Trump lawyer draws ire of hush money judge

By: Lue Cohen
and Andrew Goudsward
Reuters

NEW YORK - Donald Trump's attorney Todd Blanche took a risk giving up a plush career at a New York law firm to become there first attorney in history to defend a former U.S. president at a criminal trial, and he felt the heat almost immediately when a judge questioned his credibility.
..... Blanche, a former federal prosecutor, is lead lawyer defending Trump in his trial on charges stemming form a hush money payment. he is also handling several other criminal cases for Trump, who is known for cycling through lawyers.
..... some of Trump's lawyer have faced sanctions or even criminal charges of their own stemming from their work for him.
..... Blanche has already earned several sharply worded rebukes from the judge overseeing the hush money case.
..... "Mr Blanche, you're loosing all credibility,: justice Juan Merchan said at a Tuesday [04/23/2024] hearing over whether Trump had violated a gag order. Blanche contended that trump had been trying to follow the court's rules.
..... Merchan has also accused the defense of making baseless claims and filing frivolous motions in its unsuccessful campaign to delay the trial, which started last week. [04/15/2024]
..... Blanche, 49 joined Trump's defense team ahead of his April 2023 arraignment on the indictment brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
..... He is joined on the case by Emil Bove, a partner at Blanche;s eponymous law firm, and by Susan Necheles and Gedalia Stern, who represented Trump's family real estate company at a criminal tax fraud trial in late 2022.
..... In the hush money trial, Trump is accused of covering up a $130,000 payment by his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen to adult film actress Stormy Danial for her silence before the 2016 presidential election about a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump a decade earlier.
...... Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records and denies any such encounter with Danials, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
..... Anne Cominsky, a professor at New York Law School, said the scoldings Blanche has received from Merchan can be par for the course for a criminal defense lawyer.
..... "A judge being frustrated because an attorney continues to make arguments on behalf of his client is just a judge being frustrated," said Cominsky. "It doesn't mean that an attorney is doing anything wrong."
..... Blanche had previously represented several people in Trump's orbit. While a partner at Cadwalader, Wichersham & Taft, Blanche represented Trump's 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort on state fraud charges that were ultimately dismissed.
..... Blanche has also represented former Trump layers Rudy Giuliani's former associate Igor Fruman and Trump's legal and political adviser Boris Ephsteyn.
..... Blanche left Cadwalader and started his own firm when he took on Trump himself as a client. Before entering the private sector, Blanche focused on violent crime prosecutions at the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office.

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