Another horrible day in court for Donald Trump
The two most devastating days for Donald Trump in his criminal trial were the day that David Pecker confessed to conspiring with Trump to rig the 2016 election, and the day that Hope Hicks confirmed Trump was in on the Stormy Daniels payoff. Yesterday’s trial proceedings didn’t do anything to change that – but it was still a horrible day for Trump.
Things started off with Judge Merchan making clear to Trump in the strongest terms possible that any additional gag order violations will land him in jail. The judge has been doing this a long time and surely understands that the words he spoke yesterday will leave him with no choice but to lock Trump up if Trump keeps breaking the rules. So there’s no reason to expect the judge to back down if Trump does commit any more violations. Merchan knows he’s locked himself into locking Trump up.
Then came testimony for the prosecution from former Trump Organization Controller Jeff McConney, who has become sort of a professional witness against Donald Trump in his various trials (which is how McConney managed to avoid going to jail with his boss Allen Weisselberg).
McConney’s testimony wasn’t nearly as noteworthy as the bombshells we got from Pecker and Hicks, and that we’ll presumably get from Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen. But McConney’s testimony was yet another nail in the proverbial coffin of Trump’s guilt. Some of these witnesses are there to drop a ton of bricks, while others are there to fill in the cracks between those bricks and eliminate any sliver of reasonable doubt. McConney was clearly the latter, but he nonetheless helped establish that Trump was in on the Daniels payoff.
So now the trial continues today. It’s a sign of just how comprehensive the prosecution’s case is that yesterday’s witness was the second highest ranking financial officer in Donald Trump’s family business, and yet he’s not even among the four or five most damning witnesses in this trial. There’s plenty yet to come. And now Trump is in danger of being locked up both before and after the verdict comes down.
