Dina’s Docket: Weekly Trump Recap (4/19/24)

Friday, April 19, 2024

Another week, another round of updates in the many ongoing Trump trials. (The nonpartisan nonprofit JUST SECURITY has a fabulous master calendar of key dates in Trump’s trials.)

NEW YORK

It's Friday, and we've now got a jury in Trump's criminal case. Five women, seven men, all of whom said they could be impartial. Is this good or bad for him? Men tend to judge men more harshly, and women judge other women more harshly. The fact that one theory in this case will be that Trump made these hush money payments not to interfere with the election, but because he didn't want his wife to know isn't going to fare him well with these male jurors.

Another thing that happened is he fell asleep…a ton. Then, today in court, he stood up before the judge — a big no-no — and Trump was reprimanded by him. More than the judge, the big problem is falling asleep in front of a jury. The jury is watching everything he does. And if they can't fall asleep, him falling asleep is really bad. Nobody wants to actually sit on a jury for this long, so you need to show respect not only to the judge but to the jury as well.

Next week, the gag orders will be decided. I think the judge will impose harsh penalties, as well as give them a warning that the next time he could face prison. It's interesting that Trump claims a gag order is trying to silence him in the very case it's all about him trying to silence women from telling their stories.

On Monday, we’ll hear opening statements where each side will lay out the theories of their case as well as the defense. However, I think the key evidence that's going to be here are the tapes. The tapes are what brought down Richard Nixon, and I think it will be the tapes that end up getting a conviction here. Michael Cohen recorded his conversation with Donald Trump where he talks about the hush money payment to Karen McDougal, which is not the hush money payment at issue here, but it is evidence to the fact that he was doing the same thing for Stormy Daniels.

I'll be sure to recap all of that and more for you next week.

Have questions about what’s going on in Trump’s trials? Email me at press@askdinadoll.com or drop a comment below. Make sure to follow me on social media where I post recap videos every Friday along with a ton of other legal news analysis: @askdinadoll 

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