Welcome back, Deadline: Legal Newsletter readers. The first criminal trial of a former U.S. president is nearing its end. Michael Cohen’s testimony dominated a week that also featured Supreme Court news, with Republican-appointed Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito making their own headlines for very different reasons.
After much anticipation, Trump’s former fixer took the stand Monday and helped prosecutors further corroborate their case. Cohen testified that he made a hush money payment to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election which he said on the stand was reimbursed using deceptive records. “Everything required Mr. Trump’s signoff,” he said in one of the more memorable lines that the state may highlight in summation.
Notably, Cohen testified to meeting with the ex-president and former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg about the reimbursement. That helped more directly tie Trump to the alleged cover-up of the election-related conspiracy. The defendant is charged with falsifying business records in connection with the coverup. He has pleaded not guilty and denied having sex with Daniels.
We were all ready for a tough cross-examination on Tuesday. But it started … weirdly. Trump lawyer Todd Blanche began his questioning by asking Cohen if he had recently gone on TikTok and called Blanche a “crying little s—.” Judge Juan Merchan quickly sustained an objection and asked Blanche at the bench why he was making this about himself.
Blanche picked up steam Thursday in what began to resemble more of the cross-examination we expected. While it’s unclear how much damage he inflicted on the key witness, he did better on the second day questioning Cohen’s credibility. With no court on Friday, the week’s testimony ended with Cohen still on the stand and Blanche set to wrap up Monday, followed by any damage control by the state on redirect.
Once the prosecution rests, the question is how much of a case, if any, the defense will put on (it has no burden of proof in a criminal case). That includes whether Trump himself will testify, which would be a terrible idea for him. It’s unclear what he’ll do. We could get into closing arguments as soon as Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the two Supreme Court justices diverged this week. Thomas, of all people, led a bipartisan majority in writing a common-sense ruling upholding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s funding. He and the court only deserve so much credit for that one, though, because it says more about the right-wing 5th Circuit, whose contrary ruling the high court reversed. Even still, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Alito dissented.
That wasn’t Alito’s biggest headline this week. The New York Times reported that, in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection, an upside-down American flag flew outside his Virginia home. (Some in the “Stop the Steal” movement flew upside-down flags as a protest, but it’s unclear how broadly it was used.) Alito blamed it on his wife’s purported dispute with a neighbor, which, even if true, doesn’t explain whether she (or whether he) felt that response was appropriate.
Naturally, the story prompted calls for Alito’s recusal from Jan. 6-related cases. Two big ones are pending: Trump’s immunity and charges for rioters. But don’t expect the aggrieved justice to step aside, no matter how much the episode causes the American people to further doubt his impartiality.
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