So, do you think it helped or hurt the case when defense witness Robert Costello threw a temper tantrum in front of the jury? Is THAT how we’re supposed to offer defense? Throw a fit? Should he have spit at the judge, punched the bailiff, and called the jury ugly, too? I guess decorum is too much to ask from MAGA.

The way I see it, the case was built around Michael Cohen. Cohen is what you might call a “problem witness.” He’s essentially a rat. But that’s how these cases break. Rats run with rats. One of the rats has to turn on another – but they’re still rats. So the prosecution didn’t ask the jury to take Cohen’s word for anything. The prosecution showed the evidence. They brought in supporting witnesses to detail the crime. THEN, they brought in Cohen.

But they didn’t just introduce Cohen. First, they made clear that Cohen has done many terrible things for trump and has lied and lied and lied some more. Prosecutors told the jury they didn’t have to trust Cohen. He was just there to tie all the loose ends together on the evidence the jury had already seen.

The defense has gone with the “he’s a liar and a rat” argument anyway. You can’t trust Cohen, they say, he’s a liar. But the jury knows that. AND they know they don’t have to “trust” Cohen. The evidence was proven before he even took the stand. Tearing at Cohen’s already tattered reputation doesn’t seem like it’s going to do much good.

But as it turns out, Costello wasn’t a genuine witness. He was a stall. By leaving open the question of whether or not Donny would testify (he didn’t) and by having this “witness,” the defense sort of tricked Judge Merchan into setting the closing arguments for next week. Had they NOT brought on their disastrous last witness and been honest that Donny wasn’t going anywhere NEAR that stand, closing arguments could have been THIS week. The jury could have had the case by Friday. Donny could have been a convicted felon by this week’s end.

It got weird right at the end, though. Costello was supposed to show that Cohen was a liar. Instead, the prosecutor managed to prove Costello, himself, lied on the stand during his testimony. Quick question: Costello is an attorney, at least ostensibly. Courts might let a lie go from Joe Citizen, but for an officer of the court to knowingly lie, under oath, in court? Do you think there will be charges coming?

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Have you heard that MAGA Mike and other extremist House members have made it against the rules to criticize Donald Trump on the House floor? They enforce it even if one makes a statement of fact that doesn’t particularly shine brightly on the trumpster. (Which is just about any verifiable fact that can be made about him…)

Full disclosure, the rule is actually that no one is allowed to criticize a current candidate for President on the House floor. Do you think MAGA will enforce the rule if another MAGA gets up and criticizes Biden? Have you not been paying attention? Hypocrisy is MAGA stock-in-trade. This rule is about protecting Donny’s soft, snowflake self.

From Rolling Stone: ‘On Tuesday, House Republicans voted to strike down comments made by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) during a floor debate. What was McGovern’s great parliamentary offense? Pointing out that the former president is facing a myriad of criminal indictments, and has already been found liable for sexual assault in a civil fraud trial. 

“We have a presumptive nominee for president facing 88 felony counts, and we’re being prevented from even acknowledging it,” McGovern said. “These are not alternative facts. These are real facts.” 

McGovern went on to list out several of the criminal and civil cases against Trump, including that he is currently “on trial for sending a hush money payment to a porn star to avoid a sex scandal during his 2016 campaign, and then fraudulently disguising those payments in violation of the law,” and that he’s also charged with conspiring to overturn the election and stealing classified material, and that “a jury has already found him liable for rape in a civil court.”‘

He was admonished. As he tried to push back – the First Amendment being what it is and all – MAGA snowflake Rep. Erin Houchin (R-Ind.), terrified of facts, swooned and, while dramatically rending her garments, demanded that McGovern’s statement be taken down and stricken from the record. That’s a sanction and it prevented McGovern from speaking on the floor for the rest of the day. Who can be surprised that the party constantly whining about some imaginary threat to their Constitutional rights would be the people lining up to take rights from Americans?

I’ll tell you this: the rule should chill you to the core. Only being allowed to say nice things about ‘Dear Leader’ is VERY North Korean. These guys KNOW their guy is indefensible – so they just make it against the rules to say anything they might want to defend against. Thought police, anyone?