This being Vegas BABY!, if it came down to an odds making guess as whether or not main Trump defense attorney Todd Blanche will finish the task of burying his client tomorrow, and wash off his spade in his closing cross examination of former Trump fixer Michael Cohen, I’d put the odds at about 5-2.
Here’s why. On Alex Wagner Tonight, Alex reported that based on source investigation and reporting, Todd Blanche will resume his cross examination of Michael Cohen tomorrow by digging into and exploring Cohen’s already admitted lies and misstatements in 2016 and 2018. If Traitor Tot wants to make a theatrical display out of his trial, I don’t know why Todd Blanche doesn’t just bring in a priest to give Trump the Last Rites as he throws the last few shovels full of dirt over him.
I’m not a lawyer, but I am a 2X jury foreman, and I can’t tell you how self destructive this sh*t is with a jury. For two reasons, both of which should be pre-school obvious to anybody with a state bar license.
First, Michael Cohen’s past lies and course redirects are nothing new and shocking. They’re ancient history. And when a jury watches cross examination, they want that Perry Mason gotcha! moment. Cohen already admitted to all that sh*t on direct examination.
Wose yet is the fact that it’s all irrelevant! What is Todd Blanche thinking? Michael Cohen’s life the last 10 hears is an open book, one of the reason he looks so beaten and defeated on the stand. None of which matters. Because this trial isn’t about Cohen’s lies, it’s about his guided tour through the documents and testimony in the case that tie Trump to the conspiracy to defraud and falsified documents. And you can bet your ass that the prosecutors will bang that like a Scots drum during closing arguments. Forget the lies, they’re ancient history! Concentrate on the story Cohen told you, proving that Trump actually performed the illegal activities alleged. Concentrate on that.
But here’s why it’s such fundamental legal malpractice to take this tack with the jury. The simplest concept that every lawyer and judge should keep at the front of their minds when in front of a jury is this. Whatever else you’re doing in court, what the jury is doing is giving up their free time and their daily lives. Never forget that.
Look, we’re down with the process, that’s why we’re there, and we’ll do out job, and do it right. Just respect our time! There’s nothing like a couple of dipsh*t lawyers running up to the bench for a sidebar every five minutes, arguing some arcane legal bullsh*t, while we sit there staring at them and listening to white noise. It really pisses us off.
But what pisses us off more than anything is repetition. Maybe the defendant is incapable of comprehending simple information, but we can. And if you keep returning to the same, old, plowed field over and over again, you don’t want what happens next.
MEGO My Eyes Glaze Over. We’ll let you repeat a question or two, but don’t push it. Because if you do, I can almost goddamned guarantee that we’re going to tune out. For the simple reason that you’re wasting our time! We already know that sh*t! The jury will tune out, and even if you ask an explosive question leading to that gotcha moment you’ve been working so hard for, you’ll be lucky if three of the jury members are tuned in for it.
Personally? I think Blanche already started that process in his Tuesday cross, because he already had the set up work done. In her cross examination of Stormy Daniels, Trump legal beagle Susan Necheles set the table. She kept hammering Stormy Daniels over minor inconsistencies in 10 years of stories, without touching the substantive testimony Daniels gave. This turns a jury off. And Todd Blanche did the same damn thing, and the jury immediately thought here we go again. And if Blanche follows the same course tomorrow, he’ll have them napping by the 30 minute mark.
Here’s why and where it buries Trump. In closing arguments, the prosecution is going to hammer the relevant testimony of despicable witnesses like David Pecker, Keith Davidson and Stormy Daniels. Then they’re going to tie it all together with Michael Cohen’s testimony, his guided tour tying the previous testimony to the ironclad documentary evidence. A powerhouse closing argument. And since the prosecution kept the testimony lively and relevant, jurors will recall that testimony.
And what will the defense argue in closing? Jack sh*t. Simply because when they cross examined the undesirable prosecution witnesses, they picked nits like a Mama gorilla with her baby. But they didn’t aggressively contest a single shred of the actual relevant testimony and documents. And worse yet, they were repetitious and boring. The jurors will remember all of the prosecution’s evidence and testimony, but the defense will have left them with nothing to take back to the deliberation room with them.
While Blanche may be inexperienced as a defense attorney, you can’t really hang this one on him. But it’s actually a very common problem for even more experienced defense attorneys, when he not only did the defendant do it, but he did it so stupidly and clumsily that he left his attorney with. Add to that Trump’s nonstop motor mouth, and it’s a recipe for disaster. When the evidence is against you, argue the law. When the law is against you, argue the evidence. And when the evidence and the law are against you, pound the table and blame the judge. And that’s where Todd Blanche finds himself.
I thank you for the privilege of your time.
To paraphrase Merle Haggard, Cohen has done his time. Now it’s time for Trump to do his.