Manhattan DA #AlvinBragg will have an opportunity to say whether his office would oppose the revocation of the #GagOrder before the judge rules. His spox declined to comment Tues. In seeking the order in the first place, prosecutors cited examples of how #Trump’s rhetoric routinely inspires #threats of #violence & #harassment by his followers.
"Donald Trump’s conviction on all 34 felony counts on Thursday marked a full-blown victory for Alvin Bragg, the first-term Manhattan district attorney who was criticized for using a novel legal strategy to bring a historic criminal case against a former president."
"The decision to convict Trump on all 34 counts is significant. Jurors could have acquitted him on some and convicted on others. But the fact that they went all-in, and relatively quickly, suggests they believed the wider story prosecutors told at trial. It is a full-throated win for Bragg and the worst possible outcome for Trump."
Each page yesterday took him just a little more than a minute, so this will take >30 mins.
Between that & the testimony readbacks, also expected to take >30 mins, there will likely be >1 hour this morning w/the jury in the courtroom, not actively deliberating.
Best line of the day goes to Manhattan DA #AlvinBragg:
“The defendant, Donald J. Trump, is guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree to conceal a scheme to corrupt the 2016 election.”
#Trump has his posse again. Today it’s more #Republican elected officials. Today, Trump will be joined by the #House speaker, #MikeJohnson, as well as #NorthDakota’s governor, #DougBurgum, a contender to be Trump's running mate. Also present will be Representatives #ByronDonalds & #CoryMills of Florida, & #VivekRamaswamy, who was one of Trump's primary rivals this year. Both Donalds & Ramaswamy are longshot hopefuls to be Trump's running mate.
#MichaelCohen testified that he has never met the Manhattan DA, #AlvinBragg. Pretty surprising considering Cohen is the star witness in the biggest case of Bragg’s career & all signs indicate that Bragg has supervised this investigation closely.
Court is done w/the first day of Cohen's cross-examination.
Blanche indicated to Justice #Merchan that he may finish cross-examination end of day on Thurs. Cohen is the prosecution's final witness.
charges are falsifying business records to hide #HushMoney payments in lead up to 2016 election to #influence electorate
just one Trump supporter at the courthouse draped in a Trump flag.
#StormyDaniels's lawyer, #KeithDavidson, to return to stand. He negotiated the hush-money payment at the center of the case, & is expected to lay out details of the deal.
Per NBC: Daus was in Iraq 2009-2011 doing forensic data analysis; & is now a supervising computer forensic analyst in the DA’s office.
Daus, is expected to assist in verifying records.
DA #AlvinBragg is watching his employee explain the path between a device coming into the office, either through a search warrant or consent, & the actual extraction & preservation of data.
Alright, who’s ready to see #Trump get his just deserts? He fucked up the whole damn world & that’s not an overstatement.
PS #BabySquirrel & I had a lovely weekend. It’s as boy! (He’s developed discernible - stuff)
He is doing quite well! Name: “Ramone” because he’s a sweet little punk rocker.
Lawyers indicated that their opening statements will take a little more than an hour combined. Justice Juan #Merchan also noted that one #juror reached out before court resumed to express nervousness about the media attention surrounding the case, but the judge added that the juror is still here.
In 2006, …Donald #Trump met the adult-film star #StormyDaniels. According to Daniels, things got intimate. (“The sex was nothing crazy,” she would go on to say.) A decade later, Trump was running for President, as a kind of #Republican uber-family man, drawing crucial support from #conservative, #evangelical voters. Daniels decided to go public: her encounter w/ Trump had taken place while he was already married to his third wife, Melania.
This question is at the heart of this week’s #criminal trial against #Trump—the first against a former President in American history. Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, which the Manhattan DA, #AlvinBragg, claims was part of a scheme to “conceal damaging information & unlawful activity from American voters before & after the 2016 election.”
1 wk before Trump’s#criminal trial in Manhattan, appeals court judge rejected effort to pause the case & move it to a diff location.
Judge #LizbethGonzalez issued the decision Mon afternoon after hearing arguments from Trump’s lawyers & lawyers from the Manhattan DA #AlvinBragg’s office.
In court papers made public on Wednesday, prosecutors argued the April 15 trial date should go ahead as planned, noting it was Trump’s 8th bid to postpone the schedule as part of his broader #legal strategy to delay all 4 of his criminal trials beyond the Nov #election.
#GagOrder Against #Trump Is Expanded to Stop Attacks on Judge’s Family
Donald Trump had in recent days targeted the daughter of Juan #Merchan, the judge overseeing his #criminal trial in Manhattan, in blistering social media posts.
The NY judge overseeing #Trump’s upcoming #criminal trial expanded an existing #GagOrder on Mon to bar him from attacking the judge’s family members, who in recent days have become the #target of Trump’s #abuse.
Justice Juan #Merchan last wk issued an order prohibiting Trump from attacking #witnesses, #prosecutors, #jurors & #court staff, as well as their relatives. That order, however, did not cover Justice Merchan himself or the Manhattan DA, #AlvinBragg, who brought the criminal case.
In the expanded order, Justice #Merchan recognized #Trump's "constitutional right to speak to the American voters freely, & to defend himself publicly," & clarified that the initial #GagOrder did not include members of his or #AlvinBragg's family, but wrote Trump’s attacks on family members serve no purpose but to inject fear.
“Defendant, in his opposition of April 1, 2024, desperately attempts to justify & explain away his #dangerous rhetoric by ‘turning the tables’ & blaming those he attacks typical of Trump to [#BlameTheVictim]. The arguments counsel makes are at best strained & at worst baseless misrepresentations which are uncorroborated & rely upon innuendo & exaggeration.
DA #AlvinBragg's office immediately responded tearing into #Trump's filing asking for Justice #Merchan's recusal, calling it a "daisy chain of innuendos" about the judge's daughter.
As said above, NY's #JudicialEthics board rejected the arg of a conflict last yr, “A relative's independent political activities do not provide a reasonable basis to question the judge's impartiality," the cmte found.
DA #AlvinBragg prosecutors write, “There is simply nothing new here that would alter this Court's prior conclusion that nothing about this proceeding will directly benefit Authentic* or this Court's family member, let alone this Court.” (*#Merchan’s daughter’s co)
"There is no #constitutional right to target the family of this Court, let alone on the blatant falsehoods that have served as the flimsiest pretexts [...] Defendant knows what he is doing, & everyone else does too."
"Defendant's claim of a constitutional right to levy personal attacks on family members is as disturbing as it is wrong."
#Trump attys argued that it was okay to attack Justice #Merchan's daughter bc she's allegedly engaged in "adversarial campaign speech" by his political opponents.
#Trump files challenge to the Manhattan trial #GagOrder & in the filing Trump’s attorneys actually attack Judge #Merchan’s daughter & say Trump’s attacks on her & on the judge are justified.
Trump’s filing was in response a previously undisclosed filing by Manhattan DA #AlvinBragg who alerted the the judge to the posts & asked that the court “clarify or confirm that its March 26, 2024 Order Restricting Extrajudicial Statements protects family members of the Court, the DA, & all other individuals mentioned in the Order” & recommended Judge #Merchan threaten #contempt charges.