Friday, May 31, 2024

So that last post, jabbing fun at The Bulwark, which I respect, the lyrics of the old Soviet National Anthem, the empire as the "bulwark of peoples in brotherhood strong." I have always been moved by the Soviet National Anthem. It is HEROIC. The state and the peoples of the U.S.S.R. accomplished a lot. They have much to be proud of.

They were the bulwark and the spearhead against Nazi Germany, without which the war would not have been won, at least not as "quickly", and they were rightly, the first into Berlin. 

They were first in space. Their nuclear program was second only behind ours and every bit as brilliant and effective.

Yes, that totalitarian state murdered 30,000,000 of it own in Stalin-made famine; yes, the gulags were full of Soviet citizens. Yes, they made condominium with the Nazis. And then were betrayed. Yes, imo, the Anglo powers should have let the dictators fight it out; we should not have aided Uncle Joe; neither was worth our alliance nor our non-aggression. 

But they were also rational partners in the management of the Cold War and together we kept World War III at bay. 

Yes, they invaded Hungary and Czechoslovakia, and in 2022 their successor, Ukraine. The loss of empire is a terrific blow to a nation's psyche. Ask Britain. The Russians have endured. Britain survived, diminished America is teetering, and may yet collapse with a whimper as the Soviets did. It was exquisitely painful for them and the British; it will be exquisitely painful for us.

Here is my favorite version of the Soviet anthem. The Bulwark took its name from this 1977 version. THAT'S A JOKE ON THE BULWARK!

 

 



The New Republic                                                                    The Bulwark

 

TNR’s facing left, upright, confidently sailing over calm seas under full sail.

TB’s facing right, struggling, listing over rough seas.

The Bulwark has the better song:

Sing to the Motherland, home of the free,
Bulwark of peoples in brotherhood strong.
O Party of Lenin, the strength of the people,
To Communism's triumph lead us on!

Things Personified

April, May, and June are names for females. Maybe July (Julie ?). That’s it. Nobody is named March. August is a guy’s name but not for the month, for “serious”. January, February, March, August, September, October, November, December: not personified. What's wrong with March as a name? Good strong masculine name. March Harris. I would like an explanation for this. I think it's iceist, only the warm sunny months get people named for them. Ah! Spring is a female name, no? Summer is. Ever heard anyone named Fall? Fucking Winter? Winter Harris, no. It's iceism.


May 31, 2024, 11:40 a.m. ET

Jonathan SwanReporting on the 2024 election

We’re now in the phase of the speech when Trump is falsely claiming that kids can’t have Little League games any more because undocumented immigrants are setting up too many tents.

πŸ˜‚ Swan, you take the silver medal for posting during the trial. Brom gets the gold. Haberman gets “best post” for “the skies are darkening”.🀣 Maggie, you’ll always have that one.

In a democracy, the president is who the voters say it is; in a jury trial, justice is what the jury says it is

Trump Announces Nearly $53 Million Fund-Raising Haul After Guilty Verdict

Cash has been one of President Biden’s advantages so far in 2024, and post-conviction money will help Mr. Trump close the gap with the Democratic incumbent.

Paper Moon, the Third Voice

Moze, If we get a silver mine, we could get a house and everything, couldn't we?

Everything, just...everything.

#"Just around the corner, there's a rainbow in the sky"... playing on radio.

Moze, could we get a piano, too?

A piano? We'll have a whole factory.

Moze leaves. Addie to follow.

#“Just around the corner, there's a rainbow in the sky”… Addie sings to herself.

The lyrics again foreshadow. "Just around the corner" for Moze is a beating and a black eye, the loss of their fortune, and for Addie the loss of her dream life with Moze. Moze drops her off with her aunt. Addie has a house and the house has a piano. But she doesn't have Moze.

"Americans elected a criminal."

Yep
 
 


Sarah Longwell
@SarahLongwell25


“It is sad to see a former president become a convicted felon. It is a dangerous precedent that has been set. Do you know why we are in this sad and dangerous position?

Because Americans elected a criminal.” ⁦

@JVLast
⁩ https://thebulwark.com/p/trump-is-a-c

     Our country is at a crossroads. What we saw today has never happened before, and I think for the majority of Americans, it raises questions about whether our legal system can be trusted. Pray for our nation, for God's guiding hand that this republic will be one nation under God...
    — Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) May 31, 2024

    Please pray that God restores our right to pay off porn stars to hush them up and to create fake records to cover up the payoff.

    Amen. https://t.co/NVr7YIunyg
    — George Conway (@gtconway3d) May 31, 2024


😁

George Conway
@gtconway3d


Good morning to everyone who wasn’t convicted of 34 felonies yesterday.
5:58 AM · May 31, 2024
·311.5K Views

Enjoy your reunion, G!

 
New York CNN  —

On online forums that have previously been linked to mass shootings, people are threatening violence and attempting to publicly identify the 12 New York jurors who on Thursday decided to convict former President Donald Trump. 

The calls for retribution began immediately after the verdict was announced.

“Hope these jurors face some street justice,” one anonymous user on a pro-Trump forum wrote. 

... “Wouldn’t [it] be interesting if just one person from Trump’s legal team anonymously leaked the names of the jurors?” 

...

...anonymous internet users on sites that are known havens of hate and harassment began sharing names, home addresses and other personal information belonging to people they say might have been members of the jury, a practice known as doxxing.

Hope for the best, expect the worst, and be ready


Trump supporters call for riots and violent retribution after verdict


Supporters of former President Donald Trump, enraged by his conviction on 34 felony counts by a New York jury, flooded pro-Trump websites with calls for riots, revolution and violent retribution.


After Trump became the first U.S. president to be convicted of a crime, his supporters responded with dozens of violent online posts, according to a Reuters review of comments on three Trump-aligned websites: the former president's own Truth Social platform, Patriots.Win and the Gateway Pundit.
Some called for attacks on jurors, the execution of the judge, Justice Juan Merchan, or outright civil war and armed insurrection.


