#Steinglass notes that after closing the #HushMoney deal w/ #KarenMcDougal, the editor of The #NationalEnquirer did not immediately call his boss. Instead he placed a call to #Trump atty #MichaelCohen, underscoring, again, that The Enquirer was working on Trump's behalf.

We’re over hour 2, & Steinglass has a way to go, this won’t be done today.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics

#Steinglass tells the jury that #Pecker was willing to sacrifice his bottom line in service of #Trump’s campaign, & adds that this deal was “the very antithesis of a normal legitimate press function.”

Steinglass shows through call records the degree to which Trump would have had knowledge of the discussions around acquiring #KarenMcDougal’s life rights. Cutting against Blanche’s portrayal of Trump as a dupe who people took advantage of.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #ElectionInterference

#Steinglass plays the recording of the conversation between #MichaelCohen & #Trump discussing the #KarenMcDougal deal in Sept 2016.

Steinglass argues that the conversation shows Trump’s “cavalier willingness” to hide this payoff & “unequivocally shows a presidential candidate actively engaging in a scheme to influence the election.”

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics

#Steinglass resumes after the break w/the release of the #AccessHollywood tape in Oct 2016, & describes #Trump’s comments in that tape as having discussed “grabbing women by the genitals.”

He reminds the jurors that #HopeHicks testified that the news eclipsed that of a Category 4 hurricane on the East Coast.

Steinglass reminds jurors that the “Access Hollywood” tape was “vulgar to say the least” & said that #Trump sought to spin it as “locker-room talk.”

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial

Steinglass describes the #Trump campaign’s reaction to the #AccessHollywood tape, & notes that the Trump campaign responded publicly that his words on the tape were “locker-room talk,” while they were quietly scrubbing the internet for anything that might be damaging to him. He shows that #HopeHicks relied on #MichaelCohen to use his media contacts to fight back against the negative press.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial

#Steinglass shows the jurors video clips of #Trump himself acknowledging that the “#AccessHollywood” tape & its aftermath could swing a very tight election. “If 5% of the people think it’s true, & maybe 10%,” Trump says in one clip, “we don’t win.”

Steinglass takes jurors through testimony from #HopeHicks describing what a disaster Trump understood the “Access Hollywood” tape to be, because she was “in the room where it happened.”

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #ElectionInterference

Now, having painted a picture of just how desperate the #Trump campaign was as it spun the #AccessHollywood tape, #Steinglass reintroduces the jurors to #StormyDaniels (well done Josh).

“During the exact same month that the defendant was desperately trying to sell the distinction between words & actions, he was negotiating to muzzle a porn star who was preparing to go public,” Steinglass says.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics

#StormyDaniels was a walking, talking reminder that Trump was not just words" at a time when Trump was trying to distinguish between his words & both Clintons’ actions, #Steinglass said.

Steinglass notes that Trump had not shown much interest Daniels' story until after the #AccessHollywood tape came out.
He shows phone records w/a huge increase in communications between #KeithDavidson, #DylanHoward, #MichaelCohen & #Trump.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial

#Trump atty Todd #Blanche, during his closing, tried to convince the jury that the prosecution’s case relied entirely on #MichaelCohen. Josh #Steinglass is taking that argument on directly & indirectly. As he moves through the case’s timeline, showing every piece of documentary #evidence the prosecution has, he is reinforcing just how much does not rely on Cohen, but on the testimony of witnesses who are friendly to Trump & on phone records you can’t dispute.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial

To believe defense, you’d have to take #Blanche’s word #MichaelCohen went rogue & #Trump was clueless about the #StormyDaniels deal.

Steinglass details calls between #Pecker & #MichaelCohen, w/ #HopeHicks occasionally in the mix, reminding jurors how enmeshed Cohen was & how much he talked to the campaign.

As he takes jurors through the mountain of documentary evidence, he sympathizes, “We don’t need to show all these calls & emails… they’re in evidence if you want to see them.”

#TrumpTrial

#Steinglass needs to show the jurors that the *alleged* #Trump Tower conspiracy between David #Pecker, #MichaelCohen & #Trump involved using “unlawful means” to aid Trump’s election.

Steinglass displays one of the unlawful means, a document called a business information overview that Cohen created as he sought to obtain the cash to pay #StormyDaniels.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics

#Steinglass is talking about & showing evidence from 23-25 Oct 2016, a few days from when #MichaelCohen actually sent a #HushMoney payment of $130k to a lawyer for #StormyDaniels.

