NEW: We’re done with day 1 of Trump’s first criminal trial, and while we’ve got a ways to go, the prospective jurors include a “bookseller,” an oncology nurse, an assistant Bronx County DA, and a woman from Fanduel, the sports betting site.
But after the potential jurors are gone, the fireworks start after Blanche asks Merchan to allow Trump to attend the SCOTUS argument on presidential immunity next Thursday, 4/25. This is the first time they have made that request, I believe.
The Manhattan DA’s office opposes the request, saying they have accommodated Trump’s schedule enough. Merchan acknowledges a Supreme Court argument is a “big deal,” but says that the jury’s time is a big deal too.
That’s when Blanche says they don’t think they should be here at all, meaning it’s their view the trial never should have been scheduled during campaign season.
That comment appeared to trigger Merchan, who asked, voice dripping with incredulity, “You don’t think you should be here at all?”
Merchan then softly asked Blanche to move along from that objection, on which he noted has already ruled. But then he got stern, ruling that Trump is not required to be at SCOTUS but is required, by law, to attend his criminal trial here in NY.
The bottom line? You might be a former president with a pending Supreme Court case, but when a state criminal trial beckons, federalism’s a knife.
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NEW: When Michael Cohen testified in the New York attorney general’s civil fraud trial on 10/24 and 10/25/23, he testified that in pleading guilty to federal tax evasion charges, he had lied to spare his family. But asked about that episode Tuesday, Cohen was more nuanced. 1/
Specifically, Cohen acknowledged that in October, he testified he lied in federal court when he pleaded guilty to tax evasion and bank fraud. 2/
Yet he tried to explain that testimony, noting he took responsibility because “the underlying fact he never disputed” and that he pleaded guilty to protect his wife. That doesn’t quite explain why he testified he lied in pleading to those counts—something he has said publicly too. 3/
NEW: In August 2018, Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to causing American Media’s unlawful campaign contribution to Trump and to making an unlawful contribution of his own through the Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels payments respectively. 1/
And during his plea allocution — the process by which a pleading defendant takes responsibility for his crimes — Cohen said he acted not only “in coordination with” but “at the direction of” one Donald Trump. 2/
And that’s the crux of what the prosecution needs from Cohen (and can’t get from anyone else) as they wrap up their case as soon as this week: how, when, and why Trump expressly directed Cohen to ensure McDougal and Stormy’s stories stayed buried. 3/
NEW: At the end of today's abbreviated court day, Team Trump and the DA's office squared off about the most glaringly absent witness: former Trump Org. CFO (and two-time convict) Allen Weisselberg. 1/
By charging Weisselberg with perjury in connection with his testimony in the New York AG's civil fraud case, the DA basically made Weisselberg's testimony in this case a non-starter, leaving Cohen unrebutted, even if still vulnerable on cross, with respect to critical events. 2/
But the DA now has a problem of a different order: Sure, Weisselberg won't be called as a defense witness, but he looms large in the repayment scheme & the related cover-up. And without some explanation, the jury could hold his absence against the prosecution. 3/
I’ve heard a number of people refer to the Stormy Daniels testimony as “graphic,” and as a person who embarrasses easily, that’s not how I experienced it. 1/
Yes, there was a stray detail that I expect prosecutors and the defense alike wish she hadn’t said. But her description of the sexual encounter itself was brief and largely devoid of details. 2/
But even if it was not graphic, her testimony was vivid. The black and white tile on the floor of the foyer of Trump’s penthouse suite. Her hands shaking as she put her strappy gold heels back on. The Pert Plus, Old Spice, and gold tweezers she saw when snooping around the bathroom. 3/
NEW: The ongoing Trump criminal trial is the fourth Trump trial in the last 12 months—and it’s my fourth too. And after watching dozens of witnesses, I’m afraid the more they change, the more things stay the same. 1/
I’ve watched a nearly 80-year-old E. Jean Carroll, who successfully accused Trump of sexual assault and defamation, fend off the implication that she was lying because she never called the police and didn’t tell her story for two decades plus. 2/
And now I’ve seen an adult film star more comfortable with her stage name than her given one similarly attacked for not calling the police or telling those closest to her after she was threatened in a parking lot 7 years before she went public with her whole story. 3/
NEW: How do you prove a defendant caused others to make false business records where those with direct knowledge of his intent and involvement are limited to the defendant, a man now in jail for perjury, and Michael Cohen? 1/
You surround Michael Cohen’s expected testimony with a mountain of circumstantial evidence, an already substantial pile to which prosecutors just added excerpts from Trump’s books How to Get Rich and Think Like a Billionaire. 2/
Those excerpts reveal Trump as a micromanager who advised never taking one’s eyes off his checkbook, advertised he negotiated the price of everything “down to the paper clips,” trusted Weisselberg wholly, and boasted that he even loved signing checks. 3/