Criminal Lawyer Breaks Down Trump's Criminal Trial this week in NYC

call it Spade of spade here this is not the Holy Grail of criminal cases you know that Trump is facing I mean it is a lot it's a lot of felonies no question about it and when you look at him in general it is not that serious of a case in the sense that he's not going to probably do a lot if any time you know guess what anything anything that comes out of Donald Trump's mouth anything as long as it's material and relevant it's coming in because it's what come on you know what it is it's a statement of a party opponent so it comes into evidence um River sees the criminal lawyer who is he Bruce River sees the criminal lawyer and who is he Bruce River sees the criminal lawyer and what he do and he going to react to all the self snitching hi this is Bruce Rivers welcome to another funfield episode of criminal lawyer reacts I'm Bruce Rivers coming you with my pearl handle pistol cufflinks I am your and your alone board certified criminal defense lawyer and you know who you are um we are also accompanied by Michael Rivers who's behind the camera behind the ideas today we're going to react to Trump trump not all things Trump just the Manhattan documents case you know where he falsified documents and the reason that's a big deal uh we'll get into that that and we'll get into the proof you know and we'll and I'll try to give this to you straight you know just what the strengths and weaknesses are without a whole lot of invective from me if I can avoid that might be hard but we'll do it because you know when you're sitting there in your easy chair with your glass of wine or your beer or your Kool-Aid depending upon your age um and gender uh you're sitting there and you're probably thinking to yourself you know what is what is Bruce's gr up to at this point you know and you know she's down in you know in my basement and I've got her cleaning uh because she had a party last night and uh did a little damage and so I mean she actually just destroyed the place so I'm making her clean the basement and um you know she almost took off I grabbed her I said you're not leaving the house cuz you know she's only got one leg and um and you know I just I got to get control of her situation so what do I do I went to eforms.com and I got power of attorney and that was really easy to do eforms.com is a effective way to avoid the high cost of lawyers when you need a legal document to protect yourself so if you sell a car to somebody you need a bill of sale because let's say he doesn't transfer the title or she um and all sudden gets a bunch of tickets well they're in your name now you know um or let's say they give get in car accident you don't have the bill of sale the car is still in your name you might have some liability so you go to eforms.com any kind of business agreement any kind of uh bill of sale rental agreement power return any kind of document you need will keep you out of court because you've got it covered eforms.com to avoid costly lawyers because I would just charge you a ton of money for the same thing and I would just go to eforms.com and get it anyway so avoid guys like me unless you're going to trial that's then you need me but for eforms.com handles all your document needs okay let's talk about Trump Trump's going to trial on Monday and he's going to trial in Manhattan he has tried everything he possibly can try to to avoid going to trial they've had I think two or three motions to the court of appeals and and they were Dead on Arrival I'm going to be honest with you I've never seen somebody go to the court of appeals so many times on frivolous stuff so so let's just kind of do a deep dive into what we're dealing with you know you get charged with a crime there's a procedure that you go through you have the initial appearance and the initial appearance is where they determine conditions release or bail and then they read you the complaint on the record or the indictment and you usually wave that so then they set up for some kind of pre-trial conference and then if you have constitutional issues so for example if there was a search without a warrant or if they uh did a um interview with you while you're in custody but they don't read you your Miranda Rights then if you have any of those are constitutional issues and also called suppression issues so if you have those then you have a hearing to determine whether they can use that evidence because if cops obtain evidence in violation of your constitutional rights guess what they can't use it it's called fruit of the poisonous tree then uh they set up for a settlement conference and that's your last ditch effort to try to settle the case and then um and then sometimes before the settlement commer there there may be some motions uh Mo they call motions and limony motions and limony are hearings outside the presence of the jury because you could because objecting is going to be too arduous in other words you got complex legal issues that you need to deal with and objecting in front of the jury is only going to you know we going to talk about all this [ __ ] and they're going to hear what we're talking about so um and if the judge rules that the evidence doesn't come in and they just heard about all this stuff how can you unring the Bell basically and then they have and then they have a trial okay a trial the anatomy of a trial is this yeah first you have a jury selection and in Trump's case they're going to call up 500 citizens of New York uh