Hey, Donald Trump is testifying today in his civil fraud trial. How's that going?
Trump is making a long ode to Aberdeen, calling it an “artistic expression,” and the greatest golf course ever built.... Justice Engoron finally loses patience and breaks in as Trump is calling Aberdeen, Scotland, where he has a golf club, the oil capital of Europe. “Irrelevant, irrelevant. Answer the question,” the judge says.
Please go on:
Kise, Trump's lawer, has made sure to praise his client's responses. He called one “brilliant,” and another a “great answer.”
....At this point, Trump is no longer answering questions being posed by Wallace. Instead, Trump is turning his answers into direct attacks on the judge. He continues to point directly at Engoron who is sitting quietly, for now.
“He called me a fraud and he didn’t know anything about me,” Trump says of Engoron, after the judge asks Trump to stop talking about the disclaimers and answer the questions. The judge then suggested that Trump hadn’t read the order where he found him liable for fraud. Trump seems to be losing control.
“You believed this political hack back there and that’s unfortunate,” Trump says to the judge of [Letitia] James. “Done,” asks Kevin Wallace? “Done,” says the former president, and the question continues.
New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron pointedly urged Donald Trump’s lawyer to control his client, repeatedly asking the former president to stay on topic and avoid making long-winded political statements during his testimony.... “Mr. Kise, can you control your client?” Engoron said. “This is not a political rally. This is a courtroom.”
....Kise took a $3 million retainer to join Trump’s legal team and made sure he was paid upfront. He has clashed with other Trump lawyers. He’s largely been quiet as his client has attacked the judge and court staff. It will be challenging now to rein Trump in.
Whatever else you can say, Trump's sure isn't helping himself with his testimony. He just can't stand being in a situation where he's not allowed to say and do anything he wants.
Delicious!
"..Trump's sure isn't helping himself.."
Completely misreading what happens there. Trump is talking to his supporters, not to the court.
He knows he doesn't have case as far as the law and facts are concerned, but he has violent supporters that he wants to mobilize, and that what he is trying to do.
Yes, he's campaigning.
Does anybody remember what he told Lesley Stahl in 2016, that he attacks the press in order to pre-emptively discredit anything they might say that doesn't praise him to the skies? Replace "the press" with "judges, courts, and prosecutors." The same playbook.
And if he finally goads Engoron into holding him in contempt, that would be a bonus.
His supporters are hopefully not dumb enough to do anything now. If he gets reelected, that's another story
But the judge (and ther judges in other case) seem to to be trying to avoid testing it. Anybody else behaving like him would alreday be in jail.
If (when?) he is convicted, that is yet another story.
"He just can't stand being in a situation where he can't just say and do anything he wants."
I dunno, man. Just from your report, it sure sounds like he IS in a situation where he can just say and do anything he wants.
Yeah, I don't know if anyone else could get away with this shit, but here we are. I think Engeron is trying to balance, on one hand, not letting his courtroom become a total circus, while keeping the other hand steady enough to cross out and update his notes every 30 seconds about how he's going to completely obliterate the Trumps. For the fraud, of course. But also for the assholery.
But Trump is not "getting away with this shit." Remember, this is not about fraud; that's already been determined to be the case. No, thisk is about _damages_ and if Trump doesn't think he's going to be gigged for $250 million plus, he's delusional.
He will appeal and refuse to pay during appeal. There will be appeals for the courtroom practive, an appeal of the summary judgment, an appeal based on bias. All these appeals will be sequential, dragging it out until New York State finally throws in the towel.
And if he is re-elected, expect the Insurrection Act to be invoked against the New York State judiciary.
Don't you have to post a bond for the amount of the judgement in order to appeal?
Like everything else apparently, bonds might just be for the little people. I mean, if you or I acted the way he’s acting in courtrooms, we’d be thrown in jail.
He will only have to post a small fraction. Deutsche Bank will sign up to cover the rest.
+1
I think Engeron is trying to balance, on one hand, not letting his courtroom become a total circus . . .
I suspect that Engoron would be taking more action against Trump if this were a jury trial. In this bench trial, the only person that Trump could prejudice is Engoron himself, which doesn't seem likely.
I don't think Trump has quite internalized yet, or is too stupid to understand when his lawyers explain it to him, that Engeron has already found that the Trump Org is guilty of fraud. All this testimony is essentially the penalty phase where you try to explain to the nice judge man that all this was a big misunderstanding and you're super sorry and will make sure it never happens again. I wouldn't be surprised if Trump has himself rolled into court tomorrow tied to a large cross, except instead of a "King of the Jews" sign above his head, the placard says "Fuck Judge Engeron."
"I don't think Trump has quite internalized yet.."
He definitely did internalize, and what he is doing now is trying to scare the judge.
He may be trying, but I don't think this Engeron guy is going to be intimidated by the witness being a whiny, PAB with oral diarrhea.
The witness no, but his volent supporters plus the possibility that he will be president and use it to revenge is something else.
Any other person behaving like he does would already be in jail, so it already works to some extent.
I am not saying he will succeed to saty out of trouble, but to think that he doesn't understand the situation is just dumb.
