More gold from the Onion:
“Q: Are you a tits man or an ass man?”
“A: Only ass men are qualified to judge former President Donald Trump.”
Barron’s graduation? (it was a big thing among MAGAts how terrible it was to keep Trump from his son’s graduation)
It’s just Trump’s bad luck that Merchan seems to be a very competent judge whose overriding motivation is that justice prevail. Trump is probably right that Merchan hates his guts, but Trump brought that on himself with his obnoxious antics. Same reason that judge Engoron is fed up with him, too. Merchan will continue to be fair but his patience with Trump is at a breaking point, which means that he isn’t going to be cut much slack when he engages in future infantile behaviour. Trump is, of course, too stupid to understand any of this.
Trump’s obnoxious antics are his regular modus operandi. He cows opponents into submission. That works well when he’s dealing with a small-time contractor who sues him—say, the guy who did the flooring at Trump Tower or the interior decorator at Mar-a-Lago, both of whom get stiffed and sue. But once they receive a Trumpian glare in court, they’re ready to settle for pennies on the dollar.
But this is not a civil trial. This is not a matter of contract, as those would have been; this is a criminal matter. His opponent is the State of New York, and no amount of glares at the DA or other prosecutors, will frighten them into submission. A settlement—better known in a criminal matter as a plea deal—would mean that Trump would have to admit guilt, and his ego won’t allow that. So he keeps on doing what worked so well for him in all those matters of contract, and he doesn’t understand why they’re not working now. Well, it’s because he’s out of his usual civil matter element, and possibly has not realized that yet.
Of course, it’s possible that he has, but that raises another point, which a CNN commentator touched on earlier this evening: he’s not in control of anything in this matter. He cannot make the proceedings go away, he cannot outlast the resources of the State of New York, he cannot even instruct his lawyers to “take care of this, willya?” while he plays golf. No, he must be there, must stay silent, must not have his phone during proceedings, must not violate the gag order in his after-court impromptu press conferences, must not Twuth anything about the matter later. For the first time in his life, perhaps, he is being told to sit down and shut up until the Court tells him what he can do. He’s never been in this position before, and to be as kind as I can be, he has no idea how to deal with it.
Right now, I think Merchan is doing a fine job. He’s keeping things moving at a reasonable pace, and being fair to both parties, within the rules. Barron Trump’s graduation? “If we keep to schedule, you can go.” Passover? “We can break early; you don’t need the whole day.” Fair enough, but to me, his underlying message is, “Don’t mess with me, and we can make it all work. Mess with me, and I won’t grant any privileges that you ask for.” Something else Trump isn’t used to: an ultimatum that carries real consequences.
I agree and I think judge Merchan is very good at his job. Part of that is Mechan knows he is under a microscope like few judges ever are. He has to do this right and is being very careful. Not least because he is now dealing with a candidate for president of the US. That is uncharted ground. If you or I pulled some shit like Trump does we’d probably be in jail already.
I do not envy the judge having this task.
The complaining is the campaigning. When was the last time he talked about any actual policies? When was the last time he tried to reach out to new voters?
I mentioned something about this previously, don’t remember if it was this thread or another (there are so many!) — I read somewhere that Trump’s bulldog legal strategy mentor Roy Cohn evidently warned Trump that all this belligerent always-attack stuff was really effective only in civil matters, and that Trump needed to be cautious about attracting the attention of criminal investigators because these tactics wouldn’t work nearly as well, if at all. Seems this is being borne out.
I can’t remember where I saw that note, and when I mentioned it before, a couple people helpfully pointed me toward some related articles. Not quite the one I was thinking of and remembering, unfortunately, but the principle holds, and it makes me wonder the extent to which Trump might remember such a warning and understand the new threat level he’s facing.
Definitely agree with this. Campaigning for normal politicians is about winning voter support by making persuasive presentations on policies and positions, or emotional appeals. For Trump, campaigning is “look at me, listen to me, I’m the center of attention, I’m the center of the world.” It literally doesn’t matter what he’s talking about.
