Michael Cohen's testimony before Congress would be helpful in prosecuting Trump: legal expert
Should Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg decide to indict Donald Trump over his part in paying hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 presidential election, it is quite possible that the former president's former fixer, Michael Cohen, could be called as a witness against his former boss.
During an appearance on CNN early Saturday morning, attorney Shan Wu dismissed concerns about Cohen's past history of lying for Trump and claimed that Cohen's experience coming clean during congressional testimony would serve him well under cross-examination.
CNN host Paula Reid prompted, "Another important part of this case is Michael Cohen. If they were to indict the president, he would be a big part of this case. We know that he is a convicted liar, but you've pointed out correctly that plenty of times cooperating witnesses have complicated pasts, previous convictions."
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"But I also want to ask you, in addition to being a convicted liar, for the past five years Michael Cohen has run to every camera available to disparage his former boss. Is that going to be a problem if he is put on the witness stand?" she asked.
"It may or may not be a dispositive problem," Wu replied before adding, "but it gives a lot of ammunition in terms of bias as well as of course his credibility."
"Anytime you have a witness who has made a lot of prior statements, it gives the defense fuel to go after them and Cohen, as you point out, has been doing nonstop talking on this point begging for the prosecution to happen," he continued.
"So he will experience tough cross-examination," the attorney admitted. "I think on the facts his timeline has been pretty consistent and he obviously has a lot of experience testifying under oath, even to Congress. So I think that he would hold up well with that."
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