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George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley slammed the New York trial against President Donald Trump on Tuesday as closing arguments were given.
Closing arguments began Tuesday morning in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against Trump, which claims that the 45th president allegedly falsified business records. While Trump has pleaded not guilty to the 34 felony counts brought against him, many experts have called out the case and its key witness, former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, since the beginning.
“This entire case turns on a serial perjurer, who many of us believe lied repeatedly on the stand in front of this jury,” Turley stated while outside the New York courthouse.
During the trial, Cohen took the stand testifying that Trump allegedly directed him to make payments for a nondisclosure agreement to porn star Stormy Daniels as well as agreeing to make the reimbursements back through falsified business records. However, experts have called out the use of Cohen as he has notably had a history of lying on the stand.
According to the Daily Caller News Foundation, in 2017, Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress regarding statements made to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence about a Trump Tower being built in Moscow. In a second case in 2018, Cohen claimed on the stand that he had lied under oath after pleading guilty to tax evasion.
Cohen’s own former advisor, Bob Castello, has also repeatedly called out Cohen’s claims against Trump, stating that the key witness didn’t have “anything” on the 45th president.
“We made it clear to him that there was a way to solve his problem if he had truthful information about Donald Trump because that’s clearly where the southern district was going. Then, I told him if that’s the case, I can get you out of your legal problems by the end of the week. Every time I brought it up, he said, ‘I swear to god, Bob’ — this is a quote — ‘I swear to god, Bob, I don’t have anything on Donald Trump,’” Costello told Fox News during an interview.
Prior to closing arguments, Cohen admitted last week that he stole tens of thousands of dollars from the Trump Organization after revealing the amount he paid a tech company for their services to Trump’s business, according to Fox News.
“You stole from the Trump Org, right?” Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked Cohen.
“Yes, sir,” Cohen stated.