Donald Trump's trial for business fraud has opened on schedule. The New York Times provides a summary of the action so far:
In their respective opening statements, the attorney general’s office and lawyers for Donald J. Trump spoke past each other: While the attorney general’s lawyer focused on the specific mechanics by which properties were valued — and why — Mr. Trump’s lawyers continued to argue that, overall, there had been nothing wrong with the former president’s financial statements.
Kevin Wallace, a lawyer for the attorney general’s office, told the courtroom that employees of Mr. Trump had reverse-engineered the value of individual assets — properties like Trump Tower and 40 Wall Street — to arrive at the former president’s desired net worth. He played a clip of Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former fixer, explaining the process, prompting the former president to cross his arms and shake his head, scowling.
In other words, Trump's lawyers are barely even bothering to make a case. Remember that this is solely the penalty phase of the proceedings. The trial judge has already decided that Trump illegally inflated the value of his properties, so that's not at issue. There's no point in continuing to argue about it except as fodder for an appeal, which appears to be all they're doing right now.
In related news, Trump headed toward the TV cameras at the break and called for judge Arthur Engoron to be disbarred. “This is a judge that should be out of office,” he said. “This is a judge that some people say could be charged criminally for what he’s doing.”
"Some people." Indeed.
Pouty McFelonface looks exactly like he did in his mug shot. Does he just wear a mask now to give his real face (whatever it is) a rest?
It's how he scares away the covid.
Pouty McFelonface😩! OMG! You slay me!! I can't😂!!!
I think there are still several issues to be decided, eg charges of falsifying documents and conspiracy to falsify documents, as well as any penalty.
Exactly. Judge Engoron granted only a partial summary judgment for the NY AG on one count of the petition. There are several other counts that are going to trial in addition to the question of damages.
But yes, Trump's criticism of the judge who will be the factfinder in his case is not the best trial strategy.
Arguing guilt in the penalty phase is irrefutable evidence of a lack of contrition and inherently means asking for an increased sentence.
Yeah, telling the prosecutor and judge at this point to go fuck themselves is probably not a swift move...
That's Trump's problem in a nutshell. He only has one move, and one mood: toddler tantrum. Screaming and yelling, pounding the table, and threatening to hold his breath until he gets his way is how he's operated his whole life and he simply hasn't figured out that the jig is up now and his lawyers don't seem interested in helping him out, either.
The interesting question is how long he succeeds to avoid violent language.
I read an article on Raw Story that Trump's lawyers probably screwed up by not requesting a jury trial. Why does this not make me sad?
When ordinary people get in trouble they hire lawyers. When billionaires get in trouble they hire *law firms*.
But Trump didn't do that, he just hired lawyers like anyone else would, which means he is getting the same spotty and inconsistent level of legal competence that the rest of us have to put up with. Why did he do that? My guess is, he's not nearly as rich as he claims. Which is pretty much what this case is about.
Up until now, I believe his PAC has been paying all his legal fees using donations from some of the dimmer and more gullible corners of MAGAt-dom. He's not writing the checks. But he's royally screwed, regardless. He's about to lose his business empire. His PAC will probably run out of money soon and all the GOP big money donors want him to go away, so they're not going to bail him out. He's almost certain to win the Republican nomination, but how he's going to mount a national campaign next year isn't clear. And that's not counting having to take time defending himself in however many other court cases that could land him in actual prison.
Of course, the Defendant doesn't need much money to mount a national campaign. The national media will do it for him, for free. His every word, every lie, everythreat on Page One, top of the news! Bothsiderizing the Democrats, so as to "normalize" the truly deviant and evil!
They have learned nothing between 2015 and the present.
“… all the GOP big money donors want him to go away…”
Uh huh. But by the time summer 2024 is rolling around, those same GOP big money donors are going to be drooling for more tax cuts, more deregulation and fewer unions.
Exactly!