“Someone in NY with nothing to lose needs to take care of Merchan,” wrote one commentator on Patriots.Win. “Hopefully he gets met with illegals with a machete,” the post said in reference to illegal immigrants.


On Gateway Pundit, one poster suggested shooting liberals after the verdict. “Time to start capping some leftys,” said the post. “This cannot be fixed by voting."<--Agreed

...

“HANG EVERYONE”

...many of his supporters also said that his conviction was proof that the American political system was broken and that only violent action could save the country.


“1,000,000 men (armed) need to go to Washington and hang everyone. That's the only solution,” said one poster on Patriots.win. Another added: “Trump should already know he has an army willing to fight and die for him if he says the words...I’ll take up arms if he asks.”


Other posts specifically urged targeting Democrats, in some cases suggesting they be shot. “AMERICA FULLY DESTROYED BY DEMOCRATS. LOCK AND LOAD,” wrote a commentator on Gateway Pundit.

My Big Brother and two-time Trump voter this morning:

The “right wing is threatening civil war”. Therefore,

“Biden should pardon Trump and name him vice president to unite the country.”

The Verdict: Trump Was Illegitimate President

Trump has been found guilty "beyond a reasonable doubt" of committing thirty-four felonies with intent to influence the 2016 election right before the voting started. Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass:

"The American people in 2016 had the right to determine whether they cared that Trump had slept with a porn star or not, and the conspiracy prevented them from doing so".

Trump committed "fraud on the American people". 

Trump's crimes "could very well be what got President Trump elected."

Yep.

“The American people knew exactly what they were getting when they voted for Donald Trump.”—Sen. Marco Rubio, 2016





The Republican's campaign said it raised $34.8 million from small-dollar donors in less than seven hours following the historic verdict Thursday afternoon that convicted the former president of 34 counts of falsifying business records.

“I think they elected the president last night.”—Sen. Marco Rubio today.

Biblical

Several minutes of almost unbearable silence passed at Donald Trump's hush-money criminal case, before the court officer’s voice came loud and clear through the courtroom.

She asked the jury to read the verdict. And in a steady, even tone, the foreman began.

And when the first guilty verdict rang out, the air in the courtroom turned to stone.
(BBC)
Trump said he would speak at Trump Tower, a venue more photogenic than the courtroom hallway …
πŸ˜†

Thursday, May 30, 2024

I passed this store everyday on my way home from my office in Hialeah










 

 



I stopped in a couple of times. Two older Jewish brothers own and operate the store in person. Dusty wooden floors. Old dog to keep company. As Ana Navarro-Cardenas says, Florida’s poet laureates. Always left, always right.

The Banality of the Extraordinary

All of the metaphors employed. Mountain, linear algebra. The one I employed, that I thought best got to the quality of evidence not the quantity: “Ten cups of weak coffee don’t make a pot of strong coffee.”

How’s that look now, Benjamin?

Ordinary building + ordinary courtroom + ordinary jury room painted “municipal” + ordinary juror x 12=Extraordinary.

It’s the counter-intuitive hope and faith and promise of the American experiment in democracy, and in the Anglo-American jury system: ordinary people can do extraordinary things. 

Yes. Fanfare for the Common Man. 

The Banality of Justice

Yes. From the drab concrete block courthouse.

From the rundown ordinariness of a state courtroom.

From the ordinariness of twelve New Yorkers.

From the drab ordinariness of the jury room painted in the color, “municipal.”

To the routine ordinariness of the verdict’s delivery.

From the ordinary to the extraordinary.

The Banality of Justice

The first count landed like a hammer: “Guilty.”

In business-like fashion, the foreman of a Manhattan jury transformed Donald Trump — the former president of the United States and possibly the next one — into a convicted felon. Then he said it 33 more times.

The trial was over. And minutes later, the jury was gone.

The most jarring aspect of the moment was its mundane efficiency. If you closed your eyes, it sounded no different than the end of a run-of-the-mill criminal trial, with the foreman ticking through the charges before a relatively standard statement of gratitude from the judge for the jury’s completion of its civic duty.

Justice Juan Merchan then released the jurors…sending them back to their regular lives, likely forever changed by their brush with American history.

Another way of rendering it

“Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.” “Guilty.”

(Politico)

George😁

 

George Conway
@gtconway3d
34/34.  So much winning.
5:08 PM · May 30, 2024
·
886.9K Views

 
George Conway
@gtconway3d

Justice.

5:10 PM · May 30, 2024
·403K Views

 

George Conway
@gtconway3d

No one should be surprised. It was never a close case.


5:16 PM · May 30, 2024
·478K Views

Emma Fitzsimmons
May 30, 2024, 8:16 p.m. ET

Emma Fitzsimmons
Yusef Salaam, a New York City council member and one of the Exonerated Five, a group of Black and Latino men who were wrongly convicted of raping a jogger in Central Park when they were teenagers, said in a statement: 



Mission Statement

To encourage knowledge of affairs at home and abroad; to cure the spirit of lying which prevails amongst us; to record memorable providences.-Publick Occurrences, September 25, 1690

 The American legal system in one photo:



After Trump was found guilty as charged his black limousine motorcade passing a building with old wall air conditioning units.

Jake Tapper announcing the guilty verdicts one by one is a masterful old-style TV anchor displaying no emotion. Not so one person off camera who can't hold it in 😁and audibly sighs, whether in relief or disappointment we cannot tell.



As we were waiting for the jury's 30-minute span to pass to fill out the verdict forms I had MSNBC open in one window, CNN in another, NYT's page in a third. I heard one MSNBC analyst, a former Manhattan Assistant D.A. explain convincingly that in all likelihood the jury had reached a mixed verdict. If the verdict had been all guilty or all not guilty they could just easily go down and check the column boxes, but if it was e.g. guilty on count I, not guilty on counts II and III, guilty on IV, etc. they would take their time to make sure they had gotten it right. And then the verdict comes in guilty on all counts. Over on NYT Haberman posted first, guilty on counts I-III, then guilty on counts through XI before Jonah Bromwich typed in guilty on all 34 counts.

