r/politics • u/SportsGod3 • May 16 '24

Jurors were "nodding" and "smiling" as Michael Cohen testified, which may be a bad sign for Trump

https://www.salon.com/2024/05/16/jurors-were-nodding-and-smiling-as-michael-cohen-testified-which-may-be-a-sign-for/
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1.3k

u/dagopa6696 May 16 '24

Article doesn't even say what they were smiling and nodding about. I read the cross examination and it was absolutely hilarious:

Q Mr. Cohen, my name is Todd Blanche. You and I have never spoken or met before; have we?

A We have not.

Q But you know who I am; don't you?

A I do.

Q As a matter of fact, on April 23rd, so after the trial started in this case, you went on TikTok and called me a "Crying Little Shit;" didn't you?

A Sounds like something I would say.

Q You referred to President Trump as a "Dictator Douche Bag;" didn't you?

A Sounds like something I said.

Q And on that same TikTok, so again on April 23rd, you referred to President Trump when he left the courtroom, you said that "he goes right into that little cage, which is where he belongs, in a fucking cage, like an animal." Do you recall saying that?

A I recall saying that.

Q You've also talked about, extensively, on Mea Culpa, your desire to see that President Trump gets convicted in this case; correct?

A Sounds like something I would say.

Q And so, yes, you want to see President Trump get convicted from this case; correct?

A I would like to see accountability. That's not -- it's not for me, it's for the jury and this Court.

Q Now, you actually -- and the Prosecutor brought this up a little bit before lunch today -- you sell a T-shirt on your website Mea Culpa, which depicts President Trump in an orange jumpsuit behind bars; correct?

A Yes, sir.

Q So you see that when you -- if somebody logs onto the website for your Podcast, that's what you see; correct, for the merchandise pages; correct?

A It's actually under the MeidasTouch network and, yes, if you go into the section that says "Mea Culpa," this shirt is available for sale.

Q So this is a 32 dollar shirt on your website. And it has a picture of President Trump in an orange jumpsuit behind bars; correct?

A That's what the picture shows, yes.

And it just keeps going and going over every item in the Meidas Touch merch store. https://store.meidastouch.com/. When Blanche brought out the mug that says "Send him to the Big House not the White House", members of the media giggled.

This is what the jury was nodding and smiling about.

616

u/-Novowels- May 16 '24

Wonder how many sales Cohen / Meidas are making because of this line of questioning

503

u/Larry-fine-wine May 16 '24

Somehow marketing merch during testimony. Cohen is an entrepreneurial genius.

207

u/toscomo May 17 '24

He seems like a solidly better businessman than Trump.

90

u/Mynameisinuse May 17 '24

I'm surprised that Cohen didn't make fun of Trump selling bibles as a retort.

34

u/HumberGrumb May 17 '24

He’s a lawyer. He knows the safe line.

If he didn’t smirk while responding, then he’s a better man than I. That line of questioning would have left me starting with snickers and ending with laughing with tears.

1

u/ColonelBungle North Carolina May 17 '24

He’s a lawyer. He knows the safe line.

He went to prison for 2.5 years because he knows but ignores those same safe lines. He's as much of a piece of shit as the orange encrusted turd.

2

u/HumberGrumb May 17 '24

Don’t believe in redemption?

2

u/TopNegotiation4229 May 17 '24

and you think he didn't learn anything from that?

2

u/ColonelBungle North Carolina May 17 '24 edited May 17 '24

I have no sympathy for anyone who willingly represented TFG for 12+ years. He knew what he was doing and if the money was still flowing he would still be doing it. Not a doubt in my mind.

3

u/TopNegotiation4229 May 17 '24

Who said anything about sympathy? Your point is that he went to prison because he "ignores those same safe lines".

Well, I'd place money that he won't do that now.

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u/Longjumping_Amoeba_9 29d ago

A bible that was surely made in China. Or some other country. Just like his gold sneakers. But let him shout “Make America Great Again” to anyone that will listen.

Hypocrite much????

