'Stumping the lawyers': Analyst explains how Michael Cohen outsmarted Trump's counsel

As ex-President Donald Trump's New York fraud trial continues, MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin shared her thoughts on how the MAGA 2024 hopeful is doing.

"In the court of law, I'm not sure that Trump is faring very well," Rubin told Deadline: White House host Nicolle Wallace.

"Yesterday's first 45 minutes of cross-examination was far more effective than the hours that Alina Habba and Cliff Robert, who represents the adult Trump sons, put in today. And that's for two reasons. One because Michael Cohen resisted their questions as much as he could within the bounds of what was respectful. When he didn't understand a question, he made that clear. If they were jumping around in time periods, he asked for clarification, and when the question begged for a 'yes' or 'no' answer and he couldn't give more nuance, he answered it honestly and truthfully, sometimes even stumping the lawyers. And I'll give you a good example. Cliff Robert wanted to talk with Michael Cohen about the space and time between his indictment on those charges that led to his plea in 2018, and his ultimate plea, and he kept talking about an arraignment.

"Well anybody who has Google knows Michael Cohen was never arraigned. He pled and had criminal information filed on the exact same day.

“Trump's lawyers were not well prepared for what happened today. They knew they wanted to paint Michael Cohen as a liar, and they succeeded in that to some extent, but in terms of dismantling the core of his testimony, which was about Trump's intent and participation, they didn't even do that very well.

“And Michael Cohen was able to square that circle. He basically said, 'Yes, Mr. Trump never directly instructed me to inflate the numbers, and so I was telling the truth when I testified in 2019 before the House oversight committee, but he spoke like a mob boss at all times to me and all the other executives who worked for him."

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"So while he never said directly, 'Michael, go inflate the numbers,' we all understood what he meant. So I thought Michael Cohen did a good job cleaning up that portion of his testimony later in the day, and as you noted, he maintained his cool throughout the day. And Trump, unfortunately, did not."