I believe the defense had a witness who could have been very useful. But the judge blocked that witness from testifying on the important topics. So the defense didn’t bother to call them at all. As I understand it, having used the witness in any capacity would have been useful in a later appeal and that failure to make use of them was an error by the defense. I think the guy was a federal election law bigshot. That’s partly on the judge but mostly on the defense.
The judge said the FEC guy would not be allowed to be called as a witness.
IMO, blocking the former FEC chair from being a witness (to the underlying ‘crime’ that isn’t a crime and which couldn’t be used to try Trump because it was a Federal issue) negates the defense’s ‘failure’ to try and call the witness.
This wasn’t a trial. It was a railroad with the judge and prosecution working -colluding together to convict him. Trump’s 1st Amendment rights were violated as well as his right to equal protection.
I think it was the head of the FEC at the time.
The judge would not allow the federal election expert witness to testify!