from cnn:
"Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass has objected repeatedly when Bove has referred to Donald Trump as President Trump as he discusses events about 2016.
“He wasn’t President Trump,” Steinglass said.
The judge sustained the objection.
Trump did not react at all during this back and forth. He is leaned back in his chair, his head cocked to look at Pecker, as he’s answering questions."
i has a schadenfreude.
Not a bad delay tactic – keep inserting gag-order hearings into the schedule.
Gag order that won’t be enforced for reasons =
Gag order that can’t be enforced =
De facto, no gag order is in place
I’m stuck on “Get to the Peck-uh!”
I have to admit…for all the downright cruddy legal news elsewhere over the past couple of days (Weinstein, Idaho, and SOCTUS fully committing to delay the immunity decision until after the election), reading the updates about how badly this particular trial is going for The Orange Menace is doing a lot of heavy lifting in keeping my spirits buoyant.
I mean it’s about how easy it will be convince a typical juror that he is guilty beyond reasonable doubt, rather than the legal theory behind it, and this case is definitely harder than a case where, say, you have a recording of the defendant commiting the felony while saying they know what they are doing is crime (curses silently at Judge Cannon 
). That said the prosecution seems to be doing a good job at showing why he is guilty.
Trump’s lawyer said that he has about an hour more to go. Then re-direct which shouldn’t be lengthy so we should get a new witness before the day is over.
here is a brief timeline from cnn:
there is a full time line with pictures here:
A timeline of the Donald Trump-Stormy Daniels hush money case | CNN Politics
a bit of court room colour from cnn live updates:
Trump is chatting with Bove before we begin. Trump is seated between Bove and attorney Susan Necheles. Attorney Todd Blanche is the farthest away from him now.
is someone in the “dog house”?
also i find the australian accent when saying “pecker” to be “scare the cat funny”. pyek-AH.
Cross is over. It seems like the focus was to find small inconsistencies between what he said on direct and earlier statements and there don’t appear to be any home runs.
from cnn live updates:
Steinglass is starting his redirect by revisiting Bove’s questions to Pecker. Here are some of the things that are coming up right now:
More on this: Steinglass is seeking to infer to the jury that the election law attorney reviewed the McDougal agreement without the underlying context of Pecker’s secret agreement to benefit Trump’s campaign.
As he reviewed records on the stand, Pecker said the retained election law attorney billed American Media Inc. for 30 minutes of work to review the contract with Karen McDougal.
Steinglass went through the contract, asking if it mentions anything about Trump reimbursing him, Michael Cohen’s name, the discussion at Trump Tower, or the word campaign.
Pecker repeatedly said “no.”
“Does the contract even mention the word campaign?” Steinglass asked.
“No,” Pecker said.
Steinglass noted that the contract that the outside counsel reviewed had none of these details.
Every juror is watching Steinglass as he’s asking the question.
rc’s thinking: the procecution is showing that pecker did not tell his counsel everything and that lawyer’s advise was only on what he was told.
per cnn:
steinglass: in this case did you suppress stories to help a presidential campaign? pecker: yes.
In your examination of a witness you always want to end on a high note. The exclamation point that succinctly encapsulates their testimony.
This was a pretty good one.
lunch break!
We are now breaking for lunch, and the judge is instructing the jury to not discuss the case.
Steinglass says he has less than a half hour left, and Bove says he will ask another round of questions.
Pecker is off the stand.
Now that is unusual. Re-direct is standard procedure, but judges don’t usually allow re-cross (unless the re-direct opened up some new line of inquiry).
i thought it odd as well…
I would think it’s fairly tautological to assume that a person doesn’t face consequences until they face consequences.
It really varies by jurisdiction. Many stop at re-direct, but I’ve seen some where it seems to go back and forth forever. I’ve never tried a case in NY state though.
Anybody else find it interesting that Trump hasn’t flipped out at Pecker on Twuth Social? Like nothing at all. Anybody think Pecker has more dirt on Trump?
Rather, I think his lawyers are keeping him from making direct attacks on a witness, but for how long?
Of course. He’s got all the dirt. Trump operates on blackmail and intimidation, and he knows this guy knows where the bodies are buried… metaphorically. Maybe metaphorically.
That’s true, but hasn’t Trump being taking shots at Cohen?
Granted the circumstances are a bit different between Pecker and Cohen, in that Cohen made a more conscience decision to turn on Trump after he was charged/convicted (I don’t recall which came first). But Pecker’s testimony has been quite damning.
Your honor, I am not a cat. (sorry for the micro-hijack, but I get so few chances to tell you how much I love your avatar)