Of course. He had to stand and face the jury as the verdict was read. I hadn’t thought of it. 




My brain is mush. I have followed this intently for weeks, have blogged it daily, hourly, sometimes minute-by-minute. It’s still too much to truly grasp.

 May 30, 2024, 5:20 p.m. ET

Michael Gold Reporting on the Trump campaign
Trump looks fairly defeated as he walks up to the cameras and reporters stationed in the hallway outside the courtroom.

I watched his post-verdict remarks. That's fair, he did look a little defeated. He spoke defiantly, though.

 May 30, 2024, 5:18 p.m. ETJust now
Just now

Jonah BromwichReporting from inside the courthouse
Alvin L. Bragg has become the first prosecutor ever to convict a former president. The trial team is packing up its bags, evincing no visible emotion, really.

 Maggie Haberman
May 30, 2024, 5:14 p.m. ET2 minutes ago
2 minutes ago

Maggie HabermanReporting from inside the courthouse

Todd Blanche, Trump’s lawyer, is arguing, with the jurors gone, that the verdict is improper and should be tossed because it relied on Michael Cohen’s testimony.
Jonah Bromwich
May 30, 2024, 5:15 p.m. ET2 minutes ago
2 minutes ago

Jonah BromwichReporting from inside the courthouse

The judge immediately denies the motion.

"First American president to become a felon"

 Benjamin Protess
May 30, 2024, 5:08 p.m. ET

Benjamin ProtessReporting on the Trump trial
Donald J. Trump was just convicted of all 34 counts of falsifying business records. He is the first American president to become a felon.

 Jonah Bromwich
May 30, 2024, 5:09 p.m. ET1 minute ago
1 minute ago

Jonah BromwichReporting from inside the courthouse
Trump is unresponsive, sitting slack at the defense table.

TRUMP GUILTY ALL COUNTS

 Jonah Bromwich
May 30, 2024, 5:08 p.m. ETJust now
Just now

Jonah BromwichReporting from inside the courthouse
Donald J. Trump was found guilty on all counts.

 Maggie Haberman
May 30, 2024, 5:05 p.m. ET1 minute ago
1 minute ago

Maggie HabermanReporting from inside the courthouse
One juror appeared to glance at Trump. The others didn’t.

That's a good sign for Trump.

 

May 30, 2024, 5:00 p.m. ET

Reporting from inside the courthouse

The judge reiterates that there is a verdict. The jury, at 4:20, asked for a half hour. They are about to come in.

Jonah Bromwich
May 30, 2024, 4:37 p.m. ET

Jonah Bromwich Reporting from inside the courthouse
 

They [jurors] request 30 minutes to fill out the forms.

Okay, animate on.

Kate Christobek
May 30, 2024, 4:16 p.m. ET

Kate ChristobekReporting from inside the courthouse

Trump is having a very animated conversation with his lead lawyer, Todd Blanche.

Justice Merchan told the lawyers that he plans on excusing the jurors at 4:30.

The jurors have deliberated 9 hrs and 12 mins

For a trial that lasted 7+ weeks that is neither long nor short. A quick verdict (less than 9' 12") is almost always not guilty. This jury has gotten right to work, asking for testimony readbacks and re-instruction by the judge on the first day, yesterday. Today they received those refreshers. They have keyed in on the most pertinent testimony, that of David Pecker and Michael Cohen. They have done so no doubt in obedience to the instruction that told them they cannot base their verdict alone on the testimony of a co-conspirator, Cohen, without it being corroborated. They are seeing if Pecker corroborated Cohen. He did. 

The jury did not request re-instruction on the "complex", "layered" charges. They are too smart to elide over that and there are two lawyers for good measure on the jury. They will not neglect to examine if the evidence proves each and every element of the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. I would expect that they will request re-instruction on the charges when they are ready, e.g. what "unlawful means" is and if it is distinct from "crimes", and I expect them to get bogged down there. If they ask to hear the reasonable doubt instruction again, an unusually long three-pages, that is almost always a sign of an impending acquittal. In this case I am not sure if that signal blinks.


Butler has $48.8 million guaranteed for next season and a player option for $52.2 million for the 2025-26 season. The former Sixer wants a two-year maximum extension for $113 million.



[To me, that is a no-brainer. Miami should trade Jimmy and “retool.”]


The Sixers view him as a fallback option if they are unable to sign Paul George in free agency.

Their desire is to sign George. The Sixers believe they have a real chance of getting the nine-time All-Star if he opts out of his 2024-25 deal with the Los Angeles Clippers.

 May 30, 2024, 11:11 a.m. ET

Jonah Bromwich Reporting from inside the courthouse


David Pecker testified on cross-examination that the phrase “catch and kill” was not used at the August 2015 meeting — and that there was no financial agreement made in concert with the plan for him to supress negative stories about Trump. The defense has argued that both of those data points should cast doubt on the prosecution’s theory.

Jonah Bromwich
May 30, 2024, 10:55 a.m. ET

Jonah Bromwich Reporting from inside the courthouse


The jurors just again heard David Pecker’s testimony that the reason he was purchasing negative stories on Trump’s behalf was to benefit his presidential campaign. That is the prosecution’s theory of the election conspiracy in a nutshell.

I'm going to keep harping on this until someone tells me the prosecution can do it: non-criminal act + non-criminal act equals criminal act.

 Jonah Bromwich
May 30, 2024, 10:03 a.m. ET

Jonah Bromwich Reporting from inside the courthouse

The jury specifically asked in its note for the judge to repeat his instructions on what are called “evidentiary inferences” — that is, reasonable inferences that can be drawn from what they heard at trial. They asked to hear the following analogy, which he provided yesterday and just repeated:

“Suppose you go to bed one night when it is not raining and when you wake up in the morning, you look out your window; you do not see rain, but you see that the street and sidewalk are wet, and that people are wearing raincoats and carrying umbrellas. Under those circumstances, it may be reasonable to infer, that is conclude, that it rained during the night.”

