The Trump trial is on the last day of a three day weekend. Other than to note last Friday being an “off day” because the trial HAD been proceeding at a good pace let’s not go into how Trump spent the day. Instead let’s talk about the jury, and how they spent their day and also yesterday and today. Let’s also look ahead. NEXT weekend is a three day holiday weekend. Something on everyone’s calendar. Memorial Day is a solemn one to be sure. However, for a majority of Americans including those who truly reflect on the meaning of Memorial Day it’s the first three day holiday weekend in months. The start of the summer season. Road trips to see family/friends, beaches (or both), gatherings with folks firing up the grill for the first time. It’s something most people look forward to. However for the Trump jury, Team Trump has likely ruined it.
Before I talk about it I want to call your attention to something else I saw earlier this afternoon. Business Insider posted an article citing a legal pundit who says Trump’s napping in court is a “middle finger” to the jury. Ouch. I know there’s been coverage of Trump napping and sleep-farting his way through proceedings but to see the potential effects such behavior has on juries is striking. Or at least it is to me:
Gene Rossi, a former litigator with the Department of Justice, told Business Insider that in the 110 cases he’s tried, all the jurors took their jobs very seriously.
“If they sense that the defendant is essentially blowing it off and not taking it seriously like an eighth grader, they will hold that against him,” Rossi said. “End of story.”
To make sure both sides of the legal trial equation were represented Business Insider also cited a defense lawyer:
“That is a proverbial middle finger to the jury,” agreed Jeremy Saland, a former Manhattan Assistant District Attorney and current defense lawyer, who said dozing off would be a “foolish, dangerous way to handle yourself in that courtroom.”
For his part, Rossi said he advises clients to be engaged and respectful “like they are in church listening to a sermon by the Pope.”
Well, in Trump’s mind and that of his MAGAs Trump has replaced God and their Jeebus so the thought of him giving respect like the Pope presenting a sermon is laughable. Still, as I think about it the jurors have been seeing this day after day. The same guy who spent so much time mocking “Sleepy Joe Biden” is literally there a few feet away from them in criminal court being “Drowsy Donald.” HE may think it plays well with the jury, that it’s a “this is so ridiculous I might as well get some nap time” vibe. If the experts are to be believed it’s been having the opposite effect Trump is trying to convey. FYI, Drowsy Don isn’t a new thing. The title pic is him falling asleep while the Queen was speaking at his state dinner. Photographers caught him napping during a COVID briefing. How about it LP? It’s time for one of your mashups and feel free to use “Drowsy Don.” I won’t sue. (not that an acknowledgement here on PZ wouldn’t be nice) Anyway, considering THAT let’s take a look at how the defense lawyers are quite possibly blowing it with the jury.
For a while last week it looked like the prosecution would rest, the defense might call (emphasize might) one witness only because no way in hell will Trump take the stand and tomorrow, Monday there would be closing arguments. Then the judge would give the jury instructions on the law and by Tuesday morning they’d be in deliberations. With every chance of reaching a verdict by the end of the week and having a great weight lifted from them. They’d be able to have the kind of Memorial Day weekend they want to have each year. It’s fair to wonder whether instead of thinking about what the defense wants, even desperately hopes they will be thinking about the jury is instead thinking their Memorial Day holiday weekend might be ruined. Because Team Trump conducted themselves like a-holes and weren’t respectful of their (the jury member’s) time.
Instead of closing arguments first thing tomorrow Michael Cohen will be back on the witness stand. Todd Blanche says he’ll need a couple more hours (we’ll see if that’s all but I wouldn’t bet on it) and then who knows? The prosecution will do re-direct and easily clean up Cohen’s testimony including Blanche’s “bigly gotcha/Perry Mason” moment during his cross of Cohen. (I’ll talk more about that later) Since they have said Cohen will be their last witness the prosecution will rest. The defense will then do what virtually every defense lawyer/team does at that point of a trial – offer a motion requesting summary dismal of the case because (they will say) the prosecution failed to make its case. Again, this almost always happens so it’s not some “stunt” unique to Trump. However, for legal reasons I won’t get into such motions are virtually always denied. And the judge will ask the defense to present their own case.
If you’ve followed this or any trial you’ve seen legal pundits talk about how ideally defense lawyers prefer not to present any case at all. And of course how inadvisable it is for most defendants, but especially brash ones like Trump to take the stand. Still, a defense lawyer(s) often calls some witnesses but seldom presents a case as lengthy as a prosecution typically does. Team Trump has talked about calling an election law expert but it would largely be a waste of time. As I understand it New York law decrees the trial judge is the expert on the law in trials so anything Trump’s expert would be allowed to present would be quite limited. However it would take up time.
There’s also this Costello guy who represented Rudy G. and who wanted to represent Cohen. He of course is part of the Trump cabal and he was being pushed at Cohen to “keep him in the fold” but by then Cohen knew his own interests were at odds with Trump’s. So Cohen did talk with Costello but generally tried to get the guy to just drop it and go away. IF the defense opens up that can of worms the prosecution will make mincemeat out of the guy, and again the jury will have reason to think their time is being wasted.
Let’s backtrack a bit. I wrote an article here on Politizoom that part of what’s made this trial tedious is that much of the testimony of witnesses has been authentication of documents. Texts, emails, social media posts and of course those bank records and checks. And some phone/voicemail stuff. In most trials the bulk of this witness testimony would have been stipulated to instead of having some govt. functionary testify as to authenticity and then be cross-examined. This is pure Trump doing. His mentor Roy Cohn back from the dead telling him challenge everything and concede nothing.
