Trump is in a win win win win situation. If he testifies he wins. If he doesn't he wins. If he is acquitted he wins. If he is found guilty he wins. Bring it on.
EXCELLENT SUMMATION! HE WILL BECOME OUR PRESIDENT AGAIN, STILL, ETC.... WHEREVER HE IS, AND WHATEVER HE IS WEARING OR SAYING. TRUMP IS OUR PRESIDENT, SAY GOODNIGHT NOW, MR. MERCHUM.
Well, looks like he isn't going to testify. From Fox website: NY v. Trump: Defense rests without calling former president to testify; motion to dismiss pending
I'm not sure Donald Trump could do any better than this trial as a long-running continuous campaign event that is sucking all the air out of the room for the diaper jockey occupying the White House.
The Donald has always confused the press and liberals. They don't get him. He owns the press and they know it. It's been said he plays four level chess and they are playing checkers. They thought they had him numerous times with the fake/madeup charges but he always turns the tables and slips away like the Roadrunner from Wylie Coyote. I'll trust The Donald on this one...
And also the white hater Letiticia James. She definitely needs to go and be disbarred for black supremacy, lol. She violated Trumps civil rights every which way. Bye Bye girl.....
I'm hoping that eventually they all get arrested and charged to the fullest extent of the law. The trials should be held in the reddest parts of the reddest states.
Don another brilliant analysis. I suspect the judge will dismiss the case before Trump could testify. He lost it yesterday when he was stared down by Cohen’s ex lawyer Costello. He must be getting nervous that his Deep State handlers are mad at him for failing to get Trump. No matter what happens in this train wreck of a case Trump wins. FJB
I am in awe of Costello. Were I to ask where he's been all my life, some wise-acre would pipe up to say for the first half of it, he wasn't born yet. Costello embodies legal analysis.
His testimony in the House of Representatives was brilliant. Unfortunately, he won’t be able to say much in this show trial. I suspect they will either dismiss the case before he says anymore, or they will severely limit his testimony. While the people of New York are slanted severely to the left, one thing is certain, they don’t like to be played as fools. The jury will not convict Trump in this kangaroo court. I suspect the judge knows this and has been told to end the charade. Look for a dismissal today.
There’s the old adage, “When your enemy is in the process of destroying himself, DON’T INTERRUPT!”
This sham-trial has been an absolute wreck for the prosecution, only to be aided and abetted and embellished by the blatant bias exhibited by the presiding Judge.
I believe, were Trump to testify, it would not only “steal the show”, it would only serve to totally obscure, if not bury, all the egregious damage the prosecution and the Judge have already inflicted upon themselves throughout this case, through their grotesque and flagrantly un-juridical handling of it thus far.
Yes, Trump could be masterful, or he could be played, but the spin would be on him and his testimony only, shoving all the other insanity the trial has exposed way off to the side.
This trial is not about “convincing the jury”. This is NYC, where he’s already lost TWO prior cases. And the jury already has their opinion of Trump seared into their brain. No matter what he might say, they’ll just hate him the more for it.
Let the jury have this abominable case as it stands, and have fun trying to untwist the pretzel they’ll be handed.
But Don’t give them Trump himself to blame - it would only be a gift for them to devour.
Let them ALL stew in the foul mess they’ve already made for themselves.
i read trumps book the art of the deal over thirty years ago. i was forty five. it made sense then and it makes sense now. for all that time i've been listening to the talking heads tell me how stupid trump is. funny thing though, he's right more (MUCH more) than he's wrong. yes he misjudges peoples nature and loyalties at times but that's because HIS nature is to be trusting and loyal.....great human traits even though they can make you vulnerable, however his sense of humor helps smooth out those rough spots. america needs trump more than trump needs ANYONE else and that will manifest itself in living color on warp speed overdrive if the evildoers steal another election come november.
The more Trump's ridiculous trials drag on, and the more J6'ers they arrest, the more We The People despise and even hate our current government leaders - all branches - all of 'em!