for jury selection this is going to be a big process proc usually it's not that big a deal you know usually couple hours you know or an afternoon um but and in a murder case uh like a murder one case they take one juror at a time one juror at a time I'm not sure how they're going to do it in this case you know there's two different ways you can do it you can strike as you go and I'll tell you a little bit more about strikes um or you can um or you can have a panel method and strike at the end and let's talk about what that means so the jury is sitting there and if you have the panel method you've got probably 21 people sitting in the box right and they and they do a questionnaire they're doing a questionnaire in this case so everybody fills this thing out and they put down you know do you have a scheduling issue have you heard about this case have you know who [ __ ] hasn't heard about it anybody that says that you haven't heard about it guess what they're probably lying everybody in New York has got an opinion of trump there's almost nobody that hasn't heard of trump there's and he's so out there you know one of the Motions that he filed with the court of appeals is that well there's just been too much pre-trial publicity we I need more time you know basically he wants an indefinite stay and in the court of appeals said well look you're responsible for 90% of the the pre-trial uh publicity and you're the one who making all these public statement and social media posts so no and it was dead on I mean just dead when he when it came to it and I don't see I've never seen as much interlock we call them interlocutory appeals when uh when a matter is pending you generally don't get to go to the court of appeals but Trump's lawyers just seem to think that they can do that you know at nauseum so you're going to have this jury selection you get all these questionnaires you know so they're going to assemble on Monday morning and it's going to be a [ __ ] show because you're have Secret Service you're going to have all these lawyers you're going to have all these you know he's spent like $76 million on lawyers so far you know this is just on on [ __ ] you know and it's and the campaign you know the RNC is the one who's paying his his legal bills imagine I want to I want to elect you as president here's my $10 oh but it's not going to your re-election campaign it's going to fund your criminal trial how he doesn't have to claim that his income is beyond me but that's story for another day anyway so they get all these questionnaires and the questionnaires will ask stuff like have you heard of this case um you know it doesn't ask your political affiliation but what kind of news do you watch uh do you you know are you a trump supporter have you been to have you been to a trump rally um or are you a trump hater do you have you campaigned against Trump you know what whatever the case may be the idea with the questionnaires is that hopefully they can read through a bunch of those fairly quickly so that you can see the people who are biased and cannot be fair right away some people want to get on the jury you know some people really don't want to get on the jury if you don't want to get on jury duty all you have to say is I can't be fair that's all you have to say honestly and nobody wants you on the jury if you can't be fair but it really is a solemn civic duty and it's really one of the only times that the government calls on you to you for you to participate in government and it is so important I mean both to the government and to the defendant it's really important that and I've seen it over and over again I think juries really try to get it right I think they try to be fair and um and I trust it I really do you know I've had two lawyers on the jury and both have screwed me so I'll never have another lawyer on the jury as long as I live um but I try a lot of cases and and I know what works and what doesn't work and so when you get into what they call voer or void dire depend upon part of the country you're from um what'll happen is uh the judge will ask a bunch of questions and then the defense will ask a bunch of questions and then the government will ask a bunch of questions and the judge is really in charge of it all in federal court you almost get no voer um it's almost all done by the court you might get five minutes 10 minutes and the idea is you ask intrusive questions to see if they can be fair and it's not meant to embarrass anybody it's just you know oh you know I it's like say if it's a domestic violence case um I see that you've um filed an order of protection on behalf of your daughter what happened there and she'll tell you and say what do you think this is the right kind no I don't think this is the right kind of case for me I don't think I can be fair or yeah that was a different it was 20 years ago I can be fair you know I whatever or yeah I I worked for Trump uh not Trump directly but I worked for his hotels and they stiffed me on fees and I just I can't be fair to Trump or I've been at Trump's rallies and I love what he has to say absolutely I'm all for Trump you know well then you can't be fear of the government you so that so that's kind of what goes on now when I said strike um as you go or strike at the end you get what they call preemptory challenges preemptory challenges you can strike anybody on the jury for any or no reason as long as it's not one of the protected reasons you can't strike somebody on the jury for race uh religion or