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.
Justice #Merchan says that there’s no formula for evaluating someone’s truthfulness, & that a person brings to the process all their varied experiences. “In life,” he says, “you frequently decide the truthfulness & accuracy of statements made to you by other people.” He tells the #jurors to use the same factors they draw on outside of court when evaluating testimony in the case.
Lots of evidence per the disguised monetary transactions related to the #KarenMcDougal deal. But most of the #jurors are still paying close attention, turning their heads from the prosecutor, Joshua #Steinglass, to the #witness, #Pecker, & back again.
#Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection w/a #HushMoney payment made to a porn star to influence the 2016 election. The case could be in the jury’s hands as early as Wed.
Before he concluded, #Blanche asked that #jurors not send his client to #prison. Now, w/the jury excused, Joshua #Steinglass, who will give prosecution’s closing argument, stands up & objects.
“That was a blatant & wholly inappropriate effort to call sympathy for their client,” Steinglass says, asking for a curative instruction.
Justice #Merchan is excoriating Blanche for making an “outrageous” statement.
#Steinglass asks #jurors to remember that “we didn’t choose #MichaelCohen to be our witness. We didn’t pick him up at the witness store.” Then he raises his voice & says that #Trump chose Cohen “for the same qualities that his attorneys now urge you to reject his testimony because of.”
Steinglass adds that Trump chose Cohen “because he was willing to lie & cheat on Mr. Trump’s behalf.”
A #juror was quickly dismissed at the start. She was among the 7 already selected, she said she was very worried that despite the fact the court ruled to keep jurors’ name secret, she would still be exposed & targeted.
Steinglass explains the concept of “accessorial liability.” He uses the same analogy he did on Tues: a husband hiring a hitman to murder his wife, he asks prospective #jurors if they would understand the husband to be #guilty of the #crime. Today, though, the #defense lawyers object. #Merchan overrules, & the hitman question stands.
Steinglass managed to compare #Trump coordinating the falsification of docs w/a husband putting out a hit on his wife.
w/a celebrity trial—or a case that elicits strong feelings—there’s a dynamic where people are trying to get on the #jury. Not so w/the #TrumpTrial; >50 of Monday’s 1st group of 96 said they couldn’t be fair. Dozens today have said the same, & they’ve had a few days to think about the ramifications of serving.
So far, 48 prospective #jurors left bc they said they could not be fair & impartial, 9 more were excused for other reasons. 39 are left in this group.
The prospective #jurors will now be asked the 42 questions on the juror questionnaire, starting w/ basics. They’ll also be asked more targeted questions re their political leanings. For example, they will be asked if they have ever attended a #Trump rally or read one of his books.
Trump has been animated at points this morning, but now, he has partially closed his eyes --- his new narrative is he does this when he’s trying to keep from lashing out.
#Trump's lawyer, Susan Necheles, confronted many prospective #jurors about their #socialmedia activity, clearly the lawyers know things about them, a lot of which was not stuff they were asked in open court. They clearly have people doing deep dives on these people. It’d be pretty hard to not have concerns that their identities will be leaked
It’s probably safe to say that few, if any, judges have had to deal w/the array of #threats to #their trial that Justice #Merchan has had to. Besides #Trump himself, who constantly tests the boundaries of his #GagOrder, there are his allies who attacking the judge & his family & who aren’t covered by the gag order. Then there’s the #media who has been putting potentially identifying info about prospective #jurors on TV.
#JurySelection began w/a sworn in juror getting dismissed over doxxing concerns.
“I definitely have concerns now. One of them especially being the aspects of my identity have already been out there in public. Yesterday alone I had friends, colleagues & family push things to my phone regarding questioning my identity as a juror.”
Yesterday, Costello behaved so atrociously on the witness stand that Juan Merchan cleared the courtroom to admonish him & the defense attorneys. Costello is due back on the stand
The judge reminds #jurors that they should not discuss the case or read the news about the trial in the meantime.
