Tomorrow morning in New York District Court the sh*t finally gets real. Donald Trump, Gobfather of the Don Cornholeone crime family will take the stand. And for 1 1/2-2 days it’s all on the line. Trump’s alleged fortune, his 2024 electoral fortune. It’d be must see TVÂ if only it were only being televised.
There are a couple of things I’m looking for in his testimony. Remember what I told you a couple of days ago, this is pure theater for Trump, meant to impress specific audiences, so his mood will swing back and forth.
Here’s how I see it. Look for Trump to be sullen, aggressive, sarcastic and argumentative. You know, Trump. He’ll want the media coverage to focus on his combative nature with the prosecution on the stand, defending himself, and by extension his supporters against the corrupt AG. I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump takes a civil contempt slap or two on the stand, to show how he’s fighting the Trump hating judge.
But Trump has to watch how far he pushes this, because it could backfire on him. Right now Trump is a government witness, automatically deemed by the court to be friendly. The prosecution can’t question him aggressively or cross examine him. But if Trump is too obstinate and aggressive, the prosecution can ask the judge to deem him a hostile witness, and if the judge agrees, then the prosecution can cross examine him, and all gloves are off.
As for his actual testimony, I expect surly, mumbling nonsense. There will be a goodly sprinkling of I don’t knows, and I can’t recalls. When asked for his reasons for his specific, the reply will almost certainly be tortured nonsense, explanations that while they make no common sense, are just tethered enough in reality to make them difficult to dispute or rebut.
Trump’s best testimony will be when his own attorneys take a whack at him. Because this round he’s playing for and speaking to a different audience, the appellate court. His lawyers will lead him on an journey of his selfless struggle against a corrupt, vindictive Attorney General who promised in her campaign that she’d Get Trump.
He’ll testify that he has done nothing illegal. In the 50 years he’s spent in the business, Manhattan real estate has always been a blood sport. No favors done and no prisoners taken. The rules are arcane and muddy at best. And most of all, Everybody does it, and everybody knows it. The banks and insurance companies all get their own independent assessments and judge their risk from there, they don’t trust the palsied numbers the client gives them. And since everybody does it, that makes this a politically motivated prosecution.
It’s the appearance of Ivanka Trump on Wednesday that poses a greater potential risk to Traitor Tot than his own testimony. Ivanka is kind of a unique position here. She is not a co-defendant simply because she left the Trump Organization officially when she went to Washington DC to volunteer in his administration. So any crimes she may have committed have already passed the statute of limitations.
My understanding is that the prosecutors want to examine her on two previous Trump deals in which she took the role of chief negotiator. Even though the statute of limitations has already passed on those crimes, the prosecutors want to use them to show historically how long term the systemic fraud at the Trump organization has been. Which could well be an Achilles Heel for Trump and his organization.
As chief negotiator Ivanka would have intimate knowledge of all the numbers, and related them to other parties. The natural question for a prosecutor to ask her would be, Ms. Trump, in the document you are holding, with your signature, you have a proffer sheet to Deutsche bank for this proposed deal. Where did those figures come from? To which the non incriminating reply is, That would have been an independent assessment done for us by our then accounting firm, Mazar’s. This is a potential death trap, since the immediate follow up question is, And Ms. Trump, can you tell the court where Mazar’s would have gotten the figures for their independent assessment from?
BANG! Remember, when all this sh*t started hitting the fan, Trump’s lead accountant at Mazar’s testified that for more than a decade the firm relied on the numbers that the Trump Organization provided them in good faith for their assessments and tax preparation. Later the organization did a forensic audit, severed their ties with the Trump Organization, and put out a public statement disavowing all of the work that they had done for Trump in the last 10 years, since they couldn’t verify the accuracy of the numbers they were provided.
So the only reply Ivanka Trump can give is, I’m not sure, but it’s likely that the preliminary numbers would have come from Allan Weisselberg in the Trump accounting department. If she tries to claim ignorance, as that wasn’t part of her job as chief negotiator, the prosecution will simply read the Mazar’s statement to her in open court. A classic case of fraud GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out).
That’s just the most obvious one I cold recall. I’m sure that with all of the documents at their disposal, and the time and effort they’ve put into this, they have a whole arsenal of inconsistencies like that to hit her with, which an experienced chief negotiator should have twigged to and followed up on.
As far as I can tell, Ivanka Trump is the last prosecution witness, unless they recall the Mazar’s dude to fortify that last point. Then we’ll see what kind of witnesses the defense puts on. It’s funny, because the most natural witness in the world for them to put on would have been Mazar’s, to testify to the accuracy of the numbers. But Trump already blew that one out of the water all by himself. This should be interesting.
I thank you for the privilege of your time.
Wonder if Don Don is gonna gird his loins in prep for any adversity, particularly from Maree Antoinette Barbie Doll, in conjunction with the prosecution team. Irrespective of that, he’ll likely do a brain snap in the fossil mould and inflict some self perjury. Hope so. It’ll be delicious, served on a cold plate!
Don’t insult Marie Antoinette, who actually did not say,”Let them eat cake.” Poor woman was completely uneducated by Mother Empress Maria Theresa. She was barely literate.
Ivanka has a college degree and has no excuse. She was,a model and was involved heavily in the Panama project. She may look like Barbie but she isn’t an idiot, though she is plastic.
Trump’s REAL problem is, he cannot remember to just shut up when the conversation turns to his failures and examples of his invisible good business practices … his numbers of supporters has dwindled already, people are beginning to see the obvious barker quality of his repeated rhetoric, lies about his fortune and loses …
All the prosecutors have to do is remind him of some fine examples of his worthless past and he may explode with rants of poor me and attacks on my past, when you have no idea of what was real for me … Unfortunately for Trump, any stunts like that will bring out reams of evidence and results of deep investigations, including expert opinions and take-apart of his
original crime …
All-in All, Trump will certainly look like death warmed over as he leaves the courtroom, but that will just be our first smile and grin and if he is a particularly naughty boy on the stand, the judge has every right to remand him to jail, leaving the courtroom in hand cuffs with officers on either side …