Trump's lawyers 'made two huge mistakes' that 'backfired' in hush money trial

Donald Trump has been accused of squandering a "winnable case" where he could have potentially achieved a hung jury or escaped with only a misdemeanour, according to a legal expert.

On Thursday, the former president was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in his historic hush money trial.

Trump concealed payments of £102,000 ($130,000) to adult film star Stormy Daniels to hide extramarital affairs and now faces the unlikely prospect of jail time.

Veteran lawyers argue that despite District Attorney Alvin Bragg presenting 200 pieces of evidence and weeks of witness testimony, his case had weaknesses.

Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor, detailed in an analysis for the New York Times how Trump's defence was undermined by two critical errors.

According to the legal expert, Trump has used this deny-everything, attack-everyone strategy for years on TV, social media, and during his boisterous and vulgar campaign rallies.

But Mariotti suggested it "backfired" and was ill-suited to a courtroom by torpedoing his chances of winning, or at least fighting the case to a draw he could call a victory.

Mariotti explained that the prosecution's case was largely dependent on the testimony of Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and 'fixer', who was the sole evidence that Trump was aware of the plot to falsify the records.

Trump was already in the White House when the fake records were created and could have argued that Cohen and Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg concocted the scheme independently while he was preoccupied with presidential duties.

Trump's lawyers did attempt this, but the trial spanned weeks with a bewildering array of witnesses and pieces of evidence for the jury to keep track of.

"The problem is that the defense made so many other points, and fought so many other things, that it failed to focus the jury on the weaknesses in the prosecution's case and instead tried to fight everything and everyone, even when it gained little by doing so," Mariotti wrote.

"The defense needs its own story, and in my experience, the side that tells the simpler story at trial usually wins."

Mariotti said that if he had been in charge of the defence, he would have had Trump confess to his affair with Daniels, thus removing her from the equation. However, the prosecution complicated matters further by attempting to prove the affair took place, leading jurors to empathise with Daniels' testimony.

Trump's defence team once again failed to adhere to the "keep it simple" principle when they cross-examined Cohen on the stand for days over minor details.

Trump will be sentenced on July 11.