“There’s this crazy flurry of phone activity among the co-conspirators here,” Steinglass points out, & then rattles off the proper names — Michael Cohen to David Pecker, Pecker to Cohen, Cohen to Keith Davidson — to illustrate just how much phone activity there was over just 30 mins.

#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial

On 26 Oct, ONE DAY BEFORE making the #HushMoney payment to #StormyDaniels's lawyer, #MichaelCohen talks to #Trump on the phone twice.

“This is damning, right?” #Steinglass says, using conversational language as he highlights the records.

He argues that Cohen was getting the final sign-off from Trump before he initiated the sequence of financial transactions that would conclude w/him wiring $130k.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference

“As part of this process, yet another false business record is created,” #Steinglass says, leaving a trail of potential #UnlawfulMeans that jurors could draw on during deliberations as they seek to determine whether #Trump unlawfully influenced his election victory.

On 27 Oct 2016, the money was sent, & on 28 Oct, just 11 days before the #election, #StormyDaniels signed the NDA.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

#Steinglass lands his argument by saying that while the sex between #StormyDaniels & #Trump took place in 2006, the payoff wasn’t until 2016 because his concern was NOT his family, as his lawyers have suggested, but the #election.

Though many of Trump’s family members have been staring at their phones throughout this summation, all of them looked up when Steinglass said that.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics

#Steinglass now goes into 4 Nov 2016, four days before the election, the day that The WSJ broke a story about The #NationalEnquirer’s deal w/ #KarenMcDougal on #Trump’s behalf.

Steinglass reminds jurors that #HopeHicks sent over a statement for the story on behalf of Trump, & that Trump lied in the statement, saying he didn’t know anything about the Karen McDougal deal. Steinglass says Trump did know about it because he was on tape 2 months earlier talking about it.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial

#Steinglass:
“And then, on Nov 8, the defendant was elected president.”

He notes that some of the conspiracy’s characters were aware of their roles in #Trump's election. “What have we done?” #StormyDaniels’s atty texted the #NationalEnquirer editor.

Steinglass: “we’ll never know if this effort to hoodwink the American voter” made the difference in 2016. But prosecutors don’t have to prove that it did — they just have to show that Trump was a part of a #conspiracy to aid his victory.

#law

Justice #Merchan thanks the #jurors for their patience & flexibility as he dismisses them for a 20-min break. Then, after they leave the room, he tells the lawyers, “they look pretty alert to me” & says that he will seek to finish closing arguments today — likely sometime in the evening, people are saying 7PM-ish. (My fingers are not thrilled)

#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics

In the break #Trump posted “BORING!” & “FILIBUSTER” (separately. Also no such thing as filibuster in a court of #law).

#Steinglass says that after the #conspiracy to #influence the election & getting elected, #Trump still had to ensure no one found out “but here’s the problem, #MichaelCohen was out $130k.”

Steinglass says Trump couldn’t just write Cohen a check, & jurors should make no mistake: While Cohen wanted a head pat from his boss, “he also wanted his money back.”

#TrumpTrial

#Steinglass discusses Jan 2017, the month #Trump was inaugurated. He describes a meeting between #MichaelCohen & #AllenWeisselberg who Cohen testified had made the arrangements to reimburse Cohen for the #HushMoney. “Right on the bank statement, Weisselberg & Cohen calculated all the money that was owed to Cohen,” Steinglass says.

[this IS literal. The notes are written by hand on the wire transfer statement, #exhibit35]
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference

#Steinglass highlights #MichaelCohen’s testimony implicating #Trump in the charged #crimes. He shows jurors, using highlighted transcript pages, Cohen’s testimony that Trump not only approved the arrangement but was aware that the reimbursements would be classified as payments for #legal services.

Steinglass reminds jurors of the key role #AllenWeisselberg played for Trump. Weisselberg worked for Trump's father, #FredTrump, at the original #TrumpOrganization.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial

#Steinglass refers to exhibits that #JeffreyMcConney, a longtime loyal #Trump employee, testified about: #AllenWeisselberg’s notes setting up the repayments.

Steinglass refers to these exhibits as “the smoking guns” of the prosecution’s argument, saying they “completely blow out of the water the claim the money paid to Cohen” was for legal services.

