Historian and authoritarianism expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat is sounding the alarm over the fact that Fox News appears to be coordinating with former President Donald Trump on his trial defense talking points.
This comes after Media Matters for America's Matt Gertz noted that at 9:18 am, Trump proclaimed that law professor Jonathan Turley and former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy are "great lawyers and legal scholars, every single one says there is no crime" — and then just three minutes later, Fox News brought Turley and McCarthy on to discuss his criminal trial in Manhattan.
"Authoritarian party propaganda arm alert," posted Ben-Ghiat to the X platform. "But please, continue to invite [Fox News parent company chair] Lachlan [Murdoch] to your fancy media and tech conferences and pretend all is well and normal!"
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Trump, who is charged with bookkeeping fraud for allegedly concealing the nature of hush payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels to conceal an affair from voters in the 2016 presidential election, has repeatedly denounced the case against him in a series of courthouse rants to reporters, often holding up printed quotes from his allies and reading off all the right-wing legal experts who are opposed to the prosecution.
The past few days of the trial have been dominated by testimony from Trump's former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen, who told the court that the former president was fully aware of the scheme and that Cohen arranged everything with his knowledge and approval.
Trump's legal defense has sought to discredit Cohen in every way possible, painting him as a serial liar who has changed his story on numerous occasions. Cohen has said that his previous lies were at Trump's own direction, and the prosecution has sought to independently corroborate as much of Cohen's story as possible with other witnesses and documents.
