by A neoclassical New York criminal courthouse overlooks a small park that used to be a public sewer. On the 15th floor of the building, Donald Trump was listless, sitting again between his lawyers and his oversized red tie pressed against the defense table in front of him.
Inside the criminal division of the New York Supreme Court in Manhattan on Monday morning, he sat there quietly, leaning back in his chair or hunching his shoulders forward to listen to the lawyers in the room, and rarely tore his eyes. in any other place, or set them towards. nothing in particular.
Behind the courtroom doors, the former president cannot interfere, he cannot argue with the prosecutors across the room from him, and he cannot argue with the judge in front of him. He can only sit and watch in a crowded room of reporters and others who he calls his enemies and whisper in the ears of his attorney as the judge pours out their arguments.
On the other hand, however, Mr. Trump lashed out at the “witch hunt,” “hoax,” “election interference,” “voter intimidation,” and “disgrace” against him. After a two-hour hearing, he immediately went to his 40 Wall Street property to give a 21-minute press conference attacking New York Judge Juan Merchan and the Manhattan prosecutor who argued in court against him.
It’s been a common sight in recent months, with the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee to face President Joe Biden in November using courtrooms across the country as an extension of his campaign, leveraging media attention to rewriting the story of crime, corruption and fraud. in lawsuits, judgments and indictments against him.
He uses courthouse sites to cast himself as a victim of political persecution, telling his supporters that what he claims will be a conspiracy against him, too, if he doesn’t stop them.
Mr. Trump began to take advantage of that dynamic at his civil fraud trial just a few doors down from the criminal courthouse, where a monthlong event gave him extensive access to a stable of photographers and video cameras gathered in a hallway on days he plans to show. up. Fundraising messages from his campaign recounted his days in court.
He lost that case. On Monday, a state appeals court granted him an extension to obtain a bond that would block the execution of the judgment against him, giving him 10 more days to obtain at least $175m to prevent New Attorney General -York Letitia James to seize and freeze his assets. his accounts.
Mr. Trump accepted that message, which came in the middle of his separate hearing in Judge Merchan’s courtroom.
Mr Trump has been accused of falsifying business records in connection with a so-called hush money scheme to cover up a sex scandal that threatened his 2016 presidential campaign.
His attorneys asked for a 90-day delay or to dismiss the case entirely, accusing the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office of violating its obligations to the defense during the discovery process.
But Mr. Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche frequently found himself under the judge’s questions about the serious allegations that Mr. Trump’s legal team had lobbied against the district attorney, at one point asking for a break to look at his notes. At another low point, the judge called on Mr. Blanche’s own resume – including his previous decade of experience as a federal prosecutor – to suggest he should have known better.
Now, the former president faces a criminal trial in 20 days, in his hometown, down the street from the courthouse that found him guilty of fraud and put him on the hook for nearly half a billion dollars.
Mr Trump will become the first American president to face a criminal trial when jury selection in the bribery case begins on April 15.
Judge Merchan dismissed attempts by the former president’s attorneys to further delay a trial that prosecutors characterized as a form of electoral interference – a case that preceded the alleged criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results – and a scheme that pushed the limits of the amount it could be there. quit after successfully litigating trouble for years.
Mr. Trump is now staring at the start date for yet another trial, failing to return to a Manhattan courthouse as a criminal defendant after pushing delays, appeals, and motions to dismiss the cases against him to no avail. off, on top of lawsuits. that he would see him forfeit thousands of dollars.
“I shouldn’t have tried,” Mr. Trump told reporters from the lobby of 40 Wall Street on Monday.
“I don’t know if we have one. I’m going to be appealing, right now. I can tell you that,” he said. “We didn’t do anything wrong, just like I did nothing wrong in the other case.”
