Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Lawyer goes OFF-THE-RAILS in SCREAMING RAGE During Trial

Episode Date: May 17, 2024

Trump’s lead trial lawyer Todd Blanche —feeling the strain of not having tried a jury trial in the last 10 years— and up against Michael Cohen who has done his job to establish the key points for the prosecution, lost it today in court and started screaming at Michael for no reason apparent to the jury. Michael Popok, a NY trial attorney, compares Michael’s grand performance in this criminal trial with his testimony in the NY Attorney General case and explains how the jury is receiving Michael and interpreting Blanche losing his cool in court. Manukora: Head to https://manukora.com/legalaf to receive $25 off your starter kit today! Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Join us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/legalaf Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Uber Eats can definitely get you that. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol in select markets. Product availability may vary by Regency app for details. This is Michael Popock, Legal AF. It's time for my take on Michael Cohen and how he's doing. Let me lead off with,

after eight hours of cross-examination by Todd Blanche in a very confusing cross-examination, which is usual for somebody who hasn't tried a case in the last seven or eight years, which is Todd Blanche. I don't think he's tried a case actually with a jury in the last five years and the rust is showing. Todd Blanch got so frustrated that he started, for no apparent reason, I'm sure the jury was confused, started yelling at Michael Cohen about something so simple as a phone call

eight years ago and whether Michael had perfect recall about the phone call to Donald Trump or not and got very frustrated and it really was just it wasn't then it was an accumulation of Michael successfully counterpunching Todd Blanch over the last 10 hours in a way that Michael was not able to do frankly in the New York Attorney General. I'm gonna talk and compare and contrast the two and then talk about why Todd Blanch blew up today, mainly because his entire career is on the line. He left his major swanky law firm

where he had a cushy job, making a lot of money, to go take on one client, Donald Trump. And he's got one major thing to do in this case. He did a 20-minute opening statement, which I thought should have went on for at least an hour and a half on behalf of Donald Trump, and he's got one major thing to do in this case, he did a 20 minute opening statement, which I thought should have went on for at least an hour and a half on behalf of Donald Trump, making promises to the jury he can never keep. And then his big moment out of 19 witnesses

is the cross-examination of Michael Cohen and it's not going well. And so you see the frustration. It's sort of like when you're watching a basketball game and the other side is losing and they like when you're watching a basketball game, and the other side is losing, and they get frustrated, and they throw the basketball, you know, once or twice at fans in the stands, because they're really upset. That's what happened at top

blanch today, when he yelled at Michael Cohen over a call made eight years ago by Michael Cohen, because Michael Cohen didn't have perfect recall of the conversation he had with Donald Trump, he had to gist. I believe that I told Donald Trump about the fact that I had resolved the Stormy Daniels issue and she would not be going to the press about her sex act with him and he was pleased. And Todd Blanch, you know, I'm sure the jury was as confused as I was, yelled out, oh, the jury doesn't care what you think. The jury wants to know what you know.

I mean, I guess if you'd wandered in from outside and hadn't seen any other part of the 12 hours of cross-examination, you might think, whoa, this must've been going on for a long time, this back and forth and cat and mouse between Todd Blanch and Michael Cohen, but not really. Michael's been the cat in the cat and mouse so far. When Michael gave his testimony before the judge Angora

on the New York attorney general case, which brought down and brought low Donald Trump to the tune of $465 million judgment, he did okay. It was like, as I've said before, it's like a gentleman's be Gentlemen's be minus he was a little bit confrontational He was a little bit argumentative in all of that. He was

Not answering the questions before judge Angor on he was getting a little bit Speechifying and and overall he seemed a little bit shrunken Not so in the Trump case, in this criminal case. Michael has been waiting for this moment, as we all know, for the last 10 years. And he is ready to tell the truth to this jury. And he knows, nobody knows the baggage that Michael carries around with him,

having pled guilty to a couple of crimes more than Michael Cohen. So if Todd Blanche thought he was going to embarrass Michael Cohen, Michael Cohen knows his own life story better than anybody, and the Manhattan DA and Michael's lawyers have prepared him for this moment. And so by contrast to the New York Attorney General case, Michael's been confident, Michael has counterpunched appropriately. case. Michael's been confident. Michael has counterpunched appropriately. Michael has, and I've met Michael and I've been on Michael's show, of course, Michael has a certain charm, has a certain suavness about him that the jury by people that are there seems to like Michael Cohen. that the jury by people that are there seems to like Michael Cohen.

And that's not sitting well with Donald Trump and Todd Blanch. They don't want a jury to like Michael Cohen. This episode of Legal AF is brought to you by Manicura Honey, also known as the honey with superpowers. Let me share something sweet with you. And I mean really sweet. It's something that's become a staple in my routine, and I think you're gonna love it. I'm talking about Manicura Honey. When I say honey, you might be picturing those bear-shaped bottles at the supermarket.

