May17

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Trump Legal News: The Trial (Day 18)

The Trump criminal fraud trial has completed its 18th day and its fourth week; here are the big stories from yesterday:

• Cohen Takes Some Damage: After botching his cross-examination of Michael Cohen on Tuesday, lead defense attorney Todd Blanche was out for blood yesterday, and he drew at least a few drops, here and there. Most notably, he returned to testimony Cohen gave earlier this week about a phone call between him and Trump bodyguard Keith Schiller. Cohen had claimed the call was about the Stormy Daniels situation, but it seems to have actually been about harassing phone calls that were upsetting Trump's then-fixer. This exchange made it appear as if Cohen is less than truthful, or at least that his memory is not great.
  
  Blanche also established that while Cohen had no retainer agreement with Trump at the time of the Stormy Daniels payoff, he (Cohen) often worked without a retainer agreement. That theoretically weakens the argument that the payment to Cohen could not possibly have been for legal work.
  
  
• The End Is Nigh?: The prosecution is done calling witnesses, and thus far the defense says it only plans to call one (an expert in campaign finance). If everyone sticks with that plan, closing statements could begin on Tuesday of next week, and the jury could have the case by Thursday.
  
  
• The House Is in Da House: Since time may be running out to show support for the Dear Leader, a whole bunch of members of the House of Representatives hightailed it to New York yesterday. The list includes Reps. Andy Biggs (AZ), Lauren Boebert (CO), Eli Crane (AZ), Matt Gaetz (FL), Bob Good (VA), Anna Paulina Luna (FL), Ralph Norman (SC), Andy Ogles (TN) and Mike Waltz (FL). After court adjourned, they played their part in the "dodge the gag order" scheme, attacking Judge Juan Merchan's family, while also slurring the witnesses as "a felon" and "a hooker."
  
  But can we be sure this is a gambit to get around the gag order? Yes, we can now. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), who really is in the running for the title of "dumbest person in Congress" (especially now that Louie Gohmert is retired), appeared on one of the apparently endless supply of right-wing talk shows on Wednesday, and explained that part of the reason he traveled to New York for the trial was "to overcome this gag order." That is known as saying the quiet part out loud.
  
  
• Presidential Erections: Maybe Emily Litella was on to something, after all. Anyhow, in what is undoubtedly the most important storyline of the day, a Trump supporter released dozens of phallic-shaped mylar balloons outside the courthouse, each of them adorned with the face of one of the key members of the court or the prosecution case. "I'm an artist, so what do I do? Return the humiliation favor by humiliating these dicks," said Scott LoBaido, who staged the display. We have no doubt that Leonardo da Vinci is somewhere right now, wishing he'd thought of that. Curse those Medicis!
  
  
• Damages?: No, not that kind; this isn't a civil trial. Polling is starting to suggest that Trump is losing, narrative-wise, when it comes to the trial. The newest from Yahoo!/YouGov says that roughly half of respondents are following the story, and that people believe the prosecution's version of events over Trump's version of events by roughly a 3-to-1 margin. For example, 45% of respondents believe Trump had relations with Stormy Daniels, 14% do not. More importantly, 40% of respondents thought that an indictment and trial are justified, while only 3% (yes, 3%) thought that course of action was not appropriate.

No trial today, because of Barron Trump's graduation, but they'll be back at it on Monday.

Also, we're at work on the item about the debates, but today's post is already near 5,000 words, and we try not to go over that. Plus, we try (even if we don't always succeed) to be live by 4:00 a.m. PT. So, we'll get to the debate item next week. They're not going anywhere. If you would like to participate in our debate insta-poll, the link is still live. And for those working on the headline theme, the headline of the debate item was going to be: "Trump vs. Biden: Two Months, Two Debates." (Z)