Waiting For The Inevitable

My apologies for my unexplained absence. Even though I stopped pitching for the Cubs at the end of last season, when my ERA peaked at just over 34, apparently I have tendonitis in my right elbow. And it’s being a beyotch, the irritation stretching from mid biceps to the back of my thumb. Having my brace on makes it impossible to type, and this is the first day it’s quieted down enough for me to take it off and give this a shot. So for the next little while, don’t be alarmed by any lengthier than normal absences.

And now on to today’s normally scheduled nonsense and insanity. Just think about this for a moment. More than a year after the indictments, and despite every desperate spaghetti, meet wall delaying tactic Traitor Tot tried, it is not just possible, but in my mind likely that by this time next week, we’ll actually have a verdict in the only case likely to be tried before the election. I’ll explain in a moment.

But first, there’s a good reason why this one has sailed along fairly smoothly.  SCOTUS couldn’t muck it up! Traitor Tot has screamed absolute immunity! in every trial process except this one, That’s because Trump’s crimes were committed before he became President. He tried it in court and got shot down.

Here’s why I say we should have a verdict by Friday. As I’ve pointed out previously, the biggest thing that jurors give up is their time. The dental malpractice suit I sat on took eight days, and required me to bump back flying out to meet my wife for the first time. Monday is Memorial day, and the last thing that those jurors are going to want to do is take off for a holiday weekend with a Tuesday return to court on their calendars. Especially when the defense is making it easy on them.

There isn’t really much doubt about the verdict. Even veteran defense attorneys appearing on the network news programs concede that a) the prosecution did a bang-up job, and b) the defense couldn’t defend a hockey goal if there was a 4X6 piece of plywood in front of it.

Todd Blanche threw this case out the window in his opening statement. He made two promises. First, he promised to prove that the shack-up between El Pendejo Presidente and Stormy Daniels never happened. And second, he promised that when he rose to make his closing argument, the defense would have proven that the money paid to Cohen wasn’t a reimbursement, it was standard legal fees. And when he makes his closing argument, he’s going to be 0-2. Juries don’t like being lied to, and the prosecution will pound Blanche with this like a sledgehammer.

The prosecution did it’s job, and did it right. As I wrote previously, other than expert witnesses, pretty much every prosecution witness was a scumbag. And that’s exactly how they portrayed them. As I wrote earlier, if you’re prosecuting a drug lord, you don’t get your witnesses from a convent. The prosecutors acknowledged their shortcomings, but reminded the jury that it wasn’t their character on the stand that mattered, but their veracity and honesty. And that’s how they came across, as honest scumbags.

And the defense played their part perfectly. Trying to disprove the affair, they tried to attack Stormy Daniels as a liar out trying to score some easy extortion money. But when Daniels started describing the furnishings and floor tiles in the room, it was game over. And when Alina Habba basically acknowledged the affair by asking a question confirming that His Lowness was in his underwear on the bed when Daniels came out of the bathroom fully dressed, stick a fork in them, they were done.

And when he finally got his mano-a-mano moment with Cohen, he started by making himself look like a total ass, and Cohen like a likeable rake. After confirming that the two had never met, Blanche’s next question was, Yesterday on Tik-Tok Mr. Cohen, didn’t you refer to me as a “Whiny little bitch?” And when Cohen replied, That sounds like something I’d say, most of the jurors had smiles or smirks on their faces, and even Judge Merchan was having a hard time keeping his poker face on straight. Stand up and take a bow, FOOL!

And Blanche never got better. Blanche promised in his opening statement to prove that the checks and invoices were for standard legal fees, and yet he never attacked the documents. Instead Blanche constantly hammered Cohen over lies that Cohen had already admitted to on direct examination. And a reporter in the room on Friday something I predicted, in the afternoon, while Blanche was hammering Cohen over am October 12th misstatement for the nth time, the jury got a world class case of MEGO.

I don’t know how much longer Blanche will whip a dead equine on Monday with Cohen. But one thing is for sure. the prosecution’s redirect should take no more than 15 minutes. Because this is a classic example where less is more. This should cover it;

Mr. Cohen, what was the date of your telephone call with Keith Schiller that Mr. Blanche is so obsessed with? October 24rh. And on what date did you call Mr. Trump to advise him you had opened the shell company, and were ready to pull the trigger on transferring the $140,000 to Mr. Davidson? October 26th. So, no matter what you did or did not discuss with Mr. Schiller and/or Mr. Trump, that call was minor compared to the import of the call you made to Mr. Trump on October 26th, is that correct? Yes, that’s correct. No further questions, Your Honor.

As I’ve explained, the defense has been  boned right out of the gate, for the simple reason that this is at its heart a documents case. And documents don’t lie. They simply are. Now, maybe the people who testified have lied in the past, as long as they testify honestly about the documents, and the simple fact that their testimony will match the documents, their previous sins are of no concern to the court or the jury.

It will be interesting for me to see how Todd Blanche conducts his closing argument. He promised at opening to prove that the affair never happened, and was shot down by Stormy Daniels like a duck with one good wing. Then he swore to show that the payments were standard legal fees, for a man who was an employee on payroll, but Weisselberg’s handwritten document listing the payments as reimbursements, and Trump’s recorded call to Cohen where he said, The first two reimbursement checks will be on the way this week, Blanche risks losing all credibility with the jury, especially when the prosecution rakes him over the coals with that on their close. All I can see him doing is wasting a couple of hours of the jury’s time reciting every single lie that the witnesses said, all of which the jury already knows, and boring them to tears.

As for the prosecution? I see 2-3 hours, tops. Once again, less is more. The jury wants to go home. I see the prosecution outlining the testimony of David Pecker and tying it in with the provided documents he could confirm. The same thing with Davidson and Daniels. And then close with Cohen, and how his testimony was not only corroborated by the others, but how it ties all of the loose threads of the documentary evidence into one c9ompelling indictment of Donald John Trump. They don’t need to hit the defense, hell, they self destructed.

Two simpler questions. That’s what it boils down to. Did Trump knowingly falsify state, local, and federal documents, and did he do in order to facilitate an underlying crime, mainly interference in a fair and free election? From where I’m sitting, the thing that will take the longest is the fact that the jury foreman has 34 separate jury verdict forms to fill out. Don’t touch that dial.

I thank you for the privilege of your time.

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