The case is tied up in efforts by Trump’s attys to have the charges against him dismissed before they go to trial. To that end, the attys have filed a barrage of motions attacking the #indictment on a number of grounds. Those include claims that #JackSmith was improperly appointed to his job & that he filed the charges as part of a politicized effort to harm #Trump. [aka the “I’m a victim” defense]
The case has been frozen… since early Dec as a series of courts in Washington have considered an expansive & novel (BS) claim he has raised in his own defense: that he is #immune to all of the charges in the #indictment because he claims they arose from ofcl acts as president.
Tues 29 May 2024 🧵
Good morning! It’s the last day of the #TrumpTrial before jury #deliberations.
Today Justice #Merchan will give #JuryInstructions. Then they will discuss the case among themselves for the first time; they have not been allowed to even discuss it w/each other as yet.
Closing arguments took place yesterday, & the lawyers will have no further opportunity to address the jurors before they determine whether #Trump is #guilty or not guilty of 34 felonies.
"I don't even know what the charges are in this rigged case — I am entitled to specificity just like anyone else. There is no crime!"
Besides the fact that the #charges were all in the #indictment the grand jury approved over a year ago on 30 March 2023 & was delivered to him & his attys, but besides that, Judge #Merchan just read the damn charges in great detail while Trump was sitting there.
If you think it's wild that #Nauta pointed up at security cameras in footage because he and #trump talked about how to avoid them, wait until you read the #indictment and learn that trump also asked nauta to delete the earlier footage after #MerrickGarland served a #subpoena for the tapes.
Cross-examination of #MichaelCohen resumes, an opportunity for the defense to poke holes in his testimony & perhaps trip up or provoke the state’s key witness. The questioning of Cohen, #Trump’s fmr fixer, is the beginning of the end of Trump’s #criminal trial, which began April 15 & might conclude before Memorial Day weekend at this pace.
#MichaelCohen says that he learned that #Trump was indicted before the #indictment was unsealed in the courtroom, when NYT broke that news in 2023. He says Rosenberg alerted him to that article.
Blanche’s point here seems to be that Rosenberg, the investigator, did something inappropriate, alerting Cohen to the fact that the indictment had been handed up. But NYT broke that news widely before the indictment was unsealed.
#Blanche plays a 2nd clip of #MichaelCohen from his podcast, in which he says he hopes “that this man ends up in prison,” & “revenge is a dish best served cold,” & “you better believe I want this man to go down & rot inside for what he did to me & my family.”
Blanche asks Cohen if he believes his podcasts & media interviews played a role in #Trump's #indictment. “I took some credit, yes,” he says.
After the break, prosecutors are arguing that #Blanche, early in his questioning, asked questions that seemed to suggest that #Trump's #indictment was still sealed on March 30. The indictment was unsealed that evening, after NYT broke the news. The unsealing allowed the DA’s office to confirm that the news was true.
Prosecutors ask Justice #Merchan to explain this sequence to the jury. Merchan agrees that the jury should be advised.
The prosecution asks that the defense be precluded from asking #StormyDaniels whether she was arrested. Justice #Merchan agrees w/the prosecutors, saying that “anybody can be arrested” & that it “doesn’t prove anything.”
The people call Stormy Daniels back to the stand
#Trump atty #Necheles begins questioning by saying that in 2011, Daniels denied having had sex w/Trump.
#StormyDaniels continued to insult #Trump up until the end of her cross-examination, at one point even questioning which #indictment of his #Necheles was referring to. She quipped: "There were a lot of indictments."
The defense moved it to strike that comment from the record, but the judge said no: he said Daniels's testimony had been responsive to the questioning.
[NYTimes]: As we mentioned earlier today, this is going to be a tricky cross-examination for the defense lawyer, Emil Bove, especially with a vulnerable witness. And Hope Hicks just began to cry. By Jonah Bromwich
[NYTimes]: Hope Hicks is now describing the initial Wall Street Journal article about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels. She says she cannot recall certain facts about this period, including a conversation with Michael Cohen. But she says if the prosecution has something to refresh her memory, she is willing to look at it. She has gotten considerably more nervous-looking again, clenching her jaw and stumbling a bit in her speech.
Its getting heated.. [NYTimes]: We know this, but it’s still amazing to hear Hope Hicks say it aloud: During the period where she was texting with Michael Cohen about the Wall Street Journal story and the damage it could potentially cause, the presidential election was three days away. Jonah Bromwich
[NYTimes]: Hope Hicks refers to Trump as “Mr. Trump.” Notably, she says she’s paying for her own lawyer. She says the last time she spoke to Trump was in the summer or fall of 2022.By Maggie Haberman
Cuellar’s home & campaign office in Laredo, Texas, were raided in Jan 2022 as part of a federal investigation into #Azerbaijan & a group of US businessmen who have ties to the country. His office had pledged to cooperate w/the investigation.
#HenryCuellar, 66, a #lawyer, is a fmr #customs broker & #Texas secretary of state. A member of the #centrist “Blue Dogs” & New Democrat Coalition, Cuellar was first elected to the House in 2004.
[NYTimes]: A report from this witness, Douglas Daus, shows that one of Cohen’s phones had 39,745 contacts — a very large number, he noted. By Alan Feuer
[NYTimes]: To catch you up during the lunch break, Trump’s legal team spent the past hour grilling Keith Davidson, a lawyer who represented two women who said they had sexual encounters with Trump and received hush-money payments. One of Trump’s lawyers, Emil Bove, repeatedly suggested that Davidson was a dishonest, unethical lawyer whose career of helping his clients get hush money from celebrities was tantamount to extortion...
[NYTimes]: The prosecutor, Joshua Steinglass, is really bearing down on Keith Davidson, grilling him on how Stormy Daniels’s denials could have been thought to be true. It’s a really important point to highlight for jurors — and to make as memorable as possible — again to take the wind out of the sails of any argument by the defense that Daniels denied her encounter with Trump. By Jonah Bromwich
READ: Here is the 58-page indictment by Arizona attorney general Kris Mayes of Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, John Eastman, Mark Meadows and at least seven other Republicans in a fake electors scheme in Arizona in the 2020 presidential election.
Alright, who’s ready to see #Trump get his just deserts? He fucked up the whole damn world & that’s not an overstatement.
PS #BabySquirrel & I had a lovely weekend. It’s as boy! (He’s developed discernible - stuff)
He is doing quite well! Name: “Ramone” because he’s a sweet little punk rocker.
I got 20 fake Internet points on this person having ACTUAL Trump derangement syndrome.
“A man appeared to light himself on fire outside a New York City courthouse on Friday where a jury was being chosen for the criminal trial of former President Donald Trump, according to multiple reports.”