Noted attorney Alan Dershowitz said Wednesday lawyers for former President Donald Trump should seek a “missing witness instruction” in his business records trial over former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg.
New York Judge Juan Merchan suggested that Weisselberg testify as prosecutors from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg sought to introduce Weisselberg’s severance package into evidence Friday. Dershowitz noted that Bragg’s team was not calling Weisselberg, even though the former Trump Organization CFO is serving a jail term “15 minutes away from the courthouse.” (RELATED: ‘Didn’t Make Any Sense’: Jonathan Turley Says Michael Cohen May Have Committed Perjury … Again)
“The reason the government does want to call him seems obvious, that if he testified, he would testify against Cohen, he would not corroborate, he would undercut Cohen and that’s not good reason,” Dershowitz said during his podcast.
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Dershowitz noted that prosecutors had an obligation to call a witness they had control over if that witness could have testimony favorable to a defendant.
“The person who could have corroborated Cohen’s testimony if it’s true, if it’s true, that’s the key, is Allen Weisselberg, he’s sitting in prison under the control of government. The government snaps his fingers and puts him on as a witness. He could be called as a witness. The government has chosen not to call him as witness, and this issue should be litigated very extensively by Trump’s lawyers.
“So, it starts by Trump’s lawyers making a motion calling for missing witness instruction: ‘Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, if there was a witness under the control of one side and that side declined to call them and his testimony would have been relevant, you can presume that the testimony would have been unfavorable,’” Dershowitz continued.
Michael Cohen, a one-time lawyer for former President Donald Trump who pled guilty to charges of lying to Congress in 2018 and who was accused of perjury by a federal judge, gave additional testimony Tuesday after he took the stand Monday to testify in the case centered around a $130,000 payout to porn star Stormy Daniels.
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