Since the former president’s trial began, Judge Juan Machan’s rulings have largely favored Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and appeared to be a drag on Donald Trump’s defense.
Marchand has granted many requests from prosecutors, including allowing Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen to testify, but he wants more information about which witnesses will testify next. Defense requests have often been denied. The cumulative effect of the Machan decisions appears to favor prosecutors, a fact that several legal experts say makes the case ripe for appeal.
Marchan on Tuesday acknowledged a number of objections raised by the defense to Stormy Daniels’ testimony about her alleged sexual encounters with Trump, calling the level of detail she gave at one point “unnecessary.” He said Mr. Daniels was only on the witness stand. was denied In March, the defense filed a motion to suppress her testimony.
“The discovery and purchase of information from Daniels not only completes the explanation of the events that led to the falsification of business records, but also provides evidence of defendant’s intent,” Marchan wrote in March.
Mr. Bragg’s lawsuit focuses on business records that Mr. Trump allegedly falsified to reimburse his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, who paid Mr. Daniels to hush him before the 2016 election. It has become. However, the relevance of her testimony is unclear because the suspicion of infidelity itself is not an important part of the case.
In a motion for a mistrial on Monday, defense attorney Todd Blanche said the only reason prosecutors asked such questions, other than pure “embarrassment,” was “to prejudice the jury.” did.
Marchand denied the defense’s motion for a mistrial following Daniels’ testimony. If anything, she said she was surprised the defense team didn’t raise more objections while she was on the stand.
“This, of course, ignores the defense’s continued objections to Daniels even appearing in court and his specific objections to the broad scope of the court’s recognition,” George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said. “There is,” he said. I have written Wednesday following Machan’s decision.
John Malcolm, deputy director of the Heritage Foundation Institute for Constitutional Studies and a former assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that he was not surprised by Marchan’s denial of the mistrial claim. (Related article: Stormy Daniels’ testimony frustrates judge and nearly ruins Alvin Bragg’s case against Trump)
“Judges are loathe to declare a miscarriage of justice, especially if the defendant’s attorney fails to object when questions are being asked or answered,” Malcolm said. “The judge will give the jury limited instructions on what to ignore or how to evaluate the more sordid parts of Stormy Daniels’ testimony,” Todd Blanche said. As in, “You can’t ring a bell.”
“If Mr. Trump is convicted, a mistrial will no doubt be one of the issues he will raise on appeal,” he continued.
Mr Marchand says he does not think we have reached the point where a miscarriage of justice is warranted.
He agreed there were things it would have been better not to say, but said he accepted most of the defense’s objections.
“I’m surprised there wasn’t more opposition,” he said.
— Katelyn Richardson (@katesrichardson) May 7, 2024
While Daniels testified, Marchan also reprimanded Trump cursed and shook his head at her account of spanking him in a magazine, and in an aside told his lawyer that Trump’s response was “disparaging.” An informal warning was given.
“There is potential for intimidation of witnesses, and the jury can see that,” Marchand told the defense.
Daniels is not the only example. Marchan also rejected Trump’s efforts in March to block former lawyer Michael Cohen from testifying, despite questions about Cohen’s credibility.
Mr. Cohen continues to attack Mr. Trump on social media. to call He uses names like “Von ShitzInPantz” and posts on TikTok. discuss Although the trial is ongoing, President Trump is unable to respond because of the gag order, a fact that his defense attorney pointed out in court. Trump’s defense also highlighted Cohen’s lack of credibility. saying His “entire financial livelihood depends on the destruction of President Trump.”
In August 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to charges including making false statements to banks, tax evasion, and campaign finance violations related to payments to Daniels and Karen McDougall. He also pleaded guilty in November 2018 to lying to Congress and a federal judge. was suggested He committed perjury while testifying in Trump’s civil fraud trial.
Mr. Cohen has not yet testified, but plans to do so soon.
Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy I got it. On Tuesday, the judge also ruled that Cohen can testify about his guilty plea to campaign finance violations, which he said “should have been excluded.” The decision to include them is likely to be advantageous to prosecutors, he argued.
“Because Mr. Cohen has already pleaded guilty, it is likely that the jury will mistakenly conclude that Mr. Trump must be guilty of campaign finance violations — especially since Mr. “Given the attention being sought by members of the public, it is likely that the jury will reach the wrong conclusion,” he wrote. . “Nevertheless, the judge has allowed Mr. Bragg’s team to extract and emphasize a guilty plea. Mr. Machan again justifies that it is up to the jury to assess Mr. Cohen’s credibility. , as with Daniels’ testimony, reliability is not an issue.
The judge also blocked former Federal Election Commission Chairman Bradley Smith, who the defense intended to call as a witness, from questioning whether the Daniels’ payments constituted campaign finance violations.Smith is Said “Hush money payments to mistresses are not actually campaign expenditures.”
However, Mr. Marchan, control Smith “may not provide opinion testimony regarding the interpretation and application of federal campaign finance laws and how they relate to the facts of this case, or whether the alleged conduct in this case actually occurred. is not a violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act (“FECA”). ”
Mr. Smith, under Mr. Marchand’s order, will only be allowed to testify generally about the background of the FEC, its structure, functions, the laws it is responsible for enforcing, and the definition of terms such as “campaign contributions.”
During the trial, prosecutors did not notify the defense until the day before who they would call as the next witness. implemented Because they didn’t want President Trump to “tweet” about them. Machan denied the defense’s request for prosecutors to reveal early on who they would notify, saying he “couldn’t blame” the prosecutors for their concerns.
Among other things, Marchan imposed a gag order restricting Trump from speaking publicly about witnesses such as Cohen and Daniels who attacked him. Trump also failed to respond to President Joe Biden’s comments about the trial, his lawyers noted during a hearing last week.
Marchan found that Trump had violated the order 10 times and threatened that future violations could result in prison time.
The New York State Supreme Court did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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