Tipsheet

The Trump Hush Money Trial Imploded Yesterday

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  May 21, 2024 6:30 AM

The Donald Trump hush money circus might have imploded yesterday as the former president’s attorney, Michael Cohen, an already uncredible witness, admitted to stealing tens of thousands of dollars. This man is the prosecution’s top witness and admitted to more crimes. He’s a serial liar, so while District Attorney Alvin Bragg rested his case, it circles back to how this trial was executed, with many legal observers noting the dangers of having Michael Cohen as one of the main witnesses and how they presented their case.

Now, the man Bragg and his team are hoping to convict Trump just admitted to embezzlement. Isn’t this an issue? Well, on MSNBC, it’s not. Lawrence O’Donnell showed that any crime committed in that pursuit is fine regarding getting Trump. Cohen wasn’t stealing; he was “rebalancing” or something. It's stealing, Mr. O'Donnell--you just used extra words to get there (via Reuters):

Donald Trump's former fixer Michael Cohen testified that he stole money from Trump's company as a form of "self-help" as prosecutors rested their case on Monday at the former U.S. president's hush money trial.

The prosecution's most important and final witness, Cohen acknowledged on his last day of testimony that he pocketed most of a sum of money that was meant for a technology company that did work for Trump's company.

“I just felt it was almost like self-help,” Cohen said.

Cohen's admission that he had stolen from his then-boss, first raised by defense lawyers on cross-examination, could hurt his credibility with jurors who will be charged with deciding whether Trump should be found guilty at the first trial of a former U.S. president.

It gets even worse when CNN’s Elie Honig, a former assistant US Attorney, says that what Cohen just admitted to is a far worse crime than what Trump is being put on trial for. Honig has had some nuanced takes regarding the legal drama that’s engulfed both presidents. Unlike his colleagues, when Special Counsel Robert Hur dropped his report on Biden’s classified document scandal, he did note that Trump’s offenses were worse. Still, Biden came to the water’s edge of charges being filed if he oversaw the case.

I’ll get back to what Jesse Waters and others have said: what’s happening in Manhattan is why we don’t have political trials in this country. It’s messy. No one can get an impartial jury. It’s a total shambles, though the conviction is still on the table despite this case falling apart since the jury pool is tainted. That voir dire was a disaster.