A rather astonishing development took place in the Trump hush-money case this week.
A paralegal for Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg admitted that some of the phone records from the Trump case were deleted from case files.
Talking Points…
- Evidence deleted
- Cohen testifies
- Analysis
Monday was a very interesting way to start the week, with a paralegal from Alvin Bragg’s office, Jaden Jarmel-Schneider, admitting that some of the records were deleted from the case files. We are already hearing whispers in the Trump camp regarding a possible mistrial, but that would have to get by Judge Merchan, so we all know how that will pan out.
The fact that some of these call records are missing has opened up two very different doors in terms of the Trump defense. First, the defense team can say they were not supplied with all of the documents related to the investigation, which would go against discovery rules. Second, they are already pushing that some of the recordings by Michael Cohen may have been doctored.
For instance, in one call, Cohen discusses the “catch and kill” story regarding Trump’s alleged affairs. The call is cut short, which has Trump’s attorneys leaning toward the idea that Cohen doctored the recording. Prosecutors, however, say that Cohen simply cut the call short because he had another call to take. Jarmel-Schneider confirmed the deletion of the files.
Micheal Cohen, an admitted liar, also took the stand on Monday for the first day of his testimony. He is expected to retake the stand on Tuesday. Cohen is supposed to be the star witness for the prosecution, but nothing new really came about during the first day of testimony. For instance, Cohen testified:
“What I was doing, I was doing at the direction of and benefit of Mr. Trump.”
This is something that Cohen has maintained from day one, so this was not news to anyone in that courtroom. The most shocking part of his testimony was his own admittance that he was secretly recording Donald Trump without his knowledge during phone calls and meetings.
From the testimony that has been released so far, I did not ever see any admittance by Trump regarding the affairs, only that Trump wanted the stories to go away so as not to hurt him in the presidential election, hence the hush-money payments.
The biggest takeaway from Cohen’s testimony in terms of being damaging to Trump was that Cohen stated that Trump approved and oversaw everything. Cohen pushed the narrative that when it was something that could really impact Trump, he wanted updates and to know exactly how things were going.
Cohen also dropped a few Melania bombshells about how Trump perceived these allegations. Cohen stated that Trump was more worried about his campaign than he was about how they would impact Melania, so again, we have testimony that is tainting the jury’s perception of the type of man that Donald Trump is.
While Cohen still has another day of testimony, I have yet to see that smoking gun that Bragg promised everyone during this trial. At this point, this trial is more like TMZ than a real courtroom drama. I keep waiting for Bragg to drop the hammer, but that has not yet happened.
