Courtroom capers
Trump ... Looking for the cash bond ... Lenders likely to be stiffed ... Supreme Court bends over for Trump ... Novel arguments for immunity ... Idiocy has its appeal ... From Washington, Roger Fitch reports
"I often say Al Capone, he was one of the greatest of all time, if you like criminals" - Donald Trump
"Trump represents the culmination of gangster Gemeinschaft" - John Ganz
The first criminal prosecution of a former US president is about to begin, briefly delayed by the late production of federal court documents that Trump subpoenaed in January.
The defendant has a sordid history, and the NY trial concerns hush-money paid to a prostitute before the 2016 election; Trump's co-conspirator, Michael Cohen, has already been convicted and served time.
Trump's trial will be about election influence, an attempt to corrupt a presidential election.
Clearly, Judge Juan Merchan has Trump's measure: one pre-trial order requires jury anonymity, in light of the "likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s)".
Another is a comprehensive gag order against Trump's endless insults and harassment of court witnesses, prosecutors and jurors.
NY federal judge Lewis Kaplan also ordered anonymous juries and a gag rule, in the writer Jean Carroll's successful civil cases against Trump. After the second Carroll verdict, Kaplan thanked the jurors for their service, and recommended they never tell anyone they had been jurors, for the rest of their lives.
This is New York. They know Donald Trump.
Moreover, the Times added, with MAGA threats:
"The intimidation is systemic and ubiquitous, an acknowledged tactic in the playbook of the Trump right that flows all the way down from the violent fantasies of Donald Trump himself. It is rare to encounter a public-facing Trump critic who hasn't faced threats and intimidation."
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