Day 1 of the Trump trial phase has ended early (at 12:40) to accommodate a juror who had an appointment. It will start late tomorrow (11:30) because the court will have a hearing in the morning on whether Trump should be held in contempt for posts and comments about witnesses and jurors. Some highlights from today.
-Another juror expressed concern about case publicity resulting in people identifying him. After talking with the judge privately, he remained on the jury.
-The proceedings started this morning with the judge ruling on the “Sandoval motions.” This is to decide what prior misconduct suggesting dishonest character Trump can be cross examined about if he testifies. The judge found Trump can be cross examined about his twice defaming E Jean Carroll but apparently not what that defamation was about (sexual assault). Trump can be cross examined about his charitable foundation that he had to close due to fraud and about his stipulation to dissolve it (which admitted wrong doing). He can be cross examined about the recent business fraud civil determination related to false Statements of Financial Condition. Finally, he can be cross examined about twice being held in contempt for posting “untrue, disparaging and personal information” about that court’s clerk.
-That’s a lengthy list of very adverse stuff that will only come in if Trump chooses to testify. That’s why it would be crazy for him to testify. In that regard, defense counsel did not provide any indication in opening arguments today as to whether Trump would (or would not) testify.
-Things quickly moved to opening arguments, with the prosecution taking about 40 minutes and Trump’s attorney taking about 30.
-The prosecution’s opening statement started with the following: “This case is about a criminal conspiracy, The defendant, Donald Trump, orchestrated a scheme to corrupt the 2016 election. Then he covered up that scheme by lying in his NY business records, over and over and over again.”
-In my view, the prosecution’s opening over emphasized the “election interference” angle in this. The charge is that Trump committed business fraud by charactering hush money payments to Stormy Daniels as business expenses (legal fees paid to Cohen), amplified to a felony because the intent included concealing the crime of Cohen’s illegal contribution to Trump’s Campaign. It should not matter whether the purpose of that concealment, and the business fraud, was to interfere with the election, or hide the salacious allegations of a porn star from Melania.
-The prosecution read a transcript of the Access Hollywood (p-grabbing tape) to the jury, but per the judge’s ruling, they cannot play the actual tape.
-Defense’s start to opening arguments was: “President Trump is innocent. President Trump did not commit any crimes. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office should never have brought this case.”
-The defense argued that Trump knew nothing of the underlying fraud as his minions handled it all.
-Defense tried to say the agreements were all written by lawyers but the prosecution objected. The judge sustained and the comment was stricken from the record. Trump’s attorneys previously refused to accept the burdens of an advice of counsel defense and the judge has ruled they can’t gain the benefits of such a defense without the burdens.
-Defense referred to Trump as “President Trump” in contrast to the prosecution which referred to him as “Mr. Trump.”
-With the conclusion of opening arguments the prosecution called their first witness: “The People Call David Pecker.” Pecker is the owner of the National Enquirer and is expected to testify how he, Cohen, and Trump conspired to find bad stories about Trump and kill them. He will testify how he referred Stormy Daniels to Cohen when she sought to sell her story to the Enquirer.
-None of that happened today. Due to the early recess Pecker did not testify long enough to get into the meat of anything.
As indicated, tomorrow will start with a hearing to determine if Trump will be held in contempt and trial will then continue with the renewal of Pecker’s testimony. Notably, Trump left the hearing and renewed attacks on witnesses, including Cohen.
