CNN Legal Analyst Argues Defense’s ‘Devastating’ Cross of Michael Cohen Could Get Trump Acquitted

Jennifer Bowers BahneyMay 17th, 2024, 12:35 pm

NYU law professor and CNN legal analyst Ryan Goodman said that Thursday’s testimony in the Trump porn star hush money case was so devastating to the prosecution that Trump would be acquitted if the trial were over now.

Goodman appeared on CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront Thursday night to discuss Michael Cohen’s testimony and the fact that prosecutor Susan Hoffinger will have a chance to redirect on Monday.

BURNETT: The prosecution’s going to have a chance for the redirect, which is gonna be crucial because they got to take this moment and they got to turn it from something that can be terrible to something that’s is terrible, right? Okay. But she said she will have under an hour of redirect is that enough time to do it?

GOODMAN: It’s surprising to me. I think that the defense counsel made so much headway today, to then to try to recover for only an hour, and rehabilitate Michael Cohen within an hour seems incongruous with the task at hand.

I do want to also say though, there is a lot of other evidence in the case. If the jury’s looking at it and saying, “What happened, like what happened in 2016?” A lot of it is corroborated by David Pecker. There’s the 2015 meeting with Michael Cohen. It is explicitly about trying to influence the outcome of the campaign. There are other pieces that are also explicit, including —

BURNETT: So, can this get to the level it needs to without, say, this phone call?

GOODMAN: That’s right, because we do have David Pecker saying that in November, December, we do have Michael Cohen says to him, “Please tell Trump to reimburse me.” That is not Michael Cohen hiding things from Trump. That is Trump being in the loop, informed about the scheme. And, so, there’s other things there, but I think what happened today’s still is so devastating, they have to do something. Right now, if the case ended today and there were final statements, I think there would not be a conviction.

Watch the clip above via CNN.