“Oh, yes, absolutely. That, I would do. ... I look forward to testifying. At trial, I’ll testify.”--Trump today, 9/6/23, in a a radio interview.
👏Oh! And WE look forward to you testifying! PLEASE do, pretty, pretty🙏.
“We’ll have fun on the stand with all of these people that say the Presidential Election wasn’t Rigged and Stollen. THE TRIAL OF THE CENTURY!!!”--Trump in a post in July.
Oh yes, it will be fun😍. Yes, they will be the trials of the century.
I have dreamed literally of cross-examining Trump in a court of law, where every witness must answer the question asked and only that question; where the rules of evidence exclude non-responsive testimony; where a judge, not a debate moderator, will reign him in and cut him off and instruct him as often as necessary and with the force needed to stop his stardust tossing; where the judge when necessary will instruct the jury to disregard his testimony, and do so repeatedly.
Trump has never been cross-examined in court! He has no idea what he is in for.
I say all of this with, I swear on my children's' heads, no faux bravado. Testifying will be a disaster for Trump. And I say this from 40 years experience in criminal trials. I know from that experience that the defendant testifying is the fulcrum of any criminal trial. I have seen with my own concerned, sometimes worried eyes, as all heads in the jury box swivel toward the defendant as with no other witness, and never swivel back. There are risks for both sides when a defendant testifies. Pezzola did terribly on the witness stand--but it worked! He escaped conviction on seditious conspiracy. Trumpie would beat Alvin Bragg's small potatoes case without testifying. But since he will testify, he will turn a probable NG verdict into a conviction on something.
Fani Willis in Atlanta: a four month trial, 150 witnesses, co-defendants, every state witness subject to cross examination by however many co-defendants' lawyers--Having only worked my career in the minor leagues of state court I know of no local prosecutors' office anywhere that can effectively try such a case. If Willis manages to get it to the jury I think, but I do not have an abiding conviction here, that Trumpie will go down. But since he will testify, he will be Willis' star witness which tilts my prediction to conviction.
By far the most daunting case Trumpie faces is in SDFL. The evidence is truly open-and-shut. But there he has Loose Cannon in his corner. Still, I can't reasonably imagine how Cannon could tube that case before the jury. Trumpie will have a jury pool from the Fort Pierce area that is reasonably favorable to him from which to select the trial jury as well, and all he needs is one recalcitrant who lied her way onto the jury and the verdict will be hung. But here agayne, "At trial, I'll testify. Oh yes, absolutely." Game. Set. Match. Do not pass go. Go directly to jail. There will not be one hold out.
Jack Smith's Nov. 7-Jan.7/Nov. 7-Jan. 20 Non-violent White Collar Crime prosecution in D.C.: I have previously written that Smith will lose that case. But there agayne, "At trial, I'll testify. Oh yes, absolutely", and he will not have a favorable jury and Smith will convict the Former Guy.
That is my sober judgment, tempered by experience, absent partisanship, analyzed as a lawyer, fortified with knowledge of the defendant and familiarity with how criminal trials are conducted--none of which Trumpie has. His lawyers will have some input in him testifying or not and he could backtrack as he did with the Bedminster press conference that he called off, but lawyers cannot convince a defendant convinced to testify. The judge will tell him that the decision is his and his alone. "At trial, I'll testify. Oh yes, absolutely", and his lawyers will sit at counsel table as long as they can without running out of the courtroom in terror at the prospect and horror at the advent.
To quote, as I often do, Confederate general J.E.B. Stuart, testifying "is a decision that Trumpie will regret but once, and that is continuously", until the end of his life. And yes, it will be "fun."