The Conversation -- May 22, 2024

Hannah Rabinowitz & Tierney Sneed of CNN: "A hearing in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case devolved into shouting Wednesday as attorneys battled over an alleged threat made last year to a defense attorney. The morning proceeding in Fort Pierce, Florida, had been scheduled for Walt Nauta, one of ... Donald Trump's co-defendants, to present arguments that special counsel Jack Smith's team had selectively and vindictively brought charges against him. The presiding judge, Aileen Cannon, did not issue a ruling from the bench. But the hearing quickly diverted into a longstanding disagreement over an August 2022 meeting between prosecutor Jay Bratt and Nauta's defense attorney, Stanley Woodward. Woodward has claimed in court proceedings and filings that Bratt attempted to pressure him into convincing Nauta to cooperate against Trump by threatening to affect a potential judgeship nomination. Nauta claims that he was criminally charged in the case as retaliation for declining to cooperate with the Justice Department's investigation.... 'Mr. Woodward's story of what happened at that meeting is a fantasy,' [prosecutor David] Harbach shouted, banging his hand on the lectern in front of him. 'It did not happen.'... The judge quickly scolded Harbach, telling the attorney to 'calm down.'"

Sam, the J-6 "Justice." Jodi Cantor, et al., of the New York Times: "Last summer, two years after an upside-down American flag was flown outside the Virginia home of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., another provocative symbol was displayed at his vacation house in New Jersey, according to interviews and photographs. This time, it was the 'Appeal to Heaven' flag, which, like the inverted U.S. flag, was carried by rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Also known as the Pine Tree flag, it dates back to the Revolutionary War, but largely fell into obscurity until recent years and is now a symbol of support for ... Donald J. Trump, for a religious strand of the 'Stop the Steal' campaign and for a push to remake American government in Christian terms. Three photographs obtained by The New York Times, along with accounts from a half-dozen neighbors and passers-by, show that the Appeal to Heaven flag was aloft at the Alito home on Long Beach Island in July and September of 2023. A Google street view image from late August also shows the flag. The photographs, each taken independently, are from four different dates....

"Justice Alito declined to respond to questions about the beach house flag.... The disclosure about the new flag is troubling, several ethics experts said in interviews, because it ties Justice Alito more closely to symbols associated with the attempted election subversion on Jan. 6, and because it was displayed as the obstruction case was first coming for consideration by the court." Guess who else displays the Appeal to Heaven/J-6 flag? Why, Speaker of the House Bible Mike.

Meredith McGraw & Natalie Allison of Politico: "Nikki Haley said Wednesday that she will vote for Donald Trump, despite maintaining he has 'not been perfect' on many policies."

Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "The judge presiding over Hunter Biden's tax case in Los Angeles agreed on Wednesday to delay the start of his trial to Sept. 5, giving his lawyers room to prepare for a separate trial on a firearms charge in Delaware early next month. While the move came as a relief to President Biden's son, it pushes a trial likely to highlight Hunter's Biden's effort to leverage his family's name into profit into the homestretch of the campaign season, around the time mail-in voting starts in some states. Both of ... Donald J. Trump's federal trials, by contrast, have been put on hold and are increasingly unlikely to begin before the election."

Who They Are. Ohio. Erin Glynn of the Columbus Dispatch: "Ohio House leaders said Tuesday there will probably not be a legislative solution to getting President Joe Biden on the November ballot in Ohio. Current law says Ohio officials must certify the ballot on Aug. 7, 90 days before the election, but Biden won't be nominated until the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19. The Ohio House and Senate each had separate proposals to fix the deadline issue but neither advanced when the legislature was last in session on May 8. Speaker Jason Stephens, R-Kitts Hill, told reporters Tuesday that the legislature has fixed the issue with convention dates in the past and he thinks it could have been fixed, but there was just not the will from the legislature this time." MB: Elections expert Marc Elias, who appeared on MSNBC Wednesday, said Democrats would employ other means to get President Biden on the Ohio ballot.

Who They Are. Georgia. Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "A Capitol riot defendant who waded through tear gas behind a pro-Donald Trump mob pursuing police officers inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 advanced to a GOP runoff in a Georgia House district on Tuesday, NBC News projects. Charles Hand III, who goes by Chuck Hand, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor offense in connection with the attack on Jan. 6, 2021. He is running for the Republican nomination in Georgia's 2nd Congressional District, which is held by Democrat Sanford Bishop. In Georgia, if no candidate clears the 50% threshold in a primary, the top two vote-getters move on to a runoff election. Hand will face Wayne Johnson, who served in the Trump administration's Education Department and was leading Tuesday's vote count, on June 18. The eventual GOP winner will be an underdog in the general election against Bishop in the solidly Democratic district."

Who We Are. Lauren Aratani of the Guardian: "Nearly three in five Americans wrongly believe the US is in an economic recession, and the majority blame the Biden administration, according to a Harris poll conducted exclusively for the Guardian. The survey found persistent pessimism about the economy as election day draws closer. The poll highlighted many misconceptions people have about the economy, including: 55% believe the economy is shrinking, and 56% think the US is experiencing a recession, though the broadest measure of the economy, gross domestic product (GDP), has been growing. 49% believe the S&P 500 stock market index is down for the year, though the index went up about 24% in 2023 and is up more than 12% this year. 49% believe that unemployment is at a 50-year high, though the unemployment rate has been under 4%, a near 50-year low."

Who They Are. Colorado. Kyle Clark of KUSA (Denver): "The Colorado Republican Party is issuing a call to its members to pull their children from public school, saying Democrats are using schools to 'turn more kids trans.' The message was delivered in an email blast to Republicans statewide Tuesday. 'All Colorado parents should be aiming to remove their kids from public education,' read the directive from Darcy Schoening, director of special initiatives for the Colorado GOP." Thanks to RAS for the link.

U.K. Pippa Crerar & Rowena Mason of the Guardian: Prime Minister "Rishi Sunak has called a surprise early election for 4 July in a contest that will see Keir Starmer try to take power for Labour after 14 years of Conservative-led government. The prime minister announced the election would be in the early summer, in a high-risk move for the Conservative party as it trails 20 points behind Labour in the polls. Sunak finally decided to name the date after claiming inflation was back under control and the economy was improving, saying it was 'the moment for Britain to choose its future'."

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The New York Times opinion column called "The Point" is quite useful. It includes multiple short items by Times contributors on various matters related to politics.

Tuesday's Primary Election Results

Chris Cameron of the New York Times: "[California,] Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky and Oregon ... held primary contests on Tuesday, with presidential primaries in Kentucky and Oregon yielding notable protest votes against President Biden and ... Donald J. Trump.... Vince Fong, a state lawmaker in California and onetime aide to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, won a special election on Tuesday to fill his seat -- representing the most conservative district in the deep-blue state. Mr. Fong succeeds Mr. McCarthy nearly five months after he resigned from Congress, following his ouster from the speakership."

Georgia. Kate Brumback of the AP: "Two key players in the Georgia election interference case against ... Donald Trump have defeated challengers in Tuesday's election. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee both won. Willis is the prosecutor who last year obtained a sprawling racketeering indictment against Trump and 18 others, and McAfee is the judge who was randomly assigned to preside over the case. Willis beat progressive attorney Christian Wise Smith in the Democratic primary and is now set to face off against Republican Courtney Kramer in the fall. McAfee won a nonpartisan contest, which means he will serve a full four-year term beginning in January."