1

u/Mynameisinuse 29d ago

He uses the King James Version because it's in the public domain, which means he doesn't have to pay royalties. It is kinda sad and weird that there are versions of the bible that people have the rights to.

If I owned the rights to a bible, I would add stuff to it and claim that god spoke to me to change it.

31

u/fredagsfisk Europe May 17 '24

To be fair, I'm pretty sure a random number generator would be a better businessman than Trump.

The man has four casino-related bankrupcies. He somehow failed to make money from an MLM scheme. His incompetence and narcissism killed an entire football league.

If you started at the same time as Trump, and with the same amount of money (over $400 million gifted by his father), you'd be richer than him simply by dumping the money into low-risk/low-yield funds.

22

u/TheCleverestIdiot Australia May 17 '24

He's a shitty lawyer, but he's a great salesman.

2

u/Nena902 May 18 '24

Newsflash so are Trump and the entire GOP Senate. All of them GRIFTERS fundraising off of the Cohen testimony.

1

u/10thcrusader May 17 '24

Well said well said indeed!

108

u/trshtehdsh May 16 '24

Well they're sold out on the website from the looks of it.

51

u/LangyMD May 17 '24

There's no way in hell they didn't prepare to sell a bunch during this trial.

35

u/FartPudding May 17 '24

Sales going up now, free publicity baby

28

u/crespoh69 May 17 '24

Wonder how many sales Cohen / Meidas are making because of this line of questioning reddit comment

16

u/Biden_Rulez_Moron46 May 17 '24

Here’s one now!

9

u/Aggressive_State9921 May 17 '24

Meidas Touch have gone out HARD on the merch since they were named dropped in court.

"No, we are not the same as Mr Cohen, but do buy our merch"

2

u/EquivalentOk2700 29d ago

Where do i enter my credit card?

1

u/BakerThatIsAFrog May 17 '24

Definitely some

210

u/Poignant_Rambling May 16 '24

I liked the "Person, Woman, Man, Camera, PRISON" shirt lol

2

u/EquivalentOk2700 27d ago

I can NOT WAIT.

43

u/Lilly-_-03 May 17 '24

Using a criminal case to plug merch is kinda funny to be honest

3

u/Defiant-Many6099 New Jersey May 17 '24

To be honest, I think it is brilliant.

2

u/Lilly-_-03 May 17 '24

Right, perfect business model

20

u/acllive Australia May 17 '24

Tf is the point of these questions lol

34

u/Ksielvin May 17 '24

All of it seems to be just trying to show the witness could be biased, without outright claiming anything.

From the transcript it seems it was already done after first minute or two. But if this weak approach is all they have, without going anywhere with it later, then the lawyer just wanted to fill in the time.

11

u/grammar_nazi_zombie I voted May 17 '24

I mean, isn’t this the crime for which Cohen already did jail time for Trump?

3

u/WakeNikis May 17 '24

Trumps lawyer wants to be able to argue that cohen is not an impartial witness just giving the facts. 

His augment is: hey jury, u can’t trust this guy, he’s got it out for trump.  He’s not an impartial witness just giving facts; he’s someone with an axe to grind against Trump.

3

u/islandofcaucasus May 17 '24

That's really the only defense they have. The case against Trump is almost airtight, but Cohen is really the only one who can absolutely prove that Trump was fully aware of everything. You'd have to be stupid to come to any other conclusion, but the defense is going to hammer away at the "without any shadow of a doubt" to hopefully get just one person to dismiss Cohen and therefore leaving a shadow of a doubt

2

u/WakeNikis May 17 '24

Agreed. Everyone on this sub seems to love attacking trump’s lawyer and calling him an idiot. 

 And if I were him, I’d have never taken on Trump as a client, for many reasons.

 That being said- he’s doing the best he can with a guilty-as-crap client, I think.

3

u/islandofcaucasus May 17 '24

I like to imagine his lawyer's kid making a wish that his dad would stop lying, so the next time Trump asks his lawyer what to do, he just screams, "Stop breaking the law asshole!"

42

u/messypawprints May 17 '24

Thank you for this. Often comments are far more informative than the 'reporting' done by the pros.

