Defense attorney Randy Zelin told CNN on Tuesday that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg did not come close to sufficiently proving former President Donald Trump’s guilt.
Bragg alleged that Trump falsified business records to cover up a payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to be quiet about an alleged affair in the lead-up to the 2016 election. Zelin said on “CNN News Central” that Bragg did not prove Trump committed a crime as there are copious reasons for the jury to find reasonable doubt in the case. (RELATED: ‘Didn’t Make Any Sense’: Jonathan Turley Says Michael Cohen May Have Committed Perjury … Again)
“They fell way short because let’s start with reasonable doubt,” Zelin said. “What is reasonable doubt? And it’s not simply a doubt based upon reason. Any time a human being needs to make an important decision in life, if you have enough information, for example, doctor says you need open heart surgery. Doc, go ahead and schedule. I don’t have a reasonable doubt. Conversely, if I say I appreciate it, but I need a second opinion, I need more information. That is having a reasonable doubt.”
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“There is reasonable doubt all over this case,” Zelin continued. “Where is Keith Schiller, where is Allen Weisselberg? How did Michael Cohen get away with stealing $30,000? Hold a pity party for him, made $4 million on this, thought he’d be chief of staff. He’s a fixer. If the plumber comes to my house to fix my leak, I could be home. That doesn’t mean I know how he’s doing it and what it’s taking to be fixed. Stormy Daniels, let‘s hold a pity party for her.”
Bragg’s star witness is Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen, who legal analysts asserted struggled with significant credibility problems during his testimony, including admitting he stole from his former boss. Daniels was another key witness, and Trump’s defense attorney Todd Blanche’s motioned for a mistrial after her testimony as he said it was “unduly prejudicial” and that she discussed irrelevant issues to the case.
“Why do we need to know whether or not the former president wore a condom or not?” Zelin said, which is an example of Daniels’ testimony. “It’s simply about, did the former president know that books, his records, false entries for legal fees, Michael Cohen was his lawyer, did he intend to cover up the election or to protect his family? It’s everywhere. Everywhere!”
Cohen testified that he and Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg met with the former president in January 2017, where Trump greenlit payments to him amounting to $420,000 over a 12-month period. Bragg did not call Weisselberg as a witness.
Former Department of Justice spokesman Anthony Coley said Monday prosecutors should be concerned that having two lawyers on Trump’s jury could lead to an acquittal.
“I think what I would worry about if I’m on the prosecution case, and I say this tongue in cheek, because I ran communications at arguably the largest law firm in the world, the U.S. Justice Department, I do worry that there are lawyers on this jury, not one but two lawyers,” he said. “And by my own experience, lawyers can sometimes be overly analytical. They can be hyper technical. I worry that the non-lawyers on this jury may rely on the lawyers who, quite frankly, don’t have expertise in this area of the law.”
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