Former Department of Justice prosecutor Kenneth McCallion, who handled many racketeering cases in New York City, was interviewed by Chauncey Devega at Salon.com on the convicted felon Malignant Loser's hush money / election interference case. McCallion on Malignant Loser's interference in his lawyers' strategy:
"Trump did not let his attorneys do their job. They were reasonably good attorneys. Trump was micromanaging the defense. For example, they were not very rigorous in their cross-examination of David Pecker — Trump directed them to do that. Trump wanted his attorney to go hard on Michael Cohen. But that was not the best choice given there was lots of corroborating evidence for his claims.' (our emphasis)
McCallion on the Malignant Loser's big talk about testifying in his own behalf:
"An obvious example would be Trump announcing to the world that he was going to testify in his own defense. Then when push came to shove, Trump sat there silently in the courtroom and did not testify. He did not defend himself. Trump is like a common schoolyard bully. When they are confronted, they wilt. Trump put up a strong tough guy facade for a while, but at the end of the trial he looked like a deflated balloon, more accurately a deflated buffoon. I do not believe that Donald Trump is going to seriously recover from the blow of being found guilty and now being a convicted felon. Trump cannot accept it psychologically. He lives in an alternative universe that is very different from the one the rest of us live in." (our emphasis)
From the first quote, it's been speculated that the Malignant Loser's lawyers were directed not to cross-examine David Pecker more rigorously because Pecker has dirt on him from his days as a private citizen (e.g., connections with one or more crime families in New York). So they went easy on him.
(photo: Getty Images)
