Among weeks of testimony and evidence leading to Donald Trump’s conviction in his hush money trial, one former federal prosecutor told 7NEWS the documents showing Trump committed fraud likely sealed the deal.
“It was just a mountain of evidence in the case,” said Evan Gotlob.
Gotlob specializes in white collar crime and has extensive experience in New York state courts.
He said the Trump case “was about lying on documents to try to influence an election.”
“They built up a really, really strong, iron-clad documents case and I think that’s what they did best during the trial,” Gotlob said.
Beyond documents, Gotlob said testimony from Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, also helped the prosecution.
“I think what kind of made him cross-proof in this case was just the DA pounding on him, ‘You have to admit all the bad things you’ve done. You can’t deny anything they question you on. If you did it, you have to admit,’” he said. “And pretty much all the things they questioned him on, he did admit it because he did do it.”
Gotlob said the final piece of the prosecution’s case was testimony from former tabloid publisher David Pecker, which the jury asked to hear again over the course of more than 11 hours of deliberation.
“In this case, obviously you have the documents,” Gotlob said. “But it’s nice to have a living, breathing human in front of normal people…besides just a print-out from Citibank or an email.”
Trump’s sentencing in his hush money case is currently scheduled for July 11. Though he could theoretically face more than a decade in prison, Judge Juan Merchan could also impose a lesser penalty.
Jeff Robbins, a veteran trial lawyer and former assistant US attorney for Massachusetts, told 7NEWS on Thursday it is unlikely Trump will appear for another trial in any of his three other pending criminal cases before November.
Biden has responded to Trump’s conviction, saying the only way to keep Trump out of the Oval Office is at the ballot box.
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