NY: Convicted Felon Donald Trump!

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/frankrunyeon/status/1791576159496335807
Paywall-free article: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/complaint-dismissed-against-trump-hush-money-judge-who-donated-biden-2024-05-17/

Who care?

If we as a country want to start holding our judges to the standards they ought to be held to right now, I heartily support the idea. Marchant can and should resign immediately, along with Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kennedy, and Coney Barrett, among many others.

[emailking]

I don't think not making political contributions is a standard he ought to be held to.

[Badger]

I will be ignoring this matter just like I did with the millions Clarence Thomas got from his billionaire friends with cases before the SCOTUS.

Well, you're both not that incisive so not unexpected, and also Australian so it doesn't matter. So there's that.

[emailking]

Lawyer preparation suggests Trump won’t testify in New York trial
Awaiting final word from the mercurial defendant, the judge is proceeding as if Trump will not take the stand.

After brashly declaring he wanted to testify in his criminal trial, it appears increasingly unlikely that Donald Trump will do so, as the jury seems poised to hear closing arguments next week.

Defendants rarely testify in their own defense, because their lawyers advise them that the risks of doing so, particularly when it comes to being questioned by prosecutors under oath, are simply too great.

Even so, defense attorneys often try to hold out until the last possible minute to say whether their client will testify, hoping to keep prosecutors guessing.

...

Four people close to the former president said next week’s plan does not include him testifying, and they expect the jury to start deliberating later in the week. Trump is famously mercurial and could always demand to testify, some of these people said, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations. Todd Blanche, a lawyer for Trump, declined to comment.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/05/18/trump-trial-testifying/


Not a surprise, but it's still his decision to make and he insisted on testifying in 2 recent civil trials.

[brucejoel99]

Jonathan Alter reporting the trial will convene early at 8:45 tomorrow morning rather than the usual 9:30 so that Merchan can squeeze in as much as possible of what's left (Cohen's cross & redirect, the charge conference, summations, & jury instructions) to ensure that the deliberations can begin by Thursday at the latest, before the Memorial Day weekend starts.

[Joe Republic]

Trump is guaranteed to perjure himself multiple times, so not testifying is strategically the best move for him.

[mjba257]

The charging conference will be critical. If it's decided that the judge will instruct the jury on misdemeanor business record falsification, that completely changes what the final outcome could be. There is too much reasonable doubt in the prosecutions theory of an underlying crime, but the evidence for business record falsification is much stronger. In essence, this would be a fail safe for them, because right now, the odds are strong for a hung jury on the felony counts. A misdemeanor, OTOH, provides an easy out for jurors who really hate Trump but who don't think the facts support a felony conviction. With a misdemeanor conviction, the prosecution can still hang their hats on something, and that's better than a hung jury or an outright acquittal.

[Yoda]

Trump is guaranteed to perjure himself multiple times, so not testifying is strategically the best move for him.

If he lies, yeh. If he tells the truth, he incriminates himself. All this press coverage acting as if there was ever a chance in hell he would testify is silly. He's a coward. He's never, ever, ever going to testify.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Trial has convened a bit early today to deal with some evidentiary issues.  The judge says they won't be able to get to summation tomorrow, so it looks like it will be next week.

[emailking]

Won't they just get to summation on Thursday then? Or you mean deliberations will be next week?

[GeorgiaModerate]

Won't they just get to summation on Thursday then? Or you mean deliberations will be next week?

The reporters on Twitter say the judge said that they'll wrap up evidence this week and move to summation on Tuesday.  He probably doesn't want to have the holiday weekend to break up deliberations.

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/normeisen/status/1792541026155950267

Won't they just get to summation on Thursday then? Or you mean deliberations will be next week?

The reporters on Twitter say the judge said that they'll wrap up evidence this week and move to summation on Tuesday.  He probably doesn't want to have the holiday weekend to break up deliberations.

Yep, Merchan wants no break whatsoever between summations, jury instructions, & the start of deliberations.

[mjba257]

https://twitter.com/normeisen/status/1792541026155950267

Won't they just get to summation on Thursday then? Or you mean deliberations will be next week?

The reporters on Twitter say the judge said that they'll wrap up evidence this week and move to summation on Tuesday.  He probably doesn't want to have the holiday weekend to break up deliberations.

Yep, Merchan wants no break whatsoever between summations, jury instructions, & the start of deliberations.

That makes since. I was on a grand jury once and it was right around Labor Day and we were hearing a pretty major case and testimony had started on Friday, then we adjourned and returned Tuesday and everyone had to have their memories refreshed, which i'm sure was a pain for the prosecution.

