Manhattan Prosecutors file criminal charges for Trump re Stormy Daniels case - ongoing discussion here (Guilty on all 34 counts, May 30, 2024)

Politics & Elections
4221

They could, but it would be poor planning on the part of the judge.

They need to meet and hammer out jury instructions. Attorneys like to have those nailed down before they give their closing arguments.

After closing arguments, there’s nothing left for the judge to do but to instruct the jury and submit the case to them for deliberation. You really don’t want to do that on a Thursday afternoon before a 4-day holiday. Anything can happen.

This is something that is peculiar to New York law, but I heard it stated this morning that if the jury commences their deliberations and then something happens over the long weekend that prevents a juror from returning to deliberate, then the defendant can refuse to seat an alternate.

The judge will prefer to maintain strict control over the trial process and ensure this doesn’t happen. For that reason alone, he’ll postpone closing arguments and jury deliberation to start early next week.

I know @rocking_chair already beat me to the punch, but hopefully this is a somewhat more fulsome explanation. :slight_smile:

4222

cnn updates:

Judge Juan Merchan instructs the jury that they can consider Michael Cohen’s attorney’s letter to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in evaluating Cohen’s credibility.

“Mr. Cohen’s plea is not evidence of the defendant’s guilt and you may not consider it it when determining” Trump’s innocence or guilt," Merchan said.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is now pulling up the 2018 public statement Cohen released explaining the Stormy Daniels payment.

The letter ends saying “Just because something isn’t true doesn’t mean that it can’t cause you harm or damage. I will always protect Mr. Trump.”

Hoffinger asks if the statement is largely false. Cohen says it was.

Cohen confirms it was misleading in the same way as the Federal Election Commission (FEC) letter by leaving out Trump and just saying the Trump campaign and the Trump Organization.

He again confirmed that he intended it to be misleading.

“Did Mr. Trump approve the substance of these false statements by you?” prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asks Michael Cohen.

Cohen replies, “Yes ma’am.”

“Under the circumstances of this NDA with Stormy Daniels that you testified to, was it perfectly legal under those circumstances?” Hoffinger asks.

“No ma’am,” Cohen says.

rc: there are more objections being thrown around now.

prosecutor: are you actually on trial here?
cohen: no, ma’am.

Hoffinger asks if Cohen had a retainer agreement when he worked for the Trump Org. “You’re an employee it’s not necessary,” Cohen said

Michael Cohen again confirms he never put together a retainer agreement for Trump when he left Trump Org and became Trump’s personal attorney, “because I never expected to get paid”

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is moving quite quickly through her redirect of Michael Cohen to help rehabilitate him, CNN chief legal correspondent Paula Reid said.

“This is similar to how they tried to rehabilitate Stormy Daniels. They moved through very quickly. They didn’t try to match point-for- point, punch-for-punch with the defense. She made her point there and then very quickly moved on to the next issue,” Reid said.

Reid added that the prosecution believes that “this is the best way to rehabilitate their witnesses; don’t get dragged down into the weeds, just got back to the point, try to rehabilitate and move on.”

“Did 420,000 have anything to do with legal services” in 2017, Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked.

“No,” Cohen said.

When you submitted each of your 11 invoices to the Trump Organization stating each was for services rendered pursuant to a retainer, was that true or false, Hoffinger asked.

“False,” Cohen said.

Michael Cohen again said he never retained Bob Costello and never paid him any money.

“I didn’t like the way he kept invoking Rudy Giuliani and my concern was anything I would say to him would go immediately back to President Trump,” Cohen said.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger entered into evidence a waiver Cohen signed in February 2019 with the Southern District of New York, stating that he did not sign a retainer and did not believe his communications with Costello were subject to attorney-client privilege.

Cohen read the statement in court.

4223

from cnn update:

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger brought up Michael Cohen’s fake AI cases in his briefing last year, asking whether he intended to mislead anyone by doing the Google Bard searches.

“No,” Cohen said. He’s now explaining what he did to generate the fake cases.

“After I just copy and pasted the first three, because they were on point, I sent them over to my lawyer’s office to review and incorporate into the document,” Cohen said.