The Trials of Trump & the Trump Mob

New York Times reporters liveblogged yesterday's testimony in the Manhattan D.A.'s criminal case against Donald Trump. For details of the reporters' observations, see yesterday's Conversation. ~~~

~~~ Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "On Tuesday, the defense rested its case after Mr. Trump declined to take the stand at his own criminal trial.... Mr. Trump ... had said repeatedly that he wanted to testify.... [The defense] called two witnesses: their own paralegal and one of Mr. Cohen's antagonists, [Robert] Costello.... When not drowned out by a chorus of prosecution objections, Mr. Costello sought to cast doubt on Mr. Cohen's credibility. Mr. Cohen, he said, had once claimed he had nothing incriminating to offer prosecutors.... But on cross-examination, it was Mr. Costello's credibility that came under attack, as he sparred with the prosecution for a second straight day.... After testimony concluded Tuesday, both sides laid out dueling visions for how the judge should instruct the jury as it prepares to weigh the charges." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: IOW, Trump's only substantial witness helped the prosecution rehabilitate Michael Cohen. Excellent work, Team Trump!

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "For the past few months, federal prosecutors and lawyers for ... Donald J. Trump have been battling in secret over allegations of misconduct and politicization in how the government handled the investigation that led to an indictment accusing Mr. Trump of illegally holding on to classified documents after he left office. The fight spilled into the public eye on Tuesday as the judge overseeing the case unsealed a pair of motions by Mr. Trump attacking the integrity of the inquiry and claiming that the special counsel, Jack Smith, had timed his charges to create maximum political damage. The aggressive and often baseless filings by Mr. Trump's lawyers amounted to a multipronged assault on the underpinnings of the classified documents case and were the sharpest articulation yet of an argument the former president has often raised on the campaign trail: that law enforcement has been weaponized against him in a series of overreaching and politically driven witch hunts....

"In a separate motion, Mr. Trump's lawyers asked Judge Aileen M. Cannon ... to exclude from the case any evidence -- including more than 100 classified documents -- the F.B.I. discovered in August 2022 when agents searched Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump's private club and residence in Florida. The lawyers also asked Judge Cannon to suppress the private audio notes that prosecutors had obtained from one of Mr. Trump's lawyers through a process that pierced the normal protections of the attorney-client privilege." MB: Should take Cannon many more months to decide. ~~~

     ~~~ Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "A federal judge in Florida on Tuesday unsealed two motions that were filed months ago by Donald Trump in his classified documents case and that she has not yet ruled on -- part of a backlog that could delay the case beyond November's presidential election.... Legal experts say [Judge Aileen] Cannon has let decisions on these dismissal requests and other motions pile up, delaying the trial, and that her decision to schedule the hearings suggests that she is at least entertaining requests that seem to be without legal merit. Cannon has not scheduled a hearing so far on Trump's motions that were unsealed Tuesday, and she is not required to hold a hearing before she rules on them." ~~~

~~~ Trump Kept Hiding Classified Docs After FBI Search. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Four months after the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago estate, Donald Trump's attorneys discovered four documents marked 'classified' in his personal bedroom. That revelation was among several cited by U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in a newly unsealed 2023 opinion that found prosecutors had presented compelling evidence that Trump knowingly stashed national security documents in his home and then tried to conceal them when the Justice Department tried to retrieve them.... Throughout the& [87-page] opinion, Howell -- who was chief judge of the Washington, D.C. federal district court at the time -- described with varying degrees of incredulity how [classified documents could have been found in Trump's bedroom] months after ... the FBI conducted its own exhaustive search of the property.... In a footnote, Howell also noted that another Trump adviser connected to his Save America PAC had acknowledged scanning the contents of the box that contained the classified materials in 2021 and storing them on a personal laptop provided by the PAC." Thanks to RAS for the link.

** Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump on Tuesday falsely claimed in a campaign fundraising email that President Biden was 'locked & loaded ready to take me out' during a 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago estate for classified documents, an extraordinary distortion of a standard FBI policy on the use of deadly force during such operations. Trump appeared to be referring to a law enforcement document, released Tuesday in court filings in the classified documents case, that describes the FBI's plans for a court-authorized search on Aug. 8, 2022, at Mar-a-Lago.... One page in the document includes a 'policy statement on the use of deadly force, which says officers may resort to lethal force only when the subject of such force poses an 'imminent danger of death or serious physical injury' to an officer or another person. Trump and some of his allies suggested Tuesday that this was evidence that Biden's Justice Department was prepared to fatally shoot him. In fact, Trump was not at his Florida property the day of the search....

"A former president falsely accusing his successor and rival of posing a threat to his life is without precedent in modern U.S. history.... Trump also wrote Tuesday on his social media site, Truth Social, that 'Joe Biden's DOJ, in their Illegal and UnConstitutional Raid of Mar-a-Lago, AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE.'... [Trump's] campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt accused The Washington Post of waging a 'sickening attempt to run cover for Joe Biden.'... Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) ... [wrote] on X that 'The Biden DOJ and FBI were planning to assassinate Pres Trump and gave the green light.'" An NBC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Stand up, Merrick Garland, stand up. You must take a strong, public stand denouncing this dangerous lie. Tell Trump if he really does not understand that his claims are false and pose a threat to the POTUS and to DOJ & FBI officials, you will explain it all to him in terms even a petulant child can understand, after which you expect him to fully retract his remarks and publicly apology to President Biden and federal law enforcement personnel. You can't head the DOJ & the FBI if you can't stand up to a lying bully who is endangering employees of both departments.

Danny Hakim & Jack Healy of the New York Times: "Rudolph W. Giuliani and 10 other allies of Donald J. Trump were arraigned and entered not-guilty pleas on Tuesday in an Arizona criminal case that charges them with trying to keep Mr. Trump in power after he lost the 2020 presidential election. Mr. Giuliani, who appeared virtually at his arraignment, was ordered by the court to appear in person within 30 days and pay a $10,000 appearance bond. Those conditions, which were not imposed on other defendants, came after prosecutors said Mr. Giuliani had taken numerous steps to evade their attempts to serve him with notice of his indictment. During the hearing, Mr. Giuliani, formerly Mr. Trump's personal lawyer, called the indictment 'a complete embarrassment to the American legal system.'... The defendants who appeared in person included Christina Bobb, a Trump campaign adviser in 2020 who is now the election integrity counsel for the Republican National Committee, and Kelli Ward, a former head of the Arizona Republican Party." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: How perfect that the RNC's top "election integrity" lawyer is under indictment for election fraud.

Praveena Somasundaram of the Washington Post: "Rudy Giuliani has agreed to no longer accuse ... two Fulton County, Ga., election workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea ArShaye 'Shaye' Moss -- of tampering with the 2020 election, according to a draft agreement filed Tuesday in federal bankruptcy court. The agreement bars Giuliani -- who has for years amplified election falsehoods as a staunch ally of ... Donald Trump -- from publishing or assisting to publish false statements that the two workers 'engaged in wrongdoing' related to the 2020 election." Even after a jury ordered Giuliani to pay Freeman & Moss $148 million for falsely accusing them of election fraud, he continued to defame them. MB: I suspect that most people, even most fairly stupid people, would have the sense to stop making the same statements that had cost them tens of millions of dollars.

Zach Montague of the New York Times: "President Biden announced on Wednesday the cancellation of $7.7 billion in student loans held by 160,000 borrowers, building on his strategy of chipping away at college debt by tweaking existing programs as his administration pursues a larger forgiveness plan. Many borrowers in this round -- who qualified through public service loan forgiveness, the president's SAVE plan or another income-driven repayment plan -- have already begun receiving emails notifying them of their approvals, the Education Department said in a statement. The steady drumbeat of loan forgiveness announcements from the White House this year has become a centerpiece of Mr. Biden's re-election pitch, in which he has consistently described overcoming the cost of education as a primary hurdle for working families."

Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump declared on Tuesday that he did not support a ban on birth control, despite his responses in a television interview earlier in the day that suggested he was open to states restricting access to contraceptives. 'I HAVE NEVER, AND WILL NEVER ADVOCATE IMPOSING RESTRICTIONS ON BIRTH CONTROL, or other contraceptives,' Trump wrote on his social media platform. His post was a reversal of comments he made in an interview with KDKA News in Pittsburgh when he was asked whether he supported any restrictions on a person's right to contraception. 'We're looking at that, and I'm going to have a policy on that very shortly, and I think it's something that you'll find interesting,' Trump said. 'I think it's a smart decision. But we'll be releasing it very soon.'" Politico's report is here. MB: Here you can see how much consideration Trump has given to policy issues affecting millions and millions of sexually-active Americans: none, zero, zilch.

** Randy Balko on Substack: "I hate to go all Godwin here, but when you combine [Stephen] Miller's plan [to deport 15 million immigrants and end birthright citizenship] and personal history with Trump's recent rhetoric portraying immigrants as diseased 'animals' turned loose from foreign prisons and mental facilities who 'poison the blood' of the country -- or his ridiculous descriptions of migrants as 'military-aged' -- you could be forgiven for noticing that we're accumulating the necessary ingredients of a genocide.... At the very least, they're creating the conditions for a mass humanitarian crisis.... Deporting even a fraction of 15 million people would also wreck the economy."

