It was another bad day for the case against Donald Trump after the former president’s legal team absolutely destroyed Michael Cohen. But don’t take my word for it. Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, was so effective at boxing Cohen in on his lies that he left CNN’s Anderson Cooper absolutely stunned.
"But the last 20 minutes of court today right before the lunch break, it was incredible,” he admitted. "Elie Honig on my program last night had talked about, on a cross-examination, lawyers want to kind of put the witness in a — build a box around the witness and then slam it shut. That's what Todd Blanche did to Michael Cohen."
"I mean, the story that Todd Blanche just methodically went through, this sequence of events of this phone conversation that alleged — that Michael Cohen had testified to previously, that he had had this consequential phone conversation with Donald Trump, it was a 90-second phone conversation, I believe, was October 24 was the day it was testified to in — around 8:00 p.m. or so at night," he added.
Related: Michael Cohen's Testimony Debunked by His Former Attorney
Cooper explained how Blanche meticulously dismantled Cohen's previous testimony about a pivotal phone conversation with Trump. Blanche methodically scrutinized text message transcripts, revealing that harassing prank calls from a 14-year-old prompted Cohen's call to Trump, which was not solely about the Stormy Daniels affair.
This revelation, Cooper noted, undermines Cohen's credibility, as he had previously asserted that Trump approved the Stormy Daniels payment during that call. Cohen's narrative has shifted, casting doubt on his testimony implicating Trump in the affair.
It was an extraordinary cross-examination by Todd Blanche. And Michael Cohen's — throughout the day, Michael Cohen, when cornered in — when he found himself in a corner, he does have a pattern of suddenly not understanding the question that's being asked, or seemingly, kind of, I mean, one could say buying time to try to figure out what — how he wants to answer.
But he definitely suddenly starts to have Todd Blanche repeat questions and say, "I don't quite understand what you mean.” "I'm confused by the question." But this time, Michael Cohen was cornered in what appeared to be a lie, I think, to many in the room, and had to adjust suddenly his memory that he had just testified to on Tuesday.
Elie, I mean, you pointed out just right before the commercial break, if jurors don't believe Michael Cohen, how significant that might be. He was — I mean, it is hard to — I wonder how prosecutors are going to redirect on this, because Todd Blanche also pointed out — got Michael Cohen to admit that he had not seen these text messages in the prep by prosecutors.
So he had apparently had no memory of those text messages. And the implication is that he concocted — he was shown that there was a phone call to Keith Schiller at this time by prosecutors in the prep. And the implication, certainly, by Todd Blanche is that he concocted this story of what that 90-second phone call was, not realizing that there were text messages right ahead that directly related it and right after that directly related it.
Anderson Cooper was left stunned by Trump's attorney's cross examination of Michael Cohen
— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) May 16, 2024
"It was incredible...lawyers want to build a box around the witness & slam it shut--that's what Todd Blanche did to Cohen...it was an extraordinary cross...Cohen was cornered in...a lie" pic.twitter.com/WKnKCs8TkU
"I think it's devastating,” Cooper added later. "I mean, for Michael Cohen's credibility on this, I mean, on this one particular topic."
He added, "Yes, I think, if I was a juror in this case, watching that, I would think this guy's making this up as he's going along or he's making this particular story up."
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