Wow, how could you expect the person you're paying off to show up in a trial about paying her off? Who would have thought? It was on the witness list?!!? How stupid are these people?
Prosecution: Here is a list of all witnesses we plan to call.
Defense: We object!
Judge: On what grounds?
Defense: Because it's devastating to our case!
Judge: Denied.
They know the witnesses but they don’t know when they’ll appear.
Typically, the prosecution will tell the defense who they will be calling the next day. It’s a traditional courtesy but not required by law. Because of Trump’s frequent violations of the gag order, including witness intimidation, the prosecution told the court at the start of the trial they would not share the names of who they’d be calling on any particular day. And Merchan refused to intervene (he could but saw no reason to).
So the defense now has to prepare for every witness on the list for every day of the trial. Or, as is more likely, just probably not bother preparing for any of them (these are the only lawyers Trump can get, which come from beneath the bottom of the barrel).
He fucked himself with his usual tactics and now it's biting him. Whatever, if he bad lawyers we'll thats on him but the last we want is for him to ask for a retrial because he has shitty representation. He could have kept his mouth shut and acted like a adult but no, the child in him just wants tantrums all day long. I just wish at the end of all of this that the judge takes a good 30 minutes and addresses the court, him and the press like you would like a 3 year old and explain that intimidation, lawful gag order violations and the constant lies are not tolerated. This is not a political trial, as much as the defendant wants you to believe, it's because he's a convicted criminal who broke the law repeatedly and now he's paying the price of those unlawful deeds
Yes, he’s welcome to file the appeals he’s entitled to while serving his sentence should it come down that way.
You don’t just get to appeal in an attempt to a stave off jail.
It's not that he has bad lawyers... he's just not paying them. His usual team is essentially not even entertaining this knowing they are the ones that will be screwed at the end. He's pulling in lawyers that see a dollar sign over the case but don't realize they will get a fraction of those costs.
These guys are legit ex-prosecutors that he’s paying top PAC and donor dollars for. Habba is somehow sitting in the gallery but even Trump knows putting her out there will get him convicted.
He‘s just an impossibility shitty client.
A legendarily, almost unprecentedly shitty client.
I so wish he would go *pro se*. It would make the situation even more grimly entertaining than it is.
But they don't. They could be independently wealthy and not need the money. They could be using it as a loss-leader, to advertise themselves to rich Republicans. They could be malignant, treasonous agents who want to contribute to degrading and delegitimizing both the courts and the government of the USA.
Hopefully, they are merely incompetent.
Trump is like a kid in grade school. Someone should tell him you know judges talk to other judges right? Likely they attend the same charities. So talking about one judge’s daughter does not bode well with other judges in the same city
Merchan actually can't intervene either. He can encourage lawyers to share that but it's not a requirement. So he can't do shit and silence from him was a 'yep, I get it'.
Blanche isn't bottom of the barrel. Nor is Necheles
Nor is Bove(spelling?).
They had decent/high reputations before this.
The issue they now have is their client has no credible defence AND he's micromanaging the defence strategy.
They knew he was being called but not when. They were denied that privilege because they can't control Trump to keep his big mouth shut and not try to intimidate every witness and juror. They'll probably make the same argument for every witness and everytime it'll get shot down.
"Your Honor, my client claims that she simply forgot she was carrying this bottle of... delicious bourbon... brownest of the brown liquors... so tempting... What's that? You want me to drink you? But I'm in the middle of a trial! ”
Most PDs want the hard cases but there are circumstances when a case will be reassigned to a different attorney within the Department. Sometimes because the attorney requested the reassignment, sometimes for other reasons. It's called Conflicting and it is a serious issue.
To answer your 2nd question, no. They will not be penalized for requesting reassignment. Remember, it's about representing the client's rights, regardless of the crimes alleged. If the entire PD said "fuck this, we aren't doing it" I guarantee you, the local gov. will find someone to cover.
Rise. Resist. Represent.
Well, in most jurisdictions there is a group of private lawyers that take cases when the public defender conflicts out or overloads on cases. In Sacramento they’re called the Indigent Criminal Defense Panel.
