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By Mandy Taheri
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In Tuesday's highly anticipated cross-examination of the prosecution's key witness, Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's defense lawyer, Todd Blanche, had a "historic stumble," says legal analyst Glenn Kirschner.
In a Wednesday YouTube video, Kirschner, a former assistant U.S. attorney and frequent critic of the former president, said Cohen did "well on the witness stand" while Tuesday's cross-examination was a "pretty historic stumble by Donald Trump's lead criminal defense attorney Todd Blanche." The defense team will resume cross-examination today.
As a lawyer himself, Kirschner said it is "hard for me to imagine a worse opening, a worse first question on cross-examination of the single most important witness in a high-profile trial."
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Newsweek emailed Kirschner requesting additional comment. Newsweek sent an email to Blanche during trial hours.
The high-profile court proceedings mark the first time in U.S. history that a former president stands trial in a criminal case. Trump 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 Stormy Daniels by Cohen, his former attorney and fixer, during the 2016 presidential race.
Daniels 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.
In his video, Kirschner reads from the court transcript as provided by MSNBC, starting with Blanche's first cross-examination question 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."
Kirschner then detailed that there was an objection, which was sustained by Judge Juan Merchan, which Kirschner says indicated it "was an improper question. It should not have been asked."
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According to the transcript, Merchan then asked Blanche, "Why are you making this about yourself?" to which Blanche replied, "I'm not making it about myself, your Honor. I have a right to show this witness's bias, and he has expressed bias about the lawyers just because of who we represent."
Merchan said, "It doesn't matter if he has bias towards you; it doesn't matter. The issue is whether he has bias towards the defendant...just don't make it about yourself."
"Ouch," Kirschner said after reading the court transcript, adding that "cross-examination didn't get much better for Blanche or, by extension, for Donald Trump."
Cohen is a disbarred lawyer who previously pleaded guilty to tax evasion, bank fraud, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress. Given Cohen's background, several members of the legal community have questioned how Cohen's testimony will hold up and the prosecution's strategy.
Janos Marton, who ran for Manhattan district attorney, previously told Newsweek that "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."
"But for the most part, [Cohen] didn't take the bait, sticking to Monday's narrative around what he did for Trump and why," Marton said.
Reflecting on the first day of Cohen's cross-examination, Case Western Reserve University law professor Eric C. Chaffee previously told Newsweek that "Although at times the exchanges between Todd Blanche and Cohen have been comical, the defense has failed to find a rhythm to its questioning."
Former Trump attorney Tim Parlatore told CNN that Blanche needs to "refocus on inconsistencies within the testimony [Cohen's] itself...and if you can show the jury, you know, really, that he lied about anything during the questioning by the prosecutors, I think that that's going to be much more effective than just simply saying, 'You said this on Tik Tok about Donald Trump.'"
Cohen, who is now a staunch Trump critic, 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.
On Tuesday, the prosecution announced that Cohen is their final witness. Kirschner says the move indicates that "the prosecution thinks Michael Cohen is doing so well on the stand that he's going to be the last witness the jury hears from before the prosecutors rest their case."
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