Raw Story

Michael Cohen's credibility with the hush money trial jury is in the pits after a chaotic day in Manhattan criminal court, according to former President Donald Trump's ex-lawyer.

William Brennan appeared Monday on CNN's "The Situation Room" to discuss the conclusion of Cohen's cross examination at the hands of Trump's lead attorney Todd Blanche.

"Stealing from his client?" Brennan exclaimed. "In the world of attorney discipline that's like first-degree murder. The only thing he hasn't done is an animal sacrifice."

Cohen, Trump's former attorney, admitted on the witness stand Monday that pocketed $30,000 from his former employer, the Trump Organization.

ALSO READ: Trump is willing to trade our children’s future for a billion dollars

As Cohen explained during his testimony, Trump had an outstanding bill of $50,000 from a tech company called Red Finch that he had initially dodged paying.

The Trump Organization gave Cohen the $50,000 needed to repay the firm. But when it came time to pay the company, Cohen gave them $20,000 and kept the remaining remaining $30,000.

“So you stole from the Trump Organization?” demanded Blanche.

“Yes, sir,” Cohen answered.

ALSO READ: Trump campaign allegedly took ‘excessive’ contributions by the nickel and dime

Brennan told anchor Wolf Blitzer he felt that Blanche had "knocked it out of the park," but then pivoted to condemn the testimony of attorney Robert Costello whose questionable courtroom antics antagonized Justice Juan Merchan to the extreme.

"Having spent a lot of time in front of Judge Merchan myself, he's out of central casting," declared Brennan. "This is [Steven] Spielberg's version of a judge — he's a very decent man."

Brennan called Costello's antics "foolish" for drawing attention away from the case.

Watch the video below or click here.

In Belgrade, Serbia, protesters voiced their displeasure with a real estate deal involving former Trump White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner, former Trump Administration aide Richard Grenell and the Serbian government.

The project, according to the New York Times' Eric Lipton, calls for a $500 million hotel that would be built on the site the former Yugoslav Ministry of Defense. And it would, Lipton notes, put Kushner, "Directly into business with a European state as his father-in-law, Donald J. Trump, vies to return to the White House."

"The complex was bombed in 1999 by NATO forces with the backing of the United States during the war Serbia was then waging with Kosovo," Lipton explains.

"It is now considered a prime undeveloped real-estate site in the middle of a much-changed city, and Mr. Trump himself had considered building a hotel at the same site in 2013."

READ MORE:'Corrupt': Jared Kushner's overseas business deals under fire as Trump runs for president

The reporter adds, "For Mr. Kushner, who is also planning two luxury hotel projects in neighboring Albania, these deals in the Balkans are among the largest he has made since starting his investment firm, (Affinity Partners)…. Mr. Kushner and his partners plan to build a hotel, retail space and more than 1500 residential units."

But not everyone in Serbia's federal government is happy about the deal, which, according to Lipton, has "drawn criticism from opposition leaders in the Serbian parliament."

Lipton reports, "Protesters blocked traffic in front of the former defense ministry headquarters on Thursday and put up signs questioning the decision, including some that said: 'Stop Giving Army HQ as a Present to American Offshore Companies'…. Some in Serbia object to the plan because of the United States' role in the bombing 25 years ago."

Dragan Jonic is among the Serbian MPs voicing his opposition to the deal.

READ MORE: Comer refuses to investigate Trump family member over 'influence peddling' allegation

Meanwhile, in the United States, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) are among the Democrats who have been speaking out against Kushner's activities in Europe.

In a March, Raskin and Garcia warned, "Jared Kushner is pursuing new foreign business deals, just as Donald Trump becomes the presumptive Republican nominee for the presidency."

Read The New York Times' full report at this link (subscription required).

Manhattan Criminal Court — Donald Trump's attorney was schooled on the law by the former president's ex-attorney Michael Cohen as he sat in the witness box during his cross-examination Thursday.

Cohen delivered his lesson to attorney Todd Blanche, the lead defender in Trump's criminal hush money case, as the two discussed conversations that Trump's former fixer had recorded.

Blanche took a stern tone when he demanded to know if Cohen had informed those he recorded of that fact, and appeared astounded when Cohen said he had not.

But Cohen remained calm as he said into the microphone, "It’s not illegal in New York."

New York allows "one-party consent," which allows anyone participating in a conversation to legally record it without informing other parties.

This check did not stop Blanche from pushing Cohen on recorded conversations he shared with reporters such as New York Times Maggie Haberman and with clients who Blanche argued were unilaterally protected by privilege.

When Blanche asked if there were any exceptions to attorney-client confidentiality, Cohen yet again had an answer: the rule that mandates lawyers to disclose conversations — advice for example — that would contribute to criminal activity.

ALSO READ: Trump told to pay up before rallying in N.J. town he previously stiffed

Blanche sputtered a question asking incredulously if Cohen was claiming to have relied on this exception. Again, Cohen was calm.

"You asked if there were exceptions," a deadpan Cohen replied. "And I said 'Yes, the crime-fraud exception."

This exchange occurred on the second day of Cohen's courtroom battle with Blanche in the Manhattan criminal courtroom where Trump stands accused of falsifying business records to conceal hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Trump pleaded not guilty, denies an affair with Daniels and contends he is the victim of a political witch hunt, without evidence.

Blanche had a rocky start Thursday morning that saw his request to consult Judge Juan Merchan swiftly shut down with a resounding "No."

His jab at members of Congress fell flat, and in front of several Republican House members who came to the New York City courtroom to back up Trump.

ALSO READ: 'Bootlickers': GOP lawmakers supporting Trump nailed by protest sign at hush money trial

The morning's session also saw Merchan sternly order Blanche to fix a problem raised by prosecutor Josh Steinglass that Blanche had unfairly suggested Cohen was engaged in improper conduct tied to the District Attorney's criminal indictment.

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.

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Cohen called 'unflappable' by top Mueller prosecutor who discovered hush money scandal www.youtube.com

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

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."