Micha Cohen is on the stand again, second day of cross examination.
I'm following along the court reporters I don't understand what Trump's lawyer is doing.
Trump's lawyer Todd Blanche asked Michael Cohen about a bunch of text messages, before they were entered into evidence. Then asked to add them into evidence, but was denied because most of the text were redacted, so Cohen or the jury couldn't see the full context of the conversation.
https://twitter.com/innercitypress/status/1791106493959291053?t=oOApA0lJMGM_-iK4QeK4Ug&s=19
Then then started to attack Cohen about his lies under oath. When they asked about his lies to Congress, this allowed Cohen to said he lied about Trump's Moscow project and he did it when he was part of a joint defense agreement with Trump
https://twitter.com/Terridaustin/status/1791112519748030490?t=hk19DE_oew4q-IVD3giAaA&s=19
I don't understand this
EDIT. Folks are saying he is doing better as we go along. See comments.
Never interfere with an enemy while he’s in the process of destroying himself. The trials and daily press coverage are benefitting Trump yugely.
That is interesting; why didn't he enter them into evidence first. Oh well, there has got to be a good reason that we just don't get at this point.
I don't know.
There were also a couple of times he did show evidence, but he actually had the wrong exhibit up and they corrected him.
It doesn't seem a good way to start the day.
The Trump Moscow stuff, I don't get either. Perhaps they will follow up on it.
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1791116288464490945?t=LPSgk_cL_vGdasVtxT1gUg&s=19
Andrew Giuliani says the lawyer is doing really well
https://twitter.com/AndrewHGiuliani/status/1791123216682963075?t=DCY2_rAEqlSXVowLFVa3Xw&s=19
Trump critics say Trump's lawyer is getting better as he goes along.
Norm Eisen says Blanche is getting stronger.
Andrew Weissman criticized then complimented.
Then Notes from 100 Centre St: Blanche does good cross on Cohen blames a lot of people: federal prosecutors, the judge, the accountant, the banker... and Trump. Import of his cross: none of them are to blame.
So I think I get the strategy.
I think they are not going to ask about any of the evidence in this case.
They are going to ignore the documents and just after Cohen with both barrels. If it's true they are not going to mount a defense.
They will basically say, you can't trust a single thing Michael Cohen said and therefore the state hasn't proven their case.
It's a high risk/high reward strategy, it seems to me.
Cohen will be back on the stand Monday.
Trump's lawyers are thinking of putting up witnesses but not many. They want to put on an expert in campaign finance law.
MERCHAN: Any other witnesses for the defense case?
BLANCHE: We anticipate reaching a decision on rebuttal witnesses soon...we don't anticipate that they will be very long, other than Mr. Smith. I'm not speaking about President Trump, but that's another decision we need to make.
since when is a private lawyer allowed to have redactions in their text messages?
I think Trump's lawyers did them. I think they only trying to focus on certain sentences.
Apparently there's a possibility, Trump won't put on any witnesses.
There were talking about scheduling closing statements next week. The judge told the jury, they may be in court Wednesday.
So no only Trump may not be testify, but the defense may out on no defense.
This might be worthy of it's own post.
Trump's lawyer called out something that Cohen testified to about a call to Trump's bodyguard that Cohen said the bodyguard gave the phone to Trump
However, they showed text messages from the same time. That showed Cohen was talking about another aubject.
This was a body blow
Trump's lawyer accused Cohen of lying in his testimony.
https://twitter.com/innercitypress/status/1791148990743838797?t=RTZ36rYPtJk2v-KG23EFEQ&s=19