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Trump’s lawyer was repeatedly punched on the bench on the first day of his trial.
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Lead attorney Todd Blanche faced five reprimands for his attorney work.
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New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan summoned the attorney at least five times Monday.
New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan took four hours to wrap up preliminaries before beginning jury selection Monday in Donald Trump’s hush-money trial in Manhattan.
During that time — and with an international press corps watching and taking notes — Trump’s lead lawyer, Todd Blanche, faced about five reprimands for his law work.
Merchan did not hit Blanche as hard as a federal judge in Manhattan hit Trump attorney Alina Habba her law firm. During the defamation trial of E. Jean Carroll in January, Judge Lewis Kaplan punched Habba fourteen times during one day of testimony.
Still, it was a bit brutal. And not the first time for Blanche either.
Merchan, like prosecutors, may be weary of Trump’s nearly a dozen attempts to delay the trial and what one prosecutor, Joshua Steinglass, on Monday called the defense team’s “thousands and thousands of pages of frivolous motions.”
Here, in chronological order, are five of the judge’s rulings on Monday — ranging from petty to searing to merely comical — that would be enough to make any lawyer’s jaw drop.
1. “I notice that the font is getting smaller and smaller.“
On March 8, Merchan came up with a rule to rein in preliminary motions. He ordered that the parties must seek his consent before new motions, by first submitting a so-called ‘pre-motion letter’.
These preliminary letters would only be one page long.
In a small, humorous combustion early Monday morning, the judge noted with a smile that the defense had adhered to the one-page limit. But that was at the expense of readability.
“I think it is now clear to Mr. Blanche that a preliminary letter is one page,” Merchan began. (Blanche’s first pre-motion brief was filed with a 51-page motion and 214 pages of attachments).
“But I notice that the font is getting smaller and smaller,” and the margins are also getting smaller, the judge joked.
2. “Well, I don’t know how you filed all those motions back then.”
Later that morning, the parties argued over test samples. The defense still had not told prosecutors what evidence they planned to show jurors at trial.
“Amazingly,” complained Steinglass, the prosecutor, “we have not yet received a single designated piece of evidence” from the defense.
When Blanche replied that the defense was just too busy, Merchan hit him pretty hard.
“This is where we are,” Merchan told the attorney. “You have 24 hours, and whatever you don’t identify within 24 hours, you are not allowed to introduce, frivolously or not.”
The judge agreed that the defense had indeed been busy.
“The defense team was very busy actively filing numerous motions, some of which were actually motions to renew and reconsider decisions that this court had already made,” the judge said.
Then there were those three days last week, when Trump took prosecutors before an appeals court with more failed motions to delay the trial.
“So you’ve made decisions about how you’re going to use your time, and that’s fine,” the judge told Blanche. ‘That’s your decision. You have 24 hours.
“Whatever the people do not receive within 24 hours will be excluded,” he added. Period of time.”
However, Blanche continued to hesitate.
“We’re expected to comply while we’re in court for the rest of the day, and all day tomorrow?” he complained about the 24-hour deadline.
“Well, I don’t know how you got all those motions out,” the judge snapped back.
“Literally, on one Sunday you received three pre-motion letters with exhibits and attachments,” all filed within 30 minutes, the judge added.
“The way you use your time is your business. My orders were clear. You are ordered to do this, and you are ordered to do this immediately,” Merchan said of the list of missing pieces.
3. “Please point me to the part of the original silence order, or subsequent silence order, where any exception is made if Mr. Trump feels he is under attack. I don’t recall inserting that anywhere in either of the silence orders.”
Prosecutors also accused Trump on Monday of violating his gag order by targeting key witnesses — Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels — in a trio of Truth Social attacks the former president posted earlier in April.
A fourth post abusing Truth Social’s joke, attacking both Daniels and Cohen, went live at 9:12 a.m. on Monday – the same morning, prosecutor Chris Conroy filed a complaint with the judge.
“It’s entirely possible it was done from this courthouse,” Conroy added.
Blanche countered that Trump has little choice but to strike back against Daniels and Cohen.
“The two witnesses themselves have spoken about their testimony in this case, President Trump’s continued re-election, and in general have continually made disparaging threats,” Blanche complained about the “barrage of attacks” from Daniels and Cohen.
The judge told Blanche to respond in writing, explaining why Trump should not be held in contempt for violating the gag order.
“When you answer,” the judge snapped, “please point me to a portion of the original gag order or the subsequent gag order that states that there is an exception to the gag order if Mr. Trump feels he is under attack.”
The judge paused for a moment and then added with some sarcasm, “I don’t remember inserting that anywhere in the sequence of the joke.”
4. “Ma’am, it is important to take breaks at a specific time.”
Later in the day — but outside the perspective jurors’ hearing — Merchan chided Trump’s lawyers as they slowly returned to the court after their lunch break.
“Counselor, it is important to take breaks at the given times to keep things moving,” he told Blanche.
“Yes, Your Honor,” Blanche replied meekly.
“We can get the jury involved so we can move forward.”
5. “Do you think he shouldn’t be here right now?”
Before the court concluded for the day – without a single juror having been selected – Blanche filed another request with the judge.
He asked if Trump could leave next Thursday to attend the US Supreme Court hearing in another of his criminal cases.
The justices will hear arguments on the former president’s sweeping immunity claims, which he says protect him from the indictment of Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith, who accuses him of illegally trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election to make.
The Supreme Court date of April 25 was set in early March, but Trump’s lawyers did not raise the issue until Monday.
Joshua Steinglass, one of the prosecutors, told Merchan that Trump should be present for his case in New York — just like all other criminal defendants.
“I think we’ve already accommodated the defense enough,” Steinglass said.
Merchan acknowledged that “arguing before the Supreme Court is a big problem,” but “convening a jury of twelve jurors and six alternates is also a big problem.”
Blanche protested — saying Trump’s litany of criminal cases against him made his situation “incredibly unusual” — and said he thinks Trump “shouldn’t be here right now at all.”
“Do you think he shouldn’t be here right now?” Merchan asked incredulously.
Blanche explained that he only meant that he did not believe the trial would take place during the “campaign season.”
“I’ve already decided on that,” Merchan snapped. “Your client is a criminal defendant in the Supreme Court of New York County. He must be here. He does not need to be present at the Supreme Court.”
“I’ll see him here next week,” he continued.
Read the original article on Business Insider
