If I had known that this was going to happen, i would have paid triple frequent flyer points to get to New York and actually be in the courtroom for the spectacle. The argument alone would have been worth the time and trouble.
Based on reporting on MSNBC, even before the jury was brought into the box today, Trump defense attorney Joe Tacopina stood and requested to bring a motion before the court. The judge granted him the floor for his motion, and then Tacopina lost his sh*t.
Stripped down to its lowest common denominator, Tacopina’s motion basically said, Your Honor ,I stand today to request that you declare a mistrial. First, the media is out of control, and second, you’re being a d*ck to me.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, there were plenty of $4 legal words and flowery legalese. Tacopina complained that the media was turning the trial into a circus, making it impossible for his client to get a fair trial. Totally ignoring the fact that the jury has already sworn an oath to ignore and forego any media coverage while they are seated.
But when he talked about the judge being biased against his client when I wish I cold have heard Tacopina’s impassioned plea. From everything I’ve seen and heard, Joe Tacopina has the oratorical skills of Rocky Balboa. And I can only imagine that it would go something like;
Your Honor, this is ridiculous. You’re on my back all the time! Every time I repeat a question, you jump me for repeating myself. If I didn’t repeat myself, what am I supposed to have to say? And when I do ask a different question, my opponent jumps up and squeals “Objection!.” and you rule against me! How am I supposed to win a case for a billionaire if you’re going to keep quoting the rules to me? And every time I try to introduce a piece of evidence, you keep telling me I can’t use it!  You’re being a d*ck, and I want you outta here!
Joe, Joe, Joe. Please. Take a pill, and go lie down in a dark room with a warm cloth on your forehead for an hour. How is it possible that a lawyer, even a New York Lawyer dumb enough to let Trump hire him, can get through law school without learning that one of the prime perks of being a judge is that he or she gets to decide what evidence and or cannot be introduced at trial? I’m not a lawyer, and I don’t even play one in here, but even I know stuff that simple.
I know what the bug is that’s up Tacopina’s &ss, and he has nobody to blame but himself. It has been reported, as late as last Thursday, when the judge abruptly adjourned for the weekend over yet another cheap Tacopina tacti’s, that several times in open court, the judge has verbally admonished Tacopina both for repeating himself endlessly, as well as asking improper questions.
And if he’s doing that in front of the jury, that’s the kiss of death for a lawyer. because when a lawyer stands up in court to argue before a jury, the only two things he has to sell are his integrity and his professionalism. And if the judge is going to keep knocking him down for trying to con the jury, it doesn’t take long for them to start to think that the lawyer is full of sh*t. And worse yet is the endless repetition spanking. When I’m on a jury, I want to get this sh*t over with and go home. I don’t want to keep hearing the same question over and over again.
The judge of course, legally told Tacopina to sit down and shut up, the jury was brought in, and the trial resumed, with E Jean Carroll back on the stand. But there’s one subtle thing I want to point out to you.
If a lawyer thinks that he’s kicking-ass-and-taking-names, winning the case hands down, the last thing he wants to do is to put forth a motion for the judge to declare a mistrial, and start all over again. A winning lawyer shuts up, keeps going, and rides home to victory. A lawyer on the other hand, who’s is getting his clock cleaned by the most definitive witness in the trial, starts looking for a bail out on appeal. And that’s the only reason Tacopina pulled that cheap stunt today.
The trial will go on, and we’ll see what happens. But as I said, in a He said, She said trial, where the attorney realizes that he just gotten handed his head by the only witness that really matters, has to say, Holy Sh*t! I gotta get a do over and get better prepared for this! Which can only tell you that said lawyer was piss poor prepared for the most important witness in the trial in the first place. Don’t touch that dial.
The comment I saw elseweb is that Tacopina is lawyering like this is a criminal trial, when it’ a civil trial.
Maybe, maybe not…But either way it comes out the same…Tapocina is relying on the ancient tactic of victim shaming, and this enightened age doesn’t look kindly on that shit…
Some clichés ring true, like birds of a feather flock together.
Tacopina’s (and Trump’s) mistake was believing Carroll would fold like one of Trump’s cheap suits under cross=examination. That she was old, and being of Trump’s generation bred to be too embarrassed to even take the matter to trial. And if worse came to worse she’d turn hysterical on the stand and lose any credibility she might have built up on direct.
Problem for Trump and his sleazebag lawyers is Carroll is a far more substantive person than any of them. Hell, all of them put together. I’ve seen numerous interviews and she sure seems to me to be at heart a gentle natured and classy person. But underneath there is a toughness that so many women possess that so many me don’t realize is there. Trump assumed he was dealing with a NYC “socialite” who was nothing more than arm candy for men like him back in her younger days – like when she was a dead ringer for his Trophy Wife #2. Turns out, she’s part Steel Magnolia. (If you’ve never seen the movie make the times – those are SOME women that give the work its spot-on title) Carroll was prepared for the assault from Tacopina that he inflicted. And she not only stood up to it but returned fire!