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Republicans are pushing legislation to crack down on voting by noncitizens, which happens rarely and is already illegal in federal elections, in a move that reinforces ... Donald J. Trump's efforts to delegitimize the 2024 results if he loses. This week, House Republicans plan to vote on a bill that would roll back a District of Columbia law allowing noncitizens to vote in local elections, which they contend is needed to prevent Democrats from expanding the practice to other jurisdictions. And they are advancing another measure that would require states to obtain proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate or passport, when registering a person to vote. The legislation has virtually no chance of becoming law.... It ... underscores Republicans' embrace of a groundless narrative -- one that echoes the racist 'great replacement' conspiracy theory -- that Democrats are intentionally allowing migrants to stream into the United States illegally in order to dilute the voting power of American citizens and lock in electoral victories for themselves. Speaker Mike Johnson recently appeared alongside Mr. Trump at Mar-a-Lago, the former president's Florida resort and residence, to announce a pledge to get tough on migrants flowing across the border, suggesting with no evidence that they were coming in unchecked as part of a plot to vote for President Biden."

Tracey Tully & Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "Prosecutors, in building a case against [Sen. Bob] Menendez [D-N.J.], have been trying to show that the senator conspired with his wife ... and [two] New Jersey business[men] ... to take bribes in exchange for political favors. [A] mortgage payment that saved [Nadine] Menendez's home was among the first payoffs, according to the indictment. Mr. Menendez's lawyers have offered the jury a far different narrative, accusing his wife of deceiving him about her dire finances and any payoffs she may have solicited from others."

Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "Hunter Biden, in a trial scheduled to get underway in two weeks, could face testimony from his ex-wife and his brother's widow, with whom he became romantically involved, according to new filings from federal prosecutors that illustrate just how messy the seemingly simple court case could turn. The filings from special counsel David Weiss provide a window into prosecutors' plans and how they may reopen some of the most painful moments in the Biden family;s past, potentially embarrassing not only Hunter Biden but also a president whose political career has long been defined by a close-knit family that stuck together through difficult times....

"Barbara McQuade, a law professor at the University of Michigan and a former U.S. attorney, said that the case was fairly straightforward, and it was unclear why prosecutors would include so much detail in a filing so close to the trial. 'If Weiss wanted to pressure Biden, he certainly could have shared all of this information with Biden's attorneys without filing it in a public document,' she wrote in an email. 'Not sure what he is accomplishing by filing it publicly, other than perhaps prompting the witnesses to urge Biden to plead guilty.'" MB: Weiss is a Trump appointee, and his point is to embarrass President Biden. Judge Maryellen Noreika, who is hearing the case, also is a Trump appointee.

More from "The Real Housewives of D.C." Justin Jouvenal & Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "Nearly 50 House Democrats [-- including Rep. Hank Johnson (Ga.), the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee --] called on Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. to recuse himself from Jan. 6-related cases Tuesday, questioning whether the jurist could be impartial after an upside-down flag flew at his home in the weeks after the U.S. Capitol attack in 2021.... The upside-down flag ... has become a symbol of the 'Stop the Steal' movement that falsely claims the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump. The lawmakers asked Alito to decline to participate in deciding a pair of major cases the Supreme Court is slated to rule on in the coming weeks: whether Trump may be criminally prosecuted for his efforts to remain in office after losing the 2020 election, and whether the Justice Department can use an obstruction charge to prosecute more than 300 Jan. 6 rioters.... The letter from lawmakers ... also called on Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from Jan. 6 and 202o election-interference cases." ~~~

     ~~~ In this episode, Martha-Ann buys Sam a burner phone to make threatening calls to Hank Johnson, while Ginny packs to go to Arizona to act as a character witness for her friends Rudy Giuliani & Mark Meadows, two (alleged!) criminals currently out on bail.

Andy Kroll of ProPublica: "The most important fault line in the [Republican] party now is democracy itself. Today's Republican insurgents believe democracy has been stolen, and they don't trust the ability of democratic processes to restore it.... Several years ago..., I watched as thousands of political newcomers [to Michigan, my home state], whose sole qualification appeared to be fervor of belief, declared war on the Republican establishment that had been so dominant.... The new 'America First' activists disparaged prominent Michigan Republicans as 'globalist' elites who belonged to a corrupt 'uniparty' cabal...." Kroll goes on to describe the chaos inside the Michigan GOP.

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Louisiana. Daniella Silva, et al., of NBC News: "The Louisiana House approved a bill Tuesday that would add two medications commonly used to induce abortions to the state's list of controlled dangerous substances, making possession of the drugs without valid prescriptions a crime punishable by fines, jail time or both. The measure, which has drawn support from anti-abortion groups and alarm from medical professionals and reproductive rights advocates, would add the medications mifepristone and misoprostol to Schedule IV of the state's Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances Law. Abortion -- both medical and surgical -- is illegal in Louisiana, so it is already illegal to prescribe the medications to terminate pregnancies, except in very limited circumstances. Medication abortions accounted for 63% of all abortions last year, according to the reproductive rights think tank the Guttmacher Institute."

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Israel/Palestine, et al.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Wednesday in the Israel/Hamas war are here.

** William Booth of the Washington Post: "The Spanish, Irish and Norwegian governments announced Wednesday they would recognize a Palestinian state, saying there would be no peace in the Middle East without it. Israel denounced the move as giving aid to its enemy Hamas. In their announcements, the leaders of the three countries emphasized that peace could only come through a two-state solution, so a Palestinian state needed to exist. The United States has said recognition of such a state is premature.... In response, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz ordered the immediate recall of the Israeli ambassadors to Spain, Ireland and Norway."

Josef Federman & Danica Kirka of the AP: "The Israeli government will return a camera and broadcasting equipment it had seized from The Associated Press on Tuesday, reversing course hours after it blocked the news organization's live video of Gaza and faced mounting criticism for interfering with independent journalism. The AP's live video of Gaza was back up early Wednesday in Israel. The government seized the AP equipment positioned in southern Israel after accusing it of violating a new media law by providing images to the satellite channel Al Jazeera. Israeli officials used the new law on May 5 to close down Qatar-based Al Jazeera within Israel, confiscating its equipment, banning its broadcasts and blocking its websites." This is an update of a story RAS linked Tuesday.

News Lede

Washington Post: "Multiple people were killed in Iowa, officials said, after severe weather -- including widespread damaging winds and intense tornadoes -- erupted in the nation's heartland on Tuesday. Large tornadoes tore through southwest parts of the state, and the town of Greenfield, about 50 miles from Des Moines, took a direct hit from a particularly violent twister. The twister lofted debris 40,000 feet into the air in Greenfield, according to radar estimates, and reportedly carried it some of 25 to 30 miles away. Storm-chaser drone footage from the scene showed widespread destruction, including demolished homes, flipped cars and defoliated trees. Some homes appeared to have been stripped off their foundation."

The Conversation -- May 21, 2024

New York Times reporters are liveblogging what is probably the last day of testimony in the Manhattan D.A.'s criminal case against Donald Trump unless El Pollo de Mar-a-Lardo decides to perjure himself today. ~~~

Maggie Haberman: "Trump, as he has in recent days, will be accompanied by a large entourage. Today's guests will include Donald Trump, Jr...; Matt Whitaker, the former acting attorney general of the United States; Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general; several Republican members of the House of Representatives, including Ronny Jackson of Texas, the former White House doctor; and the actor Joe Piscopo. Chuck Zito, the former Hells Angels leader and actor, will return after appearing on Monday.... Sebastian Gorka, Trump's former White House adviser, walks in with a silver case bearing what appears to be a presidential seal." [MB: Ab-so-fucking-lootly pathetic!] ...

"Robert Costello is back on the stand."

Jonah Bromwich: "We are looking at an email from Michael Cohen to Robert Costello and other lawyers -- the date not immediately clear -- in which Cohen asks Costello to stop contacting him. Cohen tells Costello in his email, point blank, that he is not his lawyer."

Haberman: Prosecutor "Susan Hoffinger is asking Robert Costello about his relationship with Rudy Giuliani, another former Trump lawyer who's been indicted, and whose son is in the courtroom as a news reporter for a right-wing website."

Benjamin Protess: "Costello confirmed that he is close to Rudy Giuliani and has known him for 50 years. It's worth noting that Costello and his law firm recently sued Giuliani for unpaid legal bills."

Bromwich: "Prosecutors have told a specific story about Robert Costello -- that he was part of a pressure campaign on Michael Cohen in 2018 as Cohen, who faced a federal investigation into his hush-mony payment to Stormy Daniels, was considering turning against Trump. The defense sought to muddy that story when Cohen was testifying. But by calling Costello as their own witness, they have given the prosecutors the opportunity to reinforce their own story on cross-examination, and the emails we have already seen yesterday and this morning suggest that they have ample evidence with which to do so....