[emailking]

Evidence that Cohen stole from Trump Org. a "bomb dropped in the middle of the prosecution's case"

CNN legal analyst Elie Honig described revelations from Monday that Donald Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen stole from the company as a "bomb dropped right in the middle of the prosecution's case."

During the ongoing cross-examination, it was revealed that Cohen stole tens of thousands of dollars from the Trump organization.

CNN's Laura Coates said she was surprised this evidence was coming out on the third day of Cohen’s testimony, and that the prosecution did not get on the front foot to “take the sting out” when it had a chance during direct examination.

“We’re talking about 420,000 – it’s not 15 bucks,” Coates said.

...

Some context: In court today, it was revealed that Cohen gave RedFinch $20,000 and kept $30,000 for himself.

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-hush-money-trial-05-20-24/index.html


I don't know how true or significant this is. Maybe something that can be clarified in redirect?

[brucejoel99]

Evidence that Cohen stole from Trump Org. a "bomb dropped in the middle of the prosecution's case"

CNN legal analyst Elie Honig described revelations from Monday that Donald Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen stole from the company as a "bomb dropped right in the middle of the prosecution's case."

During the ongoing cross-examination, it was revealed that Cohen stole tens of thousands of dollars from the Trump organization.

CNN's Laura Coates said she was surprised this evidence was coming out on the third day of Cohen’s testimony, and that the prosecution did not get on the front foot to “take the sting out” when it had a chance during direct examination.

“We’re talking about 420,000 – it’s not 15 bucks,” Coates said.

...

Some context: In court today, it was revealed that Cohen gave RedFinch $20,000 and kept $30,000 for himself.

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-hush-money-trial-05-20-24/index.html


I don't know how true or significant this is. Maybe something that can be clarified in redirect?

He already admitted to this on direct when he testified to begin with that he only paid RedFinch $20K of their owed $50K because he was still hurt by his bonus reduction & so skimmed what he felt he could (without burning his bridge with RedFinch) off the top in retaliation.

Also contradictory for the defense:

https://twitter.com/klasfeldreports/status/1792589970948882839

[emailking]

My brain is having trouble parsing that X post lol.

I'll take your word for it.

[brucejoel99]

The D.A. is currently attempting to introduce into evidence pictures of Trump with Schiller at the time of the latter's Oct. 24th 8:02pm 96-sec. phone call with Cohen to rebut Blanche's attempted implication that the call was only about dealing with a 14-year-old prank caller. Cohen still maintains that the phone was handed over at some point during the 96-sec. call to Trump, at which point they discussed Stormy.

[wbrocks67]

The more evidence that corroborates Cohen's testimony, the better

https://twitter.com/JoyceWhiteVance/status/1792599717777453126

[GeorgiaModerate]

Lawyer preparation suggests Trump won’t testify in New York trial
Awaiting final word from the mercurial defendant, the judge is proceeding as if Trump will not take the stand.

After brashly declaring he wanted to testify in his criminal trial, it appears increasingly unlikely that Donald Trump will do so, as the jury seems poised to hear closing arguments next week.

Defendants rarely testify in their own defense, because their lawyers advise them that the risks of doing so, particularly when it comes to being questioned by prosecutors under oath, are simply too great.

Even so, defense attorneys often try to hold out until the last possible minute to say whether their client will testify, hoping to keep prosecutors guessing.

...

Four people close to the former president said next week’s plan does not include him testifying, and they expect the jury to start deliberating later in the week. Trump is famously mercurial and could always demand to testify, some of these people said, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations. Todd Blanche, a lawyer for Trump, declined to comment.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/05/18/trump-trial-testifying/


Not a surprise, but it's still his decision to make and he insisted on testifying in 2 recent civil trials.

But he didn't actually testify in them, did he?  Or am I misremembering?

[emailking]

But he didn't actually testify in them, did he?  Or am I misremembering?

I believe he testified in one of the Carroll trials and he tried to testify in the civil fraud trial (just started ranting from his desk) and the judge cut him off after a couple minutes because he wasn't staying in the parameters he was allowed to testify about.

[soundchaser]

Seems like Merchan is going to call the witness back. Annoying in the short term, but hopefully prevents any issues on appeal.

[wbrocks67]

Shocking

https://twitter.com/eorden/status/1792621983122751942

[emailking]

Apparently the judge is not going to allow the photo to come in, hmm.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Apparently the judge is not going to allow the photo to come in, hmm.

Not without the CSPAN archivist to verify its date and time.  But they're trying to bring him back tomorrow morning.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Shocking

https://twitter.com/eorden/status/1792621983122751942

Least surprising development of the trial.  I wonder if we'll get someone in a chicken suit outside the courthouse tomorrow.