Trump Trial: It’s Jury Watch!
12 random New Yorkers are the most interesting people in the world right now.
They’re deliberating away, those poor jurors! For 23 long days, 18 New Yorkers selected at random have been plucked from their lives, hotboxed in a farty courthouse, deprived of naps for hours on end, pressed into touring a world slimier and grimier than a Marcio Rubio foam party.
They’ve missed work to be stared at by Trumpies in matchy suits, gotten screamed at by little shit Todd Blanche, been forced to imagine coercive peening by the unfuckable defendant, trapped into watching him sleeping, glowering, or muttering and cussing in his seat. You can only imagine what’s going on in the minds of the 12 people behind that closed door, or the six alternates, who are behind another door with no electronic devices allowed, likely being subjected to some B-minus movie like Jumanji, or a work from Ice Cube’s family oeuvre.
Nobody seems more confident he’ll get convicted than the defendant:
“Mother Teresa could not beat these charges. These charges are rigged. The whole country’s a mess, between the borders and fake elections, and you have a trial like this where the judge is so conflicted he can’t breathe. It’s a disgrace. And I mean that. Mother Teresa could not beat those charges. But we’ll see. We’ll see how we do.”
Raw-dogging porn stars and paying lawyers to try to cover it up, yeah, that sounds like Big Boss Mother T! We like the nuns that don’t take the rap.
And from now until whenever, Trump is trapped in the courthouse by that mean judge, waiting for the jury like the rest of us, keeping company with Alina Habba, Eric, and Boris Epshteyn, and frantically re-TROOTHING from his usual bag of clowns. Oh look, there’s MORE possible contempt, with Jim Jordan tapping about a “democrat jury,” and a clip of greasy-looking Eric lying on “Hannity” that Justice Juan Merchan’s daughter is “making millions and million of dollars and has a screenshot on her social profile of my father behind bars!” Here’s hoping it’s the sort of thing that will come up at a sentencing!
As for that jury, what are those 12 souls thinking?
David Pecker, that’s what. They buzzed their buzzer after a couple of hours deliberating yesterday, asking for a readback of the transcript about his 2016 phone call with Trump, his testimony around Karen McDougal's “life rights” agreement, and his and Cohen’s testimony about that 2015 Trump Tower meeting, plus a re-reading of jury instructions pages 6-38, and headphones or a speaker for audio.
All pretty UH OH BAD for Trump. Because Michael Cohen is considered an “accomplice” to the crime, the jury can’t convict on Cohen’s word alone, unless his testimony is corroborated by other evidence. But fortunately that circle had three jerks in it!
Twas Pecker who cooked up the scheme, talked to Trump about it multiple times, then backed out of paying McDougal after AMI’s lawyer told him that while shushy payoffs might be fine and good for Marky Mark, Lindsay Lohan, or Tiger Woods, when a miscreant is running for office those payments are ackshually ILLEGAL FAKE NEWS RIGGED ELECTION INTERFERENCE that would get Pecker and AMI a colonoscopy from the Federal Election Commission.
The re-read for the jurors started with that 2016 phone call, when Pecker got pulled out of an AMI investor meeting to talk to Trump, page 150:
PECKER: He said, "I spoke to Michael." [...] "I spoke to Michael. Karen is a nice girl."
That’s Trump language for yeah, I fucked her.
PECKER: And he said to me, "Uh, what do you think?" So, I said that after — after Dylan Howard interviewed her, she claimed that she had an offer from ABC, “Dancing With the Stars” … and there was an offer from a Mexican group for, from what Mr. Trump told me, was $8 million. And I said, "No. I don't believe there was an offer for $8 million. It's my understanding that she doesn't want her story published. And I think that the story should be purchased. And I believe that you should buy it."
And Mr. Trump said to me ... "I don't buy any stories." And he said that, "Any time you do anything like this, it always gets out." So I said, "I still believe that we should take this story off the market." And he said, "Let me think about it, and I'll have Michael Cohen call you back in a few days."
The jury was reportedly taking copious notes of this.
The next part that was re-read, when Pecker backed out of the deal:
Q: Did you have a conversation with your general counsel?
A: I did.
Q: And based on that conversation, did you come to the decision that you no longer wanted to be reimbursed for the money that AMI had laid out to acquire Ms. McDougal's lifetime rights?
A: Yes, that's correct.
Q: Did you communicate that decision to Michael Cohen?
A Yes.
[…]
Q: Tell us about that conversation.
A: I called Michael Cohen, and I said to him that the agreement, the assignment deal is off. I am not going forward. It is a bad idea, and I want you to rip up the agreement. He was very, very angry. Very upset. Screaming, basically, at me. And I said, I am not going forward with this agreement. Rip it up. And he said, excuse me, Michael Cohen said, The Boss is going to be very angry at you.
And finally, the Trump Tower meeting in August 2015 with Pecker, Trump, and Cohen, and Hope Hicks flitting in and out, where Pecker posited the peener-payer-hushy-shushy pump Trump plan. You can read the transcript yourself here, all about how Pecker knew that Trump, who had been rubbing on women like a tomcat in heat for decades, was a married man acting like an “eligible bachelor”:
“Well, in a presidential campaign I was the person that thought that there would be a number — a lot of women come out to try to sell their stories, because Mr. Trump was well-known as the most eligible bachelor and dated the most beautiful women. And it was clear that based on my past experience, that when someone is running for a public office like this, the — it is very common for these women to call up a magazine like the National Enquirer to try to sell their stories.”
