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Francisco 2.0

Certifiably Surly
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  1. Steinglass is now asking about “The Apprentice,” which Pecker calls “an instant success.” Pecker says that he’s had “a great relationship with Mr. Trump over the years,” and that he launched a magazine with him called Trump Style. When he proposed the magazine, Pecker says, Trump’s biggest question was, “Who’s going to pay for it?” Pecker never did say who paid for it. Pecker is being asked to point to and identify Trump, who he says he’s known since the late 1980s. They met at Mar-a-Lago, he says. Pecker specifically says he was introduced to him through Nick Ribis, then a casinos executive for Trump and, until the early 2000s, one of his long-serving lawyers. As Pecker identified the former president, Trump lifted his head and smiled tightly.
  2. It does not appear as if we will get a ruling from the judge right now on whether or not Trump will be held in contempt and fined. David Pecker has entered the courtroom in a dark grey suit and made his way to the witness stand. Trumps shifted in his chair as Pecker passed.
  3. Justice Merchan has repeatedly pushed Todd Blanche to clarify his arguments, only to have Blanche deny that he is saying what he seems to be saying. Trump is very lucky that the jurors are not here for this. Merchan is really dressing down Blanche right now. “You’ve presented nothing,” Merchan just said to Blanche, who has been presenting his argument for some 20 minutes. It's devastating for Blanche. Trump is growing more animated as Justice Merchan pushes back on Blanche. On several occasions while the judge was speaking, the former president sharply turned to his other lawyers at the defense table and whispered to them. Justice Merchan is now pushing Todd Blanche to do a forensic accounting of how reposts happen in Trump’s world. “It’s not passive,” the judge finally says. What’s interesting here is the throughline between Blanche’s argument that there is distance between Trump and his own reposts and the prosecution's argument against Trump, which is that he repeatedly used others — Michael Cohen, The National Enquirer — to do his dirty work. This line of questioning is highlighting a longtime Twitter catchphrase -- that "retweets do not equal endorsements." When you are a former president sitting on trial, it would seem your reposts do carry more weight, particularly in light of this court’s gag order. Todd Blanche says Trump is entitled to complain about “two systems of justice.” “There’s two systems of justice in this courtroom? That’s what you’re saying?” Justice Merchan says. There’s a real similarity between the opening statements we saw yesterday and the arguments about the alleged gag order violations today: Again, prosecutors have an overarching narrative, saying that Trump willfully violated their order. Blanche is responding to the allegations one by one, and the judge, for now, isn’t having it. Justice Merchan is basically taking on, one by one, Trump's favored social media strategies. One is constantly claiming something was “just found.” In this particular case, the subject was Stormy Daniels’ early 2018 statement denying having had a sexual encounter with Trump, which she has since disavowed. “LOOK WHAT WAS JUST FOUND!” Trump said in an April 10 Truth Social post. “I need to know what is true,” Justice Merchan says. The judge loses patience with Todd Blanche, Trump's lawyer. “I’m asking the questions, OK,” he says. “Im going to decide whether your client is in contempt or not, so please don’t turn it around.” Blanche says in a higher-pitched voice that the prosecutors got as much time as they want. Justice Merchan makes a distinction, saying the prosecutors were answering his questions. During the scold, Trump turned to another one of his lawyers, Emil Bove, and whispered a comment. We’ll try to decode Todd Blanche’s attacks further, though they are confusing even in the room. He says that a post from Michael Avenatti, which caused Trump to launch into an attack on Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen, was a political argument, about speech not in the case but on social media and in interviews. Thus, Blanche is saying, Trump’s response is not in fact an attack on witnesses but a continuation of that political discussion. This is a hard pill for Justice Merchan to swallow, clearly. The legal and political strategies by the Trump team have been intertwined since the first indictment. And Blanche’s argument brings that into stark relief. It’s fascinating to see a lawyer for Trump try to separate out politics from legal proceedings. The Trump era, of course, has been marked by the opposite sort of context collapse: With Trump, everything is politics. That’s why this argument may not work.
