🐓

 Alina Habba:

"He still wants to take the stand, even though my advice is, at this point, you should never take the stand with a gag order," Alina Habba said outside the courthouse on Thursday. "But he's so firmly against what is happening in this court and so firmly for the old America that we know, not this America, that he will take the stand on Monday. He will open himself up to whatever they want because he's not afraid. People who are afraid cower. President Trump does not cower."

Former Deputy Attorney General Harry Litman:

'He might not take the stand because there is little for him to gain," Litman predicted, "Remember, this is a judge trial, the judge is going to decide against him and he will, as his son did, give the sort of rosey infomercial for the public. That would be the reason he would testify." 

"But, it means he will have to face cross-examination and it won't be like last time when the AG on direct, let him just go on and on," he continued. "They call cross-examination the greatest legal tool ever invented for the discovery of truth, and they can ask, and they are ready to ask very pointed questions. 'Mr. Trump, you knew this wasn't 30,000 feet. you knew it was ten. Yes or no?' Boom, boom, boom. And the judge will enforce that, right? So he [Trump] doesn't stand much to gain on his direct testimony, and does stand to lose on the cross so we'll see what happens."

King Chicken, who will not cower:

"STATEMENT OF 45th PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP! AS EVERYONE KNOWS, I HAVE VERY SUCCESSFULLY & CONCLUSIVELY TESTIFIED IN THE CORRUPT, BIDEN DIRECTED, NEW YORK STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL’S RIGGED TRIAL AGAINST ME. WORLD RENOWNED EXPERTS, HIGHLY RESPECTED BANK & INSURANCE EXECUTIVES, REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONALS, AS WELL AS OTHERS, BOTH HONEST & CREDIBLE, HAVE STATED, CLEARLY & UNEQUIVOCALLY, THAT I, & MY VERY SUCCESSFUL COMPANY, DID NOTHING WRONG! MY FINANCIAL STATEMENTS WERE CONSERVATIVE, LIQUID, & 'EXTRAORDINARY.' A TOP PROFESSOR FROM NYU STERN SAID, 'IF MR. TRUMP WERE MY STUDENT, HE WOULD GET AN ‘A’ ON HIS FINANCIAL STATEMENTS. IV’E NEVER SEEN A STATEMENT THAT PROVIDED SO MUCH DETAIL, & IS SO TRANSPARENT, AS THESE STATEMENTS.' PLUS, THEY ALL HAVE AN IRONCLAD DISCLAIMER CLAUSE STATING THAT THE USERS MUST DO THEIR OWN DUE DILIGENCE & ANALYSIS - NO RELIANCE! THE ONLY FRAUD COMMITTED WAS BY THE HIGHLY PARTISAN & OUT OF CONTROL JUDGE, & RACIST A.G. (WHO PROMISED THAT, 'I WILL GET TRUMP')" he wrote. 

In his second post minutes later, he added, "Page 2: THEY CLAIMED THAT MAR-A-LAGO WAS WORTH ONLY $18,000,000, WHEN IT IS WORTH 50 TO 100 TIMES THAT AMOUNT, IN ORDER TO ILLEGALLY REDUCE MY VALUES & MAKE A FAKE CASE AGAINST ME. THEY DID THIS ON OTHER PROPERTIES, AS WELL, & WOULDN’T GIVE ME A JURY. LIKEWISE, THE A.G. THUGS DO NOT WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT I HAVE PAID ALMOST 300 MILLION DOLLARS IN NEW YORK CITY & STATE TAXES DURING THE YEARS IN QUESTION. IMPORTANTLY, I WON AT THE APPELLATE DIVISION, WHICH EFFECTIVELY ENDED MOST OF THE CASE, BUT THE BIASED JUDGE REFUSED TO ACCEPT THEIR ORDER, AN UNHEARD OF FIRST! BASED ON THE ABOVE, AND THE FACT THAT OUR UNASSAILABLE FINAL EXPERT WITNESS HAS BEEN SO STRONG AND IRREFUTABLE IN HIS TESTIMONY, WHICH WILL CONCLUDE ON TUESDAY, & THAT I HAVE ALREADY TESTIFIED TO EVERYTHING & HAVE NOTHING MORE TO SAY OTHER THAN THAT THIS IS A COMPLETE & TOTAL ELECTION INTERFERENCE (BIDEN CAMPAIGN!) WITCH HUNT, THAT WILL DO NOTHING BUT KEEP BUSINESSES OUT OF NEW YORK, I WILL NOT BE TESTIFYING ON MONDAY. MAGA!" 

Thirty minutes later it appears he wasn't done, as he posted, "DON’T FORGET, IN ADDITION TO EVERYTHING ELSE IN THE FAKE & FRAUDULENT 'CASE' THAT PEEKABOO HAS BROUGHT AGAINST ME, THEIR SO-CALLED 'STAR,' & ONLY, WITNESS, SLEAZEBAG & DISBARRED FORMER LAWYER, MICHAEL COHEN, ADMITTED IN COURT TO REPEATEDLY LYING UNDER OATH. IT WAS A TOTAL BREAKDOWN, A NON-RECOVERABLE PERRY MASON MOMENT. THAT ALONE ENDS THIS BIDEN DRIVEN WITCH HUNT. ELECTION INTERFERENCE!"

He still doesn’t understand what the trial portion of this case is for. And he still thinks TeeVee = real life.

And he ran away from court again (except he didn’t go to Scotland) like a scared little girl.

Alina Habba explains:

So basically she is making the excuse for why he might be chickening out and not testifying on Monday like he promised. He won’t testify unless he is able to start yelling at the clerk. If Trump can’t yell at the clerk, then we live in a fascist country. pic.twitter.com/kYZw0rXLhl

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) December 8, 2023

Alternatively:

The real reason why Trump is probably not testifying is because he's been caught lying about the size of his penthouse. pic.twitter.com/krtQVO5Dau

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) December 10, 2023

Except I don’t give Trump that much credit. I don’t think he understands cross-examination. He just thinks whatever he says is true and correct. This is a likelier explanation:

“In addition to the fact, Yasmin, that this is the schedule scrambling again, and whether the court can happen tomorrow, as Adam was just talking about," said Rubin. "Eli Bartov, the accounting expert, still has time left on cross-examination. at this late stage, it's unclear whether he can come to court tomorrow, whether he is available, and or whether either of the rebuttal witnesses can come. Given that there are rebuttal expert witnesses I would expect that they need to hear the conclusion of Bartov's testimony in order to testify themselves." 

Bartov was paid nearly $900,000 for his testimony. 

She anticipated there might not be court at all on Monday as a result of the new news from Trump.

It’s the only legal ploy Trump understands.