Trump 'shot himself in the foot': Expert says court chaos may prove pivotal to prosecution

Chaos in the courtroom of former President Donald Trump's criminal hush money case could provide prosecutors with ample grounds to demand a new trial if the jury deadlocks, former acting solicitor general Neal Katyal told MSNBC's Ari Melber on Monday.

Robert Costello, the former legal adviser to Trump's former fixer Michael Cohen, took the stand to discredit his former client. But his testimony was derailed when Justice Juan Merchan felt compelled to clear the court and address Costello's questionable witness box antics.

"Trump might have actually shot himself in the foot if, for whatever reason, there is one juror, or more, who decides not to convict," said Katyal.

Katyal noted Merchan had allowed Costello at short notice to testify in Trump' criminal hush money trial — in which he has pleaded not guilty to charges of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments ahead of the 2016 presidential election — which could later prove crucial.

"It's not grounds for a mistrial, but it certainly gives the prosecution a good argument for why there should be a retrial in the case of a hung jury," Katyal said. "You had this judge who time and again bent over backwards for Trump, including to the point of letting Costello poison the jury with his remarks."

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Katyal praised prosecutors from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office who he said did a good job of backing up Cohen's testimony in court.

"I think the prosecution did a good job of rehabilitating," Katyal said.

"There's a key day, October 24, 2016, where Michael Cohen claims he called Keith Schiller and that led to the so-called Perry Mason moment last week where Trump's lawyer goes, you lied about that call, you were talking to the bodyguard, not Donald Trump. The photograph taken within, I think, seconds of that phone call shows Trump and Schiller together. And that's, of course, the prosecution's theory all along, which is that Cohen called Schiller in order to talk to Trump and spoke to both of them so. I think that documentary evidence is quite helpful."

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