Fox & Friends hosts attack star witness Michael Cohen as they echo Trump’s claim that hush money trial is ‘political’

Co-hosts of Fox & Friends parrotedDonald Trump’s rhetoric about the hush money trial, throwing doubt on the criminal justice process and questioning the credibility of Michael Cohen, the prosecution’s star witness, hours ahead of the historic criminal trial of the former president.

As the first-ever criminal trial of a sitting or former president is set to begin on Monday morning in New York City, conservative anchors on Fox News jumped to Mr Trump’s defence.

The show tried to cut into Mr Trump’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen’s credibility, showing side-by-side clips of Trump’s former fixer contradicting himself over the years.

Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to a number of violations, including making false statements, prompting the former president to turn on Cohen, brandinghim a “liar”.

Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett played into Mr Trump’s accusations. “Cohen was never much of a lawyer,” he said, adding that he believed Cohen was good at “lying prodigiously”.

“I can’t imagine any objective juror believing anything he has to say,” Jarrett added.

He also took issue with the criminal trial as a whole, calling the hush money case an example of “unequal justice and selective prosecution”. He added, “if your name is Trump, then the [criminal justice] process is completely different and turned on its head”.

“This is all obviously political,” another host chimed in.

“This is taking him off the campaign trail,” Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt groaned. “They could have done this seven years ago? Why do they wait till now? Questionable… right before the election.”

A guest on the show, Alabama Republican Senator Katie Britt, also commented on how she thought the New York criminal trial was politicised: “This is the left