"Judge was right to be mad": Legal expert says Trump lawyer shouldn't have brought up prison

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

55% : "Cohen previously testified about a key 2017 meeting at Trump Tower where he said Trump approved the reimbursement plan.
45% : "Blanche also argued that Daniels, her manager, and a former National Enquirer editor conspired to get the money from Trump.
44% : Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, with prosecutors saying that audio recordings, internal business records and witness testimony prove he was scheming to kill damaging stories about alleged extramarital sex ahead of his 2016 campaign and disguising reimbursements for the hush money to Cohen as legal fees -- all in violation of state and federal election law and state tax law.
43% : Former Trump Organization controller Jeff McConney testified that nine of 11 checks to Cohen came from Trump's personal account, that Trump signed the checks from the Oval Office, and that the accounting department labeled the payments as "legal expenses.
41% : On Tuesday, Blanche stressed that Trump paid Cohen - his personal attorney - for legal services.
40% : Prosecutors say that the October 2016 release of the Access Hollywood tapes - in which Trump is heard talking about being able to grope female genitalia because he's famous - prompted the campaign to go into overdrive to work with the National Enquirer to quash other damaging stories, including adult film star and director Stormy Daniels' account of a sexual encounter with Trump in Lake Tahoe in 2006.
38% : "Cohen said he did "very minimal" work for Trump in 2017, including reviewing an agreement involving a wax figure of Melania Trump.
37% : Each count carries up to four years in prison, which Trump would likely serve concurrently if convicted.
36% : The defense team asked Cohen whether he "stole" money from Trump by only paying the tech company $20,000.
33% : On Tuesday, Blanche said Trump faced extortion and that his campaign used strategies common in the world of politics and entertainment - namely, that of NDAs and settlements - to protect his reputation and family.
26% : One central issue is whether the $420,000 that Trump paid to Cohen through 2017 was to pay Cohen back for paying off Daniels to the tune of $130,000.
25% : He said Trump didn't always look at the invoices, and that he never saw the 2017 checks.
24% : "Cohen had an ax to grind because he did not appreciate what President Trump did or did not do for him after he became president of the U.S.," Blanche said, according to Newsweek reporter Katherine Fung.
24% : And Blanche asked jurors: why would Cohen do any legal work for free for Trump?Cohen had testified that he felt underpaid by Trump in past years.
23% : "They have also emphasized that there is nothing inherently sinister about NDAs."As Blanche ended his opening statements, he urged jurors not to send Trump to prison.
23% : Prosecutors and defense are at odds over whether there's evidence that Trump intended to defraud or unlawfully influence the 2016 election - an issue central to the felony charges.
21% : "Levenson said the judge was "right to be mad.""First, it is not at all clear that Trump will go to jail, even if convicted," she said.
18% : Trump denies the charges, as well as the alleged sexual encounters.
13% : "As he wraps up, it appears that Blanche is making this case into what it always has been 'Cohen v. Trump,' with the hope that Cohen is such a damaged witness that jurors won't believe him - especially on the key point of whether Trump knew about the scheme," Levenson said.
3% : "Trump is being portrayed as someone too busy and too important to really know what was going on, and this whole case has been about embarrassing Trump," Levenson said.

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