Donald Trump's Lawyer Made 'Rookie Mistakes' During Trial—Legal Analyst

Donald Trump's defense lawyer Todd Blanche has been making some "rookie mistakes" in the former president's criminal hush money trial, MSNBC legal analyst Barbara McQuade said on Saturday.

Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee, became the first former president in U.S. history to stand trial in a criminal case last month. In March 2023, following an investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office, Trump was indicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records relating to hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels by Trump's then-lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen during his 2016 presidential campaign. Daniels had alleged she had an affair with Trump in 2006, which he has denied. The former president has pleaded not guilty to all charges and said the case against him is politically motivated.

On MSNBC's The Katie Phang Show on Saturday, McQuade, a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, explained the "rookie mistakes" that Blanche is making during cross-examination of Cohen, such as "going on too long, not having a specific plan, and asking one question too many."

McQuade told Newsweek in an email on Sunday morning that "Cohen certainly has baggage as a witness."

Cohen, a vocal critic of the former president, is a disbarred lawyer who previously pleaded guilty to tax evasion, bank fraud, campaign finance violations, and lying to Congress. As the prosecution's key witness, Cohen has been on the witness stand for three days, first before the prosecution and then for two days of cross-examination by Trump's defense team. He is expected to take the stand again on Monday for his third day of cross-examination.

McQuade told Newsweek that "the purpose of cross-examination is not to win the case at that moment, but to build ammunition for use at closing argument." After the prosecution rests its case, which is expected to be soon since it announced that Cohen is its last witness, the defense can bring forward witnesses or rest its case too. Then, the prosecution and defense deliver closing arguments that summarize testimonies and evidence to prove their case one last time in front of the jury.

Commenting on his cross-examination strategy, McQuade told Newsweek that "Blanche frequently asked one question too many by trying to get Cohen to admit to lying. Such a question simply invites the witness to deny the allegation." Instead, she believes that "a better strategy is to simply point out the inconsistency and then argue to the jury that Cohen is lying."

Newsweek has reached out to Blanche for comment via email.

McQuade gave Blanche credit for covering Cohen's "areas of weakness, such as prior inconsistent statements and criminal convictions," but she said that "Blanche diluted key admissions by also addressing prior insults, including insults about Blanche, which may have been satisfying for Blanche or his client, but distracting from the ultimate purpose of undermining the witness's credibility."

During his cross-examination, Blanche brought up one of Cohen's insults to him. Blanche said to Cohen, "On April 23, after the trial started in this case, you went on TikTok and called me a 'crying little s***,' didn't you?" Cohen replied, "Sounds like something I would say."

In the days leading up to his testimony, Cohen was vocal on social media about the former president and the trial. Less than two weeks before he took the stand, Cohen posted a TikTok while wearing a shirt that featured a photo of Trump in an orange jumpsuit behind bars.

Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett who is also a former defense attorney and author known for his pro-Trump stances said on Fox and Friends on Saturday that Blanche's use of phone records and text messages against Cohen on the stand showed that Cohen "lied to the jurors in the courtroom about a critical conversation he swore he had with Donald Trump payment to Stormy Daniels." He also called it "a classic 'gotcha' moment," adding that the testimony was "devastating to Bragg's case."

On Thursday, CNN legal analyst Elie Honig told a CNN panel discussion that, "I don't think I've ever seen a star cooperating witness get his knees chopped out quite as clearly and dramatically as what just happened with Michael Cohen," in reference to Cohen's testimony.

McQuade reminded viewers on The Katie Phang Show that regardless of legal analysts remarks, praise, or critiques of the cross-examination and witnesses' testimonies, "the real arbiters of all of this will be the jury."