(see above exhibit 35)
link:
https://ww2.nycourts.gov/press/index.shtml
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference

Press Center - Home | NYCOURTS.GOV

Cases in the NewsPeople v Allen WeisselbergPeople v Donald J. Trump (Civil)People v Donald J. Trump (Criminal):

#Steinglass is now focused on the“gross-up” of the amount that #MichaelCohen was paid for tax purposes. Legitimate legal fees are not “grossed up.”

Steinglass reminds the jury that #JeffreyMcConney, the fmr controller of the #TrumpOrganization, testified that in 50 yrs he was never aware of a payment being doubled for taxes. He then argues that this gross-up was made because the reimbursement was disguised as income.

#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #ElectionInterference

#Steinglass acknowledges that nearly every relevant piece of evidence in the trial suggests that #Trump would be reluctant to overpay for anything. But, Steinglass says, “it was worth it” to the newly elected president. “It was worth it to hide the truth about what this money was really for.”

Also you gotta think the #MichaelCohen extra costs were factored into the agreed upon figure to #StormyDaniels.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference

#Steinglass puts his own spin on one of the defense’s #ClosingArguments, that the existence at the #TrumpOrganization of financial documents related to the charged #crimes shows that they were not crimes.

“You almost have to laugh at the way Mr. #Blanche explained it to you,” he says. “They would have destroyed evidence — committed another crime — to hide this crime, but because they didn’t do that, & these documents exist” that’s evidence that there was no crime.

#law #Trump #TrumpTrial

If that logic held, no charge of falsifying business records would ever be successful because “The existence of the false business record in the first place would prove there was no intent to defraud.” Then, #Steinglass asks, concluding his point, “doesn’t that seem a little bit circular to you?”

#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

#Blanche tried to make the fact that #MichaelCohen didn’t remember how much he was owed each month for the reimbursements into a suspicious thing. But #Steinglass says it demonstrates that there was no retainer agreement, & that the knowledge & the math was then in the hands of #Trump’s employees.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference

#Steinglass addresses Blanche’s earlier point that #MichaelCohen did other #legal work for #Trump in 2017. He argues that Cohen did <10 hrs of legal work that year & says Cohen spent more time being cross-examined during this trial than he spent doing legal work in 2017.

Steinglass argues that, if the defense's arguments that Cohen was being paid for legal services held up, Trump would have ended up paying Cohen at a rate that would have added up to >$100M annually.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial

#Steinglass notes that #Trump himself has, several times in several places, “admitted” that the payments to #MichaelCohen were reimbursements, not payments for #legal services. This might not be a devastating argument for the defense if they’d proposed an alternative theory of the case. But instead they argued the $420k sent to Cohen was in fact a payment for legal services, so these admissions from Trump himself are not good for him.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #conspiracy #ElectionInterference

Steinglass shows Trump’s filing w/the federal government’s Office of Government #Ethics in May 2018 that revealed #Trump had made a payment to #MichaelCohen. The filing came days after #RudyGiuliani said on #FoxNews that Trump had reimbursed Cohen for the #StormyDaniels payment.

#Blanche cited this same filing as #evidence that Trump had no #intent to #defraud.

“The defendant didn’t actually pay a lawyer, he paid a porn star by funneling money through a lawyer” Steinglass says.

#TrumpTrial

#Steinglass says that defense is arguing that #AllenWeisselberg & #MichaelCohen assumed authority over large amounts of #Trump’s money. “That’s crazy,” Steinglass says. “Neither one had anywhere near that kind of authority.”

Steinglass attacks defense’s “false narrative” about #Trump not attending to his finances after he became president. He notes an assistant in the #WhiteHouse, #MadeleineWesterhout, testified Trump paid extremely close attention to his personal finances.

#law #TrumpTrial

#Steinglass revisits the passages of #Trump’s books which were read to the jury during the trial. Trump described himself as a frugal micromanager who advised always looking at & questioning invoices.

In one excerpt, Trump said that while decorators are generally good people, you should be very careful checking their invoices. “If Donald Trump is checking the invoices for his decorator, you can bet that he’s checking the invoices for #MichaelCohen,” Steinglass says.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial

More quotes from #Trump's books:

“No detail is too small to consider” &, after talking about his preference for personally signing checks “When you sign a check yourself, you’re seeing what’s really going on inside your business.”

