Here Comes The Jury

Jury selection starts today in Trump’s criminal trial for covering up a sex scandal to win an election.

Trump’s ideal juror: Blue-collar men who distrust federal law enforcement as well as read and watch right-wing news.

Prosecutors’ ideal: White-collar people, especially women, who watch MSNBC.

— Reuters

AXIOS: How celebrity lawyers would approach Trump’s jury selection…

“You’re looking for people who are posting their vacation pictures and are really big fans of the Rolling Stones and are talking about how much they love the eclipse” — former Harvey Weinstein defense attorney Arthur Aidala.

“You really don’t want jurors who bring something to the table, other than the fact that they have a general understanding that Trump was the president” — former federal prosecutor Joshua Naftalis

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Author: craigcrawford

Trail Mix Host. Lapsed journalist, author & retired pundit happily promoting nothing but the truth for Social Security checks.

62 thoughts on “Here Comes The Jury”

  2. Trump talking about Getttysburg. Sounded like a kid called on in class to describe the battle who had skimmed Cliff’s Notes (I’m dating myself – Wiki these days) just before class but didn’t understand it and didn’t really remember what little he had read.

  3. Dumbass: “All I have to do is tell the truth. … there is no case.”  I see two problems with those two comments. He can’t. There is.

  5. hopefully randy will update this from a year ago. 

    starting at 1:45 he addresses the “hush money” AKA election interference situation

    April 3, 2023 Parody of “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” (Don Ray & Hughie Prince)

    Parody Lyrics by: Randy Rainbow Performed by: Randy Rainbow Song Produced, Orchestrated, Mixed, Mastered by: Michael J Moritz Jr

  6. I keep hearing it “only takes one” for a hung jury, but trial lawyers I know say it usually takes more than one because a lone holdout is often persuaded by the others to make it unanimous. Also, the judge might send them back multiple times to try again if they say they’re hung, and that puts pressure on holdouts.

  7. One jury I served on was a hung jury because of one fat white guy holdout who “went with his gut” instead of the lack of evidence. There is a strong urge in 11 people at 3 am when they’ve been through a day-long trial and all night deliberations to strangle the one lone wolf. 

  8. Craig, I didn’t see your post until after I hit the button, but what you say is true based on my experience. 

    Overall, I believe our jury system is trustworthy. Most citizens who make it all the way through to be seated take their role seriously.

  9. Yeah… I’m with Pogo’s 7:16am…

    I’m more interested in the Boston Marathon today.

  10. It was bad.

    https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/billy-joel-fans-furious-cbs-cut-100-madison-square-garden-show-piano-man-1235656814/

    While CBS has not issued a statement so far, one of the affected stations offered an apology, with 10 Tampa Bay sport director Evan Closky writing, “As a man who grew up right next to Billy Joel’s hometown, who went to The Last Play at Shea, it was my duty to apologize to everyone about cutting off our telecast of Billy Joel tonight. Not to get into the weeds, but there was a special report after the Masters and it wasn’t accounted for by the powers that be beyond this building.”

  14. Civic Duty ponderings on Tax Day:

    “What rejections have set me free?”
    – Today’s Gift

     
    We reject communist dictatorship, fascism, religiosity and terroristic white supremacy; we accept Joe won, we pay our taxes and serve our jury summonses. 

  15. i don’t like posting this clip, and i realize most of you have seen it, but it really should be the end of addled-guy’s candidacy
     
    Anyone who claims he’s fit for office after this is just trolling
     
    https://x.com/atrupar/status/1779310887825809538

    (clip of nutcase-guy’s “Gettysburg” ramblings, don’t know why Musk’s garbage site won’t let me embed 🤷‍♂️)

  17. The trial also provides a biology lesson for the home schooled evangelical children who might otherwise only learn from their parents…

  19. The lasting but little-understood impact of all that sacrifice is the subject of Drew Gilpin Faust’s extraordinary new book, “This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War.” “Death created the modern American union,” she writes, “not just by ensuring national survival, but by shaping enduring national structures and commitments.” And she continues: “The work of death was Civil War America’s most fundamental and most demanding undertaking.” Her account of how that work was done, much of it gleaned from the letters of those who found themselves forced to do it, is too richly detailed and covers too much ground to be summarized easily. She overlooks nothing from the unsettling enthusiasm some men showed for killing to the near-universal struggle for an answer to the question posed by the Confederate poet Sidney Lanier: “How does God have the heart to allow it?”

