Drawing Day 18 At The Trump Trial

Cohen was a liar, but is he now?

It felt like winter this morning at 5am. Windy and raining - luckily not raw. That didn’t stop us, or me, from arriving early to wait in line at 100 Centre Street Criminal Courthouse to get into the Trump Trial. When I arrived at the line, the same line- holders were there, but they were either covered in plastic bags or in these little plastic tents. Here is a sketch from memory.

A guy came by with a box of Dunkin’ coffee—ostensibly selling cups of Joe, probably for a pretty price. I didn’t ask. I did hear a little later that places in line close to the front of the line were going for $500.

Around 8am, I was given an admittance card- yellow today. I headed in at a very rapid pace with other press, in a straight line with cops all around us.

This is the scanning area on the 15th floor:

Inthe courtroom at 8:45, we had time to wait before the trial started. So I drew the crowd in the press area. After I tweeted it, i noticed hours later some members of the press were trying to guess who was who.

This was only half the room! We waiting until around 9:50 for the actual jury to be brought in, there was a sidebar for 18 minutes- very long for this trial.

Here is Trump and his defense team. His lawyer Necheles appeared to be leaning away from the team (some pundits wondered why she was not do the cross examination). Behind Trump sat Boebart, Gaetz, and Eric Trump.

As defense lawyer Todd Blanche began questioning Michael Cohen again for the second day there were many objections and 3 or so sidebars in the first half hour. Not a great start for the defense who, to my mind, needed to start strong out of the gate today.

Blanche settled into tossing a lot of questions to Cohen, aimed at pointing out how much he lied in his past. Cohen repeated numerous times that he accepted responsibility.

Cohen also said, “correct” about a million times. He was calm and measured.

Here below, is Blanche as I saw him on the monitor, with the prosecution in front of him constantly writing things. And objecting fairly often. Some sustained, others not.

Blanche also tried to get Cohen to admit to wanting a job in the White House, which he refused to admit.

Here are some of my notes that I take as I listen. Cohen wanted a “hybrid” role at the WH, as personal attorney to Trump (which he eventually was, if briefly) . He did not want to be a WH employee- but Blanche wanted to sew doubt and paint Cohen as a disgruntled man. Blanche referred to Cohen’s daughter a lot, and his conversations with her. If I were a jury member, I would have found that a bad tactic.

Cohen was getting tired and his voice hoarse. Trump kept slumping further in his chair.

After the mid-morning break and before lunch, Blanche began a line of questions about a phone call. His voice was urgent and louder and he moved around, acting in an exasperated way, gesticulating broadly at times.

He was trying to suggest that this call to Trump’s bodyguard Schiller (whom Cohen had said he knew was with Trump), which Cohen said was to update Trump that he paid Stormy Daniels, was also about a crank phone call that Cohen wanted to report. Blanche seemed to believe that the call was so short, Cohen must be lying and in fact did not update Trump. Cohen would not agree.

It was confusing.

Even though the defense made some inroads into painting Cohen as a liar, Cohen kept his cool. The thing is, we know Cohen has been a liar; the question is, is he lying now? My next question is, why would he risk prison time again? For what gain, just because he hates Trump so much and wants revenge?

I had to leave at the lunch break for a previous commitment, so was not in the courtroom in the afternoon. I read that Blanche did more of the same kind of question, trying to sew doubt in at least one juror’s mind. I don’t have any idea if he’s being successful.

To my view, I think Cohen is a believable witness. Yes, he was a liar and a really horrible person when he worked for Trump. Power corrupts, and Cohen was drunk with power and money as he moved in Trump’s orbit. As he himself said, he was in the cult of Trump. But with serving prison time, he snapped out of it.

And anyway, do we believe Trump, a businessman who ran his “ship” with a fine tooth comb and a mob-like family operation, knew that by paying off Daniels, he was in effect doing it for his campaign, and not to protect his wife? That’s the illegal part and that’s what it’s all about. He knew.

Who knows what the jury thinks.

I had to take a photo this morning of this beautiful tree just outside the building. In fact, there are a few such magnificent trees in that park adjacent to 100 Centre Street. They are all around us where we stood in line.

I couldn’t draw it to do it justice.

Thanks for being here. See you tomorrow.