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Items tagged with: Blanche
There were few #witnesses whose testimony was central to the #crimes charged. One was #MichaelCohen, whose #credibility was attacked by #Trump's lawyer Todd #Blanche.
Another witness —who had no connection to the falsification of business records— was #StormyDaniels, whose #HushMoney from Cohen is what was covered up. Susan Necheles, the defense lawyer w/the most trial experience on Trump's team, worked aggressively to sow doubts about Daniels’s story w/the jury.
Justice #Merchan commends the jury alternates for paying attention. The judge, who often watches the jury for attentiveness in case they need a break, praises one alternate in particular who went through “several notebooks” taking down notes.
Jurors 4 & 6, a man & a woman, are gathered around a laptop w/a paralegal for the prosecution. #Trump defense atty Todd #Blanche stands behind the computer looking on.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney
As was dramatically illustrated by #Trump atty Todd #Blanche yesterday, #jurors will NOT decide Trump’s #punishment if found #guilty.
But since we are both curious & ready for the accountability to begin here are some possible #penalties he may face.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/29/nyregion/trump-convicted-jail-penalties.html?smid=url-share
Prosecutor Susan #Hoffinger reminds the judge that before the trial began, he himself precluded the jury from hearing anything about potential punishments for #Trump. “Mr. Blanche was certainly on notice that this was an improper argument,” Hoffinger says.
Hoffinger also argues that the defense misstated the #law when it came to how #legal retainer agreements work in NY. #Blanche argues that he is willing to litigate the issue further this evening.
Justice #Merchan calls in the #jury & instructs them that #Blanche’s comment about sending #Trump “to prison” was “improper” & that they must disregard it. He reminds them that a #prison sentence is NOT required in the event of a #guilty #verdict.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
↑This goes directly at 1 of the 10 reasons for reasonable doubt that #Blanche kinda listed at the end of his closing. Blanche questioned whether the #evidence was handled properly.
Next, #Steinglass says that one of the defense’s narratives is “this notion that #StormyDaniels is trying to extort the defendant … threatened to go public unless she was paid off. But that's just not reality.”
#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#Steinglass quickly disposes w/some of #Blanche’s arguments, including the idea that there was an alternative #conspiracy involving #StormyDaniels, her manager & a #NationalEnquirer editor. He says that the defense is trying to distract from a key issue in the case, adding, “In the end, all of this doesn’t really matter.”
[thank you! This is about falsifying business records]
#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
#Steinglass addresses another problem w/ #Blanche's argument — that he is trying to both say this wasn’t a reimbursement & it was also a legitimate legal expense.
“Their arguments are not necessarily consistent, but they’re passionate,” Steinglass says, about the defense's contradictory arguments at one point they argued #Trump didn’t know about the reimbursement & at another point that he did.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
#Steinglass outlines their theory of the Aug 2015 meeting between #Trump, #MichaelCohen, & David #Pecker, of #NationalEnquirer, in which they agreed to a plot to suppress negative stories about Trump & promote negative stories about his opponents.
Steinglass punctures one of #Blanche’s go-to arguments —that The Enquirer is like all publications & Pecker's arrangement w/Trump wasn’t unusual. There is nothing normal or standard about what the tabloid was doing w/Trump.
#Steinglass addresses #Blanche’s interest in the term #CatchAndKill, drawing a distinction between the phrase & the practice.
Steinglass says while the phrase may not have been used much during the trial, the practice was exactly what had been agreed to, & argues that suppressing those stories amounted to committing a #fraud on American voters, pulling the wool over their eyes “in a coordinated fashion.”
He calls The #NationalEnquirer “a covert arm” of #Trump's campaign.
#Steinglass notes that while NDAs are not inherently #criminal, but they are “indeed illegal when they serve an unlawful purpose.”
#Trump atty #Blanche barely stitched together a story, but tried to distance Trump from the documents & ended by attacking #MichaelCohen.
Steinglass tells a sweeping narrative about a #fraud on the American people, & argues that Americans had the right to determine if they cared that Trump slept w/a porn star while his wife was home w/their new baby.
#Steinglass uses the case of the #TrumpOrganization doorman to illustrate a point about looking at testimony in its full context.
#Blanche had noted that #Pecker said he would have printed the doorman's story, about #Trump fathering a child out of wedlock, regardless of whether it was true. But Steinglass shows the jurors that Pecker added that he would have waited until after the election to do so. “Because that was what they agreed to do.”
#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial
#Trump atty Todd #Blanche, during his closing, tried to convince the jury that the prosecution’s case relied entirely on #MichaelCohen. Josh #Steinglass is taking that argument on directly & indirectly. As he moves through the case’s timeline, showing every piece of documentary #evidence the prosecution has, he is reinforcing just how much does not rely on Cohen, but on the testimony of witnesses who are friendly to Trump & on phone records you can’t dispute.
To believe defense, you’d have to take #Blanche’s word #MichaelCohen went rogue & #Trump was clueless about the #StormyDaniels deal.