While they all keep pushing this nonsense, do they think we don't know that our nation is crumbling? They're all damned incompetent and worthless!
The MSM constantly reminds me of barbaric tribes of the ancient world. Every statement they make, every position they take flows from fear. The ancients believed lightning was the voice of unhappy gods. If Trump speaks, his blasphemy will kill the tribe. To be a media star, they keep themselves willfully ignorant and unthinking. Every bit of wisdom they possess and share with the public is acquired from the DNC echo chamber in which they work. Like the good tribesmen they are, they take up their clubs with the intent to kill when confronted by an intruder. *** These show trials are actually entertaining to watch. The tribe is confused and in disarray because they have encountered an intruder who does not fight according to their rules. The tribe is discovering their legal heroes are unarmed, weak and ineffective Yet, they persist in presuming they can give the enemy advice on how to fight. Great theater!
They are the corporate media wing of the WWE. The overwrought, performative “reporting” reminds me of the cartoonish wrestling matches my son loved to watch as a little boy. He had a poster on his bedroom door of the 1989 wrestling stars. Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Ax, Jesse Ventura and - I kid you not - some guy in full KISS makeup called Kamala. There was even a cultural appropriator in an Indian chief headdress. There’s no difference between the one and the other.
I have a historic analogy to offer -- and it's not intended as a put-down of Donald Trump. So please don't take it that way. But as someone put it, while history doesn't repeat itself, it does rhyme.
In November 1923, Hitler and a bunch of Nazis, most of them armed, conducted the so-called Beer Hall Putsch, which consisted of a march in the center of Munich, with the goal of seizing the Bavarian government. In other words, a coup d'état. But they were stopped by armed police, some Nazis were shot and killed, and most of the rest, including Hitler, fled in disarray. In the aftermath he was tried for treason. But he used the trial to become even better known; and even court officials were on his side. So he made a lot of well-publicized speeches in court, when the German public was already extremely resentful about the aftermath of WWI, when the American intervention had enabled the resentful French to impose what the Germans considered an extremely unfair peace settlement, which had cut enormous pieces off Germany and imposed huge indemnity payments.
Hitler was convicted and given a 5 year sentence in a prison that was more like a country club, where he continued his propaganda activities at public expense. Among other things, that's where he wrote his famous, but not very readable book. And after 8 months he was released, now much better known, and free to continue his political activities. 10 years later, in 1933, he was made German Chancellor, and the following year he managed to be given dictatorial powers, and the rest is history. Not pleasant history, but there it is.
Again, I ask, don't conclude from this that Trump is Hitler, as the Left always does. All I meant to say is that notoriety can pay off, as it already seems to have done; which other candidate but Trump could have turned these hostile show trials into free publicity? But my fear is this: prosecutors are pretty good at eliciting self-harming statements from a talkative defendant, and unlike Hitler, Trump does NOT have the court officials on his side -- the ones that count, anyway.
So while there's something to be said for Trump taking the stand, in this case, silence might be golden.
After reading all of the comments I'm betting he doesn't testify but plans on potentially losing the case and then go scorched earth during his appeal. He and his defense team have a lot of material to use from the trial already. He would also increase the number of sideline voters to actually vote this time and beat the cheat.
I get it. Short answer is "free publicity." Agree with you about silence can be golden. I am the youngest in a family of three kids, so most of my questions were answered with "That's for me to know and you to find out!"
Maybe that was his way of agreeing with Hegel that what we learn from history is that we don't learn from history. Or Freud, who said that history is just new people making old mistakes. Or Voltaire: "History never repeats itself; man always does." Or Theodore Dalrymple, who concluded that history repeats itself only "in outline, not in detail".
But none of that means we should not try to learn from it.
Yes--precisely that. Your personal experience jibes with mine. I am confident in observing that few defendants who rely on their 5th Amendment privilege fare as well as those who take the stand, and exactly for the reason you have enunciated.