That's in the jury instructions? That is a uber-common example that criminal trial lawyers in Florida, who are allowed to talk about the law with jurors, use. There is a surprising, to me, degree of hand-craftedness in Merchan's instructions. New York has "standard" jury instructions to make sure judges keep it uniform. Merchan seems to have tailored these instructions, with the input of the lawyers, to this case. That gives me pause.

Jonah Bromwich
May 30, 2024, 10:27 a.m. ET

Jonah BromwichReporting from inside the courthouse

The jury now hears the complex charges: Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a second crime, a conspiracy to aid an election by unlawful means. The options for those unlawful means include several other crimes.

So, again, each individual criminal charge here contains within it several other crimes. No wonder the jurors asked to hear this again.

What a former prosecutor who had worked for 40 years in the Manhattan D.A.'s office described as the unusual, complex "layering" of crimes in the indictment. It confused the heck out of me.

I just got up!

Extremely Normal and Stable Genius

George Conway
@gtconway3d
Trump, exuding extreme confidence in the jury a short while ago:  

“These charges are rigged. The whole thing is rigged. The whole country’s a mess between the borders and fake elections. And we have a trial like this where the judge is so conflicted he can’t breathe. He’s got to do his job. It’s a disgrace. Mother Teresa could not beat those charges. But we’ll see. We’ll see how we do. It’s a very disgraceful situation. Every single legal scholar and expert said this is no case. It shouldn’t be brought and it certainly could’ve been brought seven years ago, not in the middle of a presidential election.

“It was all done by Joe Biden. This judge contributed to Joe Biden and far worse than that, but I'm not allowed to talk about it because I have a gag order.

“What’s happening here is weaponization on a level that nobody’s seen before, ever. And it shouldn’t be allowed to happen. So I’ll stay around here. This is five weeks. Five weeks of essentially not campaigning. Although I took a big lead in the polls over the last few weeks, something is going on.

“I think the people of this country see this is a rigged deal. It’s a weaponized deal for the Democrats to hit their political opponent. For Joe Biden, the worst president in the history of the United States. He’s destroying our country. He’s letting millions of people from jails, from prisons, from insane asylums, from mental institutions, drug dealers, pour in.  

“Venezuela, if you look at their crime statistics, they’ve gone down 72 percent in crime because they’re releasing all of their criminals into our country because of this horrible president we have.

“And then they have a protest with Robert De Niro yesterday, he’s a fool. A broken down fool, standing out there. He got MAGA’d. He got MAGA’d yesterday. He got a big dose of it. 

“This is all because of Joe Biden … The people that surround him in the office. They’re smart. They’re fascist, they’re communists, but they’re smart. And they’re ruining our country. But we’re going to win this election.

“We’re going to take back our country from these fascists and these thugs …

“In the meantime, this trial is rigged.”


Last edited
12:25 PM · May 29, 2024
·
745.7K Views

Times' Reporters Have a Justified Sense of Wonder at it All

After seven weeks of legal wrangling and tawdry testimony, the first criminal trial of an American president moved to a jury of Donald J. Trump’s peers...

 Mr. Trump’s fate is in the hands of those 12 New Yorkers...

The moment that deliberations began marked a transfer of power from the experts in the courtroom — the lawyers arguing the case and the judge presiding over it — to the everyday New Yorkers who forfeited weeks of their lives to assess a mountain of evidence... 

The jurors...meet around a long table in an unremarkable room with unforgiving lighting and walls painted a hue best described as municipal. 

...

Justice Merchan...impressed on them the gravity of their task but also said that the defendant — even a former president — is their peer.

“As a juror, you are asked to make a very important decision about another member of the community,” Justice Merchan said...

...

The jurors, seven men and five women, hail from different neighborhoods of the nation’s largest city and hold a wide variety of jobs, representing a cross-section of Manhattan. ...

Marc F. Scholl, who served nearly 40 years in the district attorney’s office, noted that jury instructions are often difficult to follow...And he said that defendants are often charged with several different crimes, requiring even more elaborate instructions.

Still, Mr. Scholl said, one point of complexity stood out in the Trump case: “Usually you don’t have this layering of these other crimes.”

In New York, falsifying records is a misdemeanor, unless the documents were faked to hide another crime. The other crime, prosecutors say, was Mr. Trump’s violation of state election law that prohibited conspiring to aid a political campaign using “unlawful means” — a crime they say he committed during his 2016 campaign for president.

The jury instructions specifically say,

"In determining whether the defendant conspired to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means, you may consider the following: (1) violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act otherwise known as FECA; (2) the falsification of other business records; or (3) violation of tax laws."

I'm a lawyer; I think I'm a decently intelligent guy, and I'm genuinely confused.


Cite to New York Penal Code sec. pls

The case exposed what prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office described as a fraud on the American people. 

 

Jury room wall paint color: "Municipal"πŸ˜‚

The jurors...meet around a long table in an unremarkable room with unforgiving lighting and walls painted a hue best described as municipal. 

Whoever of William K. Rashbaum, Jonah E. Bromwhich and Ben Protess came up with that color name is a GENIUS!

So guess who is in the Western Conference hockey finals?*#

A team from Hate City. Reminds me of last season when the Miami "Heat" and the Florida "Panthers" both made it all the way to the championship series.

