Donald Trump’s lawyers have been trolled by a random man in Brooklyn after they subpoenaed him by mistake for the former president’s hush money trial.
In a filing from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office on Tuesday, prosecutors revealed that Mr Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche had tried to subpoena former District Attorney Supervising Rackets Investigator Jeremy Rosenberg in March, to seek files related to the Republican presidential candidate’s former lawyer Michael Cohen.
However, it transpired that Mr Blanche made an embarrassing mistake – sending the subpoena to a man from Brooklyn also called Jeremy Rosenberg.
While the man shares the same name as the former DA’s office investigator, he has zero connection to the criminal case against the former president.
Following the blunder, Mr Rosenberg decided to have a bit of fun with Mr Trump’s attorneys – and told them he’d be keeping the money they sent him.
“I don’t have any files for you,” the apparently bemused Brooklynite wrote back, according to a filing from the former president’s legal team.
He added: “PS – The phone number you provided was disconnected.
“PPS – I’m keeping the fifteen dollars,” he added, referencing the money Mr Trump’s lawyers had sent him to help pay for sending the documents.
Mr Blanche had complained earlier this week that the man that he believed the former investigator Mr Rosenberg had displayed a “flippant and dismissive approach” to his subpoena “despite ample experience with the criminal justice system that should have instilled in him respect for this process and a criminal defendant’s rights”.
But in fact, Mr Trump’s lawyers had simply served court papers on the wrong man, prosecutor Matthew Colangelo wrote.
“The people believe the defendant has served the incorrect person,” Mr Colangelo said in a court filing.
“The people spoke with Mr. Rosenberg’s counsel, who informed the People that Mr. Rosenberg was not, in fact, served with the subpoena, that Mr. Rosenberg had not corresponded with defense counsel, and that Mr. Rosenberg does not have any connection to the Brooklyn address where the subpoena purportedly was served,” he added.
Mr Trump is set to go on trial on 15 April on charges of falsifying business records in order to cover up payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels and others to stop them from going public days before the 2016 presidential election about alleged affairs.
Mr Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, which each carry a potential prison sentence of up to four years.
It marks the first time a US president will go on trial and is one of just four criminal trials he is facing at a time when he is campaigning to take back the White House in November.
In recent days, the former president has made several unsuccessful attempts to have the case against him tossed – the latest of which came on Tuesday when a state appeals court judge rejected his 11th-hour bid to delay the trial while he fights the gag order in the case.
When the trial begins, Mr Trump’s lawyers plan to ask Mr Rosenberg for all records of communications he had with Mr Cohen from February 2021 until this May.
Mr Rosenberg, who previously prosecuted Trump ally Steve Bannon, was suspended as an investigator for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in June last year over his contact with Mr Cohen.
A law enforcement source told The New York Post at the time that Mr Bragg’s office was looking at how Mr Rosenberg shared communications about Mr Cohen with the office.
Mr Cohen’s lawyer Lanny J. Davis has insisted that the interactions between himself, Mr Rosenberg, and Mr Cohen were “always professional and focused on Mr Cohen’s personal security”.