Former President Donald Trump's commentary outside his fraud trial courtroom in New York is a "brilliant" strategy that ensures his version of the process will "get into the head" of listeners — including jurists, former Judge Andrew Napolitano told Newsmax on Friday.
In an interview on "Wake Up America," Napolitano conceded Trump shouldn't be making those out-of-court comments "because he may say something that is incriminating without realizing it, and the government is taping everything."
But he also pointed out what Trump is doing "when he is speaking in the hallway — he is testifying without being cross-examined, which is brilliant."
Napolitano pointed out when jurors go home "and do what they're not supposed to do, which is turn the television on," they are going to hear the comments about what Trump says outside court.
And even though "it doesn't mean that they're going to take at face value what he says… they are humans, so they're gonna get into their head his version of things over and over and over again," he said.
The former judge also said the gag order against Trump is both confusing and "unconstitutional — not because he's Donald Trump, but because he's a human being with the freedom of speech."
"Most judges think gag orders protect jurors from hearing things they shouldn't hear and protect witnesses from being intimidated," he added. "But they also silence a defendant, and that's wrong under the Constitution."
Meanwhile, Napolitano speculated prosecutors could be painting a picture of key witness Michael Cohen — Trump's former lawyer — as a "monster" just so jurists' opinions can soften when he takes the stand.
"The government wants to show … two things: one, that Donald Trump knew what this lawyer for Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen were doing, and two, the government is trying to tarnish Michael Cohen, the government's chief witness, so that by the time he gets on the witness stand, the jury is expecting a monster," the former judge asserted.
When jurists see Cohen on the stand, however, they will believe "he's not so bad," Napolitano said.
"That's what you do when you have a witness who has a tremendous amount of baggage," he said. "You get it out first. You let the jury know… 'we don't choose our witnesses. They come to us because they were involved in the case. We don't vouch for his humanity and his morality but vouch for his credibility.'"
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Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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