  21. Jury selection.  The idiot will probably force his lawyer to burn through his ten rejections in the first ten he sees.  Letting the judge and prosecutor to do the selecting of jurors.

  23. Problem for Dumbass – hung jury does not equal acquittal.  It equals mistrial – which means start all over again.  And I’m betting Bragg would not drop a subsequent prosecution or agree to a delay beyond 1/30/25.
     
    Bink, his insane ramblings about Gettysburg – e.g. “He [Lee] said, ‘Never fight uphill on me, boys.”” Really, he was the field commander as I understand it and would have approved any advance, such as the Cemetery Hill, Culp’s Hill, Little Roundtop advances, and of course, Pickett’s charge. I guess Dumbass wsa just confused by all the “hill” names in the battle area.  Gettysburg is barely rolling hills, and certainly does not have a classic hilltop stronghold.
     
     

  24. hung jury does not equal acquittal

     
    interesting point, Pogo. I have no idea what happened to the guy after our hung jury. A central point in that case involved actions by a “rogue cop.” All of our voir dire questions had centered on whether or not we’d ever before heard the name of this cop who it turned out had previous notoriety. 

    PS: the fat white guy took the side of the rogue cop when none of the rest of us did and he would not let go of it.

  25. Cemetery Ridge images.
    Little Roundtop image.
    The approach to Little Roundtop from the north is a bit of a hillside, rising maybe 60′ in a quarter mile, but a charging army wouldn’t likely choose that approach, and the Confederate Army didn’t – they attacked from the West and South.  And the culmination of the battle was a downhill bayonet charge by the Union troops after they had run out of ammunition.  
     

  26. i’m impressed that you can parse his babbles enough to refute anything about them
     
    he sounds like the lunatic on the Pink Floyd album

  27. failing-combover-guy famously doesn’t like “losers”, except for, apparently, the Confederacy 🧐 

  28. Reading takeaways by reporters who were there all morning, it seems prosecutors have a lot more documentary evidence than we thought. In general terms they referred to a lot of tweets, emails, texts, other docs they want to introduce as evidence, previewing a case that might be less reliant on live testimony than expected.

    Prosecutors won a ruling allowing them to deeply explore Trump’s long-running relationship with National Enquirer to kill stories that hurt his campaign. Not just Pecker, but another executive is also on the witness list. I have always thought this angle is a sleeper in this case.

    Judge also allowing National Enquirer payoff to doorman into evidence. The illegitimate child with his maid something most people haven’t heard.

    It seems about the only win for defense this morning was judge said prosecutors can only show jury a written transcript of the Access Hollywood tape, not the video itself — however he denied defense request to redact the word p****y

  29. And today’s Trump Media stock slide continues.  At present it is trading at 26.73 USD
    −5.86 (17.98%) so far today from its Friday close of 32.59.

    Also, I loved the MyPillowGuy fire sale ad in the Dumbass Gettysburg history rewrite – up to 80% off.

  30. The Battle of Fort Pillow, also known as the Fort Pillow massacre, was fought on April 12, 1864, at Fort Pillow on the Mississippi River in Henning, Tennessee, during the American Civil War. The battle ended with Confederate soldierscommanded by Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest massacring U.S. Army soldiers (many of them African Americans) attempting to surrender. Military historian David J. Eicher concluded: “Fort Pillow marked one of the bleakest, saddest events of American military history.”

     
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Pillow

  31. Bloomberg reports: 

    Donald Trump’s social media startup tumbled on Monday, extending a two-week slump, after the company took a first step toward allowing the former president and other insiders to capitalize on their stakes.

    Nunes and the boys trying to get out while their shares are still worth something? 
     

  32. Someone needs to whisper in his ear about Fort Nonsense, either the one at the Naval Academy or the one in SE Virginia near Matthew.  Neither saw or was near anything and just left as is at the end of the Civil War.  Talk about the frantic digging, by slaves, the Union troops were rumoured to land and take over Virginia, nope. Or, dug to save Annapolis during the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Civil War.  How daring the young men were. 
    I am sure he could go for hours about those, especially since he no longer is functioning in this universe.

  33. I’ve spared myself any in-depth knowledge of the Battle of Gettysburg past the fact that it was the south’s only stab at taking the war into the north, the south had to then scurry back, and something kind of Paul Harveyish about a shoe factory
     And an American president made the train and wagon trip to lay his own eyes on and walk among the carnage and say something very important in time. 

    But Fredericksburg…….thats another story, battle-wise . So to speak.

  34. I got the impression that Gen Lee was merely sightseeing in the National Park and before long they all just left and went on back, haha sorry, no harm no foul and all that. 

    You’ll find people on both sides.
    —Bongo SeVille

  36. Per the media pool, Trump craned his neck to get a look at the jury pool as they entered the jury box, whispering to Blanche as he did so. Trump just stood, with his defense team, when introduced and acknowledged the prospective jurors. As an overview of the allegations are read, Trump is alternately watching Merchan, lips pursed, and looking down.

    Judge Merchan to the prospective jurors:
    “The name of this case is the People of the State of New York, versus Donald Trump”

  37. Pics of him look sickly around they eyes. 

    Y’all let me know if tRUMPsky clutches his chest and tips over.   I’ll bake a cake.

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/02/donald-trump-marueen-dowd-interview-abortion-past-partners

    An oldie (2016) but a goodie, speaking of the National Enquirer possibly killing stories.

    “Maureen Dowd referred to Trump’s suggestion this week that women who have abortions should be punished – a comment he swiftly retracted – when she wrote:

    “Given his draconian comment, sending women back to back alleys, I had to ask: When he was a swinging bachelor in Manhattan, was he ever involved with anyone who had an abortion?

    ‘Such an interesting question,’ he said. ‘So what’s your next question?’”

  39. My great-great-great grandpa, Pvt. Luther Covey, was a Union soldier.  He was killed at The Battle of The Wilderness, 160 years ago next month. He was one of about 29,000 who were killed in two days of fighting. 
    His son-in-law, my great-great grandpa was also a Union soldier, but survived less one leg.
     
    The Union won, our democracy was saved, and yet here we are with the uneducated and under-educated filled with mostly talking point-induced hate of all people and ideas deemed “other,” wrapped in a flag and hiding behind a Bible. 

    Today, I found a box of stuff from 9/11.  One item was a Lee Greenwood CD with two songs on it; “God Bless The USA” and ironically the anti-slavery “Amazing Grace.”   Since he signed into the PR stunt/Bible grift with a known fascist and traitor to the US of A, I threw it in the trash.

  40. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/04/05/donald-trump-love-child-doorman-national-enquirer-payoff/

    “Dino Sajudin, a former Trump Tower doorman, was paid $30,000 to sell a story that the ex-president had a child with his housekeeper.”
    Yet in several details – including a sizable payoff to the man…”
    “And that is why it found its way into the Manhattan district attorney’s indictment about the Stormy Daniels affair.”

    “The indictment says the paper concluded the story was false, but that it still held Mr Sajudin to his exclusivity deal until after the election in 2016.”

    “It suggests that was the decision of David Pecker, the chief executive of American Media Inc (AMI), the Enquirer’s publisher and a close friend of Mr Trump
    In August 2015, two months after Mr Trump announced his candidacy for the presidency, he, Mr Pecker and Michael Cohen, the lawyer and “fixer” who is the key witness in the Stormy Daniels affair, met to discuss strategy.”

    “In June 2016, the editor-in-chief of the National Enquirer told Mr Cohen about a woman – named as “woman one” in the indictment and named before the hearing as Playboy model Karen McDougal – who claimed Mr Trump had an extra-marital affair with her.”

    “AMI paid her $150,000 (£120,000) in return for her silence and two magazine cover features of her and a series of articles published under her byline, it is claimed. The Trump Organisation agreed to reimburse AMI, it is alleged.Mr Sajudin’s tale emerged in 2018, when the New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow published his own investigation into the claims.”

    “He revealed that Mr Sajudin gave Enquirer reporters the name of the alleged mistress and lovechild, claimed he had been told the tale by senior Trump associates, and passed a lie detector test.”

