A judge scolded Donald Trump‘s defense attorney during closing arguments on Tuesday for raising the possibility that the former president could go to prison if convicted of the criminal charges he is facing in New York.
Judge Juan Merchan said he would issue a corrective instruction to the jury after Trump attorney Todd Blanche said while delivering the defense’s closing arguments that jurors could “not send someone to prison … based upon the words of Michael Cohen,” according to courtroom reports from the Associated Press.
The remark about Trump’s possible punishment prompted a complaint from prosecutors, who asked Merchan to issue what is known as a “curative” instruction to address it. Merchan, in response, granted the prosecutors’ request and called Blanche’s comment “outrageous.”
“I think that saying that was outrageous,” Merchan told Blanche. “Someone who’s been a prosecutor as long as you have and a defense attorney as long as you have, you know that making a comment like that is highly inappropriate. It’s simply not allowed. Period.”
Courts have long held that juries are not to consider penalties of a crime when determining whether prosecutors have proven beyond reasonable doubt that the crime was committed.
In his curative instruction, Merchan explained this to the jury in Trump’s case and called Blanche’s comment about prison “improper.”
“You must disregard it,” Merchan said.
Prosecutors also took issue with a comment Blanche made about a retainer agreement and asked Merchan to issue a second curative instruction on that, but Merchan denied that request.
Blanche’s comment about prison came as he was speaking about Michael Cohen, prosecutors’ star witness in the case who provided the most direct evidence that Trump allegedly had knowledge of an illegal payment scheme to silence porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Cohen’s evidence came in the form of testimony about his recollection of phone calls and meetings with Trump; however, Cohen’s credibility has long been a glaring problem for prosecutors.
Cohen, Trump’s former attorney, pleaded guilty in 2018 to tax evasion, campaign finance violations, lying to a bank, and lying to Congress. He has since pursued a lucrative vendetta against Trump, raking in millions of dollars by selling books and speaking on podcast episodes about his disdain for his former boss.
Blanche, as part of his closing arguments, tore into Cohen, telling jurors he is the “the GLOAT, the greatest liar of all time.”
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Prosecutors began their closing arguments Tuesday afternoon. When they finish, Merchan will give the jury instructions about Trump’s charges, and from there, the jury will begin deliberations.
Trump is facing 34 counts of falsifying business records, and each count carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