Agree, William. If Trump truly never slept with Stormy Daniels, I think he should take the stand and say so—make his honest protest of innocence. Trump does have a long history of credibility as a frank truth-teller. I would be comforted to know he never did that, and it would cement the fact that this is all completely fabricated.
But if he did sleep with her, it gets trickier. Maybe best not to open the door to confusing the issue by testifying, and let the poor performance of the judge and prosecutor remain front and center.
I disagree, because the judge is so rabidly afflicted with TDS, there's no chance Pres Trump's testimony would be allowed to proceed without interference. Then his words would be sliced and diced by the media, twisted to say the opposite of what he said.
I predict that Bragg will attempt to tie Trump to Cohen's plea bargain from back in 2018, in which Cohen entered a guilty plea to two campaign finance violations, one of which was for the porn star. Not having directly heard all of Cohen's testimony in the Hush Trump trial, I don't know whether that agreement was ever brought into evidence, but judge Merchan is corrupt enough that I expect him to allow Bragg to somehow tell the jury all about it, thus establishing the "other crime" necessary to turn misdemeanors into felonies. Result: Guilty!
In this courtroom, with this judge, and this prosecutor, Trump would be a fool to take the bait and testify to the color of sky. By doing so, he is waiving his fifth amendment right to remain silent. *Anything* he says on the stand CAN and WILL be used against him. I suspect his lawyers have reminded him of this fact.
Win, lose, or draw, I'm voting for The Donald. Even if he's in prison.
He should not testify and when they say "not guilty", he should get up immediately and leave the courtroom; go outside and simply say... " The nonsense is over. It is time to take care of things for the American public. America First"; fist pump the air; take NO questions... and walk off; get in the limo; to the airport; and fly to Florida and recoup for a few days and then hit the campaign trail with earnest.
I hereby confess to having been a trial lawyer for forty years, primarily on the civil side of the courts, rather than criminal, but with enough experience to have reached a few conclusions about jurors and the jury trial system. First of all, trial by a jury of one's peers (rather than star chamber proceedings or, as in Europe, before "legal experts") is probably the best system ever conceived for sorting out disputes. Nonetheless, it is just a system, which means it is implemented by people, who we all know are flawed, imperfect vessels at best. So, regardless of how good the system, its implementation is subject to flaws. However, most jurors actually try to do their best to be fair and to apply the rules given to them by the judge ("the law") to the facts in evidence. Certainly not always, and even when they do, their judgment is affected by their personal world views and biases. As regards the Trump matter, we are not presented with a "trial," but rather a political event, so none of the usual observation, rules, traditions, etc. relative to actual trials apply, especially the ones pertaining to reluctance to putting a criminal defendant on the stand. Thus, I agree that Trump has little to lose and much to gain by testifying. He should use it as a stump speech opportunity. If he is subjected to objection after objection, as I anticipate would be likely, with the objections all being sustained by Merchan, even jurors biased against him will develop some degree of sypathy for him. I would not expect this strategy to win acquittal, but a hung jury would serve to make his political point. All that is necessary is to persuade a single juror--unanimity being required in a criminal case for conviction--to hold out and I think that is a reasonably attainable goal.
But as you noted, this is not a traditional criminal but rather a political event, which means it all hinges on the political persuasions of the jurors. It being held in NYC, (as the last two sham trials were - both ending in guilty verdicts), can pretty much assure - not absolutely, of course, that most on that jury have no room for sympathy of any kind for DJT, but rather would take the sheerest delight at his being manhandled by the judge and prosecutors. And they’ll get the added delight in being the ones to crucify him with a guilty verdict.
I can imagine DJT attempting to have his say, and it would be beyond dramatic to watch this Judge try to crush him, while the Prosecutors would take delirious pleasure at twisting every word he uttered.
But I still think the negatives outweigh the merely potential positives.