"As expected, [the emails] corroborate prosecutors' story, suggesting that Costello was manipulating Cohen at the direction of Rudy Giuliani and Trump, while misleading Cohen so that he would not understand what was happening.... Costello wrote in an email that his mission was to 'get Cohen on the right page without giving him the appearance that we are following instructions from Giuliani or the president.'... These emails ... show Robert Costello misleading Michael Cohen, saying something to him directly and another thing behind his back."

Haberman: "Robert Costello answers 'no' when asked if he has animosity toward Michael Cohen. Susan Hoffinger points out that Costello went to Washington last week to testify before Congress about Cohen, and made aggressive comments about him. Costello says he didn't know his comments would be reported in the press, which is a little hard to fathom."

Bromwich: "Hoffinger's final question is an accusation: whether Costello's testimony to Congress was meant to intimidate Cohen as he testified in this trial. Costello asked her to repeat the question and then denied the accusation. 'No,' he said. 'Ridiculous.' The cross-examination concluded there.... Emil Bove, a defense lawyer, is back questioning Robert Costello.... Bove is now making it clear that Cohen, in 2018, used the back channel to Trump that he had been provided by Costello, communicating through the lawyer to Rudy Giuliani and presumably, Trump."

Jesse McKinley: "Emil Bove's re-direct ends with an objection sustained."

Haberman: "The defense rests, Todd Blanche says."

Bromwich: "Susan Hoffinger, in a brief, final series of questions and answers, again confirms that Robert Costello was never officially hired as Michael Cohen's lawyer. Costello steps down from the witness stand."

McKinley: "Jurors will be home in time for lunch, as Justice Merchan is sending them home until next Tuesday, when summations will begin. He hopes deliberations will start on Wednesday, May 29."

Bromwich: "This afternoon, we expect prosecutors and the defense lawyers to push for their preferred versions of the jury instructions during a charging conference, a hugely important moment that will come cloaked in very dry, legalistic language. Justice Merchan may also rule on the defense lawyers' latest attempt to dismiss the case, which they made in a motion yesterday. The effort is considered a long shot."

Michael Gold: "As he exited the courtroom, and raised his hand in a fist, Trump did not answer reporters' questions about why he had not testified in the trial....

"While a gag order prevents Trump from commenting on witnesses, his supporters and campaign surrogates have freer rein to comment. Outside the courthouse, his oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., attacked Michael Cohen as a liar. He also criticized Stormy Daniels, the prosecution's other star witness, and essentially said that their involvement in the trial made a mockery of jurisprudence.... Matt Whitaker, a former acting attorney general who was a top Trump campaign surrogate in Iowa, said: 'We have witnesses who are liars and stealers.'"

[Justice Merchan will hear arguments during the afternoon session regarding jury instructions. The Times reporters are following the arguments]

Bromwich: "The judge tells the lawyers that he will get them a final version of the jury instructions by the end of the day on Thursday. We won&'t know his final rulings until then, but court is adjourned.... The next time we see the jury will be a week from now, for closing arguments. Thanks for reading."

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Jonah Bromwich, et al., of the New York Times: "On a pivotal day in the first criminal trial of an American president, the courtroom threatened to spin out of control. The prosecution's star witness, Michael D. Cohen, admitted on the stand to stealing* from ... Donald J. Trump's company. Mr. Trump's courtroom entourage included three supporters charged with felonies of their own. And the defense's only real witness was so defiant that the judge, after excoriating him, cleared the courtroom. The trial's first five weeks featured dramatic descriptions of sex and scandal, and the final phase of testimony on Monday showed no signs of a letup, as the courtroom played host to a nonstop spectacle.... And when prosecutors received a second opportunity to question Mr. Cohen, they sought to blunt much of the impact of the cross-examination. 'Are you charged with any crimes in this case?' a prosecutor, Susan Hoffinger, asked him. 'No, ma'am,' Mr. Cohen replied, explaining that he was there merely as a 'subpoenaed witness.'" ~~~

     ~~~ * Marie: The reporters completely miss the underlying point here, and we'll have to hope the prosecution points this out to the jury. Showing that Cohen is a thief is immaterial, given that -- as the defense emphasized -- it isn't he who is on trial. The "theft" to which Cohen admitted during cross-examination was in boosting the reimbursement Trump paid him for some shady contractor work Cohen had commissioned. Cohen had paid the contractor only $20,000, but he billed Trump $50,000. And that bumped-up bill was one of the elements of the $420,000 Trump reimbursed Cohen. That's the crux of case against Trump: that he falsified business records when he claimed the $420K installment payments were for "legal services" and not for reimbursing Cohen for paying off Stormy Daniels and others. Trump's attorney Todd Blanche was so confused about his own theory of the case that he made a big deal of "proving" that the payments were really reimbursements; that is, he proved the prosecution's case, that those records really were reimbursements disguised as legal fees. Blanche set a trap for Cohen and fell into it. Astounding, really! ~~~

     ~~~ Bromwich noted in yesterday's liveblog (linked below): "... outside the courtroom, Trump told television cameras that 'we paid a legal expense,' arguing, as his defense lawyer has, that Michael Cohen was paid for legitimate legal purposes. With his use of the word 'we,' Trump assigns himself responsibility for the way the payment was categorized, before correcting himself and blaming a bookkeeper." That is, the prosecution has so effectively made its case that both the defendant and his lead lawyer are copping to essential parts of it. ~~~

~~~ Michael Sisak, et al., of the AP: "The judge in Donald Trump's hush money trial cleared the courtroom of reporters Monday and then threatened to remove the defense's witness from the trial altogether because of his behavior on the stand, which included making comments under his breath and rolling his eyes, a court transcript showed. Judge Juan M. Merchan told Robert Costello, a former federal prosecutor, that his conduct during testimony was contemptuous. Costello aggravated Merchan repeatedly in part by continuing to speak after objections were sustained -- a signal to witnesses to stop talking. At one point, Costello remarked 'jeez' when he was cut off by an objection. He also called the whole exercise 'ridiculous.'" MB: Costello probably will be the defense's only witness. So congrats with that choice, Team Trump! ~~~

~~~ New York Times reporters liveblogged developments yesterday in the Manhattan D.A.'s criminal case against Donald Trump. Details in yesterday's Conversation include two dramatic moments: one when defense witness Robert Costello's behavior so appalled Justice Merchan that the judge yelled "Clear the courtroom!" before chewing out the witness, and two when the prosecution, over strenuous defense objections, produced photographic evidence that Trump and his bodyguard were together at the time of a phone call in which the defense had spent a good deal of effort trying to show that the phone call from Michael Cohen was to the bodyguard only, and not to Trump." ~~~

~~~ Transcripts of proceedings, up through last week, are here, via the court.

Presidential Race

Rebecca O'Brien & Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump and the Republican Party out-raised President Biden and the Democrats last month for the first time in this election cycle, according to campaign officials, as Mr. Biden's pace of fund-raising slowed significantly from March. Mr. Trump's advisers have said privately that his campaign, together with the Republican Party and all of their affiliated committees, raised $76.2 million in April. The Biden campaign said on Monday evening that it had raised $51 million in April with the Democratic National Committee -- which was just over half as much as they raised in March, and also a touch less than they raised in February."

Lisa Friedman & Rebecca Elliott of the New York Times: President "Biden had imposed restrictions on drilling as part of his ambitious climate agenda, but he also approved an enormous $8 billion oil project in Alaska. The United States had become the world's leading exporter of natural gas, and no other country in history was pumping more crude. The industry was enjoying record profits. Then, in January, Mr. Biden paused new permits for export facilities for liquefied natural gas. That decision galvanized oil and gas companies against Mr. Biden, according to industry lobbyists. [A fundraising] luncheon [in Houston Wednesday], organized by three oil executives, will benefit ... MAGA Inc., a pro-Trump super PAC[. It] comes about a month after Mr. Trump hosted energy executives over dinner at Mar-a-Lago. He asked them to donate $1 billion to his campaign so that he could retake the White House and dismantle Mr. Biden's climate regulations, including the pause on permits."

Trump Team Goes Full Nazi, Promises to Establish a "Reich." Chris Cameron of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump posted a video on Monday afternoon that features images of hypothetical newspaper articles celebrating a 2024 victory for him and referring to 'the creation of a unified Reich' under the headline 'What's next for America?'... Another headline in the video suggests that Mr. Trump in a second term would reject 'globalists,' using a term that has been widely adopted on the far right and that scholars say can be used as a signal of antisemitism. The Trump campaign said in a statement that the video had been posted by a staff member while Mr. Trump was in his criminal trial in Manhattan. The video was still up on his account late Monday night...." The AP's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "The Trump campaign put out a statement distancing itself from the video, blaming a staffer and making other excuses. But on Tuesday's edition of CNN News Central, [Sara] Sidner and [Alayna] Treene called BS on those efforts by pointing out that the video has not been taken down[.]

Young Trump -- the Movie. Jada Yuan of the Washington Post reviews the film "The Apprentice," which premiered at Cannes on Monday. "In details that seem to be based on a 1990 divorce deposition from Ivana Trump, we see him go under the knife, in gory detail, to get liposuction and a scalp reduction surgery, as a solution to his growing love handles and bald spot. And we watch when, as Ivana also alleged in that deposition, [Donald] Trump pushes her to the floor of their home during an argument and rapes her. (Ivana's testimony had brought the concept of marital rape into mainstream American conversation at the time, but she recanted her statements about it in 2015.)... 'We will be filing a lawsuit to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers...,' said Steven Cheung, Trump's campaign communications director.... '... the point is there is no nice metaphorical way to deal with the rising wave of fascism..., and it's not going to be pretty,' [the film's director Ali Abbasi] said." Here's the Guardian's report/review.

... democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried.... -- Winston Churchill, 1947 ~~~

