COOK, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which SILER, J., joined. CLAY, J. (pp. 534-42), delivered a separate dissenting opinion.
OPINION
COOK, Circuit Judge.
Certain facets of criminal proceedings are so critical that the absence of a criminal defendant’s lawyer at those stages renders the proceedings inherently flawed. See United States v. Cronic, 466 U.S. 648, 659 n. 25, 104 S.Ct. 2039, 80 L.Ed.2d 657 (1984). The Michigan Court of Appeals held that a sidebar discussion between the prosecutor and judge during Petitioner Darron Hereford’s bench trial was not one of those critical stages, and that any error arising from defense counsel’s absence was harmless. The district court granted ha-beas relief after concluding that the state court’s holding represented an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law, as determined by the United States Supreme Court. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1). We disagree and reverse.
I.
Michigan charged Darron Hereford, Alvin Smith, and Kyle Davis with armed robbery of the Hungry Howie’s pizzeria where Hereford worked. Mich. Comp. Laws § 750.529. Smith’s separate trial resulted in his conviction. Hereford and Davis stood trial together, with Davis before a jury and Hereford before the bench. The Michigan Court of Appeals summarized the evidence against Hereford as follows:
Both the assistant manager and the restaurant’s part owner recalled that the assistant manager had worked with defendant for at least a month, on several occasions each week. The assistant manager testified repeatedly and with certainty that he recognized defendant as one of the robbers when defendant’s mask briefly slipped from his face. A police officer who responded to the restaurant after the robbery testified that the assistant manager positively identified defendant as a participant in the robbery.
People v. Hereford, No. 227296, 2003 WL 193523, at *1 (Mich.Ct.App. Jan.28, 2003).
Smith, who by this time was convicted but not sentenced, also testified against Hereford. When the prosecutor called Smith to the stand and the judge asked whether he understood his privilege against self-incrimination, Smith indicated that he wanted to consult his absent attorney. The court halted the trial to track down the lawyer, at which time Hereford’s lawyer, William Mitchell, attended an arraignment in another courtroom. The prosecutor also left, and in the hallway he spoke to Smith and Smith’s mother in the presence of the lead detective. Smith’s mother lodged her concern that her son did not understand his rights.
Armed with this tip, the prosecutor returned and (with Mitchell still gone) approached the bench alongside codefendant Davis’s lawyer, Sharon Woodside:
Prosecutor: Your Honor, may Ms. Woodside and I approach? Maybe she can speak on behalf of Mr. Mitchell?1
The Court: We really shouldn’t. Is this just your case?
[526]*526Prosecutor: No. It’s not [Hereford]— I’m not going to go into it a whole lot. I just want to ask a quick question. I think maybe he’ll get around to it. It doesn’t have to be on the record. I might have a way to resolve this problem. When myself and the detective spoke to him outside, I went over his Fifth Amendment rights with him and he said he wanted to waive those and testify. Okay. Mr. Williams had told me after the trial that he was going to testify. In fact, we had a sense to get adjourned because—
The Court: But, you know — see, he’s mentally slow and—
Prosecutor: Well, that’s what I mean. The Court: I don’t want to— Prosecutor: All I want to indicate is that his mom said, “I don’t think he understands what you were asking him.” Would you have him talk to his mom? The Court: Yeah. Uh-huh.
Prosecutor: Okay.
The Court: That’s good. We’ll wait for him.
Prosecutor: Okay. I mean — okay, that was it your Honor.
JA 53-54, 74-76,138-39.2
After Mitchell returned, Smith spoke to his lawyer by phone and waived his Fifth Amendment privilege. Over Mitchell’s objection, the court permitted the prosecutor to treat Smith as a hostile witness, but first let Mitchell voir dire him. In response to Mitchell’s questions, Smith could not recall if he spoke to a law enforcement representative about the case since the previous December, although at the bench conference the prosecutor said that he and the lead detective just spoke to Smith in the hallway. Smith eventually testified, offering that Hereford held the gun during the robbery. See Hereford, 2003 WL 193523, at *2. The court convicted Hereford and sentenced him to between nine and twenty years in prison.
Hereford appealed his conviction but did not raise the Sixth Amendment challenge in his appellate brief. He was not at fault inasmuch as the transcript of the bench conference was neither noted in the trial court docket entries nor provided to appellate counsel along with the trial transcripts. Only after obtaining the trial video one day before filing the appeal did Hereford’s attorney learn of it. Upon Hereford’s motion, the Michigan Court of Appeals allowed him to file a supplemental brief raising the claim.
The Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed Hereford’s conviction in an unpublished per curiam decision but neglected to address the ex parte bench conference. Based on this omission, Hereford petitioned the court to rehear his case. As to Hereford’s argument that he was denied counsel during a critical stage of his trial, the Michigan Court of Appeals stated:
We agree with defendant that it was improper to conduct a bench conference without defense counsel’s presence. See generally People v. Riggs, 223 Mich.App. 662, 677, 568 N.W.2d 101 (1997) (Sixth Amendment right to counsel attaches at “critical stage” of proceedings); People v. Gonzalez, 197 Mich.App. 385, 402, 496 N.W.2d 312 (1992) (improper ex parte communications deny right to fair trial). However, we conclude that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. See People v. Watson, 245 Mich.App. 572, 585, 629 N.W.2d 411 (2001) (violation of right of confrontation may [527]*527not be redressed unless error is harmless beyond a reasonable doubt). As we have previously stated, disregarding Smith’s entire testimony, the balance of the trial testimony supports defendant’s conviction for aiding and abetting an armed robbery. Id. Further, the court, sitting as the trier of fact, was well aware of the problems with Smith’s testimony, and knew from the bench conference that Smith had, in fact, spoken with the detective.
Hereford, 2003 WL 193523, at *4.
The Michigan Supreme Court, over Justice Kelly’s dissent, denied Hereford leave to appeal. People v. Hereford, 469 Mich. 921, 670 N.W.2d 226 (2003) (table). Hereford then filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan challenging his conviction on two grounds. He argued that the ex parte conference violated his Sixth Amendment right to the presence of counsel at all critical stages of the proceedings, and he also alleged ineffective assistance of counsel. The district court referred Hereford’s motion for summary judgment on the critical-stage claim to a magistrate judge. The magistrate — heavily relying on our decision in United States v. Minsky, 963 F.2d 870 (6th Cir.1992) — recommended issuing a conditional writ after concluding that the trial court conducted a critical stage in Hereford’s trial without defense counsel, and that, therefore, the state appellate court improperly reviewed the claim for harmless error. The district court adopted the magistrate’s Report and Recommendation, granting summary judgment and conditionally granting the writ. Hereford v. Warren, 486 F.Supp.2d 659 (E.D.Mich.2007). Michigan appeals, and we now reverse the district court.
II.
We review de novo the district court’s decision granting habeas relief. Dyer v. Bowlen, 465 F.3d 280, 283-84 (6th Cir.2006). Because Hereford filed his habeas petition after 1996, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (“AEDPA”) governs his appeal.
Under AEDPA, we must presume correct the state court’s factual findings unless Hereford rebuts them with clear and convincing evidence. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1). Moreover, AEDPA prohibits a federal court from granting a writ of habeas corpus for any claim adjudicated on the merits in state court unless the adjudication “resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States.” Id. § 2254(d)(1).
This case implicates § 2254(d)(l)’s “unreasonable application” clause. Under this clause, we cannot grant relief unless the state court “identifies the correct governing legal rule from [the Supreme] Court’s cases but unreasonably applies it to the facts of the [petitioner’s] case,” or “either unreasonably extends a legal principle from [Supreme Court] precedent to a new context where it should not apply or unreasonably refuses to extend that principle to a new context where it should apply.” Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 407, 120 S.Ct. 1495, 146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000). Our task is not to determine whether the state court reached the correct outcome, but rather to determine whether the court’s application of clearly established federal law is objectively unreasonable — “a substantially higher threshold.” Schriro v. Landrigan, — U.S. -, 127 S.Ct. 1933, 1939, 167 L.Ed.2d 836 (2007).