Trump is in a win win win win situation. If he testifies he wins. If he doesn't he wins. If he is acquitted he wins. If he is found guilty he wins. Bring it on.
EXCELLENT SUMMATION! HE WILL BECOME OUR PRESIDENT AGAIN, STILL, ETC.... WHEREVER HE IS, AND WHATEVER HE IS WEARING OR SAYING. TRUMP IS OUR PRESIDENT, SAY GOODNIGHT NOW, MR. MERCHUM.
Well, looks like he isn't going to testify. From Fox website: NY v. Trump: Defense rests without calling former president to testify; motion to dismiss pending
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ny-v-trump-defense-rests-without-calling-former-president-testify-motion-dismiss-pending
I am disappointed! I would have loved to hear him testify!
Tuesday, May 28, the jury will hear closing arguments from Trump defense attorneys and New York prosecutors.
I'm not sure Donald Trump could do any better than this trial as a long-running continuous campaign event that is sucking all the air out of the room for the diaper jockey occupying the White House.
The Donald has always confused the press and liberals. They don't get him. He owns the press and they know it. It's been said he plays four level chess and they are playing checkers. They thought they had him numerous times with the fake/madeup charges but he always turns the tables and slips away like the Roadrunner from Wylie Coyote. I'll trust The Donald on this one...
You win the the FIRST ROAR OF LAUGHTER AWARD 💞😍 for your "diaper jockey occupying the White House" comment.
Dittos! Being shackled by the judge to sit in a freezing courtroom IS CAMPAIGNING.
CAMPAIGNING - AT THE VERY HIGHEST LEVEL!!
Well, everyone loves your diaper jockey, but reality is he's a Depends Soiler.
You still won the internet for today.
Diaper jockey -- good one!
Love it! Diaper Jockey! Perfect fit.
Testify or not. Convicted or not. Trump still has my vote, even if he’s sitting in Leavenworth. I’ll write it in if I have to.
Crawling over broken glass, if need be!
Don, didn't I used to say that? 🤣
WE ALL WILL DO JUST THAT! THANK YOU PWN. LOVE THIS MESSAGE!!!
The one - and only - appropriate outcome from this sham trial is the disbarment of Alvin Bragg.
AND disbarment of Merchan!
And also the white hater Letiticia James. She definitely needs to go and be disbarred for black supremacy, lol. She violated Trumps civil rights every which way. Bye Bye girl.....
AND that arrogant hateful adultress FANI in GA !
OMG I'd love to see ALL of them be on the receiving end of some TRUE IMPARTIAL justice! (Not to mention Merrick Garland!!) 😡
I HATE TO HEAR HIS NAME. HE IS SO DESPICABLE, A LIAR, AND COMPLETELY ANTI-AMERICA! GITMO BOUND!
I'm hoping that eventually they all get arrested and charged to the fullest extent of the law. The trials should be held in the reddest parts of the reddest states.
AT THE VERY LEAST! I SEE GITMO IN HIS FUTURE.... STAY TUNED.
Along with a SLEW of other corrupt federal prosecutors BTW. It's a cancer.
And Merchan.
Amen.
ALVIN BRAGG HAS NOW MADEW HIS CRIMES FAMOUS, AND UNFORGETTABLE. STUPID MOVE, ALVIN.
Don another brilliant analysis. I suspect the judge will dismiss the case before Trump could testify. He lost it yesterday when he was stared down by Cohen’s ex lawyer Costello. He must be getting nervous that his Deep State handlers are mad at him for failing to get Trump. No matter what happens in this train wreck of a case Trump wins. FJB
I am in awe of Costello. Were I to ask where he's been all my life, some wise-acre would pipe up to say for the first half of it, he wasn't born yet. Costello embodies legal analysis.
