According to recent comments from Jury consultant Carolyn Koch, jurors in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial could be “stunned” by the lack of “credibility” from the evidence presented by his former attorney, Michael Cohen.
Reportedly, Cohen had recorded a conversation between him and Donald Trump about the purchase of a story regarding Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claims to have had an extramarital affair with the GOP frontrunner.
However, Koch indicated that a jury is unlikely to be convinced that the recorded audio is evidence of a crime. The consultant illustrated that Cohen lacks credibility and the audio tape is incomplete, drawing into question the complete context of the conversation.
“Well, audio is good,” Koch noted. “And audio is like a document. But jurors are going to respond to the case like a mosaic. So there’s pieces of the puzzle and I use the analogy like a Jenga, a Jenga tower; the audio is an unfinished conversation and there is a big difference between contemplation and consummation. And so, like, I always think about … you learn it in law school, it’s the unjust enrichment.”
She further emphasized that there is “missing information” from Cohen’s cellphone. Coupled with the lawyer’s purported lack of credibility, Koch is left with serious doubt about the validity of the evidence presented by Trump’s former lawyer.
“You talk about, hey, ‘would you paint my house? I‘m thinking about painting my house,’” Koch added. “And the guy paints your house, but ‘I didn’t give you the green light yet.’ So if there’s missing information on Cohen’s cell phone and he’s not the most credible person, well he’s not credible. He has credibility problems. That’s a problem. What’s missing?”
Based on the principle of being innocent until proven guilty, Koch illustrated that the jurors will require evidence from the prosecution that proves Trump is guilty “beyond a reasonable doubt.” She added that, given the context of what Trump is accused of, Cohen’s audio recording will be insufficient for the jury.
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“Most jurors will hold the government to its burden to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt,” Koch continued. “And witnesses have to have some quality and some credibility. I think they’re going to be a little stunned that that‘s a little bit lacking here … I have seen jurors connect the dots, but they’re in cases where it’s like a serial killer and he‘s abducting girl scouts and they know he did it and they’re willing to lighten up that burden of proof because they can’t sleep at night.”
Trump has continually blasted the hush money trial, maintaining his innocence. The former president suggested that the entire case is a politically motivated “witch hunt” that is preventing him from being on the campaign trail.
“This is a Biden witch hunt to keep me off the campaign trail,” Trump recently said. “I should be in Georgia now. I should be in Florida now. I should be in a lot of different places right now, campaigning. And I’m sitting here. This will go on for a long time. It’s very unfair,” he said outside the courtroom.