NYTimes is reporting Judge Merchan told the jury that they may be in session next Wednesday if that’s ok with them.
Seems to indicate this might wrap up pretty soon. Defense probably isn’t thrilled with that as it’s virtually certain Trump wants to stretch the proceedings out as long as possible.
Redundant.
Now the focus is on the lies that he told under oath in 2018
A Porta-Potty of Congress critters.
“Were you lying then, or are you lying now?!?”
“It’s been legally established that I was lying then, moron.”
“Oh, right…”
A Remora of shitheads.
we are in the lying liar that lies part of the trial.
from cnn updates:
The sidebar lasted nearly 20 minutes. We’ll learn more about what they were talking about when a transcript is out later today.
Judge Juan Merchan spoke with his clerks, saying, “I apologize for all the whispering.”
Judge Juan Merchan told the jury that because the schedule over the next few weeks will be disrupted by holidays and conflicts it may be necessary for the court to be in session next Wednesday.
“As you know our schedule in the coming week or weeks is kind of broken up by holidays and various conflicts so if possible it may be necessary for us to work next Wednesday,” Merchan told the jury.
He added that if any juror can’t work on Wednesday that’s fine and the court won’t sit.
Michael Cohen is reviewing text messages on a monitor inside the courtroom. The messages are not in evidence.
Trump is whispering with his attorney Emil Bove while Cohen is reviewing the messages.
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger quickly steps in and asks if the large “swaths” of redactions make the texts out of context. Cohen says, “I believe so.”
She objected to them coming into evidence. After a brief discussion with lawyers, Judge Juan Merchan sustained the objection.
Trump shook his head as Merchan sustained the objection.
Blanche also asked if in one of the texts Cohen says he was “going to hold President Trump accountable.” There was another objection that was also sustained.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche brings up Michael Cohen’s appearance on CNN on March 30, 2023, after the indictment of the former president when Cohen referred to the indictment as David v. Goliath.
Cohen confirms he viewed himself as David and Trump as Goliath.
“And you actually said on March 30, so before the indictment was unsealed, that ‘You had Goliath on his back,’ didn’t you?” Blanche asked.
“Sounds correct,” Cohen says.
Cohen confirmed he meant he was David and Trump was Goliath.
Blanche asked to approach the bench again, but Judge Merchan said no.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche pulls up a clip of Cohen’s Mea Culpa podcast, in which Cohen gives his reaction to the indictment.
Blanche, the judge and Cohen are wearing headphones.
Trump did not put on the headphones to listen to the clip.
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger objects to the playing of the clip for “reasons” she says she laid out at the bench, but Judge Juan Merchan overrules and the podcast is being played.
On the clip from a May 30, 2023, podcast episode being played in court, Michael Cohen thanks “the Manhattan district attorney’s office and their fearless leader, Alvin Bragg.”
He goes on to say of Trump: “He is about to get a taste of what I went through, and I promise you it’s not fun.”
“Picturing Donald Trump being led through the booking process … fills me with delight and sadness at the same time,”
After citing Michael Cohen’s previous remarks in the media about Donald Trump, Todd Blanche shifted to Cohen’s previous testimony under oath.
“Was that oath that you took every single time, so going back to all the depositions, the same oath that you took Monday morning in this courtroom?” Blanche asks.
“Yes sir,” Cohen says.
“The oath doesn’t change, depending on the location, does it?” Blanche asks.
“No,” Cohen says.
“And each time you met with a federal agent you were told that if you made a false statement that that was a felony, a federal crime, correct?” Blanche asks.
“Yes sir,” Cohen says.
Defense attorney Todd Blanche is turning now to the 2017 House Intelligence Committee testimony where Michael Cohen lied under oath and was charged with perjury in 2018.
Blanche is asking Cohen to recount the lies.
“There were a couple of different lies?” Blanche asks.
“That’s correct,” Cohen says.
When Cohen said he stopped the Trump Tower Moscow project talks in January 2016, that was a lie, Cohen confirms. “What was the other lie?” Blanche asks. “I don’t recall. I think those were the two,” Cohen says.
On Tuesday, prosecutors also went over the lies Cohen told before Congress to try to get ahead of this part of the cross.
“You lied under oath, correct?” Blanche asks.
“Yes sir,” Cohen says.
“And you lied again when you met with the special counsel on August 7, (2018), correct?” Blanche asks.
