In New York state, falsification of business records is a misdemeanor. “At the end of the day, it will be a credibility contest and the jury will have to decide who to believe.”īefore the case reaches a jury, prosecutors will have to clear other hurdles. “But the defense, of course, will have a field day with cross-examination” of Cohen, Sullivan said.
But we have corroborated what they said and you can rely on it,‘ ” he added. “You tell jurors, ‘We can’t go pick the perfect witnesses off the witness tree. “It’s a familiar problem for prosecutors to have to rely on witnesses with credibility problems,” said Ronald Sullivan, director of the Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard Law School, who previously served as special prosecutor in the criminal proceedings against former Missouri governor Eric Greitens stemming from allegations of sexual assault and campaign finance violations. But prosecutors likely would not have a case without his testimony, so they will have to persuade jurors to believe him. He has also been convicted of lying to Congress. Cohen has already served jail time for his role in the payment to Daniels. Trump’s attorneys could “tear down” parts of the indictment, arguing that prosecutors were trying to “come up with as many offenses as you possibly can when really there’s no substance to a lot of the alleged offenses,” he said.Īnother challenge is the apparent need for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office to rely on Cohen as a witness. But he said it also created an opening for a defense to argue that the prosecution is overstating the case.
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