Todd Blanche, the attorney who defended former President Donald Trump in his criminal trial in Manhattan which concluded with the jury finding Trump guilty of all 34 felony charges, was interviewed by Kaitlin Collins on CNN hours after the verdict was read.
Note: Throughout the trial, during recesses at the courthouse, Trump had repeatedly said that key witnesses — who he claimed could have helped his defense — were not called to testify.
When Collins asked Blanche why those witnesses including Keith Schiller, former Director of Security at Trump Organization, weren’t called, he said, “Well, because we happen to live in America.” He added, “And we don’t have the burden of proof.”
— Andrew Weissmann (weissmann11 on Threads) (@AWeissmann_) May 31, 2024
Blanche continued: “That’s not the point. That is a question that is, that’s a loaded question that should not be asked of a defense attorney or a defendant.”
Blanche asked: “Why didn’t the prosecution call those witnesses? As a defense attorney, you don’t go into a case saying, ‘I’m going to fill in the holes for prosecution.’” Blanche said witnesses including Schiller should have been called by prosecution “and we asked the jury to take a hard look at that. I don’t know whether they did or not but they convicted.”
Former Assistant United States Attorney Andrew Weissmann, who had attended the Trump trial inside the courtroom, replied to the Blanche CNN interview with disbelief, writing simply: “Omg.”