During the early part of the 2020 election litigation Trump, and the Republican Party, were hiring firms, and top-bracket firms with it. However, Trump is a terrible client and kept demanding things of his lawyers that top level (and second level, and third level) lawyers just won't do. The result is that none of the better lawyers are willing to take Trump as a client any more, and he's stuck with fourth level or lower lawyers. There have been several cases reported where very capable and very greedy lawyers have had to leave their firms in order to accept very large fees from Trump, because the firms in question won't have Trump for any money.
It appears it's not so much that Trump can't afford top legal talent as that he's alienated that talent.
If he had billions, he would not be selling mug shot 😤 cups to raise money!☕
Oh, I’m shedding tears 🤣😂🤣😂
"Policemen, firemen, NFL guys...they've all been coming up to me with tears in their eyes, saying, 'Sir, Mr. President, sir, this judge should be criminally charged for what he's doing to you..."
I've been reading up on "narcissistic collapse" lately, thinking it might be good to be able to spot the signs when it comes.
... and? I am very interested. Cuz out of a list of 11 I found in a quick search, Trump exhibits more than half and has done for many years. Maybe in his case it would be those to an unusually extreme degree? (Except he's already pretty over-the-top on some of them...)
AG James has Trump on her witness list. This should prove interesting.
45 should be sitting in a corner wearing a dunce cap with a big LOSER sign around his neck. But I'll settle for days of hairy eyebrow glowering. Oh the pathos of no cheering crowds, just lawyers arguing about how big a bite is going to be taken out of his ass.
96 tears, Cry, cry, cry. So many teardrops, for one man, to carry on.
At this point wouldn't it be a smarter move to fire his attorneys and ask for a public defender?
generally there are no public defenders in civil matters, just in criminal.
So if he fired them at this point anyway what does the judge do?
Make him represent himself.
A. I'm a-feared he's gonna get away with it, cause... well, he gets away with everything.
and
2. Since when is it ok to call the judge names and/or to threaten him or her? Back to A, he seems to get away with that too!
As to (2), I'm sure it's entirely legal, but as a strategy, particularly when there's no jury, it seems ... dumb.
That said, he's treating the trial as a campaign issue. That's probably why he showed up in the first place. Witch hunt, persecution, blah blah, biased this, conspiracy that, blah blah, I am the real victim here. Victimology is absolutely central to MAGAt world.
There's also been speculation that he's baiting the judges -- he's going after Chutkan even harder -- hoping to be sanctioned or even jailed briefly, following which he would be nailing himself to various crosses for the next year and a half. But I don't know: it's not clear that it would do him much good, and as noted, abusing the judge who's running your trial -- jury or not -- is just dumb.
".. abusing the judge who's running your trial -- jury or not -- is just dumb."
He knows it is a lost case, and attacking the judge is a way to justify it to his supporters. It may work on some of them, so it is not obviously dumb.
It also lays the ground for the next step, which is actaully threatening judges.
I'd even take that a little further-- his campaign and his trials are one and the same; the trials _are_ his campaign and that's how he's approaching them. Almost nothing he does in and around the cases and trials is meant for legal effect, and whatever his lawyers can get in for legal effect basically has to be snuck past him. He's campaigning through the courts.
Lots of defendants call judges names; it's just that when Trump does it, it gets publicized.
It seems like a poor decision by defense lawyers to make this point. The natural follow-up would be to call the defense to name the individuals and have them testify to these assertions.
And it would have been, if Trump's lawyers were the ones that had made that argument. Quoting one of Kevin's quotes:
Kevin Wallace, a lawyer for the attorney general’s office, told the courtroom that employees of Mr. Trump had reverse-engineered the value of individual assets — properties like Trump Tower and 40 Wall Street — to arrive at the former president’s desired net worth.
"Some people say?" Well, say no more!
Point of order, though: This is not just the penalty phase. The summary judgment was partial, leaving several point of fact to be litigated.
His body language is that of a 5 year old being put in time out.
It brings out the motherly instinct in his followers