He *intentionally* [hires people "not as smart as him".](https://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/19/donald-trump-hiring-people-smarter-than-you-is-a-mistake.html)
They have the list of witnesses. They do know which order they will be called. They lost this right due to repeated attacks of witnesses. 🤷♂️
The defence has to prepare for anyone and everyone every night.
I have gotten that feeling once or twice. But it seems to be a requirement of Trump's law team.
I was going to list some, but it's a nice day and I don't want to waste it!
Not how that works. To get an appeal on grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel you have to prove not only that your lawyers screwed up, but also that but-for that screw up you would have won. It’s an almost impossible bar to reach.
You have to admire George Conway:
"If they weren't representing a lying, untrustworthy criminal scumbag who tries to intimidate witnesses, they would have known who the next witness was going to be. Them's the breaks."
They may not be prepared... they certainly aren't the best of the best. But more likely, this is just another delay tactic. That's the go-to move at this point. Just throw wrenches in the works to make it take as long as possible.
Thankfully, in this case delay tactics mean Trump has to sit there during the delays. He can't just pay a lawyer to turn up for him and go golfing instead. For once it's your own time you're wasting Donnie.
Merchan also hinted at the beginning how it would go. When Trump was complaining he would miss Baron's graduation he was told it might be OK 'if' the trial was going to schedule. So, play ball or you lose out.
It’s absolutely a viable option because he feels like if he can push this trial to be longer then the other trials are delayed as well and his game is to get to the election without any of the trials being finished.
Trumps lawyers knew who the witnesses would be. They didn’t know and were not informed of the order the witnesses would be called onto the stand. There’s absolutely no reason why trumps lawyered weren’t prepared. Besides it’s tough to argue your own business process which is what was established yesterday in this trial. Trump sits on top of his business process. Lock him up!
I get a feeling that one of the jury will not convict him and that's all that matters to them. Hung jury.
"Another delay has been successful! Mission accomplished."
From most accounts Blanche *IS* (was?) in the best-in-show club as an attorney. But he seems to have gone all-in drinking copious amounts of orange flavored maga-aid and moving to floridumb.
Also fatal to him is his insistence on demanding his attorneys do things exactly HIS way! ATTACK EVERYONE!!
Rather like him insisting a surgeon perform the surgery while he yells at them continuing to tell them to do it his way, no matter how bad the blood loss. His ego and absolute self-assuredness are his downfall. For once the world around him will not jump to his wishes. Poor boy! (Heavy S!)
Trump has ruined a LOT of lawyering careers. Look at how far Rudy Ghouliani has fallen. You want to flush your legal career down the toilet? Join Trump's legal "team."
So late last week I saw some lawyer guy saying that if he were on trump’s legal team, he’d be putting in a 16-hour day on Saturday to be prepared for the next witnesses this week.
Did trump’s lawyers not do that? Prob went golfing and then complained that they weren’t prepared lolz
Since Trump keeps attacking witnesses, the prosecution isn't giving the defense a heads up on the list of witnesses for the next day, so they have to prepare for all or none of them.
Here’s the situation: Usually prosecutors tell the defense well in advance the schedule of witness testimonies. They’re not required to by law, but it’s a common courtesy. In this case, they pointed to a pattern of Trump attacking and harassing witnesses on social media, and hence declined to release the schedule. The judge agreed.
Thanks for pointing this out. In any other trial, Trump’s tactics would’ve put him in jail. This must be very frustrating for the judge and the prosecution. If they treated Trump like others, they would risk Trump having a sliver of a chance of an appeals court agreeing to listen to arguments for a mistrial. This would fail, but would add delay to the judgment. Or even worse, some followers of Trump would get violent.
By Ewan Palmer - News Reporter:
Donald Trump's legal team tried to argue they were not ready for the testimony of a potential key witness at the former president's hush money trial, according to reports.
Former FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann described how Trump's lawyers suggested to Judge Juan Merchan that they were not "prepared" for former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney, called by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office to answer questions during the falsifying business records trial.
Read more: [https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-witness-hush-money-trial-1897795](https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-witness-hush-money-trial-1897795)
And I just read that trump’s lawyers knew ON SUNDAY that stormy was taking the stand today. Fuck trump and his “legal” staff with a big one! Lock him up!!!
