Fox News ran its Trump Trial update last evening headlined, “Michael Cohen testimony continues after ex-lawyer reveals secret recordings of Trump in NY trial.”
Nobody can accuse Judge Merchan of hard work. Court is recessed today and Friday, providing President Trump another three-day work week as the grotesque show-trial drags on and on. Former Trump lawyer, secret-recording aficionado, and TikTok entrepreneur Michael Cohen will be Alvin Bragg’s last witness before the prosecution rests. When asked yesterday whether he’d called Trump a “boorish cartoon” and a “cheeto dusted cartoon villain,” Cohen admitted it sounded like something he would say.
I’ve previously described how the first and last witnesses in a jury trial should be the strongest ones, and of those two, the final witness is the most important. You want to leave the jury with a strong impression. Thus, Michael Cohen is the state’s star witness, the punchline to this running joke of a presidential prosecution.
Cohen’s as terrible a witness as you’d expect. He’s utterly biased and conflicted. He secretly and paranoiacally records everyone he talks to. He’s minted a lucrative career out of presidential hatred, and he turned against Trump on a dime the day after he was denied a spot in the Trump Administration. A 2016 video of Cohen mentioned in the Fox article shows the disgraced lawyer praising the former President to the high Heavens, back then:
Last night, to prepare for today’s Trump Trial update, I watched a couple hours of news anchors discussing the last two days of trial. What immediately became obvious was that none of them agreed on what the case is about. In fact, two Fox talking heads even got into an argument on live TV over exactly what Trump is being charged with.
It’s fair to ask whether the jury even understands what Trump is being charged with.
In post-trial interviews yesterday, Trump seemed happy with the trial’s progress, or lack thereof. In a later story last evening, Fox reported “Trump unleashes on 'fascists' in Dem party after 'very good day' of trial.” The sub-headline quoted the President: “'We had a very good day. I think we're exposing this scam for what it is'.”
Trump’s ability to turn the tables on his critics was on full display, as he (correctly) labeled them with the word they love to wield against him. Trump told reporters after yesterday’s session, “I don't think they're terrified of anything. They're fascists."
Once Cohen finishes testifying, it will be Trump’s lawyers turn to put on the President’s case, to prove he didn’t intentionally write “legal fees” on his check stubs to commit some kind of crime. So we can expect “phase two” to start on Monday morning.
What can I, or can anyone, meaningfully say about this train-wreck of a case? The bigger, largely-neglected narrative is that Trump and Alvin Bragg have put the judicial system itself on trial. I expect Judge Merchan to soon take a lucrative job as an Ivy-league professor or an MSNBC news analyst or something, since the clock is ticking down on his days on the bench.
Whether our judicial system will fare as well is an open question.
But at the end of the day, as the prosecution’s case draws to a close, after all its salacious, irrelevant evidence, its lipsticked yellow journalism dressed up in business suits, and its tar-and-feather litigation, the singular fact remains: no credible observers have identified any prosecutorial “smoking gun.”
Under the constitutional standard of “beyond a reasonable doubt,” Trump should be exonerated.
☕️ LOBSTERING ☙ Wednesday, May 15, 2024 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠
No more spicy cheddar biscuits or free refills as Bidenomics swirls the drain; Biden's China tariffs are disguised Ukraine war sanctions; the Trump Trial ends phase one on a low note; and more.
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