Fraud Trial #eleventybillion Play-by-play

• 9:57 Trump just went on his victim speedrun through all the unfairness in a familiar whiny ramble.
• 9:58 Courtroom readying for very amazing trial that people are talking about. Supreme Court of NY, 60 Centre St. Room 300, Judge Feinman’s house. #Trump #TrumpJr #court
• 10:10 Cops milling around outside the door. Convo is subdued. I can hear people’s stuff being slid in trays from an X-ray machine across metal rollers. I can hear the gates pinging. Watching a presidential candidate go down at his own fraud trial is extremely metal. DO YOU FOLKS LIKE COFFEE?!! Scream for your cream!!!!!!

10:20

• 10:29 Many calls and shouts for QUIET NOW!!! The $250m fraud trial is about to begin.
• 10:37 Thinking about crooks running for office to avoid prosecution. Audacious betrayal of trust.
• 10:39 Fellow outside seen putting his belt and trenchcoat back on descends courthouse steps. T-shirt for camera clearly reveals “Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols”
• 10:51 Listened to a few Sex Pistols songs. “Holidays in the Sun” really hits hard. Hanging out in poverty-stricken countries on “Holiday in other people’s misery‘. Here we have Orange Jesus, the Ugliest American. Reuters has a better image quality than APNews. CNN wants me to subscribe to something called “No thanks, I’m just going to not ever do that”. Weighing options.
• 11:00 Trump exits after testimony. People filing out. Given the somber expressions on all of the faces of Trump’s unpaid clown car legal team, it must be real, real bad. He didn’t stop to talk. Judge Engoron (so metal!) to Trump’s lawyer, “I beseech you to control your client, if you can.”
• “I thought the apartment was high.” Judge threatens to excuse Trump for the day and rule with all his negative inference for not answering direct yes/no questions regarding the Trump property evaluation method: Tell the banks you’re rich. Tell the government you’re poor. Basically serve yourself as if you were a needy four-year-old. “Statutes of limitations. You’re still on 2014.”

• 11:14 A call to QUIET DOWN repeated. APNews has about 10X as many people viewing as Reuters, though Reuters has about half a million more subscribers.
• 11:28 Checking news sources. Trump won’t shut up and stop whining. The judge is largely ruling on the extent of damages. A CNN reporter called his testimony on the stand ‘word salad’ because he would, in the same breath, say the value of aforementioned apartment was too low AND too high. A lawyer made a note to check the transcript. Because it doesn’t make sense.
• 11:33 Trump has about 27 minutes to pull a rabbit out of his hat before everything goes POOF! The buck is completely stopped here.
• 11:40. He’s been in there for a while. It’s going downhill. When McHitler comes back out of the courtroom, he will be without his Trump Org millions. He’s going to be toast. He will immediately go to the mike and broadcast a desire for violent retribution.
• 11:48 Trump emerges to take a break, makes a ‘zipped lip’ gesture at the cameras.
• 11:52 QUIET DOWN. Judge is back to hand it to Trump. Judge Arthur Engoron has seen some stuff. DA Letitia James has seen some stuff.
• 11:53 About1/10th of people have left the livestream. It’s all over but the screaming.
• 12:05 Remembering the time Trump said publicly that he would raise and lower the evaluation of his assets to manipulate the markets and enrich himself, that it was legal, what everyone does. That was years ago. The wheels of justice grind on, but they go through some bad track when there’s a lot of money blocking the rails.
• 12:19 the lobby is loud with the murmur of voices. Trump took control of himself, and he must have wanted out of that real estate gig double-quick, because he started yelling at the judge and the DA. His ace in the hole was a disclaimer that gave him a pass to come up with whatever Bad numbers he wanted. Real estate sure is interesting.
• 1:11 Trump left looking particularly orange and crazy.

• 1:28 This case was largely determined before. This was in a ceremonial chamber. Extent of damages were to be determined today pending Trump’s testimony. Alina Habba,(L) Trump’s inexperienced attorneyJeffrey K. Levine, Cohen’s attorney(R).

• 1:31 Lawyers gotta advertise. Door #1 – endless appeals, distraction, and delay. Their team came to “fight the facts.” Wow. Door #2, shifting all attention to the good character of Trump’s former attorney and bag man Michael Cohen. You don’t kill the bagman. People I never want to meet.
• 1:42 Here comes the prosecution soon. People STILL trailing from the courtroom. EDIT: I thought it was over, I forgot about Ivanka. There will be motions on Thursday, then more drama on Friday.
• “I spent a lot of money on fixing the building up,” Trump testified. “She doesn’t even know what 40 Wall Street is.” Prompted laughter from DA.
• 2:07 After lunch, people start filing back in. Holmes in the purple tie has been at that post all day. Out lots of cops everywhere. DA comes back to roars of joyous laughter. A good day, indeed.
• 2:11 Hollering in the lobby “Why you so quiet, Mr. Trump? ” Heckler. Poster board lady comes back. Busting out the science fair. She was a midfield straggler for lunch. Guessing 2:30, what time I go to dentist. Trump looked miserable. I couldn’t imagine him having a pet. He doesn’t seem able to care for an animal. Watching the ouroboros of hubris roll onward, listening to the endless slide of items along the examining tables, the drop and grasping of cell phones, items sliding over the rollers through the X-ray machines.
• 2:42 They broke for lunch for two hours, decent. Just heard someone say “Oh, shit!” in a distinctly NY accent.
• 3:17 Overheard ”dismissed for the day.” To which another voice says, “Dismissed for the day? Oh, wow! They will meet on Wednesday.” It appears they are discussing Trump being kicked out of court. Heavy is the Pantone cheddar.
• 3:38 Trump emerges to run straight to the nearest microphone and start rambling about how much of a scam the court is. Immediately starts rambling. In most sane situations, it would be the lawyer giving the feedback, “very disappointed, considering appeal, moving on, my client did nothing wrong” sort of stuff. Nope, we got combative Trump. And he sounded deeply troubled.

• 3:42 I saw him march outside from a side door. I can overhear someone saying, “He came in through that door…he never came in through the front door” [laughter] ‘yeah, it was that [side door]”. It looked like a door for easy accessibility. Bone spurs.

See you Wednesday for “Fraud Trial #eleventybillion Play-by-play Part Deuce” EDIT: something came up. I need to pass the burden to a fellow blogger. Help me Obi Wan. You’re our only hope.