Thirty-four and Counting  ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

Verdict Watch:  On Tuesday, the defense and prosecution delivered their final arguments.  In addition to slamming Michael Cohen and questioning the veracity of the National Enquirers’ David Pecker, defense lawyer Todd Blanche told the jurors that the infamous “grab em” Access Hollywood tape that almost blew up Trump’s 2016 campaign hadn’t been the big deal that it was, that the hush money reimbursement checks to Cohen were really only payment for ordinary legal services, and that Trump never had sex with Stormy even though everyone knows he did. Blanche infuriated presiding Judge Juan Merchan when he told the jury that finding Trump guilty could land him in an orange jumpsuit. That’s a no-go because jurors aren’t supposed to consider potential punishment when deciding whether or not a defendant is guilty.  Blanche knew he crossed the line, but his client is Trump, so he did what he felt he had to do. The judge told the jurors to unhear his statement, but they heard it. The prosecution’s closing arguments took far longer, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass walked through all the details of their case in an attempt to further convince jurors that it was less about Michael Cohen’s testimony and more about the testimony of the corroborating witnesses and the documentation. Yesterday morning the judge gave the jury their instructions. he addressed Cohen’s credibility, telling the jury that their verdict can’t be based solely on an accomplice’s testimony adding that though there must be some corroboration, the corroboration doesn’t need to be for all elements of the crime. The judge then explained the NY State statue against the falsifying of business records that Trump is accused of violating and how it gets elevated from a misdemeanor to a felony if Trump’s intent to defraud included an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal that crime.  In this case that other crime is the influencing of the outcome of the 2016 election. To find Trump guilty the jurors have to unanimously conclude that he falsified his business records and that he tried to influence the election, but by New York law they don’t have to unanimously agree on which of the various “unlawful means” he used for the election interference.  Naturally, Trump and his echo chamber aren’t happy with the complexities of the NYS law, so they are pushing the lie that the jury doesn’t have to unanimously conclude he’s guilty.  Yesterday evening, before calling it a day, the jury asked to review transcripts of some of the testimony provided by David Pecker and Michael Cohen.  They’ll do that when they reconvene this morning.  Because the pundit class has to pundit, they’re reading a lot into that request with some suggesting it means that the jury is well on its way to finding Trump guilty.  The more likely reality is that no one, including even the jury, knows where they’re headed.  That said, Trump appears very nervous.  He and his echo chamber don’t expect him to be found not guilty on all counts, rather they seem to be counting on a hung jury, hoping that the juror who smiled or experienced gas when Ohio’s hillbilly Senator JD Vance was in attendance is on Team Trump.

Election Weeds: The Democrats have a work around.  They’re no longer relying on Ohio Republicans doing the right thing, instead they’ll be nominating Biden through a “virtual roll call” vote ahead of their August convention to ensure that he appears on the Ohio ballot in November. It’s sad that they have to do that, but in this tit for tat, polarized time, it’s what they have to do.  Trump who never forgets a slight, has endorsed Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good’s primary challenger.  Good was one of those Republicans who made the required pilgrimage to lower Manhattan to show his fealty by calling Trump’s trial a witch hunt but that wasn’t enough to undo his earlier endorsement of Ron DeSantis. Good’s Virginia primary won’t take place until mid-June, but the Texas primary is now in the rearview mirror.  Republican Tony Gonzales who represents a district that includes Uvalde, the site of the horrifying Robb elementary school shooting,  barely survived a primary challenge from a gun rights advocate known as the AK Guy who, with the help of the right-wing of the Republican party, wanted to boot him for supporting rational gun legislation.  The Wall Street reports that Elon Musk and Trump have been cozying up, talking about a possible advisory role for Musk in Trump’s “next” administration. Musk hasn’t endorsed Trump yet, but he’s aligned with him on immigration, DEI, and election integrity issues so it’s just a matter of time. Apparently, their disagreement on electric vehicles and the environment is no longer a problem for Musk.  Besides Musk would really like to see the investigations into his various and sundry SEC violations go away.

Ethics for Thee, Not for Me: Count Justice Alito as another guy who’d like to see the issues regarding his increasingly obvious biases get less attention.  He continues to blame the hanging of the insurrectionist friendly flags outside of his homes on his wayward wife’s distress after having words with an expletive hurling neighbor.  The problem with his defense is that according to his neighbors and the NY Times the timing of those four-letter utterances doesn’t match up with the when the flags were first hoisted upward.  Naturally, Alito has rebuffed requests to recuse from decisions concerning January 6 and presidential immunity because he really doesn’t care about appearances and, anyway, he’s probably already written his opinions.  The pressure is on Chief Justice Roberts to do something, but really, who expects that to happen? On the ethically challenged front, Florida Judge Aileen “loose” Cannon continues to be a bigly problem.  She chastised Special Counsel Jack Smith for requesting a gag order to prevent Trump from accusing the Biden administration of trying to have him assassinated saying that they should have first hugged it out with Trump’s lawyers.  Apparently, Smith’s team tried to speak with Trump’s team and said so in their filing but it’s Cannon’s world.        

#BringThemAllHomeNow