#TrumpTrial 🧵 Monday 20 May 2024
#Trump has a huge posse today, including #KashPatel; #GerryKassar, a #conservative party leader in NY; #BernieKerik, fmr NYPD commissioner who was imprisoned for tax fraud & false statements; #AlanDershowitz, lawyer who defended Trump during his first impeachment, & #BorisEpshteyn, *legal* adviser who was #indicted in AZ for attempts to keep Trump in power after the 2020 election.
#criminal #law #ElectionInterference #MobTactics #StochasticTerrorism #GagOrder
Justice #Merchan says that it’s become apparent that closings will not take place tomorrow. It’s looking more like #evidence, #testimony & all other business before closings will happen this week & closing arguments will take place next Tues.
“It was either have a long break now or have a long break then, & unfortunately the calendar is what it is,” the judge says, re the Memorial Day weekend.
#law #Trump #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
The new #TrumpTrial schedule provides the #jury w/less of an interruption between closeting arguments & deliberations, allowing jurors to hear the defense & prosecution summations, the judge’s legal instructions, & then begin their deliberations w/it all fresh in mind.
#Hoffinger, one of the prosecutors, is addressing some exhibits that #Trump defense wants to enter into #evidence. One relates to comms between #MichaelCohen & his lawyer, Jeff Citron, about another lawyer, Bob Costello.
The lawyers have begun to argue over whether the defense can use #evidence that was not previously a part of the trial. Justice #Merchan has barred one potential email, related to #MichaelCohen & #RobertCostello, a lawyer who spoke w/Cohen in 2018, as he was beginning to question his relationship w/ #Trump. Costello, a fmr fed prosecutor, became a character late in the trial, but he’s come up a lot in the last few days.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
NYT #GiftArticle from a few yrs ago about the relationship between #RobertCostello, a lawyer in #Trump's circle, & #MichaelCohen. Some of the emails & other records are included.
#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
Justice #Merchan has made several other things clear as the pre-jury proceedings cont. He will restrict the testimony of a witness who is an expert in #ElectionLaw, who the defense had wanted to call. He says that too much explanation of the law from an expert would overstep the role usually granted to such witnesses. They are meant to help #jurors understand a certain subject area, but it is the judge’s role to help jurors understand the #law itself.
Justice #Merchan says he is still deciding on #JuryInstructions. Both the prosecutors & the defense have submitted proposals for what they would like. He makes it clear that he has not decided what he will do.
Merchan made 2 minor rulings against the defense. Both times defense lawyers pushed back, seeking another chance to enter new #evidence (#delay), + clarity on jury instructions to inform the testimony of their expert witness.
#Trump defense atty Emil #Bove suggests that the prosecutors, in their proposed #JuryInstructions, shifted their theory of the case.
He’s possibly talking about the state #ElectionLaw that underlies the #felony business records charges against Trump. Justice #Merchan doesn’t seem to agree, but says prosecution’s proposal for jury instructions holds no weight — it’s only a proposal.
“Just relax,” Merchan tells defense. Nothing, he says, has been determined.
Prosecutor #Colangelo argues “there’s nothing new at all” about their theory. The charges against #Trump are #felonies because he falsified business records to conceal another #crime. They signaled that other crime was seeking to promote his own #election "by unlawful means," in violation of state #ElectionLaw. That introduces a 3rd potential crime.
3 potential crimes, all wrapped into each of the 34 felony charges of falsifying business records.
#MichaelCohen is back on the stand.
Todd #Blanche, #Trump's lawyer, begins by asking Cohen how many reporters he’s talked to about what happened last week. Cohen says he didn’t speak to reporters about what happened last week.
“I did not talk about this case,” Michael Cohen says. Blanche then asks him how often he’s spoken to reporters this year. When Cohen says he has done so frequently, Blanche asks him how many times he has met w/prosecutors.
#Blanche is now asking #MichaelCohen about meeting w/people ahead of his public testimony before a #House panel in 2019. He asks him about meeting w/ #DanGoldman, then a House investigator & now a congresssman in NY. Then he jumps back to Oct 2016 & #StormyDaniels.
Blanche is skipping around again. He started by speaking about 2024, then went back ~5yrs, to 2019, & is now back in 2016, right before he made the #HushMoney payment to Daniels.
The defense has yet to counter the prosecution’s narrative about the hush-money payment & the reimbursement. It’s possible Blanche ‘s weird jumps in time may be molded into the defense’s alternative explanation of the events.
#Blanche asks #MichaelCohen about an issue related to his #TaxiMedallion business in October 2016. Waiting to see where this goes.
#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
a #TaxiMedallion is a permit allowing someone to operate a taxi cab in NYC. Once very expensive, they plummeted in value w/the rise of ride-sharing apps.
