OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Top-rated conservative radio talker and Fox News host Mark Levin, who is also an attorney and expert on the law, opined on Monday that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg should be disbarred over the way he and his office handled former Trump lawyer-fixer Michael Cohen’s testimony.
Last week on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, Levin argued that the Democratic prosecutor might be found guilty of violating the federal Brady rule, which mandates the government to disclose all exculpatory evidence relevant to the proceedings. In the case of Cohen, Levin asserts that Bragg did not provide Trump’s attorneys with substantial evidence highlighting the unreliability of their witness based on his past statements.
“Sean, it’s my opening argument on why Alvin Bragg should be disbarred, why he should be facing a — charges for suborning perjury, which I’ve talked about on my radio show for the last three days, and also why he’s in violation of the Brady [Rule],” Levin told Hannity when the host asked him what his closing argument would be in the case.
“We have very smart lawyers, some fairly smart lawyers who are talking about this case. They’re all saying the same thing in a different way because the case is so outrageous. We’re running out of words and explanations for it. None of us have ever seen anything like this,” Levin continued.
“You have collateral evidence, which is unconstitutional; you have somebody being charged, and he’s not sure what he’s charged with, which is unconstitutional. You have all kinds of allegations being made which are absolutely outrageous, not relevant. You have a dead state statute that remains dead today that’s being used. You have a federal campaign law and nobody knows exactly what part of the federal campaign law we’re talking about. And so, I want to talk about Alvin Bragg rather than keep talking about the same thing,” he went on.
He then explained the Brady ruling and its requirements for prosecutors. “There’s a Supreme Court case called Brady versus Maryland, and the Supreme Court ruled, and I’ll keep it tight, that the government, the prosecutor must not withhold exculpatory evidence, must be given to the defense and in fact, if they know that evidence is false or might be false, they’re not supposed to use it. That doesn’t mean you don’t have impeachment in these other things taking place if a prosecutor affirmatively knows that there is materially false information that this witness may give or any lawyer for that, they are not to present that person,” Levin continued.
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He then explained what, in his view, constituted the exculpatory evidence.
“Robert — has been here — Costello — on all these shows… This guy is the former deputy chief of the criminal division of the Southern District of New York. Does it get any higher than that? And he was Cohen’s lawyer for a critical period of time, and he’s been on my show, Saturday, he’s been on other shows, he was on a show this morning, he testified before Congress under oath, and he said, ‘look, this guy’s a liar, I was his lawyer, I have 300 emails, I have contemporaneous information, I’m telling you he’s a liar, on top of all the other lies the guy has told. And nobody wants this guy as a witness.’ That’s why the U.S. attorney’s office didn’t want him. That’s why Vance didn’t want him. That’s why Bragg initially didn’t want him,” Levin explained.
“So what happened? What happened is Mr. Bragg. Mr. Bragg should be disbarred. Mr. Bragg has violated the Brady rule. That’s a half a century old rule,” Levin said. “So when that government witness is on the stand, that means the district attorney and the government are vouching for the truth, the integrity, for the testimony of that witness, and that witness was put up there despite the fact that the government knew from these emails of Mr. Costello’s testimony that he’s a liar.”
“So my takeaway is this, this case now is about Alvin Bragg. It’s about — it’s about the Brady [Rule], it’s about suborning perjury, and it’s about this judge who will not allow this expert witness in because he will torpedo this case once and for all,” Levin concluded.
