As the days go by it becomes more and more clear why Joey Tacopina decided to bail from the Trump legal team. Anybody sane would have. Donald Trump seems to have some wild idea that he’s going to waltz into court tomorrow and bluster his way to a different verdict than the one that has already been reached in the E. Jean Carroll case. Take note: this is the defamation trial not the civil rape trial that is in progress right now. The rape trial is finished. Trump was found civilly liable. He’s an adjudicated rapist in the court system, so that’s over and done with.
The defamation trial is for the purpose of assessing damages against Trump for defaming E. Jean Carroll. But Trump seems to have this cockeyed notion in his mind that he’s going to win both the trial in progress now and the original defamation case. He has said as much. “Both cases should be thrown out of court.” Neither one will be. And he also seems to be fighting the original rape trial verdict, because he keeps saying he never saw E. Jean Carroll and doesn’t know her. So here’s Trump nailing his own legal coffin shut in New Hampshire tonight.
Read this Washington Post article on how Trump’s appearance, if he makes it, is “akin to a suicide mission.”
Trump has claimed he intends to testify in the case on Monday — which would probably produce a dramatic courtroom showdown. But it’s unclear whether Trump will really show up. For one thing, he has made similar claims in the past and then not appeared. For another, Tuesday happens to be the day of the New Hampshire primary, and Trump is again running for president.
If he does testify, legal experts said, his time on the witness stand could be something akin to a suicide mission.
Over the past week, Kaplan’s handling of the damages trial in Lower Manhattan show how different a federal courtroom is from most other parts of public life — even state court, where Trump and his lawyers had more leeway to squabble with a judge overseeing a different civil trial in another New York courthouse over the past several months. Kaplan has not tolerated similar behavior, and Trump has railed on social media that the federal judge is “a totally biased and hostile person.”
The article goes on to say that Trump seems to believe that showing up and being belligerent is going to sway the judge and jury and win him the GOP nomination. See, this is what’s happening: life is a reality TV show to Trump. Now granted, the Bard did say that, “All the world’s a stage and all the people merely players.” Yes, in the grand scheme of things, we’re all players in a piece written by the Creator. But that’s different from reality TV. In reality TV there are no laws, no rules, there’s only Trump performing and in life, it’s not that way.
Legal experts warn that if he does so on the witness stand in Kaplan’s courtroom, he could end up humiliated and threatened with contempt of court.
Robert Katzberg, a veteran New York white-collar criminal defense lawyer, said Kaplan is “the worst possible draw for Trump,” not because of any personal or political bias, but because of the type of judge he is.
“He’s really smart and takes no guff from either side. He expects lawyers to be professional and toe the line, and if they do not, holds them accountable” said Katzberg, who is now consulting counsel for Holland & Knight.
“Even if you had the most pro-Trump judge in America overseeing the trial, Donald Trump should not testify. Multiply that by a million with Lewis Kaplan on the bench,” he said. “Given both his lack of any relevant facts as to the only issue remaining — the damages suffered by Ms. Carroll — and Donald Trump’s inability to control himself emotionally, he is begging not only to be debased before the jury, but contempt citations will be looming large.”
And this judge is the judge to do it. The article goes on to say that Justice Kaplans’ “history with contempt is unique among the federal judiciary,” and to cite a case where the justice sought to persuade federal prosecutors to “charge a lawyer, Steven Donziger, with criminal contempt of court after he refused to give access to his communications.” Kaplan is nobody you want to screw around with. The article goes on to report
When prosecutors declined, the judge took the rare step of appointing a private law firm to prosecute Donziger. The attorney was ultimately convicted and served 45 days in jail after already having spent more than two years under house arrest.
This is not the kind of legal mind you want to screw with. Trump is hideously out of his depth here, with nothing but Alina Habba and her tits (excuse my bluntness) standing between him and legal catastrophe in the form of contempt of court citations and significant fines. This is why Tacopina jumped ship and any sane lawyer would. This is a dumpster fire waiting to ignite.
Here’s what happened last week, and if it’s a foreshadowing of the madness to come this week, it should be something.
One exchange, about a defunct New York restaurant, sounded more like a scene from a Marx Brothers movie than a “Law & Order” episode.
Habba asked Carroll if she was a regular at a Manhattan restaurant called Elaine’s.
“Yes,” Carroll replied.
