Law, Power, and Justice

TUESDAY 28 MAY 2024

TUESDAY MORNING NEWS NOTES

TRUMP TRIAL: CNN

• The defense is saying they are going to do a 4.5 hour closing.  All the commentators on TV say this is crazy.  The jurors have already made up their minds by this time. 
• Trump has been fuming over the weekend about not being able to use the legal advice argument.  Trump wanted to argue that he was at the mercy of lawyers telling him this was oK.
• (Note: The titmice are having a good breakfast.  The squirrel girls haven’t shown up yet this morning.  The cats (8 of them) are back iside from their morning walk all except Errol Flynn who is sitting on the front porch with his dad having guy time.  This happens every morning.  Mike has a great deal more appreciation for their obsession with schedule than I do.  I tend to not be a scheduled person.  Cats don’t like deviation from routine.)
• There is a psychology to closing arguments.  If you go on too long, it appears that you don’t have confidence in your case.  You hit the points and get out.
• (Note: Well the first of the squirrel girls has shown up.  We have the best fed squirrels in the country.  I think every squirrel identifies our squirrels: “Look at her.  she must be one of those Johns/Duggan squirrels.  Just look at that coat, shiny and the curves, oh my.  And, the Johns/Duggan squirrels have no parasites.  They have great immune systems cause they eat all the time.”  “I also heard that their next-door neighbors just throw seeds on the ground.”  “You’re kidding.”
• Blanche is arguing that what Trump was doing was “standard operating procedure.”  (Note: Of course it was.  It’s what Trump has been doing all his life, lying, cheating, and getting away with it.)
• Blanche: “This is an election.  This is not a crime.”
• What you are doing in closing is “arming the jurors,” you are providing them with arguments they can use in argument in the jury room.  (Note: If you are providing so much detail, no juror can remember it to use in the jury room.  I think these jurors do not have exhibits in the room with them.  If they ask for them, the documents or the testimony is read to them?)
• Blanche:  “It’s how you try to win elections.”  (Note: Jesus, what an argument.)
• Blanche: “Again, not a conspiracy, no criminal intent.  It’s AMI doing what they do and what they’ve been doing for decades.”  This is not about protecting Melania (Note: I’ve heard not one ounce of evidence of that even though every media outlet keeps repeating it over and over, it’s about elections.) this is just about how politics work.
• (Note: Ohhhhh, the cardinal and his wife are at the feeder.)
• Blanche: “The idea ‘sophisticated people’ like Trump and Pecker thought positive NATIONAl Enquirer stories could influence the 2016 election is preposterous.”  (Note: But wasn’t Blanche just arguing that they did and that it was politics as usual?)
• Even Ted Cruz felt that the lies published by the National Enquirer affected his campaign numbers. 
• Blanche is using a somewhat patronizing argument that the National Enquirer just didn’t have that big a circulation and to think that anything the NE could do or not do would have an impact on the election. 
• Blanche is also using the argument that “catch and kill” was not used in a certain meeting, or that Pecker hadn’t heard of it, as if that means they didn’t do it.
• Blanche is making inconsistent arguments, I suppose to give any juror, any juror, any argument to use.
• Blanche is raising his voice saying: “That is not a catch and kill.  It’s just not.”  (That’s his dramatic point?  Folks I think Blanche’s competence has been way overblown by the media.)
• Blanche is trying to capitalize on the argument that everybody is doing this, that it is normal.
• AMI had a non-prosecution agreement.  Blanche says this is evidence that Cohen is a liar.  (Note: How?)
• (Note: I think Blanche is trying to flood the jury with so much information, so much detail, that they  don’t even consider the facts that pertain to the charges.)
• (Note: Trump doesn’t really care about the verdict here.  Nothing is going to happen to him and all that matters is the wider political situation.)
• (Note: If you assume that people’s reasoning is not logical, why would you give them a logical closing argument?)
• Jury Consultant Linda Moreno: Thou shalt not bore the jury.  Research indicates that much of the jury has made up its mind after opening arguments.
• (Note: The chickadees are outside)
• “Blanche is raising his voice, pacing in circles, raising his arms as he appears exasperated before the jury.”  (Note: Seriously?  This works for him?  Sounds pathetic to me.)
• Trump came up with the idea to bring the Clinton accusers to the debate per Scaramucci.  Trump knew about the payment and how that was going to go through the system to create business fraud.
• Merchan admonishes Blanche for purposefully implying that a guilty verdict meant Trump would go to jail.  (Note: Oh, how scary, Mercan admonished him.  Jesus.  What else does the defense and Trump have to do?  I am so tired of watching the “Chickenshit Club.”)
• Blanche doews what Trump and his ilk always do, cheats.