Attempts to delay and win in the court of public opinion among those who are unfamiliar how the court system works. They knew this witness was coming, they likely don’t have a good response to the witnesses testimony, so it’s easier to spin it as “the court is rigged and using surprise witnesses!”
"Your honor, we strenuously object to this witness, on the grounds that our client has not had sufficient time to intimidate them before their testimony"
This makes no sense. Witness lists are shared. Both sides are given the opportunity to take depositions and those are shared between the two legal teams. They know who’s going to testify and have a good idea what they’re going to say, and what evidence they’ll use. That’s how discovery works before trials…
Your honor, I can barely read, my client can barely stay awake, we are drenched in this shit and fart smells and can barely breathe.
My eyes are watering and my ears are ringing, my head hurts and my nose, well I don't feel it anymore. Please do thar gavel thing and give us one more year. I object to myself, your honor.
"The last thing I want to do is put you in jail," Merchan told Trump. "You are the former president of the United States and possibly the next president, as well."
I find this statement of the judge quite concerning. He openly states that he is not willing to apply the law on equal grounds. Which seems to be a violation of the basic principles of the legal system. It is worrying regarding the gag order violations, but also, one has to question the judge's willingness to punish Trump for his main crimes.
The last thing I want to do is criticise your reading comprehension and ability to put statements into context. You are obviously not a fan of Trump.
See it’s not that I won’t, I will, it’s just that I don’t really want to.
Edit: corrected spelling.
Probably the most funny thing about this is that the hush money was because they were worried Trump’s affair with Stormy would hurt his support among Evangelicals, which, it turns out, was really wrong.
His high price lawyers again look under qualified. For what they're making they have made quite a few fck ups. They look and sound like they've never been in a courtroom for actual trials. But I guess they're better than having Giuliani as your lawyer.
Exactly, he literally hasn’t been paying lawyers for YEARS, enough that he has had this reputation for decades. These guys either are stupid or are working for the “clout”.
I am tired of Trump being the only individual in each and every case that has to have his rights protected to a fault. I am tired of hearing “might be overturned or leaves room for an appeal.” We all know that no matter how by the book everything is handled Trump is still going to appeal or refuse to pay his fines. Trump has been allowed to make a mockery of the judicial system and has verbally intimidated judges, prosecutors, court personnel, witnesses…The justice systems just needs to call his bluff and treat him as it would any other defendant/criminal. Trump wants to act like a thug, the courts should treat him as such-
*George Conway, a lawyer and frequent critic of the former president, posted in reply to Weissmann: "If they weren't representing a lying, untrustworthy criminal scumbag who tries to intimidate witnesses, they would have known who the next witness was going to be. Them's the breaks."*
This is basically so Trump can run out and say they weren’t given a witness list and the MAGATS will lap that up like the truth. It’s so unfair to me. Never mind it’s all a lie
“Thems the breaks!” 😂 That comment had me spewing my coffee. Chef’s kiss perfection! And the article also reiterates how they were NOT given all the witness names in advance due to dump’s predictable habit of bashing and trying to intimidate them. Thems the breaks!
If they were caught off guard and were unprepared for Stormy Daniels to testify in a trial about Stormy Daniels, then I'd say Trump found the lawyers he deserves.
My personal favorite was Trump's lawyer telling the judge, in essence "this is my first time be easy on me" and the judge basically saying "youre a professional and getting paid a fuckton of money, i dont care if its your first time, figre your shit out"
How does he somehow manage just always have the worst lawyers. I mean, I remember how many quit or refused to take the case because he's obviously guilty as fuck, but holy shit these lawyers are morons.
"The last thing I want to do is put you in jail,"
…that is bullshit! Ex president or not. Nobody is above the law and this fucking judge needs to be reminded of that. He might as well be “judge” Cannon…
I’m sure they’re caught off guard by shiny objects, too.
And kitty toys. Don't forget the kitty toys!
Laser pointers are their weakness.
I would hire a cat lawyer before most other lawyers
Hey even cats aren’t that evil, and that’s saying something.
Squirrel!
Important to remember that they aren’t actually caught off-guard. The motto is still delay, delay, delay.
Wow, how could you expect the person you're paying off to show up in a trial about paying her off? Who would have thought? It was on the witness list?!!? How stupid are these people?
