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Expert on Trump case says lawyer’s grilling of Cohen left even him confused: ‘Needs work’
A former top prosecutor for ex-FBI chief Robert Mueller heralded Michael Cohen for being "unflappable" while testifying in Donald Trump's hush money trial Thursday.
The cross-examination of Cohen continued for the second day as prosecutors called Trump's former lawyer as a witness. The former president denies charges that he created false business records around a hush-money scheme.
Earlier this week, Andrew Weissmann revealed that he was the one who discovered the hush money paid to adult movie star Stormy Daniels while reading evidence while investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. He told Mueller it was a "blue dress problem," a reference to Bill Clinton's affair with an intern.
But on his second day of cross-examination, Weissmann had nothing but praise for Cohen.
Read Also: How a billionaire's privilege is taking down our republic
"The striking moment when you heard the voice of Michael Cohen on his podcast, which was distinctly different than the in-court Michael Cohen. That doesn't mean Michael Cohen is lying on the stand. But it is useful for the jury to see that that is not what — he is not always in the mode that he is in the courtroom," said Weissmann.
Cohen's podcast voice when he reads his opening statement is distinctly different from his conversational voice when he speaks with guests, as can be heard here.
"For every day that he has been on, whether on direct or cross, he is unflappable," Weissmann assessed.
"Even on cross-examination that mentions his wife, [and] cross-examination with texts with his daughter, which I personally think is playing poorly. The cross there is about essentially the daughter thinking how great he is and how he deserves so much. That's what you would want your child to think.
"I'm not sure that was the right decision. [Trump lawyer] Todd Blanche is doing better than the last time we saw him, [but] that's a very low bar."
"His technique needs some work," Weissmann said of Blanche. He confessed that he had a difficult time following at times — and he is an expert on this case.
"That's actually because of the techniques that Todd Blanche is using," Weissmann said.
See the comments below or at the link here.
Cohen called 'unflappable' by top Mueller prosecutor who discovered hush money scandal www.youtube.com
‘Rather angry’: Yelling Trump unloads after Michael Cohen testimony
Former President Donald Trump delivered one of his angriest post-trial day rants in Manhattan on Monday after his former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen — one of the most important witnesses for District Attorney Alvin Bragg — took the stand to testify about his own role in the alleged criminal scheme.
The former president has made several such speeches at the end of trial arguments, often followed immediately by crushing fact-checks that strip away his false claims — but on Monday he lost his cool more than usual.
"The whole is laughing now at New York's weaponized legal system, watching this unfold," Trump thundered.
He went on to claim that the Federal Election Commission looked into the allegations and found, "There's absolutely no problem," with the payments. He then quoted a number of people sympathetic to his case, including right-leaning law professor Jonathan Turley and even Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), whom Trump quoted as saying the "objective is to keep Trump off the campaign trail, that's all they're trying to do, keep him off the campaign trail."
Trump also went after Judge Juan Merchan, once again accusing him of a conflict of interest due to his daughter's political activity — a point of contention that has previously gotten him held in contempt of court, although this time he took care not to go after Merchan's daughter directly.
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As he spoke, his raised his voice until he was yelling at gathered outside the courtroom.
"A rather angry defendant," remarked CNN's Jake Tapper as Trump walked away.
Trump added of Merchan, "We have a corrupt judge, and we have a judge who's highly conflicted and he's keeping me from campaigning. He's an appointed New York judge, he's appointed. You know who appointed him? Democrat politicians. He's appointed, he's a corrupt judge and he's a conflicted judge, and he ought to let us go out and campaign and get rid of this.
"Every single legal analyst, even CNN, even MSDNC, say the same, there's no case here."
Watch the video below or at the link here.
Trump angrily claims they have no case against him www.youtube.com
Mike Johnson ‘undercuts’ Trump’s key campaign message with accidental admission: columnist
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) tried to back up former President Donald Trump's claims that non-citizens were voting in presidential elections during a Wednesday news conference — but his claim was accidentally revealing in a way that is bad for the former president, wrote Aaron Blake for The Washington Post.
This comes as Johnson has also suggested that if he were in a position to block election certification in 2024, under the same "circumstances" as 2020, he would do so.
“'We all know intuitively that a lot of illegals are voting in federal elections, but it’s not been something that is easily provable,' Johnson said. 'We don’t have that number."
