jury to potentially harmful information, such as the possibility that the sexual relations weren't entirely consensual.
4. An embattled Juan Merchan
It was evident that Merchan was extremely displeased with Trump's legal team even before the trial started. During a hearing early in the trial over Trump's numerous violations of a gag order, Merchan made it clear how frustrated he was with Todd Blanche's argument. Merchan told him, "Mr Blanche, you’re losing all credibility." That was the judge's low point in the case, in Walden's opinion.
Walden said, "I understand he felt that way, I just think it was an unnecessary, emotional reaction in a situation that really required his best game."
In a few other significant instances, Merchan eschewed his understated strategy. Merchan gave Costello a tongue-lashing while he was on the witness stand and clearly irritated with the judge. Merchan became even furious when Costello gazed back.
Merchan ordered, "Are you staring me down right now. Clear the courtroom."
However, the press and the public were the only ones taken out of the courtroom. Trump's backers were permitted to remain and observe Merchan alert Costello to the possibility that he might be held in contempt.