“I was just trying to be helpful,” he adds, noting he does not have access to WestLaw or Lexis Nexis.

Cohen said that his lawyer discovered the error and notified the court that the citations were inaccurate.

Judge Juan Merchan just told the jury that they are breaking early for lunch today. He’s instructing them to keep an open mind. “I’ll see you at 2:15,” he says.

the lawyers are going over pieces of evidence that the prosecution would like to bring in. a photo of trump and schiller together on the night of the fatefull 8:ish pm phone call.

4224

from cnn update:

One of the photos prosecutors want to introduce is pulled from the C-SPAN archives of a rally from October 24.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche argues this is inadmissible as evidence because prosecutors did not follow the rules of evidence by issuing a subpoena to C-SPAN as prosecutors did for the other material earlier in the trial.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass says that the photo shows that Keith Schiller and Trump walked off the stage together at 7:57 pm, ahead of the 8:02 pm phone call in question.

Steinglass said Trump and Schiller walked off the stage at 7:57 pm.

“Who knows what they’re going to say in their summation. We’re entitled to establish and I realize it’s not wholly responsive to … what happened on that phone call,” Steinglass said.

Blanche added that the C-SPAN record custodian didn’t authenticate information on the website, only what was in the archive and says a paralegal from the DA’s office cannot properly authenticate the photos in testifying that they found the photos on the website.

“It seems neither here nor there because we all have Google but the rules of evidence still applies,” Blanche said. “They should’ve brought the witness back,” he added, suggesting that the prosecutors knew they were likely to introduce these photos into evidence.

Steinglass said it’s an exercise in futility to question the C-SPAN custodian again but says they could fly him out for two questions to lay the proper foundation to admit the exhibits.

“That’s not the way the rules of evidence work,” Blanche argued.

After the prosecution and defense argued for and against admitting into evidence a photo of Donald Trump and Keith Schiller, Judge Juan Merchan said he believes the photo is relevant but he is going to think about heresy.

Michael Cohen answered the prosecution’s questions on redirect on Monday morning for just under an hour before breaking for lunch. Here are the key points.

There was no retainer agreement: Cohen testified the $420,000 he received was a reimbursement and that he never actually sent a legal retainer agreement to ex-Trump Org. CFO Allen Weisselberg, contrary to what Trump’s signed checks stated. “There was no legal work that I was to be paid for,” he said. “There was no representation agreement within which to send.”

Cohen explains Red Finch payments: Part of the $420,000 payments to Cohen was a reimbursement for $50,000 to Red Finch for tech services. As Cohen explained, Trump had been polling low in a CNBC poll and was upset, so Cohen reached out to Red Finch, which said they could create an algorithm to boost his results in the poll. He ended up at number 9 in the poll.

“Despite cheating,” Trump felt he didn’t get his money’s worth for the work, Cohen said. CNBC ended up not moving forward with the poll, “and so (Trump) didn’t feel he had gotten the benefit” for the services they had provided.

Cohen explains stealing from Trump Org.: Under cross-examination, Cohen testified he was reimbursed $50,000 for payments to Red Finch but only paid them back $20,000, effectively stealing from the Trump Organization. On redirect, explained that he did so because he was upset about getting a surprisingly low annual bonus.

"I was angered because of the reduction in the bonus, and so I just felt it was almost like self-help,” he said.

He admitted it was wrong to do so.

Cohen says Trump approved false statements: Cohen confirmed that parts of a letter he sent to the Federal Election Commission and a public statement about the Stormy Daniels hush money payment were false and intended to be misleading.

“Did Mr. Trump approve the substance of these false statements by you?” Susan Hoffinger asked.

“Yes, ma’am,” Cohen said.

4225

In many courts, you could just zoom the witness in for something like that.
I don’t know about NY.

4226

msnbc is reporting that todd blanche is fighting this footage/photo being in evidence tooth and nail. huh. they were the ones who made this phone call a big deal.

they already had the cspan person in to testify earlier.

also reported is that blanche would get animated and raise his voice and gesture. but the reporter (s) did not see a big moment conclusion. although the “you stole the money” moment was interesting.

i would think if they would zoom anyone in, it would be howard from australia. there must be an in person thing in nyc.