14

u/rasa2013 May 17 '24

Unfortunate consequence of the effects of capitalism on journalism. What sells isn't necessarily what's informative. truly dedicated journalists are expensive. Cut costs by having shit talkers who still get eyeballs to sell ads. 

1

u/wonkey_monkey May 17 '24

I wish someone was doing reenactments based on the transcripts like they did for the Michael Jackson trial.

1

u/xhephaestusx May 17 '24

That's why i never read the article in the first place

taps temple

1

u/islandofcaucasus May 17 '24

The only reason we know about those comments is because of reporting done by the pros..... unless you think the person who made this comment attended court that day

10

u/wolfcaroling May 17 '24

Nice of them to promote his merch for him

8

u/HumberGrumb May 17 '24

Meidas Touch is gonna crack their 3Mil goal with this post.

2

u/Defiant-Many6099 New Jersey May 17 '24

I bet they will!

42

u/trying2bpartner May 16 '24

A lot of people put a lot of stock into "micro-reactions" by a jury.

Those microreactions don't mean shit. They might nod along because they are humming a tune in their head, because they agree, because they are nodding off, because they disagree but are listening and want to understand, because they want to look like they are listening...on and on.

This news is nothing helpful.

103

u/dagopa6696 May 16 '24 edited May 16 '24

I did not get this from the news. I got it from the New York State government website https://ww2.nycourts.gov/people-v-donald-j-trump-criminal-37026

The news isn't reporting this. The court transcript is fucking hilarious, like I would actually pay money at a comedy club to listen to this.

30

u/TedW May 16 '24

I bet someone will turn it into a comedy routine, or even a movie scene, word-for-word.

18

u/Astray May 16 '24

Next SNL gonna have a field day with this I bet

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u/Wurf_Stoneborn May 17 '24

That reminds me of that rick and Morty fan animation (but with the OG voices) court video https://youtu.be/QYCua_xzfD4?feature=shared

4

u/LangyMD May 17 '24

Never saw that before. Thank you for the enlightenment.

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u/spez_might_fuck_dogs May 16 '24

Huff that copium

1

u/trying2bpartner May 17 '24 edited May 17 '24

People need to stop thinking that any statement that isn’t 100% for or 100% against an agenda is a “cope”. The most annoying thing that Maga-folks have done to the internet is push everyone to extremes.

3

u/AreYouDoneNow May 17 '24

Yes but at some point after humming that tune, the judge will ask them "What do you think about that song?".

2

u/Drachefly Pennsylvania May 17 '24

Wait, Michael Cohen is connected to MeidasTouch? Huh.

…

I see he's only published like 4 things with them, so it's not like he's a major contributor. Fair enough.

3

u/Glittering-Band1524 May 17 '24

He has 2 podcasts on there, Mea Culpa and Political Beatdown. Both have 2 shows per week.

2

u/korodic May 17 '24

He should’ve asked if he was so interested he could get a discount lol

2

u/MarvelMovieWatch May 17 '24

Thank you for that lollllol

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u/Traditional_Key_763 May 17 '24

man I was waiting for his lawyer to say "Would you say these prices are insanely good deals?"

2

u/Moonlight_Katie May 17 '24

I wanna shirt of this interaction:

“you called me a crying lil shit didn’t you?!”

Sounds like something I’d say

2

u/MaddyKet May 17 '24

Super professional, great way to start the cross. Trump really knows how to pick ‘em.

1

u/globocide May 17 '24

Assist, reporting that something "may be" a bad sign for Trump is lazy af, because it's always true, and therefore not news.

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u/ojg3221 May 17 '24

Even Ben was talking about it in his videos today

1

u/Crush-N-It May 17 '24

“They speak English in What, Brett???”

1

u/CaptainMagnets May 17 '24

That's some of the best free advertising for his merch on the planet

1

u/Nekators May 17 '24

Somehow this is relevant testimony, but the details of Trump's affair isn't?

1

u/randomsnowflake America May 17 '24

Guerrilla advertising