Court is adjourned until the afternoon when it’s expected that prosecutors & defense lawyers will srgue for their preferred versions of the #JuryInstructions during a “charging conference”.
Justice #Merchan may also rule on the defense lawyers' latest attempt to #dismiss the case, which they made in a motion yesterday.
Justice #Merchan has repeatedly asked for tighter answers & fewer extraneous details. The judge is sustaining most objections lodged by the defense.
Merchan's visible disapproval may be bad news for the prosecution. #Jurors often take their cues from judges. If the judge seems impatient with a witness, jurors could receive it almost as permission to feel the same way.
#Necheles, is seeking to attack #StormyDaniels's overall credibility. But Daniels told a very detailed story earlier about the not exactly consensual sexual encounter w/ #Trump, we’ll see how the #jurors process these attacks. It may very well backfire on the Trump team.
The NY judge presiding over one (bc there’s >1) of Trump’s #criminal trials imposed a gag order on Tues that prohibits him from attacking #witnesses, #prosecutors & #jurors, the latest effort to rein in Trump’s wrathful rhetoric.
#Manhattan prosecutors on Mon asked the judge overseeing the #criminal case against #Trump to prohibit him from attacking witnesses or exposing jurors’ identities.
Prosecutors in Trump’s #criminal trial say he has violated a #GagOrder barring him from attacking #witnesses, #jurors & others close to the case. Testimony is set to resume later Tuesday morning.
#Merchan repeatedly pushed #Blanche to clarify, only to have Blanche deny he said what he said. #Trump was lucky #jurors weren’t there.
"You've presented nothing," Merchan said to Blanche, & that was after he’d been presenting his argument for ~20 mins.
Trump grew more animated when Merchan pushed back on Blanche.
Several occasions when the judge was speaking, Trump turned to his other lawyers at the defense table & whispered to them.
Each page yesterday took him just a little more than a minute, so this will take >30 mins.
Between that & the testimony readbacks, also expected to take >30 mins, there will likely be >1 hour this morning w/the jury in the courtroom, not actively deliberating.
If the laptop had Wi-Fi, the #jurors would have access to info about the case during #deliberations that they aren’t supposed to.
By making the point about the Wi-Fi on the record, #Merchan has protected himself from either side making an issue out of it in an appeal (or in the media).
The #verdict must be unanimous on the primary crime falsification of business records.
Once #jurors inform the court they have reached a verdict, Justice Juan #Merchan will summon the parties to the courtroom to hear it read by the foreperson.
Merchan must still affirm the verdict & enter a final judgment.
In court papers made public on Wednesday, prosecutors argued the April 15 trial date should go ahead as planned, noting it was Trump’s 8th bid to postpone the schedule as part of his broader #legal strategy to delay all 4 of his criminal trials beyond the Nov #election.
Prosecutors’ new filing states #Trump’s #delay motion was littered w/ inaccuracies & matters already rejected by the judge. They also expressed doubts about the reliability of the data from Trump’s team.
“None of the new information presented by defendant supports his request for an adjournment; indeed, much of the new data actually confirms that this Court will be able to find 12 #impartial#jurors (& alternates) in Manhattan,” Colangelo wrote.
The latest #doxxing attempt fits a pattern of #threats against people who speak out against Trump.
The addresses & phone numbers of fmr Trump lawyer Cohen's family members were posted to a doxxing website after Trump was #convicted of 34 #felony counts in connection w/a scheme to illegally #influence the #2016election.
#Trump supporters tried to #dox#jurors last week after his #conviction, & they also targeted #prosecutors & the #judge, Justice #Merchan, in the case w/ #threats. During the trial, the mother of a fmr police officer, #MichaelFanone, who was nearly killed on #Jan6, 2021, by rioters who believed Trump's lies about the #2020election was "#swatted" after her son called Trump "an authoritarian" w/ "a violence fetish."