AEDPA also restricts the body of law a habeas court may consider. The Supreme Court in Williams explained that [528]*528“clearly established Federal law” in § 2254(d) “refers to the holdings, as opposed to the dicta, of [the Supreme] Court’s decisions as of the time of the relevant state-court decision.” 529 U.S. at 412, 120 S.Ct. 1495; see also Lockyer v. Andrade, 538 U.S. 63, 71-72, 123 S.Ct. 1166, 155 L.Ed.2d 144 (2003). That body of precedent includes “not only bright-line rules but also the legal principles and standards flowing from precedent.” Taylor v. Withrow, 288 F.3d 846, 852 (6th Cir.2002). Thus, “we may find the application of a principle of federal law unreasonable despite the involvement of a set of facts different from those of the case in which the principle was announced.” Spisak v. Hudson, 512 F.3d 852, 854 (6th Cir.2008) (internal quotation marks and brackets omitted); see also Panetti v. Quarterman, — U.S. -, 127 S.Ct. 2842, 2858, 168 L.Ed.2d 662 (2007). We may look to lower courts of appeals’ decisions, not as binding precedent, but rather to inform the analysis of Supreme Court holdings to determine whether a legal principle had been clearly established by the Supreme Court. Hill v. Hofbauer, 337 F.3d 706, 716 (6th Cir.2003).
III.
A.
The Supreme Court has “adopted the general rule that a constitutional error does not automatically require reversal of a conviction ... and has recognized that most constitutional errors can be harmless.” Arizona v. Fulminante, 499 U.S. 279, 306, 111 S.Ct. 1246, 113 L.Ed.2d 302 (1991). Automatic reversal is required only if the error was a “structural defect” that permeated “[t]he entire conduct of trial from beginning to end” or “affect[ed] the framework within which the trial proceeds.” Id. at 309-10, 111 S.Ct. 1246. If, on the other hand, the error was simply a “trial error,” a court reviews for harmlessness. A trial error “occur[s] during the presentation of the case to the jury, and ... may therefore be quantitatively assessed in the context of other evidence presented in order to determine whether its admission was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.” Id. at 307-08, 111 S.Ct. 1246.
The Michigan Court of Appeals found that the ex parte conference was not an error requiring automatic reversal, but rather was subject to harmless-error analysis. Finding defense counsel’s absence harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, the court affirmed Hereford’s conviction.3 The question for decision is whether the state court unreasonably declined to apply the rule of structural error to this lawyer-less stage in Hereford’s criminal trial, or [529]*529whether it reasonably held that Hereford must point to actual prejudice arising from his counsel’s absence to obtain relief.
The Supreme Court has “found structural error only in a very limited class of cases.” Johnson v. United States, 520 U.S. 461, 468, 117 S.Ct. 1544, 137 L.Ed.2d 718 (1997). These structural errors include: total deprivation of the right to counsel, Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335, 83 S.Ct. 792, 9 L.Ed.2d 799 (1963); lack of an impartial trial judge, Tumey v. Ohio, 273 U.S. 510, 47 S.Ct. 437, 71 L.Ed. 749 (1927); unlawful exclusion of grand jurors of the defendant’s race, Vasquez v. Hillery, 474 U.S. 254, 106 S.Ct. 617, 88 L.Ed.2d 598 (1986); denial of the right to self-representation at trial, McKaskle v. Wiggins, 465 U.S. 168, 104 S.Ct. 944, 79 L.Ed.2d 122 (1984); denial of the right to a public trial, Waller v. Georgia, 467 U.S. 39, 104 S.Ct. 2210, 81 L.Ed.2d 31 (1984); and denial of the right to a jury verdict of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, Sullivan v. Louisiana, 508 U.S. 275, 113 S.Ct. 2078, 124 L.Ed.2d 182 (1993). In United States v. Cronic, 466 U.S. 648, 659 & n. 25, 104 S.Ct. 2039, 80 L.Ed.2d 657 (1984), the Supreme Court added to the list the denial of counsel at a “critical stage” of the criminal proceedings, entitling the defendant to a new trial without a specific showing of prejudice because the error makes “the adversary process itself presumptively unreliable.” See also Van v. Jones, 475 F.3d 292, 311-12 (6th Cir.) (holding that a defendant is deprived of counsel at a critical stage, “a per se Sixth Amendment violation [results,] warranting reversal of a conviction, a sentence, or both, as applicable, without analysis for prejudice or harmless error”), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 128 S.Ct. 708, 169 L.Ed.2d 557 (2007); Roe v. Flores-Ortega, 528 U.S. 470, 483, 120 S.Ct. 1029, 145 L.Ed.2d 985 (2000).