    “But the fact Mr Sajudin made the claim, and was paid off for it, seems to stand up.
    And it is the similar alleged pay-off to Ms Daniels, the sources of the money, and the lies the district attorney alleges Mr Trump told about them that are at the heart of the current case.”
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

  42. There’s a kernel of truth to the statement: he doesn’t have a waking moment when he’s not “storming.”

  43. Before adjourning, Merchan denied a request from Trump’s team about the former president wanting to be present for his Supreme Court immunity arguments next week.“Arguing before the Supreme Court is a big deal, and I can certainly appreciate why your client would want to be there, but a trial in New York Supreme Court … is also a big deal,” the judge said. He added: “I will see him here next week.”

     
    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-hush-money-trial-live-updates_n_6619742ee4b084e936f11ad0/liveblog_661d920de4b0bdba1c5ad58e

  44. https://www.keranews.org/politics/2024-02-22/support-for-texit-is-still-low-but-its-growing-whats-behind-the-momentum
     
    “Joe Glass, a resident of Fort Worth, was one of roughly 140,000 voters who signed the petition to get the Texit question on this year’s Republican primary ballot.”

    “I’ve never been a big American guy,” he said. “I’ve been more of a Texan guy.”

    “Glass doesn’t consider himself a Republican, and he doesn’t support the Texas Nationalist Movement. But he does believe Texas should leave the union.”
    “I feel like everybody would agree that this federal government has not, that they have not represented us for a long time,” he said.
     

    See how that works for you when all of the federal money dries up.  
    “According to the Pew Research Center, 58% of Americans see the country declining in the next 25 years; they expect the U.S. to be economically weaker, the political divide to grow, and a larger gap between the wealthy and the working class.”
     
     

     
    Let’s unravel this from the bottom of the paragraph to the top.  
    The wealthy and corporations pay taxes; the wealth gap narrows; there is tax money for programs and services at all levels, federal, state and local; the political divide fomented by a scramble for resources starts to calm because nobody is being replaced; folks see a brighter future for the US in the next 25 years.
     
     
    The local news covered “Texit” tonight.  
     
     
     

  47. Plenty of Plumpty’s supporters will have had their own experiences in front of a judge. They will soon realize Plumpty is getting break after break that no judge ever gave them. 

  48. AP reports that SCOTUS – 6-3 – allows case in Idaho banning gender affirming care for transgender youth to proceed and for Idaho to enforce the ban while the case proceeds. Assholes.

  49. When tRUMPsky lumbered up to the press today and said, “This is an assault on America,”  I think we should take it as a threat hiding within a whiny-ass complaint.  

    Finally saw a bit of his Gettysburg address (you know he will think all mentions of it will now refer to his…whatever that was), and to say it was “violent, horrible” AND “beautiful,” was just weird.

  50. https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/15/politics/trump-trial-day-1-what-matters/index.html

    “Trump wants to take part in sidebars, which could put him very close to jurors. According to Scannell, defendants rarely get involved in sidebars with judges during jury selection, but Trump’s attorneys have indicated he will want to be involved, either approaching the bench or in a side room. This is a rare request.”
     

    “I have covered about two dozen trials, and I can’t remember one time the defendant opted to go up to the bench as the judge and the attorneys are asking questions of the potential juror,” Scannell said on CNN during a midday courtroom break. “So, this is really remarkable to me that he is choosing to do that, and he will be eye-to-eye with these potential jurors in close proximity as they answer questions.”

    Does he not trust his lawyers?  Does he think it will intimidate jurors?  Both.

  51. https://www.reuters.com/technology/trump-media-shares-tank-after-company-says-it-could-sell-more-stock-2024-04-15/
     “Shares of Donald Trump’s social media company slumped 18% on Monday, extending losses since the stock’s debut last month, after the company said it could sell millions of shares in coming months, including the former president’s entire stake.”
     
    “Monday’s filing, known as a registration statement, is considered standard after a company goes public through a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. These “blank check” entities raise capital through an initial public offering to acquire or merge with a company that is not publicly traded.”
     
    “Bankers and lawyers told Reuters while the filing does not indicate any imminent intention to sell from affiliates of the company, it does clear the way for Trump to sell his shares after the lock-up is expired or waived.”
     
    “The filing showed a potential sale of 146.1 million shares, including Trump’s stake of 114.8 million shares, divided between the 78.75 million he owns and an additional stake he could receive if certain performance-based measures are achieved.”
     