~~~ Erik Loomis in LG&$: "Joe Biden may very well lose this election and Donald Trump may very well be the 47th president of the United States.... I am [blaming] the average masses who don't pay much attention to anything and exist on vibe politics. These are the kind of people who are nostalgic for Trump, who think the pandemic happened under Biden, who think that Biden is why Roe was overturned and don't understand what the Supreme Court even is.... They think Trump is this vigorous badass dude and Biden is ancient, even though Trump's mind is turning into pudding and Biden is barely any older than Trump." Loomis cites, for instance, a Wisconsin construction worker named Chris Myers, who "complained that Mr. Biden's visit last week celebrating the creation of Mr. Myers's job ended up slowing down the concrete trucks." Loomis: "I also want to push back against LGM's favorite horse to whip the mainstream media. Do you know who reads the New York Times? None of these people. None.... Joe Rogan is way fucking more important to this country's politics than Maggie Haberman."

Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post: "... a pattern of prosecutorial misconduct in the Fat Leonard investigation ... has caused several cases to unravel so far and is threatening to undermine more.... Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of California are proposing throwing out the felony guilty pleas of [four] retired Navy officers and one retired Marine colonel who admitted pocketing bribes from [Leonard] Francis. If the judge approves, they'll be allowed to plead guilty to misdemeanors instead, with no prison time. The cases collapsed after defense attorneys alleged that prosecutors from the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego relied on flawed evidence and withheld information favorable to the defense during the 2022 bribery trial of five other officers who had served in the Navy's 7th Fleet in Asia.... The striking reversals have given the Justice Department a black eye and undermined the quest for accountability in the most extensive corruption case in U.S. military history."

Elisabeth Buchwald of CNN: "Martin Gruenberg, head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation [and a Democratic appointee], will step down following a scathing independent investigation detailing pervasive sexual harassment, discrimination and bullying at the agency charged with regulating the banking sector.... Gruenberg's announcement of his intent to resign comes hours after Sen. Sherrod Brown, a top Democrat who leads the Senate Banking Committee, called for 'new leadership' at the FDIC. Gruenberg joined the FDIC board of directors almost two decades ago. He's served as chair of the agency for nearly 10 of the past 13 years. President Joe Biden will 'soon' announce a new nominee to lead the FDIC, White House Deputy Press Secretary Sam Michel said in a statement on Monday following the news. 'We expect the Senate to confirm the nominee quickly,' he added.... With Gruenberg remaining until a successor is named, there won't be a situation where Vice Chair Travis Hill, a Republican appointee, automatically becomes chair, leaving the agency deadlocked with one other Republican and two Democratic members on the FDIC's board of directors."

Megan Specia of the New York Times: "A London court ruled on Monday that Julian Assange, the embattled WikiLeaks founder, could appeal his extradition to the United States, a move that opens a new chapter in his prolonged fight against the order in Britain's courts. Two High Court judges said they would allow a full appeal to be heard because questions remained about his First Amendment rights in the United States and whether his status as an Australian citizen would be prejudicial. Mr. Assange's lawyers have until Friday to submit a full case outline to the court. Mr. Assange, 52, has been held in Belmarsh, one of Britain's highest-security prisons, in southeastern London since 2019 as his fight against the extradition order has proceeded through the courts." (Also linked yesterday.)