Steinglass details calls between #Pecker & #MichaelCohen, w/ #HopeHicks occasionally in the mix, reminding jurors how enmeshed Cohen was & how much he talked to the campaign.
As he takes jurors through the mountain of documentary evidence, he sympathizes, “We don’t need to show all these calls & emails… they’re in evidence if you want to see them.”
#Blanche: “This is the #campaign, this is an #election, this is not a #crime.”
Blanche argued this in his opening statement, when he said “spoiler alert” — campaigns try to #influence elections.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#Blanche is trying to suggest that the meeting that Trump & #MichaelCohen had in 2015 w/ #Pecker, of The #NationalEnquirer, when prosecutors say they hatched a plan to suppress damaging stories about #Trump & promote negative ones about his rivals, was SOP between a presidential #candidate & the #press. It was not.
Blanche suggests that bc Pecker’s relationship w/Trump, & their #CatchAndKill agreement, was not an #election #conspiracy bc it predated the campaign.
#Blanche reminds #jurors that The #NationalEnquirer #Pecker testified that #Trump was a top celebrity who sold magazines.
“Absurd.” “Preposterous.” “Makes no sense.” Blanche’s closing is filled w/terminology ridiculing the government’s argument.
He argues it’s absurd to think that Trump would have entered a #conspiracy w/ The Enquirer to sway a national election, because they’re a tabloid.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#Blanche says that despite the prosecution arguing that David #Pecker agreed to suppress negative stories on #Trump’s behalf in 2015 — a practice known as #CatchAndKill — the phrase "catch & kill" was not used at that meeting. “Make no mistake about it,” Blanche says.
Blanche argues there was “nothing unusual” about catching & killing, & that Pecker testified that The #NationalEnquirer only published ~½ of the stories it purchased.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#Blanche addresses the 3 specific #CatchAndKill deals prosecutors allege #Pecker was involved in, all of which they say were designed to protect #Trump. Defense argues all 3 stories are false.
He characterizes the 1st, involving a doorman at a #TrumpOrganization bldg, as “literally a made up story designed to harm President Trump.”
Blanche talks about Playboy model #KarenMcDougal who sold the rights to her story of an affair w/Trump to The #NationalEnquirer's parent co, #AMI.
#Blanche doesn’t harp on the idea that her story was a lie to damage #Trump. But he is very animated as he argues that McDougal, who did not testify, was not initially interested in selling her story.
Blanche argues both that #CatchAndKill deals are normal & that these weren’t catch-&-kill deals.
FYI #AMI, #NationalEnquirer's parent co, was fined $187,500 in 2021 by the #FEC to settle accusations that it violated #CampaignFinance #Law by making a 6-fig payment to McDougal.
Prosecutors have objected to #Blanche 2X,
w/1 overruled & 1 sustained, as #Blanche talks about #Pecker saying he consulted lawyers about the deal.
Blanche attacks the phrase #CatchAndKill as if it were central to prosecution’s case. Prosecutors have stayed away from using it. It wasn’t in their opening statement, or the portion of the statement of #facts they released when #Trump was #indicted explaining their theory of the #conspiracy.
#Blanche claims that #MichaelCohen fully fabricated an encounter that he had w/Pecker in which #Pecker expressed anger that he had not been repaid for 1 of the #HushMoney deals. “Ladies & gentlemen, that lunch did not happen,” Blanche said. “Cohen made it up.”
Blanche doesn’t provide any #evidence Cohen made it up. Instead, Blanche reminds jurors that they should pay close attention to documentary evidence in assessing Cohen’s testimony.
#Blanche is skipping around in his summation, which is making it a little hard to follow.
He now turns back to the recording that #MichaelCohen secretly made of a conversation he had w/ #Trump about the #KarenMcDougal payment.
Blanche suggests there is some kind of dispute over the authenticity of this recording. There isn’t. The recording sounds exactly the same as the one CNN played in 2018.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#Blanche attacks the recording. “This conversation is Mr. Cohen & President Trump literally talking past each other about what is going on,” he says, arguing that his client “has no idea what #MichaelCohen is talking about.”
Blanche comes up with an alternate version of why #Trump asked about “financing” in their taped conversation: that Trump was simply caught off guard & had no idea what was being discussed.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#Blanche moves on to the 3rd #HushMoney payment at the heart of the case: The one #MichaelCohen made in 2016 to #StormyDaniels, who said she'd had sex w/ #Trump a decade earlier.
Blanche lays the groundwork for his most important attack on Cohen, saying he is the only witness who testified that Trump knew everything about the hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#Blanche argues that if #StormyDaniels's allegations were so scary to the #Trump campaign, why didn’t it swing into action in April 2016, when a woman working w/ Daniels got in touch w/The #NationalEnquirer's parent company?
Obvious answer: the #AccessHollywood tape
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
After the break, #Blanche says that he has ~½ hr left of his closing argument. Judge Merchan says the jurors have agreed to stay late if needed, meaning closing arguments may end today.
