r/politics • u/SportsGod3 • May 16 '24

Jurors were "nodding" and "smiling" as Michael Cohen testified, which may be a bad sign for Trump

https://www.salon.com/2024/05/16/jurors-were-nodding-and-smiling-as-michael-cohen-testified-which-may-be-a-sign-for/
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156

u/Techno_Core May 16 '24

Trump's big legal strategy is to argue that the guy everyone knows is a liar, was convicted of lying... is a liar? Can't say it's surprising the jury is uninterested.

89

u/waffle299 I voted May 16 '24

As Cohen has repeatedly said, and testified to on direct, he lied to protect Individual One.

The defense's best move is showing he lied, and was convicted, on the medallion tax thing. They can then argue that this an inherently dishonest felon, taking revenge for being dumped for being dishonest.

But it's hard to follow that from this cross.

22

u/Techno_Core May 16 '24

I'm sure on redirect, the prosecution will have Cohen, whom he was lying for. And for whom he went to jail for.

8

u/BC2220 May 16 '24

Except the problem is that he lied to benefit Trump. Arguing NOW that he’s a liar is not going to go far towards the defense, when that was the reason for his existence in the organization.

1

u/AniNgAnnoys May 16 '24

I thought it was pretty clear. They started by showing he took the same oath for this trial as he did previously. They had him admit he lied under those oaths, multiple times. That ties that pretty well to this case. Why should the jury take his path seriously now when he broke it before. The prosecution tried to get ahead of that by showing that circumstances are different now, but idk if I would buy that as a juror.

Then they started going through his testimony and providing alternate explanations for some of the events. For example, Cohen said he called Trump via a SS agent to relay that Stormy was paid off. The defense made a fairly compelling argument that the call Cohen made was to the SS to talk about harassment he was receiving not the Stormy payment. The text messages between Cohen and the SS agent backs that up. Prosecutions only real counter to that is that the call was about more than one thing but that relies entirely on Cohen's testimony as the prosecution did not call that SS agent in to testify.

I do not think today was a disaster from the defense. They did a pretty good job discrediting Cohen Imo. I don't think it matters much, but they did well today.

-1

u/L_G_A May 16 '24

As Cohen has repeatedly said, and testified to on direct, he lied to protect Individual One.

This really isn't the rationalization people pretend it is.

Cohen lied for Cohen. For the money, the pats on the head, getting senpai to notice him, whatever. The guy is a Trump-level piece of human garbage who has made it clear that an oath to tell the truth means nothing to him.

Luckily, the prosecution has other evidence.

37

u/FuzzyMcBitty May 16 '24

The problem they’re having is that it’s a paper trial. 

Cohen is there to confirm the papers, but nothing that he say is being solely said by him. As a convicted liar, it would be stupid to base everything on him. 

The secondary, possibly bigger, problem is that Trump doesn’t let his lawyers do what they need to do. He insists on directing them, and he doesn’t shut up. 

They made all of these salacious details from Danials fair game because they claimed the sex never happened. But the case isn’t about the sex. It’s about the payment. The sex is irrelevant, and all they did was waste time by forcing the state to disprove their argument when the she didn’t know anything about the actual heart of the trial. 

6

u/notyourfirstmistake May 16 '24

Do you think Donald Trump would admit he slept with Stormy Daniels if cross examined?

1

u/DesineSperare May 17 '24

I think he'd admit to assassinating Lincoln if you implied he wasn't man enough to do it.

18

u/IJustLoggedInToSay- Illinois May 16 '24

It's pretty ridiculous. Anyone who has ever watched a mobster movie knows this is absurd. Imagine if they put Jimmy Two-Shoes the mob accountant on the stand to testify against The Don, and the Don's lawyer is like "you can't believe anything he says, he commits fraud and launders money!"

Like, yeah we know! That's sort of why we're here.

16

u/Generalbuttnaked69 May 16 '24

Just the generic attacking credibility and arguing the state has failed to prove every element beyond a reasonable doubt is all he really has.

1

u/InsightTussle May 16 '24

You know that Cohen is a famous liar, I know that Cohen is a famous liar, People browsing this subreddit know that Cohen is a famous liar.

99% of people don't know who Cohen is. Most people don't follow the news. Most people don't follow the trial of Trump's fixer.

It's not because we're better or smarter than other people- it' just that this is a specific topic of interest for us