Get to know who your friends are Sometimes the irony is so thick it just rolls off in waves. In the waning days of the Traitor Tot presidency, former Trump campaign chief Steve Two Shirts Bannon flew his freak flag. Not only was he a bomb throwing radical nihilist, he was a world class grifter on par with his former boss.
Bannon and a couple of numb nuts cronies set up a scam. But not just any scam, this one would target and prey on Trump’s own sheeple. Trying to capitalize on His Lowness’s failure to build his vaunted wall, they started up a non profit site to build the wall with private funds. They called it something like We Build The Wall, and when the cash started rolling in, they just started divvying up the profits for personal use.
Bannon and his dipsh*t compadres got caught and indicted in a DC federal courtroom. Two of his amigo’s pled guilty and are sitting in federal prison as we speak. One is awaiting his trial date. And on a last night pardon, Trump let his scumbag pal off, even though El Pendejo Presidente didn’t get his cut.
It made my heart sing to hear today that Two Shirts has until July 1st at the latest to report to the local federal hoosegow to serve his four month sentence for Contempt of Congress. But as it turns out, a lousy four months may end up being the least of Bannon’s problems.
Because Bannon never had a jury empaneled for his federal rap, who else but Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg went right back to a state grand jury and indicted Bannon on the state version of the federal charges. And there is no issue of double jeopardy. So he’s now waiting for a brand new trial date in Manhattan court.
And here’s where the irony gets so sick that you can cut it with a knife. By nothing more than the luck of the wheel, Bannon is going to be sitting in exactly the same courtroom that Il Douche just populated, and his judge is going to be none other than Judge Juan Merchan.
And here’s where Steve Bannon proves himself to be one of the dumbest sumbitches that ever lived. Bannon isn’t Trump. He long ago learned to work the grift without getting caught. Bannon has millions, he can afford to hire the type of legal sharks that Trump can only dream of, since he won’t shut up, listen, and pay his bills. But he’s hitched his star to the worst possible criminal defense attorney, at the worst possible time, and in the worst possible place.
And I think I know why. Iconic prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi wrote in Outrage, his post trial takedown of the OJ Simpson case, that the world of celebrity criminal defense attorney’s is incredibly incestuous, as the world of celebrity criminal defendants. Civil defense lawyers recommend their close celebrity criminal defense friends, and celebrities recommend their celebrity defense lawyers to their friends. As such, a celebrity criminal defense lawyer who got a celebrity client straight probation on DUI and possession of controlled substance charges will find himself defending the celebritie’s friend on manslaughter charges.
All that being said, it should come as a surprise to nobody that Bannon’s celebrity criminal defense attorney for his Contempt of Congress charges, as well as his chosen mouthpiece for his upcoming Manhattan criminal fraud charges is none other than, Robert Costello.
No sh*t. And it’s not like there’s any intelligent reason for it. Costello passed whatever legal shelf life he had on January 20, 2021. When Costello was trying to woo Michael Cohen into his fold, he did it with his vaunted back-channel to Trump through Rudy Giuliani. But that was when Trump was still President. Now Giuliani is a sad, broke buffoon facing pauperdon and prison, and Trump is a convicted felon. But in the true code of mob losers everywhere, at least Costello is their man.
And here’s where it gets 3 Stooges stupid time. When Trump was on trial for his fraud counts, he wanted to take the stand. When his attorney, Todd Blanche convinced him that this would be legal suicide, Trump demanded that Robert Costello take the stand in his stead.
Which turned out to just be a different form of legal suicide, suicide by hanging instead of suicide by sleeping pills. When Costello took the stand, he was so arrogant, so abrasive, so combative that Judge Merchan took the extraordinary step of clearing the courtroom, of not only the jury, but also the spectators and media before giving Costello a world class dressing down. I wrote at the time that it would surprise me if Merchan didn’t write to the New York Bar after the trial to sanction Costello.
And now, because Bannon is Goebbels loyal to his Hitler, Bannon is going to walk into court every day with Costello by his side. And for all the good it will do him, he may as well have a 2nd year loaw student sitting next to him. because Costello is clearly still stinging with embarrassmen t and outrage at his treatment at the hands of Merchan, and Merchan is going to have him on a choker chain for this trial.
Bannon could have anybody else he likes. But he’ll stick with Costello out of blind obedience for the cause. After all, what better way to take the fall for his crimes, crimes his compatriots have already pled guilty, than to go down as just another martyr for the cause.
And go down he will. because if there’s one thing that we learned from the Trump trial, it’s that juries love Judge Juan Merchan. Reporters in the courtroom all told the tale of how the jury seemed to draw their strength and focus from Judge Merchan’s direction. His pleasant and polite demeanor endeared him to the jury, and they even felt protective of him.
The jury was spared the spectacle of Judge Merchan’s wrath in the Trump case, since he sent them back to the holding room before drawing-and-quartering Costello. But in Bannon’s upcoming trial before Merchan, you can count on Costello being more compelled to satisfy some personal grudge against the judge than to represent his client. He’ll act out, and Judge Merchan will have no option but to dress him down in open court in front of the jury. Which will only hurt Costello’s client, Steve Bannon.
Isn’t payback a bitch? Trump gives his felonious buffy a free pass on federal fraud charges. Then Bannon hires Trump’s tame lap lawyer to defend him on the Contempt of Congress charges. Then, after Bannon gets indicted on New York state fraud charges, Trump calls Bannon’s lawyer to make a horses ass out of himself in his trial, in front of the same judge that will hear Bannon’s case. God, I love it when they eat their young!
I thank you for the privilege of your time.
Karma sure is doing some work here.
But it’s nothing she hasn’t done before.
Or with these morons, do again.
you know who else is on Bannon’s team? Evan Cochran I kid you not. rumor has it Bannon’s trial starts in September with Judge Juan Merchan. Bannon is asking for a stay while he appeals just like Navarro did and lost. Bannon’s going to lose his podcast lo
Ah. Finally. Bannon time. What a pos. Steve “two shi@ts”… wondering… if he is jail does he get hosed down if he doesn’t shower? 🤮
Do they shave their heads to make sure they don’t have head lice? I wouldn’t be surprised if Grease spot Steve had them.
I’m tipping Bannon to ask for two jumpsuits.
Thanks murf for giving us a heads up that the circus is coming to town. Can’t wait til the tiny car pulls up with a thousand clowns.
And the timing couldn’t be better! Bannon is off the airwaves from July 1 to end October. He goes to his NY scamming/grifting trial in September, when people ARE watching the political news.
Couldn’t have timed it any better even if murfster did it all himself! 🙂
WAIT … BANNON is in jail 4 months… July Aug Sept Oct… how can he go to another trial in September??
Seems to me like “blind obedience to the cause” would mean staying the f*ck-all OUT of prison. Bringing in some ass-hat who already pissed the judge off might not do that I should think. Now, I have to add a caveat: this costello person might be totally different when he is defending a client than when he is sitting in the witness seat. If he is a successful attorney, something tells me this is indeed the case. I know Judge Merchan will be professional and will not hold costello’s ass-hat performance art against him. At worst he will instruct all the attorneys about what he expects in the way of behavior from them but maybe while giving the shit-eye to costello.