Steinglass points jurors to testimony from #HopeHicks, in which Hicks said that Trump had expressed it “would have been bad” to have the #StormyDaniels story come out before the election.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial

#Steinglass describes evidence from Feb 2018.

Jurors are showing signs of fatigue.

When Steinglass talks about the the #TrumpOrganization, he says “In New York state, bottom line, you cannot lie in your business records.”

There’s a sidebar on the schedule for the remainder of the day.

As Steinglass leaves he asks jurors directly if they’re good to go a bit longer. Some must have said they could, because he is continuing .

#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial

#Steinglass is now in hour 5 of his closing (including breaks).

Steinglass is telling the prosecution’s theory w/a strong narrative. Blanche’s didn’t; his version was, everyone’s a liar & out to get #Trump.

Steinglass reviews evidence from spring 2018, when #MichaelCohen was under investigation & beginning to question his loyalty to Trump. He argues that, whatever jurors think of Cohen, “he was the defendant’s fixer, & like all fixers, he knew where the bodies were buried.”

#law #TrumpTrial

Prosecutors have argued that a lawyer named #RobertCostello was dispatched to keep #MichaelCohen loyal. Costello was the only substantive witness called by the defense, & his appearance was nutso 🦇💩

#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/20/nyregion/trump-hush-money-trial-robert-costello.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

Who Is Robert Costello, a Defense Witness in Trump’s Hush-Money Trial?

Mr. Costello tried to cast Michael D. Cohen, the witness at the heart of the prosecution’s case, as a liar, but the judge lost his patience with the witness.

The New York Times

#Steinglass moves to #MichaelCohen’s guilty plea to federal crimes. When #Hoffinger questioned Cohen about the pleas, she asked if he’d committed #crimes at Trump’s behest. Cohen said that he had.

Steinglass reads portions of that testimony aloud, before pivoting to #Trump’s tweets blasting Cohen right after he pleaded guilty.

Steinglass argues the tweets were a message to other witnesses. “Cooperate, & you will face the wrath of Donald Trump.”

#TrumpTrial #law

#Steinglass again reads passages of obe of Trump’s books, in which he wrote that he can’t stomach disloyalty. Steinglass argues that #Trump disparages #witnesses who speak out against him in order to discourage other witnesses from coming forward.

Steinglass reads a Truth Social post of Trump’s from Aug 2023, in which he wrote in all capital letters: “if you go after me, I”m coming after you.”

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #WitnessIntimidation #StochasticTerrorism #MobTactics

#Steinglass continues the argument on #WitnessIntimidation, noting that #Trump attacked #StormyDaniels on social media the same day she had an interview w/the Manhattan DA’s office. Steinglass argues that the post contains a lie — in it, Trump said that he hadn’t seen or spoken to Daniels since meeting her on a golf course in 2006.

Steinglass says that the jury knows it to be a lie because #RhonaGraff, Trump’s loyal asst, testified that Daniels had met w/Trump at Trump Tower.

#law #TrumpTrial

#Steinglass: “Ask yourselves, why did the defendant lie about this & why did he do it while the grand jury was considering charges in this case?”

Steinglass asks why, if #Trump simply had a business relationship w/ #StormyDaniels, he attacked her in March 2023 when she made public that she had appeared before the grand jury.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics

With the jury out of the room, the prosecution & defense argue about whether #Steinglass can talk about #StormyDaniels’s state of mind.

Justice #Merchan hears the lawyers out & sides w/the defense, telling Steinglass that he’s gone as far as he needs to go in talking about Daniels being #intimidated by Trump, & that no further argument to that effect need be made.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics

Break over. Justice #Merchan thanks the jurors for their flexibility & calls #Steinglass back to the lectern. Before they returned, the judge told Steinglass that he needed to wrap up — at least for the day — by 8PM (wuh?). If he does not conclude by then, it sounded as if it was possible that Steinglass would have to conclude tomorrow.

Wonder how the #NodFarter aka #Trump will hold up…

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics

#Steinglass, who had stuck to a chronological timeline, goes back to 2016 to connect #Trump to each element that prosecutors say is a #crime. He argues that David #Pecker corroborated the idea that #MichaelCohen had kept Trump up to date on the #HushMoney payments at every step. Cohen, Steinglass says, “is not some rogue actor here.”