Plus if Trump is re-elected he will invoke the insurrection act and have Engeron thrown in the same prison as Tillerson, Wray, Mattis, Kelly, Barr, Meadows, Pence et al.
Don knows what's going on. He is not trying to mitigate legal risk at all, he's betting on becoming King of America.
Absolutely! He is guilty of all of the charges against him. He is betting everything on becoming President again and declaring himself King. That’s what all of this revenge talk is about too. For people prosecuting him, judges, witnesses, political opponents, news people, everyone. There is a bet being made. If you think he will not be President then go ahead. Accept that plea deal. Testify against him. Write your stories. But if you lose the bet you are imprisoned or dead.
It will definitely be weird when people who “accepted that plea deal” get imprisoned again or killed for doing so.
It is not only "becoming king". He also has violent supporters that can be made to act before that.
Yeah, but the Executive Branch of the United States Government and the State Governments have Police, who investigate the crimes, and District Attorneys who prosecute the offenders.
Substitute Investigators for Police, and United States Attorneys for District Attorneys, for the Federal Government.
I suspect violent supporters of TDTIFIFG (that's The Disgraced, Twice-Impeached, Four-time Indicted Former Guy) will crawl back into their basements instead of confronting the authority of the state. January 6 happened only because TDTIFIFG could simply leave the DC National Guard in their barracks instead of confronting his mob. That won't happen again, at least not until January 20, 2025.
The way that judges handle him until now suggests they are not as confident about his supporters behaviour as you are. Any other ligitant with the same behaviour would have been already in jail.
I guess it is a blend of several things. Trump is becoming more and more unhinged. He can’t control his emotions. He has been surrounded by sycophants and can’t stand being contradicted or told to behave.
On the other hand, angry outbursts are performative and play to his base. Also, if he is ranting about Scotland he is not giving testimony that could be held against him.
I think the Turnberry resort is relevant in this case because it's about how he valued his whole business portfolio, including the stuff overseas.
May t-Rump hang himself. Get it done and over with!
No one can afford to mistake him for a normal, rational person. This is fundamental. He's cagey and understands very well how to manipulate people and situations, but he doesn't see the world the way most people do and his goals are different than most people's goals in any given situation. It's a mistake to try to understand what he's doing by comparing it to what you or I would do, as I think Kevin is implicitly doing here.
Multitudes have been fooled about him (thanks, Mark Burnett), and have fooled themselves about him, by thinking that somehow the eccentric ranting and stuff is all just an act and when the cameras are off he's like the rest of us. He's not. A lot of his former administration officials are trying to convey this to us, but the language isn't adequate to express what it's like. No language is.
Plus, look at how he's managed to dominate the news today, ripping even Gaza from just about all the ledes.
This. And I don't know if its a question of being fooled, per se, but its more like he has spent his entire life as a form of sociopath, where he does not care what people think of him or what he says.
The mainstream media still, has no idea what to do with a person who is willing to say absolutely anything, with not a care in the world whether it is true.
There are not two Trumps. He can't even keep it together on a witness stand when it would be in his best interest to schmooze the judge.
For his supporters, they love it. They secretly wish that they, like Trump, could say anything and do almost anything without consequences. Its like the poor person's idea of what its like to be rich.
Also like a dumb person’s idea of what it’s like to be smart.
????????????????????
I can see the appeal now....my lawyer was ineffective because he didn't stop me from being myself on the stand....
Is the judge in this case able to order a psychological evaluation?
I've been thinking the the Trump kids must have talked about having him declared incompetent.
That might be the Defendant's best solution. Incompetent, sociopathic, demented, delusional ... all these could be cited as mitigating factors or even ways to get him off completely.
(That seems to be what Bob Somerby has been driving at for the last few years or more. Of course, I don't read the Howler every week, much less every day.)
The Final Defense will be Trump in a wheelchair, sporting an oxygen mask.
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“He called me a fraud and he doesn’t even know me”
WTF? Engoron reviewed Trump’s financials as presented in court and found fraud. What bizarro world does Trump live in that he thinks “knowing him” is more relevant than the factual financial record?
How about he means sure, you might *think* he's a fraud if all you see is the paperwork; but you really have to know him in order to truly appreciate the depth and extent of his fraudulence? A point of pride about his artistry, iow.
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"On May 1, 1989, almost thirty-four years ago, Donald J. Trump spent $85,000 to take out full-page ads in The New York Times, New York Daily News, New York Post, and New York Newsday, calling for the execution of the Central Park Five," Salaam wrote.
It was "an act he has never apologized for," he said. "After several decades and an unfortunate and disastrous presidency, we all know who exactly Donald J. Trump is — a man who seeks to deny justice and fairness for others while claiming only innocence for himself," Salaam's statement continued.
Last week, Salaam issued a single-word response to the news of the indictment: "Karma."
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https://www.businessinsider.in/politics/world/news/exonerated-central-park-5-member-mimics-trumps-1980s-ad-that-called-for-the-return-of-the-death-penalty/articleshow/99305089.cms
He is his own worst enemy.
When the worst outcome is handed down, he will lose a quarter of his wealth and he will explode and further cause harm to his future.
In a way, maybe he is helping himself? By going on all these tangents perhaps he is avoiding to give up information that can be used against him?