“It’s incredibly hard to get into, correct?” asked Habba.
“Not [hard]. You can get into Elaine’s,” she replied, at which point Kaplan jumped in to say: “Ms. Habba, it hasn’t existed for years, if I’m not mistaken. … That may be on account of its being closed.”
Not sure where Habba was going with this line of questioning. But it doesn’t matter. The point is, Kaplan is a no nonsense kind of judge. If topics are not germane to the issue at bar, he shuts them down. This is what he’s supposed to do. He is not into legal or political performance theater and he is not willing to have Trump turn his courtroom into a zoo.
If Trump walks into that courtroom tomorrow, he exemplifies an old adage from criminal law: negligence is being a fool, gross negligence is being a damned fool and recklessness is being a goddamned fool.* Trump was born reckless and he gets downright destructive. So he is a goddamned fool. But you knew that. If you knew anything about the man, you knew that.
*Chief Justice Rugg’s famous distinctions among negligence, gross negligence and recklessness as being distinctions among “a fool, a damned fool, and a God-damned fool.” (Harvard Law Record, April 16, 1959.)
Shouldn’t be “threatened” with contempt charge. Should be escorted to lock-up ON THE SPOT.
If it was anybody else but him, that would be the case. You don’t screw around in a court of law. Some judges don’t even give a warning, they just issue citations and have people removed.
Example: my ex cheated on me after 10 years of marriage in a no fault state. Even though I liquidated my retirement to hammer out a divorce agreement after giving her the house in my name and paid on for ten years, giving her 80-100k of equity so she wouldn’t run off with my two daughters, age 2 and 5, gotten through years of a donor program and adoption, I had my child support TRIPLED. When I got laid off, she brought me into court since I didn’t have 1200./month after taxes, to pay the support. The judge, a member of an alternative lifestyle, with no children, locked me up for contempt because I had no job. I was led out in handcuffs and legirons. She held me in contempt the following month for the same reason, same result. The fact this traitor criminal gets treated with kid gloves ALL THE TIME is sickening knowing firsthand how much injustice is done daily to average folks in a court of law. FACT!!!
Here’s an interesting thought, but being the kind of judge he is I’m not sure Kaplan would allow matters not specifically relevant to why the proceeding underway would get explored. Anyway here goes:
As I understand it during cross-examination opposing counsel is only allowed to challenge testimony/evidence introduced during direct examination of a witness. That actually makes sense. It’s also my understanding that witnesses, even those who’ve been prepared sometimes get off topic, or their lawyers get carried away if the feel “on a roll” and say something, either a lawyer asking a question or a witness losing focus that “opens the door” to exploring new matters. Sometimes allowing questioning and worse evidence a lawyer fought very hard in pre-trial motions to exclude.
So imagine Trump going off on his normal airing of grievances and talking about the criminal prosecutions and perfect phone calls and Mike Pence not playing ball and his “right” to take and keep national security information and so on. As I said I’m not sure judge Kaplan would allow for cross-examination of such things but what if he did? Well, at the very worst some clever questioning could get Trump to blurt out things on the stand, under oath that can be used against him in his criminal trials.
Yes, it’s speculation on my part with I supposed a heaping helping of wishful thinking but I still wonder.
one can hope.
There are two things possible regarding dingleberry’s legal counsel: they are brain dead or they will kill themselves before this event. I cannot see any even 1/4-way competent attorney allowing this fool to do this. It will not only sink trump’s chances of getting a less than $5M judgement against him but it might just cause the jury to decide an amount that might just solve all our problems and give him a heart attack. This is truly asinine.
IMO, Trump will be a no-show…..but loves to bully/intimidate!
I agree totally. He will not testify – it’s a bluff and a publicity stunt, his stock in trade, the defining characteristic of his life. He’s a blow hard and a phony. He has no intention of testifying.
It appears Alina Habba just gave trump his out so he won’t be testifying. Certainly, seems convenient. Apparently, she is under the weather, along with her parents, and he will be in NH Tuesday. Voila – no time to testify!
If you duct taped Donnie Donuts’ mouth closed , he would use sign language and express his disdain for the nudge. His hands are tiny but he still has a middle finger on each one.
He is incapable of not being a godd*mned idiot. It is actually this stock in trade: being belligerent and bellicose and flat out stupid.
And like most reality tv,The Apprentice is scripted. Kabul I theater.