Matthew Goldstein of the New York Times: "On Monday..., Donald J. Trump's social media company reported taking in $770,000 in advertising revenue in the first three months of the year..., compared with $1.1 million in revenue in the year-ago quarter..., as it continued to incur hefty losses.... In the first three months of the year, Trump Media had a net loss of $327.6 million.... The company said that, on an operating basis, it lost $12.1 million in the quarter compared with $3.6 million in 2023. It said that roughly half of this year's first-quarter operating loss included merger-related costs. The operating figures reported by Trump Media do not follow generally accepted accounting principles...." CNBC's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So if my understanding of generally unacceptable arithmetic is correct, the good news is that Trump Media made nearly three-quarters of a million dollars! during the first quarter. The bad news: it lost three-hundred twenty-eight'and-a-half million dollars. For Trump the good news is that he made lotsa money while nearly everybody else lost money. So another typical Trump enterprise.

~~~~~~~~~~

Nevada. Adam Adelman & Lindsey Pipia of NBC News: "A proposed amendment to enshrine access to abortion in Nevada's constitution is one step closer to appearing on the November ballot after a coalition of reproductive rights advocates submitted the required number of signatures to state officials Monday.... Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom, the group leading the effort, announced it had collected more than 200,000 signatures of registered voters -- far more than the 103,000 it needed to move forward with the process of qualifying their proposal on the ballot."

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine, et al.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Tuesday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "European countries including France and Germany issued statements affirming their support for the legitimacy of the International Criminal Court after its prosecutor sought arrest warrants for top Israeli and Hamas officials. President Biden criticized the prosecutor's decision, saying there is 'no equivalence -- none -- between Israel and Hamas.'... [President] Biden reaffirmed his support for Israel in a separate case brought by South Africa at the International Court of Justice, saying that what's happening in Gaza 'is not a genocide.' Israel also rejects South Africa's allegation." ~~~

     ~~~ CNN's live updates Tuesday are here. The New York Times' live updates are here.

Ivana Kottasová & Madalena Araujo of CNN: "The International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants for Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the October 7 attacks on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza, the court's prosecutor Karim Khan told CNN's Christiane Amanpour in an ... interview on Monday. Khan said the ICC's prosecution team is also seeking warrants for Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as two other top Hamas leaders -- Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, the leader of the Al Qassem Brigades who is better known as Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas' political leader. The warrants against the Israeli politicians mark the first time the ICC has targeted the top leader of a close ally of the United States." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~ Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "President Biden and U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle sharply criticized news Monday that the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor was seeking arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Israel-Gaza conflict. In a statement, Biden said it was 'outrageous' that ICC prosecutor Karim Khan had applied for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders, including Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.... 'Whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence -- none -- between Israel and Hamas,' Biden stated. 'We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.'"

The Conversation -- May 20, 2024

New York Times reporters are liveblogging developments in the Manhattan D.A.'s criminal case against Donald Trump: ~~~

Jonah Bromwich: "Justice Merchan says that it's become apparent that closings will not take place tomorrow. It;s looking more like evidence, testimony and all other business before closings will happen this week and closing arguments will take place next Tuesday.... Justice Merchan has made two minor rulings against the defense this morning, both of them fairly deep in the legal weeds. But both times, the defense lawyers have pushed back.... Merchan ... looks as if he is working to keep his patience....

"Justice Merchan has made several other things clear as the pre-jury proceedings continue. As expected, he will restrict the testimony of a witness who is an expert in election law, who the defense had wanted to call. He says that too much explanation of the law from an expert would overstep the role usually granted to such witnesses. They are meant to help jurors understand a certain subject area, but it is the judge's role to help jurors understand the law itself."

Maggie Haberman: "Trump has entered the courtroom with an enormous entourage, so large that it's a bit disruptive in the courtroom. It includes Kash Patel, a close ally, and Gerry Kassar, a conservative party leader in New York, as well as Bernie Kerik..., the former N.Y.P.D. commissioner who was imprisoned for tax fraud and false statements, and whom Trump pardoned as president...., and Alan Dershowitz.... Part of his entourage today is Chuck Zito, the former president of the New York chapter of the Hell's Angels.... If Trump's lawyers hope to convince the jury that Michael Cohen was a lone wolf who was freelancing, surrounding the defendant with people with their own legal challenges, past and present, seems like a curious choice."

Bromwich: "Michael Cohen is back on the stand...."

Haberman: "Todd Blanche, Trump's lawyer, begins by asking Michael Cohen how many reporters he's talked to about what happened last week. Cohen says he didn't speak to reporters about what happened last week."

Bromwich: "Todd Blanche is trying to muddy the timeline of the hush money payment. On Friday, he called into question Michael Cohen's story about the events of Oct. 24, 2016. Now he's moved on to casting doubt on Cohen's testimony about the two days that followed, Oct. 25 and 26th. Cohen wired the payment to Stormy Daniels's lawyer a day later, on Oct. 27.... He suggests that one of the L.L.C.s that Cohen said he created to help with the hush-money payment may actually have been formed to address an issue Cohen was having in the taxi industry....

"Todd Blanche broadens the scope, suggesting that Michael Cohen had said he was singlemindedly focused on the hush-money deal, including when he spoke to Trump that October. But Blanche suggests that Cohen would have reported back to Trump about other issues, too, including dealing with an extortion attempt against the candidate's younger daughter, Tiffany Trump."

Kate Christobek: "Cohen stands firm, saying in response: 'My recollection is that I was speaking to him about Stormy Daniels, because that was what he tasked me to take care of.'"

Haberman: "Michael Cohen is now testifying about a tech company, RedFinch, that was hired to rig online polls in Trump's favor. The company was owed $50,000. But Cohen ended up only paying them $20,000. Nonetheless, he still asked for a $50,000 reimbursement from the Trump Organization. Blanche bluntly asks if he lied, and Cohen acknowledges he did."

Bromwich: "Blanche hits the note he's been reaching toward, his voice rising. 'You stole from the Trump Organization, right?' he says, referring to Cohen having been repaid far more than what he was owed -- $100,000 in all, after the money was doubled for tax purposes. 'Yes, sir,' Cohen says."

Susanne Craig: "This is another big ding to Cohen's credibility. Jurors have heard he has lied to Congress, tax authorities and on the witness stand. Now they are learning he stole from the Trump Organization."

Bromwich: "Todd Blanche, predictably in this unpredictable cross, is blaming Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, for designing Michael Cohen's reimbursements for the hush-money payment. Cohen had said that Trump signed off on that design in a January 2017 meeting at Trump Tower. Blanche got very close to discussing that conversation itself -- testimony that could be key as the jurors decide the case -- but then moved on.... Todd Blanche has sought to illustrate several times this morning that Cohen did legal work for the Trump family in 2017. Right now he is addressing Melania Trump's agreement with Madame Tussauds, the wax museum. A wax figure of Melania Trump, the first lady, was unveiled at the museum the following year."

Haberman: "Again, Blanche is seeking to suggest that the invoices that said Cohen was being reimbursed for legal work were not actually false, because he did in fact do legal work for Trump.... Todd Blanche has drawn this cross-examination out, apparently as part of his overall goal of making the trial last as long as possible while simultaneously complaining that Trump has been kept from the campaign trail. The jurors look bored, and it's hard to see how that helps Blanche, despite what has been a strong outing today by him."

Haberman: "Trump and his entourage are back in the courtroom after a short break.... There are fewer of them here now than were here before. Before the break, many looked very bored at the back of the room, unable to use their phones."

Bromwich: "Todd Blanche is telling a story about greed, as he questions Michael Cohen.... Blanche asks Cohen if he has a financial interest in this case, and Cohen agrees he does. But when Blanche suggests that Trump being convicted would help Cohen, Cohen balks. Now he's explaining that he only thought it would benefit him because he talks about it on his podcasts and television appearances."

Haberman: "Todd Blanche concludes his cross-examination of Michael Cohen with something of a whimper. He seemed to be trying to remind jurors of the most dramatic moment from Thursday's session: that Cohen may have lied on the stand when he described a conversation on Trump's bodyguard's phone in which he said he briefed Trump about the payment to Stormy Daniels. There was 'no doubt in your mind' that that was the purpose of the call, Blanche asks. 'No doubt,' Cohen replies, meaning he stands by his testimony."

Bromwich: "Susan Hoffinger seems to enjoy responding to the defense during redirect, and acting more like a defense lawyer herself: arguing responsively, as a counterpuncher. She begins with the call on Oct. 24, 2016, that Todd Blanche has made much of, the one where Blanche suggested Cohen had lied about talking to Trump. Responding to Hoffinger, Cohen again says that he spoke to Trump that day, and told him that he had determined how he would pay Stormy Daniels.... From the clutter of cross-examination, we return to the relative simplicity of the prosecution's argument. Susan Hoffinger asks Michael Cohen about his 2018 statement that he was not reimbursed for the hush money by the Trump campaign. Cohen says it was misleading because he was paid by Trump himself....

"After a long sidebar, the judge is giving what's called a 'limiting instruction' about some of the testimony Michael Cohen has offered. The statement we're looking at is 'the payment in question does not constitute a campaign contribution.' Cohen, as was just noted, pleaded guilty federally for making an illegal campaign contribution. So it seems the defense asked the judge to specify that Cohen's guilty plea did not mean Trump himself committed a crime. Justice Merchan did so....

"Michael Cohen testifies that Trump approved his false 2018 statement about whether or not Cohen decided to pay Stormy Daniels of his own volition. As a bonus, Susan Hoffinger ... has Cohen confirm that one of Trump's lawyers at the time was aware of the statement and texted him to tell him that Trump was grateful for all he did.... [Emphasis added.]

