Week 3 of testimony in Donald Trump’s first criminal trial of 4 started with a bang! Judge Merchan took the bench and immediately ruled that Trump had violated the gag order for a 10th time (2nd ruling on this, the first one involved 9 violations). Here is a bit of what he said from the bench:
Now will he *actually* send Trump to jail? Who knows. Judge Merchan does not mince words and it is possible that he could send Trump to a holding cell in the courthouse for a few hours or an afternoon as a start.
Now moving on to witnesses….
Next up was Jeffrey McConney, Trump Org’s former controller and Trump’s civil fraud trial co-defendant. After boring groundwork talking about his background, we get to the details that matter: bookkeeping shenanigans.
SMOKING GUN ENTERED THE CHAT
END THE PHOTO EVIDENCE OF THE CALCULATIONS OF THE HUSH MONEY PAYMENTS!!!!! (BOOM EMOJI)
And with that, we are onto cross. Here are the prongs that Trump’s team is trying to prove:
AND…LUNCH
(side note, in attendance today are Eric Trump and Alina Habba)
Oopsie poopsie mistake by Trump’s lawyer:
https://xtwitter.com/AWeissmann_/status/1787524307784024470
Next witness: Deborah Tarasoff, accounts payable supervisor at the Trump Organization. She has worked there for 24 years.
Big thing she just said: checks were STAPLED to invoices, so Trump saw everything.
More visuals for everyone! Jurors, press in the overflow room and everyone in the courtroom!
The falsification of the business records is SO obvious with all today’s paper evidence. The notes about the checks were fake and they knew it. The invoices were fake and they knew it. Trump saw the check and the invoices and he signed them knowing that they were fraudulent. This is a classic white collar case. It is dry. Many of the witnesses are regular people who do not have familiar names to the public, but they know what was going on behind closed doors and who was approving what.
Cross was brief. Nothing of substance to share, really.
And that is the end of normal testimony. The DA’s office does inform the court that they will be recalling the social media paralegal. They had cut her testimony short to accommodate Hope Hick’s schedule. They have more Trump social media to enter into the record, apparently.
Also, the prosecutor informs the court (and Trump) that they expect to wrap up their case in 2 weeks or so. And with that, Monday is over.
See you all back here tomorrow!
