The criminal trial of former president Donald Trump began this morning with a fairly short session that ran from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., but which included brief testimony from former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, the first witness for the prosecution.
Presumably Justice Juan Merchan mercifully opted for an abbreviated schedule to avoid exposing trial attendees to the toxic levels of bodily emissions that apparently emanate from Trump Van Stinkle when he’s napping in his chair at the defense table (which he did again today before opening arguments began).
Trump is charged with falsifying business records and election interference in a conspiracy with his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, to cover up hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels in the weeks before the 2016 election. Cohen already did prison time for his role in the scheme.
Right from the start Monday, Trump’s attempts to intimidate the jurors through threats of violence from the MAGA morons impacted the proceedings. From the New York Times live trial feed:
Justice Merchan says court will break early today because an alternate juror has a medical issue. The judge also says a juror called saying they had concerns about being here. The juror is present but Merchan wants lawyers to speak with him or her in chambers.
Fortunately, the concerned juror decided to stay (for now). But this is the corrosive effect Trump has on our system of justice and our civil discourse. Someone is afraid to serve on a jury for fear of being targeted with threats of violence. This should not acceptable in a healthy democracy.
Merchan also announced his decision regarding last week’s Sandoval hearing, in which prosecutors sought permission to cross-examine Trump, should he testify, about his many scams, schemes, and transgressions through the years.
The judge reads his ruling on the Sandoval hearing aloud. This determines what prosecutors can ask Trump about if he testifies. Justice Merchan says he will allow the prosecution to bring up six different determinations from four other cases, including his loss in the civil fraud trial earlier this year, in which Trump was found liable for conspiring to manipulate his net worth and penalized hundreds of millions of dollars.
Justice Merchan will also let prosecutors ask about Trump’s attack on a law clerk in that case, in violation of a gag order.
Prosecutors will also be allowed to ask Trump about having been found liable twice for defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll.
So say goodbye to whatever faint hopes you had of seeing Trump take the witness stand. It ain’t happening, though Trump will pretend that his lawyers wouldn’t let him testify. Because the worst client in the world always listens to his legal team!
Here’s a good conversation on MSNBC exploring the ramifications of Merchan’s Sandoval ruling:
Toddler time
It didn’t take long after the prosecution began its opening statements for Trump to start acting out:
As [prosecution team member] Matthew Colangelo says that Trump orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election, Trump shook his head.
Colangelo is now describing the practice of “catch and kill,” in which The National Enquirer bought stories that were problematic to Trump and then buried them.
One of those catch-and-kill deals involved a story that turned out to be false about Trump fathering a child out of wedlock. A doorman at a Trump building was a key figure in it.
Trump is visibly displeased at the mention of the alleged out-of-wedlock child and strongly shakes his head.
“Prosecutors are going to highlight three hush-money deals over the course of the trial,” the Times reports. “As our colleague Michael Rothfeld recently explained, Trump’s allies paid off the porn star, the Playboy model (Karen McDougal) and the doorman.”
Colangelo says Pecker will testify that $150,000 was more than The National Enquirer would typically have paid for such a deal, and that Pecker had trouble being reimbursed for it.
What could be more on brand for Trump?
Someone in the courtroom well giggles as Colangelo says Trump told Cohen to drag out paying Daniels, in the hopes of getting past the election and then not paying her at all.
Also on brand!
Then it was the defense’s turn to make its opening statement. I’ll save you time: President Trump is innocent and people like Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels are liars who hate our beloved former commander-in-chief.
The prosecution called Pecker to the stand with about 30 minutes left in Monday’s session, but didn’t get far into his testimony, which will resume at 11 a.m. Tuesday. It will follow Merchan’s 9:30 a.m. hearing on the numerous Trump gag order violations alleged by prosecutors.
After today’s session was adjourned, the Times noted: “Trump looks angry as he leaves the courtroom, again patting the bench behind him on the way out. His eyes scan over the reporters seated in the gallery as he goes.”
It was a short yet eventful — and historic — opening day of the first criminal trial of a former president in U.S. history. It’s been a long time coming, but it appears Trump is finally being held responsible for his crimes — and he has little or no control over the situation. No wonder he looks angry.
(From Project Orange: Saving Democracy From the Trump-MAGA Cult)