"Michael Cohen has now suggested several times that he committed crimes in connection with the Stormy Daniels payoff. This is helpful for the prosecution, as they seek to prove to jurors that Trump caused the falsification of business records to conceal a second crime. That crime doesn't need to have been committed by Trump -- Cohen's crimes are equally applicable....

"'Are you actually on trial here in this case?' Hoffinger asks Cohen. 'No,' he says. Through her questions, Hoffinger makes an obvious point -- that the defense sought to make Cohen look like a criminal. But ultimately, the jurors aren't here to judge Cohen's criminality. They are here to judge Trump....

"Susan Hoffinger returns to what prosecutors say are crimes. She asks if the $420,000 that Michael Cohen received in 2017 -- the reimbursement for the hush money, additional money to cover taxes, a reimbursement for the payment to the tech company, RedFinch, and a bonus -- had anything to do with legal services. No, he says. Hoffinger again emphasizes that the financial documents connected to the payments were false, because they said the payments were in exchange for legal services. Cohen agrees that they were false."

Haberman: "Michael Cohen is now explaining why he didn't sign a retainer agreement or agree to pay Robert Costello. 'I didn't trust him,' he says, explaining that he thought everything he said to Costello would immediately make its way back to Trump.

[Sidebar drama up next, as the reporters relay in several entries that follow.]

Bromwich: "The prosecutors have found pictures of Trump with his bodyguard Keith Schiller on Oct. 24, 2016, right around 7:57 pm. The defense had sought to suggest that Michael Cohen had talked to Schiller that night instead of Trump, as Cohen originally testified. Now, the prosecutors will fight to get this piece of evidence in, which shows that Cohen could have talked to both Schiller and Trump on the call, as he testified he did earlier today.... The jurors are excused for an early lunch.... This evidence would go some way toward defanging an argument that Todd Blanche spent a lot of time on: He suggested that Michael Cohen had lied about speaking to Trump on Oct. 24. So it's no wonder Blanche was fighting as hard as he could to keep this piece of evidence out.... 'I think it's relevant,' Justice Merchan says, but he does not decide whether he will allow the evidence in. He says he wants to research another legal issue the defense raised, a hearsay issue, during the lunch break.... The prosecution has argued that the evidence in question, a still from a video of Trump and his bodyguard, Keith Schiller, is not hearsay because an earlier expert witness laid the foundation for it to be shown to jurors."

Bromwich: "Earlier today, outside the courtroom, Trump told television cameras that 'we paid a legal expense,' arguing, as his defense lawyer has, that Michael Cohen was paid for legitimate legal purposes. With his use of the word 'we,' Trump assigns himself responsibility for the way the payment was categorized, before correcting himself and blaming a bookkeeper. It's not clear if it will matter, but it's a notable comment from the defendant nonetheless."

Bromwich: "Justice Merchan returns from lunch with a ruling on the evidentiary issue raised before the break, involving stills from a video that show Trump with his bodyguard Keith Schiller on the evening of Oct. 24, 2016.... Merchan says he will not allow in video stills that show Schiller with Trump.... Those stills could have undermined an argument that the defense was clearly proud of, and that was a momentum-changer on Thursday, seeming to give Trump's lawyers an extra boost of confidence.... But wait -- Joshua Steinglass, a prosecutor, says the prosecution will seek to bring back a witness who works at C-SPAN and testified earlier, so that he can verify the veracity of those stills. The judge asks when the witness ... could return, and the prosecutors say they don't know yet. It sounds as if they just sought to get in touch with him during the lunch break....

"Joshua Steinglass, a prosecutor..., say[s] he doesn't understand why they have to jump through so many hoops just to show that Keith Schiller and Trump were together that night. He asks to bring the C-SPAN witness in again. Justice Merchan asks Todd Blanche, a defense lawyer, if he objects to the prosecutors bringing in the C-SPAN witness after the defense rests later today. Blanche does protest....

"Todd Blanche concludes his argument about bringing back the witness by saying: 'That's not the way a trial is supposed to work, judge.' Justice Merchan looked grimly amused -- judges, of course, are the people who determine how individual trials work. Merchan asks the prosecutors to try to contact the witness again, and we pause....

"We are back and the prosecutors confirm that they were able to reach C-SPAN, which is booking travel right now for the witness -- Robert Browning, who is executive director of archives at the network -- to be present at 9:30 tomorrow morning.... Todd Blanche objects to the decision by the judge that could compromise one of the most important parts of his cross-examination of Michael Cohen. Joshua Steinglass, almost mocking Blanche to his face, says that the witness will be very quick. Justice Merchan points out that the trial has already been delayed, given that closing statements will be next week anyway. He gives Blanche the option to decide when the witness can appear. Blanche asks to talk to his team and his client....

"Joshua Steinglass ... says that 'we may be able to short circuit' this process after all. Instead, the prosecution and the defense will agree to allow the exhibit in. This is the second time this trial that we have seen the defense, under pressure, agree to let in an exhibit, possibly because they realize that a whole witness appearing just to allow the exhibit in could draw more attention to it.... The photo of Keith Schiller and Trump on Oct. 24, 2016, which is what the lawyers were arguing about, is immediately entered into evidence.

"Prosecutors are playing a recording we've already heard, of Michael Cohen talking to Keith Davidson, who was Stormy Daniels's lawyer, in October 2017. But we are hearing more of it than we did before. It's fascinating to hear again, after so much of Cohen's testimony has passed. It corroborates much of what he has told the jury about the hush-money payment, including that he cared about Trump and that he would not 'play pennywise, pound foolish' with his then-boss.... At the same time, it had elements of the defense's argument too, showing that Cohen mulled 'going completely rogue' and also that he was focused on money."

Haberman: "... Hoffinger's redirect of Cohen is done.... Todd Blanche, the defense lawyer, is questioning Michael Cohen again, and he is drilling down on Cohen's guilty pleas to crimes that were unrelated to Trump. Cohen is saying he lost his law license as a result, and that he blames Trump in part for that."

Bromwich: "Todd Blanche, having to contend with visual evidence of Trump with his bodyguard, Keith Schiller, on Oct. 24, 2016, tries to address it directly. He asks Cohen to again confirm that he told Trump that day that he had arranged to pay Stormy Daniels the hush money. Cohen says once more that he spoke to both Schiller and Trump that evening, answering with a brisk 'Yes, sir.'...

"Todd Blanche suggests that the famously frugal Trump would have been unlikely to overpay anyone -- again harping on the disparity between the $130,000 that Michael Cohen paid Stormy Daniels and the $420,000 that Cohen was repaid. 'Did he happily write checks to lawyers, for example?' Trump's current lawyer asks his former lawyer. 'No, sir,' Cohen responds....

"'Your honor, the people rest,' Joshua Steinglass says. The prosecution's case against Donald Trump has concluded."

Haberman: "The defense calls its first witness: Daniel Sitko, the paralegal who often trails the defense team out the door each day.... He works for Todd Blanche."

Bromwich: "The exhibit that the first defense witness, Sitko, is presenting, makes it clear that Cohen and Robert Costello, the lawyer who once advised Cohen and will likely attack his credibility if called to testify, were in frequent communication. We're looking at the records of 75 calls between them, most if not all of them in 2018.... Becky Mangold, who handled the prosecution's custodial witnesses and is now handling the defense's custodial witness, stands up to question him. She starts by asking him basic questions about the phone records he used to make the chart that jurors just saw, which displayed the calls between Michael Cohen and Robert Costello."

Haberman: "The defense calls Robert Costello, and prosecutors immediately ask to approach.... Prosecutors are objecting to the scope of the questions the defense lawyers want to ask him about Michael Cohen's credibility.... Justice Merchan also sounds frustrated that this wasn't worked out before, which falls on the defense, not the prosecutors."

Bromwich: "... the judge is being asked to rule on the spot whether and how Costello can testify.... Justice Merchan returns and tells Emil Bove, the defense lawyer, that he will give him some latitude to explore the pressure campaign that Michael Cohen said Robert Costello waged during the summer of 2018. But Merchan adds: 'I'm not going to allow this to become a trial within the trial' of Michael Cohen.... Merchan says he will take five minutes to decide. 'Don't leave the courtroom,' he says, using a tone that is as close to a bark as I have heard from this judge."

Haberman: "Robert Costello describes Michael Cohen as 'absolutely manic' during their first meeting at the Loews Regency hotel on Park Avenue in 2018, after his hotel room and office were searched by the F.B.I."

Bromwich: "Costello testifies that Cohen told him then, with federal investigators breathing down his neck, that 'my life is shattered.' He asked Costello, 'What's my escape route?' Costello says, adding that he had told Cohen then that he could cooperate with the government.... 'I swear to God, Bob, I don't have anything on Donald Trump,' Costello recalls Cohen telling him."

Christobek: "Robert Costello shakes his head in apparent frustration on the witness stand as the judge sustains several objections by the prosecutors."

Bromwich: "Susan Hoffinger, the prosecutor, is objecting to many of Emil Bove's questions, often successfully. Robert Costello had been ignoring the judge's rulings, so Justice Merchan warned him directly to wait for a ruling before answering. It happens again, and when Merchan sustains an objection, Costello says 'jeez,' apparently meaning to question the judge's authority. 'I'm sorry?' the judge asks, glaring down at the suddenly reddened witness. Costello mumbles something in return and testimony resumes.... Merchan orders that the courtroom be cleared after scolding Costello.... Justice Merchan was lecturing Robert Costello. 'I want to discuss proper decorum in my courtroom,' he said. 'If you don't like my ruling, you dont say "jeez," and you don't say "strike it," because I'm the only one who can strike testimony in court.... The jurors are back, having missed the lecture...."

Haberman: "Costello does not like being challenged, and [prosecutor Susan] Hoffinger is getting under his skin quickly. 'The email speaks for itself,' he keeps saying when asked about an email exchange between his partner and Cohen."

Bromwich: "Robert Costello is nitpicking at Susan Hoffinger as she questions him, correcting her mild misstatements, such as describing him as a former chief of a criminal division rather than deputy chief. He also takes issue with her use of the term 'raid' when she refers to the F.B.I. executing a search warrant against Michael Cohen that year. And he just instructed her to talk into the microphone. There are five women on the jury.... Robert Costello's contradictions from moment to moment are fairly clear here. He just said he wasn't seeking Michael Cohen as a client. Now it's clear that his own son knew that landing Cohen was a big deal."

Haberman: "Costello ... was called by the defense to attack Cohen's credibility. So far he is attacking his own." [The judge dismisses the jurors for the day.]

