Trial witness bombshell 'directly implicated' Trump in scheme to lie to Congress: expert
The last case that former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann worked on involved a key piece of the Russia probe investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller and his team. Among the things that Weissmann sorted through was testimony and information about Donald Trump's possible deal with a Moscow project.
Speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace after the second day of cross-examination of Michael Cohen, Weissmann pointed out a bombshell comment that he says is very harmful to Trump in a different matter.
Wallace pointed out that Cohen stayed in the "fold" of the Trump world until 2018.
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Meanwhile, Trump's lawyer, Todd Blanche, seemed to be working an angle that Cohen and every other individual involved did the hush money deal behind his back. It's a theory Weissmann said won't hold up.
But that's when he asked Wallace for a point of clarification that proved to be a significant piece of previously unknown news.
When Cohen was testifying before Congress, he lied that he and Trump only spoke about Trump Tower Moscow three times and it wasn't during the campaign.
"And Todd Blanche goes to that, and says, 'You submitted a two-page document. This wasn't your spur-of-the-moment testimony. This is a two-page document that's false,'" Weissmann paraphrases. "And Michael Cohen, on the cross ... says, 'Yes, [but] that's not just my statement. That false statement that I admitted was perjury.'"
Weissmann said that Trump was the only person who would have benefited from that lie. Cohen, he explained, had "zero interest" in how many times they spoke about him having a development project in Russia.
Cohen later said that he had proof Trump thanked him for lying.
According to Cohen's testimony, however, Weissmann said the two-page document "was done by a joint defense committee that included the president of the United States' lawyer. That was like putting — if you want the Costello — what's happening behind the scenes, what are the lawyers doing. He just directly implicated Donald Trump in that scheme."
Weissmann told the group that one important thing defense lawyers know is "that you shouldn't bring out bad facts." But Blanche did just that in that line of questioning, according to the expert.
See the comments from Weissmann below or at the link here.
Michael Cohen bombshell 'directly implicated' Trump in scheme to lie to congress: expert youtu.be