Brad Smith, a law professor and former Federal Elections Commissioner, revealed Tuesday that attorneys for former President Donald Trump planned to call him as a witness but Judge Juan Merchan had restricted his testimony so much that they decided not to go forward.
Smith revealed the decision on X, posting: “Judge Merchan has so restricted my testimony that defense has decided not to call me.”
Smith, who is also the chairman of the Institute for Free Speech, argued that while the judge instructs the jury on the law, campaign finance law is so complicated that the jurors would have benefited from his testimony.
“Someone has to bring that knowledge to the jury. That—not the law—was my intended testimony,” he posted.
He then explained that part of Democrat Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s argument against Trump is that Trump tried to hide an October 27, 2016, campaign expense (an alleged hush money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels) until after the 2016 election.
However, Smith said that even if Trump or his then-personal lawyer Michael Cohen thought it was a campaign expense, they would not be required under law to report that until December 8, 2016 — which would be after the election, and thus, not filing the expense before the election was not an attempt to influence the election or hide it.
Bragg has argued that Trump violated federal campaign finance laws by classifying a campaign expense as a legal expense, but did so in order to hide the alleged “crime” of entering a conspiracy to influence the 2016 elections.
Smith then slammed Merchan, noting that the judge would not let him testify on the meaning of the law, but allowed Cohen “to go on at length” about whether and how his activity violated the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA).
So effectively, the jury got its instructions on FECA from Michael Cohen!” he posted.
He said Merchan has asked both sides to submit further proposed instructions on FECA and he assumed they would “argue it out.”
“I’m not optimistic,” he posted.
He then noted that Merchan had donated in 2020 to Democrat then-presidential nominee Joe Biden — Trump’s opponent.
“So you’ve got a judge who contributed to Trump’s opponent presiding over a trial by a prosecutor who was elected on a vow to get Trump, for something DOJ and FEC chose not to prosecute, on a far-fetched legal theory I which the prosecution has been allowed [t]o repeatedly misstate the law or elicit incorrect statements of law from witnesses (and unlike Cohen’s, my testimony would not have gone to the ultimate legal issue). The judge’s bias is very evident,” he posted.
X CEO Elon Musk posted in response to Smith’s thread, “Deeply concerning thread.”
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