NY Supreme Court Justice Juan #Merchan issued a limited #GagOrder before #Trump’s 6-wk #criminal trial citing grave safety concerns, but Trump & attys argued his rights were being trampled on.

“President Trump’s opponents & adversaries are using the Gag Order as a political sword to attack President Trump with reference to this case, on the understanding that his ability to mount a detailed response is severely restricted by the Gag Order,” Trump attys #Blanche & #Bove wrote in the doc.

One of his lawyers, Todd #Blanche, will be present for the interview.

It is unusual for a lawyer to be present for a #Probation Dept interview, acc/to current & fmr agency officials & several defense lawyers w/experience dealing w/the agency. And since the coronavirus pandemic has waned, virtual interviews have become far less common.

But Justice Juan M. #Merchan, who presided over Trump’s #criminal trial & will hand down his sentence, signed off on the arrangement.

There were few #witnesses whose testimony was central to the #crimes charged. One was #MichaelCohen, whose #credibility was attacked by #Trump's lawyer Todd #Blanche.

Another witness —who had no connection to the falsification of business records— was #StormyDaniels, whose #HushMoney from Cohen is what was covered up. Susan Necheles, the defense lawyer w/the most trial experience on Trump's team, worked aggressively to sow doubts about Daniels’s story w/the jury.

Justice #Merchan commends the jury alternates for paying attention. The judge, who often watches the jury for attentiveness in case they need a break, praises one alternate in particular who went through “several notebooks” taking down notes.

Jurors 4 & 6, a man & a woman, are gathered around a laptop w/a paralegal for the prosecution. #Trump defense atty Todd #Blanche stands behind the computer looking on.

As was dramatically illustrated by #Trump atty Todd #Blanche yesterday, #jurors will NOT decide Trump’s #punishment if found #guilty.

But since we are both curious & ready for the accountability to begin here are some possible #penalties he may face.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/29/nyregion/trump-convicted-jail-penalties.html?smid=url-share

Steinglass shows Trump’s filing w/the federal government’s Office of Government #Ethics in May 2018 that revealed #Trump had made a payment to #MichaelCohen. The filing came days after #RudyGiuliani said on #FoxNews that Trump had reimbursed Cohen for the #StormyDaniels payment.

#Blanche cited this same filing as #evidence that Trump had no #intent to #defraud.

“The defendant didn’t actually pay a lawyer, he paid a porn star by funneling money through a lawyer” Steinglass says.

#Blanche tried to make the fact that #MichaelCohen didn’t remember how much he was owed each month for the reimbursements into a suspicious thing. But #Steinglass says it demonstrates that there was no retainer agreement, & that the knowledge & the math was then in the hands of #Trump’s employees.

#Steinglass puts his own spin on one of the defense’s #ClosingArguments, that the existence at the #TrumpOrganization of financial documents related to the charged #crimes shows that they were not crimes.

“You almost have to laugh at the way Mr. #Blanche explained it to you,” he says. “They would have destroyed evidence — committed another crime — to hide this crime, but because they didn’t do that, & these documents exist” that’s evidence that there was no crime.

To believe defense, you’d have to take #Blanche’s word #MichaelCohen went rogue & #Trump was clueless about the #StormyDaniels deal.

Steinglass details calls between #Pecker & #MichaelCohen, w/ #HopeHicks occasionally in the mix, reminding jurors how enmeshed Cohen was & how much he talked to the campaign.

As he takes jurors through the mountain of documentary evidence, he sympathizes, “We don’t need to show all these calls & emails… they’re in evidence if you want to see them.”

#Trump atty Todd #Blanche, during his closing, tried to convince the jury that the prosecution’s case relied entirely on #MichaelCohen. Josh #Steinglass is taking that argument on directly & indirectly. As he moves through the case’s timeline, showing every piece of documentary #evidence the prosecution has, he is reinforcing just how much does not rely on Cohen, but on the testimony of witnesses who are friendly to Trump & on phone records you can’t dispute.

#Steinglass uses the case of the #TrumpOrganization doorman to illustrate a point about looking at testimony in its full context.

#Blanche had noted that #Pecker said he would have printed the doorman's story, about #Trump fathering a child out of wedlock, regardless of whether it was true. But Steinglass shows the jurors that Pecker added that he would have waited until after the election to do so. “Because that was what they agreed to do.”

#Steinglass notes that while NDAs are not inherently #criminal, but they are “indeed illegal when they serve an unlawful purpose.”

#Trump atty #Blanche barely stitched together a story, but tried to distance Trump from the documents & ended by attacking #MichaelCohen.

Steinglass tells a sweeping narrative about a #fraud on the American people, & argues that Americans had the right to determine if they cared that Trump slept w/a porn star while his wife was home w/their new baby.

#Steinglass addresses #Blanche’s interest in the term #CatchAndKill, drawing a distinction between the phrase & the practice.

Steinglass says while the phrase may not have been used much during the trial, the practice was exactly what had been agreed to, & argues that suppressing those stories amounted to committing a #fraud on American voters, pulling the wool over their eyes “in a coordinated fashion.”

He calls The #NationalEnquirer “a covert arm” of #Trump's campaign.

#Steinglass outlines their theory of the Aug 2015 meeting between #Trump, #MichaelCohen, & David #Pecker, of #NationalEnquirer, in which they agreed to a plot to suppress negative stories about Trump & promote negative stories about his opponents.

Steinglass punctures one of #Blanche’s go-to arguments —that The Enquirer is like all publications & Pecker's arrangement w/Trump wasn’t unusual. There is nothing normal or standard about what the tabloid was doing w/Trump.

#Steinglass addresses another problem w/ #Blanche's argument — that he is trying to both say this wasn’t a reimbursement & it was also a legitimate legal expense.

“Their arguments are not necessarily consistent, but they’re passionate,” Steinglass says, about the defense's contradictory arguments at one point they argued #Trump didn’t know about the reimbursement & at another point that he did.