Trump’s lawyer was repeatedly slapped on the first day of his trial.
Lead attorney Todd Blanche has suffered a quintet of criticism for his work as a lawyer.
New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan challenged the lawyer at least five times on Monday.
It took New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan four hours to sort out pretrial issues before beginning jury selection Monday in Donald Trump’s secret trial in Manhattan.
At that time – and while the international press watched and took notes – Trump’s lead lawyer, Todd Blanche, suffered a quintet of rebukes for his legal activities.
Merchan didn’t hit Blanche as hard as a Manhattan federal judge hit Trump lawyer Alina Habba. her lawyer. During the defamation trial of E. Jean Carroll in January, Judge Lewis Kaplan slapped Habba 14 times during a single day of testimony.
It was still a bit brutal. And it’s not the first time for Blanche either.
Merchan, like prosecutors, may be weary of the nearly dozen attempts to delay Trump’s trial and what one prosecutor, Joshua Steinglass, called Monday “thousands and thousands of pages of motions frivolous” of the defense team.
Here, in chronological order, are five of Monday’s judge’s burns — ranging from minor to searing to simply comical — that would be enough to make any lawyer swoon.
1. “I noticed that the font is getting smaller and smaller.“
On March 8, Merchan developed a rule to restrict pretrial motions. He ordered that parties must seek his permission before any new motion by first filing what he called a “pre-motion letter.”
These pre-motion letters were to be only one page long.
In a minor, humorous Monday morning burn, the judge noted with a smile that the defense held to the one-page limit. But they did so at the expense of readability.
“I think Mr. Blanche is now clear that a pre-motion letter is one page long,” Merchan began. (Blanche’s first pre-motion letter was filed with a 51-page motion and 214 pages of attachments).
“But I notice that the font is getting smaller and smaller,” and the margins are getting smaller and smaller as well, the judge joked.
2. “Well, I don’t know how you managed to get all these motions filed at this time.“.
Later that morning, the parties argued over the exhibits. The defense still had not told prosecutors what exhibits it planned to show jurors at trial.
“Amazingly,” complained Steinglass, the prosecutor, “we have yet to receive a single designated exhibit” from the defense.
When Blanche retorted that the defense was just too busy, Merchan hit him pretty hard.
“Here’s where we are,” Merchan told the lawyer. “You have 24 hours, and anything you don’t identify within 24 hours, you will be prohibited from submitting, frivolous or not.”
The judge acknowledged that the defense was indeed very busy.
“The defense team has been very busy filing numerous motions, some of which were actually motions to renew and reargument decisions that this court had already made,” the judge said.
Then there were three days last week when Trump dragged prosecutors to an appeals court on even more unsuccessful motions to delay the trial.
“So you’ve made some decisions about how you’re going to use your time, and that’s fine,” the judge told Blanche. “It’s your decision to make. You have 24 hours.
“Anything that is not received by the people within 24 hours will be excluded,” he added. Period.”
But Blanche continued to hesitate.
“We’re supposed to comply while we’re in court the rest of the day and all day tomorrow? » he complained about the 24 hour delay.
“Well, I don’t know how you managed to get all these motions out,” the judge replied.
“Literally, on a Sunday, you received me three pre-motion letters with exhibits and attachments,” all filed within 30 minutes, the judge added.
“How you choose to use your time is your business. My order was clear. You are asked to do it, and you are asked to do it immediately,” Merchan said of the list of missing pieces.
3. “Please direct me to the part of the original silence order, or the subsequent silence order, where he makes an exception if Mr. Trump feels attacked. I don’t remember inserting that void leaves in one or other order of silence.”
On Monday, prosecutors also accused Trump of violating his silence order by targeting key witnesses — Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels — in a trio of Truth Social attacks that the former president posted earlier in April.
A fourth gag-violating post from Truth Social, attacking both Daniels and Cohen, was posted online at 9:12 a.m. Monday — the same morning prosecutor Chris Conroy complained to the judge.
“It’s entirely possible that this was done from this courthouse,” Conroy added.
Blanche countered that Trump had no choice but to retaliate against Daniels and Cohen.
“Both witnesses themselves talked about their testimony in this case, about President Trump’s ongoing re-election, and just constantly made derogatory threats,” Blanche complained of Daniels’ “barrage of attacks” and Cohen.
The judge asked Blanche to file a written response explaining why Trump should not be held in contempt for violating the silence order.
“When you answer,” the judge quipped, “direct me to any part of the initial order of silence or the subsequent order of silence that says there is an exception to the order of silence if M .Trump feels like he’s being attacked.”
The judge paused, then added, with some sarcasm, “I don’t recall putting that anywhere in any of the gag orders.”
4. “Master, it’s important to keep breaks at some point.”
Later in the day — but outside of the pending jury hearing — Merchan chastised Trump’s lawyers as they delayed returning to court after their afternoon break.
“Master, it’s important to keep breaks at some point to keep things moving,” he told Blanche.
“Yes, your honor,” Blanche replied meekly.
“We can bring the jury together so we can continue to move forward.”
5. “You don’t think he should be here at all right now?”
Before court ended for the day – without a single juror being selected – Blanche made one more request of the judge.
He asked if Trump could take off next Thursday to attend the U.S. Supreme Court hearing in another of his criminal cases.
The justices are expected to hear arguments on the former president’s broad claims of immunity that he says protect him from charges brought by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith accusing him of illegally attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The April 25 Supreme Court date was set in early March, but Trump’s lawyers did not raise the issue until Monday.
Joshua Steinglass, one of the prosecutors, told Merchan that Trump should be required to be present for his case in New York — like all other criminal defendants.
“I think we’ve already accommodated the defense enough,” Steinglass said.
Merchan acknowledged that “arguing before the Supreme Court is a big deal,” but “convening a jury of 12 jurors and 6 alternates is also a big deal.”
Blanche protested — saying Trump’s litany of criminal cases against him made his situation “incredibly unusual” — and said he didn’t think Trump “should be here at all right now.”
“Don’t you think he should be here at all right now?” » Merchan asked, incredulous.
Blanche explained that he simply meant that he did not believe the trial should take place during “campaign season.”
“I’ve already ruled on that,” Merchan said. “Your client is charged in New York County Supreme Court. He needs to be here. He doesn’t have to be in Supreme Court.”
“I’ll see him here next week,” he continued.
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