NBC’s Cevallos: Michael Cohen Lying Not a ‘Devastating Blow’ to the Prosecution

EXCERPT:

CEVALLOS: "But I appear to be in the minority. A lot of folks seem to think this was a devastating blow for the prosecution. I don’t see it that way. I doubt the prosecution sees it that way. I would bet the defense doesn’t even consider it that. Michael Cohen is a cooperating witness. By definition, he’s a guy who has credibility issues. So when you’re asking him about a phone call and if you catch him, they are going to say in a lie or maybe forgetting what the reason was for his phone call eight years ago, a couple things could happen. The jury might think, 'Oh, he's concealing it,' which is bad for the prosecution, or they may just conclude it was eight years ago, he just doesn’t remember. So, really, I don’t think it was a devastating blow to the prosecution, but it’s something they may want to clean up on redirect. Do look for the defense to focus on that phone call in their closing and say, 'Michael Cohen himself has reasonable doubt about whether or not he even called Donald Trump. You should have reasonable doubt about his story. He’s a liar, he’s got a motive to lie, and we even caught him in one particular lie.' Expect something like that, for them to focus on that one moment in a cross examination that otherwise didn’t have a lot of a-ha moments."