Hereford contends that the bench conference in the middle of his trial was a critical stage of the criminal proceedings. The Supreme Court, however, has never indicated that an improper ex parte conference between the judge and prosecutor during trial amounts to Cronic error. In Van v. Jones, faced with a similar dearth of on-point Supreme Court decisions, we found — as a matter of first impression — that a Michigan consolidation hearing is not a critical stage. 475 F.3d at 312. With no analogous precedent, we surveyed critical-stage jurisprudence, recognizing that the “case law available suggests that the pithy definitions we have do not simply capture the sometimes permissive or inclusive conclusions by the Supreme Court and our court that this or that period, moment, or event in the course of a criminal proceeding is a critical stage.” Id. We identified a list of the Supreme Court’s various labels to include steps: (1) that hold “significant consequences for the accused,” Bell v. Cone, 535 U.S. 685, 695-96, 122 S.Ct. 1843, 152 L.Ed.2d 914 (2002); (2) where “[available defenses may be irretrievably lost, if not then and there asserted,” Hamilton v. Alabama, 368 U.S. 52, 54, 82 S.Ct. 157, 7 L.Ed.2d 114 (1961); (3) where “rights are preserved or lost,” White v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 59, 60, 83 S.Ct. 1050, 10 L.Ed.2d 193 (1963) (per curiam); when counsel’s presence is “necessary to mount a meaningful defence,” United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 225, 87 S.Ct. 1926, 18 L.Ed.2d 1149 (1967); and (5) where “potential substantial prejudice to defendant’s rights inheres in the ... confrontation and [where] counsel [can] help avoid that prejudice,” Coleman v. Alabama, 399 U.S. 1, 9, 90 S.Ct. 1999, 26 L.Ed.2d 387 (1970) (internal quotation marks omitted). Drawing upon that precedent, we formulated a working definition of a critical stage. We found the common thread in these decisions to be the [530]*530likelihood “that significant consequences might have resulted from the absence of counsel at the stage of the criminal proceedings.” Van, 475 F.3d at 312-13.
On appeal, Hereford suggests that because the judge discussed Smith’s state of mind with the prosecutor without giving defense counsel an opportunity to respond, the uncertainty of prejudice alone makes his conviction unreliable. Michigan responds that although the communication was improper, it held no significant consequences for Hereford’s case because no rights could be asserted or lost. Our review of the trial transcript reveals a de minimis communication that was administrative in nature, in which the prosecutor informed the court that, although Smith indicated he wanted to testify, Smith’s mother did not think he understood the court’s questions, and Smith might benefit from speaking with his mother. Because of the conference’s limited purpose (to request time for the witness to speak with his mother) and duration (seconds, not minutes), we find that the state court could reasonably conclude that “significant consequences,” id. at 312, would not likely turn on counsel’s absence from this sort of brief, administrative discussion. In other words, the state court could reasonably conclude that a brief, administrative conference is not of a character to hold “significant consequences for the accused,” Bell, 535 U.S. at 695-96, 122 S.Ct. 1843; where “[available defenses may be irretrievably lost, if not then and there asserted,” Hamilton, 368 U.S. at 54, 82 S.Ct. 157; or where “rights are preserved or lost,” White, 373 U.S. at 60, 83 S.Ct. 1050. Although courts disfavor ex parte contact between judges and prosecutors, see Carroll v. Princess Anne, 393 U.S. 175, 183, 89 S.Ct. 347, 21 L.Ed.2d 325 (1968); United States v. Carmichael, 232 F.3d 510, 517 (6th Cir.2000), given the impertinence of this type of brief, administrative bench conference, it fails to qualify as Cronic error.4
The Supreme Court’s holding in Rushen v. Spain, 464 U.S. 114, 104 S.Ct. 453, 78 L.Ed.2d 267 (1983) (per curiam), supports our conclusion that the state court’s decision was reasonable. In Rushen, the Court determined that an unrecorded ex [531]*531parte communication between the trial judge and a juror was subject to harmless-error analysis. There, the trial court directed prospective jurors during voir dire to reveal any past association with violent crimes. Id. at 115, 104 S.Ct. 453. A juror who testified to no personal connection to violent crimes during voir dire later recalled the murder of a childhood friend. Id. at 116, 104 S.Ct. 453. That juror twice went to the trial judge’s chambers to explain, fearing that she might become emotional if the crime’s details were explored further at trial. Id. The judge confirmed that it would not affect the juror’s disposition at trial, told her not to worry, made no record of the conversations, and did not inform the defendants or their lawyers. Id. Defense counsel nevertheless learned about the communications after the jury returned a guilty verdict, and moved for a new trial. Id. The trial judge denied the motion, concluding that the communications “lacked any significance” and that the defendant suffered no prejudice from them. Id. On direct appeal, the state court found the ex parte communications harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Id. at 117, 104 S.Ct. 453. On habeas review, the Ninth Circuit issued the writ “on the basis that an unrecorded ex parte communication between trial judge and juror can never be harmless error.” Id. The Supreme Court, however, “emphatically dis-agreefd],” explaining that “[tjhere is scarcely a lengthy trial in which one or more jurors do not have occasion to speak to the trial judge about something, whether it relates to a matter of personal comfort or to some aspect of the trial.” Id. at 117-18,104 S.Ct. 453. In the Court’s opinion, the Ninth Circuit’s contrary conclusion “ignore[d] the[ ] day-to-day realities of courtroom life and undermines society’s interest in the administration of criminal justice.” Id. at 119,104 S.Ct. 453.