His testimony in the House of Representatives was brilliant. Unfortunately, he won’t be able to say much in this show trial. I suspect they will either dismiss the case before he says anymore, or they will severely limit his testimony. While the people of New York are slanted severely to the left, one thing is certain, they don’t like to be played as fools. The jury will not convict Trump in this kangaroo court. I suspect the judge knows this and has been told to end the charade. Look for a dismissal today.
From your lips....!
AMEN.
I hope and pray for your thoughts to come out TODAY!
LAWSY0, GOD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS AND WONDROUS WAYS!
That's a fact! Thanks.
I CONCUR! WE ARE WINNING WINNING! HAVE A FANTASTIC DAY!
There’s the old adage, “When your enemy is in the process of destroying himself, DON’T INTERRUPT!”
This sham-trial has been an absolute wreck for the prosecution, only to be aided and abetted and embellished by the blatant bias exhibited by the presiding Judge.
I believe, were Trump to testify, it would not only “steal the show”, it would only serve to totally obscure, if not bury, all the egregious damage the prosecution and the Judge have already inflicted upon themselves throughout this case, through their grotesque and flagrantly un-juridical handling of it thus far.
Yes, Trump could be masterful, or he could be played, but the spin would be on him and his testimony only, shoving all the other insanity the trial has exposed way off to the side.
This trial is not about “convincing the jury”. This is NYC, where he’s already lost TWO prior cases. And the jury already has their opinion of Trump seared into their brain. No matter what he might say, they’ll just hate him the more for it.
Let the jury have this abominable case as it stands, and have fun trying to untwist the pretzel they’ll be handed.
But Don’t give them Trump himself to blame - it would only be a gift for them to devour.
Let them ALL stew in the foul mess they’ve already made for themselves.
Very wise observation/point of view.
NEW YORK HAS ALREADY EARNED THE "WALK OF SHAME" AWARD. THIS WILL BE TAKEN MORE SERIOUSLY - NEVER TO BE FORGOTTEN.
i read trumps book the art of the deal over thirty years ago. i was forty five. it made sense then and it makes sense now. for all that time i've been listening to the talking heads tell me how stupid trump is. funny thing though, he's right more (MUCH more) than he's wrong. yes he misjudges peoples nature and loyalties at times but that's because HIS nature is to be trusting and loyal.....great human traits even though they can make you vulnerable, however his sense of humor helps smooth out those rough spots. america needs trump more than trump needs ANYONE else and that will manifest itself in living color on warp speed overdrive if the evildoers steal another election come november.
i stand with donald j. trump.....warts and all.
Very Well Stated. I AGREE WITH YOU 100%. It seems this Triple Fiasco is coming apart. It needs to, At least the MORONS have been identified.
The more Trump's ridiculous trials drag on, and the more J6'ers they arrest, the more We The People despise and even hate our current government leaders - all branches - all of 'em!
While they all keep pushing this nonsense, do they think we don't know that our nation is crumbling? They're all damned incompetent and worthless!
The MSM constantly reminds me of barbaric tribes of the ancient world. Every statement they make, every position they take flows from fear. The ancients believed lightning was the voice of unhappy gods. If Trump speaks, his blasphemy will kill the tribe. To be a media star, they keep themselves willfully ignorant and unthinking. Every bit of wisdom they possess and share with the public is acquired from the DNC echo chamber in which they work. Like the good tribesmen they are, they take up their clubs with the intent to kill when confronted by an intruder. *** These show trials are actually entertaining to watch. The tribe is confused and in disarray because they have encountered an intruder who does not fight according to their rules. The tribe is discovering their legal heroes are unarmed, weak and ineffective Yet, they persist in presuming they can give the enemy advice on how to fight. Great theater!
They are the corporate media wing of the WWE. The overwrought, performative “reporting” reminds me of the cartoonish wrestling matches my son loved to watch as a little boy. He had a poster on his bedroom door of the 1989 wrestling stars. Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Ax, Jesse Ventura and - I kid you not - some guy in full KISS makeup called Kamala. There was even a cultural appropriator in an Indian chief headdress. There’s no difference between the one and the other.
