CNN host Anderson Cooper said that defense attorney Todd Blanche “cornered” Michael Cohen in an “extraordinary” cross-examination on Thursday.
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 Thursday following testimony on Monday and Tuesday in the case centered around records involving a $130,000 payout to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Cooper, who was in the courtroom Thursday, described Blanche’s cross-examination as “incredible.” (RELATED: ‘Suborning Perjury’: Fox Legal Analyst Suggests Alvin Bragg May Have Put Michael Cohen On Stand To Lie To Jurors)
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“There was a lot of kind of meandering cross-examination or seemingly meandering cross-examination by Todd Blanche, but the last 20 minutes of court today right before the lunch break, it was incredible,” Cooper told CNN host Brianna Keilar. “I mean, it was Elie Honig on my program last night had talked about on a cross-examination lawyers want to kind of put the witness in, build a box around the witness, and then slam it shut. That’s what Todd Blanche did to Michael Cohen.”
Cohen, who received a 36-month sentence on tax evasion charges in December 2018 and was also disbarred, is a star witness for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Cohen testified before the grand jury before Bragg secured an indictment of Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in March 2023.
Cohen’s former attorney, Bob Costello, a former federal prosecutor, testified at a hearing held by the House Judiciary Committee’s Special Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government Wednesday, where he outlined how Cohen gave him a version of events in April 2018 that differed from the account Cohen gave in court. (RELATED: ‘Didn’t Make Any Sense’: Jonathan Turley Says Michael Cohen May Have Committed Perjury … Again)
“It was an extraordinary cross-examination by Todd Blanche and Michael Cohen throughout the day. Michael Cohen, when cornered, when he found himself in a corner, he does have a pattern of suddenly not understanding the question being asked are seemingly kind of, I mean, one could say buying time to try to figure out what, how he wants to answer, but he definitely suddenly starts to have Todd Blanche repeat questions, saying I don‘t quite understand what you mean, I‘m confused by the question, but this time, Michael Cohen was cornered in what appeared here to be a lie, I think to many in the room,” Cooper said.
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