Apr.24

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Trump Legal News: The Trial (Day 6)

There was not a lot of drama yesterday in Donald Trump's criminal fraud trial, in part because of a relatively short schedule. But "not a lot" isn't "none." Here's the biggest storylines of the day:

• Gag Me: As planned, Judge Juan Merchan began the day by hearing arguments about whether or not Trump has violated his gag order. There is no ruling yet, although Merchan did get impatient with the evasive answers from defense counsel Todd Blanche, eventually declaring: "You are losing all credibility with the court." That's probably not a great sign for Team Trump. Oh, the Judge also said: "When your client is violating a gag order, I expect more than one word," in response to one of Blanche's non-answers. That would seem to suggest that Merchan has already determined the order has been violated, and he was just checking to see if there was any compelling reason he should overlook that.
  
  
• Pecker Problem: Sorry, when the guy's name is "Pecker," it's actually harder to write a subhead that is NOT a double entendre than to write one that is. In any event, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker took the stand again, and talked a lot about his partnership (for lack of a better word) with the Trump campaign, and how he agreed to publish fawning stories about the candidate, and to find and bury unflattering stories.
  
  Pecker hasn't yet gotten to Stormy Daniels; that will come when he returns to the stand for a third time. Thus far, his testimony has centered on other "catch and kill" deals, most obviously the one with Karen McDougal. The prosecution has established that: (1) the Trump campaign was in the habit of paying to make negative coverage go away; (2) Michael Cohen was deeply involved in these efforts; and (3) Trump was deeply involved in these efforts. This speaks to a pattern of behavior, obviously, that suggests that not only was Daniels paid for political reasons, but that Trump would surely have been involved in making that arrangement.
  
  According to numerous courtroom observers, Pecker isn't particularly happy about testifying, and he regularly says things that seem intended to maintain his relationship with Trump. The problem here is that Pecker already copped a plea, and he has to testify to the things he said he would testify to, or his plea deal goes south. So, his hands are tied.
  
  
• Old Stoneface: Maggie Haberman spends much of her time keeping an eye on Trump himself, including body language, facial expressions, etc. She said he was very, very unhappy yesterday—a lot of shifting around, a lot of scowls, and he ultimately stomped out of the courtroom. The former president probably doesn't care what jury consultants think, but if he did, they would tell him that such expressions of negative emotion generally do not help his case.

That's pretty much it for now. As we noted, it was a short day. Today the court will be off, as per usual, and then Pecker will rise again on Thursday, this time to start talking about the Daniels story. (Z)