‘Be Careful’: CNN Panel Says Trump Prosecution May Be Making ‘Misstep’ By Showing ‘Salacious’ Headlines

“There’s a risk for the prosecution because … a lot of this stuff is not criminal, and I disagree that some of this would be an in-kind campaign contribution because the Supreme Court’s holding in Citizens United did kind of move this outside of that,” former Trump attorney Tim Panatore said. “And so if they spend too much time on this, especially right at the beginning, and an appellate court looks at it and say[s], ‘you’ve prejudiced this jury by presenting all this information that is salacious, amoral, but not criminal,’ then that is the type of thing that can improperly sway the jury to the other side.”

Trump is facing 34 felony counts of allegedly falsifying business documents pertaining to payments to porn star Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence regarding an alleged affair in the lead-up to the 2016 election.

“To me, this may actually turn out to be a misstep by the prosecution, by spending so much time on this when really this case is about the business record entries of the payments to Michael Cohen, which have nothing to do with any of this,” he added.

Crucial documents lacking Trump’s signature may pose issues for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case, criminal defense attorney Arthur Aidala told CNN on Monday, noting that the former president’s signature is present on a check, but not other key documents. He said a jury could find “reasonable doubt” about Trump’s involvement compared to Cohen’s.