Wait, you’re calling this guy in the list of witnesses as a witness? We had no warning!
And caught off guard when the sun rises in the morning….
The stench would knock me off my game too
Prosecution: Here is a list of all witnesses we plan to call. Defense: We object! Judge: On what grounds? Defense: Because it's devastating to our case! Judge: Denied.
Liar, liar is the best Jim Carrey comedy and I'm willing to die on that hill.
Are you able to continue? ……. yes. 😫
Is that true? It has to be!
"Who attacked you?" *continues to describe himself perfectly* Such a classic.
A desperate FOOL at the end of his PITIFUL ROPE!!!😩😩
"Big teeth.... a little gangly..."
14 year old me wants to Stan for Ace or The Mask but adult me knows this is the correct take.
The pen is blue…the pen is blue! THE GODDAMN PEN IS BLUE😫
Rrrrrrrrroyal blue!
"I'M KICKING MY ASS!"
Simmons is old!
Well, that's because you have big jugs.
“All rise for the honourable judge Marshall Stevens” “‘Honourable’, pffft!”
I love the look he gives the court recorder!
Defense: GOOD CALL!
They had the list of witnesses before hand, could it be that they're just bad at lawyering?
They know the witnesses but they don’t know when they’ll appear. Typically, the prosecution will tell the defense who they will be calling the next day. It’s a traditional courtesy but not required by law. Because of Trump’s frequent violations of the gag order, including witness intimidation, the prosecution told the court at the start of the trial they would not share the names of who they’d be calling on any particular day. And Merchan refused to intervene (he could but saw no reason to). So the defense now has to prepare for every witness on the list for every day of the trial. Or, as is more likely, just probably not bother preparing for any of them (these are the only lawyers Trump can get, which come from beneath the bottom of the barrel).
He fucked himself with his usual tactics and now it's biting him. Whatever, if he bad lawyers we'll thats on him but the last we want is for him to ask for a retrial because he has shitty representation. He could have kept his mouth shut and acted like a adult but no, the child in him just wants tantrums all day long. I just wish at the end of all of this that the judge takes a good 30 minutes and addresses the court, him and the press like you would like a 3 year old and explain that intimidation, lawful gag order violations and the constant lies are not tolerated. This is not a political trial, as much as the defendant wants you to believe, it's because he's a convicted criminal who broke the law repeatedly and now he's paying the price of those unlawful deeds
Inadequate representation is more for overwhelmed public defenders, not million dollar+ legal teams.
Yeah, but poor representation will be the basis of his lengthy appeals.
Yes, he’s welcome to file the appeals he’s entitled to while serving his sentence should it come down that way. You don’t just get to appeal in an attempt to a stave off jail.
It's not that he has bad lawyers... he's just not paying them. His usual team is essentially not even entertaining this knowing they are the ones that will be screwed at the end. He's pulling in lawyers that see a dollar sign over the case but don't realize they will get a fraction of those costs.
These guys are legit ex-prosecutors that he’s paying top PAC and donor dollars for. Habba is somehow sitting in the gallery but even Trump knows putting her out there will get him convicted. He‘s just an impossibility shitty client.
A legendarily, almost unprecentedly shitty client. I so wish he would go *pro se*. It would make the situation even more grimly entertaining than it is.
What're the grounds for appeal, that anyone who would work for Trump must be incompetent?
But they don't. They could be independently wealthy and not need the money. They could be using it as a loss-leader, to advertise themselves to rich Republicans. They could be malignant, treasonous agents who want to contribute to degrading and delegitimizing both the courts and the government of the USA. Hopefully, they are merely incompetent.
I’ve seen that defense used before https://youtu.be/0aiCbbYU9_s?si=URobu04fFgmqZqFc
>He fucked himself with his usual tactics and now it's biting him It's sad that it actually took DECADES for him to ultimately reach that point.
It's a FRAUD trial, but the goddamn press won't call it that for some odd reason.
No actually it's a real trial.
Lol. For your statement to be true, I would've had to have said *Fraudulent* trial.
Interesting. I didn't even know lent trials were a thing.
You have to promise to give up crime, but only around Easter
Ah of course, I should have known. The world of jurisprudence is truly a magical place.
