Ari Melber Grills Michael Cohen in Mock Cross-Examination in Possible Preview of a Trump Trial in New York

MSNBC’s Ari Melber played devil’s advocate Monday evening in a mock cross-examination of former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who was sentenced to three years in federal prison for crimes including campaign finance violations he said were committed at Donald Trump‘s direction.

Melber said if Cohen were cross-examined by Trump’s lawyers in a trial and was “understandably upset” by how his former boss treated him, then why would a jury “take everything you’re saying as 100% serious and not tinged or tainted by your understandable negative feelings towards him?”

Cohen said to check the receipts, don’t just take his word for it.

“Let’s go to the documents,” Cohen said. “I don’t want anyone to take a single word of what I’m saying and use that as the basis for a potential conviction.”

Cohen spoke to Melber the night before Trump is scheduled to surrender to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office on charges he covered-up hush money payments to former porn actress Stormy Daniels in 2016. The Associated Press reported the former president is facing multiple charges of falsifying business records, including at least one felony charge.
Republicans are calling District Attorney Alvin Bragg‘s actions “political prosecution,” even though a majority of jurors voted last week to indict.

Trump arrived in Manhattan from Palm Beach on Monday, with the entire trip documented by cable news, which some commentators found excessive. CNN’s digital outlet even published a piece titled, “Track Trump’s Plane from Florida to New York.”

A small group of Trump supporters outside Trump Tower cheered the former president’s arrival, although Cohen described the scene as looking “like a bake sale over at a high school football game.”