Donald Trump's attorneys are fighting the introduction of a piece of evidence that legal experts believe could be extremely important in proving the charges against the former president.
Prosecutors want to show jurors a photo of Trump with his former bodyguard Keith Schiller at a campaign rally shortly before the 2016 election that legal experts say could prove testimony by Michael Cohen about a phone call he made to the former president about a hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
"Whoa, prosecution has a photo that shows on 10/24 Trump WAS INDEED with Schiller just minutes before the call Cohen said he had with both of them!" posted former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann on X. "Which Blanche had sought to refute."
The photo shows Trump and Schiller walking off the stage at an Oct. 24, 2016, campaign rally at 7:57 p.m., five minutes before the 8:02 p.m. phone call in question.
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Defense attorney Todd Blanche argued that the photo should be inadmissible as evidence because prosecutors did not follow the rules of evidence by issuing a subpoena to C-SPAN, which took the photo during its coverage.
Blanche argued the C-SPAN record custodian didn't authenticate information on the website during previous testimony and said a paralegal from the district attorney's office could not properly authenticate it.
"I'm with Andrew on this," said former U.S. attorney Barbara McQuade. "Blanche is arguing the photo isn't relevant, but it's huge. It tends to corroborate Cohen by showing Trump was exactly where he says he was minutes before the call & Schiller could have easily passed Trump the phone."
