Instant Alert: An attorney for a crack dealer tried to use Trump's attacks on 'flipping' in his closing argument in a court case

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An attorney for a crack dealer tried to use Trump's attacks on 'flipping' in his closing argument in a court case

by John Haltiwanger on Aug 28, 2018, 6:10 PM

An attorney for a crack dealer in New York City last week attempted to cite President Donald Trump's suggestion that "flipping" should be illegal during closing arguments before being cut off by the judge.
"I believe that the president's opinion of cooperators is just as pertinent as anyone else's opinion about cooperators," the attorney was quoted as saying.
The crack dealer, Jamal "Mally" Russell, was later convicted on a charge of conspiracy to deal crack.
The president expressed his opposition to "flipping" after his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, implicated him in campaign finance violations in a federal court.

An attorney for a crack dealer in New York City last week attempted to cite President Donald Trump's suggestion that "flipping" should be illegal during closing arguments before being cut off by the judge, the New York Daily News reported.

Kafahni Nkrumah, the attorney for Jamal "Mally" Russell, began to mention the verdict surrounding Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, before the judge intervened.

Nkrumah reportedly later said he intended to reference Trump's suggestion that flipping "ought to be illegal" that he had made on the show "Fox and Friends" earlier that day.

"I believe that the president's opinion of cooperators is just as pertinent as anyone else's opinion about cooperators," Nkrumah was quoted as saying.

But US District Judge Gregory Woods did not agree and barred Nkrumah from continuing with this line of argument.

Woods emphasized that flipping is not illegal and added that he silenced Nkrumah because he was "concerned about the confusion" that suggesting otherwise could've "wrought" among members of the jury, according to the Daily News.

Russell was convicted on a charge of conspiracy to deal crack.

The president's comments on flipping were in relation to his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, who last week implicated him in campaign finance violations linked to payments made to two women who have alleged they had affairs with Trump.

"If somebody defrauded a bank and he is going to get 10 years in jail or 20 years in jail, but you can say something bad about Donald Trump and you will go down to two years or three years, which is the deal he made, in all fairness to him, most people are going to do that," Trump told "Fox and Friends." "And I have seen it many times. I have had many friends involved in this stuff. It's called flipping and it almost ought to be illegal."