The Dallas "Stars" face off in Edmonton at the bottom of the hour. Dallas leads the series 2-1. I'm rooting for the "Oilers" (a name that could work in Hate City as well), not only because they play Dallas. Because they're a former WHA team; because they are the northernmost city of 1M pop in this hemisphere--ju ever look at Edmonton on a map? WAY up there; because no Canada-based team has won the Stanley Cup in like 25 years; because, can you imagine the frequent flier miles between a South Florida team and Edmonton?! That has to be the longest distance possible in the four professional team sports in NA. *It's NOT. Miami to Portland (NBA) is 2,780 straight line flight miles; Sunrise, FL to Edmonton is 2,543.# Never mind. Sunrise to Vancouver (NHL) is 2,783.

"Mountain of Evidence"

It's a reasonable metaphor for a criminal case. The law speaks to the "weight" of the evidence and mountains seem to weigh a lot. But it is not quite, or not just, that. A charging document can be evaluated as a sort of equation. The prosecutor proves the elements of the crime and this+that+the other thing=guilty. Both the weight and the arithmetic analogies leave out "quality". A mountain of feathers does not weigh the same as a mountain or granite. The quality of the construction matters. If a prosecutor ticks all the boxes in the equation (s)he may still get 2+2=5 if the jury thinks he has just ticked and not hammered beyond a reasonable doubt the boxes. Commentators, legal and lay, also often speak of a "strong" or a "weak" prosecution case. That gets more to quality. I am reminded of a metaphor used in a completely different, non-legal, context: "Ten cups of weak coffee do not yield a pot of strong coffee". (Yes, the Ivory-billed woodpecker really is extinct).


Haberman-Bromwich 11 o'clock duet

Maggie Haberman
May 29, 2024, 11:11 a.m. ET

Maggie Haberman Reporting from inside the courthouse
...
...state law is different than federal law, and most of the commentary on television and in op-ed pages stems from an understanding of federal law — not the state laws applicable here.

Jonah Bromwich
May 29, 2024, 11:12 a.m. ET

Jonah Bromwich Reporting from inside the courthouse

This is exactly right. In my experience, lawyers with experience in federal court tend to hold a different — and often far more negative — view of the prosecution’s case than do state practitioners. ...

It's a great point by Haberman, which Bromwich immediately seconds. Federal law is however supreme. There are constitutional, i.e. federal, standards that must be adhered to. A conviction in state court involving a constitutional question eventually makes its way to the federal courts on appeal. The New York statute that is the basis of these charges is obviously not inconsistent with the New York state constitution. But if the New York state statute as applied in this case violates the United States Constitution, then what happens in New York does not stay in New York. This state indictment also specifically invokes federal laws. The jury instructions that Justice Merchan gave may well pass muster with the New York Supreme Court, but if they violate the U.S. Constitution, for example, in not requiring a specific intent on the defendant's part, or in not requiring that the step-up crime be specified, then the federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court, will reverse the conviction in a New York minute.


Totally normal cat ears.

Jury excused for day!

No readback of testimony nor re-instruction.

Just now

Jonah Bromwich Reporting from inside the courthouse


The judge returns to the bench. He addresses the lawyers, saying that the jurors sent a second note at 3:51 p.m. The jurors have also asked to hear the judge’s instructions again.

Juror's Asks

 May 29, 2024, 3:27 p.m. ET

Jonah Bromwich Reporting from inside the courthouse

The second appears to pertain to Pecker’s decision not to collect reimbursement from Trump for his hush-money deal with McDougal. The wording from the jurors is slightly unclear, so this is the only request that we’re not entirely sure about at the moment.

[Were I the defense, I would not view requests about Pecker as favorable.]

Jonah Bromwich
May 29, 2024, 3:26 p.m. ET

Jonah Bromwich Reporting from inside the courthouse

The jurors asked to hear two other portions of David Pecker’s testimony. The first is about the phone call he testified he had with Trump during an investor meeting, in June 2016, during which Trump acknowledged that he knew Karen McDougal.
 

Jonah Bromwich

May 29, 2024, 3:17 p.m. ET

Jonah Bromwich Reporting from inside the courthouse
 

At first glance, the jurors’ focus on David Pecker, a witness who offered damning testimony against Trump, seems like a bad sign for the defense. On the other hand, they seem to want to check the testimony of Michael Cohen, who the defense sought to tar as a liar, against that of Pecker.

Jonah Bromwich
May 29, 2024, 3:17 p.m. ET

Jonah Bromwich Reporting from inside the courthouse

The jurors want to hear both men’s testimony about the Trump Tower meeting where Pecker testified that the two men reached that agreement with Trump himself. Perhaps they are seeking to compare their stories.

May 29, 2024, 3:13 p.m. ET

Jonah Bromwich Reporting from inside the courthouse

Three of the requests relate to testimony from David Pecker, the former publisher of The National Enquirer and the first witness to testify for the prosecution, who prosecutors say was part of a conspiracy to suppress negative news on Trump’s behalf during the 2016 election. One of them relates to testimony from Michael Cohen, the last witness to testify for the prosecution, who is also alleged to be a part of that conspiracy.

[The jury seems, to me, to have moved rapidly. They have focused in on the relevant testimony.]

[Steinglass] argued that an agreement Mr. Trump struck with The National Enquirer to buy and bury unflattering stories1 was a “subversion of democracy”2 that prevented the American people from deciding for themselves whether they cared that Mr. Trump had had sex with a porn star.3 Mr. Steinglass’s arguments could be crucial: Prosecutors needed to show that the business records were falsified 4 to hide a conspiracy to influence the 2016 election.5

1. That is not “unlawful means”, nor a crime.
2. That can be a crime. Show me the statute that defines “subversion of democracy.”
3. The American people have no right to information, that a candidate had sex with a porn star.
4. That’s a crime.
5. That is void for vagueness and overbreadth.

Let My People Go! Day 44: NYT Reporters Held HostageπŸ˜„

Man, there are gonna be some babies born in nine months!

Jack Smith 'Mistake' in Trump Case Has Come Back to Bite Him—Tribe


Special counsel Jack Smith made a "mistake" when he charged former President Donald Trump in the classified documents case in Florida and not Washington, D.C.

