No one will ever accuse former President Donald Trump of being woke. But over the course of a few hours on Monday, he went from a disinterested observer in his own secret trial – sometimes with his eyes closed – to a highly attentive defendant-in-chief.
Perhaps it was the opportunity to look the entire jury in the eye, which he did as they sat in his box – against the wall to his right – and as they entered and left the courtroom. Perhaps it was former ally and alleged co-conspirator David Pecker testifying against him from about ten feet away. Or it could be that all the talk has finally been about him – following jury selection and discussions of legal issues last week.
Sitting in a wood-paneled courtroom apparently designed to induce sleep — like a 1950s high school or any branch of a state’s Department of Motor Vehicles — Trump leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes at the start of the fifth day of your judgement. judgment. But after Judge Juan Merchan dispensed with routine procedural questions, including a lengthy set of instructions for jurors, Trump began to focus more intently on the other key players in the room.
He looked straight ahead during prosecutor Matthew Colangelo’s opening statement, deliberately refusing to look at an adversary who presented the case to the jury. Trump conspired with former fixer Michael Cohen and former tabloid editor David Pecker to stop pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels from publicly accusing him of having an affair with her, Colangelo alleged.
“So he covered up … this scheme by lying in his New York business records,” Colangelo said, adding that the entire set of actions amounted to “an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of a presidential election” and “conceal that voter fraud illegal.”
No one could doze off from this.
Merchan, with his chin between his thumb and forefinger, turned his seat toward the jury box and shifted his gaze — ping-pong style — from the jurors to the prosecutor as he rocked slightly back and forth in his chair.
Trump finally looked back when Colangelo turned the floor over to defense attorney Todd Blanche for his opening statement. Trump is not just a former president or the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, Blanche said as she aimed to frame her client as a fellow juror.
“He is a man too,” said Blanche. “He is a husband. He is a father. He is a person, just like you and like me.”
As his own lawyer spoke, it was sometimes unclear, on the closed-circuit broadcast inside the courtroom, when Trump looked at the jurors and when he looked at Blanche. Trump’s frontal frame did not include the jury. But seen from behind, the change in his profile angle showed that he divided his time between focusing on the jury and Blanche.
For most of the day, his mouth maintained a familiar, serious expression that betrayed no emotion, even as his lawyer began to destroy Cohen’s credibility with the jury.
“I say he can’t be trusted,” Blanche said of Cohen, who pleaded guilty to lying to Congress while he was still in Trump’s good graces.
Blanche also countered the accusation with more than a testament to Cohen’s troubled history with the truth and Trump’s membership in the clubs of man, father, husband and humanity.
“The story you just heard” from prosecutors, he said, “you will find is not true, and at the end of this trial there will be a lot of reasonable doubt.” For Trump to be convicted, all 12 jurors must decide that he is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
No doubt on Monday his interest grew when Pecker took the stand as the prosecution’s first witness. The former US media chief is a central figure because, prosecutors allege, he agreed to help by promoting bad stories about Trump’s 2016 opponents, publishing articles praising Trump and, most importantly, helping Trump silence those who would tell stories negative about him.
Pecker didn’t read much of his testimony before Merchan ended the trial for the day. The Easter holiday and the juror’s need for emergency dental treatment conspired to force the break.
But as Pecker testified, Trump leaned forward at the defense table, chatted animatedly with attorney Emil Bove and scribbled notes furiously on a piece of paper he shared with Bove and Blanche. His entire demeanor changed throughout the day, suggesting that he plans to be an active participant in his trial from now on.
In a courtroom hallway, Trump attacked prosecutors for proceeding with the trial.
“It’s an accounting case, which is a much smaller thing in terms of the law, in terms of all violent crimes,” he said. “It’s very unfair… I should be allowed to campaign.”
Prosecutors say one campaign — the 2016 version — forced him to pay hush money to Daniels and then cover it up with fictitious records.
Now the sleeping giant is awake.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
