MERCHAN: You should know going forward for the rest of this conference and beyond, where there’s a standard pattern jury instruction, I will leave it. A lot of smart people did a lot of hard work to come up with these instructions…..If the language is “accomplice,” that’s what we’ll go with.
4/ MERCHAN: For the definition of intent...the defense suggests "does the person intend to defraud"
COLANGELO: We think the court should stick with the standard definition.
MERCHAN: I appreciate your argument. I’m going to stick with the standard language [instruction.]
5/ MERCHAN: Turning to the expanded charge of INTENT. Why do you [the People] propose that?
COLANGELO: no one said Trump went into the system and falsified the billing records so on facts like the ones we have here, and given the way the parties have argued the case, we think it is a very straightforward explanation of the law
6/ MERCHAN: People have the burden of proving beyond the reasonable doubt… It goes on to say it doesn't matter what the relative contribution was to the crime, of each of the defendants.
COLANGELO: There is a threshold definition to understand: Reasonably foreseeable conduct.
MERCHAN: I will reserve decision on that.
MERCHAN: Right now, my inclination is to strike that language from the final charges.
7/ Re. the jury instruction for “unlawful means”: Judge Merchan rules that if the jurors find that Trump made or caused to be made false business records in order to conceal a conspiracy to promote Trump‘s election through unlawful means, the jurors can have different ideas about what those unlawful means are.
8/COLANGELO: All that the prosecution has to prove is Trump‘s intent to conceal another crime, not that the crime actually happened.
COLANGELO: The key point here is to advise the jury that there has to be some unlawful means but they don’t have to unanimously agree on the unlawful means.
@GottaLaff NFL: Trump's OWN justice department thought it was a crime when Michael Cohen did it. They threw him in prison. Then Bill Barr didn't think Trump should be investigated for same.
9/ BOVE: Next on my list is a proposed jury instruction about involvement of counsel, despite Merchan's pre-trial rulings that Trump himself could not argue that he was convinced of the lawfulness of his conduct because lawyers were involved/he relied on his lawyers.
MERCHAN: I ordered that you were precluded from arguing this legal claim. There was no such thing. Just a way to get around having to turn over docs.
MERCHAN: Now it’s morphed into involvement of counsel. I understand why you want this instruction from the court. But my answer hasn't changed and I find it disingenuous.
11/ MERCHAN: It was concerning when the terms changed to "presence of counsel." I couldn't believe when i saw it again now calling it "involvement of counsel."
MERCHAN: My ruling is the jury will not hear that instruction from the bench nor are you permitted to make that argument. Period.
12/ The Defense wants an instruction regarding Michael Cohen's cellphones. They argue that the factual basis for this instruction is that there was some testimony that there was some backup or tinkering of the phones.
MERCHAN: You did a very effective job of cross examining that witness, I think there‘s a good basis of that and you’re free to do that. But I am not going to give an instruction on this.
Judge Merchan says he will read both sides' cases and submissions; he also says he will get draft instructions to the parties by the end of the day Thursday.
"COLANGELO: no one said Trump went into the system and falsified the billing records so on facts like the ones we have here, and given the way the parties have argued the case, we think it is a very straightforward explanation of the law"
I can't make head or tail of what's being said here.
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