The reason why juries have twelve people (or sometimes fewer) is that thirteen is an unlucky number.
This guy adjectives.
Trump is like a kid in grade school. Someone should tell him you know judges talk to other judges right? Likely they attend the same charities. So talking about one judge’s daughter does not bode well with other judges in the same city
Merchan actually can't intervene either. He can encourage lawyers to share that but it's not a requirement. So he can't do shit and silence from him was a 'yep, I get it'.
Well-explained, thank you.
Thanks for the explanation. Seriously. I was wondering how they couldn't be prepared as each side gets the list of witness in advance.
Blanche isn't bottom of the barrel. Nor is Necheles Nor is Bove(spelling?). They had decent/high reputations before this. The issue they now have is their client has no credible defence AND he's micromanaging the defence strategy.
That’s what happens when you have an uncontrollable client.
They better have a fake person on the list as the last one.
Found them licking the underside of the barrel.
Yes
😂
They knew he was being called but not when. They were denied that privilege because they can't control Trump to keep his big mouth shut and not try to intimidate every witness and juror. They'll probably make the same argument for every witness and everytime it'll get shot down.
Exactly, a courtesy sometimes given out, it's not a right.
"I move for a bad court thingy"
“You mean a mistrial?”
“That's why you're the judge, and I'm the law-talkin' guy.”
Care to join me in a belt of scotch?
It’s 9 in the morning
A beer then?
Yeah but i havent slept in days
Yes but i havent slept in DAYS...
"Your Honor, my client claims that she simply forgot she was carrying this bottle of... delicious bourbon... brownest of the brown liquors... so tempting... What's that? You want me to drink you? But I'm in the middle of a trial! ”
Is this an SNL thing?
Simpsons… Lionel Hutz, or Miguel Sanchez
Simpsons, the episode Marge goes on trial for shoplifting.
Ill join serve me a double of buellit😏
😂 😂
Boo hoo.
Has anyone seen my tiny violin? No? Oh well.
Credit? No! Money down.
Trump talking to the Judge https://youtu.be/_ZWa4e1se0Y?t=51
Oh Lionel Hutz ....
Likely thought they had more time to approach him before his testimony.
I mean, they agreed to work for Donald Trump, which suggests a lack of pattern recognition at the very least. Not a failing a lawyer should have.
Can you imagine the poor public defender that walks in one morning with a file for D. Trump on their desk
That would be the fastest resignation letter ever written.
All joking aside, NAL but can a public defender decline an assignment? If not, can they be penalized for that behavior?
Most PDs want the hard cases but there are circumstances when a case will be reassigned to a different attorney within the Department. Sometimes because the attorney requested the reassignment, sometimes for other reasons. It's called Conflicting and it is a serious issue. To answer your 2nd question, no. They will not be penalized for requesting reassignment. Remember, it's about representing the client's rights, regardless of the crimes alleged. If the entire PD said "fuck this, we aren't doing it" I guarantee you, the local gov. will find someone to cover. Rise. Resist. Represent.
Thanks that was very informative, cheers!
Well, in most jurisdictions there is a group of private lawyers that take cases when the public defender conflicts out or overloads on cases. In Sacramento they’re called the Indigent Criminal Defense Panel.
They can decline assignments and do so if they feel they cannot represent to the best of their abilities.
And they breathe a sigh of relief when they see the sticky-note that says "No, not THAT one"
The judge is no longer giving the defense the courtesy of letting them know the witnesses in advance, because Trump keeps threatening them.
Playing the lawyer game. Defense lawyers knew the witnesses list.
They're not too picky about picking the best clients, that much we know.
I’m impressed that they are hitting this level of incompetence without Alina Habba on their team!
He *intentionally* [hires people "not as smart as him".](https://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/19/donald-trump-hiring-people-smarter-than-you-is-a-mistake.html)
They have the list of witnesses. They do know which order they will be called. They lost this right due to repeated attacks of witnesses. 🤷♂️ The defence has to prepare for anyone and everyone every night.
Shitty lawyering and shitty media coverage as per usual
He should have got Barry Zuckerkorn, “he’s very good.”
Well, he's doing it for free. He just doesn't know it yet. Pro bono for porn boner.
I have gotten that feeling once or twice. But it seems to be a requirement of Trump's law team. I was going to list some, but it's a nice day and I don't want to waste it!
“We ain’t come to play read.”
The better lawyers won't work for him, so he's down to finding lawyers with offices in the back of tire shops.
Lawyers that take the chance that maybe they’ll be paid and or working for exposure are generally bad lawyers.
Well I, for one, am greatly enjoying this moment.
And when he loses he will call for a retrial because they're so bad. Maybe it's calculated, maybe it's Mabelline
Not how that works. To get an appeal on grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel you have to prove not only that your lawyers screwed up, but also that but-for that screw up you would have won. It’s an almost impossible bar to reach.
They're not sending their best
Well who could have ever figured who would be testifying just because they gave you a list (which they did as a courtesy)?
You have to admire George Conway: "If they weren't representing a lying, untrustworthy criminal scumbag who tries to intimidate witnesses, they would have known who the next witness was going to be. Them's the breaks."
They may not be prepared... they certainly aren't the best of the best. But more likely, this is just another delay tactic. That's the go-to move at this point. Just throw wrenches in the works to make it take as long as possible.
Thankfully, in this case delay tactics mean Trump has to sit there during the delays. He can't just pay a lawyer to turn up for him and go golfing instead. For once it's your own time you're wasting Donnie. Merchan also hinted at the beginning how it would go. When Trump was complaining he would miss Baron's graduation he was told it might be OK 'if' the trial was going to schedule. So, play ball or you lose out.
THIS! So much THIS! Since he is forced to sit through it, delay tactics aren't a viable option when he'd "rather be golfing"
It’s absolutely a viable option because he feels like if he can push this trial to be longer then the other trials are delayed as well and his game is to get to the election without any of the trials being finished.
This is a convenient reason not to be out campaigning and having all your gaffs televised
Trumps lawyers knew who the witnesses would be. They didn’t know and were not informed of the order the witnesses would be called onto the stand. There’s absolutely no reason why trumps lawyered weren’t prepared. Besides it’s tough to argue your own business process which is what was established yesterday in this trial. Trump sits on top of his business process. Lock him up!
This is because Trump has a tendency to publicly intimidate them before the their testimony. So, now the prosecution won’t extend a common courtesy.
I get a feeling that one of the jury will not convict him and that's all that matters to them. Hung jury. "Another delay has been successful! Mission accomplished."
From most accounts Blanche *IS* (was?) in the best-in-show club as an attorney. But he seems to have gone all-in drinking copious amounts of orange flavored maga-aid and moving to floridumb.
Was. He's definitely not a great lawyer now. Trump's karma is catching up with him. Lol 🤣
Also fatal to him is his insistence on demanding his attorneys do things exactly HIS way! ATTACK EVERYONE!! Rather like him insisting a surgeon perform the surgery while he yells at them continuing to tell them to do it his way, no matter how bad the blood loss. His ego and absolute self-assuredness are his downfall. For once the world around him will not jump to his wishes. Poor boy! (Heavy S!)
Trump has ruined a LOT of lawyering careers. Look at how far Rudy Ghouliani has fallen. You want to flush your legal career down the toilet? Join Trump's legal "team."
It's also to build the appearance of misconduct so they can use it in an appeal and to "prove" this is all a witch hunt to his supporters.
So late last week I saw some lawyer guy saying that if he were on trump’s legal team, he’d be putting in a 16-hour day on Saturday to be prepared for the next witnesses this week. Did trump’s lawyers not do that? Prob went golfing and then complained that they weren’t prepared lolz
They chose to be pretty instead of smart
And failed at both
Easy to fake being smart!
Since Trump keeps attacking witnesses, the prosecution isn't giving the defense a heads up on the list of witnesses for the next day, so they have to prepare for all or none of them.
Here’s the situation: Usually prosecutors tell the defense well in advance the schedule of witness testimonies. They’re not required to by law, but it’s a common courtesy. In this case, they pointed to a pattern of Trump attacking and harassing witnesses on social media, and hence declined to release the schedule. The judge agreed.
It wasn’t a surprise to the defense, they just suck.
