After napping through a short day in court, Trump was rested enough to comment on his case from the courtroom steps. If you like whining and repetition, it was a treat. Anyone expecting something new was disappointed. Let us look into the mind of a madman.
Trump started with his lead defense. The money reimbursed to Michael Cohen was legitimate because Trump’s bookkeeper called it a “legal expense.” And it was doubly legitimate because he did not claim a tax deduction.
“And they called it a legal expense. That was the exact term they used. Legal. Expense. In the books. And another thing that wasn’t said was that we never lawyer deducted it as a tax deduction. So that takes a whole … most people wanted to deduct everything. We never even took it as a tax deduction.”
If I were the prosecutor — and Trump took the stand — the first question I would ask him would be, "If it was a legal expense, why did you not take it as a tax deduction?” It is not as if Trump is shy about larding his tax returns with dubious deductions. This one would actually have been legitimate.
Trump then claims Cohen has a lot of clients. Probably to establish that he is an independent lawyer, rather than Trump’s personal consiglieri.
“Cohen is a lawyer. Represented a lot of people over the years. I'm not the only one. And wasn't very good, in a lot of ways, in terms of his representation. But he represented a lot of people.”
Then he returns to his billing category defense.
“But he put in an invoice, or whatever. And they pay it. They called the legal expense. I got indicted for that. What else could you call it? Actually, no one has been able to say what you're supposed to call it.
It's a lawyer puts in a bill, or an invoice, and you pay the bill, in the book there's a little line (he holds his thumb and forefinger about an inch apart, for the visual learners) that's a very small little line. I don't know if you can even write more than two words. It's not like you can tell a life story. They marked it down to a legal expense. This is what I got indicted over.”
He adds his ‘I’m the leading candidate, so the Democrats are trying to sabotage me’ defense.
“I'm beating Biden. I'm beating the Republicans. Now I have the nomination. This is what they try to take me off the trail for.”
Then he tries the 'Cohen has nothing to do with me' defense.
“That check's being paid to a lawyer. He [Cohen] is a lawyer. Or he was a lawyer. And also the things he got in trouble with were things that had nothing to do with me.
He got in trouble and went to jail. This had nothing to do with me. This had to do with a taxi company he owned. Which is something he owned. Medallions. And borrowing money. And other things. But it had nothing to do with me.”
Bullshit. Cohen pleaded guilty to eight counts. Two of which were “one count of causing an unlawful campaign contribution; and one count of making an excessive campaign contribution.” Both relate to his paying off Stormy Daniels.
Fun fact: Cohen paid Daniels $130,000. But he received $420,000 in reimbursement to cover income tax for his “legal expense” + bonuses. My second question for Trump would be: why are you paying your lawyer’s taxes if this was a payment rendered for legitimate legal services?
Trump then whines about getting taken off the campaign trail — even though he does not go on the campaign trail when the court is not in session.
“I should be in Florida now. I should be in Georgia now. I should be in a lot of places now, campaigning. And I am sitting in here.”
He has every Wednesday and weekend off. Where will he be this week? Who knows. His next scheduled campaign rally is May 11 in New Jersey, almost three weeks from now.
He then complains it's “very unfair what’s going on” and the Judge is “conflicted.” Trump then talks about all his unidentified court supporters who are incredulous that he is on trial. “People in the court said to me, ‘I can't believe it. This is the case?’.”
Trump then says the charges are bogus because no one else brought them. Luckily, he has a jury that will decide if the charges are real. And he trots out his ‘this has never happened before’ defense. It has never happened before because from Washington to Obama, no presidential candidate has paid off a porn star to influence an election.
Trump also believes that if a prosecutor does not try for an indictment ASAP, the criminal is free to go.
“Now with [Manhattan DA Alvin] Bragg, if you look, when he first came in, he didn't want to do it. He didn't wanna do it. When are they going to look at Pomerantz and what Pomerantz did? Because that's bad stuff.”
Note: Trump is referring to Mark Pomerantz, a former Manhattan prosecutor, who was working on this case. Pomerantz’s ‘sin’ was that he took the fifth to refuse to testify to a Jim Jordan-led Republican House Committee hearing about the case — because if he revealed the grand jury testimony to the Committee, he would be subject to criminal charges.
Now “Pomerantz” is a MAGA dog whistle meaning ‘deep state’.
Trump returns to his erstwhile lawyer.
“And when are they going to look at all the lies Cohen did in the least trial? He got caught lying in the last trial. So he got caught lying. Pure lying. And when are they gonna look at that?"
Trump will not have to wait long. “They" are going to look at that as soon as Cohen testifies. Probably this week.
Then, like a malignant butterfly, Trump flitted to another trial, the $175 million bond, and more deep state.
“Now we’ll go to another subject. Because just a few blocks away, as you know, they had a trial on the $175 million. That’s Letitia James. It's all coming out of the White House by the way.
Trump then rants about Judge Engeron’s ignorance about how money works. Note: Engeron had questioned whether a stock fund — which Trump had offered as security — could go down. The answer is, of course, it can. As a result, Trump's lawyer committed to keeping the security all cash. After which, Engeron and James agreed to accept the bond.
Not that you would know that listening to Trump. In his imagination, the security was always ‘all cash.’ He claimed Engeron was too stupid to know cash does not fluctuate in nominal value.
He was also miffed that Engeron was trying to establish Knight Specialty Insurance would be good for the funds if Trump loses his appeal. Then the audience was treated to more ‘I’m innocent of business fraud ranting’. Good for him. If he is right, the Appeals Court will let him off the hook
(Aside: The prediction here is that the Appeals Court will reduce the penalty to $175 million and call it a day. NY’s top court, the Court of Appeals, will decline to hear the case. And the Supreme Court will be too busy trying to protect Trump from criminal jeopardy to worry about civil liability.)
Trump then claims businesses are moving out of New York because New York State enforces its laws. He did not name any fleeing businesses.
“This is why businesses, they're moving out of New York. Because they can't be subject to this. They would be put out of business. They’re moving out of New York because of it.”
Trump ended by once again proclaiming the world is on his side in both the business fraud case and the election interference (aka hush money) case.
“Because everyone knows that, going into the trial, I did nothing wrong. And over here I did nothing wrong, also. This is a Biden witch hunt to keep me off the campaign trail. So far it's not working. Because my poll numbers are higher than they have ever been. Because the public understands it's a witch hunt. Thank you very much.
Luckily for Trump, if the public is on his side, the jury will acquit him. Although, for some reason, the two juries that have, so far, weighed in on Trump's guilt have disagreed with big orange ranter.