"Of course charging this case in Florida rather than DC was a mistake. Many of us argued that at the time, publicly and privately," Tribe wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

"Fears of a fight over venue were understandable but never justified the risk Smith took that he'd draw a judge like Cannon."

The move was believed to be an attempt to prevent Trump's lawyers from arguing that the charges were filed in the wrong place, or that the former president would not be able to get a fair jury in the district where he received just five percent of the vote in 2020.

Jury Instructions

FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE
Penal Law § 175.10
 

Under our law, a person is guilty of falsifying business records in the first degree when, with intent to defraud that includes an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof, that person:

makes or causes a false entry in the business records of an enterprise.

...

Page | 29
 

INTENT TO DEFRAUD
 

As I previously explained, a person acts with intent to defraud when his or her conscious objective or purpose is to do so.


In order to prove an intent to defraud, the People need not prove that the defendant acted with the intent to defraud any particular person or entity. A general intent to defraud any person or entity suffices.
 

Intent to defraud is also not constricted to an intent to deprive another of property or money and can extend beyond economic concerns.

 

INTENT TO COMMIT OR CONCEAL ANOTHER CRIME


For the crime of Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree, the intent to defraud must include an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof [i.e. another crime].
 

Under our law, although the People must prove an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof, they need not prove that the other crime was in fact committed, aided, or concealed.

[It's the intent, not the accomplishment of the criminal objective.]

NEW YORK ELECTION LAW § 17-152 PREDICATE


The People allege that the other crime the defendant intended to commit, aid, or conceal is a violation of New York Election Law section 17-152.

 
Section 17-152 of the New York Election Law provides that any two or more persons who conspire to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means and which conspiracy is acted upon by one or more of the parties thereto, shall be guilty of conspiracy to promote or prevent an election.


Under our law, a person is guilty of such a conspiracy when, with intent that conduct be performed that would promote or prevent the election of a person to public office by unlawful means, he or she agrees with one or more persons to engage in or cause the performance of such conduct.
 

Knowledge of a conspiracy does not by itself make the defendant a coconspirator. The defendant must intend that conduct be performed that would promote or prevent the election of a person to public office by unlawful means. 

Intent means conscious objective or purpose. Thus, a person acts with the intent that conduct be performed that would promote or prevent the election of a person to public office by unlawful means when his or her conscious objective or purpose is that such conduct be performed.

Evidence that defendant was present when others agreed to engage in the performance of a crime does not by itself show that he personally agreed to engage in the conspiracy.

“By Unlawful Means”

Although you must conclude unanimously that the defendant conspired to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means, you need not be unanimous as to what those unlawful means were.

In determining whether the defendant conspired to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means, you may consider the following: (1) violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act otherwise known as FECA; (2) the falsification of other business records; or (3) violation of tax laws.

###

I will stop here. First impressions: 

-The jury does not get the instructions to take back with them. They can request re-reads of parts or all.

-"General intend to defraud"; 

-what is "defraud". The instructions explain what defraud is not, but not what it is; 

-intend to defraud must include intent to commit (conceal, etc.) another crime.

-"unlawful means", "unlawful means", "unlawful means": Are unlawful means the same as crimes? If so, why does he use the "crime" some places and "unlawful means" others?

more

That’s Ty Cobb’s opinion as well


May 29, 2024, 11:46 a.m. ET


Michael GoldReporting on Trump's presidential campaign

Trump tells reporters in the hallway that, after listening to Justice Merchan’s instructions to the jury, he believes “Mother Teresa could not beat the charges.”

NYT's reporters are gonna get PTSD

 Kate Christobek
May 29, 2024, 11:57 a.m. ET

Kate Christobek Reporting from inside the courthouse
As in all trials, there is no telling how long jury deliberations will take. It’s common to wait days, or even weeks, for a verdict. We will be in the courthouse while we wait and will continue to provide you with updates as we get them.

The sky is starting to darken

-F...Fe...Fel...SAY IT, GODDAMMIT!--7:57 pm

He doesn't have it.


-"He is still seeking to convince the jurors of the specific unlawful means..."--Bromwich 7:46 pm

-"...difficult to understand why we’re reviewing these dates that we already spent so much time on today, and Joshua Steinglass, now back in February 2018, is not necessarily explaining exactly why he seems to be repeating himself."- Bromwich 7:29 pm

When you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.

-"Hour 11"--Haberman 7:20 pm

-"Over more than four meticulous hours", Joshua Steinglass never said the word

"Felony"

Tell me, Quasis, has he ever said it?--6:59 pm

-STEINGLASS, SAY THE WORD "FELONY"!--6:54 pm

-STEINGLASS, WHAT'S THE FUCKING FELONY?!--6:47 pm

-STEINGLASS, YOU GOT TO NAIL THIS DOWN. SAY "FELONY"--6:31 pm


-Have they proved the felony, with intent to commit another felony (e.g. election fraud)?--5:54 pm

-"One thing Joshua Steinglass has to do — and I assume he will do it in a focused way in the next several hours — is show the jurors that the alleged Trump Tower conspiracy between David Pecker, Michael Cohen and Trump involved using “unlawful means” to aid Trump’s election."--Bromwich 4:36 pm

-Wow, a presidential candidate scheming to influence his election Wow--3:52 pm

-“...unequivocally shows a presidential candidate actively engaging in a scheme to influence the election.”--Bromwich 3:46 pm

-"[Steinglass]  has to highlight for jurors the “unlawful means” by which prosecutors argue Trump conspired to aid his own campaign. … --Bromwich 3:36 pm

-That’s not a crime + that’s not a crime does not equal a crime.--3:36 pm

-There’s a flaw here!

May 28, 2024, 3:07 p.m. ET


Jonah Bromwich Reporting from inside the courthouse

“This scheme, cooked up by these men, at this time, could very well be what got President Trump elected,” Joshua Steinglass says...