  4. Todd Blanche, who had a rocky morning in court in front of Justice Merchan, is now sitting third-chair, amiably chatting with Trump, smiling and laughing a bit, twirling a pen in his right hand. Given Justice Merchan’s disbelief at Todd Blanche’s argument that some of Trump's posts did not violate the gag order because they were reposts, it's worth remembering that Blanche pressed a prospective juror last week about social media posts that were critical of Trump. The prospective juror explained that the posts were actually reposts. “Did you watch this before you posted it?” Justice Merchan asked, before excusing the prospective juror. While court was on a break, Trump complained about the gag order on Truth Social. In an all-caps post, he accused Justice Merchan of taking away his “right to free speech” and claimed that he was “not allowed to defend myself.” Trump is already dealing directly with the repercussions of that hearing and negative views of his lawyer’s performance during it. While coming back into the courtroom, reporters referred back to the judge's comment, asking him whether he thought his lawyer, Todd Blanche, had any credibility and whether he was happy with his performance. Trump didn’t respond, but waved at the reporters. We will now reorient, with that dramatic hearing behind us, unless the judge rules on the gag order very quickly from the bench. Soon, the jury will reenter and David Pecker, the former publisher of The National Enquirer, will resume his testimony, which began yesterday. Prosecutors just re-entered the courtroom. Several of them were smiling and at least one was chuckling at something a colleague said. Little dispute that the hearing went well for them. This hearing, ostensibly about violations of a gag order, doubled as a complete onslaught on the Trump ethos. Justice Merchan clarified that politics infused everything that the former president does and insisted on hearing good faith arguments, and the truth, wherever possible. We knew this was going to be a big moment; it was even more revealing than expected. Trump leaves the courtroom, scanning the rows of reporters. He again looks frustrated, as he did yesterday when he left. Todd Blanche also appeared frustrated after his argument concluded. Trump immediately beckoned him over and they whispered to each other, before Trump snatched a piece of paper that was in front of him on the defense table. Blanche then rubbed his face. Trump has always treated his own words as if they’re a completely disposable commodity. That is not how it works in a courtroom. We thought we were taking a break after a very fiery hearing. Merchan will not give a decision right away. But now the prosecutor, Christopher Conroy, is responding briefly. Justice Merchan wants to conclude the hearing, but Todd Blanche wants to continue arguing. “This gag order,” he says. “We are trying to comply with it.” As Blanche insists Trump is trying to follow with the rules, Merchan interrupts him. “You’re losing all credibility with the court,” he says. This is going to be a long trial. Blanche is in jeopardy of ruining his relationship with Merchan at a very early stage of the game. Merchan, now calmer, is all but pleading with Blanche to make a more substantive argument to back up the idea that reposts should not be subject to the gag order. “I hate to keep coming back to this, but you’re not offering me anything to support your argument,” the judge says. Justice Merchan notes that on his post about Jesse Watters's statements, Trump did not quote the Fox News commentator directly. “Your client manipulated what was said and put it in quotes,” Merchan says. Blanche agrees that it was not a true repost, but argues that it's still not clear that it violated the gag order.
  5. Blanche is trying to get his client out of hot water by seeking to reframe Trump’s statements about Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels as responses to “a barrage of political attacks.” Merchan says that he doesn’t want to get into “interpreting and reading between the lines” of Trump’s posts as Blanche continues to push the point that Trump’s attacks are political, and not specifically related to the case, despite being about likely witnesses.
  6. Todd Blanche, one of Trump's lawyers, is responding for the defense. He says Trump knows what the gag order allows him to do, and there was “no willful violation” of it. He again argues, as he did in his opening statement, that there's nothing to see here. Blanche is arguing that nothing can be seen devoid of political context when it comes to Trump. Conroy says prosecutors will not seek jail for now, even though Trump seems to be “angling” for that. While Trump has made a show of daring prosecutors to jail him, there are few Trump advisers who think Trump actually wants to or would welcome the reality of being put in a prison cell. New York state’s criminal contempt law permits a $1,000 fine and jail time of up to 30 days for each violation of the gag order. And Conroy is asking the judge to warn Trump that he could face custody. Conroy now focuses on Trump’s defense that “reposts” aren’t his own words. Trump has used a version of this defense politically as well since 2016. Conroy says that Trump “is doing nothing less than knowingly and willingly, that is intentionally, breaching the crystal clear, unequivocal lines set by this court.”
