Week one of the first Trump trial

Early Friday afternoon in week one of the hush trial in New York City, the six alternate jurors were selected for the first trial of Donald Jonathan Trump.

[He hates when his middle name is used, so I used it!]

After some legal matter such as whether Trump can be used as a witness, the trial should begin on Monday in the second week.

[Trump testifying could be harmful for him as he obviously has a history of exaggeration and lies. If he takes the stand there will be plenty of side-bars to decide whether some (or most) if his testimony will be allowed or stricken.]

The prosecutor is introducing a motion to sanction Trump for his three social media posts they allege violate the judge’s gag order. The prosecutor told the judge they are seeking permission to hold Trump in contempt for violating the gag order and sanction Trump $1,000 for each of the three posts that violate the order. The prosecutor also said that prosecutors want the judge to take down the three posts and to remind the defendant that “further violations could result in jail time.” The judge hasn’t decided on this yet. At one point in the first week, Trump ignored the gag order seven times.

[Normally $3,000 should be “chicken feed” for him but with all his legal expenses.]

Judge Merchan said he will hold a hearing on the district attorney’s motion to sanction Trump for his social media posts, according to pool reports.

Seems Trump was bored in the first week of the trial during jury selection. It was reported that Trump actually dozed off during the first day. After the reporter mentioned it publicly, Trump gave the reporter a look.

Trump wants to take part in sidebars, which could put him very close to jurors. Defendants rarely get involved in sidebars with judges during jury selection.

Trump’s attorney asked the district attorney’s office to share the first three witnesses they plan to call, noting that opening arguments and the first witness testimony could begin very soon. The Assistant District Attorney refused but acknowledged that courtesy is often extended. But because Trump has been posting on social media about their witnesses, he said with a shrug, “We’re not telling him who the witnesses are.” Merchan said he couldn’t fault prosecutors for that. Trump visibly shook his head over the exchange.

Evidence that will be allowed:

• Judge Juan Merchan said he will allow a series of National Enquirer stories attacking Trump’s opponents into evidence.
• Testimony from Karen McDougal will also be allowed, but Merchan said it is not necessary for the jury to hear that Trump continued his affair with McDougal while his wife, Melania Trump, was pregnant and after she gave birth. McDougal is a model and actress who has said she had a months long affair with Trump in 2006 and was paid $150,000 to keep quiet about it by the National Enquirer. Trump has denied the affair.
• Merchan will allow testimony of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s guilty plea to campaign finance violations with the proper foundation. He said prosecutors cannot tie that guilty plea to Trump.

What will not be allowed:

• Merchan said he still believes the “Access Hollywood” video in which Trump brags about groping women should not be shown to jurors because it’s so prejudicial.
• The judge also denied prosecutors’ request to bring into evidence the allegations of sexual assault against Trump that came out after the “Access Hollywood” tape. He said he will not allow Trump to be prejudiced by a “rumor.”
• Merchan additionally said he doesn’t think the deposition of E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of sexual assault, should be brought in because it would be “building in a trial into a trial.”

Barron Trump’s graduation is on a court day but Merchan hasn’t decided to allow Trump to go to it. Although that’s later in May.

[Trump will probably go berserk if he can’t. Although knowing enough of him, he’d do campaigning as well.]

Remember how Trump was complaining that he couldn’t get a fair trial in heavily Democrat leaning New York City? Trump was asked what he thought of the first seven jurors selected. He answered to ask him again in two months [when the trial could be over]. So he’s not complaining now about a fair trial.

[Of course if he loses, he will bring up the unfair trial crap and if he wins, he won’t mention the unfairness. Note that his illegal activities related to this trial took place in New York City. So where else can it be done?]

While he is in court and can’t get out of being there, Trump’s vice-president candidates are on TV and radio trying to help him. They are J.D. Vance, Elise Stefanik, Doug Burgum [a long shot as from a small state and mostly unknown], and Vivek Ramaswamy.

[With some of the candidates, they could hurt him more than help.]