usually sexually orientation but nobody usually gives a [ __ ] about that anyway so but it's really race and and if and if let's say um Trump is getting rid of all the black people on the jury well you can make what they call a Batson challenge and uh and so you can say judge um we believe there's a whole process that you you go through and this is you make this Batson Challenge and they have to come up with a race neutral reason um why they struck that person and you really have to kind of show a pattern you know pattern of the questioning pattern of of uh the Striking and so I think in this case I think the defense gets they I think they get 10 preemptory challenges if I'm not mistaken but I'm not really sure uh it's a New York law so here here the defense gets five and the prosecutor gets three if it's a homicide it's it's much more this is going to probably be much more because it's going to be so many more people um and so they Whittle it down to 12 jurors plus probably going to want one or two alternates okay so then what then the prosecutor gets up and gives his opening remarks can't be argument you can't get up there and say that this is you know blah blah blah you know that you're going to have to find him not guilty because you know this is what you know you can say this is what the evidence shows but you can't have an argument that's reserved for your closing statement so then the defense has the choice at that point to either get up and give their closing or opening statement or they can reserve it until they case in Chief then the state brings their Witnesses and through the witnesses they'll present evidence and I'm going to go into some of the evidence here in a second and then uh the defense cross-examines and and the defense can bring in W evidence through these Witnesses too if if that makes sense and then the defense then the the state rests and usually at the end of the state's case the defense will make a motion for Judgment of acit now if the judge grants that the case is over he walks and it's not appealable because it hasn't gone to the jury yet but generally speaking it almost is never granted um generally there's enough to get to the jury you don't have to have Beyond A Reasonable Doubt but it's got to be got to be that it's reasonable that a jury could find him guilty or her depending upon the defendant then it'll be the state's or the defendant's case and Chief and the defendant will um can bring Witnesses and evidence and then the state cross-examines and challenges their evidence and then this the defense rests and then at the close of the defense case then uh the state can present rebuttal evidence so the state can have one last shot but it's got to be confined to what was presented by the defense and then we have closing arguments the State goes gives their closing argument defense goes and then the uh the state will have the chance for rebuttal again so that's that's the anatomy of a case now in this case Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up another crime basically and in this case the other crime there's two kind of crimes here one he's falsifying these records and and and there's a tax thing that's really kind of interesting on this because the allegation is that you've got two people that they're covering up uh the Karen McDougall which was an affair from like 2006 um Playboy model she says they had an affair for like a year and then they have um stormmy Daniels and she was at a golf tournament they had sacks allegedly and um and then they paid her some money so they paid both of these people money Michael Cohen who went to prison for this remember he went to prison he worked for Trump and he went to prison for things he did for Trump he arranged to have money paid to David pecker to do a catch or to Karen McDougall for $150,000 through through David pecker and did what they call a catch and kill in other words the national inquire got the story and killed it then they did uh a $130,000 payment to stormmy Daniels and they did that by having Michael Cohen um take money out of his house basically a HELOC you know home equity line of credit 130,000 and then Trump reimbursed him and two things that are incredible about this or important when when related to the charges in this case the you've got these business records showing that these payments were made to Cohen as legal fees which they weren't they weren't legal fees and so you got some tax implications there because he probably deducted them from from his taxes then you also have um them not being disclosed in the federal election rules and because and you look at the timing the Trump's fence I just didn't want Melania to find out and well let let's let's play a little clip of uh of some of the evidence that that they're definitely going to hear and we'll talk about some of the witnesses here in a second so let's listen to the recording of Michael Cohen um talking to Donald Trump so I'm I'm all over that and I spoke to Alan about it when it comes time for the financing which will be what won't have to pay no no no no no I got no no no so Cohen made that recording and what did dis loyal [ __ ] to to to make a recording of your boss like that but why do you think he did that he did that because he knew this was going to happen or or it's possible the whole reason behind this you know this setting this up was because of the election remember there his little comments Billy Bush and how that came out and then all of a s and that was a big deal so all