Hereford points to decisions of lower federal courts that condemn prosecutors’ ex parte discussions with judges, but a review of those decisions (often involving communications far more egregious than in this case) only bolsters our view that the state court reasonably refused to deem this type of discussion structural error, and that cases where such a label is appropriate will be rare. See Yohn v. Love, 76 F.3d 508, 522 (3d Cir.1996) (no structural error where prosecutor’s ex parte discussion with state Supreme Court Chief Justice resulted in the Chief Justice advising the trial court to admit evidence it would have otherwise excluded); United States v. Earley, 746 F.2d 412, 416-18 (8th Cir.1984) (same for ex parte trial brief); United States v. Walsh, 700 F.2d 846, 858 (2d Cir.1983) (same for ex parte proffer of evidence); United States v. DeLeo, 422 F.2d 487, 499 (1st Cir.1970) (same for ex parte discussion about prosecutor’s illness).
Hereford’s reliance on our pre-AEDPA decision in United States v. Minsky, 963 F.2d 870 (6th Cir.1992) — on which the district court relied to grant relief — likewise fails to aid his case. In Minsky, the defendant moved under Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), and the Jencks Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3500, for production of prior statements by prosecution witnesses contained within Federal Bureau of Investigation routine investigation forms (“FBI 302s”). 963 F.2d at 872. In response to the government’s objection, the court held an ex parte bench conference with the prosecutor as part of its in camera review of the FBI 302s. Id. at 872-73. Citing footnote 25 from Cronic, we reversed the defendant’s conviction, reasoning that the conference affected the defendant’s ability to review material and cross-examine a key witness. Id. at 874. We explained that:
[532]*532Although there are circumstances where an ex parte communication might be overlooked, the burden of proving lack of prejudice is on the government, and it is a heavy one. The ex parte conference in the instant case occurred at a time when the defense was arguing that the FBI 302s were subject to disclosure under the Jencks Act and Brady. The release of this material would have allowed the defense to undermine the credibility of Brown, a key government witness. The government has proffered no explanation why the defense was denied an opportunity to participate in a conference at such a critical stage of the proceedings. We refuse to condone conduct that undermines confidence in the impartiality of the court.
Id. (internal citations, brackets, and quotation marks omitted).
The district court viewed Minsky’s statement that ex parte approaches “can only be justified and allowed by compelling state interests,” id. (quoting In re Taylor, 567 F.2d 1183, 1188 (2d Cir.1977)), as “correctly stat[ing] the law to be applied in the present case,” Hereford, 486 F.Supp.2d at 666 n. 5. Under this standard, the district court concluded that because the government “cannot come close to meeting its heavy burden of showing a compelling state interest that would justify excluding Petitioner’s counsel from the bench conference,” the Michigan Court of Appeals’ decision was objectively unreasonable. Id. at 667. That conclusion, however, misapprehends controlling law for AEDPA purposes; the language found in Minsky is not a Supreme Court holding that reflects clearly established federal law. See Williams, 529 U.S. at 381, 120 S.Ct. 1495. The compelling-state-interest test is the elaboration we give to ex parte contacts on direct appeal, but the state court is not bound by what we do.
