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On Monday, conservative attorney, legal scholar, and commentator Jonathan Turley weighed in on the day's testimony by Michael Cohen in the ongoing New York trial of former President Donald Trump. Mr. Turley's comments about Cohen were, to say the least, sharply pointed.Michael Cohen apparently wants a reality show but, if his testimony Monday is any indication, reality is about to sink in for not just Cohen but the prosecutors and the court.In stoking interest in his own appearance, the former Trump counsel promised the public that they should be “prepared to be surprised.” Thus far, however, Cohen has offered nothing...

Up to now, there is a winner and a loser out of this Manhattan trial. The winner is President Trump, who keeps getting stronger. The loser is New York, or the perception that the Empire State is a banana republic. Using the legal system to target political opponents is Banana Republic 101. This is from Jonathan Turley:Cohen’s testimony will be the culmination of this travesty of a trial. But Bragg already jumped the shark with Daniels. After three weeks, legal experts are still debating what the crime was that Trump was seeking to conceal by recording payments for a standard...

John Dean, former President Nixon’s White House counsel, said in an interview Saturday that the New York hush money criminal trial against former President Trump is “very powerful” ahead of highly anticipated testimony this week from Trump’s ex-fixer Michael Cohen. Dean said in a CNN interview that he has read the transcripts from the trial and thinks the prosecution has laid out a compelling case that can stand alone, independent from Cohen’s testimony. “It’s a very powerful case the government has put on in New York,” he said. “They have really filled in so many of the blanks, and they...

A paralegal from Manhattan Attorney General Alvin Bragg’s office testified on Friday during former President Donald Trump’s “hush money” trial that some phone call records between Michael Cohen and Stephanie Clifford’s (a.k.a. Stormy Daniels) lawyer were deleted, raising questions about evidentiary integrity.In a bid to challenge some of the evidence being put forward in President Trump’s business records falsification trial in Manhattan, Trump attorney Emil Bove asked paralegal Jaden Jarmel-Schneider in court on May 10 about roughly three pages worth of records that the attorney claimed Mr. Bragg’s office had deleted.Mr. Jarmel-Schneider confirmed some deletions. He acknowledged that some phone...

Jury consultant Robert Hirschhorn told CNN on Monday that the prosecution’s lack of evidence in former President Donald Trump’s trial so far is a major issue that could lead to a “not guilty” verdict despite the likelihood of the jury being largely Democratic because of the Manhattan venue. Former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney testified on Monday, asserting that Trump never directed him to falsify documents under cross examination by the defense. McConney is yet another witness who has not proven direct involvement by the former president, with Hirschhorn saying even a Democratic jury is likely to acquit Trump if...

How many catastrophic yet entertaining courtroom fails can one team of prosecutors suffer before the judge calls a halt to this goat rodeo? It's time to dismiss this case against Donald Trump after Friday's testimony. But don't get your hopes up. The bulldogger of this rodeo is the judge. Now, before we get to the testimony of Hope Hicks, who just removed–yet again—the prosecution's foundation for a conspiracy they allege but didn't charge, let's appreciate what we've got so far (roughly in order): Misdemeanor bookkeeping charges announcedA DA hinting that federal election laws were broken to steal the 2016 election,...

Stormy Daniels, the porn actor paid hush money to keep an alleged affair with Donald Trump secret ahead of the 2016 election, has taken the stand Tuesday in the former president’s New York criminal trial. Daniels, wearing black with her hair in a clip, smiled nervously as she entered the room, walking quickly toward the stand. She put on a pair of black, thick-rimmed glasses as she started. Trump was whispering with his attorney, Todd Blanche, and watched Daniels as she prepared to begin her testimony.

Donald Trump is now daring the judge in his Manhattan trial to throw him in jail for violating his gag order.Leaving court on Monday in week four of his trial, Trump told the gaggle of reporters staged near the courtroom how deeply unfair, outrageous, and unconstitutional the gag order is. I have to watch every word I tell you people. You ask me a question and I can't talk about it because this judge has given me a gag order and said you'll go to jail if I violate it. And frankly, you know what? Our constitution is much more...

On Monday, in the ongoing Manhattan trial of former President Donald Trump, a witness for the prosecution gave some startling testimony. While on the stand being questioned by the defense, former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney testified that former President Trump did not personally order payments made to attorney Michael Cohen, who allegedly paid the "hush money" payment to porn star Stormy Daniels."Michael Cohen was a lawyer?" defense attorney Emil Bove asked former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney on Monday at the start of the fourth week of the trial."Sure, yes," McConney responded. "And payments to lawyers by the Trump...

It was a bad week for Alvin Bragg and his case against Donald Trump. There's no other way to put it. For starters, Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the case, may have made a critical error that could reverse the Trump verdict upon appeal by allowing prosecutors to make certain arguments. "Last week, during an appearance on 'Fox & Friends,' GWU law professor Jonathan Turley told Fox News that Merchan made a mistake by allowing Bragg's prosecutorial team, which former Biden administration official Michael Colangelo is leading, to say unequivocally that Trump was involved in federal election law violations."...