It was legal! Since it was legal, it was therefore not fraudulent. Since it wasn’t fraudulent, it cannot be the basis for election FRAUD


-[Steinglass]...argues that suppressing those stories amounted to committing fraud toward American voters, pulling the wool over their eyes “in a coordinated fashion.”

He calls The National Enquirer “a covert arm” of Trump's 2016 campaign.

-[It WAS legal though, no?]--3:08 pm

-[Okay, but was catch and kill not LEGAL?]--3:03 pm

Tuesday, May 28, 2024

🧊 (1-3) Remains Solid FT 100-105

Kyrie and Luka were a combined 44 points, 13/39 (5/17), 7 t.o.s, -15. Luka had a 3W 28-15-10. 

ANT and KAT were better: 54 pts, 20/38 (8-11), 10 t.o.s though, +22. ANT just missed a 3W 29-10-9.

Manchester City Will Not Be Penalized by Premier League: PREDICTION

 


 Subsidiaries    

    Manchester City (100%)
    Melbourne City (100%)
    Mumbai City (65%)
    New York City (80%)
    Montevideo City Torque (100%)
    Troyes (100%)
    Lommel (99%)
    Girona (47%)
    Shenzhen Peng City (46.7%)
    Yokohama F. Marinos (20%)
    Palermo (94.9%)
    Bahia (90%)
    City Football Academy
    City Football Marketing
    City Football Services
    City Football Japan
    City Football Singapore
    City Football China
    City Football India
    Co-op Live Arena
    CFG Stadium Group
    Goals Soccer Centers

"When I was vice president, things were kinda bad during the pandemic."

"My dad was an automobile manager. Detroit put food on our table every night. Oh, not a joke. Not a joke. And when I was vice president, things were kinda bad during the pandemic. And what happened was, Barack said to me, 'Go to Detroit! And help fix it.' Well, [the] poor mayor, he spent more time with me than he ever thought he was gonna have to."

[C]orrections by the White House:

    Huntington Place Convention Center

    Detroit, Michigan

    THE PRESIDENT: I want to thank Reverend Anthony for that introduction.  I tell you what, I measure the significance of an award based on the character and the consequence of those organizations bestowing it.

    And I love Detroit for three reasons.  Number one, my dad was an automobile manager.  Detroit put food on our table every night.  (Applause.)  Oh, not a joke.  Not a joke.

    And when I was vice president, things were kind of bad during the pandemic [recession], and what happened was Barack said to me, "Go to Detroit and help fix it."  Well, poor mayor, he spent more time with me than he ever thought he was going to have to.  (Laughter.)  God love you.

Ty Cobb: Trumpie will be found guilty “because jury instructions almost require it”

1) No second level crime specified, just generic. 
2) “Judge will not instruct on any level of intent or knowledge.”
Both “a little at odds with traditional criminal requirements.”
“This is a very odd statute. The defense has a very good argument on appeal that it is unconstitutional as applied.”

The first conviction ever of a former president, and the favorite to become president again, likely faultily obtained and reversed on appeal. Nightmare, just a nightmare.
“This scheme, cooked up by these men, at this time, could very well be what got President Trump elected. This was overt election fraud, an act in furtherance of the conspiracy to promote Mr. Trump’s election by unlawful means.”—Joshua Steinglass today.

I don’t know the context, I don’t know what the “scheme” encompasses: all of the hush money payments, all the NDA’s, the catch and kills, the reimbursement payments, the whole shebang? All of it was “election fraud”, which I understand him to define as “an act in furtherance of…conspiracy…promote…election by unlawful means.”

What were the unlawful means? Can a lawful mean become unlawful when done for a higher unlawful end? I don’t know. If my brain were working properly maybe I could hazard an answer. But it’s not, so I won’t. I need a break.

Including breaks, Steinglass' closing argument was just under six hours long. Blanche's, according to the Quasis was just short of three. I have never heard of closing arguments going six hours. Brom posted this almost exactly three hours before Steinglass stopped.

Jonah Bromwich
May 28, 2024, 4:53 p.m. ET

Jonah Bromwich Reporting from inside the courthouse

Ever since I started covering courts, I’ve been shocked at the amount of time that prosecutors’ closings take up. They stuff every last piece of evidence into these summations. And a closing argument as long as the one Steinglass is currently delivering will always have moments of tedium, natural ebbs and flows as time passes.

But Steinglass, after slowing down while describing the Karen McDougal deal, is now back in an energized mode and the jurors appear to be paying close attention to the evidence he is showing them about the aftermath of the Wall Street Journal article.

He wore out TRUMPIE!

May 28, 2024, 8:03 p.m. ET

Michael Gold Reporting from inside the courthouse
 

After a marathon day in court, Trump opts not to deliver his usual remarks to the reporters waiting in the hallway

Jonah Bromwich
May 28, 2024, 7:56 p.m. ET

Jonah Bromwich Reporting from inside the courthouse

...he returns to talking about Trump, saying that the evidence is overwhelming and that while the former president is a former president, the law applies to him the same as it does to everyone else.
 

Maggie Haberman
May 28, 2024, 7:57 p.m.

Maggie Haberman Reporting from inside the courthouse

Specifically, Steinglass invokes Trump’s infamous line about being able to shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it, saying that he in fact can’t. Blanche objects, and Merchan sustains it.
 

Kate Christobek
May 28, 2024, 7:57 p.m. ET

Kate Christobek Reporting from inside the courthouse

Trump shakes his head as Steinglass says this line.

He had the Times Reporters repeating themselves, misspelling, tag-teaming, gazing out the window into the void

May 28, 2024, 8:01 p.m. ET

Jonah Bromwich Reporting from inside the courthouse
 

Steinglass says that soon it will be time to deliberate and that the jurors should return and find Trump guilty on all 34 counts against him. He asks that, in the interest of justice and the state of New York, the jurors find Trump guilty. He’s done, with less than five minutes to go. He’s done, with less than five minutes to go.

