Donald Trump Lawyers' Mistake-Filled Week

Former U.S. President Donald Trump and attorney Susan Necheles return from a break during his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 9, 2024 in New York City. Trump was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records last year, which prosecutors say was an effort to hide a potential sex scandal, both before and after the 2016 presidential election.

Donald Trump’s defense in his hush money trial has frequently been hindered by the actions of his lawyers this week, legal experts have suggested.

The former president is currently on trial accused of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection to the money he arranged his former lawyer Michael Cohen to pay adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep an alleged affair she and Trump had a secret in the run up to the 2016 election, which was listed in Trump’s company records as Cohen’s “legal fee.” Trump denies the charges and having an affair with Daniels.

Responding to the recent proceedings, a number of legal analysts have criticized Trump’s counsel for their questioning of Daniels, with others noting apparent errors and avoidable mistakes.

Below, Newsweek has compiled several examples of perceived mistakes made by the former president’s defense during the trial in New York. Trump’s legal team has been contacted for comment via email.

Cross-Examination of Daniels

The adult film star twice took the stand this week, giving lengthy testament and often providing salacious details about her alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006.

However, most of what Daniels said was deemed irrelevant to the criminal case, with a number of legal experts also criticizing Trump’s defense for how they conducted their cross-examination of Daniels.

Harry Litman, an attorney and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General, suggested Trump lawyer Susan Necheles made some “textbook mistakes” on Tuesday by allowing Daniels to dismiss allegations against her, including that she wanted to extort the former president.

“You want a cross [examination] to be crisp and have the witness answer questions ‘yes, correct, correct,’ and when you get to the point where you’ve implied your line, that’s when you stop and go to the next topic,” Litman told MSNBC.

“She [Necheles] went for broke repeatedly…and then she was stuck,” Litman said. “And there were repeated sidebars also, so her rhythm—rhythm is everything on cross—her rhythm was repeatedly broken.”

On Thursday, Trump’s team was accused of being too confrontational with Daniels, as well as attempting to dismiss her credibility by suggesting her career in porn showed she was adept at creating “phony” stories about sex.

“It was clear that Trump’s lawyers wanted to swing big and, unfortunately for them, they struck out,” Norm Eisen, who served as a special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during the former president’s first impeachment, told Newsweek.

“The defense may have fared better if they did not have such a formidable witness in Daniels,” he said. “For instance, after one of defense lawyer Susan Necheles’ attempts to discredit her, Daniels used it as an opportunity to highlight the power imbalance between her and Trump.”

Failure to Object

Judge Juan Merchan has twice rejected requests from Trump’s counsel this week for a mistrial, after they claimied Daniels’ testimony was irrelevant to the falsifying business records case. Both times, the judge has questioned why Trump’s team did not object to Daniels’ testimony while she was answering questions from the prosecution.

On Tuesday, Merchan said he was “surprised” there weren’t more objections from the defense, and the time has passed to move for a mistrial.

“When you say the bell has been rung, the defense has to take some responsibility for that,” Merchan said.

Trump’s team also moved for a mistrial on Thursday after Daniels testimony gave explicit details of her alleged affair with Trump, including appearing to suggest he may have committed some sort of sexual assault.

Merchan again rejected the request, and criticized Necheles for not objecting while Daniels was answering questions from the prosecution. The judge also wondered “for the life of me” why Necheles did not object to details about whether Trump wore a condom or not while having sex with Daniels.

Admittance of Reimbursement

Litman also suggested that Trump’s legal team have twice admitted a key part of the prosecution’s case during this week’s proceedings—that the money Trump gave to Cohen was a reimbursement of the money he paid Daniels, and not just legal fees.

The apparent “slip” came during the cross-examination of former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney, who described to the court how Trump’s company paid back Cohen the $130,000 he gave to Daniels while detailing conversations he had with the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg.

“An apparent slip by Trump counsel as he elicits from McConney that Weisselberg told him the money was for some sort of reimbursement,” Litman posted on X, formerly Twitter. “Remember: that is the DA’s position, and that the paperwork disguised it as legal fees. And Trump wants to say it was really legal fees and not a reimbursement.”

Trump had previously described the money he paid to Cohen as a “reimbursement” on social media in 2018, but denied that the money was connected to his 2016 campaign.

Wrong Tape

Also on Thursday, Trump’s team made a small error when they accidentally played the wrong tape recording to the jury during proceedings.

Necheles accidentally played the wrong version of an exchange between Daniels’ former lawyer, Keith Davidson, and Cohen regarding the alleged hush money payment.

The mistake led to Merchan warning Necheles: “Can you look at the transcript before you play the tape?”

Potential Gag Order Violation

Trump lawyer Alina Habba, who is not representing the former president in the hush money trial, was accused of violating a gag order imposed by Merchan.

Habba, who is considered Trump’s legal spokesperson, was accused of violating the court order that prevents Trump from making public comments about witnesses in the trial, or “directing others” to do so.

There were suggestions Habba violated the order after she described Daniels as “not credible” during an interview with Fox News on Tuesday.

“Habba’s comments about Daniels’ testimony appear to be another violation of the gag order,” Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor and the president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, told Newsweek.

“The parties and their attorneys are not to publicly comment on the witnesses or their credibility. Habba’s interview is especially problematic because Daniels is still testifying and is in the middle of her cross-examination.”

The hush money trial against Trump is scheduled to resume Friday.

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