‘Believes He Is Smarter Than Anyone In The Room’: MSNBC Legal Analyst Says There’s a Good Chance Trump Takes The Stand
MSNBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos claimed Monday there was a “decent chance” that former President Donald Trump would testify in his hush money trial because he “believes he is smarter than anyone in the room.”
José Díaz-Balart, who was in for Katy Tur Monday, asked, “When we’re taking about the possibility of Donald Trump testifying, he has said in the past — just recently — that he wanted to testify, and today they talked about that possibility and what that would mean for the case. What’s the, any positive aspect for Trump to testify?”
Cevallos answered, “For centuries now, criminal defense attorneys have always been risk averse, and ordinarily, it’s just too risky to put your client on the stand. They never know as much as the prosecutors and there are tons of bad things that can happen. After all, once the jury loses faith in a particular witness, including your client, and they don’t believe him, then you’re pretty much sunk. But, I happen to think, and I’m sure I’m in the minority, there is a decent chance that Donald Trump will testify.”
“Really?!” Díaz-Balart exclaimed.
“Number one — yes — he believes he is smarter than anyone in the room. Number two, criminal defense attorneys will tell you, that their clients in white collar cases — I don’t know why, but very particular to white collar cases — they believe they have an explanation for absolutely everything. They believe the prosecution is a big misunderstanding and if they can just take the stand, they can clear up all of the misunderstanding. It is a dangerous way of thinking, and arguably it’s a way of thinking that made them white collar criminal defendants in the first place.
“So, because Donald Trump has an absolute right to testify, and because he may view this as a lost cause anyway, and he may use it more as a pulpit for a broader audience than the jury, we might see Donald Trump testify.”
Opening statements got underway Monday in Trump’s criminal hush money trial. He has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business documents before the 2016 presidential election. The first witness was former tabloid publisher David Pecker, who told the jury how he buried negative stories about Trump.
Watch the clip above via MSNBC.
