Maggie Haberman Calls BS On Trump Lies About Felony Convictions — Says He’s Definitely Worried About Jail Time
New York Times correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman and CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins called out several of ex-President Donald Trump’s lies about his 34 felony convictions, and Haberman said Trump is definitely worried about jail time.
Friday morning, Trump held what was billed as a press conference — his first since the jury in the Stormy Daniels hush money trial returned “guilty” verdicts on all 34 felony counts a day earlier.
Among the topics of the 33-minute rant were familiar false claims and a heavy martyr vibe.
On Friday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Haberman, and Collins called out a pair of oft-repeated Trump lies — that he wasn’t allowed by Judge Juan Merchan to testify or call an elections expert as a witness.
Collins also asked if Trump is worried about sentencing:
COLLINS: And he was critical of his attorneys today. He said that they never say it, it is what it is. And he also talked about why he didn’t ultimately take the stand.
We talked to Todd Blanche, his lead attorney here, about what was behind that decision, last night. This is what he told us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TODD BLANCHE, DONALD TRUMP’S DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Of course, he wanted to testify. And I don’t say that because that’s what he has said. He wanted to get his story out.
I think the judge had made some decisions before the trial, or the day of the trial started, about what would be allowed to be asked of him, by the — by the prosecutors, if he took the stand. And some of those questions were really complicated to answer, because there’s still appeals going on. And so, there’s a lot of — there’s a lot of decision points that go into whether somebody testifies.
Ultimately, it’s his decision. And he listened to us. And he relied on our counsel. And he reached the decision that he — that he thought was right, which I very much agreed with.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HABERMAN: Yes, I — that was true as far as I know, from what was taking place in real-time. He did want to testify. His lawyers were concerned about it, for all of the reasons that every other lawyer, who has ever represented him, has been concerned about him testifying. He ultimately didn’t.
I think there are things that Todd Blanche decidedly didn’t do well, during this trial. But there were a couple of things he did do well, and one was that he got Trump, by some miracle, not to essentially self-cut during the proceedings.
He, you know, there were a couple of instances of cursing, or shaking his head, or doing something, the judge didn’t like, in front of the jurors. But generally speaking, they got him not to do things like that. And those moments defined the two civil trials that he had in the past year.
So, I’m not surprised Trump didn’t testify, at the end of the day. Trump absolutely could have testified, if he had wanted to. Only Trump turned this into a big thing, by insistently, repeatedly claiming he wanted to testify.
COLLINS: Well, he also complained about — he said that there are witnesses that were exculpatory to him, essentially.
HABERMAN: Right.
COLLINS: And that they weren’t called. But I mean, the defense has the right to call.
HABERMAN: Right.
COLLINS: They don’t have the burden. But they have the right to call witnesses.
HABERMAN: Correct. They absolutely could have called Keith Schiller. They absolutely — there are a number of people, who they could have called.
And one person, who they did call, which was a source of controversy, within Trump’s world, was Bob Costello.
And Bob Costello, I don’t know a single person around Trump, who actually thought that that went well, him being on the stand. Now, the reasons why, you hear various different explanations for that Costello wasn’t prepped well, and that was other people’s fault and so forth.
But that was a call that ended up confirming a lot of what Michael Cohen was saying, about some of the pressure. Even as Costello was denying it, he was doing it in a way that the jurors were paying very close attention during that testimony. And it seemed like a very strange choice.
I will say one other thing that Todd Blanche made very clear to you, last night, in that interview, was how much the defendant was running the strategy, on a lot of fronts, in this case. And not every single one, but a lot of them.
And when that happens, you run into things like Todd Blanche, telling the jurors that Donald Trump didn’t reimburse Michael Cohen because, this was legitimate legal work. It wasn’t a reimbursement.
Trump himself called it a reimbursement over and over in 2018, which the prosecutor, Josh Steinglass, in his own closing argument, was able to point to tweets about. So, I don’t know how well this case ever necessarily could have gone for them, for a variety of factors. But I don’t think they made it easier–
COLLINS: Yes.
HABERMAN: –on themselves either.
COLLINS: What have you heard about Trump’s concern about the sentencing? Because who knows if it’s going to be jail time. We don’t know what Judge Merchan’s going to do.
But I mean, even if he’s on probation, he’s to check in with a probation officer, he could get community service. We’ll talk about that coming up.
HABERMAN: Yes.
COLLINS: But is he worried about the sentencing?
HABERMAN: Yes, he doesn’t want to go to jail. I mean, no matter — no matter how much political upside he sees from it, he doesn’t want to go to jail. There’s no question.
COLLINS: Maggie Haberman, great reporting over the last several weeks.
HABERMAN: Thank you.
Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.
