MSNBC’s coverage of the New York v. Trump trial featured an unexpected “moment of triumph” for former President Donald Trump’s defense team last week.

During the broadcast, network legal correspondent Lisa Rubin took center stage as she detailed a crucial moment from the cross-examination of Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and a key witness for the prosecution.

In Thursday’s proceedings, defense attorney Todd Blanche confronted Michael Cohen about a contentious phone call made to Trump’s former bodyguard, Keith Schiller. MSNBC’s legal correspondent Lisa Rubin pointed out this moment as the “biggest point” of the day for Team Trump, in a trial that is both highly controversial and significant.

The crux of the matter involved Michael Cohen’s honesty regarding his communications with Trump about a hush money payment. Cohen, who was touted as the prosecution’s key witness, saw his credibility challenged when Blanche introduced a text exchange between Cohen and Schiller. That text, which Cohen had not seen in the eight years since it was sent, significantly disrupted the narrative he had upheld throughout the trial.

The text showed that Cohen reached out to Schiller not to discuss Trump directly but to seek advice on dealing with harassing calls from a purported 14-year-old prankster. This disclosure contradicted Cohen’s earlier testimony, where he maintained that the call was exclusively about Trump. Under cross-examination, Cohen responded with apparent uncertainty, saying, “Part of it was the 14-year-old… but I know Keith was with Mr. Trump.”

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Blanche seized on this discrepancy, stating emphatically, “That was a lie. You did not talk to President Trump.” Cohen’s reply was weak, however: “I’m not certain that’s accurate.”

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MSNBC portrayed this moment as a significant win for Trump’s legal team, highlighting the difficulties the prosecution faces in constructing a credible case against the former president. Lisa Rubin’s analysis emphasized that the cross-examination extended beyond just a phone call, focusing on Cohen’s integrity and reliability as a witness.

“It sort of cast lots of his testimony in doubt given the passage of time and makes the District Attorney’s Office look terrible all in one breath,” Rubin explained. “This is a moment of real triumph for Todd Blanche. You could even hear it in his voice. He is not a person to get excitable very easily.”

The incident not only casts doubt on the strength of the prosecution’s case but also raises questions about the diligence of the District Attorney’s Office. Rubin noted that the office seemed “sloppy” for not having previously shown Cohen the crucial text message, which could have clarified the facts before the trial. It was evident that MSNBC, often critical of Trump, recognized a pivotal moment where the defense not only challenged but potentially upended the prosecution’s narrative.

Trump attorney and spokeswoman Alina Habba ripped the hypocritical nature of the prosecution against her boss that is evident in his Manhattan hush money trial, even to the point where attorney-client privilege doesn’t appear to matter.

Habba was discussing Cohen’s testimony after he admitted last week to secretly recording a conversation with his then-boss about an alleged hush money payment. These discussions between attorneys and their clients are supposed to be privileged and private, but Cohen’s testimony in court has not yet been challenged.

Habba, in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, noted the discrepancy.

“Last time I checked, there’s something called attorney-client privilege. Obviously, you know, that doesn’t stand if you’re going against Donald Trump because none of the rules stand if you’re going against Donald Trump in a political campaign where he is winning and they have no other way to win but to take him down with illegal and politically motivated lawfare,” Habba said.

“You said it best, Sean. Hillary Clinton did something far worse, and the [Federal Election Commission] looked at it, they examined it, and what did they do? They gave her a slap on the wrist, she paid, I think, eight grand for hiding the dirty dossier, the Russian hoax against Donald Trump, and nobody cared about anything,” Habba continued.

“She wasn’t dragged into court. Neither was Bill Clinton in the sock drawer case, and the list goes on and on and on. But if you are Donald Trump, you’re going to be gagged unconstitutionally so that you can’t even discuss testimony of people that are calling you a liar, and you can’t defend yourself. Can I tell you, Sean, I have never seen anything worse than what I saw today. I’m not going to get into the testimony of somebody under oath on a witness stand, but I think if you read the news, it speaks for itself,” she added.