It sounds like they’ve had some drama over jury selection. Here is a link to the New York Times updates on what’s going on. Apparently one of the prospective jurors back in 2020 had put a video of people celebrating Trump’s loss on social media. The defense lawyers want her dismissed. The prosecution wants her sworn in.
The lawyers brought the prospective juror who has prompted such a fierce argument into the courtroom to question her directly. Blanche, a Trump lawyer, is asking her about one of her Election Day posts from 2020, saying it appears that the video in it, recorded around 96th Street, was a celebration of Trump’s election loss. She responds that she came across this gathering, and it seemed like a “celebratory moment in New York City.”
She felt that she was a part of history. But she says that while she understands bias exists, she very strongly believes that regardless of her political feelings or thoughts, the job of a juror “is to understand the facts of the trial and to be the judge of those facts.” She contrasts herself with others who walked out yesterday when they thought they couldn’t be impartial, saying she believes she can.
The judge decided she was credible and did not allow her to be dismissed. Then this happened:
He is not allowing the defense to dismiss her for cause. Trump squints up at Justice Merchan incredulously as the judge reads the relevant case law.
Then they moved on to argue about a prospective juror who once posted a photo of Trump captioned “orange is the new black.” I’m not sure what happened with that one. One potential juror really had posted of Trump, “get him out and lock him up,” and the Judge said, okay, you can dismiss this one. I understand they have three jurors chosen as of 3:30 EST. Update: As of 4:00 they’re actually up to six jurors. And there is a foreperson who is “originally from Ireland,” the Times says. No comment.
I also wanted to add that Trump looked really awful in the photo from yesterday. It’s said he fell asleep; he looks like he hasn’t slept in a week. Poor baby.
Late last night Trump’s lawyers filed some documents regarding the $175 million bond in the New York fraud case. The hearing for this will be on Monday, April 22.
In documents submitted late Monday night, lawyers for the former president said the cash sum Trump posted to stop New York Attorney General Letitia James from seizing his assets was secured by Knight Specialty Insurance Company (KSIC) and is collateralized by Trump’s Charles Schwab account, which contains just over $175 million in cash.c…
… Details of how Trump and KSIC were able to secure the money and prove they could guarantee the cash have been revealed in the motion submitted on Monday night, shortly before the deadline. Former FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissmann suggested there was something “fishy” about the arrangement between Trump and KSIC to secure the bond.
“The $175 million bond is collateralized by $175,304,075.95 in cash held in a Charles Schwab account pledged to KSIC, and KSIC has the right to exercise control over that account,” the court filings said.
“KSIC also independently maintains more than $539 million in assets and $138 million in equity and has access to more than $2 billion in assets and $1 billion in equity, of which nearly $1 billion is cash and marketable securities, pursuant to a reinsurance agreement with its parent company, Knight Insurance Company (KIC).”
OK, but Andrew Weissman wants to know why Trump bothered with a bond, for which he has to pay a fee, if he actually had the cash. “And the agreement does not give Knight a lien on the account as collateral and seems to afford Trump a two-day window to dissipate the account.” Hmm.
Next week’s other hearing, on the gag order, is the following day, April 23.
Oh, and remember the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas? Yeah, I’d forgotten about that, too. The House sent the formal articles of impeachment to the Senate today. The Senate is expected to Do Something about the articles tomorrow. There are big doubts the impeachment will go to a full Senate trial.
She posted a video of a 2020 election celebration, oh my we can't have that? Maybe they should just go to a Stump rally and pick the jury!
https://youtu.be/gPPscelHVhA?feature=shared
Joyce Vance wrote
She's been there a few times. Trump can't be feeling too good because his adoring crowds are very diminished – Trump wants a big protest outside his trial. Instead he got babies napping.
At least he had a different color tie on today. But his suit looks like he slept in it. Maybe he should cut up his tired looking suit into 1 inch squares and sell them to the rubes along with a certificate of authenticity. I'm sure they would sell like hot cakes, just like he did with the suit he was wearing when he was indicted in Georgia. Why, just the seat of his pants alone that covers his fat ass comprises probably one square yard of material which would break down to about 1,295 square inches. If sold for 29.99 + tax per square it could bring in about 40 thousand bucks. If you don't milk the rubes on a daily basis eventually they'll stop producing milk.