4227

Probably comes from the understanding that anyone with anything interesting to say lives in New York and so should be able to easily attend in person. :wink:

4228

Addressing Cohen:

Cohen is an admitted (and convicted) liar, but he’s not on trial.

@Buck_Godot Thanks for posting that New Yorker cover. I’ve been wanting a copy of that for years. :slightly_smiling_face:

4229

Horrors! No wonder Trump thinks the judge is biased! :smiley:

4230

from cnn update:

Former President Donald Trump has entered the courtroom.

Attorney Alan Dershowitz is also back.

Judge Juan Merchan is on the bench.

Natalie Harp, the former OAN anchor turned assistant, just walked out of the courtroom to grab a sheet of paper, returned and walked directly to former President Donald Trump to hand it to him.

This is the aide who carries around a printer (and cartridges) so she can print out his articles for him.

While looking at the sheet, Trump raised his arm and gave a thumbs-up without turning around after she handed it to him.

from msnbc:

it was mentioned by one of the panelists that in nyc the defence does not stipulate, and that all the prosecutors are trained to authenticate anything they want in.

back to cnn:

Judge Juan Merchan said that he reviewed the testimony of the C-SPAN archivist during the lunch break.

Merchan is re-reading the archivist’s testimony, including how C-SPAN verifies video is accurate and saves videos to the C-SPAN archives.

Trump is leaning back with his eyes closed as Merchan continues to read the transcript.

Remember: Before the break, prosecutors argued that one of the photos they want to introduce as evidence is pulled from the C-SPAN archives of a rally from October 24, 2016.

back to msnbc, the judge has sustained the defence objection and said no to the video. the prosecution said they will bring back the cspan person.

the defence: we very much object (to the witness coming back).

merchan asked the prosecution why this wasn’t put in sooner.

the prosecution said they found it over the weekend.

rc: oh dear, the judge is suggesting that they will adjourn until tomorrow and sort this out.

from cnn update:

Defense attorney Todd Blanche is indicating that both prosecutors and defense may rest their cases today.

“We have a few witnesses here. There is a likelihood that we will rest today,” Blanche said.

“So here we are on Monday and they’re about to rest, and they’re asking I guess to see if this witness can come back,” Blanche says regarding the prosecution’s request to call back an earlier witness. “We very much object.”

Defense attorney Todd Blanche is indicating that both prosecutors and defense may rest their cases today.

“We have a few witnesses here. There is a likelihood that we will rest today,” Blanche said.

“So here we are on Monday and they’re about to rest, and they’re asking I guess to see if this witness can come back,” Blanche says regarding the prosecution’s request to call back an earlier witness. “We very much object.”

Judge Juan Merchan said he wants to know why the defense’s witness wasn’t sorted out sooner.

“It doesn’t seem like Mr Blanche is contesting the fact that they were together so I don’t understand why they’re jumping through all these hoops. They have the right to put us through the burden,” Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said.

“They don’t have to stipulate that Mr. Schiller was with Mr. Trump at that day and time, though it does not sound like they’re contesting that,” Steinglass added.

Merchan asked what is the prejudice to the defense? Blanche said its “patently unfair.”

rc: the defence just whinged that “that’s not the way a trial is supposed to work…”.

Judge Juan Merchan asks the prosecutors to determine whether the C-SPAN witness can be in the courtroom by 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Prosecutors say they’ve reached out and are waiting to hear back.

Merchan says we’ll break for a few minutes to see if the DA’s office can get a hold of the C-SPAN archivist.

Rebecca Mangold, the prosecutor who told Merchan they were trying to contact Browning, had her phone out as she exited the courtroom.

According to his testimony from April 30, Browning lives in Thibodaux County, Louisiana, which is west of New Orleans.

4231

Beat me to it. Although I’m sure Trump is guilty of heresy too.

4232

oh dang! hearsay! i do declare hearsay.

4233

Isn’t the defense considering calling Costello?

Nevermind from @rocking_chair 's summary it looks like defense has indicated they will rest today.

