That’s it for today, folks. The trial will pick up on Monday at 10AM ET, when Donald Trump is scheduled to appear. However, it’s not clear that they’re done hearing from Eric, so there may be some section of his testimony to start the day.
There was some testimony from Eric Trump this morning, closing out looking at the New York properties and moving into a genuinely strange effort to turn Mar-a-Lago into a private home for a $50,000 homestead exemption and some kind of undisclosed benefit.
Other than that, most of the morning was spent with Trump attorney Chris Kise desperately seeking a reason to ask for a mistrial and trying to prod Judge Engoron into taking a step that they could use an excuse. Like a soccer player trying to draw a yellow card, Kise was primed to take a fall. Engoron just refused to give him a reason.
If Kise’s orders were to get this thing stopped before Trump had to testify, he failed at that one. But hey, they can always take their attacks on Engoron’s clerk outside the courtroom, forcing the judge to do something before Monday.
Seriously. That’s where this case is. Engoron has already determined that there is fraud. The testimony from both Junior and Eric shows that they were in it up to their necks. Eric was also especially helpful in confirming that he often took his actions based on orders from Senior. Trying to generate a mistrial may actually be their best legal move.
In any case … till Monday.