Being Careful What You Ask For

Trump's 'defense ended on a horrible note' as witness 'insulted the jury': CNN expertshttps://t.co/97bVnjbhVP

— Raw Story (@RawStory) May 21, 2024

“Do you think the defense ultimately made a mistake by putting Robert Costello on the witness stand and having him be the final witness instead of it being Michael Cohen yesterday, acknowledging that he stole tens of thousands of dollars from the Trump Organization?" asked anchor Kaitlan Collins. 

"You hit the nail on the head," said Rossi. "Instead of focusing on Michael Cohen as a thief and a liar, they made a huge mistake." 

Trump's team completely bungled the key element of "primacy and recency," Rossi continued. 

"You always start off strong, because you only get one chance at a first impression, and people always remember your last act," he said. "By calling Mr. Costello as their last witness — actually, their only witness, they had a minor one — they left with the jury the following. Michael Cohen said, I really didn't trust Mr. Costello. I essentially thought he was a little sleazy and that he was working for Giuliani and Trump, so I didn't want to give them anything that's going to hurt me in the end. So that's very understandable. And when Costello took the stand, Kaitlan, and he acted the way he did — in my 30, 35 years of practicing law as a prosecutor and a defense attorney, I've never ever seen that, he insulted the judge. And frankly, Kaitlan, he insulted the jury." 

"They may not have heard the sidebar, but remember ... there are two attorneys on that jury and they figured out why the judge had them leave the room and it was because of the decorum," said Rossi. "The defense ended on a horrible, horrible note, and it washed away everything they were trying to do with Michael Cohen. And here's the kicker. They actually rehabilitated Michael Cohen, because Mr. Costello did come across as a little unsavory."

"A little unsavory” is in the running for “Understatement of the Year.” But there is a truth I’ve learned time and again: they always remember the last thing you said. And Trump knew before the prosecution rested what the Court’s schedule was.

So they fucked their own case as badly as they could have. I don’t know if they did that because they were following their client’s orders, but that’s not an excuse for such abysmal representation. Like a lawyer I worked for told me: “They don’t pay us to be wrong.” What the client demands, and what you know to be in the best interests of the case, are too different things. You don’t get a pass because your client was an idiot. You’re responsible for what you do in court. Period.  

The client may go to jail because of his own actions. You aren’t supposed to aid and abet that in the trial. They weren’t doing too well before this, but the “defense” they put on literally couldn’t have made the case for the prosecution any better.

And now the jury has a long week to remember that, before they get together to begin reviewing the rest of the evidence. What perspective are they going to have, now, when they do that?

Maybe Trump got the legal team he deserved.