 May 28, 2024, 7:56 p.m. ET

Jonah Bromwich Reporting from inside the courthouse
 

Steinglass begins his final conclusion, thanking the jurors for their time and praising their remarkable punctuality as they arrived for proceedings day in and day out. And then he returns to talking about Trump, saying that the evidence is overwhelming and that while the former president is a former president, the law applies to him the same as it does to everyone else.

F...Fe...Fel...SAY IT, GODDAMMIT!

Jonah Bromwich
May 28, 2024, 7:55 p.m. ET

Jonah BromwichReporting from inside the courthouse
Steinglass says that Trump’s intent to defraud could not be any clearer, arguing that Trump could have simply paid Daniels himself, but instead devised an elaborate scheme to pay Daniels secretly that required the involvement of at least 10 other people. “Everything Mr. Trump and his cohorts did in this case was cloaked in lies,” Steinglass says, adding, “The name of the game was concealment, and all roads lead to the man who benefited the most, Donald Trump.”

Post of the Day: "The sky...is starting to darken. It’s disorienting in here."

Maggie HabermanπŸ₯‡
May 28, 2024, 7:46 p.m. ET

Maggie Haberman Reporting from inside the courthouse

The sky outside the tall windows of the courtroom, which have blinds drawn over them, is starting to darken. It’s disorienting in here.

"Mountain of Evidence"

Jonah Bromwich
May 28, 2024, 7:46 p.m. ET

Jonah BromwichReporting from inside the courthouse

It seemed that JOshua Steinglass was finally done explaining the law. He said the prosecution had presented a “mountain of evidence” related to its theory of the Trump Tower conspiracy. But then he went right back to it, briefly, as he begins to explain the “unlawful means” that prosecutors will ask the jurors to find Trump used to aid his election win.

The defense just lodged another objection, but Steinglass made it across the legal-explanation minefield to a safer zone of explaining the prosecution’s theory of unlawful means: That’s not a legal explanation, just argument.

Jonah Bromwich
May 28, 2024, 7:46 p.m. ET

Jonah Bromwich Reporting from inside the courthouse


Joshua Steinglass has less than 15 minutes left to speak today. He is still seeking to convince the jurors of the specific unlawful means Trump, Michael Cohen and David Pecker used to aid Trump’s election. He is going to take this right down to the wire.

 May 28, 2024, 7:38 p.m. ET

Jonah Bromwich Reporting from inside the courthouse
 

Joshua Steinglass — maybe, just maybe — appears to be winding down. 


 

He tells the jurors that the judge will explain reasonable doubt to them and asks them to listen carefully. He reminds them of the concept of accessorial liability: That a person who directs someone to commit a crime is equally guilty of that crime.



Michael Gold Reporting from inside the courthouse

Joshua Steinglass is offering three rebuttals of the defense’s argument that Michael Cohen acted on his own, without Trump’s knowledge. First, he says that Trump was a micromanager who was directly involved with the details both of his business and his political campaign.
 

Jonah Bromwich
May 28, 2024, 7:36 p.m. ET1 minute ago
1 minute ago

Jonah Bromwich Reporting from inside the courthouse

Second, Steinglass says, Cohen was and is a self-promoter and it

“defies all common sense” that he’d undertake herculean efforts on behalf of Trump and keep it to himself.

Jonah BromwichReporting from inside the courthouse

Joshua Steinglass has less than half an hour left before he has to stop. He reviews the case for what may well be a final time, starting with the Trump Tower meeting. So this is an abridged version of his already abridged timeline, shrinking this sprawling case down to its key elements as he races the clock.
 

Maggie Haberman
May 28, 2024, 7:35 p.m. ET1 minute ago
1 minute ago

Maggie Haberman Reporting from inside the courthouse

Steinglass is now presenting the many, many moments at which Trump spoke to key players in this series of events around the Stormy Daniels payment.

"Hour 11"

Jonah Bromwich
May 28, 2024, 7:27 p.m. ET

Jonah Bromwich Reporting from inside the courthouse

The point of reviewing this timeline again seems to be to link Trump to each and every action that prosecutors say led to the crime, the falsification of 34 business records related to the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels.
 

Jonah Bromwich
May 28, 2024, 7:29 p.m. ET

Jonah Bromwich Reporting from inside the courthouse

But it may be difficult to understand why we’re reviewing these dates that we already spent so much time on today, and Joshua Steinglass, now back in February 2018, is not necessarily explaining exactly why he seems to be repeating himself.

May 28, 2024, 7:17 p.m. ET

Jonah Bromwich Reporting from inside the courthouse

Joshua Steinglass has an interesting challenge here. He has to guide these jurors through some of the most important parts of his argument — the closing of his closing — while keeping an eye on the time, seeking to drive home the key points he wants to make without being repetitive or alienating them.

He’s got 45 minutes, and it seems as if he’s hoping to jolt the jurors, yelling that there’s no reason to believe that Cohen didn’t alert Trump to Stormy Daniels’s story in early October 2016.

Jonah Bromwich
May 28, 2024, 7:21 p.m. ET

Jonah Bromwich Reporting from inside the courthouse

Reviewing the evidence from that month that corroborates Cohen’s testimony, including his calls with Trump, Steinglass asks: “Is this timing just all a coincidence, every single one of these things? ” No, is his implied answer, so obvious he doesn’t say it. Instead, he asserts: “Mr. Trump is being kept abreast of every development.”
 

Jonah Bromwich
May 28, 2024, 7:23 p.m. ET

Jonah Bromwich Reporting from inside the courthouse

Steinglass is now highlighting more key testimony, including Hope Hicks's remarks that it would have been “out of character” for Cohen to have made that payment out of the kindness of his heart — meaning, without approval from Trump.
 

10 minutes ago

Maggie Haberman Reporting from inside the courthouse
 

The jurors had seemed to be holding up, as we are entering hour 11 of them being here, before the last break. But some are starting to look a little over it.