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Todd Blanche admitted Trump was guilty on national TV [1]

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Date: 2024-06-02  

Todd Blanche, Trump’s lead attorney in the Stormy Daniels case, made a visit to CNN after the verdict and made a profoundly telling comment that has been missed by everyone.

Blanche was asked during his CNN interview why the defense didn’t call several witnesses, including Keith Schiller, Trump’s long-time bodyguard.

As a reminder, Schiller’s name came up several times in the courtroom testimony. He was identified by Stormy Daniels as the intermediary who contacted her about having dinner with Trump, and was also identified as being stationed outside Trump’s room while he was making sexual advances toward her. Michael Cohen also identified Schiller as the intermediary who handed Trump his phone when Cohen called to update Trump on the status of the payment to Stormy. So if Trump were completely innocent of all charges, if Trump never had a liaison with Stormy, if Cohen never called Trump about the payout, Schiller could have easily disproved the entire prosecution case. It would have been a simple matter to call Schiller to the stand, ask him about the incidents with Stormy and Cohen, and hear him say that it was all lies, none of it ever happened.

Instead, Blanche answered the question the following way:

As a defense attorney you don’t go into a case saying, ‘I’m going to fill the holes of the prosecution’, right? And Keith Schiller and some of the other witnesses that were not ultimately called, in our view, should have been called by the prosecution and we asked the jury to take a hard look at that.

Let’s parse this statement. Instead of Schiller refuting all of the prosecution’s theories, Blanche believed that Schiller’s testimony would have “fill[ed] the holes of the prosecution.” Schiller was not called by either the prosecution or the defense. The prosecution did not need Schiller’s testimony, and in fact were rightly concerned that he would not have been a cooperating witness, and most likely would have invoked the Fifth Amendment. The defense, however, could have easily disproved all the charges simply by asking Schiller if everything happened according to Stormy’s and Cohen’s previous testimony. Clearly, Blanche knew that Schiller’s testimony would have been even more toxic to Trump’s case. Schiller would have either confirmed everything Stormy and Cohen testified, or he would have perjured himself by lying about them. If Blanche had called Schiller, knowing he would lie for his boss under oath, Blanche himself would have been subject to prosecution for soliciting and enabling perjury from a witness.

So, if in fact the entire trial was a witch hunt, if all the allegations were untrue, if Trump never committed any of the 34 felonies, if Trump never had any contact with Stormy Daniels, if Trump never talked to Cohen about the payment, then Keith Schiller could have been the smoking gun that made everything go away. He wasn’t and he didn’t.

And Blanche knew it. And he admitted it on TV in front of the whole world.

Edited to replace Fox News with CNN.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/2/2244332/-Todd-Blanche-admitted-Trump-was-guilty-on-Fox-News?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web

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