As the fifth week of the New York v. Trump case drags on, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee’s former lawyer took to the witness stand to deliver testimony about the hush money payments made to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.
As the key witness in the case, Cohen faced hours of intense questioning and cross-examination. Commenting on the testimony from Trump’s former lawyer, legal scholar Jonathan Turley appeared on Fox News, suggesting that Cohen’s remarks could end up helping Trump.
Initially, Turley slammed Cohen for making an audio recording of the presumably confidential interaction between him and his client, Donald Trump. The George Washington University Law School professor labeled it an “appalling moment.”
“Well, the most important thing about the audio tape is that there was an audio tape I mean, for most lawyers, watching, or listening to this tape, is a, is really an appalling moment. The very idea that an attorney, we tape a client without their knowledge or consent, just shatters every aspect of professional conduct with the tape really doesn’t offer much like much else,” he said.
The legal expert also highlighted how Cohen’s testimony illustrates a dynamic in his relationship with Trump, where the former president was following his lawyer’s direction, not fully understanding the details behind the hush money payments.
“In Cohen’s testimony, he gives these details of how he goes to his aclient and says, ‘I fixed the problem I arranged for payments’ … Well, that sounds a lot like a client following the directions of his lawyer. But now the lawyer is telling the jury, I think you should send my client to prison for doing what I suggested for him to do.”
Turley further claimed that no evidence of a crime has been presented by Cohen’s testimony, where nondisclosure agreements and cash settlements are fairly routine activities. He claimed the prosecution is discussing “noncriminal acts” committed by the former president and his lawyer. Watch Turley’s interview below:
“There’s nothing illegal here. What what Colin was describing is not a crime. The prosecutors are making great fanfare over proving noncriminal acts and noncontested allegations. Yeah, there’s an NDA. Yeah. The money was paid. That happens all the time,” he continued. “And so we’re still left with this bizarre situation of they have a trial over something that none of us have yet been told what the crime is.”
Donald Trump has consistently maintained his innocence in the hush money trial, claiming it is a coordinated witch hunt intended to prevent him from campaigning ahead of the election later this year. Trump has also stated Judge Juan Merchan is highly conflicted and corrupt.
Trump said, “Virtually every Legal Analyst and Scholar said yesterday, at the end of the day, THAT THERE IS NO CASE, AND THAT THIS WITCH HUNT SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN BROUGHT, AND SHOULD BE THROWN OUT NOW!!! WHY WASN’T THIS HOAX BROUGHT SEVEN YEARS AGO, INSTEAD OF IN THE MIDDLE OF MY WINNING CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT — ELECTION INTERFERENCE.”
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
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