Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s trial of former President Donald Trump got off to a fairly poor start, according to a legal expert who spoke to Fox News on Friday.
Prosecutors called former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker as their first witness in the former president’s trial. However, former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy told Fox News that Pecker’s testimony did not present any damage to Trump. McCarthy insisted that the former president should feel optimistic about the trial.
“Prosecutors generally want to start very strong,” McCarthy said. “And the witness that Bragg seems to have put on, Alvin Bragg, the elected district attorney of Manhattan is David Pecker, a long-time friend of President Trump, who clearly was not hostile to President Trump and I think given the Trump’s team understanding of the case, what they realize is that while there seems to be a lot of evidence offered, it’s evidence of conduct that’s actually legal. So he(Trump) can’t have thought that that was a bad day for him.”
McCarthy, however, noted that the jury may not understand that Pecker’s testimony was advantageous to Trump because they are getting instructions from a judge who isn’t friendly to the former president.
“On the other hand, you asked me what is the biggest defense fear,” he added. “It’s one thing to be watching the trial through the media, if you are watching it on our channel, you hear me. You hear Kerry Kupec, you hear Jonathan Turley talk about the weaknesses of the case. The jury is not getting that filter. The jury is getting the district attorney’s version of events and taking its cues from a judge who has been very friendly to the district attorney. So if you’re watching this with legal commentary, you know they’re not really proving a conspiracy in there and don’t really have federal campaign finance in there. But I don’t know that the jury knows that.”
McCarthy also noted that Judge Juan Merchan’s instructions to the jury will be critical in deciding Trump’s faith.
“One of the things I’d be very concerned about as the Trump team is that so far, Judge Merchan has gone down the line on almost every important issue, ruling in Bragg’s favor,” Trump said. And I’ll expect that the jury instruction that he gives at the end of the case will be favorable to the prosecution.”