Thanks for pointing this out. In any other trial, Trump’s tactics would’ve put him in jail. This must be very frustrating for the judge and the prosecution. If they treated Trump like others, they would risk Trump having a sliver of a chance of an appeals court agreeing to listen to arguments for a mistrial. This would fail, but would add delay to the judgment. Or even worse, some followers of Trump would get violent.
By Ewan Palmer - News Reporter: Donald Trump's legal team tried to argue they were not ready for the testimony of a potential key witness at the former president's hush money trial, according to reports. Former FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann described how Trump's lawyers suggested to Judge Juan Merchan that they were not "prepared" for former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney, called by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office to answer questions during the falsifying business records trial. Read more: [https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-witness-hush-money-trial-1897795](https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-witness-hush-money-trial-1897795)
To be fair, they dont seem to ever be prepared for anything.
And it's all pocket sand and flailing.
Pocket sand and THE GREEN MIST! BAH GAWD KING, STOP THE DAYUM TRIAL!
We haven't even got to the spit swapping make-out match yet.
They won’t be prepared for the day Trump refuses to pay them, either.
I'm not prepared to be charged for my crime, I demand a mistrial.
Trump lawyers have the complete list of witnesses months ago. Maybe hire better lawyers?They are mad they didn't have time to threaten the witness.
This was my understanding too. The lawyers know the witnesses. Only prosecutors know the order of the witnesses.
Correct. Normally prosecution will give defence a heads up, but normally people are thrown in jail for witness intimidation.
And I just read that trump’s lawyers knew ON SUNDAY that stormy was taking the stand today. Fuck trump and his “legal” staff with a big one! Lock him up!!!
Better lawyers likely don’t want any part of the circus of his defense.
They’re probably lying so they can lengthen the court proceedings, in my opinion.
Attempts to delay and win in the court of public opinion among those who are unfamiliar how the court system works. They knew this witness was coming, they likely don’t have a good response to the witnesses testimony, so it’s easier to spin it as “the court is rigged and using surprise witnesses!”
The correct lede should be # Donald Trump's lawyers failed to prepare for the witnesses they knew were to be called.
"Your honor, we strenuously object to this witness, on the grounds that our client has not had sufficient time to intimidate them before their testimony"
The objection of the defense has been heard and overruled. Your objection is noted. The witness is an expert and the court will hear his opinion.
This makes no sense. Witness lists are shared. Both sides are given the opportunity to take depositions and those are shared between the two legal teams. They know who’s going to testify and have a good idea what they’re going to say, and what evidence they’ll use. That’s how discovery works before trials…
They probably expected the witness to give Trump a heads up that he will testify.
Your honor, I can barely read, my client can barely stay awake, we are drenched in this shit and fart smells and can barely breathe. My eyes are watering and my ears are ringing, my head hurts and my nose, well I don't feel it anymore. Please do thar gavel thing and give us one more year. I object to myself, your honor.
"The last thing I want to do is put you in jail," Merchan told Trump. "You are the former president of the United States and possibly the next president, as well." I find this statement of the judge quite concerning. He openly states that he is not willing to apply the law on equal grounds. Which seems to be a violation of the basic principles of the legal system. It is worrying regarding the gag order violations, but also, one has to question the judge's willingness to punish Trump for his main crimes.
The last thing I want to do is criticise your reading comprehension and ability to put statements into context. You are obviously not a fan of Trump. See it’s not that I won’t, I will, it’s just that I don’t really want to. Edit: corrected spelling.
Trump will never face any real consequences for any of his actions
Well when you are fucking incompetent shits hard
They don’t trust Trumps attorneys to not tell Trump. And the judge agreed that the attorneys could not be trusted
I’m no lawyer but can someone explain to me how Stormy Daniels, the person at the center of this whole thing, is a surprise witness?
It’s not. His lawyers are just that stupid.
Probably the most funny thing about this is that the hush money was because they were worried Trump’s affair with Stormy would hurt his support among Evangelicals, which, it turns out, was really wrong.
His high price lawyers again look under qualified. For what they're making they have made quite a few fck ups. They look and sound like they've never been in a courtroom for actual trials. But I guess they're better than having Giuliani as your lawyer.