  7. Throwing a "MAGA" into a post doesn’t make it political, Conroy says, dismissing the idea that Trump's comments fall under the category of protected political speech. It may make it more ominous, Conroy adds. Conroy is talking about Trump’s seeking to use politics as a defense, saying it “makes no sense,” eviscerating the clear language and meaning of the gag order. “There’s no indication that his claim that he’s responding to attacks is anything more than an after-the-fact justification,” Conroy says.
  8. Eh, we all know what each of us is doing. I guess the only real mystery is if we are doing it in our underwear or not. I actually have to leave the office for an hour or so around 9:15, and I'm not sure my AI bot is capable of scraping this off of the NYTimes and re-posting here for the viewing pleasure of everyone, but I'll see what I can do. And with that: Conroy says that Trump “violates the order when he posts about known witnesses or reasonably forseeable witnesses,” and “violates the order when he posts about a juror or prospective juror.” And finally, Conroy says Trump violated the gag order when on Truth Social, he quoted the Fox News commentator Jesse Watters denigrating prospective jurors as "undercover liberal activists.” Prosecutors have flagged this as the most serious of the violations and Conroy does so again, calling it “very troubling.” Conroy points to the timing of the post, last Wednesday evening. The next morning, Juror #2 came into court and asked to be excused. This upset Justice Merchan. He complimented the juror after excusing her, saying she would have done a good job.
  9. Conroy is now describing five more examples, all versions of the same post, in which Trump shared a New York Post article about Michael Cohen and quoted its headline: “A serial perjurer will try to prove an old misdemeanor against Trump in an embarrassment for the New York legal system.” Trump is looking ahead in the judge’s direction as Conroy ticks through these violations. As social media posts of his are read into the record, his face twitches slightly.
  10. Conroy, reminding Justice Merchan of the procedural history here, notes that a second order came after Trump “ratcheted up attacks on family members.” That impersonal language hides something the judge knows well: Those attacks were made on his own family members, including his daughter. Conroy is ticking through Trump's alleged gag order violations, including one in which he thanked Stormy Daniels’s disgraced lawyer, Michael Avenatti, for criticizing Michael Cohen. Conroy also describes how Trump called Cohen and Daniels “sleazebags.”
  11. I have more work to do today, but here's some updates from his contempt hearing: One thing striking listening to Chris Conroy, one of the prosecutors, as he calls for Justice Merchan to do something that could make Trump stop, is how evocative it is of the lawyer Roberta Kaplan’s closing arguments in Trump's defamation trial, where she asked the jury how much money it would take to get Trump to stop defaming E. Jean Carroll. A prosecutor, Chris Conroy, begins to detail his team’s argument on the gag order. He says each of the 10 Trump posts in question violated the order, and that eight of them were on Truth Social. Two were on his official campaign website. Conroy says that these violations pose a very real “threat” to the proceedings, having an “undertow” effect on witnesses and making them afraid. The witnesses, he says, “rightly fear being subject to similar vitriol.” As expected, Conroy says Trump's attacks on Michael Cohen in the hallway outside the courtroom yesterday again violated the order. So that’s 11 violations prosecutors say he commited. The prosecutors have returned. Trump, who was isolated and alone at the defense table, in what is becoming a familiar image at this trial, has also been rejoined by his lawyers. The judge is back on the bench and says that two matters are now in the record. It appears that the two matters were the two separate attempts that prosecutors have made to see Trump held in contempt of court. They say he’s violated the gag order 10 times. The judge is in and we are underway. The lawyers and the judge left the courtroom almost immediately after the session began. We do not know why.
  12. Right? There is a subset of Twitter that is still legitimate news, sports, whatnot. Then there's this whole other part of Twitter that is the absolute worst that humanity has to offer. Twitter isn't much different than the internet as a whole. Thing is, you have to actively go looking for the deplorable shit on the internet, where on Twitter it can get served up to you at will. It's a feature, not a bug. Elon is all about free speech, alright. He wanted a platform where the worst in humanity is guaranteed a online home.