Steinglass talks about the infamous tape of Trump & Micahel Cohen discussing the payment to #KarenMcDougal.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial

Blanche pointed out that #MichaelCohen secretly taped #Trump & other people, raising questions about why he’d record his own client.

Redirect addressed it neatly, Cohen said he made it to prove to McDougal’s atty that Trump would come through.

Steinglass now has to guide jurors through some of the most important parts of his argument to drive home key points.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics

#Steinglass says there’s no reason to believe that #MichaelCohen didn’t alert #Trump to #StormyDaniels’s story in early Oct 2016.

He reviews the evidence from that month that corroborates Cohen’s testimony, including his calls w/Trump.

Steinglass rhetorically asks, “Is this timing just all a coincidence, every single one of these things?” Then says, “Mr. Trump is being kept abreast of every development.”

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference

#Steinglass highlights other key testimony, including #HopeHicks's remarks that it would have been “out of character” for #MichaelCohen to have made that payment out of the kindness of his heart — meaning, without approval from #Trump.

Steinglass is linking Trump to each & every action that prosecutors say led to the #crime, the falsification of 34 business records related to the #HushMoney payment to #StormyDaniels.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference

#Steinglass began prosecution’s closing arguments at around 2:07 PM ET.

Steinglass takes jurors through Trump’s own words in 2018, when he described the payments to #MichaelCohen as “reimbursements.”

Steinglass displays a tweet from #Trump, but he also said it in a #FoxNews interview that summer.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference

#Steinglass reviews the case for what may be the final time, starting w/the #Trump Tower meeting. So this is an abridged version of his already abridged timeline, reducing the case down to its key elements.

Steinglass presents the very many moments at which Trump spoke to key players in this series of events around the #StormyDaniels payment.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference

#Steinglass makes a specific argument — that #MichaelCohen wasn’t just freelancing, as the #Trump lawyers have suggested repeatedly trying to distance Trump from the events in the case. It’s a microcosm of scenarios we’ve seen over & over w/Trump for decades.
#SEC investigators are told that staffers made mistakes, or reporters are told Trump was never really involved in specific controversies & aides actually had.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference

#Steinglass offers 3 rebuttals of the defense’s argument that #MichaelCohen acted on
his own, without Trump’s knowledge.

1. #Trump was a micromanager who was directly involved w/the details both of his business and his political campaign.

2. Cohen was & is a self-promoter & it “defies all common sense” that he’d undertake these extensive efforts on behalf of Trump & keep it to himself.

3. Trump was the only one who would have benefitted from the scheme.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial

#Steinglass says that #MichaelCohen just wanted to be reimbursed & had no reason to push for creating false business records. “The defendant was the beneficiary of this entire scheme,” Steinglass says. “He was the one trying to get elected.”

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference

#Steinglass tells the jurors that thejudge will explain reasonable doubt to them and & them to listen carefully. He reminds them of the concept of #AccessorialLiability: That a person who directs someone to commit a #crime is equally guilty of that crime. Steinglass brings up his preferred analogy for this, the husband who hires a hitman to kill his wife. The defense objects & the judge sustains it: It is his role to explain the #law, not Steinglass’s.

#criminal #TrumpTrial #Trump

#Steinglass again shows the jury People’s Exhibit 350, a chart created by the prosecutors that summarizes the 34 counts. Earlier, Steinglass specifically called out this exhibit & told the jury that they could request to see this document during their deliberations. It will be interesting to see if they take him up on that when they start to deliberate tomorrow.

Steinglass says the prosecution presented a “mountain of evidence” related to its theory of the #Trump Tower #conspiracy.

#TrumpTrial

#Steinglass says that #Trump’s #intent to #defraud could not be any clearer, arguing that Trump could have simply paid #StormyDaniels himself, but instead devised an elaborate scheme to pay Daniels secretly that required the involvement of at least 10 other people. “Everything Mr. Trump & his cohorts did in this case was cloaked in lies,” Steinglass says, adding, “The name of the game was concealment, & all roads lead to the man who benefited the most, Donald Trump.”

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial

#Steinglass says that the evidence is overwhelming & that while #Trump is a former president, the #law applies to him the same as it does to everyone else.

Specifically, Steinglass invokes Trump’s infamous line about being able to shoot someone on Fifth Avenue & get away with it, saying that he in fact can’t. Blanche objects, & Merchan sustains it.

Trump shakes his head as Steinglass says this line.