of a sudden this stuff with stormmy Daniels comes out and and car McDougall and and and they're killing it by paying them off you got sensibly I you can't really do that because you have to disclose it because it's it's a campaign contribution really and you have to disclose it but instead of disclosing it what they did was they hit it as attorney fees and you can't do that now people say oh they're going after Trump this is uh Biden's doj blah blah blah well this is not Biden's doj this is the this is the Manhattan district attorney and you know uh the prosecutor in this case had gone after another guy for 117 documents um and and let's just call it spade a spade here this is not the Holy Grail of criminal cases you know that Trump is facing I mean it is a lot it's a lot of felonies no question about it and when you look at him in general it is not that serious of a case in the sense that he's not going to probably do a lot if any time you serious infraction really is the way he's treated the judicial system and and and people within it specific people like like the judge's daughter why would you go after the judge's daughter that makes no sense but he's created His Own Worst Enemy kind of thing look at the motions and limiting oh my God you know one of the things that I that I shake my head at these lawyers it seems are in in all the cases are throwing everything at the kitchen sink you know they're throwing everything in the kitchen sink they're throwing everything to try to um delay delay delay I mean that's his main tactic you know when I handle a case I raise only the issues that I think are going to be successful you know I don't throw everything uh at the judge the people should be precluded from suborning Michael Cohen's perjury you know one of the things when when you file a motion you try not to use invective and you know strong language you know you just try to make your point point and I think it gives you more credibility so they tried to get Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen uh to be excluded from uh from the case the judge denied that sarily um the court should preclude the people from arguing that President Trump sought to improperly influence the 2016 election denied um the court should uh preclude arguments on the intent to Def fraud element number 10 uh the court should preclude evidence and argument concerning the so-called catch and kill scheme that's all part of the whole indictment um let's see yeah the preclude testimony from Dino from Karen McDougall from Clifford uh and I think they I think they kept out the Hollywood Access recording I think the Judge did do that did Grant that one the court should preclude the people from presenting meritless arguments concerning uh F's Ambit the oh the alleged payments to McDougall and Clifford did not as a matter of law violate F oh that's the federal election uh Campaign Act um the alleged payments were not made for the purpose of influence the election you know that's an argument that that isn't that that it's the state's case and if you if you take away that you got to dismiss the case um absent on offer of proof the people should be precluded from introducing nearly 100 statements they seek to attribute to president Trump one of the worst things that these lawyers have to deal with is President Trump himself you got a former president who loves loves loves to post who loves loves loves to to get in front of the camera who loves loves loves to talk about the facts of the case guess what anything anything that comes out of Donald Trump's mouth anything as long as it's material and relevant it's coming in because it's what come on you know what it is it's a statement of a party opponent so it comes into evidence um so yeah they their motions in liim were basically 44 pages and you know the the court granted some of them like the Billy Bush you know who who needs that I mean that's really not material to what we're dealing with here right um he didn't exclude the existence of it but the substance of it he he excluded and the reason that's important is because the timing when that Billy Bush tape came out um what was happening next was you know a flood of two more lawsuits or two more potential damaging disclosures you know the Stormy Daniels and Ken McDougall stuff and so the timing of that was critical because it's late October the elections just around the corner and we all saw what happened with Hillary Clinton you know when uh when we had those late disclosures by uh jul ass no by Comey by we you know those late disclosures by James Comey um that she was being investigated and all of a sudden not it wasn't that that sunk her I guarantee you that sunk her her ticket so it's it's really at a critical time it's not like it's a year before the election and it doesn't matter um and but Trump so both sides are going to be able to argue their case Trump's going to be able to argue that look I didn't give a [ __ ] about that I really cared about whether milania heard these allegations they not he's going to say they're not true but and then here the other thing Trump says he's going to testify in this case guess what he ain't going to [ __ ] testify there's no way on this God's green earth that he's going to testify I guarantee it you know he's so full of Bluster and there's just so many Minds that he can step in um you know that I just I think there's no way that he's going to testify but let's talk about who is going to testify now Alan weiselberg he he he's not