Hells Angels Join the Chat- And Yellen say no to Taxing the Rich
Hells Angels join the chat
Reporting from inside the courthouse
Todd Blanche suggests that the famously frugal Trump would have been unlikely to overpay anyone — again harping on the disparity between the $130,000 that Michael Cohen paid Stormy Daniels and the $420,000 that Cohen was repaid. “Did he happily write checks to lawyers, for example?” Trump's current lawyer asks his former lawyer. “No sir,” Cohen responds.
*A point Maggie made herself earlier in the trial*
Reporting from inside the courthouse
“My entire life has been turned upside down,” Michael Cohen tells Susan Hoffinger, a prosecutor, who asks about the effect his involvement with Trump and this case has had on him. And with that, Hoffinger's redirect of Cohen is done.
Reporting from inside the courthouse
Prosecutors are playing a recording we've already heard, of Michael Cohen talking to Keith Davidson, who was Stormy Daniels's lawyer. But we are hearing more of it than we did before. It’s fascinating to hear again, after so much of Cohen’s testimony has passed. It corroborates much of what he has told the jury about the hush-money payment, including that he cared about Trump and that he would not “play pennywise, pound foolish” with his then-boss.
Reporting on Trump's criminal trial
We have no way of knowing for sure whether the defense will call any witnesses, but there are strong indications that Trump’s lawyers are leaning toward calling Robert Costello, the lawyer who once advised Cohen and will likely attack his credibility.
Reporting from inside the courthouse
We are back and the prosecutors confirm that they were able to reach C-SPAN, which is booking travel right now for the witness — Robert Browning, who is executive director of archives at the network — to be present at 9:30 tomorrow morning.
Reporting from inside the courthouse
Todd Blanche concludes his argument about bringing back the witness by saying: “That’s not the way a trial is supposed to work, judge.” Justice Merchan looked grimly amused — judges, of course, are the people who determine how individual trials work. Merchan asks the prosecutors to try to contact the witness again, and we pause
Reporting from inside the courthouse
Joshua Steinglass, a prosecutor, seems quite frustrated with the judge’s ruling, saying he doesn’t understand why they have to jump through so many hoops just to show that Keith Schiller and Trump were together that night. He asks to bring the C-SPAN witness in again. Justice Merchan asks Todd Blanche, a defense lawyer, if he objects to the prosecutors bringing in the C-SPAN witness after the defense rests later today. Blanche does protest.
Reporting from inside the courthouse
Justice Merchan returns from lunch with a ruling on the evidentiary issue raised before the break, involving stills from a video that show Trump with his bodyguard Keith Schiller on the evening of Oct. 24, 2016. The defense has sought to cast doubt on Michael Cohen’s account of talking to Trump on Schiller’s phone that day. Merchan says he will not allow in video stills that show Schiller with Trump.
Reporting from inside the courthouse
Those stills could have undermined an argument that the defense was clearly proud of, and that was a momentum-changer on Thursday, seeming to give Trump’s lawyers an extra boost of confidence.
Reporting from inside the courthouse
But wait — Joshua Steinglass, a prosecutor, says the prosecution will seek to bring back a witness who works at C-SPAN and testified earlier, so that he can verify the veracity of those stills. The judge asks when the witness, who does not live in New York City, could return, and the prosecutors say they don't know yet. It sounds as if they just sought to get in touch with him during the lunch break.
Reporting from inside the courthouse
Todd Blanche, whose normal M.O. is to try to slow things down and draw out the trial, is now complaining that prosecutors are doing just that with their effort to recall this witness. He is complaining that this is “patently unfair.”
Reporting from inside the courthouse
Todd Blanche has now begun to bring some of his separate lines of questioning together. He is adding up the money that Michael Cohen made from consulting, from his repayment for the hush money payoff, and from other work. He just lobbed an accusation at Cohen, that was difficult to hear: It sounded like he was saying that “we” — himself and the jury — could see what Cohen was up to. But Blanche was quickly cut off, by an objection and by the judge, who looked angry.
Reporting from inside the courthouse
He’s now back to harping on how much money Cohen has made from his attacks on Trump. His argument is easy to follow: Cohen was motivated not by doing the right thing, but by money. And when working for Trump was no longer lucrative, he turned against him, and made money that way.
Blanche asks Cohen if he’s pitching a television show. Cohen says he’s not pitching it, but that there is a show being shopped around. News of this endeavor, a reality show, has already been reported. The show’s working title is “The Fixer.”
Reporting from inside the courthouse
Cohen acknowledges the show hasn’t been picked up yet, prompting chuckles from the row of Trump allies at the back of the room.
Reporting from inside the courthouse
Jurors just heard that Cohen has made $4.4 million since fall 2020 from his podcast and books.
Trump just sent out a fundraising note falsely claiming he “could even be thrown into PRISON FOR LIFE!” if the jury in this case returns a guilty verdict. He actually faces up to four years in prison, or probation.
Hmmm, no source of this found anywhere on the NYTimes - no link to any primary source -
Reporting from inside the courthouse
Todd Blanche has drawn this cross-examination out, apparently as part of his overall goal of making the trial last as long as possible while simultaneously complaining that Trump has been kept from the campaign trail. The jurors look bored, and it’s hard to see how that helps Blanche, despite what has been a strong outing today by him.
Reporting from inside the courthouse
Todd Blanche, Trump's lawyer, is asking Michael Cohen about telling various people in early 2018 that Trump did not know about the hush-money payment. Cohen says that while he doesn’t recall some of the specific conversations, that was his line at the time.
Reporting from inside the courthouse
Todd Blanche has moved on to the documents that prosecutors say were falsified. He is suggesting that everyone but his client — Allen Weisselberg, Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Michael Cohen himself — may have had a hand in falsifying the documents, disguising them as repayments for legal services. But not Trump himself, Blanche signals to the jury, without saying it outright.
Reporting from inside the courthouse
Todd Blanche, predictably in this unpredictable cross, is blaming Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, for designing Michael Cohen's reimbursements for the hush-money payment. Cohen had said that Trump signed off on that design in a January 2017 meeting at Trump Tower. Blanche got very close to discussing that conversation itself — testimony that could be key as the jurors decide the case — but then moved on.
This is the picture the NYT headlined 🙄
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