'Michael Cohen Is The Key Witness': Clinton's Former Defense Lawyer Discuses Trump Hush Money Trial

7 months ago

On "Forbes Newsroom," Glen Donath, a partner at Clifford Chance and former Clinton impeachment defense lawyer, discussed the importance of Michael Cohen to the prosecution against former President Trump in the NYC hush money trial.

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Transcript

00:00Well, the prosecution does seem to be slowly building a case, showing the evidence,

00:03demonstrating that there are a lot of threads tying all of this and understanding and

00:10knowledge by Trump to pay and knowing exactly what was happening.

00:15What about the fact that Michael Cohen may have credibility issues?

00:22All of this is building and leading back to Michael Cohen. He is the star witness.

00:26His name has been mentioned in every aspect of this case, from opening arguments to

00:31every single witness, cross-examination, direct.

00:37What do we expect might happen?

00:40And this is clearly a buildup to the biggest witness that the prosecution has to offer

00:44in this case.

00:46Yeah, no question about it. Michael Cohen is the key witness, and any defense lawyer,

00:51and certainly Mr. Trump's defense lawyers will comment him with a sledgehammer and

00:56try to destroy his credibility.

00:58That's inevitable.

01:02And I think they have much to work with.

01:04Cohen has admitted to lying, I think, to Congress and to the press and in court filings,

01:12and so he is a damaged witness.

01:16On the other hand, he has been corroborated, A, by witnesses in this case, and so that's

01:22part of what the government has done so far with Pecker and Davidson and others.

01:29And secondarily, I don't think there's that much that Cohen is going to say that we're

01:36going to have to take his word for.

01:37We see the checks.

01:39We know that Cohen went to jail.

01:43He took responsibility for what happened.

01:46And we know that Trump himself was an unnamed co-conspirator in that case, the federal case

01:53for which Cohen pleaded guilty and went to jail.

01:56And so I think the key issues, there's really only two key issues.

02:01A, was Trump aware of the payments?

02:02Again, very hard for him to argue that he wasn't.

02:04And then B, were they for a campaign or election purpose?

02:10I think that, obviously, they will try to hit Cohen very hard on that, but I think the

02:16timing speaks for itself.

02:19And the fact that Trump disguised the checks for reasons that would have nothing to do

02:25with his family, really.

02:26So I don't think Cohen's credibility at the end of the day is going to be the determining

02:34factor.

02:34I think it's a documents case and a timing case more than what Michael Cohen's truth

02:40telling has to do with it.

'Michael Cohen Is The Key Witness': Clinton's Former Defense Lawyer Discuses Trump Hush Money Trial

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