“Correct,” Cohen says.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche is pressing Michael Cohen on whether he has accepted responsibility for his lies under oath, or if he blames Trump for his false statements during testimony to the House Intelligence Committee.
“You said you were accepting responsibility for those lies, for lying to Congress. But in fact, you repeatedly said — and even said this morning, and even this week — that the reason why you lied was because of your loyalty to President Trump,” Blanche says.
“I worked with a joint defense agreement and we crafted the two-page document in order to stay on message — the message we all knew Mr. Trump wanted, including Mr. Trump’s attorney at the time,” Cohen responds.
“So are you saying you’re accepting responsibility, or blaming the joint defense agreement?” Blanche followed up.
“Accepting responsibility, I read it and I submitted it to the committee," Cohen said on the stand.
“Nobody induced you or threatened you to plead guilty, correct?” Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked, referring to the tax evasion charges that were in part linked to his taxi medallion income.
“As I stated previously, I was provided 48 hours within which to accept the plea or the Southern District of New York was going to file an 80-page indictment hat included my wife. And I elected to protect my family,” Cohen said.
When Blanche asked again if Cohen felt induced to plead guilty Cohen said, “I never denied the underlying facts I just did not believe that I should have been criminally charged for either of those six offenses.”
“That was a lie?” Blanche asks. “That was not true,” Cohen said.
As he did on Tuesday, Blanche again pushed Cohen on his view of what’s different between a lie and something that is not true.
“I was using just different terminology,” Cohen said. “So it was a lie?” Blanche said.
“Correct.” Cohen answered.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche is now referencing Michael Cohen’s book, “Revenge,” and confirming that Cohen described his tax charges as “bogus” in the text.
“You felt — and I believe you still feel — that you did not engage in tax fraud, but you had to plead guilty to protect your wife and family?” Blanche asks.
“Correct,” Cohen says.
Blanche asks, “In your book you said the charges were 100% inaccurate?”
“I was referring to the same thing,” Cohen said.
Michael Cohen is now explaining why he did not feel he should have been charged as a first-time tax evader.
His voice is getting more animated as he speaks, his pace quickening.
“You testified under oath at a different trial that you did not commit the crimes that you pled guilty to before Judge Pauley, correct?” attorney Todd Blanche asks, referring to Trump’s civil fraud trial when Cohen testified about the guilty plea.
“Correct,” Cohen says.
Cohen is facing the jury as he explains why he shouldn’t have been charged.
from cnn update:
Defense attorney Todd Blanche now returns to Michael Cohen’s 2019 congressional testimony.
“Did you tell Congress, either the House or the Senate, that you had lied to Judge Pauley?” Blanche asks.
“I did not,” Cohen says.
“By not telling Congress or the Senate that you had lied under oath, do you believe that you were omitting important information?” Blanche asks.
Judge Juan Merchan overruled an objection to this question.
“I don’t believe I was asked the question,” Cohen says.
Jurors are, as usually, paying attention to this back and forth.
“You repeatedly said to congressmen and senators under oath over the course of two days that you had accepted responsibility for your conduct,” Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked, referring to Michael Cohen’s 2019 testimony before Congress.
"Correct, and that I was going to prison as a result,"Cohen said.
“But do you agree with me that lying under oath is not accepting responsibility,” asks blanche.
Cohen asked him to clarify his question.
“Do you agree with me that when you plead guilty to a crime and you’re lying that’s not accepting responsibility for your conduct?” Blanche asks.
“I accepted responsibility and I was suffering the consequences as a a result,” Cohen said.
rc: blanche is doing better today. blanche is focused and is going step by step instead of skatter shot. blanche feels that he has hit cohen’s trigger point with judge pauley.
No kidding!
The man admitted it and went to jail-- enough!
I would think the jury is getting tired of listening to the beating of the the lying dead horse. I’m reading this in the comfort of my own home and I’M getting pretty freaking tired of it.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche says Michael Cohen got credit for accepting responsibility in his sentencing, even though he lied to the judge about accepting responsibility.
“Again I don’t know how Judge Pauley made his determination. Judges as you know have a wide range of discretion over guidelines,” Cohen says.
“Do you think Judge Pauley would have liked to know that you had lied to him?” Blanche asks.
“I don’t know whether Judge Pauley,” Cohen says.
