George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley accused the judge in former President Donald Trump’s trial of losing control of the courtroom.
Porn star Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday in the trial regarding a $130,000 payout to keep her quiet about an alleged affair before the 2016 election. Trump’s attorney’s pushed for a mistrial by alleging that she brought up information irrelevant to the case, which New York Judge Juan Merchan dismissed.
“The problem with what the judge has done here is that this is an entirely unnecessary witness. It is uncontested that there is a NDA. Whether what happened in their relationship, if there was one, is immaterial to how those payments were denoted by the Trump campaign,” Turley told “America Reports” co-hosts John Roberts and Gillian Turner. “So the court had the opportunity, repeatedly to say, we’re not going to take this courtroom through details of this relationship. If you want to establish a relationship occurred, do so, establish the dates. But likely those facts could’ve been stipulated.” (RELATED: Fox Legal Analyst Says Trump Prosecutors Doing ‘Exactly What Led To The Reversal’ Of Weinstein Conviction)
“So, the prosecutors wanted to get salacious details out and this is a form of punishment,” Turley continued. “They’re trying to use a witness for punitive purposes, and in my view, political purposes, and this is what happens, and it happened because the judge lost control of his courtroom.”
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Turley previously said during an April 30 Fox News appearance that Merchan may have erred by allowing prosecutors, led by former Biden administration official Michael Colangelo, to claim Trump was involved in violating federal election laws.
“It will be hard to correct that,” Turley said. “The judge can try to correct some of this in his instructions, but at this point it would be very hard to do it. For example, the judge has allowed this jury to hear over and over again that there were election violations at the base of this case suggesting that Trump committed election violations. There is no evidence of that. There is no evidence of a crime.”
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