Donald Trump’s lawyers are not in an enviable position. But they’ve got the prosecution right where they want them.
And a top Trump lawyer just put a federal prosecutor on blast for this mind-numbingly dumb take.
All the attention in the Trump “hush money” trial is being given to the one and only Michael Cohen, who testified on Monday and then later underwent cross-examination on Thursday. Let’s just say it didn’t exactly go well for him.
Even the Big Media outlets like CNN were forced to acknowledge that, if Cohen is the best they’ve got, the prosecution is not going to be able to convince very many people that Trump is guilty of anything at all. Definitely not jurors for a unanimous decision.
Though, the Left is still trying to act like Cohen’s testimony was damaging for Donald Trump. They’re arguing that, even though Cohen is a known liar, he’s a reliable witness in the case. At least, that’s what one former federal prosecutor tried to claim on CNN recently.
Former lawyer for Donald Trump, Bill Brennan, and former federal prosecutor, Shan Wu, took to CNN to debate whether Cohen is a reliable witness and whether the jurors will or even should consider Cohen’s testimony to be a significant factor for their decision-making when it’s all said and done.
Former prosecutor Shan Wu says that the jury might believe that Cohen is “trying to be accurate” simply because at one point Mr. Cohen leaned back into his chair and said “I’m not really sure.” According to Wu, that’s enough evidence that Cohen isn’t a pathological liar.
“From a jury standpoint, one thing to remember too, the extent you see Cohen leaning back in the chair or thinking to himself, you know, ‘I’m not really sure.’ That’s actually not the hallmark of a pathological liar, a pathological liar doesn’t reconsider the accuracy,” the former prosecutor argued.
“They just like totally lean into it. That may actually have the opposite effect on the jury. They may think he‘s actually thinking carefully. He is trying to be accurate,” he went on to add in his comments.
Former Trump attorney Bill Brennan thought this was laughable. He argued that it would be simply insane for the jury to just “wipe away” the years of lies that are on record that Cohen has been spewing. He really is a pathological liar in the eyes of many.
“The jury might take years and years and years of documented lies. He lies, he lies about the lies he told he lies some more, and because he leans back in his chair and Blanche yells at him, they may say, oh, we’re going to wipe that away?” Mr. Brennan asked of the former prosecutor. “I don‘t think so,” he added.
Wu then tried to claim that Cohen is not the “worst witness” and that it would be “silly” to make that claim. Brennan quickly responded saying that Cohen is definitely the “worst liar” he’s ever seen. So clearly if he’s not the “worst witness ever”, he’s certainly about as bad as it gets.
“Let’s use that. Sammy Gravano … k*lled 19 people but he wasn’t a liar. This guy is a lying liar who just lies about everything he says. And credibility is the currency of a jury trial, and people don’t like to be conned,” Brennan noted, referencing another case.
“He could lean back in his chair, he can sit straight in his chair. Blanche can whisper, Blanche can yell, but those lies can’t be denied,” Mr. Brennan concluded.
Brennan hit the nail on the head here. The fact remains that Cohen is a self-admitted liar who has to be considered as a witness within this context. Just one gesture of sitting back and saying “I’m not really sure” doesn’t just make all of that history of lying go away in an instant.
Any juror should be ashamed of themselves if they consider anyone just sitting back in their chair to ponder for one moment to be an indication that any witness is being forthcoming and not deceitful at heart. That’s asinine.
Again, what this comes down to is that the Trump prosecution does not have the case that they were boasting they had. Before the case, they were claiming they had Donald Trump effectively dead to rights. But as the case unfolds, we’re all learning that they had nothing to begin with. Well, at least some of us knew that already.
You can watch the clip from CNN using the Rumble embedded video below:
Stay tuned to the DC Daily Journal.