required by his plea agreement to testify but guess what he just got popped for perjury and he's and he's he's a trump loyalist and Michael Cohen lying to the government convicted stormmy Daniels she said one thing you know she said the fair never happened but is that even material think about that think about the for a second the existence of the affair is not really the issue it's the disclosure that there was an affair you know that that's really the issue and then how to pay make the payoff and then cover it up that's the issue and what was the impact of that on the on the federal election uh laws so that is the government's case in a nutshell and a lot of people would say oh look at Michael Coen he's a liar you can't trust the goddamn thing he says blah blah blah well that may be true you know there and he's got an A to grind with Trump because he feels like he got [ __ ] over by Trump so so there's some there's some but that's a credibility determination by the jury and guess what there isn't one thing not one single thing that Michael con is going to testify to that won't be backed up either by a recording or a document and that's that's the rub there for Trump because they're gonna they try to preclude him and the judges says there's there's no reason to preclude these Witnesses and Stormy Daniels similarly they're going to take this letter that she wrote saying this affair never happened and then she's going to say it did happen and they're going to jam that up her ass you know and they're going to try to discredit her but in a way it doesn't [ __ ] matter because the documents were filed the payments were made and they were disguised as legal fees and they weren't Michael Cohen took out a home equity line of credit to um to hide to absolutely hide what Trump was talking about so Allan weiselberg so you look at these people that Trump just surrounded himself with you know there's so many people that have gone to prison but you know Alan weiselberg just got five months for lying in court on the uh on on the um asset fraud case you know the tax fraud case where the organization and Trump lied about the valuation of things and that and alen Weber's got five months in prison uh for lying Michael Cohen he got 36 months in federal prison for lying you got uh these these people surround you got Bannon who who Who's got a a prison sentence you got uh maniford who who got a prison sentence you got all these people around Trump and and I've never seen anything like it in my life now people are going to say oh it's just a doj blah blah blah here's the thing it they a lot of these people were Tried by a jury Tried by a jury and a jury is the one that sent him to prison right and if you know and Trump we're going to we're going to win we're going to win we're going to win show me one legal battle that Trump has won so far you know he he had the you know the Trump organization uh was found guilty last year of tax fraud and order to pay over a million dollars you have Trump himself being found guilty of tax and bank fraud the walls seem like they're clo I just can't imagine having this much [ __ ] [ __ ] to deal with I mean he still has three other criminal cases is high profile I mean and why do you think he spent $76 million I mean you could almost pay g e Carrol off with that and so he's got an $88 million judgment against him with her and he's got a $450 million judgment against him from the state of New York it's just a lot it's it's just is an absolute lot so we're going to watch this and then there won't be cameras in the courtroom on this case unfortunately I wish there were but Trump's got to be be there every day that's the other thing you know this isn't like the EEG and Carrol case where he can phone it in he's got to be there every single day now is he going to testify they can't make him and and if he doesn't testify you can't draw an adverse inference it's not like a civil case so but the uh standard approv you say that is much higher yeah but the government here is not this is not like uh um what's the [ __ ] AG 's name BR no the AG the chick the oh Leti James oh it's not like the case with letia James guess what she her burden to proof was just um preponderance of the evidence which meant it's slightly more true than not true and Trump's um the the standard proof in a criminal case which is what these four criminal cases starting with the Manhattan case is beyond a reasonable doubt it's the highest standard and and what the judge will instruct the jury is that it's the standard of proof that one would use in your most important Affairs and there's no like certain mathematical equation for it but it's the highest standard in our judicial system take a look at this um this pyramid so let's say um cop wants to pull you over that's the lowest level of proof it's a reasonable and articulable suspicion ter Terry versus Ohio civil standard is or oh then just to get somebody charged with a crime is probable cause slightly more true than not true and preponderance of the evidence and prob cause very similar standards of proof then you have clear and convincing evidence just a little bit more than preponderance but less than Beyond A Reasonable Doubt in more serious cases like like ch protection cases in um you know where uh where there's no jury but you have a judge clear and convincing is is the standard but then you have in jury trials all across the country it's beyond a reasonable doubt now keep in mind this it's not up to a reasonable doubt