Dem
51
GOP
49
Donald Trump was in court yesterday, yet again, as closing statements were made in his civil fraud case. As we noted yesterday, the former president wanted to speak, and Judge Arthur Engoron was only open to that with strict, in-writing limits agreed to in advance by Trump and by his lead counsel, Chris Kise. Kise refused on Trump's behalf, and so it looked like The Donald would only be a witness to the closing statements.
Not so much, as it turns out. When it came time for the defendant's closing, Trump piped right up, in defiance of Engoron. And the former president proved that the Judge was right to be leery, because everything Trump said was an attack on the Judge and his Court, or was political blather about witch hunts. Engoron allowed Trump to go on for about 5 minutes, then cut him off and recessed for lunch.
This raises an obvious question, namely: How colossally fu**ing stupid do you have to be to piss off the guy who is about to decide exactly how many hundreds of millions of dollars he is going to fine you? And yes, we are aware that Trump thinks he's creating the basis for an appeal. However, Engoron is an actual expert in the law, is far smarter than Trump, and has been doing this a long time. This is undoubtedly why the Judge let Trump prattle for 5 minutes, so as to show (once again) that the defendant's rights have been scrupulously observed.
Once Engoron decrees exactly what the massive financial penalty will be, Trump will appeal, of course. But, between his conduct as a businessman and a defendant, he's screwed himself six ways to Sunday. He's not going to win on appeal, which means that, one of these days, it will sink in that he's ruined himself and he's destroyed the thing that gave him his identity and his sense of self-worth. Oh, to be a fly on the wall the day that the realization finally, and completely, dawns. Of course, if one was a fly on the wall that day, one would have to be on the lookout for flying bottles of ketchup. (Z)