  13. Once upon a time, Elon said it might be worth over $100,000 in the future. Funny how things change.
  14. FYI for those with interest: There’s some good news for people who want to follow the Trump trial in detail, but can’t make it to the courthouse. The New York state court system has just agreed to publish a transcript of each day’s proceeding by the end of the following day on its website. You can find the daily transcripts here. https://ww2.nycourts.gov/press/index.shtml
  15. Blanche equates the “catch-and-kill” scheme involving The National Enquirer, alleged by prosecutors, to ordinary editorial decisions made by newspapers. Blanche is now trying to portray The National Enquirer’s practices as similar to how other news outlets operate, in terms of deciding when and how to publish a story. That is not correct. Now Blanche turns to Stormy Daniels, who he says is also “biased” against Trump. He narrates their meeting, saying at the time, Trump was working on a very popular tv show called “The Apprentice.” “Ms. Clifford has made a life off these communications,” Blanche says, attacking Daniels by her government name, Stephanie Clifford. He says the money she made from the Cohen payoff was pure opportunism on her part, and adds that she has made a lot more money since the story came out. It certainly sounds as if Blanche expects Daniels to testify. He says that “her testimony, while salacious, does not matter,” arguing that she knew nothing about the actual crimes charged here.
  16. Blanche makes it clear that the defense will continue to deny that Trump had sex with Stormy Daniels. I’m curious whether that will affect the plan for Daniels to testify; it had seemed to be up in the air, but the defense may have just opened the door for prosecutors to ask directly. Prosecutors have objected three times during Blanche’s opening statement. Justice Merchan just called them to the bench. The prosecution wins the objection and Blanche loses a little bit of his opening. He moves back to saying that there is “nothing illegal” about entering a nondisclosure agreement.
  17. It seems as if Blanche will seek to convince the jury that everything that happened was appropriate and done by the book, not even worthy of notice. That Cohen was Trump’s lawyer, and he was paid for legal services. But he’ll also seek to distance his client from the matter: “President Trump had nothing to do with the invoice,” he says. Blanche is not addressing any of the underlying claims by prosecutors so far, focusing strictly on the payment process. Blanche downplays the 34 charges of falsfying records Trump faces as a “business records violation.” He points toward the disparity between the $130,000 hush money payment and what was repaid to Cohen. He asks them, if Trump really was so frugal, would he have repaid Cohen so much? “This was not a payback,” he says, adding of Cohen: “He was President Trump’s personal attorney.” “Ask yourself, would a frugal business man -- would a man who pinches pennies -- repay $130,000 debt to the tune of $420,000?”
  18. And now, it's time for defense. Batting first, Todd Blanche Blanche highlights that Trump is entitled to the presumption of innocence, which is something that some of his more heated critics sometimes lose sight of. Blanche explains why they all call Trump “President Trump,” saying he’s earned it and it’s the office he’s held. Then he mentions that Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee. Todd Blanche is now up, with the defense's opening statement. J “President Trump is innocent,” are the first words of Blanche’s opening. ’President Trump did not commit any crimes.” “He is cloaked in innocence,” Todd Blanche says of Trump Blanche says that the prosecution told a “clean nice story,” but that it is not as simple as they would have the jury believe. He says that many of the documents in evidence are almost a decade old. The testimony, he suggests, is similarly old. And, he says, the story that jurors just heard “is not true.”
  19. As Colangelo continues to discuss the repayment scheme to Cohen, he says Trump’s willingness to go to the trouble “shows just how important it was to him to hide the true nature of Cohen’s illegal payment to Ms. Daniels and the overall election conspiracy that they had launched.” Jurors and prospective jurors had expressed a lot of nervousness about their role here, and with good reason. But Colangelo may be giving some a reason to be glad they were not excused. The politics, the payoffs, the intrigue, the importance: This case will be transfixing. Having finished with the most fascinating part of the story, the series of payoffs, Colangelo is on to the less interesting part, which, by the way, is the part the criminal charges stem from. He is describing the paperwork arrangement to reimburse Michael Cohen for the hush money payment he made to Stormy Daniels, and how, Colangelo says, Trump and Allen Weisselberg, his company's C.F.O., sought to disguise the repayment. Colangelo is offering up a dense series of details, but the jurors are still paying close attention. Some chuckles in the courtroom as Colangelo says Trump was a “very frugal businessman” who watched all the spending at his empire. It really is surreal hearing this story told in one long tale of the tape. The government’s opening statement suggests we will see a lot of previously undisclosed text messages between the main players, and phone records.
  20. What the hell. I thought I was putting all this in the Indicted thread, which is where it really belongs. So...off to the Indicted thread.
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