Jump to content

Francisco 2.0

Certifiably Surly
  • Posts

    12390
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    12

Posts posted by Francisco 2.0

  1. Pecker is asked about the nature of Cohen’s relationship to the Trump campaign. Pecker says Cohen always said he didn’t work for the campaign, and that he was instead “Mr. Trump’s personal attorney.” But jurors just heard that Cohen was central to feeding the tabloid negative information about campaign opponents.


    “Michael was physically in every aspect of whatever the campaign was working on,” Pecker says. He adds that because Cohen wasn’t officially employed by the campaign, he may have heard things “informally” or “injected himself into it.”


    Pecker finally says something mildly helpful to the defense. He says he doesn’t know who Cohen spoke to, and adds that Cohen may have essentially been freelancing, acting of his own volition as he tried to get more involved with the campaign.

     

    Now, we are discussing negative headlines attacking three of Trump's Republican opponents in 2016, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, which prosecutors argue illustrate the outcome of the agreement reached during the Trump Tower meeting. Pecker says that Cohen would feed him negative information and that The National Enquirer would “embellish” and add onto it.


    Trump jumped on the negative coverage of Ted Cruz, especially about his father, in 2016. The campaign promoted it like it had come about organically and Trump was simply responding to it.

     

    Trump just leaned in toward the monitor in front of him and squinted to look closer at a collection of headlines from The National Enquirer that praised him. They included: “Donald Trump — Cruzin to victory! Ted endorses Donald” and “Obama’s Half Brother — Cheering on Donald at Debate.”

     

     

    • Hook 'Em 4
    • Like 2
  2. Pecker is describing a symbiotic relationship between Trump and The National Enquirer centered in part around “The Apprentice.” Pecker says that Trump would tip him off first as to who was going to be fired — “or eliminated,” as Pecker puts it — from the show, and The Enquirer would write about it.


    Trump’s history of tipping off the New York City tabloids about his own life was legendary well before The Apprentice.

     

    Prosecutors are working to situate Pecker in Trump’s orbit before the jury. He’s not coming across as a combative witness, but, on the contrary, as a longtime fan, friend and ally of Trump. If he testifies, as we expect, about a series of hush money deals they arranged together, this gentle impression will help make him all the more credible.


    If anything, Pecker is appearing like the kind of person who the Trump campaign, in another context, would ask to serve a validator for Trump’s past successes.

    • Hook 'Em 6
    • Like 2
  3. 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.

    • Hook 'Em 2
    • Like 1
  4. 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.

    • Hook 'Em 1
    • Like 1
  5. 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.

    • Hook 'Em 6
    • Like 2
  6. 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.

    • Hook 'Em 6
    • Like 1
    • Drool 1
  7. 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.

    • Like 1
  8. 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.”

    • Hook 'Em 4
    • Like 1
  9. 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.

    • Hook 'Em 4
    • Like 1
  10. 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.

    • Hook 'Em 6
    • Haha 2
  11. 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.”

    • Hook 'Em 6
  12. 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.

    • Hook 'Em 6
    • Like 1
  13. 38 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:


    Keep scrolling through the comments on that thread.

    Holy shit, it’s Nazis all the way down. It’s horrifyingly amazing.

     

    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.

    • Hook 'Em 1
    • Like 1
  14. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/22/opinion/elon-musk-william-durant.html

     

    Quote

    Before there was Elon Musk, there was William Crapo Durant. Billy Durant, as he was known, built one of the world’s biggest makers of horse-drawn carriages, bought control of Buick, co-founded General Motors, was forced out of General Motors, co-founded Chevrolet, regained control of General Motors, speculated on stocks, lost control of General Motors a second time, started Durant Motors, went bankrupt in the Depression, opened a bowling alley, suffered a stroke and died penniless in 1947.

     

    Quote

    It’s highly unlikely that Musk, one of the world’s richest people, will die penniless, but in other respects he and Durant have a lot in common. They are, or in the case of Durant were, both brilliant, restless builders of empires and defiers of convention who experienced the highest highs and the lowest lows of business.

