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Trump Trial Notes: Hope & Sleaze

Sketch by Jane Rosenberg.

I realize that the word sleaze applies to every day in the Trump porn star hush money election interference case. The defense let the king of sleaze, David Pecker, off easy on cross examination because he probably still has Trump’s pecker in his pocket. Is it pickled? Beats the hell outta me.

I’m going to handle the hope and sleaze elements in reverse order, which is the order of their importance as well. The sleaze is, of course, Keith Davidson, bottom feeding shyster to the Z-list stars. Hope is former Trump aide, Hope Hicks. Hicks delivered devastating testimony against the man she enabled for so many years.

My First Draft colleague Cassandra tweeted her disgust with Hope’s witness stand cry.

I agree with her strangely operatic take on Hope’s character, but as a witness, she was like top-shelf whiskey. She hit the Maker’s Mark as it were.

There’s nothing quite as effective as a reluctant prosecution witness. Hope’s weepiness fed this narrative and revealed the Keith Davidsons, David Peckers, and Michael Cohen’s of the world as sleazy motherfuckers. That goes for the man she betrayed as well.

Repeat after me: Sleazy, sleazy, sleazy.

Hicks clearly dislikes Michael Cohen but corroborated his account of the sleazy events that landed the Indicted Impeached Insult Comedian in the dock.

Hicks told prosecutor Matthew Colangelo that she spoke with Trump about the issue, and that he reiterated the version of the story that Cohen told: “he did it out of the kindness of his own heart and he never told anyone about it,” Trump said, per Hicks.

 

Colangelo followed up, asking Hicks first how long she had known Cohen at that point, and whether it was consistent with her understanding of his character.

 

“I didn’t know Michael to be an especially charitable person or selfless person,” she replied after saying she’d known him for 3.5 years. “The kind of person who seeks credit.”

Trump lied? Is anyone other than Hope Hicks shocked? I would hope not.

Here’s another money quote from the coverage by TPM’s Josh Kovensky:

But it was Hicks’ testimony on the second question which both drove home the damage to Trump, and which concluded direct examination.

 

She said that Trump wanted to know her opinion about the story, and what its value would have been had the payment not been made. Trump, she said, said he believed that it was better to deal with it in 2018 – years after the 2016 election.

 

That testimony, from a longtime member of Trump’s inner circle, buttressed prosecutors’ case that Trump intended to subvert campaign finance laws by falsifying business records to cover up reimbursements to Cohen. Hicks laid out in a few minutes that she did not find the idea that Cohen did it on his own to be credible, and that Trump believed it benefitted his campaign to have kept the story out of the news.

Trump’s mouthpiece Emile Bove went easy on Hicks after she cried. It’s unclear if that was the original plan, but it’s not a good look to beat up on a weeping witness, especially one this damaging to Bove’s client. Bigly.

If Team Trump loses the case, the client will blame his lawyers for not beating harder on Hope Hicks, even if it was his idea to go easy on her. He’s never made a mistake in his life, after all.

The last word of the Hope section of the post goes to Crosby, Stills & Nash:

We begin our sleazy second segment with another courtroom sketch by Jane Rosenberg:

The cross-examination of Keith Davidson sounds like rousing entertainment. Davidson is a sleaze bag who makes his living representing dodgy characters, but he told the truth about Trump.

Davidson also regarded Michael Cohen as a bumptious and annoying pest but corroborated his testimony as did a recording played in court of a conversation between Cohen and The Boss. That’s Trump, not this guy:

The character in that 49 year old song reminds me of Cohen. A hustler on the make. Cohen is, of course, out for revenge after crossing the river to do the Indicted Impeached Insult Comedian’s bidding.

I recall watching Cohen testify before Congress and thinking: He lied for Trump but isn’t lying about him now.

It’s up to the jury to decide if Cohen is credible and if the corroboration was enough to rehabilitate him. Stay tuned.

How about a Village People song before we move on?

Posted because the song title is on point and because the Darnold used to go to Studio 54 with all the other famous douchebags during the disco era.

There was a fun sideshow when my favorite MSNBC host attended the trial and Trump glowered at him. I’ll let Lawrence tell his own story:

Lawrence has been on Trump’s shit list since 9/11. The Kaiser of Chaos claimed to have lost hundreds of friends when the Twin Towers went down. It was a lie and Lawrence called him on it. He wears Trump’s hatred as a badge of honor.

We wind down our Trump trial roundup with a Jane Rosenberg sketch of Todd Blanche pointing at his client and making a point before Judge Merchan.

There’s trouble in Trump lawyer land. His lead attorney Todd Blanche gave up a partnership at a fancy New York firm, moved to Florida, and now has former President* Pennywise as his sole client.

It was a crazy move, which is backfiring as Blanche’s days as a Trump whisperer seem to be ending:

He has griped that Mr. Blanche, a former federal prosecutor and veteran litigator, has not been following his instructions closely, and has been insufficiently aggressive. Mr. Trump wants him to attack witnesses, attack what the former president sees as a hostile jury pool, and attack the judge, Juan M. Merchan.

That’s not how you win cases. The first rule of litigation is NEVER PISS OFF THE JUDGE. It’s another norm that Defendant Trump has disrupted. Juries regard their judges as akin to a favorite uncle or aunt. Attacking the judge is guaranteed to backfire. Todd Blanche knows that. Donald Trump does not. He’s a moron.

Finally, I’ve been restrained in not punning on Judge Merchan’s surname. That ends now. I’ve been aching to make a Shakespeare pun. Is he the Merchan of Venue or Merchan of Venice? Discuss amongst yourselves.

The last word goes to The Kinks: