Yesterday was a blockbuster day at former president Trump’s criminal trial in lower Manhattan. Porn star Stormy Daniels, an unnecessary witness with no relevant testimony about the actual charges in the case, took the witness stand for the state. The purpose of the prosecutor, elected progressive Democratic district attorney Alvin Bragg, was patent: humiliate the defendant, his party’s arch nemesis and opponent in the 2024 presidential election.
In this, as has been the case throughout, Bragg was abetted by Judge Juan Merchan, a former Manhattan assistant district attorney who landed a slot on the bench in the state’s Democratic Party-dominated judicial system, who donated to the 2020 Biden campaign against Trump (as well as to the Progressive Turnout Project and to Stop Republicans — the kind of small-dollar contributions meant to show one is on the team), whose daughter is a progressive political operative who does campaign work for top Democrats who define themselves by their opposition to Trump (e.g., President Biden, Vice President Harris, and House Democrat Trump-impeachment maven Adam Schiff), and who — natch — refused to recuse himself from presiding over the case, scoffing at the notion that his impartiality could possibly be questioned.
You’ll be shocked, no doubt, to learn that the totally unbiased judge, over the strenuous objections of the defense, allowed Bragg’s totally non-partisan prosecutors to elicit from Daniels the graphic, minute-by-minute details of an alleged 2006 extramarital sexual encounter with Trump, purportedly as relevant evidence of fraudulent bookkeeping entries Trump allegedly caused his business to make eleven years later, in 2017. Said bookkeeping entries related to the reimbursement of a 2016 payment Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, made to Daniels for a non-disclosure agreement, the lawfulness of which is clear; whether the long-ago sexual encounter did or did not occur is irrelevant to the charges in the indictment.
Whereupon the totally unbiased judge, realizing he’d gone too far, reproved the totally non-partisan prosecutors for doing exactly what the totally unbiased judge had told them they could do. Of course, the totally unbiased judge also denied the defense mistrial motion based on the outrageously prejudicial testimony he’d knowingly permitted before theatrically ruing.
Today, the trial is on its weekly Wednesday hiatus. Stormy’s cross-examination is scheduled to resume tomorrow morning. If you’d like to catch up on her testimony and the resulting fireworks, here are my posts from yesterday:
Merchan Scolds Prosecutors for Doing What He Let Them Do
Merchan Allows Testimony that Unidentified Man Threatened Daniels
Stormy Testimony Shows: Trump’s Humiliation Is the Point of Bragg’s Prosecution
Stormy Cloud Rising in Lower Manhattan
And if you’d like to peruse prior coverage of Bragg’s so-called hush-money case against Trump, here are the most recent posts:
Oh, Right, the Business Records (Week 2 Wrap)
We’re Back to What the Definition of ‘Is’ Is
Merchan’s Rulings Induce Trump’s Lawyers to Adopt Self-Defeating Defense
Next Act in the Farce: Holding Trump in Contempt
What Happens When the Law and the Indictment Do Not State What the Crime Is
Bragg’s Prosecution of Trump Violates New York State’s Constitution
Hillary Clinton, Recidivist Election-Theft Conspirator
How Judge Merchan Is Orchestrating Trump’s Conviction
Is Trump Defense Cross-Examination of Pecker Helping or Hurting?
Alvin Bragg’s Outrageous Conspiracy Theory
‘Hush money’ is not a crime — Bragg has no case against Trump (NY Post)
Bragg Implements Plan to Mislead the Jury
David Pecker Will Be Bragg’s First Witness
Dems’ Anti-Trump Lawfare Campaign Pays Compounding Interest
Why Is Judge Merchan Refusing to Honor Trump’s Due-Process Rights?
Judge Merchan Bars Use of Cohen’s Guilty Plea To Prove Trump Committed Campaign-Law Crimes
Why Trump Jury Selection Is Moving Quicker Than Anticipated
Trump Gets a Ruling in His Favor: Bragg Barred from Additional Sexual Misconduct Evidence
Trump’s Criminal Trial Starts Monday: Get Up to Speed with Our Prior Coverage of Bragg’s ‘Hush Money’ Case (Collecting Prior NR Posts)