At some rally in some small town in Pennsylvania, Trump said “Gettysburg, what an amazing, horrible, just incredible, classy, terrible thing, really beautiful. I kinda went there, but had the wrong address. Robert E Lee a war hero that wasn’t captured, loser on the hill, but we miss him, really a great guy, believe me.”

[Lee was a war hero and “really a great guy, believe me” – Trump is that old to know him? The GOP were always ranting about President Biden’s age.]

The Supreme Court seemed deeply divided over a challenge to a federal law that prosecutors used to charge more than 350 people who were part of the Trump Insurrection mob that attacked the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Several conservatives expressed concern about giving prosecutors broad power that they suggested would allow the government to target peaceful protesters or hecklers who disrupt a court proceeding.

The court’s ruling, likely to land in late June, has the potential to undo the convictions and sentences of those who have gone to trial or pleaded guilty, and upend the charges still pending for many more. It could also clear Trump of some charges.

[So the justices want those disturbing the court to be allowed to?]

Jimmy Kimmel delivered another monologue making fun of Trump. The morning after, Trump claimed that at the Academy Awards in March, it was Kimmel, not Al Pacino, who said should of said “and the Oscar goes to” or at least “and the winner is.” Kimmel was the host that night. See here. [particularly at about 47 seconds in. “In fairness to our former President, many stable geniuses confuse me with Al Pacino….,” Kimmel wrote late that afternoon on Twitter.

[Can’t Trump get this right? Did he or have someone to verify the message sent? I guess not.]
Trump’s campaign is asking Republican candidates and committees using his name and likeness who fundraise to give at least 5% of what they raise to the campaign. Trump’s campaign managers, Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, said in a letter dated April 15, “Beginning tomorrow, we ask that all candidates and committees who choose to use President Trump’s name, image, and likeness split a minimum of 5% of all fundraising solicitations to Trump National Committee JFC…”

[You think anyone will give more than 5%?]

The LA Times goofed, claiming a “typographical error” when in the obituary for OJ Simpson, Donald Trump’s name was used instead. “Long before the city woke up on a fall morning in 2017, Trump walked out of Lovelock Correctional Center outside Reno, a free man for the first time in nine years,” the Times’ obituary read. “He didn’t go far, moving into a 5,000-square-foot home in Las Vegas with a Bentley in the driveway.”

Voting technology company Smartmatic and the far-right network One America News said that they had settled a defamation lawsuit stemming from the outlet’s lies about the 2020 election. Because of a confidential agreement, no details were revealed. Smartmatic filed its lawsuit against OAN in 2021, alleging that the right-wing conspiracy network “victimized” the company and spread lies about its role in the 2020 election to “increase viewership and revenue.”

The DJT stock continues to drop at one point. Maybe related to the fact that they began selling 2.1 million more shares which diluted the stock [which reduces Trump’s percentage in the company] and then announced they want to go into streaming as well. Streaming a notoriously cost-intensive business in which media behemoths like Disney have struggled to turn a profit. Since the height of DJT stock, it has dropped 70% as of April 16th but over the past three days, it has shot up a bit.

It is suggested that its streaming network could host live news, religious programming and family-friendly shows, movies and documentaries that “has been cancelled, is at risk of cancellation, or is being suppressed on other platforms and services.”

[So I guess content could include Beverley Hillbillies, Dukes of Hazard, moonshine experts, a cookie show on how to make deep fried Oreos….]
Trump repeatedly ranted about wind power during a fundraising dinner with oil and gas industry executives recently, claiming that the renewable-energy source is unreliable, unattractive and bad for the environment.

[Talking about sucking up. Just remember that he was pushing dirty and environmentally unfriendly coal when it was being used less and less. How anyone can think that renewable-energy source is bad for the environment must be crazy. He is.]

Only it now came out that disgraced former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December after being ordered to pay $148 million for falsely accusing two poll workers of cheating in the 2020 election. This week, the former Trump attorney sat for an hours-long deposition behind closed doors in the case, as his creditors seek to recover their money — with his treasure trove of assets revealing how they might be paid.

