Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s case against former President Donald Trump in the “hush money” trial is “collapsing”, according to George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley.
Turley explained Friday on Fox News’ “Outnumbered” that the prosecution’s key witness in the case, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, actually benefitted Trump’s defense during cross-examination.
“It’s a breakdown in the courtroom. They have a witness that is disassembling in front of them,” Turley said. “The prosecution never revealed to the jury in the direct that Pecker had actually killed stories for other celebrities, that he had been working on stories two decades before the election with Trump that he was suppressing.”
“And now it’s only getting worse. Yesterday was really bad in terms of the cross-examination for the prosecution. Today is much worse. I mean, here Pecker is saying that Trump didn’t want to purchase the story. Yesterday when he asked him about reimbursing Cohen, he said he didn’t know anything about that.”
Pecker testified about former Trump attorney Michael Cohen and the former president allegedly purchasing former playboy model Karen McDougal’s story of an alleged affair from the National Inquirer.
“I think the defense is doing a very good job, but I have to say that this is collapsing on its own weight. You just have to stand back and let it fall,” Turley said.
“Just asking simple questions that the jury would want to know has left serious damage for the prosecution.”
“These are not strange tangential questions, these are questions you would’ve expected the prosecution to ask as just the completion of their line of questioning. Like was Donald Trump the only one you did this for, when did you start to do this?” he added.
Trump faces 34 felony counts of allegedly falsifying business records in relation to a $130,000 payment to ex-porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.
