Michael Cohen will take the stand Monday in Donald Trump's hush money trial, and a legal expert predicted his testimony would be briefer than defense attorneys might expect.
The former president's longtime fixer will walk jurors through the scheme he and Trump concocted to ensure adult film actress Stormy Daniels would remain quiet before the 2016 election about her sexual relationship with the Republican nominee, but legal analyst Danny Cevallos told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that he expected Cohen would not remain on the stand very long.
"All the other evidence so far has been circumstantial evidence," Cevallos said. "In other words, nobody coming in and saying, 'Trump told me to do this.' Circumstantial evidence can be just as powerful. Everything leading up to Michael Cohen testifying, the prosecutors have sought to really prebut the defense's attempts to paint him as not believable. I think all the shrapnel Cohen has been hit with, painting him as an incompetent, wanna-be lawyer, Mr. Fix-it who broke things and had to fix them, on some level, I think that's been intentional. The prosecution wants to lessen the blow when the defense inevitably gets up there and skewers Cohen for his credibility."
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Cevallos believes prosecutors won't keep Cohen on the stand for long and will instead force defense attorneys to cross-examine him before they're ready.
"I think he will be up there shorter than we're expecting," Cevallos said. "Throughout the trial, they've been efficient with the witnesses. As a defense attorney, it can throw you off when you have to stand up and start cross-examining before you're ready. On some level, the speed and efficiency of the prosecution so far has been a part of their strategy, even though, I think Michael Cohen, the over/under is three days on the stand. Look for the prosecution to try to get in, get out, as fast as they can, and really, maybe, this might be a case where the defense's cross is longer than the direct."
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