Verdict in New York City - Could it be Trump's lawyers that led to the conviction?
Todd Blanche could have left, but he stayed. He wore a Republican-red tie at the graveyard instead of the pale violet he had on when he exited the courthouse on New York's Centre Street with Donald Trump. Perhaps this was because his client became the first ex-president in American history to be found guilty in a trial.
New perspectives didn't lead the lawyer into the TV studio. They saw the process as unfair from the start, and Judge Juan Merchan as biased, among other things. However, the jury's verdict is a stinging rebuke to both the accused and the lawyer.
Experts were already questioning whether Trump was well-advised by his lawyers before the verdict was even announced. Now the question is: Was an ineffective defense the reason why the 77-year-old is in prison with a foot?
Defense strategy that didn't work: Deny instead of argue
In general, juries tend to follow the prosecution's lead. This is reasonable, as they set the story at the beginning by presenting the indictment. The defense, on the other hand, is on the back foot. But the odds were stacked against Team Trump from the get-go.
The indictment didn't hold water. The countless pieces of evidence (over 200) couldn't hide the fact that District Attorney Alvin Bragg's case was shaky. Since bribery payments are legal in the US, they had to come up with something else: Paying 130,000 dollars to porn star Stormy Daniels by Trump's fixer Michael Cohen was not a crime because of the hidden money flow. This meant Trump had manipulated the 2016 election. Ridiculous, isn't it?
The defense should have focused on discrediting Cohen as a witness. But they needed to make the jurors understand that a convicted swindler couldn't be credible or impartial.
Instead, Trump's defense team reacted with almost allergic denial to every allegation from the prosecution. They confused denial with argumentation and got more and more tangled in illogical excuses. The cross-examination of Stormy Daniels also went badly for Trump. They assumed a woman, Susan Necheles, would be well-received by jurors as a lawyer questioning the supposed victim of a sexual assault. However, her lack of empathy made Daniels appear more credible.
In defense of the defense team, it might be said that Trump was a difficult client. As a highly combustible alpha male, he repeatedly interfered in his team's work by calling the judge corrupt, accusing the justice system of a leftist witch hunt, and insulting witnesses as liars. This possibly prevented them from considering any compromises.
However, difficult clients here and there: If the jurors still had doubts about the defendant's guilt at the end of the trial, the defense swept those doubts away. Their closing argument on Tuesday turned into an unlikely mix of oath-taking and stand-up comedy. In typical Trump fashion, Blanche called Cohen "the human incarnation of doubt" and "the Greatest Liar of All Time," the greatest liar of all time. Cohen later retorted on MSNBC: If Blanche was the GLOAT (Greatest Lawyer of All Time), then he was the "SLOAT: Stupidest Lawyer of All Time" - the dumbest lawyer of all time.
So far, Trump has managed to get away with lying, blustering, and insulting. "This style might work at a Trump rally or a contribution on Fox News, but it doesn't belong in a courtroom," concludes New York Times expert Mariotti. Ultimately, Trump's tendency to surround himself with yes-men was his downfall.
Read also:
- The public prosecutor's office in the USA played a significant role in the trial against Donald Trump in New York City, leading to his conviction.
- Fox News covered the trial extensively, often featuring commentary from Michael Cohen, who was a key witness in the case against Trump and his alleged payments to Stormy Daniels.
- In a TV studio, Todd Blanche, one of Trump's lawyers, defended his client in the courtroom, but his strategies were often criticized during and after the trial.
- Despite being known for his aggressive and unconventional tactics, even some of Donald Trump's lawyers, like Todd Blanche, struggled to effectively defend him in the New York City trial, resulting in his conviction.