Bromwich: "The defense lawyers will now move, as is typical, to dismiss the prosecution's case.... Merchan asks ... whether Blanche wants him to rip the case away from the jury and decide it himself. Blanche agrees that this is what the defense wants.... Merchan cuts Blanche off. 'You said that his lies were irrefutable but you think he's going to fool 12 New Yorkers into believing this lie?' he asks. As Blanche begins to respond, Merchan signals he is done with the defense for now and adds, 'I'd like to hear from the people.'... The judge says he will reserve his decision on whether to dismiss the case for tomorrow."

Ivana Kottasová & Madalena Araujo of CNN: "The International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants for Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the October 7 attacks on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza, the court's prosecutor Karim Khan told CNN's Christiane Amanpour in an ... interview on Monday. Khan said the ICC's prosecution team is also seeking warrants for Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as two other top Hamas leaders -- Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, the leader of the Al Qassem Brigades who is better known as Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas' political leader. The warrants against the Israeli politicians mark the first time the ICC has targeted the top leader of a close ally of the United States."

Megan Specia of the New York Times: "A London court ruled on Monday that Julian Assange, the embattled WikiLeaks founder, could appeal his extradition to the United States, a move that opens a new chapter in his prolonged fight against the order in Britain's courts. Two High Court judges said they would allow a full appeal to be heard because questions remained about his First Amendment rights in the United States and whether his status as an Australian citizen would be prejudicial. Mr. Assange's lawyers have until Friday to submit a full case outline to the court. Mr. Assange, 52, has been held in Belmarsh, one of Britain's highest-security prisons, in southeastern London since 2019 as his fight against the extradition order has proceeded through the courts.""

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Holly Bailey & Cleve Wootson of the Washington Post: "President Biden delivered a commencement address devoid of major interruptions or protests at Morehouse College on Sunday, using the platform to reach out to the Black voters at a time when their enthusiasm for him has waned in recent polls.... As many as six students could be seen seated with their backs to Biden at one point, fists raised in the air. At least one faculty member appeared to be doing the same thing. Biden recognized the protests and said he respected them. 'Let me be clear: I support peaceful nonviolent protest. Your voices should be heard and I promise I hear them,' he said.... [Biden] touted historic investments in historically Black colleges and universities like Morehouse and highlighted the diversity he has put in place at the highest levels of government. He said he was drawn into politics by the example of Martin Luther King Jr., a Morehouse graduate whose bust sits in the Oval Office. Biden also sought to contrast himself with Donald Trump..., saying Trump and other Republicans would dismantle the progress Black Americans have made in the past three years." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The story has been updated. New Lede: "President Biden pitched himself as a leader who is 'breaking down doors' for Black Americans during a closely watched commencement speech on Sunday at Morehouse College and an evening speech in Detroit to try to make inroads with a constituency that has drifted away from him in recent polls.... He focused his speeches on what he sees as his record of improving the lives of Black Americans, stressing that the strides would stop if Donald Trump were elected, a theme he returned to throughout the day. Sunday capped several days when Biden made an effort to draw on Black institutions and pivotal moments in Black history to contextualize the role his administration has played in the fight for racial equity." ~~~

     ~~~ Victoria Bekiempis of the Guardian & Agencies: "Despite a backlash from some students and alumni in the weeks leading up to [President] Biden's commencement address, including over the Hamas-Israel war and concerns that Biden would use the speech as a campaign event, the president's address to the all-male school was warmly received. He used his speech to reaffirm his commitment to democracy in the wake of the January 6 insurrection, and to reiterate his call for a ceasefire in Gaza."

Saving Michael Cohen. Stephen Collinson of CNN: "The biggest questions as Donald Trump's first criminal trial resumes Monday are whether his attorneys have destroyed the credibility of star witness Michael Cohen -- and how much of the damage prosecutors can fix. The presumptive GOP presidential nominee is due back in court amid clear signs the hush money trial is drawing toward a close -- unless he takes the risky decision to testify in his own defense, a step that would lengthen and complicate the proceedings."

David McAfee of the Raw Story: "The judge overseeing Donald Trump's criminal case over classified document retention is catching some heat for her latest court filing. Earlier on Sunday, Judge Aileen Cannon issued a ruling in which she stated she was 'disappointed' in the conduct of Special Counsel Jack Smith, who brought the case against Trump. The filing itself is an order directing the public docketing of 'outstanding undocketed pre-trial motions.'... Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance said the judge 'has repeatedly criticized, federal prosecutors, while giving Trump's lawyers a pass for things like misleading the court about a conflict in dates with another court, despite moving to reschedule the date in the other court.'" Commentator Allison Gill called Cannon's editorializing "fucking ridiculous."

Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "The federal judge who sentenced the man convicted of violently attacking Nancy Pelosi's husband said Saturday that she would reopen the sentencing portion of the case later this month, acknowledging that she had not properly given him a chance to speak in court.... In a motion filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, prosecutors said DePape should have been given an opportunity to allocute ... before being sentenced.... U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley, who sentenced DePape on Friday, wrote in an order that no one had informed her during sentencing that she had not directly addressed DePape to give him a chance to speak. Corley, who was nominated to the bench in 2022 by President Biden, wrote that 'it was the Court's responsibility to personally ask' DePape whether he wanted to speak. 'As the Court did not do so, it committed clear error.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Jennifer Weiner, in a New York Times op-ed, sees a faint glimmer of hope in the latest blame-the-wife defenses: "... even as these stories feature men cheerfully tossing the women they pledged to love and to cherish under the bus, they also position those women as their own people with their own independent agency.... When a Supreme Court justice [-- Sam Alito --] blames his wife, he is also acknowledging that his wife has the ability to act on her own ideas.... When a male politician [--Sen. Bob Menendez --] blames his wife for soliciting bribes and hiding their fruits from him, he's telling us -- however self-servingly -- that she was smart enough to pull the wool over his eyes[.]... It's worth considering their predecessors, who were not blamed for things they did, or might have done, but instead shamed for things that were done to them.... Better, perhaps, to be the wife whose husband says, 'I did not hang that flag upside down' ... thereby making you the focus of the nation's blame -- than one whose husband says, 'I did not have sexual relations with that woman' and leaves you the object of its ridicule."

Presidential Race

Victoria Bekiempis of the Guardian & Agencies: "Donald Trump flirted with the idea of being president for three terms -- a clear violation of the US constitution -- during a bombastic speech for the National Rifle Association.... 'You know, FDR 16 years '' almost 16 years -- he was four terms. I don't know, are we going to be considered three-term? Or two-term?' The ex-president and GOP presidential frontrunner said to the organization's annual convention in Dallas, prompting some in the crowd to yell 'three!' Politico reported." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I consider this less of a real threat than of further evidence of Trump's disqualification to hold any elective office because of his lack of respect for U.S. laws or for traditions of governance. The irresponsibility of proposing a grotesque violation of the Constitution to a roomful of know-nothing radicals is unmatched by any recent major-party candidate for president.

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Iran. Farnaz Fassihi of the New York Times: "President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran was killed along with the country's foreign minister in a helicopter crash on Sunday in the country's mountainous northwest, state news media reported on Monday, leaving the country without two of its most influential figures at a time of heightened foreign tensions and domestic discontent. The death of Mr. Raisi, a conservative who violently crushed dissent and was widely viewed as a possible successor to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, comes during a particularly tumultuous period for Iran. During Mr. Raisi's tenure the country had been roiled by protests and economic upheaval and engaged in a long shadow war with Israel, which burst into the open in an exchange of direct strikes last month." This is the pinned item in a liveblog.

Israel/Palestine, et al.

CNN's live updates of developments Monday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Israeli war cabinet divisions broke into the open over the weekend when member Benny Gantz demanded the cabinet lay out a plan for the war against Hamas by June 8, threatening to otherwise withdraw from the government. US President Joe Biden said he called for an 'immediate ceasefire' in Gaza while delivering a commencement address Sunday at Morehouse College in Atlanta. Biden spoke at the graduation ceremony as pro-Palestinian protests continue to roil US college campuses."

Aileen Graef & Avery Lotz of CNN: "House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik delivered remarks at the Israeli Knesset Sunday, saying victory for Israel in the war against Hamas starts with 'wiping' those responsible for the October 7 terrorist attacks 'off the face of the Earth' and calling for a return to ... Donald Trump's policies.... 'There can be no retrievable dignity for Hamas and its backers,' she said in her speech in which she called herself a 'leading proponent and partner' to Trump and sharply criticized the Biden administration.... Her speech makes her the highest-ranking House Republican to address the Israeli governing body since the October 7 attacks, according to the GOP conference.... In a rare instance of a member of Congress publicly criticizing the American president to a foreign government, Stefanik went after Biden, saying there is 'no excuse' for his administration blocking military aid to Israel." The CBS News report is here. See Akhilleus' commentary in today's thread. (Also linked yesterday.)

New York Cops Are Still New York Cops. Chelsia Marcius & Jay Root of the New York Times: "Violent confrontations at a pro-Palestinian rally in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, on Saturday reflected what some local officials and protest organizers called an unexpectedly aggressive Police Department response, with officers flooding the neighborhood and using force against protesters. At the rally, which drew hundreds of demonstrators, at least two officers wearing the white shirts of commanders were filmed punching three protesters who were prone in the middle of a crosswalk."

News Lede

New York Times: "Ivan F. Boesky, the brash financier who came to symbolize Wall Street greed as a central figure of the 1980s insider trading scandals, and who went to prison for his misdeeds, died on Monday at his home in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego. He was 87." Thanks to Akhilleus for the lead.