Introduction General lady y's back General from Wyoming is recognized I think there are a few things that should be cleared up today first of all we are not a democracy we are a republic I think it's extremely important to remember that and to understand our form of government I also think that this is one of the reasons why people dislike politicians we we all know what's happening here we know that Alan Alan Bragg's prosecution of pres president Trump is exhibit a of the left's by any means necessary law fair campaign against President Trump Bragg's prosecution of President Trump opened a dangerous Pandora's box of politically motivated prosecutions of political opponents and Manhattan District Judge Juan maran's decisions Guided by political bias unfairly prejudiced the outcome of the trial and violated president Trump's due process rights anyone with a li a sense knows that those statements are actually uh cannot be refuted we all watched what happened during the course of the trial Prof Professor Smith have you ever been retained as is an expert to testify on campaign Finance matters prior to the case against President Trump yes okay and briefly what were the nature of those cases what issues or federal laws did you testify with regard to uh all of those were other cases uh Did you testify in which I was asked to testify about uh past experience with Federal campaign Finance laws customs and campaigns how they pay for things uh there were maybe as many as four I don't like to do expert witness work and I don't normally do it and uh in none of those that you mentioned testifying in none of those that I end up testifying either because the case is settled because one is still pending uh or because in one other case the judge decided that this would be testimony that would go to the law can you briefly describe your qualifications to provide such expert testimony well as this has been Qualifications mentioned I served as a commissioner on the Federal Election Commission including a term as as chairman I've written uh one book specifically on campaign finance and and sered as co-author on two others on campaign finance and election law uh I have been uh at one point uh cited as one of the most cited scholars in the field of election law a recent book from the University of Chicago press suggested that I've had more influence on campaign Finance than any other scholar in the last 40 or 50 years or something like that so devoted my life to this this is what I do you're qualified to testify about Federal campaign Finance law um would you also agree that campaign fance law is a complex area and one where a lot of Americans who may have to sit on a jury would benefit from expert witness testimony to understand the alleged crimes that they are being asked to decide extremely so at one point Expert Witnesses Justice Scalia when he was serving on the Supreme Court actually said during the middle of oral argument he says this law is so complex I can't figure it out so Professor Smith to the best of your knowledge is Michael Cohen a campaign Finance law expert and not to my knowledge and not what I've seen well yet judge Bashan allowed him to testify as such during the course of the Trump trial didn't he yes in theory for other purposes but nonetheless you had him repeatedly saying this violated the law you know that violated so judge marchan commented when ruling to limit the scope of any testimony that you would provide that quote there is no question that this would result in a battle of the experts which will only serve to confuse and not assist the jury end quote from the standpoint of someone who practiced as a trial attorney for 34 years I find that to be an extremely bizarre statement because that in fact is the situation anytime you have a case where expert testimony is needed in fact I worked on a Case called Nebraska versus Wyoming at one point and Wyoming had over 25 expert Witnesses in everything from hydrology to a engineering to economics to fival geomorphology to all of these things in Nebraska had something similar yet the judge including the United States Supreme Court was not excluding expert Witnesses simply because there was going to be a battle of the experts is that your experience as well that is and and I Legal Conclusions would point out one thing I mentioned earlier that there were a number of things I would have testified to that would not have gone to Legal conclusions but rather testifying about Customs practices about simply reporting dates under the law and it appeared from the judge's rulings that even this that kind of testimony would not have been allowed he wasn't going to allow you to testify to those things but he allowed Mr Cohen to sit up there and say president Trump violated federal election laws didn't he yes um Mr uh Professor Smith going on do you believe that the court committed reversible error by allowing Mr quen to testify about alleged campaign viol uh campaign or election violations I think it was erroneous uh and I'm not even sure what the standard not being a criminal law guy what the standard of review is for that kind of error and and sometimes if it's abusive discretion courts give trial judges a lot of leeway but it doesn't mean the decision wasn't right was wasn't wrong judge Wilson do you believe that judge mer Sean committed reversible error in excluding Mr Smith but allowing Mr Cohen to testify on these issues in and of itself Conclusion that may not be enough to secure a reversal of the conviction but there is a concept uh in app pellet law a cumulative error and what I believe we've seen in the Trump trial is a series of Errors one piled upon the other accumulative errors that when you put them all together show that Donald Trump did not have a fair trial and that his conviction should be reversed I'm absolutely convinced that his conviction will be reversed and I also believe that judge Maran was well aware of that when he made the decisions during the course of trial that he did I found his decisions to be egregious egregious reversible error on so many different levels thank you all for being here today and with that I yield back G lady yields back gentleman from South Carina before young lady the ranking members recognize um I just for