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By Mandy Taheri
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Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's decision to put Michael Cohen on the witness stand in Donald Trump's hush money criminal trial is "beyond foolish," says Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett.
The prosecution's key witness, Michael Cohen, a former Trump attorney and fixer who is now a vocal critic of the former president, is testifying today for the third day—his second of cross-examination.
"Cohen has essentially been lying about the two pivotal legal issues in the case and prosecutors know it, they wanted him to lie," Jarrett said on Fox and Friends this morning. Jarrett's comments come after telling the show that Cohen previously told Robert Costello, an attorney who once advised Cohen, that he "kept Trump in the dark" and "acted on his own" regarding the payment to Stormy Daniels and that Trump was mainly concerned about "protecting his wife." The prosecution must prove that Trump knowingly falsified business records relating to paying Stormy Daniels in order to illegally conceal information that could impact his 2016 election campaign.
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Newsweek reached out to Jarrett via his personal site.
Trump currently sits on trial for the fifth week in a criminal hush money case in New York. The case marks the first time in U.S. history that a former president stands trial in a criminal case. The former president is currently facing 34 felony counts in a hush-money case following an investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office. Trump was indicted in March 2023 on charges of falsifying business records relating to hush money paid to adult film star Daniels by 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.
Several witnesses, including several former White House aides and lawyers, have testified over the past 18 days of trial. Cohen is the prosecution's key and, as of Tuesday, final witness.
"I think it's beyond foolish to make an infamous liar your final witness to hang your entire case on it," Jarrett said. Cohen is a disbarred lawyer who previously pled guilty to tax evasion, bank fraud, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress. Jarrett added, "When prosecutors call a witness like Cohen they are vouching for his credibility."
Jarrett said today's testimony "will be absolutely pivotal if Michael Cohen is utterly destroyed on cross-examination. We will wait and see."
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In the days leading up to Cohen's anticipated testimony, many legal analysts across the political spectrum had cast doubts on the prosecution's case given Cohen's lack of credibility. Some, like attorney Jonathan Turley, said the prosecution's case is "not even close" to being tied up.
Attorney and legal analyst Michael Moore previously told Newsweek in an email that the prosecution's case largely rests on Cohen and they need to bolster his credibility to "have him as the sole witness to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Mr. Trump knew anything about how the expenses listed in the state business records were being categorized. Without that link, they have little more than Trump signing checks."
Former federal prosecutor Michael McAuliffe previously told Newsweek that "Michael Cohen is a complete mess as a witness for the prosecution," adding that his previous comments about Trump and "often bizarre publicity stunts" make him "less and less useful as a source of credible evidence.
Cohen has been vocal on social media about the former president and the trial in the days leading up to his testimony. 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.
But since Cohen began testifying on Monday, several legal analysts, including Glenn Kirschner, have suggested that Cohen did "well on the witness stand." Kirschner, who is a vocal critic of the former president, described Tuesday's cross-examination as a "pretty historic stumble by Donald Trump's lead criminal defense attorney Todd Blanche," in reference to Blanche's opening question about Cohen's attack on Blanche, rather than the case itself.
Janos Marton, who ran for Manhattan district attorney, previously told Newsweek, "It often seemed like Todd Blanche's goal during Michael Cohen's cross-examination was to get a rise out of him," adding that it's "not unreasonable given how unpredictable and uncontrollable Cohen has been as a witness."
The prosecution is expected to rest its case soon.
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