Saturday, April 20, 2024

The First Criminal Trial Hasn’t Really Begun

Point well taken.
"Well, a few things," said Litman. "First, their nonrelease, it's not a small point. You can guarantee that the two Trump lawyers are going to have a hellish weekend. It's one thing to prepare solidly to cross-examine someone you know will be, but it could be anyone at all. That's a serious sort of sanction for his misbehavior. But second, yes, it is exactly as you say, there's been on the one hand, Judge Merchan made quick work of things, but yet there are these eruptions of kind of chaos and stress and we have almost a tale of two trials. And as it goes forward, those will be the sort of high points that people remember and this trial could be really freighted going forward or it could stay smooth."
On the surface, this hurts Trump’s lawyers more than it hurts Trump. It’s redolent of his childishness (how else do you put it at this point? Mary Trump says of her uncle: "Some individuals cannot bear the feeling of being restrained by individuals," but I think Trump is just a child now.).  Ultimately it hurts Trump, of course. But will he ever see that?

I will pause here to note:
With respect to his demeanor, I will tell you that it may be the case that at rallies and other political functions, when he acts an overacts and makes faces and does his thing — people enjoy it," Bharara said. "But this is not a MAGA rally." 
"It's 12 jurors who were sworn to uphold their oath as jurors; a sacrosanct duty, civic duty and in my experience, they'll be watching the defendant in this case, Donald Trump, very carefully and if they detect that the defendant, Donald Trump, is not taking the proceeding seriously or is contemptuous of them or it's not comporting himself with respect towards the judge and the others in the room that is to his detriment."
This is Trial Lawyering 101. It’s basic, it’s fundamental, it’s important. You impress this upon your client. You cannot overemphasize it.

If you remember the OJ trial, the one all America watched/saw some of, OJ sat quietly and calmly for the entire trial. The only time he played a part in the trial was when he put the gloves on. He listened to his lawyers. He left the trial to them. It’s one of the primary reasons he died outside of prison.

Trump is going in precisely the opposite direction. Why? I leave that (mostly) to the experts. What matters is that he’s doing it. He’s making the case harder for his lawyers to defend, he’s making it more likely the jury will turn against him. And all he can think of is himself, in the moment. 

He’s making it harder for his lawyers to defend him. He’s pouting, sleeping, grumbling, playing with his phone, and before the trial begins he faces a show cause hearing and has damaged his defense. The fairness of the judge in letting Blanche have the name of one witness is twice nothing, not 33% of a win. It’s also a test. If that witnesses name shows up on the intertoobs this weekend, there’s still the show cause on Tuesday.

And if it doesn’t, the justice (yes, that’s the right term in New York) has found a pinch point on Trump, at least. The point, after all, is not to rap Trump’s knuckles every day and make him stay after school until his behavior improves; it’s to ensure a fair trial and due process. Trump, on the other hand, 
is a child determined to be miserable because he’s not getting his way. “Nasty, crooked people” are going to include the jury before this is over.

And while I have you here:
Dershowitz is just simply full of shit. The court has ruled on this: EOD. He’s not a lawyer on this case, he’s not responsible for representing Trump, he’s just shooting off his mouth so he can get on TeeVee, especially since nobody at Martha’s Vineyard will invite him to their parties. Somebody make him put his money where his mouth is. I guarantee he won’t pay up faster than Lindell has. America is yearning for a convicted felon in the White House. Of course it is.
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