Former president Donald Trump’s penchant for hiring attorneys who don’t know what they’re doing could be on the verge of leading to a crushing defeat in the New York hush money and election fraud lawsuit currently underway in Manhattan.
Todd Blanche is the lead attorney for the ex-president, and his incompetence and failure to ask the right questions when cross-examining Michael Cohen could come back to haunt Trump, according to Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan.
As McQuade explained to MSNBC host Katie Phang, Blanche’s mistakes were “going on too long, not having a specific plan and asking one question too many.”
The “strategy of an effective cross-examination,” McQuade continued, is to “pick out a few key areas of impeachment, contradiction or getting the witness to agree with helpful points and be laser-focused on those things so that the jury can follow along.”
Instead, it appeared that Blanche was attempting to “exhaust” Cohen, McQuade said.
Blanche “seems to be going on and on and trying to get Michael Cohen to admit to lies. Just point out the contradiction and then you can use it yourself.”
Testimony in the Manhattan hush money trial is likely to be concluded next week.
