Former President Donald Trump’s lawyer suggested Sunday that his team no longer needs to question Michael Cohen, who “completely collapsed” on the witness stand last week.
Mr. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former fixer and lawyer, took the witness stand last week in the former president’s hush money trial, but was criticized by Mr. Trump’s defense team during subsequent cross-examination.
“I think Michael Cohen completely collapsed on the stand under intense cross-examination by President Trump’s trial team,” attorney Will Scharf said on “Fox News Sunday.” “So, at this point, I don’t think there’s any need to question Michael Cohen’s credibility any further, because I don’t think he has any credibility.”
Cohen was widely expected to be a key witness for prosecutors in the hush money case, in which President Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The charges center on reimbursing Cohen for payments he made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about allegations of an affair before the 2016 election.
The former president has pleaded not guilty to the charges and denied any extramarital affairs.
“Fox News Sunday” anchor Shannon Bream asked Schaaf about the possibility of Michael Cohen’s former legal adviser Robert Costello taking the stand.Last week, Costello told Fox News He believed he should be called to testify and argued that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s defense team was not interested in the exculpatory information he provided.
Mr. Schaaf suggested that Mr. Costello’s testimony would be a decisive blow to Mr. Cohen’s credibility.
“Based on Mr. Costello’s public statements and testimony before Congress, he will certainly undermine Michael Cohn’s remaining credibility and, by extension, key parts of the prosecution’s case,” he said. Ta.
Schaaf, who is also a Republican candidate for Missouri attorney general, argued that prosecutors have so far “completely failed to prove their case” against the former president.
“I think any fair jury looking at the record, including President Trump, would immediately and unanimously acquit on whether or not witnesses were called,” he said. “That’s something the defense will have to think about after the prosecution rests. But for now, to me, this is a directed verdict, or at least that the prosecution failed to prove anything that even approximated the crime.” appears to be completely innocent.”
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