Donald Trump's Attack Strategy Against Michael Cohen Could Backfire: Lawyer

An attack strategy against Michael Cohen could backfire for Donald Trump's defense lawyers in the latter's hush-money trial, a senior attorney has said.

John J. Perlstein, a Los Angeles-based litigator, told Newsweek that the Trump team's attacks during Stormy Daniels' testimony earlier in the week did not work and they might also fail against Cohen.

Cohen, who was once Trump's attorney and close aide, is due to give evidence against him on Monday. The pair have become implacable foes and have criticized each other publicly since the trial began in late April.

Cohen was disbarred as an attorney and served a jail sentence for tax and banking fraud, political campaign violations, and other offenses.

Perlstein said it is not a matter of whether Cohen is liked by the jury, but whether they believe him or not.

"I don't know whether or not Cohen being liked will really matter when it comes to this witness. I think the issue will come down to whether or not he is believed," he said.

"The defense attorneys attempting to portray him as despicable could certainly backfire if he is credible with respect to the pertinent facts. I tend to think he will be credible when it comes to the information relative to the charges against Trump, who is also disliked in my humble opinion."

He said: "The defense strategy with Stormy Daniels backfired and it could very well here too."

Newsweek has contacted Trump's attorney for comment outside of normal working hours.

New York attorney Janos Marton also told Newsweek that the Trump team's cross-examination of Cohen is likely to become "chaotic."

He said that prosecutors did not call Cohen on Friday because they did not want the cross-examination confrontation to be interrupted by the weekend break.

"Overall, the ho-hum end to the testimony this week was probably to avoid the possibility of watching a chaotic Michael Cohen cross-examination right before breaking for the weekend," he said.

"[Cohen] remains their most important witness, which has always been a tension in this case due to his past history and unpredictable behavior."

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is the first former president in U.S. history to stand trial in a criminal case. He has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records. He has continually said that this case and other criminal and civil challenges involving him are politically motivated.

The prosecution seeks to prove that before the 2016 presidential election, Trump paid, or discussed paying, two women—adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal—to not disclose his alleged affairs with them. He denies affairs with both women.