Lawrence O’Donnell Argues Trump Lawyer ‘Did as Good a Job’ as He Could After He Was ‘Admonished’ By Judge

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell offered some praise for Donald Trump’s defense attorney Todd Blanche after the lawyer faced a scolding from Judge Juan Merchan during closing arguments in the former president’s hush money trial.

O’Donnell joined fellow anchors Katy Tur, Andrea Mitchell, and Chris Jansing on Tuesday after having sat in the courtroom for Blanche’s closing argument, which he said primarily focused on the testimony of ex-Trump attorney Michael Cohen. Cohen alleges hush money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels were made through him and Trump was aware of the agreement. Trump has denied all of this.

“The phrase I think you’re going to find in that transcript more than any other is ‘reasonable doubt.’ This was not an innocence defense. This was not someone getting up and saying, ‘my client’s never done anything wrong in his life.’ This was entirely a reasonable doubt defense,” O’Donnell said.

O’Donnell said Blanche described Cohen as the “embodiment of reasonable doubt.” At one point Blanche said no man should be sent to prison “on the word of Michael Cohen.” As O’Donnell noted, none of Trump’s 30 felony counts carry a minimum sentence. Blanche was scolded for the comment about potential imprisonment and told by Merchan he “knew” what he was doing, accusing him of putting unneeded pressure on the jury.

“Todd Blanche was admonished by the judge for that after the jury left the room, and the judge did say that he would issue a curative to the jury specifically about what Todd Blanche said in that moment,” O’Donnell recounted.

The reporter argued the defense’s arguments fall short because they don’t provide a specific explanation for payments made to Cohen that were simply labeled as legal expenses. Still, O’Donnell said Blanche’s “strongest point” in his closing argument was arguing reasonable doubt through Cohen, who pleaded guilty to tax fraud and other charges in 2018.

O’Donnell argued the case will come down to the trust jurors have in Cohen, as well as how much doubt there is about Trump being directly aware of the purpose of the invoices he was signing. A bookkeeper testified he “sometimes” did not know what certain invoices were meant for.

“The most important element of reasonable doubt for them that they’re trying to create is, did Donald Trump know about the payments to Stormy Daniels? Did he approve those payments in October of 2016?” O’Donnell said. “And that’s where they’re placing all of their reasonable doubt weight — and Todd Blanche did about as good of a job as you could do with the facts as they stand on that particular point.”

Watch above via MSNBC.