“I can’t see how the Judge can avoid a directed verdict of not guilty”
With all due respect my friend what the hell world are you living in?
I suspect that if the jury does find a verdict of not guilty the judge will simply override it with a finding of guilty.
They’ve made up every thing else so far so that doesn’t sound too far fetched to me.
““I can’t see how the Judge can avoid a directed verdict of not guilty””
Seriously? Credibility of witnesses is an issue for the jury. The jury is entitled to believe that Michael Cohen is telling the truth about Trump even if he lied about every other single thing in the courtroom.
The prosecution has introduced enough evidence so that the judge can hang his denial of the directed verdict or JNOV motions on credibility.
From Bragg’s viewpoint, it could not be better. He picked a jury that is likely to hear only “bad trump” and ignore that the speaker is a liar. As mendacious as Cohen was, he confirmed the biases of the NY jury. As long as you don’t make people have thoughts that are inconsistent with their Orange Mad Bad world view bias, you are regarded as trustworthy, even when you are obviously lying.