One thing #Blanche mentioned — something about #MichaelCohen helping #TiffanyTrump w/an extortion issue — underscores how it’s possible to still learn things about what Cohen was doing in that period.
#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
#Blanche is trying to connect #MichaelCohen’s involvement in the taxi industry in Oct 2016—when Cohen paid #StormyDaniels the #HushMoney —into the defense.
Prosecutors argue Cohen was motivated solely by pleasing #Trump. Blanche is suggesting Cohen may have been motivated by his own financial interests. He suggests that one of the LLCs that Cohen said he created to help w/the hush-money may actually have been formed to address an issue Cohen was having in the taxi industry.
#Blanche is trying to confuse the timeline of the #HushMoney payment. On Fri, he questioned #MichaelCohen’s story about the events of 24 Oct, 2016. Now he’s moved on to casting doubt on Cohen’s testimony about the 2 days that followed — the 25th 26th. Cohen wired the payment to #StormyDaniels's lawyer on 27 Oct.
Blanche argues there were alternative explanations for 2 of Cohen’s calls to #Trump on 26 Oct — a possible plot to extort #TiffanyTrump.
#Blanche suggests that #MichaelCohen had said he was singlemindedly focused on the #HushMoney deal, including when he spoke to #Trump that Oct. But Blanche suggests that Cohen would have reported back to Trump about other issues, too, including dealing w/an extortion attempt against #TiffanyTrump.
Cohen sticks to his original testimony: “My recollection is that I was speaking to him about #StormyDaniels, because that was what he tasked me to take care of.”
#MichaelCohen testifies about a tech co, RedFinch, that was hired to #rig online #polls in #Trump's favor. The company was owed $50k. But Cohen ended up only paying them $20k. Nonetheless, he still asked for a $50k reimbursement from the #TrumpOrganization. Blanche asks if he lied, & Cohen acknowledges he did.
Blanche asks Cohen, “You had, like, a duffle bag of cash? Where was the cash?”
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
#Blanche asks, “You stole from the #TrumpOrganization, right?” referring to #MichaelCohen being repaid more than what he was owed.
Cohen: “Yes, sir.”
#Trump shakes his head at the defense table when Cohen makes this admission.
Jurors have heard Cohen has lied to Congress, tax authorities & on the witness stand. Now they’ve learned he stole from the #TrumpOrg.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#Blanche gets #MichaelCohen to testify about having cash “in a brown paper bag.” Then Blanche refers to someone Cohen was dealing w/as “the connect.” Both characterizations are rather seedy / illicit & similar to dog-whistles #Trump uses in his *speeches*.
Blanche asks Cohen about the complex reimbursements for the #HushMoney payment. Defense noted that Cohen wasn’t repaid $130k, the actual amount Cohen had given to #StormyDaniels. Blanche is digging into that.
#Blanche, predictably, is blaming #AllenWeisselberg, fmr CFO of the #TrumpOrganization, for designing #MichaelCohen's reimbursements for the #HushMoney payment. Cohen had said that #Trump signed off on their payment scheme in a Jan 2017 meeting at #TrumpTower. Blanche got close to discussing that key testimony, but moved on.
There’s a lot about Weisselberg this morning. He’s currently in #jail for #perjury, & is one of a few people mentioned repeatedly who won’t testify.
#Blanche moves on to the documents that prosecutors say were falsified. He suggests that everyone BUT #Trump — #AllenWeisselberg, #EricTrump, #DonaldTrumpJr & #MichaelCohen himself — may have falsified the docs, disguising them as repayments for #legal services. But not Trump himself, Blanche signals to the jury, w/o saying it outright.
The #SODDI (Some Other Dude Did It) defense.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#Blanche notes that #MichaelCohen bragged to people about being Trump’s personal atty, & that some of the work he did for #Trump was actual legal work.
That was the first time Blanche came anywhere close to the actual case — the 34 falsified business documents — but of course he moved on.
Blanche tries several times to illustrate that Cohen did legal work for the Trump family in 2017 e.g. #Melania Trump’s agreement w/Madame Tussauds wax museum.
@Nonilex
Also referred to by many legal experts as "The Shaggy Defense"
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@Nonilex
Or possibly a Wookie from Endor...
I'm not impressed with these folks.
@n1xnx @Nonilex
Perhaps it's just because I've always been too poor to shop for lawyers, but I'm stunned how Trump can spend over a hundred million dollars on lawyers and seem to not be able to find any very good ones.
But of course, those that know have long known that his business acumen has been highly overrated I guess.
Nonilex
Rufus J. Cooter
Steve Hersey
Kevin Leecaster
Barbara Monaco
Olson
Stoneface Vimes
Nazani