We were expecting this moment, and it came on Friday, the eleventh day of the Hush Trump trial in New York City. It was the moment when Donald Trump's attorney looked at the judge and invoked the name of destroyed, defiant, and disgusting movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, the poster boy of the #MeToo movement. It was, in baseball parlance, a brushback pitch by the Team Trump. Only last week, Weinstein's 2020 conviction on rape charges was overturned by a New York appeals court because the prosecution had piled on unaffiliated "evidence," resulting in an unfair trial. It was a reversible...

Former President Donald Trump was back in New York City Thursday for his criminal trial, and it's been a pretty good day for him. During Thursday's proceedings, Keith Davidson, the lawyer representing adult film actress Stormy Daniels, gave revealing testimony that completely undermines Bragg's charges against Trump. For starters, Davidson argued that the $130,000 payment to Daniels should not be construed as "hush money" but rather as a legitimate "consideration" payment. Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Johsua Steinglass pressed Davidson on the witness stand about Daniels’ statement in January 2018, which Davidson prepared for his client, that denied any relationship with...

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's case against Donald Trump had already hit a few snags, but now, Judge Merchan may have made a critical error that could reverse the Trump verdict upon appeal by allowing prosecutors to make certain arguments, according to GWU University law professor Jonathan Turley. During an appearance on “Fox & Friends,” Turley suggested that New York Judge Juan Merchan made a mistake by allowing Bragg's prosecutorial team, which is being led by former Biden administration official Michael Colangelo, to say unequivocally that Trump was involved in federal election law violations. “I got to tell you, I...

District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against Donald Trump was always weak if not meritless. But that didn’t stop him from pursuing a felony case for a low-level misdemeanor that normally would have resulted in a fine that was also past the statute of limitations. Be that as it may, Bragg’s weak case has taken some real hits on Friday, as the testimony of David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, has been devastating for the prosecution. In fact, according to George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, Bragg’s case is now “collapsing on its own weight." "They have...

An adage learned early in the career of a trial attorney is, “if the law is not on your side, argue the facts, and if the facts are not on your side, argue the law, but if neither the facts nor the law are on your side, make sure you get your fee up front and in cash,” because you are almost certain to lose your case. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is paid by Big Apple taxpayers regardless of whether he wins or loses a case, but he deserves to lose the so-called “hush money” case against former President...

DA Bragg’s case is in serious trouble. The gang behind the prosecution of President Trump made a serious error that should lead President Trump’s team to move to dismiss. [Prosecutors in New York have revealed what the other crime is that Donald Trump was allegedly trying to conceal when he was falsifying business records and they claim it was to unlawfully promote his candidacy. The fatal error is that the NY Statute they cite only applies to elections within the State of New York and not Federal Elections! Trump was running for the federal office of President of the United...

Yesterday, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) had a much covered interaction with CNN’s Manu Raju who asked him about Trump’s criminal trial and whether he was guilty of the underlying criminal conduct. Romney responded “I think everybody has made their own assessment of President Trump’s character, and so far as I know you don’t pay someone $130,000 not to have sex with you.” I have previously defended Romney in his votes on impeachment despite our disagreement on the constitutional standard. I also understand that he was making a more general comment on character.However, his response is precisely what Manhattan District Attorney...

The first witness in Donald Trump's trial for alleged "criminal" bookkeeping errors came with National Enquirer-worthy titillations about what a hot commodity the former president was back in the day. Prosecutors thought they'd burst out of the gate with a little razzle-dazzle and T&A, hoping that jurors would believe the witness had anything to do with the actual charges in the case. This is because — spoiler alert — the prosecutors' actual case is a "confusing" distraction. It's the "Seinfeld" of legal cases. But since a Manhattan jury will likely convict the former president because Orange Man Bad, here's what...

As the first day of testimony wrapped up in former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial, new polling showed that a majority of New Yorkers consider the prosecution warranted. A Siena College Research Institute poll released Monday, April 22, showed that 54 percent of respondents said the trial is “legitimate,” while 30 percent saw the prosecution as a meritless “witch hunt.” Broken down by party, 77 percent of Democrats and 44 percent of independents called the proceedings a “legitimate trial to determine whether Trump is or is not guilty of criminal behavior.” Meanwhile, 66 percent of Republicans considered the trial a...

The hush money case against former President Donald Trump got underway with opening statements on Monday and the first witness in the case. George Washington law school professor and Fox contributor Jonathan Turley said that the case has left him in "utter disbelief" that they've pursued this case against Trump. He noted some of the problems with the case.“What is clear, is in this case, Trump is right. I mean, this is an embarrassment. I mean, the fact that we are actually talking about this case being presented in a New York courtroom, leaves me in utter disbelief. I mean,...