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.
Before entering the courtroom, #Trump potentially violated the #GagOrder forbidding him from talking about prosecutors in the case, other than Bragg. He made what sounded like a reference to Matthew #Colangelo, one of the prosecutors, saying, "a lead person from the #DOJ is running the trial," & baselessly adding, "So #Biden's office is running this trial." Colangelo USED TO work at the Dept of #Justice, & Trump has used similar language to describe him in the past.
During the #TrumpTrial morning break, POS #MattGaetz posted an obvious reference to #Trump's Sept 2020 command to the #ProudBoys by writing “Standing back & standing by Mr. President.” 🤬
A man w/a sign reading “GTFO of NYC” on one side & “Bootlickers” on the other was removed by police.
Another man approached Rep #LaurenBoebert & handed her a “Beetlejuice” program, & asked for her to sign it — poking fun at when she was kicked out of the musical for outrageous & disruptive behavior — was blocked by security.
Across the street, someone else could clearly be heard yelling “Matt Gaetz is a pedophile.”
“We are here of our own volition [ok], because there are things we can say that President Trump is unjustly not allowed to say,” #Gaetz said outside the courthouse.
The #Republicans that showed up to the #TrumpTrial today in Manhattan were lawmakers who are all about disrupting legislative business & have no issue w/embarrassing their own party on the #House floor. It included many #HouseFreedomCaucus members who have frozen the chamber for days on end, most recently voting down their party’s own rules as an act of protest.
Prosecutors now have 3 days to prepare re-direct, when they will seek to build #MichaelCohen back up & refocus the jurors on the most important elements of their case & the actual charges for which they’ve presented mountains of evidence regardless of whether Cohen is a liar or not.
On MSNBC just now, writer Andrew Rice said that while he was in court yesterday for #MichaelCohen’s direct, he could see over #Trump’s shoulder and Trump was editing the very remarks #MikeJohnson, #TommyTuberville, #VivekRamaswamy, et al ended up delivering outside the courthouse today. If true, that seems a very clear violation of the #GagOrder (“Making or directing others to make public statements…”).
Probably difficult to prove it unless you take Rice at his word, though.
This morning Trump was asked about his surrogates,
"I do have a lot of surrogates and they are speaking very beautifully and they come all from from all over Washington and they're highly respected and they think this is the greatest scam they've ever seen and some are Democrats they're very embarrassed by what's going on."
Later #MikeJohnson talked about Judge Merchan's daughter.
Johnson is a lawyer & Speaker of the House. He knows exactly what he is doing. #GagOrder#TrumpTrial
@dave Interesting point.
Please help me out here. THIS IS A USE of surrogates to evade the #GagOrder.
Did #Trump direct them to do this?
Rick Scott was asked, he said Trump did not tell him to say this.
So, can any action be taken by the DA?
I do NOT want to suggest that prosecuting someone who violated a #GagOrder with
"prosecuting those who make statements criticizing a legal process"
How best can we talk about this to the media and public?
#Trump has his posse again. Today it’s more #Republican elected officials. Today, Trump will be joined by the #House speaker, #MikeJohnson, as well as #NorthDakota’s governor, #DougBurgum, a contender to be Trump's running mate. Also present will be Representatives #ByronDonalds & #CoryMills of Florida, & #VivekRamaswamy, who was one of Trump's primary rivals this year. Both Donalds & Ramaswamy are longshot hopefuls to be Trump's running mate.
Word has gone out to #Trump allies over the past few days that Trump wants to see a bigger show of support inside the courtroom. Trump's entourage is big enough today that they’re having trouble arranging themselves in the 2 rows of seats set aside for supporters of the defense's side.
It’s worth noting that lawyers w/the defense are allowed to have phones, but members of the general public are not. The #Trump team has been pressing the rules on this for weeks now, & political allies live-tweeting from the courtroom is a new thing.
#MichaelCohen is called back to the stand.
Prosecutor #Hoffinger, will resume direct questioning.
Todd #Blanche, is expected to begin cross later.
Senator #JDVance, Eric Trump, Boris Ephsteyn, his legal adviser; Alina Habba, one of the lawyers from his civil fraud trial; US House Rep #NicoleMalliotakis; Senator #TommyTuberville; & the #Iowa & #Alabama attorneys general.
This is the biggest entourage we’ve seen him with so far.
He must be scared.
#Trump seems to have paid attention to very little of #MichaelCohen's testimony so far. He spent the first hour or so sitting still at the defense table with his eyes closed. After the morning break he's been awake but reading through printouts as he often does - likely news clippings printed by his staff.
An incredible number of hours went into covering up #Trump's alleged affairs in 2016. #MicgaelCohen & the team at The #NationalEnquirer went to elaborate lengths & constantly communicated about how to keep #women quiet. Accounting departments were engaged. Front companies were created. Misleading invoices were produced.
A fmr White House aide who worked closely w/ #Trump returned to the stand to testify about a significant meeting between Trump & #MichaelCohen his personal lawyer that is at the center of Trump’s #criminal trial.
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.
The defense is asking for a mistrial & that #Trump be allowed to respond in public (not court) to #StormyDaniels's testimony. To be clear. Trump is asking the court to lift the #legal restrictions of the #GagOrder, so he can publicly attack a witness’s testimony.
#Trump has sought maximum press coverage of this trial, & now his atty Todd #Blanche is complaining about the press coverage of #StormyDaniels's testimony.
Blanche says that Trump will get asked about Daniels & won't be able to answer because of his #GagOrder.
Blanche concludes & Chris Conroy, a prosecutor, responds, saying the defense team seem to almost live "in an alternate reality." He says the gag order was designed to protect the trial & has been eftective thus far.
#Merchan says he is concerned, not only w/protecting #StormyDaniels & other #witnesses who have testified, but w/protecting those who have yet to testify & protecting the proceedings as a whole. The judge says that he himself wrote down a version of Conroy's argument "I can't take your word for it that, 'no no, this is going to be low key," Merchan says, referring to the comments #Trump would make if the #GagOrder was altered. "That's just not the track record."
Trump leans forward & glares at the judge as he denies the motion.
Now Todd #Blanche is arguing for a #mistrial, again. Trump's lawyers have been known to call for multiple mistrials in the course of a proceeding. It could exhaust the judge’s patience, & lose credibility.