This comment is "at least somewhat transparent," Blake said — but it "undercuts the leader of the Republican Party, former president Donald Trump, who has ridiculously pegged the number of illegal votes by undocumented immigrants in the 2016 election at 3 million to 5 million (just enough, as it happens, to explain away his 2.9 million-vote loss in the popular vote).
"After the 2020 election, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani also ridiculously pegged the number of such illegal votes in Arizona alone at between 40,000 and 250,000 — as many as 1 out of every 14 votes cast.
"Johnson, at the very least, is implicitly acknowledging that Trump’s and Giuliani’s numbers are pulled out of thin air. It’s part of a broader and long-standing effort in the GOP to water down Trump’s false voter-fraud claims and repackage them," Blake continued.
"But, given that — and given the continued GOP focus on this issue — it’s worth noting how much Republicans have found or come to admit that actual evidence of widespread voter fraud simply isn’t there."
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This includes Trump ally Rudy Giuliani admitting that there are "lots of theories" but they "don't have the evidence," far-right groups like True the Vote confessing that there's no proof of ballot stuffing when their claims went up in court, and a 2022 report from longtime Republican officials concluding that “there is absolutely no evidence of fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election on the magnitude necessary to shift the result in any state, let alone the nation as a whole."
Ultimately, concluded Blake, "Despite the lack of evidence and the abject failure of Trump’s post-2020 voter-fraud lawsuits, some lawmakers apparently feel compelled to construct a boogeyman to toe Trump’s line on combating voter fraud — even as they freely acknowledge they can’t say what the boogeyman is made of."
‘Cohen can’t remember how old his son is’: J.D. Vance days after Trump forgets son’s age
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) on Monday joined a gaggle of Donald Trump defenders — including Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, (R-NY) and the ex-president’s son Eric Trump — at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse to attend the ongoing “hush money” trial.
At a press conference, Tuberville ranted against "supposedly American citizens" in the courtroom and claimed District Attorney Alvin Bragg is putting the former president through “mental anguish.”
Tuberville also said of former Trump fixer Michael Cohen: “This guy is giving an acting scene.”
Vance, in a series of tweets on X, assailed Cohen's credibility as a witness.
READ MORE: Tuberville slammed for berating 'supposedly American citizens' in Trump hush money courtroom
"Cohen can’t remember how old his son is or how old he was when he started to work for Trump but I’m sure he remembers extremely small details from years ago!" Vance wrote.
But his comment came just days after Trump, in an interview Thursday with Telemundo51, misstated son Barron Trump’s age as 17. Barron Trump turned 18 in March.
In that interview, Trump told reporter Marilys Llanos he’s “able to put [aside]” the ongoing trial and focus on “a lot of things at one time.”
“I’m very ambidextrous, so to speak,” Trump said last week.
READ MORE: 'Ambidextrous' Trump tells Telemundo his 18-year-old son is 17
Despite Trump’s claim that he’s able to compartmentalize the trial, allies like Vance are “[stepping] up attacks” in light of Merchan’s gag order — which the president has violated 10 times, NBC News reports.
“The president is expected to sit here for six weeks to listen to the Michael Cohens of the world,” Vance complained in his tweets. "I’m now convinced the main goal of this trial is psychological torture. But Trump is in great spirits."
The Ohio senator, a vice presidential contender, also appeared to defend Trump against claims he’s fallen asleep in the courtroom, The Arizona Republic reports.
"I’m 39 years old and I’ve been here for 26 minutes and I’m about to fall asleep," Vance wrote.
‘Everything has a price’: Insiders say Trump secret offer left oil barons ‘stunned’
Donald Trump made a transactional offer that reportedly "stunned" top oil executives at an event last month at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
One executive complained about environmental regulations they continued to face despite spending $400 million to lobby President Joe Biden's administration, and the former president pitched what some attendees perceived as a blunt and transactional offer, reported the Washington Post.
"Trump’s response stunned several of the executives in the room overlooking the ocean: You all are wealthy enough, he said, that you should raise $1 billion to return me to the White House," the Post reported.
"At the dinner, he vowed to immediately reverse dozens of President Biden’s environmental rules and policies and stop new ones from being enacted, according to people with knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation."
The presumptive Republican nominee has already asked the oil industry to help craft his environmental agenda for a possible second term that would roll back Biden's mandates on clean energy and electric vehicles, and Trump told attendees over chopped steak that he would allow new offshore drilling, fast-track permits and relax other regulations.
