Donald Trump’s lawyers made one huge mistake which could land him in jail
Donald Trump is fighting for his freedom in Alvin Bragg’s political show trial.
But Bragg may have gained the upper hand in an unlikely way.
And Donald Trump’s lawyers made one huge mistake which could land him in jail.
Former federal prosecutor warns Trump’s lawyer made a grave error
Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy isn’t happy with what he’s seeing from former President Donald Trump’s trial.
McCarthy wrote in a column posted to National Review that Trump’s lawyers played into Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s hands with their defense strategy.
Bragg charged Trump with falsifying business records to cover up stealing the 2016 Election through a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) payment to Stormy Daniels.
Bragg claimed NDAs – which are perfectly legal – amounted to an illegal campaign contribution.
McCarthy warned that Trump’s lawyers accepted this ludicrous premise by arguing in court that Trump never knew anything of these payments and this was all his former lawyer Michael Cohen’s idea.
“Rather than just saying that none of this was illegal, Trump lawyers have taken the tack of blaming everything on Cohen. They stress that Cohen never, in so many words, told [David] Pecker that Trump said to make a nondisclosure deal with McDougal — in fact, they’re saying Trump did not believe in NDAs because he figured the story always comes out anyway, so why pay? With [Keith] Davidson, Trump’s lawyers will stress that all of his dealings were with Cohen, that Cohen avoided mentioning Trump’s name (i.e., Davidson was assuming Trump’s involvement but did not know for certain), and that Trump (or “Dennis Dennison”) never signed the NDA — for which Davidson and Stormy [Daniels] were paid by Cohen, not Trump,” McCarthy wrote.
“That is, Trump’s lawyers, by their response, which has been forced by Judge Merchan’s rulings, are powerfully signaling to the jury that the NDAs — far from being legal — must be very bad. Hence, they must distance Trump from them,” McCarthy added.
The problem with this strategy
McCarthy expanded on his column during an appearance on Fox News.
The former federal prosecutor said Trump’s lawyers’ defense strategy was going to convince jurors – who may not be sophisticated in the business world where NDAs are common – that this is a “hush money” case.
Making the payments sound sinister is the type of smoke and mirrors Bragg hopes will fool the jurors into convicting Trump on non-crimes.
“Their defense doesn’t make any sense to me, because if you want to, if you want to make a big deal with the fact that Michael Cohen was driving this train, that sounds like what he was doing was really bad. And that’s not consistent with saying nondisclosure agreements are completely legal,” McCarthy stated.
To make falsification of business records a felony, Bragg has to show it was done in service of another crime.
Trump isn’t charged with a second crime.
It wasn’t for a lack of effort.
Biden prosecutors and Bragg spent years investigating Trump.
They came up empty-handed.
McCarthy said the better strategy would be to treat this trial like the joke that it is and focus the jury’s attention on the fact Bragg is charging Trump with phantom crimes by using euphemisms.
“I think I’d be sitting I’d be sitting there doing the crossword puzzle, not acting like I was being hurt by the testimony of this lawyer for Stormy Daniels. If it’s legal, then why paint Cohen as if he was doing something terrible?” McCarthy concluded.
