Defense attorney Ron Kube ripped Donald Trump’s legal team in his hush money trial for appealing to Trump’s “vanity” instead of the jury on CNN Monday.

Kube first noted that the credibility issues for the prosecution’s star witness, Michael Cohen, represented a vulnerability for its case, but also noted that prosecutors rely on unsavory characters all the time.

“They call the worst people: mafia killers, father-daughter rapist, murderers to testify. And those people are believed because their testimony is corroborated,” argued Kube before laying into Trump’s lawyers.

“But Trump’s defense team isn’t speaking to 12 jurors, plus alternates. They’re speaking to one person, and that’s Donald Trump, you know, which is a very bad way to to run a case,” he argued. “I’m very clear with my clients at the outset: ‘Look, I don’t tell you how to commit armed robberies. Don’t tell me how to try your case. Everybody should play to their strengths here.’ But we have seen the defense team make decisions over and over again. That can only be explained by a desire to appeal to Donald Trump’s vanity. And that’s, I think, perilous at best.”

The parties are set to make their closing arguments beginning on Tuesday, after which the jury will begin to deliberate. CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig has argued that closing arguments could be especially “crucial” in this case after the long Memorial Day weekend.

“It really heightens the importance of closings,” submitted Honig. “And closings are always crucial, but here the parties are going to have to really bring the jury back to the evidence, some of which is over a month ago that the jury heard it. So closings are always crucial, but especially here when you have this kind of gap.”

Watch above via CNN.

The post Defense Attorney Rips Trump’s Legal Team Over ‘Perilous’ Strategy of Appealing to His ‘Vanity’ Instead of the Jury first appeared on Mediaite.

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