Recently I wrote that from what I could see, Trump’s lead defense lawyer Todd Blanche was following the defense attorney credo. Mainly, he leans over to listen to Trump’s bitching under his breath, pats his arm, whispers a few soothing words, and goes right back to doing what he was already doing. But you’ll notice that what I didn’t say was that Blanche was doing what he was doing well.
because he isn’t. I haven’t known or heard of many long time prosecutors, state or federal that leave the office to begin a practice in criminal defense. For the simple reason that the two are antithetical, two divergent skill sets.
A prosecutors job is to prove his case against the defendant beyond a reasonable doubt. To do so, he builds his case with evidence and testimony, and when he’s all done, he uses his closing argument(s) to make a compelling, cohesive case against the defendant.
A defense attorney doesn’t have to prove a goddamned thing. His client is presumed innocent. All he has to do is to use o0bjections to keep prosecution evidence out, and use cross examination to poke holes in prosecution witnesses statements and evidence. In most criminal cases, the defense calls no witnesses. Instead the defense lawyer uses closing arguments to try to put a verbal crowbar in a couple of the holes he’s poked, wriggle it around, and try to widen one or two big enough for his client to slip through.
Right from his opening statement, Todd Blanche made it clear to all and sundry that he was going to prove that the Daniels roll-in-the-hay never occurred, and to prove that the checks to Cohen were not reimbursement, they were standard legal fees. This was suicidal, since a) Blanche doesn’t have to prove anything, he just has to show in closing arguments that the prosecutions case is faulty and incomplete. Blanche chose to die on two hills that the prosecjution already had snipers imbedded on the top of.
A defense counsel’s job is above all to provide a counter narrative to the jury. The prosecution spends days, if not weeks creating a complete jigsaw of the defendants guilt. The defense attorney’s job in closing arguments is to take that jigsaw puzzle, shuffle the pieces around, and show the jury that if you create the picture this way, then there is no way the defendant could have committed the crime. Create reasonable doubt. But Blanche is busy running around trying to prove sh*t.
Today was by far and away Blanche’s worst day. To start with, he didn’t listen to me. He had Cohen on the stand, where continued to hammer him with prior inconsistent statements, all of which the jury had already heard multiple times. As a result, reporters in the courtroom were all reporting about how jurors were all shaking their heads, rolling their eyes, putting their heads in their hands, and leaning back in their chairs and letting their heads loll back. Classic MEGO.
But then came the cardinal sin. He called an already disproven witness. He called attorney Robert Costello to the stand. Costello is an ass clown, among his clients he counts Rudy Giuliani and Steve Bannon. When Cohen’s home and office were raided by the FBI, Costello took a couple of stabs at representing Cohen. Cohen quickly shot him down and got his own lawyer.
Here’s the McGuffin. Costello had already appeared before the grand jury, and it was a disaster. After his appearance, Costello held an impromptu presser on the steps of the court, chock-a-block full of pro Trump. anti Cohen blather. Judge Merchan, seeing that Costello was already damaged goods, severly restricted what Costello could testify to, excluding Cohen’s state of mind. But the point is that the prosecution already knew everything Costello could testify to from his grand jury testimony. Costello was a wounded duck, and Blanche should never have called such damaged goods.
If I heard MSNBC correctly, closing arguments are scheduled for tomorrow, and Todd Blanche is boned. Sideways. In their closing argument, the prosecution can show the jury a picture perfect, paint-by-numbers portrait of Trump’s Last Supper, lovingly painted by Traitor Tot’s personal Judas, Michael Cohen.
And what does Todd Blanche argue? He has spent the last five weeks trying to prove sh*t without spending one single minute setting the foundation of a counter narrative to turn the prosecutions portrait into a Picasso watercolor. What does he say? David Pecker ran a sleazy rag. Stormy Daniels is an extortionist, and Keith Davidson makes his living taking a piece of extortionists profits. Michael Cohen is a convicted liar, and a serial scumbag. And Donald John Trump is the second coming of Jesus Christ. What could go wrong?
I thank you for the privilege of your time.
What he’s shown is that people with no ideas have no idea.