    I talked to some experts on the wild, early days of the automobile to see what Musk and the rest of us could learn from that period of ferment and creativity. One thing I found out is that the world is not always kind to visionaries with self-control issues. Durant flamed out at G.M. twice. In contrast, the prudent organization man who eventually succeeded him, Alfred Sloan, went from success to success. Renowned institutions bear his name.

     

    Quote

    “To Understand the Future of Tesla, Look to the Future of G.M.” was the headline on a 2018 article in Harvard Business Review by Steve Blank, a serial tech entrepreneur who has taught entrepreneurship at Stanford and other universities.

    Referring to 1920, the second time Durant lost control of G.M., Blank wrote:

     

    Spoiler

    While everyone around him acknowledged he was a visionary, Durant’s one-man show was damaging the company. He couldn’t prioritize, couldn’t find time to meet with his direct reports, fired them when they complained about the chaos, and the company had no financial controls other than Durant’s ability to raise more money. When the stock collapsed, Durant’s ownership share was at risk of being taken over by the bankers he owed, who would then own a good part of G.M. The board decided that the company had enough vision — they bought out Durant’s shares and realized it was time for someone who could execute.

     

    Founders often fail as managers, Blank noted. “As Tesla struggles in the transition from a visionary pioneer to reliable producer of cars in high volume,” he wrote in 2018, “one wonders” if the generous compensation plan that the Tesla board awarded to Musk that year “would be better spent finding Tesla’s Alfred P. Sloan.”

    I called up Blank. He told me that the flaws in Musk that he identified that year remain today. “When you’ve been right in the beginning, you think you’re right forever,” he said. “You surround yourself with people who think you’re a genius forever. You run by whim rather than strategy.”

    Edwin Land, a co-founder of Polaroid, was a technical genius but a terrible chief executive, Blank said. Steve Jobs bungled the chief executive job at Apple and was forced out, although he redeemed himself by doing better in a second stint, Blank said. Then there’s Durant.

    “Musk is very similar to Durant,” agreed Christopher Whalen, an investment banker who is chairman of Whalen Global Advisors and the author of a 2017 book on the history of Ford Motor titled “Ford Men: From Inspiration to Enterprise.” Whalen told me that with Musk, “We’re repeating ourselves in a way.”

    A big difference between Durant’s days at G.M. and Musk’s at Tesla is that G.M.’s board was strong and independent of the C.E.O. (as evidenced by the fact that it booted him twice). It’s hard to say the same of Tesla’s.


    This past week, Tesla announced it was laying off 10 percent of its work force in response to a drop in first-quarter sales. Two days after that announcement, the company filed a proxy statement for its annual meeting asking shareholders to re-approve Musk’s 2018 pay package, which a Delaware judge had ruled illegally excessive less than three months earlier. The board also asked shareholders to approve Tesla’s reincorporation in Texas, which analysts said would be a friendlier jurisdiction for Musk.

    Musk’s 2018 pay package, whose value is tied to Tesla’s stock price, was once worth more than $50 billion. As The Times described last week’s development: “Facing criticism that it is overly beholden to Elon Musk, Tesla’s board of directors said on Wednesday that it would essentially give him everything he wanted, including the biggest pay package in corporate history.”

    Apart from how much money Musk deserves is the question of where he’s taking the company. He announced recently that the company will introduce a self-driving taxi, Robotaxi, in August, in spite of widespread concerns that the artificial intelligence required for self-driving isn’t mature. He seems to have stopped talking about his plan to roll out a $25,000 electric vehicle for the mass market — which would be less exciting but more reliably profitable.

    “Musk shouldn’t give up” on robo cars, but it’s not wise for him to bet the company on them, Whalen said.

    “If there were a functioning board, this would be a conversation,” Blank said.

    After Durant was deposed from G.M. the second time, he flailed between a car company, a cinnabar mine and that bowling alley, which he hoped to turn into a chain. He lost all of his money in the process. Musk is such a creative genius that Tesla’s board has indulged his idiosyncratic explorations. That may be the right call, given that the company might be lost without him. But Tesla’s board, like G.M.’s, needs to keep in mind that it represents the shareholders — all of them.

     

×
×
  • Create New...