Alan Dershowitz, Harvard Law professor emeritus, told Newsmax Wednesday that the prosecutors in former President Donald Trump's criminal trial in Manhattan misled the jury in closing arguments.
Trump is charged with falsifying business records on a $130,000 payment to Michael Cohen. Trump's former attorney to reimburse him for paying adult film star Stormy Daniels to stop saying she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006.
Trump has denied all charges and said the encounter never occurred.
The prosecutors told the jury they could find all the elements of a crime committed without believing Michael Cohen, their star witness.
"That's just not true," Dershowitz told "The National Report." "The only evidence that Donald Trump knew of this at all comes from an uncorroborated conversation with Michael Cohen that could have been corroborated by Alan Weisselberg."
But prosecutors never called Weisselberg, Dershowitz said.
"There is a lack of corroboration for a crucial conversation that might criminalize what was otherwise innocent behavior," Dershowitz said.
Dershowitz also attacked a New York State law that allows the prosecution to go last when presenting closing arguments, calling it unconstitutional.
"How does a defense go first when it doesn't even know what the crimes are that turned a misdemeanor into a felony?" Dershowitz said. "They had to wait until they heard it from the prosecutor's closing argument and then had no chance to rebut."
Dershowitz said if he was on the defense team, he would've said he had nothing to say and that he would wait for the prosecutors to present their case and then respond to it.
"You can't make me respond to a case I haven't heard yet," Dershowitz said. "The defense was forced to go first, which imposed a burden on them which the jury will take into the room."
In closing arguments, Dershowitz said the defense should've focused on prosecutors not calling Weisselberg as a witness.
"I would've put up a life-size blown-up picture of Allen Weisselberg on the witness stand," Dershowitz said. "What did the prosecution hide from you?"
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Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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