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Manakura. Manakura is incredible and I'm so thankful they're a partner of the show. I look forward to Manakura every morning. Make sure you click the link in our description or head to manakura.com slash legal AF and try some today. So far Michael Cohen has killed Donald Trump in testimony. He has said, as the only witness that can really say this, that Donald Trump not only knew about the Stormy Daniels payoff, he knew about the phony invoices sent by Michael Cohen. He wanted Michael to send in phony invoices

about legal expenses, and he knew that was a cover for the Stormy Daniels payment, and that he caused, Donald Trump caused, those items to be recorded in the books and records of the company as false statements about legal expenses paid to Michael Cohen when they were nothing of the kind. There were repayments of Michael Cohen

for the money he laid out for Stormy Daniels. Donald Trump knew it, Donald Trump directed it, and that's the crime. Only Michael Cohen can say that, what I just said under oath, the way I just said it. And so that's been frustrating to Todd Blanch. He's also established, Michael Cohen, that this was all about the election, which is the second crime necessary to make this a felony. You need a second crime. The books and records by itself is a violation of penal code in New York,

but it's a misdemeanor. But if you do it in furtherance of another crime, in this case, election interference, now you hit a felony. And Michael testified on that key point. Because when he said that, I think this is the part that's going to resonate with the jury, Donald Trump would have preferred not to have paid Stormy Daniels even after they reached a deal and was hoping he could win the election without her so he didn't have to pay her. It had nothing to do with Melania. There's no Melania defense.

I was hiding it from my family in Melania. Bullshit. He was hiding it from the American public off the heels of the Access Hollywood hot mic moment and he had to deal with it and didn't want all these other women like Karen McDougal and others to pop up with stories about his sexcapades. That's what it was about. And it was to get him into office. David Pecker said the same thing.

And of course, Michael Cohen is now what appears to be the last witness for the prosecution has now testified. So it's two big pillars that support the prosecution Michael Cohen is delivered on. Donald Trump was the leader of the conspiracy, the Trump Tower conspiracy to catch and kill stories that verse to him about sex, about porn stars,

and Donald Trump, and everybody at Donald Trump's direction did things like pay her through Michael Cohen, through a sham organization, an LLC that he created, a limited liability company with phony invoices to back it up and to make sure that Michael Cohen got paid a bonus, a premium, and a gross up in order to pay his taxes on it. All the behest of Donald Trump. Michael established that, and the other pillar, of course,

Michael established is that this was election interference. And that's why Todd Blanch has gotten all hot and bothered. I mean, after nine hours of trying to chip away, and I've done cross-examinations like this that he's doing, and it can get frustrating when you're not getting the right answers, or you're in a moment where you want to signal to the jury, this is really important to me. But,

but Todd Blanch has been so ham fisted, so heavy handed with it that I don't think this is scoring points with the jury. I think Michael, the takeaway on Michael, the read by the jury from my perception of Michael is that he's telling the truth and that he's likable about it and that he's, he's remembering things that you would think he would remember and his memory fails him a bit on places where there was nine years ago and you wouldn't think that minutia or that level of detail he'd have

a grasp of. You know, when Todd Blanch says, didn't you, you know, you didn't make that phone call to Donald Trump because he doesn't want Michael Cohen to look the jury in the eye, which he already has, and said that Donald Trump knew about the Stormy Daniels payoff. So anything that touches on that is like the third rail, like it's electrocuting Todd Blanchett. He starts screaming for no reason, like a madman, at Michael Cohen, but I don't think that's going well. I think that just signals to the jury the weakness of the case.

And if the prosecutors are smart, they'll point it out. Remember that time to my opponent, Mr. Blanche, for no apparent reason, just started getting very angry at Michael Cohen? That's because Michael Cohen was hurting Donald Trump, his client. That's because his testimony was convincing and that hurt Donald Trump and then you saw

the lawyer act out. That's what I would do in closing if I were the prosecutors in this case. But listen, we're gonna continue to follow it. We have to, not just because Michael Cohen's on our network and has a podcast, but because it's news and it's at the intersection of law and politics and it matters when a former president

stands trial for crimes. As you make your decision about who you wanna see back in the Oval Office, the current president or the former president, which one? We'll continue to follow it right here on Legal AF and on the Midas Touch Network. Wednesdays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Eastern time, my co-anchor has shown, co-founded it called Legal AF.

It sits at the intersection of law and politics so you don't have to. We curate the top five stories there and we bring it to you right here, only one place, the Midas Touch Network. Be like, what I'm doing on Michael Popok, leave me a thumbs up or a comment, I've been known to comment back,

go over to my playlist on the YouTube channel for Midas Touch and look for Michael Popok and my entire body of work is sitting there as well. So until my next hot take, until my next podcast called Legal AF, join us and find out why we call it that. And then we have a Patreon, patreon.com slash legalaf. You can learn the law at the intersection of law and politics. And until my next Patreon exclusive video, this is Michael Popak reporting. Heary, heary, Legal AF Law Breakdown is now in

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