    “The filing also listed an additional 21.5 million shares that could be sold upon the exercise of certain warrants issued when the company went public.”
     
     
    ”If certain performance-based metrics are achieved.”  Ha! 
     
     

  52. https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-sleeps-stormy-daniels-trial-report-1890504
    “Former President Donald Trump appeared to be “sleeping” during the first day of his criminal trial for charges of falsifying business documents, according to a report from The New York Times.”
     
    “This time, he didn’t pay attention to a note that his lawyer Todd Blanche passed him. His jaw kept falling on his chest, and his mouth kept going slack. Now, sometimes people do fall asleep during court proceedings, but it’s notable given the intensity of this morning,” she said.

    Did he take one of mother’s little helpers to keep him calm? He looks terrible, and it’s not a high bar.

  53. CBS finally apologizes for its Billy Joel concert fiasco. They’re going to rebroadcast it on Friday. 

  55. Authors of the Day
     
    Anatole France
    PENGUIN ISLAND.  

    Stendhal (Henri Louis Beyle)
    THE RED AND THE BLACK

    Walter Karig
    ZOTZ!

  56. Dumbfucks. The performance “metrics” include that the stock price is just north of $17 and south of $18 per share – translation – he gets a bonus to make up some of the loss of it doesn’t drop more than 3/4 of its IPO price. 

    Success in Dumbass World.

  57. https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/15/travel/lake-mead-rock-formation-vandalism-suspects/index.html
    “Two visitors at Lake Mead National Recreation Area were captured on video destroying ancient rock formations and park rangers are seeking the public’s help in identifying the suspects.”
    “Video shows two visitors who scaled towering russet-colored rock formations along the park’s Redstone Dune Trail and were shoving wide slabs of sandstone to the ground. A young girl screams as the stone topples and crumbles to dust.”
    “If caught, the suspects could face federal charges, jail time or large fines…”
     
     
    And, just maybe, they should lose custody of what appears to be a minor, by putting her in harm’s way.   Donuts to dollars they are MAGAts.
     

    Who took the video?

  58. https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/15/investing/trump-stock-new-shares/index.html
    “The addition of 21.5 million shares for sale announced Monday would add more than 15% more stock to the publicly available shares of the Truth Social owner. That would substantially devalue existing shareholders’ stakes — including that of former President Donald Trump. And it means that millions of shares could be sold off.”
     
    Issue more shares when the shares already out there continue to fall.  Make it make sense.   

    “This is going to piss some people off. Other people might look at it and try to buy the dip,” he said. “As long as Trump is in the news in some way, shape or form, this is going to be a meme stock. People are going to trade it.”

  59. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/10/trump-media-director-accused-of-hacking-files-lawsuit.html

    “Trump Media director accused of ‘hacking’ files in attempted corporate ‘coup’: Lawsuit”

    “The Florida lawsuit is just one in a series of messy and dramatic legal disputes that have come to define Trump Media’s rocky road to an IPO, and its equally turbulent first weeks as a public company.”

    “DWAC in July settled fraud charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission, though the agency found the SPAC had submitted “materially false and misleading” filings.”

    “Trump Media in late March sued its co-founders over alleged mismanagement of the merger, and is seeking to bar them from owning the company’s stock.”

    “Those co-founders have sued Trump Media in Delaware Chancery Court over their stake in the company.”

    “Critics, meanwhile, have labeled the company a meme stock and a “scam.” They point to the company’s reported net loss of $58.2 million on revenue of just $4.1 million in 2023.”

    Turds of a feather…

  60. The suits against Dumbass Media and DWAC are just the first shoe dropping. Want to understand where this is going, read this …

    “Trump Media in late March sued its co-founders over alleged mismanagement of the merger, and is seeking to bar them from owning the company’s stock.”
    “Those co-founders have sued Trump Media in Delaware Chancery Court over their stake in the company.”

    Let the stockholder lawsuits begin. Oh, and fuck him. 

  61. “skin rash with pink-red blotches, especially on the palms of your hands or soles of your feet – this could be a sign of the skin reaction, erythema multiforme”

    Went down a medical rabbit hole and maybe those blotches on his hands were from a statin for cholesterol.

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