it's beyond A Reasonable Doubt how much Beyond that's up for the jury that's the eye of the beholder and they're in charge of that 100% And it's the the amount of care one would use in your most important Affairs that's the standard jury instruction universally but it's not just up to that it's beyond that that and so it's really really a high high burden and that's why when you have documents that you [ __ ] can't argue with um that that's powerful evidence and and there's nothing that that stormy Stormy Daniels will testify yeah I said that you know in that letter but it wasn't true and I did get paid and this is when I got paid and this is why I got paid then you have Michael Cohen is's going to testify yeah I went to prison I went to prison because I lied and I lied to Congress and I lied to the feds and you know I did so because I did it on Trump's behalf and uh but this is what I did and here are the documents to back it up Alan weiselberg I bet you Allan weiselberg doesn't testify uh I bet he'll rather go to prison than than be disloyal to Trump because he's been a trump loyalist from the day one and I just doubt that he's going to um break stride with that at this point and then you've got you know other people who are in the organizations other people who would testify about this and that all of their testimony is going to be backed up by business records and business records that you know ostensively are going to be false I don't think this is going to be a very difficult case for Alvin Bragg to prove I just don't um I do I like to see somebody get convicted of anything anything no cuz that's what signed I'm on so I would love to see Trump win this case but guess what he isn't want a [ __ ] thing yet you know and why because his mouth and his actions get him in trouble he's the absolute worst client one could have and he doesn't pay his bills um you got people who are around him right now there's a lot of people that have left him you know and I don't know why they left maybe they had disagreements on on strategy or this or that but but they left him because you know for whatever reason you know so and he's spending like $76 million so far on legal bills give me some of that I'll [ __ ] handle some of those I'm kidding about that but it really is staggering the amount of crap he has to go through between now and when the all all four cases are done and when you get to Jack Smith he's a for former uh heg prosecutor he is no slouch when it comes to the courtroom but we're still waiting for we're still waiting for the uh Supremes to rule on whether he has immunity for anything he did as official acts while he was in uh the White House I don't think they're going to give him the ruling that he wants I'd be shocked if they did it would really really put um put a crimp in uh this country's armor if all of a sudden you have a president who can do whatever the [ __ ] they want whenever the [ __ ] they want and be immune from prosecution completely there there will be some situations where some somebody will have to be immune like for example if uh a terror an American citizen became a terrorist and went overseas and you know was on the battlefield and was killed uh in action you know would the president be immune from from that that seems to make sense but if during his campaign if during campaign he um breaks into uh a hotel called the Watergate or at least fund funds it and then tries to cover it up would he be immune from that is that an official Act of a president no it's not and neither is holding all these documents once you leave office anyway that's the kind of those are the issues that are before the courts and um and then you've got the fanny Willis thing which was just a [ __ ] show she really made um she really made had unforced errors in that case um why she got involved with somebody who was on the case or why she appointed somebody on the case and nether got involved with him before or after just she created you know a problem for herself so I am fascinated by this because this is what I do and you you should be too because it's our country you know and a lot is in the balance so we'll follow Trump and I hope you continue to tune in if you're a patreon member remember what we said send us your address we'll send you a hat you sign up for patreon right now we'll get you a hat this is a limited kind of deal that we're going to do until we run out and we'll order more but you sign up for patreon and we'll get you uh a stop self snitching hat because we want to get the word out right well we'll see you next time here on criminal lawyer reacts reaction to the anatomy of Trump's next trial on Monday so I'm Bruce Rivers board certified your board certified criminal defense lawyer Bruce Rivers with Michael Rivers the content genius you can't beat us we're amazing follow us on Instagram follow us on uh Facebook subscribe Tik Tok Twitter or X and uh and sign up for patreon you get a hat see you next time here on criminal lawyer reacts just broke down your case he know all the charges that you about to face you ain't coming home till 208 that self snitching going get you put away Bruce Rivers just broke down your case he know all the charges that you about to face you ain't coming home till 2058 that self snitching going get you put away 23 lock

Channel: CLR Bruce Rivers

Views: 197,044

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Id: EwH-SyrZqkY

Length: 38min 20sec (2300 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 15 2024