A podcast I was listening to made a sobering point-the goofier Trump comes across in this trial, the less people will remember how he was and what he wants to do if he is elected again.
Cohen is the Prosecution’s denouement.
And – truth be told – I don’t even know what that word means. I just used it for dramatic effect.
I’ll give him credit for being a lawyer, so he has some idea of the lines that shouldn’t be crossed. His failing appear to primarily have been ethical rather than competence.
That said, I hope he finally gets the message that the judge isn’t exactly happy about his social media posts. The prosecution seems to have been preparing the jury for it by letting it be known Cohen is not a nice guy but there’s no need to give the defense freebies, either.
Don’t give him too much credit.
I don’t know who Tom Cooley was, but the worst law school in the country is named for him.
And who is their most famous alum?
Yup, our boy, Mikey.
He’s what you get when you ask an AI image generator for a picture of Jerry Seinfeld as an Amish judge.
Meanwhile, let’s not sleep on a hugely important discussion from today
Weisselberg is a big issue in this case. He’s obviously material to the prosecution : his name has come up repeatedly, he has personal knowledge of the events at issue, and the jury might speculate about why he is absent.
Additionally, one possible line of defense is that Weisselberg and Cohen schemed this operation, and donald was none the wiser.
The DA, in its effort to be comprehensive, wants to explain this absence by introducing evidence that Weisselberg was given money in exchange for keeping his mouth shut.
The defense, of course, doesn’t want that to come in. It’s yet another example of how donald conducts himself and ties up a loose end (what about the Trump org CFO who seemed to be Donald’s #2?) that they would rather exploit.
The key buzzword here is when the defense mentions an instruction to the jury about “uncalled witnesses”.
What does that reference?
Here’s the relevant law (I am not a New York lawyer; this is from a Google search)
This adds context to the discussion. The defense is claiming that Weisselberg is “unavailable” for either side (if he gets here, he’s just going to clam up). They don’t want the DA to show the agreement.
The DA is countering that Weisselberg would testify favorably for the defense, so they should be able to explain why he’s not there.
Meanwhile, the judge is thinking that a person is considered legally “absent” if they invoke the 5th and won’t answer questions (as I recall, Weisselberg hasn’t gone to jail for his role in this campaign finance scheme).
Can you say that again, a little slower? 
If I’m understanding it correctly, Wiesselberg can be taken out of jail to testify but he’ll just plead the 5th and be useless?
I believe you have the same correct understanding I have.
I would add that Weisselberg is a convicted perjurer. Why put him in a position to commit perjury again?
I don’t know that this part was covered upthread (apologies if it was), but Judge Merchan is a wee bit curious about this Weisselberg thing.
From CNN:
ETA: Sorry. @Moriarty and @rocking_chair covered it a couple posts up. It didn’t yield readily to a keyword CTRL-F 
I suspect he’ll easily keep his cool Prosecutor’s team is going over his testimony (duh). But (equal duh) he could be vulnerable under the Defense, HOWEVER unlike Trump’s team, the Prosecutors aren’t going to be standing by when the other side starts going off the rails or letting their witness be lead off the rails. The Prosecution has done solidly professional job up until now, and I suspect they’ll be watching the Defense’s efforts like hawks with many a ready objection.
And given Trump’s likely demands, they’ll likely be put to steady work.
I am still not sure why he wasn’t forced to testify as part of his plea deal. If he was refusing to testify in this case why was he given a plea deal?
He was convicted on a separate crime.
“Your Honor, we’d like to appeal the ruling on the grounds that our client had incompetent counsel.”
“Weren’t you his counsel?”
“Yes.”
“Well you certainly make a compelling case.”
As @hajario said, he pleaded guilty to perjury in the civil fraud trial with Judge Engoron.
Previously, he had gone to jail for 100 days due to tax fraud
Which is to say that he hasn’t been charged for anything related to Donald’s case.
I don’t think we had these specifics. The evidence that the DA wants to present to the jury is that Weisselberg stands to receive $750,000 if he refuses to cooperate with the case.
I think it’s worth noting that the prosecutors working this case aren’t just a random team at the DA’s office: these people are some of the most senior attorneys in their office. They head up their investigations division and their economic crimes bureau. They come from Ivy League law schools and have handled some of the biggest cases in New York City.
These are heavy hitters.
Of course. But prosecutors do cooperate and it’s not like he was the star witness in that other case. AFAIK there is no reason cooperating in this case wasn’t made a condition of his plea deal. The details, and the fact he was a critical witness who was refusing to cooperate, were known at the time.
I hear ya. It’s likely he was just not willing to cooperate. I think it was noted upthread that perjury is rarely prosecuted; in this case, the DA went after him - they might have been trying to use the threat of jail as leverage for his cooperation, but he called their bluff and accepted time at Rikers over turning on donald.
(Hey, I can’t explain the loyalty either. But it applies to Hope Hicks and Westerhout too. for some people, Donald is a reason to remain loyal.)
He apparently has 750,000 reasons to be loyal.
Fascinating info! I presume this is spelled out in the aforementioned “severance contract” that the Trump lawyers are desperately trying to keep from the jury. I trust the prosecution will do everything in their power to make sure this sleazy deal is entered into evidence.
It’s really just amazing how everywhere you look in Trump world, everything and everyone is rotten to the core.