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Former federal prosecutor Paul Butler said Thursday on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” that former President Donald Trump’s attorney made a huge mistake by going after adult film star Stormy Daniels during her cross-examination at the New York business record trial.
Discussing defense counsel Susan Necheles’ questions today in court, host Joy Reid said, “This kind of ego-stroking Trump and, you know, attacking Stormy Daniels because Trump can’t do it — that doesn’t seem to me to be a defense.”
Butler said, “It’s a performance for the client. So it is the job of a defense attorney to attack the credibility of a witness for the prosecution. And in fact, there was baggage that Stormy Daniels has. She lost a defamation case with Trump, and she said that she would go to jail rather than pay him a dime. But that’s not what the defense focused on during their cross. They acted like she was a fallen woman, like this was a trial in Mississippi in the 1950s.”
He added, “There was this class component. They treated her like they thought she was trash. In stark contrast to Hope Hicks last week, this former Vanity Fair model who they didn’t treat in the same way. They actually treated her with kid gloves. And so I don’t think this is very effective for the jury. I don’t think classism and sexism work on a Manhattan jury in 2024.”