The district court accordingly failed to abide by AEDPA’s deferential review standard, and our review confirms that the Michigan Court of Appeals — whether right or wrong — was not unreasonable in deciding that any error resulting from defense counsel’s absence was not structural. Despite the dissent’s admirable effort, “the question is not the reasonableness of the federal court’s interpretation of Cronic, but rather whether the [state] court’s narrower reading of that opinion was ‘objectively unreasonable.’ ” Wright v. Van Patten, — U.S.-, 128 S.Ct. 743, 748, 169 L.Ed.2d 583 (2008) (Stevens, J., concurring in judgment) (quoting Williams, 529 U.S. at 409, 120 S.Ct. 1495).
B.
Having reasonably concluded that the ex parte discussion did not amount to structural error, the Michigan Court of Appeals deemed it trial error. In Fulminante, the Supreme Court stated that “trial error,” which “occur[s] during presentation of the case to the jury,” may “be quantitatively assessed in the context of other evidence presented in order to determine whether [they were] harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.” 499 U.S. at 308-09, 111 S.Ct. 1246. Here, the state court applied Chapman v. California’s harmless-error standard, which holds that “before a federal constitutional error can be held harmless, the court must be able to declare a belief that it was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.”5 386 U.S. 18, 24, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967).
In Fry v. Pliler, -U.S. -, 127 S.Ct. 2321, 2328, 168 L.Ed.2d 16 (2007), the Supreme Court held that re[533]*533gardless of whether a state court applied Chapman on direct review, a federal habe-as court “must assess the prejudicial impact of constitutional error in a state-court criminal trial under the ... standard set forth in Brecht [v. Abrahamson, 507 U.S. 619, 113 S.Ct. 1710, 123 L.Ed.2d 353 (1993) ].” Under Brecht’s, more state-friendly standard, we ask whether the error “ ‘had substantial and injurious effect or influence in determining the jury’s verdict.’ ” Brecht, 507 U.S. at 623, 113 S.Ct. 1710 (quoting Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 776, 66 S.Ct. 1239, 90 L.Ed. 1557 (1946)). If, however, “the matter is so evenly balanced” that the habeas court has “grave doubt” as to the harmlessness of the error, it “should treat the error, not as if it were harmless, but as if it affected the verdict.” O’Neal v. McAninch, 513 U.S. 432, 435, 115 S.Ct. 992, 130 L.Ed.2d 947 (1995).
Hereford points to a straightforward potential for prejudice: if defense counsel knew Smith spoke with the prosecutor and lead detective during the recess, counsel could impeach Smith’s statement that he did not remember the last time he spoke with law enforcement about the case. This lost opportunity is vital, Hereford says, because Smith was the only witness to link Hereford to the gun.
We conclude, however, that the error did not have a “substantial and injurious effect” on the verdict. The trial court acted as factfinder, and thus when defense counsel asked Smith about the last time he spoke with law enforcement and Smith provided confused responses, the court could evaluate the import of any inconsistencies between that testimony and the information disclosed at the sidebar. Coupled with the court’s recognition that Smith was “mentally slow,” any further cross-examination on this point would not have altered the court’s assessment of Smith’s credibility. As the Michigan Court of Appeals explained, “[T]he court, sitting as the trier of fact, was well aware of the problems with Smith’s testimony, and knew from the bench conference that Smith had, in fact, spoken with the detective.” Hereford, 2003 WL 193523, at *4.
Even ignoring Smith’s entire testimony, the evidence supported Hereford’s conviction under an aider-and-abetter theory. See id. at *2 (“[Ejven disregarding Smith’s testimony that defendant had a weapon, the substantial identification testimony ... amply supported defendant’s conviction as an aider and abettor of the armed robbery.”). In Michigan, every person connected with the commission of a crime— whether directly or as an aider and abettor — “shall be punished as if he had directly committed such offense.” Mich. Comp. Laws § 767.39; see also People v. Stewart, 2008 WL 108959, at *2-3 (Mich.Ct.App. 2008) (applying the aider-and-abettor theory to armed robbery). Evidence establishing Hereford’s participation in the robbery rendered Smith’s testimony that Hereford specifically held the gun superfluous. In these circumstances, the ex parte communication did not have a “substantial and injurious effect or influence in determining the ... verdict.” Brecht, 507 U.S. at 637-38, 113 S.Ct. 1710.
IV.
Because the state court reasonably ruled that the ex parte communication in this case did not involve a critical stage and that any error arising from defense counsel’s absence was harmless, we reverse the district court’s judgment and remand the case for further proceedings.