CNN posted minute-by-minute summaries of what went on today. Once the defense team had a list of possible jurors, they did a lot of work in a short time, especially since they were only given (if I understand right) one list with names which they were not allowed to copy or distribute. But within hours they had searched the entire social media history of want? a half-dozen people going back years? If the juror's names and addresses are distributed, there should be hell to pay. But I wouldn't bet more than a dime on that.
CNN wasn't shy about the strategy they described. The defense (and prosecution) can each dismiss up to ten jurors. The judge can dismiss jurors "for cause" and it doesn't count against the ten. So the search of social media targeted jurors with any hint of a pro-Biden or anti-Trump bias. The juror with a "lock him up" meme was properly dismissed. I agree with him – I've posted a pic of me in that T-shirt, featuring Trump's mug shot. But no attorney for Trump is gonna want me on the jury (though I could actually weigh evidence. I'm watching the weak link – can the DA prove that the hush money was paid to save Trump's ass in the election? Because Trump is married and he has a powerful motive to conceal infidelity. It's up to the prosecution to prove that motive – I would not convict Trump of a felony if it is absent.
But I digress. Trump wants ONE loyalist on the jury to hang the trial. There were a few idiots described in jury selection, like the clown who liked how Trump spoke his mind. Trump will use all ten of his challenges to try to create a seat for ONE fool. (I predict Trump will use all ten of his challenges, the prosecutor, maybe five.) Which means to select 12 plus 6 alternates AND the 15 that will be dismissed in peremptory challenges, they will need a jury pool of 34. Today they picked seven, which is a good start. Tuesday would be a good guess, and good progress.
The big news (in by book) is the news that did not happen. Trump screamed for demonstrations in NY about the injustice and the turnout in a city of 8 million for the last two days has been pathetic. If 1% of NYorkers were devoted to Trump, that's a pool of 80,000. If 1% of them showed up at the courthouse, that would be 800. From what I read, only a hundred or so have shown up in the last two days. I'm sure the judge is receiving death threats (which he should take seriously) but there's no mob outside the courthouse screaming to free Trump.
Trump builds himself up with MAGA as the hero who will avenge their enemies. This doesn't leave Trump in a position to beg his followers to save HIM. MAGA expects Trump to demolish the injustice – they're waiting and expecting a miracle. It ain't happening.
I am so happy to have a day off from the trial. At least there will be no breaking news and blow by blow descriptives. It is nice to depend on others to actually be present and provide oral, written, or artistic representations of the events. So far, a jury is getting picked and the court of public opinion will need to depend on their good judgement.
We are all counting on them. This is the way it needs to be. The court of public opinion just won't all fit into a jury box.
I'm the most divisive (by design) politician the world has ever known. If you do not support me either I or my followers will seek to destroy you. I demand an impartial jury!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffzEMe7jDVk
Something wen by so fast today, most voters won't notice. The Democrats in the Senate told the House to stick the articles of impeachment for Mayorkis where the sun don't shine. The GOP radicals wanted a circus of as many days as they could drag it out. I have to think they were counterprogramming the Trump trial. GOP moderates in the Senate had indicated they would vote against the impeachment for lack of evidence but they expected the Dems to grant the dignity of a trial – to embarrass Biden and put a spotlight on the most radical theories about the border – to promote Trump.
The only event more rare than a total eclipse in the US is Democrats hanging together. They did, dismissing both articles of impeachment in only a few hours, leaving the GOP in the Senate licking their wounds.
I wish Schumer would tomorrow march the articles of impeachment back from the Senate to the House in a wastepaper basket.
So much has and continues to go by so fast. Such as Lev Parnas' recent congressional testimony, thoroughly revealing to know what that guy has to say now that the dust has settled around him and he's almost forgotten; too bad it seems like that was hardly a blip on the radar, it deserved much more attention IMO.
Thank you for this heads-up. Rachael's last two reports are both quite enlightening. I can see why Bill Barr has come out for Trump. He was an active participant in providing cover for corrupt Trump operations and the facts are finally appearing.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has wrapped himself in Ronald Reagan-Speak and is showing distance from the Putin-pals gang. Barr was too close and has no viable political exit.
To corrrect my previous post, the prosecution and the defense each have four strikes left with half the jury seated. The four alternates will come into play when/if any of the regular jurors are excused. One juror was excused today.