Legal experts have been sounding the alarm that former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s TikTok fundraising videos may have “torpedoed” New York’s prosecution of the former president.
This past Sunday, ABC News published an article about how Michael Cohen “cashing in on the Trump trial with TikTok livestreams could be a problem.”
As he awaits his turn to take the witness stand, Cohen has discussed Trump, the ongoing trial, and the testimony already underway during nightly livestreams on TikTok which appear to be earning him financial benefit through viewers’ donations, according to hours of his streams viewed by ABC News.
And while the undertaking doesn’t appear to run afoul of any court order, experts say it hurts the already-blemished credibility of an essential witness in the case.
“I’d be furious,” said ABC News contributor and former Georgia prosecutor Chris Timmons. “As a prosecutor, the last thing you want your witness to do is to be talking about the case in a forum other than the courtroom.”
TikTok allows viewers to donate “gifts” that can be converted into cash as they watch people’s livestreams.
Speaking with Fox News, former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew McCarthy called Cohen’s antics a “major problem for prosecutors.”
” It is not a problem for Cohen’s credibility because he has none — he is a convicted perjurer and fraudster whose current ‘defense’ of his fraud convictions is that he wasn’t telling the truth when he pled guilty,” said McCarthy.
Even disgraced attorney Michael Avenatti lamented that Cohen may have destroyed the prosecution’s case.
“Michael Cohen through his narcissism and his ego may have just torpedoed the case against Trump,” Avenatti told Fox News from federal prison.
“Never underestimate this guy’s ability to screw something up due to his ignorance and arrogance. He’s dumber than a box of rocks. The state can’t win the case without him and because of his conduct in reviewing trial testimony in violation of the court’s order, which [he] just admitted to when speaking with ABC, the court must strike him as a witness, declare a mistrial, or both,” Avenatti continued. “He had no business commenting on other witnesses’ testimony.”
Cornell Law School professor William A. Jacobson concurred that Cohen’s behavior may prove costly.
“Profiting off the trial adds another conflict to that pile. Whether it’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back when it comes to the jury remains to be seen, but it certainly is fodder for cross-examination,” Jacobson told Fox News/
Cohen told ABC News that he would stop with the livestreams.
“I am not the defendant in this criminal matter and am not the subject of Judge Merchan’s gag order. Donald is. Nevertheless, I elected, out of respect to the court and the prosecutors, to cease commenting on Trump and this matter; which I have done,” Cohen said.
The New York prosecution has not commented on the matter.
As Breitbart News reported, New York County Judge Juan Merchan has ruled this week that “former President Donald Trump violated a gag order during his trial, holding him in criminal contempt and threatening him with jail time for any further infractions.”
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