They showed if you are big and a little ugly, WWE could be the backdoor to something in Hollywood or TV.
Jim Murray, Yours is a BRILLIANT AND CORRECT SUMMATION OF THE EVENTS! THANK YOU! Please Keep Writing!
I have a historic analogy to offer -- and it's not intended as a put-down of Donald Trump. So please don't take it that way. But as someone put it, while history doesn't repeat itself, it does rhyme.
In November 1923, Hitler and a bunch of Nazis, most of them armed, conducted the so-called Beer Hall Putsch, which consisted of a march in the center of Munich, with the goal of seizing the Bavarian government. In other words, a coup d'état. But they were stopped by armed police, some Nazis were shot and killed, and most of the rest, including Hitler, fled in disarray. In the aftermath he was tried for treason. But he used the trial to become even better known; and even court officials were on his side. So he made a lot of well-publicized speeches in court, when the German public was already extremely resentful about the aftermath of WWI, when the American intervention had enabled the resentful French to impose what the Germans considered an extremely unfair peace settlement, which had cut enormous pieces off Germany and imposed huge indemnity payments.
Hitler was convicted and given a 5 year sentence in a prison that was more like a country club, where he continued his propaganda activities at public expense. Among other things, that's where he wrote his famous, but not very readable book. And after 8 months he was released, now much better known, and free to continue his political activities. 10 years later, in 1933, he was made German Chancellor, and the following year he managed to be given dictatorial powers, and the rest is history. Not pleasant history, but there it is.
Again, I ask, don't conclude from this that Trump is Hitler, as the Left always does. All I meant to say is that notoriety can pay off, as it already seems to have done; which other candidate but Trump could have turned these hostile show trials into free publicity? But my fear is this: prosecutors are pretty good at eliciting self-harming statements from a talkative defendant, and unlike Hitler, Trump does NOT have the court officials on his side -- the ones that count, anyway.
So while there's something to be said for Trump taking the stand, in this case, silence might be golden.
After reading all of the comments I'm betting he doesn't testify but plans on potentially losing the case and then go scorched earth during his appeal. He and his defense team have a lot of material to use from the trial already. He would also increase the number of sideline voters to actually vote this time and beat the cheat.
That makes a lot of sense.
I get it. Short answer is "free publicity." Agree with you about silence can be golden. I am the youngest in a family of three kids, so most of my questions were answered with "That's for me to know and you to find out!"
Mark Twain said the quote about history rhyming.
Maybe that was his way of agreeing with Hegel that what we learn from history is that we don't learn from history. Or Freud, who said that history is just new people making old mistakes. Or Voltaire: "History never repeats itself; man always does." Or Theodore Dalrymple, who concluded that history repeats itself only "in outline, not in detail".
But none of that means we should not try to learn from it.
Those that don’t learn from history (experience) are doomed to repeat it
Having sat on several juries and seen defendants sometimes testify and sometimes not testify I think he ought to go for it and testify.
It seems to me a juror always has in the back of his or her mind this thought: if he is innocent why not hear it in his own words?
Yes--precisely that. Your personal experience jibes with mine. I am confident in observing that few defendants who rely on their 5th Amendment privilege fare as well as those who take the stand, and exactly for the reason you have enunciated.
Agree, William. If Trump truly never slept with Stormy Daniels, I think he should take the stand and say so—make his honest protest of innocence. Trump does have a long history of credibility as a frank truth-teller. I would be comforted to know he never did that, and it would cement the fact that this is all completely fabricated.
But if he did sleep with her, it gets trickier. Maybe best not to open the door to confusing the issue by testifying, and let the poor performance of the judge and prosecutor remain front and center.
Trump should testify. Nothing to lose at this point.
I disagree, because the judge is so rabidly afflicted with TDS, there's no chance Pres Trump's testimony would be allowed to proceed without interference. Then his words would be sliced and diced by the media, twisted to say the opposite of what he said.
