“I object, your honor! This trial is a travesty. It’s a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham.”
A masterful defense strategy!
This witness alone should be enough to sink Trump to the bottom.
He makes as much sense as them, so yeh.
He has serious credibility issues. The DA better have good corroborating evidence.
Cohen’s greatest utility to prosecutors at this point may be his ability to help them uncover that corroborating evidence.
Cohen taped calls and produced signed checks. No doubt Donnie’s lawyers will attack Cohen’s character. I hope the judge/prosecutors keep a close reign on the questioning (Trump’s on trial, not Cohen).
They need to have it by now. The trial is not the time for uncovering evidence.
It may not be good legal strategy, but it’s good political strategy. Delay tll November, and the case goes away.
I’ve given up all hope that the really important cases —insurrection and election fraud,(Jan 6 , and Georgia)-will ever begin in a courtroom.
Is this case different?
Is it likely that this case will actually begin and end with a final , unappealed,verdict before Trump gets re-elected?
And a duck egg. (HONK HONK) Two duck eggs.
I once thought this too. However, the more I’ve thought about it the more I’ve come to realize this case is every bit as bad as the other ones. The media has been reporting this thing as a hush money or business records case. But really that doesn’t get to the heart of the matter because the money and records were merely the tools used to execute a much larger crime - to interfere with the 2016 election, by depriving voters of information to make an informed decision. Trumps actions in 2016 were a direct attack on democracy.
To be clear, Michael Cohen is a piece of shit who was happy to be Donald’s lackey for years.
But to believe the defense, you have to believe that Cohen decided, independent of donald, to pay off women that donald had slept with while married, and the donald paid him for legal services he never provided without donald ever knowing what use the money was really intended.
Sure, the defense will call out Cohen for being a liar and a scumbag. But the best part of this is that it gives the government the clear argument that “yes, this man was unsavory. And that’s who donald decided to associate himself with. A man who had no compunction about lying and cheating.”
(I’m pretty sure that the DA will also be presenting the testimony from David Pecker from the Enquirer about the “catch and kill” practice of buying stories and then burying them. And also people in Donald’s inner circle who would have assisted him with the logistics of making the payments).
withdrawn
Trump tests limits of gag order with post insulting 2 likely witnesses in criminal trial
Trump is deliberately dipping his toe just a bit over the line. While school yard insults like sleaze bag should be avoided, the two likely Manhattan trial witnesses in question have lived lives opening themselves up to the charge.
Here’s context to think about this:
How Donald Trump Gets Special Treatment in the Legal System
So – where is the line to be drawn? Should Trump go to jail over merely previewing likely lines of cross-examination – after he got away with slandering the judge’s daughter?
I say yes, Trump should serve the same number of days, in a clean safe Rikers cell, as other defendants would, with Secret Service agents granted no less, or more, visiting rights than any other friend or acquaintance. But I can also see reasons why Judge Merchan won’t dare. And why Trump will correctly see this leniency as authorization to find the next line he can step over.
Why shouldn’t Mechan dare? What’s he afraid of? That Trump will file a frivilous motion to have him removed or something equally stupid? That this will provide Trump with ammunition for his inevitable appeal? There’s a point where a judge has to tell Trump “Enough is enough” and I think this is it. Smack him with a fine and if he continues the behavior then incarcerate him.
Plus consider that this is first criminal trial Trump has stood for. I would think the judicial leash would necessarily be shorter here.
Why do you feel Stormy has lived a life that opens her up to being called a “sleaze bag”?
First, there might be mistakes in my last post. It may be that it is up to the prosecution to petition the judge to enforce his gag order. I am unclear on this.
Reading a few New York Times articles (this and this), the idea I got from Politico, that jail is “routinely imposed on other defendants” whose contempt is less blatant, could be mistaken. According to my last link in this post:
But to answer your question about what Mechan would reasonably be scared of, in the event of sentencing Trump to jail for contempt, it could range from concern about a successful appeal, to Secret Service interference, to making a job, whose dangers may extend to his whole family, riskier.
Not his problem, IMHO.
I doubt this is the first time a defendant has threatened him.
Isn’t it? Not his responsibility, perhaps, but certainly a potential problem to be resolved.
It’s likely the first time the potential pool of those poised to threaten his family has numbered in the millions.