‘OMG! Clean-Up On Aisle Five!’ CNN Stunned By ‘Incredibly Effective’ Trump Lawyer’s Questioning of Prosecution Witness

CNN anchor Erin Burnett and chief legal analyst Paula Reid were stunned by the “incredibly effective” cross-examination by former President Donald Trump’s lawyers of prosecution witness Keith Davidson — describing it as an “OMG” moment.

Thursday was not great for the prosecution in the Stormy Daniels hush money-election interference trial being led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and presided over by Judge Juan Merchan.

On Thursday’s edition of CNN’s branded coverage of the trial, Burnett underscored just how effective she thought Trump’s team had been at dirtying up the witness, and Reid agreed:

WOLF BLITZER: We are tracking minute-by-minute updates as Trump’s defense attorney just finished cross-examining a key lawyer. Talking about Keith Davidson, he represented both Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, who were both paid to keep quiet about alleged affairs with Trump. Erin?

ERIN BURNETT: And the prosecution requested a five-minute break here to decide whether they’re going to try to do re-direct examination. And Davidson’s testimony so far, some really crucial moments both on direct and in these recent moments in cross. He says these deals were crafted in the weeks before the 2016 election and he said that he never had any interaction with Trump directly.

Phil Mattingly and Paula Reid are back with me.

So, Paula, as I said, they just asked for a five-minute break and you said this is a five-minute break where you sit down and go, OMG, we need to clean up on aisle five.

PAULA REID: Yes, they do. I mean, this was incredibly effective cross-examination largely because the prosecution did not themselves bring up a lot of Davidson’s other dealings. Deals that he brokered from clients – for clients who got money from, for example, Charlie Sheen or going to try to get money from Hulk Hogan in exchange for a sex tape, something where some of his interactions were monitored by the authorities.

They did incredibly damaging things that raised questions about whether Davidson was indeed in the business of extortion.

BURNETT: Interesting. Trump, so they’re back in, Keith Davidson’s back on the stand …

REID: This is big.

BURNETT: But Trump glanced at the Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg as he walked in.

REID: So this …

BURNETT: He hasn’t been in yet, has he?

REID: This is …

BURNETT: He wasn’t there the other day when I was there.

REID: You’re exactly right. So this is fascinating, Alvin Bragg of it all. This is the district attorney who oversees this case, but he has taken a very low profile here. When we had the civil case just a few blocks away, the Attorney General of the state of New York, Letitia James, she talked to the microphones every single day, often responded to Trump on social media. Alvin Bragg is deliberately taking an extremely different approach. He is not often in the court. You never hear from him. Even in his few media appearances, he has not answered questions recently about this case.

So the fact that he’s in court today, that’s really interesting, especially because they just think they got killed on cross, so this is fascinating that he’s …

BURNETT: They got killed, so it means he’s not far away. Maybe he was in that room waiting and saying, I’m going to oversee the cleanup.

Watch above via CNN’s branded coverage of the Stormy Daniels hush money-election interference trial.