The problem is that unlike back in Cohn’s time it’s more common for a lawyer to be on a jury. In this trial we have two. Am I the only one who foresees them speaking up during deliberations? We all know who the main witnesses are. Jurors will want to sort through notes and transcripts and it will be buried in clutter from all those “authentication” witnesses. The first time someone complains there will be a tutorial on stipulation and how all that extra stuff piled up wasn’t necessary. In fact, a suggestion might be made to separate it out just to make things proceed faster going forward. However the point will have been made – a lot of time was wasted on bullsh*t.
I can easily imagine this coming up early on in deliberations. It will leave questions in jurors minds about Blanche’s and the defense’s in generals credibility. And they will probably not have forgotten the judge himself having questioned Blanche’s credibility. The most striking instance happened without them being in the courtroom but they saw it happen once as I recall. That credibility issue is going to matter.
Then there was the Stormy Daniel’s cross. Anyone but Trump fluffers (his costumed Congress Critters now showing up for example) and RWNJ outlets knows it wasn’t just a disaster but likely backfired. Cross examination could have been done and Daniels’ credibility attacked without a day’s worth of slut-shaming. Even jurors with moral objections to Daniel’s former line of work likely thought it was over the top. Worse, at least for Trump it likely means they believe Trump did in fact have sex with Daniels. And had good reason to want to cover that up in the wake of the Access Hollywood tape.
Here’s the thing though. The judge will instruct them that whether or not Trump and Daniels had sex doesn’t matter legally. Only the fact that Daniels was ready to talk about it publicly. Again, the timeline will make this REALLY bad for Trump and that cross make it crystal clear why Trump wanted, needed to bury the story! Basically, the defense made the prosecution’s point. However they took up a lot of trial time in the process. Wasting the jury’s time.
That brings us back to Cohen and the fact the defense STILL isn’t done with it’s cross examination. I believe the experts who say it could have and should have been over with quickly. Everyone knew going in that Michael Cohen had told countless lies, mostly to benefit Trump. He even perjured himself to protect Trump and was convicted and imprisoned for doing so. However keep in mind that Trump was President when the DOJ also nailed Cohen on some tax charges too. The prosecution brought it all out on direct but any competent defense attorney would take a hammer to Cohen to drive the nails of Cohen’s lies (and convictions) deeper.
The defense had something they planned to spring on Cohen. So they could have spent a half hour or even an hour walking Cohen through various lies before hitting him with that gotcha/Perry Mason thing about a single phone call. It apparently flustered Cohen and Team Trump (via his surrogates) have been crowing about it ever since. Even at the time journalists were making a BFD about Blanche (in OMFG!) tones raising his voice and telling Cohen he lied! It was well into the evening before the pundits on non-Fox air collectively pulled their heads out of their a$$es and explained how easily that can and will get cleaned up on re-direct.
MY point however is that Blanche intentionally dragged things out so court would end long before his cross-examination was done. And, to Team Trump’s way of thinking the jury would spend every waking moment of a three day weekend obsessing over that one moment. And deciding nothing Cohen testified to on direct was true, and therefore nothing about the entire prosecution case was true. Not even all the other witnesses and documentary evidence that backed up what Cohen said.
You know damn well that’s what Trump was thinking. I’m not so sure. One kind of memorable moment and a small collection of lesser ones with Cohen don’t change the evidence. That Cohen kept his cool has to have unnerved the defense. They were I’m sure counting on vintage, combative Cohen who would brashly talk smack defening himself the way he used to defend Trump. Rather than melt down in white hot anger (and I imagine some jurors thought it might happen) he was by most accounts pretty humble.
However my point is that the jury might well be thinking how much more time are we going to have to sit and listen to Blanche attacking Cohen as being a serial liar? We get it! He’s lied his butt off in the past. Move the hell on. If as I suspect that’s the case with many, if not all the jurors this weekend, especially when they think about next weekend Team Trumps strategy is imploding. For damned sure after a short re-direct whenever Blanche finally shuts the hell up the jurors will feel like a lot of their time has been wasted.
Team Trump will no doubt file more motions, and more discussions between the lawyers and the judge will take place while the jury sits in a room and stews, wondering when the hell will closing arguments finally happen and they can start to deliberate. And thy are human beings. Like most people they were looking forward to Memorial Day weekend. If they aren’t already doing so, by noon Monday any of them that had plans of any kind will start thinking about how this trial might be ruining them.
As Lawrence O’Donnell keeps pointing out nothing a lawyer says during a trial is evidence. On the other hand, when it comes time to sum up the actual evidence and place it in context the relationship a lawyer has with the jury can make a huge difference during closing arguments. Think of it this way. Like me you might watch a little on Fox just to know what their viewers are hearing. But whatever is scrolling across the banner on the bottom of the TV reads your mind sees something like “Yeah, I hear you but you’re spouting bullsh*t that’s impossible to take seriously.”
The thing is, this is all Trump’s doing. He has good lawyers sitting there with him. Not the best, but quite good and they’ve earned good reputations for a reason. I simply can’t imagine them wanting to have handled this case the way the defense has done things. But their client has ignored their advice and demanded they do things his way.
Maybe Trump’s lawyers don’t want to be intentionally pissing off the jury. But if only to please their client that’s exactly what they’ve been doing. And it’s likely they aren’t done doing so!
It’s been noted that anyone who represents themselves has a fool for a client. Any lawyers that let’s the client call the shots are also fools.