An attorney for former President Trump accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) of “misconduct” when comparing his treatment of Michael Cohen to that of Allen Weisselberg, Trump’s longtime financial gatekeeper.
In a letter addressed to Bragg, Trump attorney Todd Blanche accused the district attorney of “ongoing prosecutorial misconduct” in his hush money case against Trump. Blanche argued that Bragg’s office turned “a blind eye to the admitted and repeated perjury” of Cohen, who had paid adult film actress Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an affair she alleged to have had with the former president. Trump has denied any affair.
Trump is accused of falsifying business records of reimbursements he made in 2016 to Cohen, his fixer at the time. Blanche said the “vindictive and oppressive pressure and plea negotiations” on Monday led to Weisselberg, former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, pleading guilty to perjury charges of him lying during a 2020 deposition.
“[The district attorney’s] conscious choice to ignore obvious and admitted criminal conduct by Cohen and to instead deploy unethical, strong-armed tactics against an innocent man in his late 70s underscores the irresponsibility of your conduct in office,” Blanche wrote.
“Indeed, while you waste public resources in a desperate attempt to impede President Trump’s ongoing ascent to the White House, in violation of applicable prosecutorial guidelines prohibiting such election interference, you regularly and repeatedly allow those guilty of brutal attacks on law enforcement and murderers to roam free,” he continued.
Blanche said prosecutors presented Weisselberg with “an impossible choice” of either pleading guilty in exchange for a “relatively short stint in prison” or facing arrest and incarceration. He said Weisselberg was treated differently than Cohen, whom Blanche claimed has committed perjury in a separate civil fraud trial in New York.
“These issues demand careful consideration because of the legal, ethical, and constitutional issues they implicate. We again urge you to reconsider your positions regarding Cohen and Mr. Weisselberg and put an end to the selective and oppressive misconduct of your office,” Blanche wrote.
Trump’s lawyers have also used Cohen’s testimony in their effort to block him from testifying in the upcoming hush money trial.
“He recently committed perjury, on the stand and under oath, at a civil trial involving President Trump. If his public statements are any indication, he plans to do so again at this criminal trial. The Court should preclude Cohen’s testimony in order to protect the integrity of this Court and the process of justice,” the motion states.
The Hill has reached out to Bragg’s office for comment.
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