Law Professor Reveals Weapon Trump Could Use Against Bragg

Daily Report May 16,2024

Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz suggests that former President Donald Trump may have a secret weapon he could use to turn the jury in his favor.

Dershowitz, while speaking on a recent episode of his podcast, revealed that Trump’s attorney must seek a “missing witness instruction” over former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, who is currently serving a jail term.

Prosecutors sought to introduce Weisselberg’s severance package into evidence Friday but declined to call him as a witness. According to Dershowitz, prosecutors are obligated to call a witness they have control over if that witness could give testimony favorable to a defendant.

“The reason the government does want to call him seems obvious, that if he testified, he would testify against (Michael) Cohen, he would not corroborate, he would undercut Cohen and that’s not a good reason,” Dershowitz said. “The person who could have corroborated Cohen’s testimony if it’s true, if it’s true, that’s the key, is Allen Weisselberg, he’s sitting in prison under the control of government. The government snaps his fingers and puts him on as a witness. He could be called as a witness. The government has chosen not to call him as witness, and this issue should be litigated very extensively by Trump’s lawyers.”

The former Havard law professor then explained how the situation could work in Trump’s favor.

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“So, it starts by Trump’s lawyers making a motion calling for missing witness instruction: ‘Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, if there was a witness under the control of one side and that side declined to call them and his testimony would have been relevant, you can presume that the testimony would have been unfavorable,’” Dershowitz continued.

Cohen, the prosecution’s star witness, testified that the former president directed him to pay the hush money at the center of the criminal trial. However, former federal prosecutor Robert Costello testified before Congress Wednesday that Michael Cohen told him he had “nothing truthful” implicating Trump of a crime.

Costello, who served as Cohen’s adviser when he became the subject of an investigation by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, told lawmakers that Cohen blamed Trump for losing his law license and is currently on a revenge tour against the former president.

Michael Cohen’s former lawyer, Robert Costello, just revealed that Cohen has NOTHING on President Trump.

“I swear to God, Bob, I don’t have anything on Donald Trump.” pic.twitter.com/po8A7WWzGj

— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) May 15, 2024

“‘I swear to God, Bob, I don’t have anything on Donald Trump,’” Costello said Cohen repeatedly told him. “Throughout this two-hour interview, Michael Cohen made clear that this payment to Daniels was his own idea, designed to try and get him back into the inner circle of Trump people in Washington.”