4234

msnbc update:

cspan witness will be available at 9:30 am tomorrow.

4235

This is why it’s sometimes wise to stipulate. It’s going to be a much bigger deal now with a live witness tomorrow morning vs. just slipping it in today.

4236

Nitpick:

Thibodaux is a town in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana. Louisiana has no counties.

4237

Is it then safe to assume the prosecution believes the witness will confirm what they need confirmed? I worry that they’ll get up on the stand and say “no, I have no idea if those times are correct”.

4238

cnn update:

Trump attorney Todd Blanche says the trial has adjourned early several times because the prosecution hasn’t had witnesses ready.

“That’s not the way a trial is supposed to work,” he says.

Judge Juan Merchan smiles and says “OK” in response.

“Ok people what did you find out?” Judge Juan Merchan asked as he returned to the bench after a short break, referring to the status of the C-SPAN archivist the prosecution may bring back to the stand.

Prosecutor Rebecca Mangold said C-SPAN is preparing to book travel for Robert Browning, the C-SPAN archivist, so he can testify about the photo of Donald Trump and his former bodyguard, Keith Schiller.

rc: msnbc is reporting that the juror has rescheduled and it will be a full day on thursday. the judge is saying that having the expert come in will not upset the schedule cart.

nbc team in court notes that judge merchan is standing with his arms crossed and the legal teams huddle as they appear to be looking at the papers.

both sides have stipulated! instead of the video there will be a photo. now back to the redirect.

from cnn:

Judge Juan Merchan told attorney Todd Blanche it was up to him whether to proceed with his case this afternoon or wait until tomorrow morning until after the C-SPAN archivist is recalled.

Trump was gesturing and talking in the huddle.

Blanche is now huddling with prosecutors Susan Hoffinger and Joshua Steinglass.

cohen is back in court.

4239

i would think that the cspan person would repeat what they already said.

moot point now that the cspan person is not necessary.

the prosecution is now asking cohen about the photo and his discussions with trump on stormy daniels.

4240

cnn update:

The two sides have found a way to avoid recalling the C-SPAN archivist.

“We may be able to short-circuit this process,” Joshua Steinglass says.

He said the photo “will come in with Mr. Cohen,” referring to the prosecution’s main witness, Michael Cohen.

“We will not call a paralegal and we’ll agree to the following stipulation.”

They will show the photo and tell the jury:

“The peoples ex 417B is a still photograph taken from the end of the video which concludes at 7:57pm on October 24 2016.”

Michael Cohen entered the courtroom and walked to the witness box.

Trump was whispering with attorney Todd Blanche as he entered.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass indicated that the jury will hear the stipulation and then prosecutor Susan Hoffinger will ask Cohen to confirm on the stand that Trump’s former bodyguard Schiller is in the photo.

Hoffinger is at the podium and showing the photo to Cohen.

Michael Cohen, the prosecution’s witness, identified Trump’s former bodyguard Keith Schiller and Trump in the 2016 photo.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger read the stipulation, “The parties have agreed that peoples exhibit 417b is a still photograph taken from the end of a video. The video concluded at 7:57 p.m. on October 24, 2016. It’s signed by both the prosecution and the defense today May 20, 2024.”

The screenshot is now being shown in court for the jury and the public.

The photo is a screenshot from the end of the Trump rally in Tampa, Florida, on October 24.

Michael Cohen says he recalls speaking with Donald Trump “more than 20” times in October 2016 about Stormy Daniels.

When asked, Cohen says records “helped to refresh my memory,” about when he spoke to Trump about the matter.

Trump smiles as Cohen says this.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger went through a series of questions asking if Michael Cohen had any doubt that Trump told him to work it out with Allen Weisselberg and that Trump gave him approval to make the payment to Daniels.

Cohen replied, “No doubt.”

“Would you have paid Stormy Daniels the $130,000 had Mr. Trump not signed off?” Hoffinger asks.

“No ma’am,” Cohen says.

We’re now taking another break because prosecutors can’t get audio to work.

Donald Trump remains at the defense table with his attorneys.

He’s chatting with Todd Blanche as the prosecution’s paralegals come up to try to get the audio to play.