In Donald Trump’s felony trial on Thursday, I began thinking of what might be called the Sleazy Lawyer Effect. Does it hurt the credibility of a witness if he sounds too much like a lawyer on the stand?
The defense attorney Emil Bove did a good job cross-examining Keith Davidson, the lawyer who represented both Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, in part by making him seem squirrelly.
Davidson came across quite differently from the first big prosecution witness, David Pecker, who seemed to make a relatively good impression by mildly conceding almost everything Bove threw at him. By contrast, Davidson quibbled with Bove’s word choices and denied that he even considered the line separating negotiation from extortion. This led him into a trap when Bove confronted him with an F.B.I. sting operation aimed at busting him for extorting Hulk Hogan over sex tapes.
Davidson said, “I don’t recall,” when asked about incidents he clearly remembered and “I don’t see that the two were related” when the jury could easily surmise that the matters at hand were.
I imagine jurors saying to themselves, “Of course this guy used leverage and maybe even extorted Trump before the election.” The question is how relevant they’ll find that in the jury room.
My guess is that conversations between Davidson and Michael Cohen will loom much larger.
The best one for the defense came from a phone call in December 2016. According to Davidson, a “distraught” and “suicidal” Cohen was crushed to learn that he had not been offered a big job in the Trump administration; he was delusional enough to think he might be attorney general or White House chief of staff.
“Jesus Christ, can you [expletive] believe I’m not going to Washington, after everything I’ve done for that [expletive] guy?” Cohen said, according to Davidson. “I’ve saved the guy’s ass so many times.”
Then Cohen told Davidson: “That guy [Trump] is not even paying me the $130,000 back.” This helped Trump’s argument that he’s innocent and that Cohen is a disappointed office seeker out for revenge.
The best moment for the prosecution came when Davidson quoted Cohen recounting a conversation about hush money in which Trump said, “I hate the fact that we did it.”
We’ll see if Cohen — who taped many of his calls — has audio of Trump further incriminating himself. Not long before adjournment, a tape related to the plan to pay off Karen McDougal was played in court. On the tape, which the defense is ludicrously trying to imply was doctored, Cohen talks to Trump about needing to set up a company with the help of Allen Weisselberg, the convicted perjurer and former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization who currently resides at Rikers Island.
Fleshed out, this is the kind of evidence that will very likely overcome the jury’s understandable disgust with the tawdry, lying, bottom-feeding world of Pecker, Davidson and Cohen — and Trump.
Source: Elections - nytimes.com