Trump’s clout pushing out Cheney who’s comments are valid

Liz Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican, publicly rejected Donald Trump’s most recent false charge that he would’ve won the 2020 election if not for “fraudulent” votes, her latest rebuke of Trump that has put her at odds with many members of her own party. Cheney has repeatedly pushed back on Trump’s baseless assertions that there was widespread fraud in the 2020 election. She was one of only 10 Republicans to vote to impeach Trump for “incitement of insurrection” after the deadly Trump Insurrection at the Capitol on January 6.

Trump is supporting the bid of Rep. Elise Stefanik to replace Rep. Liz Cheney as the No. 3 leader in the House Republican caucus. Cheney could be ousted as House Republican Conference chair as early as next week as she faces blowback for her continued criticism of Trump’s role in the January 6 Trump Insurrection of the U.S. Capitol in Washington by his supporters and for countering his false claim that last year’s election was stolen from him. The so-called “Big Lie”.

In 2015, 2016 and the early days of his first term in office, Stefanik criticized Trump over everything from his incendiary comments about Muslims and women to his signature policy positions, such as reforming NATO, building a US-Mexico border wall and having stronger cooperation with Russia. She is posting on her web page for taking credit for the money her district received from the stimulus bill that she voted against!

Trump said Cheney is a “warmongering fool who has no business in Republican Party Leadership. We want leaders who believe in the Make America Great Again movement, and prioritize the values of America First. Elise Stefanik is a far superior choice, and she has my COMPLETE and TOTAL Endorsement for GOP Conference Chair.” Or the real reason: Cheney is a vocal critic of Trump and voted to impeach him.

Cheney argued in an op-ed that while embracing Trump’s statements “might seem attractive to some for fundraising and political purposes, that approach will do profound long-term damage to our party and our country.”

A federal judge rejected the Justice Department’s attempts to keep secret a departmental opinion to not charge Trump with obstruction at the end of the Mueller investigation, calling the administration’s lawyers “disingenuous.” The department had argued in court that the largely redacted March 2019 memo was legal reasoning that helped then-Attorney General William Barr make a decision about Trump. But federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson said she believed Barr and his advisers had already decided they wouldn’t charge Trump with a crime before he got the written advice, and the memo was partly strategic planning instead of legal reasoning — and therefore could be made public.

Facebook’s Oversight upheld the social network’s decision to ban Trump four months after the Capitol riot, but also faulted the social network for making a decision without clear criteria. In its decision, the board agreed that Trump’s comments on the day of the insurrection “created an environment where a serious risk of violence was possible.” They pointed to calling the mob members “patriots,” “special,” and telling them to “remember this day forever.” However, the expert panel also took issue with Facebook’s “indefinite” suspension of Trump, calling it “vague and uncertain.”

It sent the decision back to Facebook and said it had six months to clarify Trump’s punishment and come up with a response that fits its known rules. No real shocker than Trump and the Republican party are outraged. Meanwhile others say 6 months isn’t enough.

Allies of Rudy Giuliani continue to call on Trump and Republicans to pay for his efforts around the election and, in turn, subsidize the mounting legal bills facing the former New York City mayor. Trump was recently informed directly by Giuliani associates of the increasing debts incurred by his onetime personal lawyer.

Lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who is not formally representing Rudy Giuliani but acting in an advisory capacity, said Giuliani will likely file a court challenge and wants his former clients to also seek to prevent prosecutors from examining the material. He hopes Trump will join in a court fight to attempt to block federal prosecutors from accessing seized material Giuliani believes is protected by attorney-client privilege. But you know Trump will not [or shouldn’t] enter any court as he will open up a big can of worms, so big, that we’ve never seen a can so big!

The House Communication Standards Commission released a formal complaint by Republican Rep. Buddy Carter against Democrat Rep. Zoe Lofgren, who in March issued a report compiling the disturbing election-related social media posts of scores of Republicans who were in favor of Trump. So Carter is filing a complaint against her report where Twitter and other posts that are clear to see in public and have been debunked?

A security project for the north lawn of the White House was delayed after the elections [and is ongoing now] as it would cause some noise and Melania Trump would complain that it would affect any gatherings at the White House outside. Don’t they have other locations for gathering such as the Rose Garden – that Melania work on it got butchered. The project is expected to last 2 months.