And here’s what Cohen had to say about the meeting (page 40, if you’re following along at home):
Q: Could you tell the jury, please, what was discussed and what was agreed to at that meeting?
A: What was discussed was the power of the National Enquirer in terms of being located at the cash register of so many supermarkets and bodegas, that if we can place positive stories about Mr. Trump, that would be beneficial, that if we could place negative stories about some of the other candidates, that would also be beneficial.
Eating ham and cheese on a roll at the bodega, drinking an orange drink, reading gossip. If you know you know.
Q: Was there anything else that Mr. Pecker said he could also do for Mr. Trump's candidacy?
A: What he said was that he could keep an eye out for anything negative about Mr. Trump, and that he would be able to help us to know in advance what was coming out and try to stop it from coming out.
Q: And who did he say he would get in touch with if he was able to identify those types of stories?
A: Me. Mr. Trump also. Knowing my relationship with David, "The two of you should work together. And anything negative that comes, you let Michael know, and we'll handle it.”
Well, all of that sure does sound matchy-matchy as Mar-a-Lago tit implants! The jury also re-heard Emil Oil-of-Bove trying to poke holes: Didn’t you say that it was the first week of August, not the middle of August? Didn’t you not mention before that Hope Hicks was in and out of the room? Didn’t you not actually use the phrase “catch and kill”? He’s not screamy like Todd, but so weaksauce!
Anyway, thus having been read to, the jurors went back to their hidey hole.
What to make of these dutiful jurors? We will never know who they are, unless somebody doxxes them. And you really never can tell about people. Or maybe you can? Here’s what we know of the bunch minus anything that’s honestly so personally identifying:
The foreman, a married, childless outdoorsy guy who reads the New York Times and Daily Mail and watches some MSNBC and Fox. (Wearing black and reading? Definitely lefty.)
Another married, childless man, who gets his news mostly from Twitter and follows Trump and Kellyanne Conway, but also Michael Cohen and Mueller She Wrote, he says he reads “basically everything.” He’s seen quotes from “Art of the Deal” and said Trump had done “some good” for the country, and was also seen nodding at prosecution points.
A young lawyer who says he doesn’t follow much news, but when he does he reads the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. He reportedly looked into the gallery and was suppressing a snicker while Todd Blanche was shouting that Michael Cohen was PER JUR EE with three syllables.
A bearded guy originally from the West Coast. Asked how he was during jury selection, he griped, “I am freezing.” When a lawyer asked if he had strong feelings about Mr. Trump, he responded “No, not really.” He isn’t on social media.
A young lady from Harlem. She said she tries to avoid political conversations and doesn’t care for news, though she said “President Trump speaks his mind. I would rather that in a person than someone who’s in office and you don’t know what they’re doing behind the scenes.” She gets news from Google and TikTok and listens to podcasts on relationships and pop culture. She was reportedly smiling a little while Susan Necheles was cross-examining Stormy Daniels, but was it a smirk of horror?
A recent college grad, female, who gets her news from Google, Facebook and TikTok. She said she probably has different beliefs than Mr. Trump, but that “this is a free country.”
Upper East Side male, who sighed heavily when chosen for the jury. He enjoys spending time in the outdoors and gets his news from The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and the Washington Post.
A retired guy who is aware of Trump’s other cases but doesn’t have an opinion about his character. He said he has “political views as to the Trump presidency,” agreeing with some Trump administration policies and disagreeing with others. Agreeing with Trump on some things and doing yoga? Tossup.
A woman who lives alone, gets news from CNN and likes reality TV podcasts. She told the judge she was scared of her identity being revealed in the press, but has stuck it out.
A man who works in commerce, reads The New York Times and listens to podcasts on behavioral psychology.
A woman from California, and the only one Todd tried to challenge. “I don’t like his persona,” she said. “He just seems very selfish and self-serving so I don’t really appreciate that in any public servant, so I don’t know him as a person, so I don’t know how he is in terms of his integrity,” she added. “It’s just not my cup of tea.” Tough luck with that one, Todd!
A woman who likes running and tennis and listening to podcasts on sports and faith.
What does it all mean, that information? Could one or more of these people be Trump’s “hung jury get out of trial for now card”? It is true it only takes one juror to hang the jury, but it’s also true that most jurors want to get their service over with, and not sit there for days on end in deadlock, missing the beautiful summer weather, surrounded by people who hate them.
Whatever does the future hold?
Stay tuned!
Marcie’s writing gives me life. You had me at “foam party.” Before that, to be honest.
Those clever bastards. They snuck it by everybody. Son of a bitch, that was a brilliant move.
Cohen wasn’t the star witness. Pecker was. They needed him to say under oath that Cohen and Trump were furious he wouldn’t commit a federal crime to help the campaign. That nails them to the floor on the conspiracy charge. The misdemeanors were easy to prove. Now they’re upgraded.
Cohen’s only role in the trial was to connect the dots. He was the gravy, not the meat. Wow.
And Juror #5 will be the holdout.