I never was a NY lawyer, of course, but I certainly went to law school and know a fair amount about the court system as it used to be. I am sickened by this trial. It is an abomination. There have certainly been miscarriages of justice in the US before, but this is a travesty and 100% political and obviously so. It’s the obviousness, and the approval by so many people, that are especially depressing. Something has really broken and I don’t think it will be repaired.

Alan Dershowitz: Judge Merchan runs the courtroom tyrannically

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2Cshjm5kwY

This is as close as it gets.

ABC News’ Linsey Davis sits down with criminal defense attorney Arthur Aidala to analyze day 20 of Donald Trump’s hush money trial and Michael Cohen’s testimony.

Defense attorney analyzes final phase of Trump’s hush money trial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfJf0Hj_RKg

but we discover the Bureau then headed by future Procurator Mueller had evidence of the hijackers, meeting with a Saudi agent in LA,Osama Al Bayoumi, of Egyptian nationality
recovered by the Metropolitan police, a casing video of the Capitol, which would have been the 4th target, if the 20th hijacker Mohammed Al Qahtani, had gotten into the country* apparently neither the Bushes nor the Blairs, nor their dejected retainers like Richard Clarke ever mentioned it, it wasn’t even mentioned in the 28 pages,

was he jailed sent to Gitmo, Bel Marsh, heaven forbid,

It has been characterized by the press since before the trial began as “The Hush Money Trial”. That sounds sufficiently sleazy to convict by itself!

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/05/update-part-one-merrick-garland-approved-use-deadly/

and https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/05/wtf-they-were-prepared-kill-me-christina-bobb/

I’m retired now, but I was a New York lawyer for decades and worked in the New York State court system for much of that. I have never, ever seen a week, or even a few days, allocated to jury instructions. It usually takes an hour or two, at most an afternoon, and it always happens immediately after both sides rest and have made their trial motions. Counsel is supposed to be thinking about instructions during the trial and to be prepared with proposed instructions as soon as testimony ends. And that’s not too hard, because New York has pattern jury instructions that are used universally; you don’t write them from scratch. (If you did, that would practically guarantee reversal on appeal. The whole idea is to use language that has been scrutinized by appellate courts and found to be sound.) You just choose the instructions that apply to the charged crime and make whatever minor modifications may be needed by the particular facts. That’s all.

Now, I grant that it’s going to be a little difficult to choose instructions appropriate to the charged crime when nobody knows what that is. It’s also unlikely that any pattern instruction will be well-suited to this ridiculous jerry-built pretense of a prosecution. But a week off isn’t going to help that problem, which is baked in. (Yes, I know I’m mixing my metaphors. I’m a little upset.)

The reason for the delay is obvious: it’s to stretch it all out longer and keep Trump off the campaign trail longer. (Is Trump permitted to leave New York during this week, does anyone know? I haven’t seen reporting on this point, but I’ll bet he’s not. I’m sure he’s still subject to the gag order, in any event.) It’s probably also intended to diminish the impact on the jury of Cohen’s destruction in cross-examination. Delays of even a day or two between testimony and closing tend to cement jurors in their original positions, whatever they may have been, and cause them to forget whatever points of evidence were sticking in their minds. Remember, they’re not allowed to talk to each other about the case during this time, or to anybody else. They’ve probably also been warned not to make notes about it. They won’t be able to think about it in any kind of constructive manner. This is why judges ordinarily try not to drop a weekend in between the close of testimony and closing arguments, if they can help it. Or why they used to, back when they were still judges.

There is no more fundamental principle in American criminal law than that the defendant must know what he or she is accused of. Otherwise, it’s impossible to mount a defense. I cannot believe that this trial got past the indictment stage, let alone all the way to the close of testimony, and we’re still guessing. It should guarantee reversal on appeal, but the fact that the trial occurred in this way at all shows such utter shameless disdain for the rule of law in the whole system that I don’t know whether it will. In the court system I knew, or thought I knew, no judge or prosecutor would behave this way, out of concern for their own reputation if nothing else. The fact that Merchan and Bragg have defied the foundations of their own profession so blatantly — added to what already happened with the NY civil trial — makes me think they have good reason to believe they’ll get away with it.

I thought I’d gotten pretty cynical before, but I guess I hadn’t. In this recent world of upside-down everything, this particular thing is the worst yet. I’m genuinely gobsmacked, and fighting bitterness besides. I took pride, formerly, in my association with the New York courts.

“White House makes nine brutal corrections to Biden’s NAACP Detroit speech”—
https://nypost.com/2024/05/21/us-news/white-house-makes-nine-brutal-corrections-to-biden-naacp-detroit-speech/

It is simply NOT POSSIBLE that Decent Joe Biden is—or has been—in charge of anything.

* See https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/05/biden-has-nothing-do-this-fbi-attempts-damage/