Tacopina is probably glad his client is out of the country. Because to put it in his own parlance he got his a$$ kicked by a GIRL! Hearing the news coverage over the weekend it’s not surprise he filed his stupid motion and had his hissy fit. And the worst part for him is this ain’t over. He can surely look forward to more a$$ kickings from plaintiff’s lawyers and their witnesses. And the judge. I hope, I really do he was stupid enough to accept a “deal” from Trump to work on spec – with a “bigly Yuge” payout for winning and only expenses if he loses. Because as we know Trump will welsh on the bill for expenses!
Thank you!!! They completely uderestimated the spine of Carroll…Which was nothing sort of idiotic,considering the fact that this proud woman was willing to bear that cross for 30 freakin’ years, and STILL put herself into the public spotlight to make her case…The two of them are total seists,…The weaqk women will fold when they get to her…Fat chance, *ssholes…Carroll it taking you schmucks to school!
Excellent analysis!
His paisan, Luca Brasi, would be proud of him, make him an offer he can’t refuse
I don’t know how one can have a daughter and be a Republican.
or have a daughter and vote for a man who boasted of his own daughter’s hotness to the point of admitting (conditionally, in fairness) he’d bang her. How many NORMAL fathers even think of their daughters as sexual beings–even well into the girl’s 20s–much less think about “doing” them? And yet, millions of otherwise presumably normal dads did just that in 2016 AND 2020.
Don’t forget the 2016 GOP Convention. Wannabe Princess Ivanka introduced her daddy and when he walked out on the stage they engaged in the pro-forma “hug” that one would expect (and sees in such situations) – and right there on national TV Trump grabbed her a##! I think she was prepared for it because of how quickly she got his grubby hand off her butt, but it makes a person wonder how often he’s pawed at her and she continued to put up with it. She played daddy’s girl to the max over the years, twisting him around her little finger but him periodically (if not constantly) “copping a feel” to use an expression common when I was young had to get old for her. But she put up with it all those years to get his attention and money. Again, it’s speculation on my part to suggest it but sometimes I wonder if she didn’t sometimes tease Trump with the “possibility” that one day he just might get to fulfill his biggest and sickest fantasy – f**king HER. Anyway, Mr. “Grab em by the pussy – when you’re a star they let you do it” just HAD to show everyone on national TV that he could play grab-azz with his daughter.
Scanning ALL the photos of Trump with his Ivanka close, one cannot miss his hands on her in every photo, even when she was 12-15 years old …
He has this problem, he said in an interview he prefers 16 year-olds, where his buddy with the filthy island-hide-out preferred them younger, THAT still makes him a criminally described pedophile, he needs to be criminally charged for all his actions in the past, like having 28 young girls delivered to Mar-O-Golf under false promise of calendar model contracts, he told the pilot to leave them there because he and his buddy were the only ones there …
If anyone can reek of sexual predation, TRUMP has that particular, (guilty only if you can catch me), kind of attitude about everything and anybody … Smith needs to put this worm back where he crawled out of …
Maybe the Judge in this current court can, and will prescribe a little rest time in a brand new BRIGHT ORANGE JUMP SUIT … Along side his current loser lawyer …
The raise them to be stepford wives.
What is the saying? The person who represents himself in court has a fool for a client. Apparently this doesn’t exclude the possibility that a client who has a lawyer isn’t represented by a fool. The best possible outcome here is that stable genius will fire Tacopina and do the job himself.
One thing that is still puzzling me: Tacopina asked why she hadn’t asked for the ‘tapes’ from the store security cameras
I’m open to correction here but I don’t believe that ANY store would have cameras in changing or dressing rooms. No cameras = no tapes
It’s a more complicated issue. You’re correct that stores would have huge liabilities for recording in actual dressing rooms but security tapes of people going in and out of them would be ok. In this case the appearance of either Trump or Carroll in the vicinity (both before and after the rape) could be instructive had tapes been preserved. However, this was back in the 90s and most likely any tapes would likely have been analogue instead of digital. And even if digital the odds recordings would be kept for decades are improbably long. Basically, even if there were any without having been preserved near the time of the rape they long ago ceased to exist. So getting to the question of why Carroll didn’t ask for them first of all the store would never have given her or any customer tapes, especially if they included one or more other people because without the permission of everyone shown in them they’d be open to liability over privacy. In addition to that, keep in mind this was a tony, upper-crust place that would be resistant to admitting a rape took place. Not the kind of headlines (which there would have been of course) they’d want! So, only LE in the course of an investigation would get any security recordings. That brings us to the final point. Like the vast majority of rape/sexual assault victims even now (in the #MeToo era) Carroll didn’t report the rape to police. No reporting to police means no investigation and therefore no security tapes being turned over as potential evidence. Tacopina did actually attack Carroll’s not reporting the rape to LE and kept getting his butt kicked. Not digging into Carroll not asking for security recordings would have added to the butt-kicking he’d already subjected himself to.