The judge’s cutting comment to Trump’s lawyer the jury didn’t hear: How Todd Blanche was slapped down for asking Michael Cohen why he called him a ‘crying little s***’
- Blanche’s first questions to Cohen were about attacks on Trump lawyers
- Judge Juan Merchan told him: ‘Just don’t make it about yourself’
- Follow the news about the hush money trial
Michael Cohen’s long-awaited cross-examination started with fireworks and a direct blow from the judge to Donald Trump’s lawyer.
It started when attorney Todd Blanche, a former prosecutor for the Southern District of New York who left an established firm when he took on Trump as a client, hit Cohen out of the gate during questioning on Tuesday with some of the fixer’s words.
‘Mr. Cohen, my name is Todd Blanche,” he introduced himself.
“You know who I am, don’t you?” he asked the witness.
“You were on TikTok calling me a crying bitch, right?” he asked.
“Sounds like something I would say,” was Cohen’s first response.
“Why are you making this about yourself?” Donald Trump lawyer Todd Blanche was admonished by the judge with his opening questions to Michael Cohen about the witness’s attacks on him
Blanche then asked another question about Trump’s legal team.
“Remember on April 20th, again after this trial started, you commented on myself and….” [Trump attorney] Mrs Necheles on this matter; correct?’
The efforts prompted an immediate response from Judge Juan Merchan, who remained calm throughout the trial.
But Merchan was not happy with the turn of events and asked Blanche a pointed question out of earshot of the jurors who will decide Trump’s fate.
“Why are you making this about yourself?” That’s what Merchan wanted to know, prompting Blanche to claim he wanted to show that Cohen is a biased witness.
“I have the right to show the bias of this witness, and he has expressed his bias against the attorneys just because of who he represents,” Blanche argued.
“It doesn’t matter if he’s prejudiced against you. It doesn’t matter,” Merchan told him. “The question is whether he has bias against the suspect.”
He then underlined his concern and told the lawyer:
Cohen was asked Tuesday about a series of profane insults
The Public Prosecution Service is completing its case against Trump
‘Just don’t make it about yourself. I’m going to support the objection and instruct the jury. Please don’t make it about yourself.’
It was just the judge’s latest warning, on a day when Blanche repeatedly tried to portray Cohen as a liar and former Donald Trump fanboy who could not be trusted.
When Blanche tried to argue last month that Trump’s statements on the case did not violate a court order, Judge Merchan lectured him: “You lose all credibility.”
And it turns out Blanche didn’t dig deep for other quotes from Cohen from the past that might demonstrate hostility toward his client without implicating himself. He had bragged on TikTok about seeing Trump “go right into that little cage where he belongs, in a damn cage, like an animal.”
He did not deny saying, “I really hope this guy ends up in jail.” He also did not dispute that people will not be satisfied until “this man is in his cell.”
A former federal prosecutor, Renato Mariotti, called Blanche’s first attack an error.
‘There is a difference between intelligence and wisdom. That exchange represented a significant error in judgment by Todd Blanche,” he wrote.