#criminal #TrumpTrial

#Steinglass says that soon it will be time to deliberate and that the jurors should return & find #Trump guilty on all 34 counts against him. He asks that, in the interest of #justice & the state of #NewYork, the jurors find Trump guilty. He thanks the jurors for their time & he’s done.

#ClosingArguments have ended in the first #criminal trial of an American president.

Tomorrow, the jury will receive instructions on the #law from the judge, & then begin their deliberations.

#TrumpTrial

Also there’s #Exhibit36, in which #JeffMcConney describes in McConney’s own handwritten notes based on a conversation he had w/ #AllenWeisselberg. He testified #Exhibit35 contains on the left-hand side, Allen Weisselberg’s handwriting. McConney said, I know it’s his handwriting because I’ve worked w/him for 35 yrs.

#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

@Nonilex Big mad baby is gonna finally lose. I want to see him in Jail but I don't think the judge will do that because of the political implications. What he might do, if it's allowed, is ban him from fundraising for a period of time, say, for the next 5 years.

@chris @Nonilex
I don't know what the appeals process might be like, but it wouldn't much surprise me if the jury finds Trump guilty of election interference that the judge will order him to go straight to jail since he's still trying to commit the same crime and he's a danger to society.

It won't surprise me if that doesn't happen either.

@Nonilex

Tell it to the judge and jury, MFer. Oh, wait, you declined to do that...

@Nonilex Didn't #Trump waive the dependence on counsel defense a very long time ago...since it would have required him to testify? Did I get that right? It seems Trump is the one deranged, not DeNiro... TY for all you do. It was so helpful to have you do the play-by-play today while @GottaLaff was traveling.
@Nonilex
Thanks for all the great reporting. Very much appreciated. 👍🏼

@Nonilex By god he's pathetic.

You have a defence lawyer, Donny; he didn't want you to testify because you are hopelessly compromised.

@Nonilex he don't seem very happy. I wonder why.

@Nonilex
Such a whiney crying lying baby. He is just incapable of learning. Once he decides something is fact, nothing will change that, ever. He did assimilate the fact that an advice of counsel defense was a thing. He saw it as a get out of jail card and decided it was applicable.

Cohen was not his atty; crime fraud exception; defendant must testify -
none of that matters to him.

Like a defective roomba, he will just keep bumping into that wall over and over...

UNFAIR!

@Nonilex he was absolutely allowed to use the “on advice of counsel” defense but it would generated a lot of evidence he might not want revealed. His own attorneys made this decision up front in the case. But TFG is eternally aggrieved so this makes much more noise this way, and riles up his legally (and otherwise) ignorant base.
@Nonilex thanks for the great play-by-play today. Much appreciated 🙂
@Nonilex Thank you for your epic job today - it's much appreciated!
@Nonilex epic thread!! No rest some, you definitely deserve it!!
@Nonilex
Thank you for your work sharing this trial. I do wish it had been televised.
@Nonilex Thank you!! Outstanding job today!

@Nonilex You've undoubtedly received hundreds of "Thank You" notifications. You deserve them.

I'm going to predict a verdict on Tuesday. On TV, I heard a prediction of Friday due to "Friday Effect" but I think with the weight of this case, even jurors who are leaning "guilty" from the start will want to be very careful. I would.

So I predict Tuesday, and I *hope* for a verdict of guilty on all charges.

#TrumpTrial

@Nonilex I like the reference to the state of NY. The city has wanted rid of the guy for ages, so it should motivate them to think "enough of this guy's crap - time for some consequences."
@Nonilex Thank you so much for your excellent summaries!!!!
@Nonilex By itself, the conclusion of closing arguments in the #felony #trial of #trump today is a cause for celebration! The case is now with a jury composed of people a lot like us and their decision will be further demonstration of the power of law over individuals. Take a breath, enjoy the moment, and make a memory.

@Nonilex Thank you as always for the play-by-play.

Now I suppose we wait.

@Nonilex

Thank you for your diligent coverage of the LONG days closing arguments! You do an AMAZING job!

#trump #trumptrial

@Nonilex Ouch. You are on the one inch line, man. Don’t fumble now!
@Nonilex
I’m getting worried that the prosecution made a strategic mistake in trying to get through all of this material today. I’ve sat on a jury and going overtime is awful. It’s really hard to stay engaged and enthusiastic.
@Nonilex Thank you for doing this!