Trump’s Plan Is To Blow Up the Case Before Ivanka Can Testify In 2 Days

I have a theory which fits the facts. Simply, Donald Trump does not want his elder daughter to testify. He’s instructed his lawyers to do anything humanly possible to make that not happen. That’s why you’re hearing all the noise about directed verdicts and mistrials. Trump was on the stand today. He didn’t do so well. His sons didn’t do well, either, but in particular he did badly, contradicting himself right and left. The only family member who hasn’t testified is Ivanka Trump. She has moved heaven and earth not to testify but is finally testifying Wednesday, the 8th. Unless she doesn’t have to. And that is infinitely the way she wants it to go. Bearing Ivanka’s wishes in mind, listen to what Christopher Kise and Alina Habba were saying just as prosecuting attorney Kevin Wallace rested his case.

Kise can also move orally to designate Trump the King of the Andals & Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, because that motion is way more likely to be granted than mistrial or directed verdict.

— QuietMode_MD (@FerransRichard) November 6, 2023

the tweet ends “reference the subject matter of the gag order without violating the gag order.”

You may recall what Trump deemed the “Perry Mason moment” that went south quickly, when the issue of Michael Cohen’s testimony was being discussed and there was an “aha!” moment where Cohen was supposedly tripped up (meaning, in this context, giving inconsistent testimony) and in Trump’s mind that meant the case should be over. And Trump went running from the courtroom in a rage when the judge kept the trial going and Trump realized that “aha!” moments were one thing on TV and another one entirely in reality.

At that time, Christopher Kise asked for a directed verdict, and of course the judge had no intention of giving him one. And that situation will undoubtedly repeat itself. As for a mistrial, Kise is going to have to show some serious procedural error or misconduct on the side of the prosecution and if such conduct exists, every legal pundit watching this trial has yet to spot it.

Plus, there’s another procedural issue that I flat out don’t know the answer to. Maybe some of you legal types here can chime in. The basic fraud trial is complete. Trump was found liable of systemic fraud and Judge Engoron granted a partial summary judgment. This trial is for the purpose of assessing damages and proving up the facts of the other six charges alleged. I’m not sure that there is a mechanism to dismiss a damages-only portion of a proceeding, or if you can do a mistrial on a summary judgment. I would think not. But that doesn’t mean that the defense counsel won’t attempt the legally impossible because it makes for good legal drama on right-wing media. Gotta keep that small donations spigot turned to wide open and drama does that.

Now we need to get back to the reason for declaring the mistrial or coming up with some kind of legal sorcery which will make the case just go poof: Ivanka. Ivanka is going to hang Daddy out to dry. At least that’s what has been speculated. Daily Beast:

This past September, Judge Engoron granted partial summary judgment against Trump and the other defendants, finding conclusive evidence that, from 2014 through 2021, they had materially overvalued Trump’s assets between $812 million and $2.2 billion.

This fraud went beyond sophisticated accounting tricks. Trump and his co-defendants engaged in alleged falsehoods that would make even the most accomplished con man blush.

While exact numbers varied from year to year, Trump and co. claimed that his Trump Tower penthouse apartment was 30,000 square feet when it was actually less than 11,000 square feet—resulting in an overvaluation of between $114 million and $207 million; that 212 acres of land in Westchester County, New York, was worth between $261 million and $291 million when contemporaneous, independent appraisals at times valued it below $30 million; and that his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida was worth between $426 million and $612 million—more than 23 times the appraised market value.

Most of this has been brought out or will be brought out as the trial continues from day to day. The two boys didn’t save Daddy, not one bit. And neither will Ivanka.

In their testimony last week, Don Jr. and Eric did not try to save their father. Don Jr. distanced himself from the preparation of the financial statements, shifting blame to the accountants who prepared them for him to sign as trustee of his father’s revocable trust. He claimed, incredibly, that his signature attesting to the accuracy of the financials was “not a symbol of yes or no.”

Eric took a similar approach to his big brother, saying he was not involved with the preparation of the financial statements and knew “nothing” about them. On cross-examination, however, prosecutors confronted him with emails documenting his involvement, including an email expressly discussing the valuation of the Westchester County property. As for Don Jr., he too was revealed to have contradicted himself, according to reporting.

Both sons are defendants in the case, and the court already found each was liable for a part in the fraud. It was doubtful they would have had much to offer in the way of credible explanations for the disparities in valuations that would persuade the judge. Ultimately, they appear to have failed that test.

It seems unlikely that Trump will do any better when he testifies. If he attempts, unlike his sons, to justify the extreme overvaluations, he will be confronted with both the reality of the actual numbers and his knowledge of them. If he attempts, like his sons, to dance away from the true valuations, the AG will rub his nose in evidence that he knew the truth all along.

In either event, he will face the great likelihood of being found not credible by a judge who has already made such a finding about Trump when he tried to explain his violation of the court’s gag order. And Trump can’t take the Fifth Amendment, and is showing no signs of preparing to do so, because unlike in a criminal case that would allow the judge to draw an adverse inference and rule against him.

This means Trump will likely take the same strategy as his sons of refusing to reject the bad numbers and pointing a finger at the accountants and other professionals—which leaves Ivanka as Trump’s last hope. Unfortunately for him, she is unlikely to be his saving grace when she testifies Wednesday. Don’t get us wrong: No one should be expecting Ivanka to sell out her father completely and admit the fraud. But she is going to be put in a bind that even Houdini could not escape. […]

But if she tells the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, she’ll be forced to contradict her father and her brothers and acknowledge what’s painfully obvious: that the valuations claimed by the Trump Organization are highly dubious.

Of all his children, Ivanka has seemingly demonstrated the greatest willingness to speak honestly about her father. Look no further than her testimony before the Jan. 6 committee. There, she admitted that she accepted Attorney General Bill Barr’s conclusion that there was no evidence of fraud in the 2020 presidential election—a sharp contrast to her brothers spreading baseless conspiracy theories about the election being rigged. Her video testimony was repeatedly played by the committee as it made the case against her father. Moreover, Ivanka announced last year that she would not be involved in Trump’s 2024 election campaign.

Trump knows this about Ivanka. He knows that he’s thrown a real monkey wrench in all her social plans and her aspirations to be part of New York high society. And he probably knows her well enough to know that she’s not going to commit perjury for him. Hence, the legal theatrics in the courtroom. The only problem is, legal theatrics work one way on television and another way entirely in real life. And that’s Trump’s conundrum. Do not expect things to get any calmer as we wend our way through this legal, theatrical and political morass.