Donald Trump: Classic or Dud?

oh believe me I visualize it daily

Speak to the judge about accelerating the trial.

― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, April 16, 2024 11:01 AM (twenty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

the longer this goes the worse it's gonna be for him and it seems likely it might be a while because A) they're having a lot of problems finding jurors and B) he's almost certainly gonna violate his gag order

So the US jury selection system is a mystery to me, in the UK you just get sent a letter then you have to sit on whatever case you're picked for. What happens if they genuinely can't find twelve good men and true who are able to convince anyone that they're never heard of the fella and will judge him impartially? Move the trial to Puerto Rico or something?

is it really true that they are having a hard time? there's a very large pool for this trial and it seems like they are just going through it as expected, lots of people will be excused but they just need to get it down to 12 and maybe backups

I am not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure eventually a judge can just decide to go with what they've got.

that is, jury selection can't be drawn out indefinitely.

Now: Trump's head slowly dropped, his eyes closed. It jerked back upward. He adjusts himself. Then, his head droops again. He straightens up, leaning back. His head doops for a third time, he shakes his shoulders. Eyes closed still. His head drops. Finally, he pops his eyes open.

— Frank G. Runyeon (@frankrunyeon) April 16, 2024

Completely understandable for a very old man.

mine was kind of like that, I was #47 of 50 and got asked much less questions than the first 30 or so did, eventually was placed on it mostly on the principle of "eh, he seems good enough"

not sure if that's gonna happen here though. I do think there are unbiased folks out there who really don't follow the news and just don't vote but they may be hard to find in New York. last I heard they hadn't picked a single juror yet.

fwiw I don't blame Trump for falling asleep here, this part of the trial is really boring, it's just the same questions getting asked over and over and over and over again

i fell asleep a long time ago reading this thread so i get it

I think in many trials they narrow down the jury pool with questions like "Do you think you could be impartial in this case?" then once the individual interviews start the defense and prosecution get a certain number of jurors they can dismiss for whatever reason. The judge can also dismiss people for reasons too.

also according to some smart law folks Trump is actively kneecapping his own defense by publicly stating that he doesn't know who Michael Cohen is, which is gonna make the prosecution's job a lot easier

prosecutors urge the judge to hold DJT in contempt of court over his social media posts today: https://www.axios.com/2024/04/16/trump-contempt-new-york-criminal-trial

Now: Trump's head slowly dropped, his eyes closed. It jerked back upward. He adjusts himself. Then, his head droops again. He straightens up, leaning back. His head doops for a third time, he shakes his shoulders. Eyes closed still. His head drops. Finally, he pops his eyes open.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8b/01/f0/8b01f0767bc313cf6c18cb10854bf7f6.gif

being unable to stay awake is one of the more relatable things he's done

being unable to stay awake is one of the more relatable things he's done

I would theorize he's laying the groundwork for some Junior Soprano/Vincent "The Chin" Gigante "I'm just a sad, senile old man, Your Honor — have pity" action, but I think the real truth is they took his Adderall away to keep him from flipping out in court and making things worse, and they haven't calibrated a correct new cocktail of pills for him yet. Give the pit crew another day or two and they'll have him dialed in.

I think in many trials they narrow down the jury pool with questions like "Do you think you could be impartial in this case?" then once the individual interviews start the defense and prosecution get a certain number of jurors they can dismiss for whatever reason. The judge can also dismiss people for reasons too.

Yes, peremptory challenges -- a standard feature. This is exactly what happened in the case I was almost seated on last week. (The judge dismissed two alternates first, then the prosecutor dismissed me; at least one other main juror was dismissed too -- ran into him in the hall outside as I was getting ready to leave -- and I suspect there were more.) The official language at least in this situation/court was that we were 'thanked and excused' as opposed to being to told to fuck off out of there or something. (The judge did indicate that it would be polite not to act too unduly happy if we were excused, which I kept in mind.)

What happens if they genuinely can't find twelve good men and true who are able to convince anyone that they're never heard of the fella and will judge him impartially?

There are almost 1.7 million people in Manhattan, this won’t happen. It’s only day 2.

fuck this piece of shit

Yes, that too.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLTbnPAXEAA_LVN?format=jpg&name=large

love to see it

*gasp*

you mean it's not that easy to make magic millions?

Sad trombone

It was always blindingly obvious that taking Truth Social public was solely a device to enrich Trump and a small handful of his co-conspirators by soaking a few hundred thousand rubes along with any greedy, but slow-footed speculators who tried to enrich themselves by grabbing onto Trump's coattails. All that talk of a $5B valuation they floated to the public ahead of time was pure hogwash, but it was catnip to the media, so the rubes all got the word. And here we are.

I wonder if Merchan has any leeway in the number of alternate jurors he can seat along with the main twelve. I think the stress of this trial is going to eat jurors alive.

― Ippei's on a bummer now (WmC), Tuesday, 16 April 2024 14:23 (three hours ago) link

Yeah, it occurred to me that the people most likely to be selected are those who are the least aware that Trump will happily badmouth them and, if possible, their families to his army of online cronies (how many of these unfortunate souls are gonna wind up getting doxxed). Like, actually being selected as an impartial juror in a Trump trial probably means that you've been living in some sort of bubble for the past eight years minimum and that reality is about to come at you fast.

I'm honestly surprised that it has held onto as much value as it has for this long, it should be much closer to zero

xp

there are some fairly strict restrictions on sharing the identities of the jurors in this trial, I think this judge would take it very seriously if Trump or his team revealed them

judge also seems serious about giving Trump some jail time if he's found in contempt, which Trump seems hellbent on doing

Per the NYT:

And Justice Merchan is now scolding Blanche because Trump was muttering. “I won’t tolerate that,” Merchan says, raising his voice. “I will not have any jurors intimidated in this courtroom.” He asks Blanche to speak to Trump, and Blanche quietly responds, "Yes, your honor." He then gives Trump the requested talking-to, and Trump looks furious.

I am delighted, frankly. (Not least because it humiliates both Blanche and Trump.)

https://i.imgur.com/bnKFckW.png

https://i.imgur.com/Nw0SEyW.png

too bad Trump's sleeping through all this

Yeah I was just thinking about how in a weird way this may be the most directly he's heard in a long while how people actually think about him who aren't slavering/paid devotees.

What is this “AI” and how did it learn trump is dumb as fuck must be a wise software

In any event, six jurors have already been seated so any fears that this would be endless can be set aside.

Any ilxors on the jury?

Garu G

apparently they're going to have 6 alternates which seems optimistic

Standard, though. Foreperson is an Irish guy and I would love the idea of someone from one of Trump's 'nice' countries for immigrants fucking him over.

Further re challenges etc from the NYT:

As they work to select the 12 people who will make up the jury panel, each side gets 10 peremptory challenges, which enable them to exclude prospective jurors without providing reasons. So far, Trump's lawyers have used 6 of their challenges and the prosecutors have used 4.

My understanding being that if/when they run out they actually have to provide reasons going forward which the judge can accept or deny, as has happened a couple of times already. So it's not like Blanche can automatically ask for everyone to get canned.

There should be a rich vein of social media posts dissing Trump that Blanche can mine for grounds for dismissal without using his peremptory challenges.

he should be on trial for negligent genocide

1.7 million dead in USA. gotta get down to it!

what if you knew her and found her dead on the ground?

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/05/trump-obama-coronavirus-pandemic-response

> Foreperson is an Irish guy

RFK Jr?

Mick Mulvaney

Conan O'Brien

BONO

Shame-us Finnigan

i'll bet its that damn robert e. lee. "never fight uphill, me boys!"