“You’ve been waiting on a permit for five years, you’ll get it on Day 1,” Trump told the executives, according to one attendee.
ALSO READ: Trump’s Manhattan trial could determine whether rule of law survives: criminologist
Oil executives had hoped Florida GoV. Ron DeSantis or some other Republican would challenge Biden, and so far oil donors and their allies have given only $6.4 million to Trump's joint fundraising committee in the first quarter of this year, but oil billionaire Harold Hamm and others will host a fundraiser for him later this year that's expected to generate larger amounts of money.
“Biden constantly throws a wet blanket to the oil and gas industry,” said Dan Eberhart, chief executive of the oil-field services company Canary. “Trump’s ‘drill baby drill’ philosophy aligns much better with the oil patch than Biden’s green-energy approach. It’s a no-brainer.”
Oil executives are intrigued by Trump's pitch, which Alex Witt, a senior adviser for oil and gas with Climate Power, said shows that "everything has a price" with the former president.
“They got a great return on their investment during Trump’s first term," Witt said, "and Trump is making it crystal clear that they’re in for an even bigger payout if he’s re-elected."
‘Be ashamed’: Trump again slams ‘any Jewish person’ who voted for Biden
Former President Donald Trump attacked Jewish Americans who voted for President Joe Biden on Thursday.
Before heading into his Manhattan hush-money trial, Trump complained to reporters after Biden said he would not provide Israel with offensive weapons if it invaded the city of Rafah in Gaza.
"What Biden is doing with respect to Israel is disgraceful," Trump said. "If any Jewish person voted for Joe Biden, they should be ashamed of themselves."
"He's totally abandoned Israel, and nobody can believe it," he charged. "You have to do the right decision, not the political decision, but he did a very bad thing."
ALSO READ: Trump’s Manhattan trial could determine whether rule of law survives: criminologist
Trump also gave an update on his efforts to appeal New York Justice Juan Merchan's limited gag order.
"I just want to let you know that we've just filed a major motion in the appellate division concerning the absolutely unconstitutional gag order, where I'm essentially not allowed to talk to you about anything meaningful that's going on in the case, and many good things are going on with the case," he remarked.
Trump has made similar comments about Jewish voters supporting Biden in the past, claiming in March that they should be "ashamed."
Watch the video from Newsmax below or at this link.
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Trump turns housing agency into another weapon in his immigration crackdown
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has dramatically expanded its immigration enforcement activities, auditing thousands of housing applicants and proposing new rules that would force mixed-status families to choose between separating from undocumented relatives or losing rental assistance entirely.
HUD Secretary Scott Turner has instructed public housing authorities to verify immigration status for approximately 200,000 people receiving federal housing benefits, reported the Washington Post. The department is also sharing data with the Department of Homeland Security and has proposed a rule blocking mixed-status households — families containing both documented and undocumented members — from accessing housing programs altogether.
The policy would devastate eligible families. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that nearly 80,000 people would lose housing assistance under the proposed rule, including 52,600 eligible citizens and 35,400 citizen children. Housing officials report that for every ineligible person removed from programs, approximately three eligible people lose assistance.
Public housing authorities have raised significant concerns about the implementation. HUD provided 3,000 housing agencies with lists of flagged tenants and demanded corrections within 30 days — a timeframe housing officials characterize as impossible. After investigation, local officials discovered the vast majority of flagged individuals were flagged in error due to data synchronization problems, duplicate entries, or administrative mistakes like missing initials or transposed Social Security numbers.
Mark Thiele, chief executive of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials, criticized the shift in mission.
“Putting that responsibility on them shifts immigration enforcement away from the agencies that are meant to handle it and actually puts eligible families at risk of losing their housing assistance,” Thiele said. “Housing agencies should focus on what they do best: providing homes for their communities. They should not be asked to act as immigration enforcers on top of that.”
Turner defended the policy as necessary to protect taxpayer funds and ensure benefits reach U.S. citizens. "Under President Trump's leadership, the days of illegal aliens, ineligibles, and fraudsters gaming the system and riding the coattails of American taxpayers are over," he stated.
Housing experts argue the policy won't address underlying housing shortages or lower costs. Of 4.4 million HUD-assisted households, only approximately 20,000 are mixed-status. The proposed changes represent part of a broader administration effort to use federal agencies for immigration enforcement, including similar initiatives at the Education Department, IRS, and banking sector.