Is the orange asshole pulling up every court day with that preposterously large motorcade? Did he take that convoy to the bodega? Maybe it’s not so bad, because nobody expects NYC traffic to move smoothly anyway.
I like to say that the insurrection on 1/6 was the low-rent, grunts, boots-on-the-ground component of the self-coup attempt, while the “alternate slate of electors” scheme was the ‘white men in suits’ piece.
Similarly, there’s a low-rent vs. Savile Row analogy to be drawn here.
Remember this guy?
Man who brazenly attacked judge during sentencing said he was having a bad day
After the attack, Deobra Redden told a marshal the “judge has it out for me” and “judge is evil,” according to a document from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
Trump is simply this guy with a much more privileged upbringing, and – utterly predictably – Deobra Redden wasn’t treated with kid gloves.
But we should stop hand-waving white collar perfidy and mayhem and start viewing it as the ginormous threat it can represent, with societal and global consequences.
Steal a TV → go to prison
Steal an election → get free media coverage for the rest of your life
All the TV legal pundits seem to agree: nobody’s going to throw DJT in jail for his Gag Order violations. It’s just a given, out of respect for the title.
F that S. Time to shift the paradigm.
[/soap box]
Agreed. It’s the difference between some dope who tries to mail “white powder” to an elected official and the Unabomber. One gets the headline and one doesn’t. All a matter of scale.
I, for one, was disappointed that none of the jurors so far have listed the SDMB as their principle source of news.
Uttering the words “Straight Dope” in a Trump trial’s voir dire phase might be viewed as demonstrating unabashed contempt for the defendant.
i as well, our nyc people must not be in the pool.
this morning we had a defendant going in front of cameras speaking about how he can’t speak.
the courthouse does have holding cells. i’m sure they could make arraignments for the secret service, he doesn’t have to go to rikers.
Yes but, as has been pointed out many times, Trump doesn’t have to run for president, and in fact only declared his candidacy so early just so he could claim election interference once he got dragged into court. I don’t believe he needs to be treated differently just because he’s a candidate, although Donnie and his cult members would obviously disagree.
I agree the judge needs to be careful to avoid grounds for an appeal, but other than that there’s no reason Trump shouldn’t be treated like any other defendant in court.
I’m still very surprised that there are not one, but TWO, attorneys on the jury. I thought as a matter of practice that was a no no. I would think the defense would want the least sophisticated jurors they could find, and the prosecution wouldn’t want someone who’s more inclined to place more importance on some arcane legal clause the defense might raise. Either way, attorneys would undoubtedly have an outsized influence on the other jurors to be sure. I wonder if judges ever get selected as jurors? (and if so, why not just have a bench trial?)
Trump looks very tired in the video in this link.
I’d go so far as to say that, de facto, Judge Merchan does not have the power to apply a gag order on Donald Trump. A commentator on CNN explained this morning that Merchan only has two means of enforcing the gag order per NY state law: (1) Fines limited to $1,000, and (2) incarceration. The commentator continued, saying that fines of that amount won’t stop Trump and that the judge flat out won’t consider incarceration.
If you won’t enforce it, it’s equivalent to the case that you can’t enforce it. The reasons behind the reticence to enforce don’t matter. Power you can’t use is power you don’t have.
I wonder what would be done if Trump moved from the verbal to the physical (e.g. punching a bailiff, lunging at prospective jurors)? What line would have to be crossed to get to near-summary incarceration?
I don’t understand why Merchan can’t order him to the pokey. Of course, as judge he has that authority. And if he hopes to retain control of his courtroom he needs to exercise that authority. And unfortunately fines and lock up are the only two tools available at his disposal. I mean we’d all love to see him put in stocks on the sidewalk in front of the court house, but that’s sadly no longer an option.