Blanche discusses statements by #StormyDaniels that she testified she was coerced into making. This doesn’t seem to have much to do w/the case but is the kind of client-pleasing shit we’ve seen from #Trump attys.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#Blanche 2X notes that #StormyDaniels denied having sex w/Trump.
While this is technically true —she did put out a statement denying they had an AFFAIR in early 2018— she subsequently provided her account of the sexual encounter to “60 Minutes,” in a book, in a documentary & in this trial, on the stand, where she testified under oath.
#Trump has repeatedly denied the sex occurred, but has never done so under oath.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#Blanche, draws on a 2018 recording in which #StormyDaniels's lawyer at the time said that his client had “settler’s remorse” for having agreed not to tell her story. Blanche claims that Daniels changed not because she decided to tell the #truth, but because she wanted to make #money.
Blanche introduces what he calls a “separate conspiracy” between Daniels, #GinaRodriguez, her manager at the time, & #DylanHoward, who was the editor of The #NationalEnquirer.
Neither Rodriguez nor Howard testified, & their absence may give #Blanche room to *spin* his theory. He notes that, in a text, Howard said that he was not working on #Trump’s behalf. Blanche suggests Howard was acting against the interests of David #Pecker, his publisher.
Blanche again tells the jury, that NDAs are not inherently problematic, adding that there is nothing “illegal,” “sinister” or “criminal” about them.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#Blanche argues the #AccessHollywood tape, in which #Trump boasted about grabbing women by the genitals, is being portrayed by prosecutors as something it wasn’t: a “doomsday event” for his presidential campaign. Anyone who covered that election can tell you that the people around Trump & the broader #GOP thought it was catastrophic for his chances. So much so that there were talks of dropping Trump from the ticket.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#Blanche says that #Trump’s reaction to the #AccessHollywood tape was not what is being depicted by prosecutors — “He was concerned about his wife, he was concerned about his family,” he says — though he adds, moments later: “I’m not suggesting that it wasn’t a big deal for the campaign. Of course not. It was.”
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#Blanche argues #StormyDaniels was called to testify in order to inflame the jurors’ emotions & to embarrass #Trump. Prosecutors object, but Justice #Merchan allows it.
Blanche seizes on testimony from #MichaelCohen, who told Daniels's lawyer in a recorded call in Oct 2017 —before Trump turned against him— that he cared about his boss & he wasn’t going to play “penny wise, pound foolish” & betray him. Cohen then says “I’m sitting there & I’m saying to myself, ‘What about me?’”
#Blanche moves on to #MichaelCohen’s relationship w/ #RobertCostello, a lawyer who Cohen testified had been part of a pressure campaign to keep him from flipping on #Trump in 2018 (& whose testimony was insane)
Blanche argues there is “no doubt” that Costello, who is 1 of only 2 witnesses the defense called, served as Cohen’s atty —the trial presented plenty of doubt about the nature of Cohen & Costello’s relationship.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#Blanche mocks #MichaelCohen’s testimony about the evening of 24 Oct, 2016. The testimony on which the defense lawyers felt they had scored a key point, because they presented #evidence that Cohen had talked to #KeithSchiller, #Trump's bodyguard, about a 14-yr-old pranking him. Cohen clarified on redirect that he had talked to both Schiller & Trump during the call & prosecution entered into evidence photos of Trump & Schiller next to each other mins before the call.
But the defense clearly thinks it has a winning argument here. “It was a lie,” #Blanche yells of #MichaelCohen’s testimony. He calls it “perjury,” emphasizing each syllable in the word.
Blanche reminds jurors that there is an oath to tell the truth & says that it “matters to most.” 🤣🤣
#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#Blanche lists the people who he says #MichaelCohen has lied to, which includes his wife, his children, his banker, the #FEC & “every single reporter he talked to for about a year.”
Blanche tries what sounds like an attempt at a punchline: “He’s literally like the MVP of liars.”
There’s no audible reaction in the courtroom.
Irony is rolling in its grave.
#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#Blanche replays defense exhibits in which #MichaelCohen sounds giddy as he reacts to the news that #Trump has been indicted.
Blanche shows a tweet in which Cohen promoted a t-shirt featuring a cartoon drawing of Trump in an orange jumpsuit behind bars.
Blanche says before he concludes, that he will offer a list of 10 pieces of evidence that should induce #ReasonableDoubt in the jury.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#Blanche again argues that #Trump was in the #WhiteHouse when he signed 9 of the checks. Implying Trump was distracted when he signed them, & that his signature does not suggest his knowledge of the scheme.
‼️Using a slide labeled “manipulation of evidence,” Blanche now argues (again) that #MichaelCohen somehow tampered w/the digital evidence from his phones, including recordings. (Objection to just the label FFS!)
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#Blanche says #jurors cannot trust those recordings, & they cannot rely on #MichaelCohen himself — which, the defense has said many times, is a reason not to #convict #Trump.
Blanche then listed 10 reasons that he believed the jury should have #ReasonableDoubt as to Trump’s #guilt. But the list was hard to follow. He misstated the 4th point, which he then broke into 3 parts. He gave them all equal weight & barely mentioned some of them in the rest of his summation.
