Trump's bid to keep key witness from testifying is a 'dead loser': ex-prosecutor
In a "Hail Mary," Donald Trump's lawyers attempted to have his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, and adult film star Stormy Daniels, barred as being witnesses in the hush money trial over election interference.
The effort, according to former top prosecutor for Robert Mueller's team, "smacked of desperation."
The hush money case heads to trial at the end of March, and legal analysts told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace Trump's team is throwing everything they can at the case to try to stop it.
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"So juries, jurors typically, unless they're lawyers, know about what I know," she began. "Here's what I know: Michael Cohen didn't have sex with the porn star. Michael Cohen's presidential campaign didn't benefit from the alleged sex from the porn star not being in the news. But Michael Cohen went to jail. Michael Cohen doesn't benefit unless somebody else is staying quiet. It makes it clear why he's so dangerous to Donald Trump."
Weissmann thinks that District Attorney Alvin Bragg will make that same claim the crux of his case.
"I would add to your litany that when the defense says that Michael Cohen committed perjury by lying to Congress, the prosecutor is going to say, yes, who did he do that for? He was lying about the Moscow tower not for himself but for the then-president," Weissmann said.
While it might be easy for the Trump team to try and tear down Cohen, each attempt brings Trump down too.
"The application to preclude Michael Cohen from testifying is a dead loser," Weissmann pivoted to explain the motion from Trump's lawyers. "And the defense team, which is made up of very good lawyers, Susan Necheles, in particular, is an extremely experienced, extremely professional defense lawyer. What's notable to me is she did not sign on to a letter that I thought was really unhinged about Michael Cohen."
Bragg called the filing something that read more "like a press release" and not a legal filing.
"It was definitely not a letter that was sent with an audience of the judge as the intended audience," Weissmann continued. "And so, I actually did see here, as Lisa said, sort of some — it smacked of desperation in some ways, but it also suggested to me a separation as to how the case might be tried in terms of Todd Blanch versus Susan Necheles."
He went on to call it a "sideshow."
See the conversation with the legal analysts below or at the link here.
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