{"id":2254366,"date":"2024-05-28T15:23:02","date_gmt":"2024-05-28T19:23:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-trial-judge-slams-defense-attorney-for-outrageous-comment-on-trump-prison-time\/"},"modified":"2024-05-28T15:24:40","modified_gmt":"2024-05-28T19:24:40","slug":"trump-trial-judge-slams-defense-attorney-for-outrageous-comment-on-trump-prison-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-trial-judge-slams-defense-attorney-for-outrageous-comment-on-trump-prison-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge criticizes defense attorney for &#8216;outrageous&#8217; remark on Trump&#8217;s potential prison sentence during trial"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftrump-trial-judge-slams-defense-attorney-for-outrageous-comment-on-trump-prison-time%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2254366&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A judge criticized Donald Trump&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/president-trump-please-pardon-jon-woods-a-victim-of-process-crimes-like-michael-flynn\/\" title=\"President Trump, Please Pardon Jon Woods, a Victim of Process Crimes Like Michael Flynn\">defense attorney<\/a>\u2063 for\u200b suggesting the possibility of Trump going \u200cto prison if <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/secy-pompeo-calls-for-release-of-chinese-citizen-journalist\/\" title=\"Secy. Pompeo calls for release of Chinese citizen journalist\">found guilty<\/a> in New York. The judge, Juan Merchan, rebuked the attorney&#8217;s remarks \u2062during <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/schumer-mcconnell-reach-agreement-on-trump-impeachment-trial-here-are-the-details\/\" title=\"Schumer, McConnell Reach Agreement on Trump Impeachment Trial \u2013 Here Are the Details\">closing arguments<\/a>. Prosecutors lodged a complaint, leading Judge Merchan to issue a corrective instruction to\u2064 the jury and denounce\u2062 the defense attorney&#8217;s statement\u2062 as\u200b &#8220;outrageous.&#8221; \u200bJuries must solely\u200c focus\u200b on\u200b guilt without\u2063 considering potential penalties.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A judge scolded <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/donald-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Donald Trump<\/a>\u2018s defense attorney during closing arguments on Tuesday for raising the possibility that the former president could go to prison if convicted of the criminal charges he is facing in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/new-york\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"New York\">New York<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Juan Merchan said he would issue a corrective instruction to the jury after Trump attorney Todd Blanche said while delivering the defense\u2019s closing arguments that jurors could \u201cnot send someone to prison \u2026 based upon the words of Michael Cohen,\u201d according to courtroom <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/live\/trump-trial-day-21-updates\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>reports<\/a> from the <em>Associated Press<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The remark about Trump\u2019s possible punishment prompted a complaint from prosecutors, who asked Merchan to issue what is known as a \u201ccurative\u201d instruction to address it. Merchan, in response, granted the prosecutors\u2019 request and called Blanche\u2019s comment \u201coutrageous.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that saying that was outrageous,\u201d Merchan told Blanche. \u201cSomeone who\u2019s been a prosecutor as long as you have and a defense attorney as long as you have, you know that making a comment like that is highly inappropriate. It\u2019s simply not allowed. Period.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Courts have long held that juries are not to consider penalties of a crime when determining whether prosecutors have proven beyond reasonable doubt that the crime was committed.<\/p>\n<p>In his curative instruction, Merchan explained this to the jury in Trump\u2019s case and called Blanche\u2019s comment about prison \u201cimproper.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou must disregard it,\u201d Merchan said.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors also took issue with a comment Blanche made about a retainer agreement and asked Merchan to issue a second curative instruction on that, but Merchan denied that request.<\/p>\n<p>Blanche\u2019s comment about prison came as he was speaking about Michael Cohen, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-trial-begins-here-are-the-hush-money-case-weaknesses-trump-could-exploit\/\" title=\"Trump's trial commences: Exploring the potential weaknesses in the hush money case\">prosecutors\u2019 star witness<\/a> in the case who provided the most direct evidence that Trump allegedly had knowledge of an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/braggs-star-witness-michael-cohen-to-testify-in-trumps-hush-money-trial\/\" title=\"Michael Cohen, Bragg's key witness, set to testify in Trump's hush money trial\">illegal payment scheme<\/a> to silence porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Cohen\u2019s evidence came in the form of testimony about his recollection of phone calls and meetings with Trump; however, Cohen\u2019s credibility has long been a glaring problem for prosecutors.<\/p>\n<p>Cohen, Trump\u2019s former attorney, pleaded guilty in 2018 to tax evasion, campaign finance violations, lying to a bank, and lying to Congress. He has since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/3010133\/trump-trial-cohen-testifies-anti-trump-books-podcast\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>pursued<\/a> a lucrative vendetta against Trump, raking in millions of dollars by selling books and speaking on podcast episodes about his disdain for his former boss.<\/p>\n<p>Blanche, as part of his closing arguments, tore into Cohen, telling jurors he is the \u201cthe GLOAT, the greatest liar of all time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors began their closing arguments Tuesday afternoon. When they finish, Merchan will give the jury instructions about Trump\u2019s charges, and from there, the jury will begin deliberations.<\/p>\n<p>Trump is facing 34 counts of falsifying business records, and each count carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During closing arguments, Judge Juan Merchan admonished Donald Trump&#8217;s defense attorney for suggesting the potential of the ex-president facing prison time if found guilty in New York. He announced plans to provide the jury with a corrective instruction in response to attorney Todd Blanche&#8217;s statement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":2254367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/AP24149655697729.jpg.optimal.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2254366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/AP24149655697729.jpg.optimal.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2254366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2254366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2254366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2254367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2254366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2254366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2254366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}