Drawing Day 17 At The Trump Trial

Witness Michael Cohen did very well

I arrived to get into the Manhattan Trump Criminal Trial at 6am this morning. Even still, I was a good 30-40 people deep in the press line. At the front of the line, there were people lying on the concrete, sleeping; they were most likely paid line-place-holders. This is new since I last went to the trial last week. Right in front of me I spotted Andrew Giuliani, so I drew him on my iPhone. He was loud and confident as he spoke on the phone and then with a few people beside him in line. At one point later in the wait, a few people from the public line came to Giuliani and wanted to take selfies. One person said to him, “You’re already a politician!” Andrew said, laughing, “Don’t insult me!” He behaved very much like a politician, from what I saw for three hours. He was there as press, I didn’t catch who for.

There was one policeman who was in charge of us on-line folks, at one point telling us that we had to stay put in line or lose our spot.

Some press were already working on computers at 6:30, others were taking the time to chat.

As 8am rolled around, we began to sense we might be moving soon. As we walked toward the building, the lead officer was handing out blue cards (which I have mentioned before, only I think they were green before) to indicate we would be in the spill-over room with monitors. I was the first person to not get a card! So I was at the front of the line now, waiting. I got to chat with this very nice Court Policeman Yasso.

Resigned that I might not get in—I finally was given a blue card at 9:20, along with just five other media. Once on the 15th floor, and through two sets of scanners manned by an abundance of really friendly policemen, we rushed into the spill-over room.

There are three monitors in the room, I show the two here that I could see from my row. Each monitor had chopped-up views: one view of the judge, one of the witness, and one of the row of defense and prosecution. Later in the day, as you will see, I got a seat closer to the monitor and could see the players better.

The morning was for the prosecution to finish its questioning of their star witness, Michael Cohen. Being able to see the witness and hear him and the prosecutor Susan Hoffinger helped me grasp the tone, and get a sense of Michael Cohen. He was measured, subdued and polite. I imagine he has been practicing.

Hoffinger methodically went through the checks sent to Cohen from Trump and how they were labeled. Cohen admits they were falsely labeled; it was also clear they came from Trump.

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We got a good sense of how the Trump world worked, how obsessed Cohen was in pleasing Trump, how he worked hard to do what the boss wanted.

As the morning went on, the prosecution headed towards the point where Michael Cohen left Trump’s orbit. It was chilling, the whole thing was very mob-like. When Cohen’s home and office were raided by the Justice Department (I think for tax evasion and falsifying records), he was horrified, upset, worried. An attorney named Costello kept bothering him to agree to let him represent him, telling Cohen he would be able to keep Cohen “in the fold,” “safe” connected to Trump through his “friend” Rudy Giuliani, he reassured Cohen that he was “loved.” One was led to believe this all came from Trump, trying to strong-arm Cohen into stayed quiet. We saw tweets from Trump that Cohen said were directed directly at him— stay quiet or else. This is when he broke from Trump, he did not trust this lawyer.

Cohen spoke to his family, and it was a quiet and touching moment in the trial. You could hear and sense Cohen’s remorse and change of heart.

The prosecution asked him, do you have any regrets? Cohen said yes and…

I think he did very well, I believe he came to realize his past was wrong. He said he apologized to the public, his family and Americans for lying. For me, Cohen came across believable and sympathetic, despite his past behavior.

After lunch was the cross-examination, which I expected to be really tough, given Cohen’s past. Vivek Rameswamy was there, right behind Trump.

I had a better view of the monitor now. Trump kept his eyes closed most of the time, and at one point appeared asleep (mouth open).

The first question from the defense lawyer Todd Blanche elicited laughter from the public attendees in the audience. They were up to ten in number, and in their own section.

Then there was an objection and a sidebar. From a transcript, we now know that Judge Merchan asked Blanche, “Why are you making this about yourself?” Ouch. From there, the defense meandered, I found it boring and less than effective. Many reporters agree, as I listen to CNN, MSNBC and read the NY Times, some of the whom I saw in the room. Here is Lawrence O’Donnell (MSNBC) talking to Erin Burnett (CNN) during the break.

Blanche tried to show how much Cohen now hates Trump, and how he benefits financially from hating him. At one point Blanche quotes Cohen as saying “I truly fucking hope this man lands in prison.” Each time, in a measured way, Cohen admitted he said these things and hates Trump. But he also expressed how much he had once admired him and liked working for him.

Bottom line, the defense did not do well and I heard that the jury seemed inattentive and some were yawning. It was a confusing cross examination. Cohen did answer a few questions badly, like not wanting to admit something was a lie. But generally, he kept his calm and at times looked befuddled—he is a lawyer after all, so knows how to act.

Above is a view of the prosecution table, and right behind them was the defense lawyer Todd Blanche as he was cross-examining Cohen.

Here is the judge. He was hard to see, I should have brought binoculars like other journalists did. Other writers have noted Merchan puts his hand up like that frequently, and I saw it. Today he was a rather quiet presence.

Finally, a drawing of a few of my fellow journalists.

Thanks for being here, I hope this was helpful. This may have been my last visit, although I might try to go on Thursday. No court on Wednesday, and I think the defense will be done with its cross examination on Thursday. There is no court on Friday, so the closing statements will be next week.