“Your testimony is you don’t know whether Judge Pauley would have liked to know?” Blanche asks.
“I’m certain he would have,” Cohen says.
“Does the outcome of this trial affect you personally?” Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked, echoing a similar line of questioning from his cross-examination on Tuesday.
“Yes," Michael Cohen said.
Cohen’s tone is still measured as he answers, but he looks annoyed in court.
Michael Cohen’s tone perked up particularly when attorney Todd Blanche asked Cohen about the corporations he had to receive monthly payments for the taxi medallions.
“There were 16 corporations,” Cohen said, going on to explain why that’s “actually standard in the industry.”
Cohen went on to talk about the typical industry practice of holding two or more medallions in an LLC entity.
“Thank you,” Blanche said, when he was done.
“You’re welcome,” Cohen responded, garnering laughs in the overflow room.
Michael Cohen looked over at the jury with a small smile and shook his head as attorneys sidebar with Judge Juan Merchan.
The prosecution objected to a question from Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche about whether Cohen told his wife about the Home Equity Line of Credit he used to make the payment to Stormy Daniels’ attorney.
Defense attorney Todd Blanche is moving on to Michael Cohen’s statements to Congress in which he said he never asked for, nor would he accept a pardon from Trump.
“That was false, right?” Blanche says.
“I never asked for it. I spoke to my attorney about it,” Cohen says after seeing it on the screen.
Cohen says he reached out to his attorney to “see whether it was legitimate” but he said a pardon would be a nightmare.
Blanche goes to Cohen’s deposition before the House Intelligence Committee in 2019, asking whether his lawyer explored the possibility of a pardon “because you were 100% open to accepting it?”
“Yes sir,” Cohen says.
I think this is more of that hair-splitting stuff that juries hate, as was discussed earlier in the thread.
I don’t see a discrepancy here. He lied because of his loyalty to Trump. Were he not in that job, he’d have never had any reason to tell these lies. That’s an entirely separate issue from him, at a later time, accepting responsibility for those lies. “I realized later I should have refused to lie” just indicates that he’s learned something about being loyal when loyalty is not deserved.
If I were on the jury, this would not make me doubt Cohen in any way, and it would annoy me that the defense seems to think it should.
from cnn update:
Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked Michael Cohen if he has a habit of asking certain people in his life to delete their communications with him periodically, like former publisher of the National Enquirer David Pecker.
Cohen confirmed when it came to some people that was his practice.
Blanche was getting at Cohen’s discussions with his wife about the HELOC (which Cohen used to make the payment to Daniels’s attorney) by asking about a March 9, 2018 statement Michael Avenatti put out saying the money had come from Cohen’s HELOC.
The prosecution objected to this line of questioning and there was a sidebar.
Blanche asked Cohen if he deleted text messages around that time. “Two days later you deleted all the text messages that you had with your wife on March 11?”
“I’m not, no sir. I’m not aware of that,” Cohen said.
rc: i find this questioning interesting… i alway joke that i delete things faster than hillary clinton. i do keep some things, but do delete a lot. clutter control!
This is another example of the above. It’s like the defense doesn’t expect people to ever learn anything.
Day 1: “Hey, law-talking guy, should I seek a pardon for this shit?” “No. It would be a legal mess, do not under any circumstances ask for, or accept, a pardon!”
Day 2: “Did you seek out a pardon?” “No”, (because my lawyer told me it would be a mess and I shouldn’t do that).
Seeking advice, then following that advice, isn’t lying.
cnn update:
Defense attorney Todd Blanche is challenging Michael Cohen on his past statements that he never asked for nor would ever accept a pardon from President Trump.
Blanche continued to confront Cohen that he testified publicly he would never accept a pardon but then told lawmakers behind closed doors that he directed his lawyers to explore the possibility.
Cohen says his public testimony was referring to the present tense.
Michael Cohen said on the stand that he did explore a pardon from Donald Trump with his lawyers, saying “because I wanted this nightmare to end.”
He also said a pardon was “being dangled.”
“So, when you said you never asked for and would never accept a pardon, that was a lie, wasn’t it?” Blanche asked.
“At the time it was accurate,” Cohen said.
Michael Cohen just said on the stand that he did explore a pardon from Donald Trump with his lawyers, contrary to what he had testified to Congress, and the defense is now grilling him over how his attorney corrected the record on that issue.
