Trump lawyers tried to assuage his 'ego' -- and it 'backfired': CNN legal analyst
CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson argued on Friday that former President Donald Trump's attorneys made a critical error with their decision to aggressively grill adult film star Stormy Daniels this week.
While breaking down Daniels' testimony, Jackson questioned why Trump's lawyers tried to discredit her sordid story about her sexual encounter with the former president when the reality is that their client is on trial for falsifying business records.
"I think that the defense went in and I think that things they potentially set up for the following day backfired," he said. " You have what you need. The whole purpose of cross-examination is to set up your case at the end of the day. You could talk about sex day, night and in-between. Do you know about business records? Do you know about ledgers, ma'am? Do you know about invoices? you have no knowledge or nothing to share what that jury with respect to that, is that right? Okay, so why are we here?"
Shortly after saying this, Jackson made a stab at answering his own question: Namely, his lawyers went after Daniels to assuage "the ego of Donald Trump."
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"He probably told his team, 'Humiliate her,'" he said. "And you really don't try a case for your client, you try it for the jury. And so at the end of the day I think she said a lot of compelling things, and potentially some things that backfired on the defense."
During the cross-examination of Daniels on Thursday, Trump attorney Susan Necheles asked the witness a series of questions seemingly unrelated to the matter at hand whose sole purpose appeared to be flattering former President Donald Trump's ego.
At one point, Necheles even asked Daniels to heap praise on Trump's golf prowess and to declare him the biggest celebrity at a golf tournament that included two Super Bowl-winning NFL quarterbacks.
"President Trump was the biggest celebrity at that golf tournament, right?" asked Necheles at one point.
"It depends on what you're a fan of," Daniels retorted.
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Trump lawyers tried to assuage his 'ego' -- and it 'backfired': CNN legal analyst www.youtube.com