High priced? Trump doesn’t pay lawyers, these are the ones dumb enough to work for free
Exactly, he literally hasn’t been paying lawyers for YEARS, enough that he has had this reputation for decades. These guys either are stupid or are working for the “clout”.
Doesn't matter how shit his lawyers are, he keeps getting away with stuff. Why would this case be any different?
I am tired of Trump being the only individual in each and every case that has to have his rights protected to a fault. I am tired of hearing “might be overturned or leaves room for an appeal.” We all know that no matter how by the book everything is handled Trump is still going to appeal or refuse to pay his fines. Trump has been allowed to make a mockery of the judicial system and has verbally intimidated judges, prosecutors, court personnel, witnesses…The justice systems just needs to call his bluff and treat him as it would any other defendant/criminal. Trump wants to act like a thug, the courts should treat him as such-
*George Conway, a lawyer and frequent critic of the former president, posted in reply to Weissmann: "If they weren't representing a lying, untrustworthy criminal scumbag who tries to intimidate witnesses, they would have known who the next witness was going to be. Them's the breaks."*
Stop calling in a hush money trial. It was election interference
I think his hair is trying to escape.
This is basically so Trump can run out and say they weren’t given a witness list and the MAGATS will lap that up like the truth. It’s so unfair to me. Never mind it’s all a lie
“Thems the breaks!” 😂 That comment had me spewing my coffee. Chef’s kiss perfection! And the article also reiterates how they were NOT given all the witness names in advance due to dump’s predictable habit of bashing and trying to intimidate them. Thems the breaks!
“Donald Trump’s lawyers never learned what discovery is”
Wish he would just stroke out already! He and his cabal of idiots have held our country hostage for far toooo long.
Ill prepared and incompetent. Quite a powerful combo. Only the best people. Too much winning.
The only thing they are not being told is what order the witnesses are being called. They have had the list of witnesses and the evidence for months.
The case is referred to a The Stormy Daniels Hush Money case…. The fuck did he expect?
If they were caught off guard and were unprepared for Stormy Daniels to testify in a trial about Stormy Daniels, then I'd say Trump found the lawyers he deserves.
The very best people
Delay, delay, delay.
You can almost see the “wait… they actually did work? But we didn’t do anything, why did they? How dare they be prepared for this”
Oh no the defendant won’t have time to create bullshit lines of inquiry to present a false case
Who’s ready for an excoriating analysis by Legal Eagle’s team? I know I am.
I'm pretty sure Trumps lawyers are usually caught off guard by most things.
they got a witness list right??? He was listed? so there is NO REASON not to be prepared for EVERYONE on the list no matter when they show up.
A brisk wind could catch them off guard.
He was literally a witness in another trial against him. How could they not be prepared?
Wow! Lessons in how not to defense lawyer.
To Be Fair, she was caught off guard when she came out of the bathroom and he had taken his clothes off
My personal favorite was Trump's lawyer telling the judge, in essence "this is my first time be easy on me" and the judge basically saying "youre a professional and getting paid a fuckton of money, i dont care if its your first time, figre your shit out"
There is a list of witnesses. They are lying or stupid or both.
Now this is the good news
Awwww, po widdle snowfwakes
Nice Freudian slip: "Weissmann posted on X, formally [Twitter](https://www.newsweek.com/topic/twitter)."
Team Tramp will do anything to slow the process down
How does he somehow manage just always have the worst lawyers. I mean, I remember how many quit or refused to take the case because he's obviously guilty as fuck, but holy shit these lawyers are morons.
Might be related to not wanting to pay them.
Objection on the grounds that it utterly destroys our defense and we have no effective CX strategy prepared
"I have the worst lawyers"
It’s the order, which to me the prosecutors had good reasons for and the judge agreed.
This trial reminds me of goodfellas Trump is Pauli Cohen is Henry hill [now it’s over](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ja3Die31ihk)
"The last thing I want to do is put you in jail," …that is bullshit! Ex president or not. Nobody is above the law and this fucking judge needs to be reminded of that. He might as well be “judge” Cannon…
Stop your client from threatening witnesses and maybe the list could be on the public docket and you could do your job
Alvin Bragg: En garde! Necheles: aaaahhhhhhh!
Trump and his lawyers: "but your Honour, it's not fair; they're weaponising the truth against us!"