Trump attorney was 'overselling his hand' in opening statements: expert
Donald Trump's attorney may have oversold his defense during opening statements to the jury, a legal expert argued.
Lawyer Todd Blanche told jurors that $420,000 in payments to Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen were not reimbursements for payments to adult movie actress Stormy Daniels, but were instead given to cover legal services.
Legal analyst Caroline Polisi told MSNBC that he might not be able to support that claim during the trial.
"Just based on what I'm hearing here, I am fearful that Todd Blanche may be sort of overselling his hand, going back to the psychology, and I think we've all made this point here that you want to create a rapport with the juror, and you want them to like you," Polisi said.
"The worst thing you can do is over-promise and under-deliver. It sounds like Blanche is over-promising here. There's a lot of reasons why him stating that Trump knew nothing about these payments or the purpose thereof is just flatly proven wrong by the documents."
There's also a recording of a phone call where Trump and Cohen are discussing the payments to Daniels to ensure her silence about an extramarital affair, prosecutors have said.
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"There's a phone call of Trump saying, 'Let's pay her in cash,' Cohen saying, 'No, we're going to do it my way," Polisi said.
"Also, the way retainer agreements work with an attorney is that, yes, there is sort of an evergreen standard payment, in this case it was $35,000 a month or whatever to get up to that amount, but then the lawyer bills you or invoices you for services rendered, and here there is nothing.
"Michael Cohen did not — we all sort of live and die by the billable hours. We have to say what we do, how we do it, when we do it. The invoices here simply show Michael Cohen saying, 'I'd like that check now for my retainer agreement.' He's not done any legal services.
"I think it's not doing him any service, the defense, by trying to really state too much. They don't have to really necessarily deny knowledge, and I think they're making a mistake by doing that."
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