Donald Trump's defense lawyer Todd Blanche has been making some "rookie mistakes" in the former president's criminal hush money trial, MSNBC legal analyst Barbara McQuade said on Saturday.
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Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee, became the first former president in the U.S. history to stand trial in a criminal case last month.
In March 2023, following an investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office, Trump was indicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records relating to hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels by Trump's then-lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen during his 2016 presidential campaign. . Daniels had alleged she had an affair with Trump in 2006, which he has denied. The former president has pleaded not guilty to all charges and said the case against him is politically motivated.
On MSNBC's The Katie Phang Show on Saturday, McQuade, a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, explained the "rookie mistakes" that Blanche is making during cross-examination of Cohen, such as "going on too long, not having a specific plan, and asking one question too many."
McQuade told Newsweek in an email on Sunday morning that "Cohen certainly has baggage as a witness."
Cohen, a vocal critic of the former president, is a disbarred lawyer who previously pleaded guilty to tax evasion, bank fraud, campaign finance violations, and lying to Congress. As the prosecution's key witness, Cohen has been on the witness stand for three days, first before the prosecution and then for two days of cross-examination by Trump's defense team. He is expected to take the stand again on Monday for his third day of cross-examination.
McQuade told Newsweek that "the purpose of cross-examination is not to win the case at that moment, but to build ammunition for use at closing argument." After the prosecution rests its case, which is expected to be soon since it announced that Cohen is its last witness, the defense can bring forward witnesses or rest its case too. Then, the prosecution and defense deliver closing arguments that summarize testimonies and evidence to prove their case one last time in front of the jury.