Former President Trump’s lawyer, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D), compared Michael Cohen’s treatment to that of Allen Weisselberg, Trump’s longtime financial gatekeeper, and accused him of “fraudulent conduct.” ”.
in Letter to Bragg, Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche accused the district attorney of “ongoing prosecutorial misconduct” in the hush money case against Trump. Mr. Blanche claimed that Mr. Bragg’s office had “turned a blind eye to Mr. Cohen’s acknowledged and repeated perjuries.” Cohen allegedly paid adult film actress Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an alleged affair with the former president. Trump denies having an affair.
Mr. Trump is accused of falsifying business records related to repayments he made to his then-fixer, Mr. Cohen, in 2016. Blanche said Monday’s “retaliatory and oppressive pressure and plea deal” resulted in Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, being found guilty of perjury for lying in a 2020 deposition. He said he had come to accept it.
“[The district attorney’s] Your conscious choice to ignore Mr. Cohen’s clear and admitted criminal conduct and instead deploy unethical, strong-arm tactics against an innocent man in his late 70s is a testament to your conduct during your tenure. “It highlights irresponsibility,” Blanche wrote.
“Indeed, you are wasting public resources in a desperate attempt to prevent President Trump from ascending to the White House, while violating applicable prosecutorial guidelines prohibiting such election interference and violating law enforcement guidelines.” “We regularly and repeatedly allow criminals who have carried out brutal attacks on institutions and murderers to roam free,” he continued.
Blanche said prosecutors presented Weisselberg with an “impossible choice”: plead guilty in exchange for “a relatively short term in prison” or be arrested and jailed. He said Weisselberg was treated differently than Cohen, who Blanche claimed committed perjury in a separate civil fraud trial in New York.
“These issues require careful consideration because they involve legal, ethical, and constitutional issues. We once again urge you to put an end to this brutal and oppressive misconduct,” Blanche wrote.
Trump’s lawyers are also using Cohen’s testimony to block him from testifying in a future hush money trial.
“He recently committed perjury on stage and under oath in a civil trial involving President Trump. If his public statements are any indication, he will commit perjury again in this criminal trial. “We intend to do so. The court should exclude Cohen’s testimony in order to protect the integrity of this court and the judicial process,” the motion states.
The Hill has reached out to Bragg’s office for comment.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
