George Conway Argues Michael Cohen’s Anti-Trump Testimony Has Already Been ‘Pre-Corroborated’ By The Facts

CNN’s Jake Tapper led a panel discussion on Monday about the strengths and weaknesses of Michael Cohen’s testimony in Donald Trump’s porn star hush money trial. Cohen, Trump’s former fixer, is a key witness for the prosecution, but one that suffers from credibility issues given his former line of work.

“He would address, Trump as ‘boss’ and ‘Mr. Trump.’ To hear Michael Cohen, tell it, working for Donald Trump, was fun and one of the thrills of his life. Yet he acknowledges that there were less than great times as well. But he also talks about the great times. Joining us now, two new attorneys to add to our law firm, George Conway and Tim Parlatore. George, what concerns might you have as somebody who thinks that Donald Trump is guilty of crimes? What concerns might you have about Michael Cohen’s credibility? And are they surmountable?” Tapper began.

“Well, the concern I have is that he, you know, he’s got to keep his cool,” Conway began, adding:

I don’t think, I mean, I think the thing about this is about, what’s happened in this case is that the government has essentially pre-corroborated Michael Cohen in a lot of ways. So the burden on Cohen and the burden on the prosecution, on how it elicits testimony from Cohen is reduced. And at the same time, because I don’t really see what the alternative scenario that the that the defense has, will be arguing, is an alternative explanation of this series of facts. I don’t see what that is yet. I think that, they’re they’re not, I don’t think they’re going to be able to do much damage showing that Cohen is lying about the facts of this case. That said, they’re going to try to show that he has lied everywhere else.

“In fact, the prosecution getting that out right here, Susan Hoffinger, with the with the district attorney’s team saying asking Cohen whether he would sometimes lie for his then boss, Donald Trump. ‘Yes, ma’am,’ Cohen says,” Tapper replied, turning to former Trump lawyer Parlatore.

“Tim Parlatore, as somebody on the other side, perhaps, of, of your view of this case, what do you think of what George just said? The idea that so much of this has been pre corroborated, that that takes some of the pressure off the prosecution in terms of the credibility of Michael Cohen. Cohen says, by the way, it’s fair to describe him as having been Trump’s fixer. ‘The only thing that was on my mind,’ Cohen says, ‘was to accomplish the task, to make him happy,’” Tapper asked.

“Well, here’s the problem is what they’ve done is they pre-corroborated a lot of the surrounding facts. And you got to remember, this is a case where most of the facts are not in dispute,” Parlatore agreed before pouring some cold water on Conway’s argument:

But the key disputed facts are the elements of the crime. And that’s the part that they have no corroboration for. As to what was Trump’s personal knowledge of the specific entries and what was his intent behind those specific entries as far as concealing something else? And so all of the kind of atmospherics, yeah, those are corroborated, but those are not really in dispute. It’s the elements of the crime that there’s really not any corroboration for, other than Michael Cohen’s testimony.

Watch the clip above via CNN.

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