Alan Dershowitz Torches Michael Cohen, Reveals Trump’s Chances At Full Acquittal
Conservative law professor Alan Dershowitz targeted former Trump attorney Michael Cohen after his first day of testimony in the former president’s hush money case, saying it was the fixer who broke the law on the stand, not Trump.
Dershowitz, a professor at Harvard Law School and frequent defender of President Trump on the airwaves, argued on Fox News that Cohen lied while testifying that he was directed by his former boss to quietly settle rumors of an affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels. Shortly before the 2016 election, Trump was secretly recorded by Cohen while discussing a payment made to Daniels to kill a forthcoming story on the alleged affair. The tape was later turned over to former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, breaching attorney-client confidentiality laws.
“I’ve been doing this 60 yrs and I can’t find the crime, but today I could find the crime committed today in the courtroom by Michael Cohen! Lies occurring right in front of us directly to the jury!” Dershowitz told host Sean Hannity Monday night. “Good lawyers don’t put people on the stand who they know are going to lie… we’re going to see lie after lie after lie on cross [examination]… I hope the lawyers on this jury see through it and realize he’s trying to sell this jury a bill of goods.”
Cohen, who previously served prison time for lying to Congress, has fashioned himself as a one-time Trump aide turned truth-teller, though the evidence presented during the trial shows he may also have been settling personal and financial grudges. After President Trump won in 2016, incoming chief-of-staff Reince Priebus offered Cohen the position of assistant White House counsel, something that set off the fixer who felt he deserved the top spot and said was “solely about ego” according to Politico. After making a $130,000 payment to Daniels, Cohen fumed for months that he wasn’t paid back and saw his bonus working for Trump cut by two-thirds.
Dershowitz added that the American public deserves to witness Trump’s trial to decide for themselves if Cohen is trustworthy, something they can’t get from “biased reporting.”
“If you watch CNN, if you read the New York Times, this was the most compelling testimony you’ve ever seen in your life. And that’s why these trials should be on television – so we can decide for ourselves who’s telling the truth instead of having to understand this evidence through the prism of biased reporting,” he said.
After two weeks of testimony, Dershowitz predicted the odds of a hung jury are “fairly high,” and even “some chance of an acquittal.” Although the charges by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg are the only ones expected to be seen through a verdict before Election Day, legal observers have also noted that they may be among the weakest brought against Trump across four criminal trials.
Prosecutors still have yet to prove that President Trump had working knowledge of Cohen’s payment to Daniels, which was later categorized as a legal expense rather than disclosed as a financial benefit to his campaign. Bragg’s case runs up against a previous decision by the Federal Election Commission which found that the hush money payment was legal, not political, in nature.
