During a recent discussion on MSNBC with Alex Witt, Florida prosecutor Dave Aronberg — who is not involved in the proceedings but was consulted as an outside expert — predicted a conviction for Donald Trump in his ongoing criminal trial in New York City.
Trump’s trial hinges on allegations of falsifying business records in connection to hush money from before the 2016 presidential election for a woman named Stormy Daniels. In addition, prosecutors tie the whole thing to an alleged ambition of covertly impacting the 2016 presidential election on Trump’s behalf, which they apparently used to ramp up Trump’s charges to a felony level. Proceedings were continuing on Monday with additional questioning of Michael Cohen, formerly Trump’s ally.
“Maybe it’s just the prosecutor in me, but I think this is headed towards a conviction — at least in part. I cannot envision an acquittal, that a unanimous jury is going to say, ‘No, Trump has a better story; he wasn’t involved in this,'” Aronberg said. “No. The corroboration here has been to corroborate Michael Cohen’s testimony that Donald Trump was involved from soup to nuts — from the beginning of this hush money scheme until the end, when they figured out a way to reimburse Cohen.”
Cohen is the one who provided Daniels with the money. He since turned on Trump and faced his own criminal prosecution at the federal level related to his roles, with charges — to which Cohen admitted — of campaign finance law violations. Apparently, prosecutors in the state case against Trump don’t have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the actual perpetrating of an election-involved criminal offense — just intentions towards such a thing.
Trump’s core charges hinge on the allegedly falsified records, which related to repayments for Cohen after he provided those funds.
Experts were seeming to take the defense’s trial questioning of Cohen as only halfway getting there in terms of effectiveness.