I predict that Bragg will attempt to tie Trump to Cohen's plea bargain from back in 2018, in which Cohen entered a guilty plea to two campaign finance violations, one of which was for the porn star. Not having directly heard all of Cohen's testimony in the Hush Trump trial, I don't know whether that agreement was ever brought into evidence, but judge Merchan is corrupt enough that I expect him to allow Bragg to somehow tell the jury all about it, thus establishing the "other crime" necessary to turn misdemeanors into felonies. Result: Guilty!
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/michael-cohen-pleads-guilty-manhattan-federal-court-eight-counts-including-criminal-tax
In this courtroom, with this judge, and this prosecutor, Trump would be a fool to take the bait and testify to the color of sky. By doing so, he is waiving his fifth amendment right to remain silent. *Anything* he says on the stand CAN and WILL be used against him. I suspect his lawyers have reminded him of this fact.
Win, lose, or draw, I'm voting for The Donald. Even if he's in prison.
Bragg! Insert keyboard cussing here @$#^!% Envy is an ugly trait in a Manhattan District Attorney.
The cat's poll was "oh so close"...
... second option should have been, "The (media) experts ALWAYS LIE."
Do I get a treat?
No one asked for an all of the above option today
Yes, of course. How about a chicken liver on a string?
“Lawyers uninvolved in the case said” l too am a lawyer uninvolved in the case.
Me, too! We're now qualified as experts!!
He should not testify and when they say "not guilty", he should get up immediately and leave the courtroom; go outside and simply say... " The nonsense is over. It is time to take care of things for the American public. America First"; fist pump the air; take NO questions... and walk off; get in the limo; to the airport; and fly to Florida and recoup for a few days and then hit the campaign trail with earnest.
I hereby confess to having been a trial lawyer for forty years, primarily on the civil side of the courts, rather than criminal, but with enough experience to have reached a few conclusions about jurors and the jury trial system. First of all, trial by a jury of one's peers (rather than star chamber proceedings or, as in Europe, before "legal experts") is probably the best system ever conceived for sorting out disputes. Nonetheless, it is just a system, which means it is implemented by people, who we all know are flawed, imperfect vessels at best. So, regardless of how good the system, its implementation is subject to flaws. However, most jurors actually try to do their best to be fair and to apply the rules given to them by the judge ("the law") to the facts in evidence. Certainly not always, and even when they do, their judgment is affected by their personal world views and biases. As regards the Trump matter, we are not presented with a "trial," but rather a political event, so none of the usual observation, rules, traditions, etc. relative to actual trials apply, especially the ones pertaining to reluctance to putting a criminal defendant on the stand. Thus, I agree that Trump has little to lose and much to gain by testifying. He should use it as a stump speech opportunity. If he is subjected to objection after objection, as I anticipate would be likely, with the objections all being sustained by Merchan, even jurors biased against him will develop some degree of sypathy for him. I would not expect this strategy to win acquittal, but a hung jury would serve to make his political point. All that is necessary is to persuade a single juror--unanimity being required in a criminal case for conviction--to hold out and I think that is a reasonably attainable goal.
You got that right, Steve!
All extremely interesting and valid points.
But as you noted, this is not a traditional criminal but rather a political event, which means it all hinges on the political persuasions of the jurors. It being held in NYC, (as the last two sham trials were - both ending in guilty verdicts), can pretty much assure - not absolutely, of course, that most on that jury have no room for sympathy of any kind for DJT, but rather would take the sheerest delight at his being manhandled by the judge and prosecutors. And they’ll get the added delight in being the ones to crucify him with a guilty verdict.
I can imagine DJT attempting to have his say, and it would be beyond dramatic to watch this Judge try to crush him, while the Prosecutors would take delirious pleasure at twisting every word he uttered.
But I still think the negatives outweigh the merely potential positives.
Any juror may crave 10 minutes of fame and vote to acquit seeking this.It is NYC.