“Your lawyer issued a statement, a public statement, that admitted that you had actually directed you attorneys at the time to explore possibility of a pardon?” Blanche asks. “They did that to correct the record from your testimony in front of Congress?”
“Correct,” Cohen says.
“Your lawyers corrected the statement because it wasn’t true when you made it?” Blanche asks.
“Correct,” Cohen responds.
Cohen says it was a confusing conversation. Blanche, raising his voice, responds, “This wasn’t a confusing conversation.”
“This was a written statement you read into the record,” he says.
The court is taking a morning break and Michael Cohen is expected to resume testimony when it returns.
Judge Juan Merchan again reminded the jurors to let the sergeant know whether they can work next Wednesday.
After Judge Juan Merchan called for a morning break, Michael Cohen left the stand. He was breathing heavily.
The politicians in the courtroom stood up. Trump was sneering as he walked out. They followed him.
Outside the courtroom, Trump didn’t look at the hallway cameras but he did flash a thumbs up.
But, why is he mad at Trump?
cnn commentary:
Donald Trump’s defense has frustrated his former attorney, Michael Cohen, after questioning about his testimony in his own previous criminal trial.
Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison in December 2018 for crimes that included arranging payments during the 2016 election to silence women who claimed affairs with Trump after the President’s onetime “fixer” attributed his offenses to “my duty to cover up his dirty deeds.”
On the stand today, Cohen called US District Judge William Pauley III “corrupt.”
CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said Cohen’s frustration while discussing the charges against him are where he begins to come apart under questioning.
“This is where he loses it. He goes off the rails. The fact that he plead guilty to tax and bank fraud makes him so angry. He can’t hide it in his public appearances," Honig said.
“He’s pretty calm and casual about the other stuff, but this sets him off.”
CNN’s Laura Coates also suggested that the jury may start to question Cohen as a result of this cross-examination.
Legal analyst Adam Kaufmann added that the defense was undermining how Cohen comes across to the jury.
Speaking to CNN, Kaufmann noted that Cohen was essentially saying “everyone in the world. Everyone in this system was corrupt – except me. The judge, the prosecutors, it was all out to get me. And that’s not going to fly with the jury.”
He said the tactic made Cohen come across as defensive, which “really undermines the ‘I lied before, I was bad before but now I’ve fessed up to everything I’ve done, I’ve owned it’” explanation.
from rc:
i find it interesting that they keep talking about leaving the jury thinking this or that.
i always wondered about how you turn off what happens in court, until i was on a jury.
you are told to only listen to what is in court, not to talk about it or discuss it until deliberations.
i was somewhat surprized that i was able to do that. it is rather like leaving work at the office. there may be one or two things that may stick with you every now and again, but for the most part you don’t give it another thought outside the office.
once we started deliberations… that was a different animal. then i couldn’t turn it off. esp. when one juror just would not listen to logic or reason.
we would discuss various small talk stuff during deliberations when the full 12 were not in the room.
i would think this jury is going to do pretty much the same thing. leave the trial in the courtroom.
having cross go all day is not really for the jury, it is for the lawyers having their plan work their way. the lawyers have a plan and they want their plan to go as they plan it.
the jurors have said they can not work next wednesday. that will leave mon, tues, thurs, fri, next week to wrap this up.
cohen is back on the stand.
from cnn update:
Remember: Defense attorneys can cross-examine the prosecution’s witnesses and typically aim to discredit their testimony. Witnesses’ responses are considered evidence, but not the questions posed by an attorney.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche is going through several investigations and asked Michael Cohen if he met with them but was never offered or served as a “cooperating witness” in the investigations, including Robert Mueller’s, the New York attorney general’s, among others.
Cohen agrees it is correct to say that he is not a “cooperating witness.”
Yeah it does seem like the defense have scored some points today. But this was always gonna happen, the prosecution has gone out their way to corroborate what he says and prepare the jury that he’s a sketchy witness.
Hopefully won’t be enough for Trump. Especially as the defense has thrown so much at all the witnesses most of it was clearly bs, hopefully this will be lost in that. I really think Trump screwed himself here. A much tighter more focus defense where this stuff really stood out would have been much more likely to succeed IMO
In every trial, both sides score some points. If there were no points to be scored, the case would settle long before a jury was called in. I don’t think anything that happened today was a suprise for the prosecution, or even the jury.