Former Mueller prosecutor Andrew Weissmann on Tuesday said that the early testimony in former President Donald Trump’s hush-money criminal trial has been “so powerful” that the public should “recalibrate” how it views the case.
Longtime former Trump fixer Michael Cohen has been poised to be a star witness in the case but the former president’s defense team has already gone on attack, painting him as a liar after he pleaded guilty to lying to Congress to aid Trump.
But Weissmann argued after testimony from former American Media chief David Pecker and former Stormy Daniels lawyer Keith Davidson that this “case is made very much without Michael Cohen.”
“This is so corroborated,” Weissmann said, noting that the two witnesses’ accounts “fit together so perfectly.”
“Also it’s completely corroborated, particularly with respect to Mr. Davidson, by so many texts and email exchanges and the written documents,” he continued, adding that virtually every question has been backed up by some form of evidence.
Pecker and Davidson both testified that Cohen had to scramble to come up with the money to buy Daniels’ story to help Trump’s campaign after the National Enquirer refused.
“By the time you get to Michael Cohen, the way I think this will be summed up by the prosecution is to say, “you know what, if Michael Cohen had said anything else you would have thought he was lying,” Weissmann said. “It is so completely consistent with this story.”
