Is everyone in Trumpworld an arrogant, bullying asshole?
A rhetorical question, to be sure! Of course everyone who remains in Trumpworld is an entitled, Class A dickhead. Check out this account from Talking Points Memo’s Josh Kovensky of a scene in court Monday involving the second defense witness in Donald Trump’s criminal trial for falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election:
A longtime attorney to Rudy Giuliani, [Robert] Costello sought to represent Michael Cohen during a critical period: when Cohen was debating whether he was to stay loyal to Trump or admit guilt and begin to cooperate with prosecutors.
Trump attorney Emil Bove hyped Costello’s testimony on Monday. Costello, Bove said, could impeach Cohen, he could show that Cohen committed perjury again, he could show that much of what the prosecution’s star witness had to offer was false.
But Costello left a different kind of impression. In a courtroom blow up that would have been more fitting for a mob trial than that of a former President, Costello expressed open contempt and hostility to Judge [Juan] Merchan.
“You don’t give me side eye and you don’t roll your eyes,” Merchan scolded Costello after dismissing jurors for a break to address the issue. “Are you staring me down right now?” …
After one objection that Merchan sustained, Costello grumbled. After another, he audibly said “geez,” causing a long, awkward pause in the courtroom.
Discussing Costello’s interactions with Justice Juan Merchan, former prosecutor and outstanding legal analyst Andrew Weissmann said, “This is just not how respectable lawyers behave, or at least that’s what the jury could find.”
Then again, what truly respectable lawyer defends Donald Trump?
And there was this (from the NYT live trial feed):
Robert Costello is nitpicking at [prosecution attorney Susan] Hoffinger as she questions him, correcting her mild misstatements, such as describing him as a former chief of a criminal division rather than deputy chief. He also takes issue with her use of the term “raid” when she refers to the F.B.I. executing a search warrant against Michael Cohen that year. And he just instructed her to talk into the microphone. There are five women on the jury.
He is not done mansplaining:
Costello is now scolding Hoffinger for getting his past title wrong.
While I’m sure Costello’s surly little performance delighted his audience of one, the misogyny on top of the open disrespect for judicial authority — two core elements of Trumpism — isn’t likely to play well with jurors. These little things could make a difference during deliberations.
The transgressive behavior from Team MAGA has been ramping up over the past week, especially once Cohen took the stand as the prosecution’s star witness as well as Trump’s co-conspirator and chief accuser. Trump’s court posse has grown in number and sinister affect in recent days. Whereas last week saw the likes of Yale-forged tough guys Vivek Ramaswamy and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance giving Cohen the “Mike Pence at the North Korean border” evil glare (probably with as much impact) and delivering gag order-evading talking points to the press, Trump upped the ante Monday morning:
An entourage of more than a dozen supporters who joined Trump in a Manhattan courthouse included a former president of an outlaw motorcycle gang in New York City who spent years in prison on drug charges.
The man, Chuck Zito, helped found in the early 1980s the New York Nomads chapter of the Hells Angels, the infamous club that started in California. The Justice Department described the organization as a criminal enterprise and linked the New York chapter to the Gambino crime family.
Zito’s colorful past includes being “convicted of weapons possession, when police discovered a loaded pistol, ammunition and brass knuckles in his car,” and, according to a fellow Hells Angel turned government witness, trying to murder a Queens pizzeria owner by detonating explosives attached to the guy’s car.
This convicted criminal, this violent ex-con, is walking into court as part of the former president’s entourage! Like it’s a normal thing! This is what Republicans are supporting.
Former New York City police commissioner and convicted felon Bernie Kerik, who spent three years in prison for assorted crimes before being pardoned by Trump, also was lending his support in court. This is what Republicans are supporting.
And, to save the most egregious for last, the scourge of Martha’s Vineyard, Alan Dershowitz, was on hand to sit in Trump’s fan section. If Trump takes on Dershowitz as counsel in any of his many remaining trials, he will surpass O.J. Simpson and Jeffrey Epstein as the worst human being Dershowitz has ever defended in a criminal court. (Dershowitz did serve as one of Trump’s attorneys during the second impeachment trial.)
There will be a court session on Tuesday and perhaps a half-day on Thursday. Then there won’t be any sessions until the Tuesday after Memorial Day. That’s when we may hear closing arguments in the first criminal case of a former president.
Until then, be prepared for a week of relentless and misleading Trump attacks-by-proxy on our entire judicial system and further attempts to soften up the public for autocracy. As for who shows up for closing arguments on Trump’s behalf, I have my money on Bane and Lord Voldemort.
(From Project Orange: Saving Democracy From the Trump-MAGA Cult)