Lisa Rubin, a legal correspondent with super liberal news network MSNBC, was totally astonished by the cross-examination of former Trump attorney Michael Cohen by the former president’s legal team in the ongoing “hush money” trial against him being held in New York. Believe it or not, the folks on this propagandist network actually feel that the legal team representing Trump took home a big win when they got a chance to go at Cohen on the stand.
via Fox News:
During MSNBC’s coverage of the trial on Thursday, Rubin zeroed in on what the network described as the “John Grisham moment” and the “biggest point” earned by Team Trump when defense attorney Todd Blanche grilled Cohen about his communications with Trump’s former bodyguard Keith Schiller.
“When he started talking about the harassing phone calls that Cohen was getting, I think a bunch of us looked at each other sort of quizzically being like, ‘What is this? Where is this going?’” Rubin stated during coverage of the exchange. “And then it became clear when he first brought up the text to Keith Schiller on October 24 after getting Cohen to reestablish that that was the day on which he called Schiller to reach Trump and that remained his testimony that he discussed with Trump that day, the resolution of the Stormy Daniels matter and that it was time to pay out Stormy.”
“Once he connected up to the Keith Schiller text I thought, ‘Oh, we’re in for something here.’ And indeed, we were,” Rubin said to MSNBC’s Chris Jansing, “because Michael Cohen not only admitted that he is now less than certain about what got discussed that day and that it could have been both but he’s not positive given the one minute and 30-something seconds of that phone call, but also that in eight years he had never seen that Keith Schiller text and that it was not among the things that the district attorney’s office had shown him.”
“That makes the district attorney’s office look sloppy in addition to making Michael Cohen seem like a self-assured either fabricator, liar or forgetful person. It casts doubt on the veracity of a ton of his testimony and not just about who he did or didn’t talk to on October 24 or October 26. It sort of cast lots of his testimony in doubt, given the passage of time and makes the district attorney’s office look terrible all in one breath,” Rubin added.
“This is a moment of real triumph for Todd Blanche, you can even hear it in his voice. He is not a person to get excitable very easily,” Rubin commented before referring to it as a “real point for the defense.”
Elie Honig, an analyst with CNN, stated that Cohen had his “knees chopped out” during the cross-examination by the Trump legal team. Jonathan Alter of the New York Times went on to say the whole thing was “pay dirt” for the defense. He then said that the former president seemed very pleased with the defense’s performance, despite not being able to get at Cohen concerning another story about a payoff to ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal.
“Even so, I saw Trump smiling as he whispered to one of his lawyers. It was a good day for him,” Alter went on to say in his article.
During the contentious exchange, Blanche accused Cohen of lying about a phone call he allegedly made to Schiller to speak with Trump about the hush money payment. But an unearthed text exchange showed Cohen asking Schiller who he could speak with about harassing phone calls he had been receiving from an alleged 14-year-old prankster, to which Schiller responded, “Call me.”
In previous testimony, Cohen claimed that the phone call made on Oct. 24, which was short and sweet, coming in at just one minute and thirty-six seconds, was about the former president.
Blanche asked if the testimony on Tuesday was a lie because Cohen said then that he called to speak with Trump. Cohen responded, “Part of it was the 14-year-old … but I know Keith was with Mr. Trump.” Blanche again accused Cohen of lying insisted he never spoke with Trump that day.
“That was a lie, you did not talk to President Trump,” Blanche fired off.
“I’m not certain that’s accurate,” Cohen replied to Blanche.
The cross-examination isn’t over yet, either. It is currently scheduled to start up again on Monday. What makes this devastating for the prosecution is that they considered Cohen to be their star witness against Trump. However, Cohen has been criticized as being a proven liar and has had his credibility questioned due to his very open hostilities toward his former boss.