Cohen cross examination: " Two jurors looked at each other and grinned."

[emulatorloo]

Blanche starts by focusing on name calling

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/live-blog/trump-hush-money-trial-day-17-michael-cohen-live-updates-rcna151899/rcrd41680?canonicalCard=true

Adam Edelman and Gary Grumbach

Blanche began his cross-examination of Cohen with an unusual, expletive-laden introduction.

“Mr. Cohen, my name is Todd Blanche,” Blanche said. But, he added, “You went on TikTok and called me a ‘crying little s---.’”

“Sounds like something I would say,” Cohen said.

The prosecution immediately objected, which the judge agreed with and asked that the question be stricken.

Two jurors looked at each other and grinned.

Uncsnsored version from

Post by @gtconway3dg

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"Mr. Cohen, my name is Todd Blanche," he begins. They've never met but Blanche says you know me, right? "You went on Tiktok and called me a crying little shit?"
"Sounds like something I would say," Cohen spits back.

[Traurigkeit]

1. Todd Blanche really really really would rather be at the bottom of ocean right now

[Irish_Dem]

8. I don't see how he can look any more depressed.

As depicted in those pictures with him standing outside the courthouse next to Trump.
I think he looks like he wants to jump off a bridge.

His family needs to do a wellness check.

[LiberalFighter]

18. The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore?

[Irish_Dem]

19. Instead I suggest the Trump attorneys get into a rehab program.

After this ordeal they are going to need some serious help.

[TomSlick]

44. They'll be fine.

Win or lose, they will be darlings of the GOP. They will have their choice of clients.

Lawyers often finding themselves representing clients they don't like. In the words of Professor Prosser:

Your lawyer in practice spends a considerable part of his life in doing distasteful things for disagreeable people who must be satisfied against an impossible time limit in which are hourly interruptions from other disagreeable people who want to derail the train; and for his blood, sweat, and tears, he receives in the end a few unkind words to the effect that it might have been done better, and a protest at the size of the fee.

[Irish_Dem]

45. You are probably correct.

I would not let these attorneys help me fill out a small claims court form.

The good professor nailed it.

[TomSlick]

46. Professor William Prosser is THE expert in tort law in the US fifty-odd years after his death.

Prosser on Torts, now Prosser and Keaton on Torts is the definitive tome in the area.

[Irish_Dem]

47. Amazing to be the gold standard in any field for so long.

I looked him up in wiki.

Brilliant, witty, sophisticated.
Made a significant contribution to his profession.

His description of life in the trenches for an attorney is accurate, sad, and funny
at the same time.

I would love to have been a student in his class.

[TomSlick]

48. As a rule, books in a law office are all out of date and just there for looks.

Legal research is all done on computers now. Nevertheless, I will have a current edition of Prosser and Keaton as long as I practice law.

[Irish_Dem]

49. Prosser would be happy to see that 50 years after his death,

practicing attorneys view his work as one of the legal bibles they keep at hand.
Even in the computer age.

[et tu]

25. the deep part lol nt

[ShazzieB]

36. Preferably one that's still actually standing, so he can hit the water from the maximum altitude. 😜

Fortunately, he's in Manhattan, so he has plenty to choose from: Brooklyn Bridge, Queensborough Bridge,
Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, the list goes on and on.

[hlthe2b]

2. I have no way of knowing but if I were to hazard a guess, they were grinning because they agreed with

the comment toward Blanche--who has not exactly endeared himself to anyone in this trial. It has to be obvious to the jury that the judge has slapped him down repeatedly so...

My guess only...

[emulatorloo]

6. Agreed. Cohen's description fits Blanche perfectly. Gonna be an interesting cross examination.

I added the uncensored version to the OP.

[ancianita]

23. Per Politico, Merchan called the lawyers to a sidebar and struck Blanche's question from the record.

[ShazzieB]

37. My guess as well.

When I read that, my first thought was, "Oh, looks like at least some of the jurors have pegged Blanche as a jerk."

[Tree Lady]

3. You kind of become friends

eating lunch together and talking about family, work, not the case.

I have been on a few juries. One lady brought us homemade tamales for lunch.

[gab13by13]

4. 2 guilty votes, 10 to go, IMO

[rubbersole]

35. This jury could convict.

Trying to 'hold out' after the humiliation tsf has suffered from the evidence and 1st hand testimony...plus there are two lawyers on the jury. Maybe I'm dreaming, but I wouldn't want to be a juror saying "I'm just not sure.."

[dem4decades]

5. Sounds to me that Cohen was telling the truth twice. Once when he said it and the second when he said it sounded like

him.

Shouldn't the cross be trying to prove Cohen a liar and not a truth teller?

[Irish_Dem]

9. Exactly. Cohen gets points for telling the truth.

[BeyondGeography]

7. Giving a New Yorker an opening like that...I've heard of smarter things

[Irish_Dem]

20. They did the same with Stormy too.

Gave her the set up lines so she could mow them down.

Trump's attorneys think everyone is stupid.

They don't know how to handle people who are smarter than they are.

[ananda]

28. I think Magats only hang around with other Magats.

So they wouldn't know intelliigence if it bit them in the....

[Irish_Dem]

30. Good point.

They are surrounded by yes men who only say what Trump wants to hear.
They cannot handle normal people.

[ArkansasDemocrat1]

39. I don't know any other than family now n/t

[Irish_Dem]

10. Cohen eats Blanche's lunch right out of the gate.

Amazing.

The jury loved it.

[senseandsensibility]

11. Is it just me or is Blanche

coming across like his client, thin-skinned and someone who can dish it out but can't take it?

[orange jar]

12. bad news for Blanche imo

Reads to me like some of the jury doesn't take Blanche seriously (nor should they). Good. Hopefully he loses his credibility among the other jurors.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. Better response might have been "prove me wrong" (nt)

[republianmushroom]

14. Does the shoe fit, Blanche, if, so, maybe you are a crying little shit ?

[Rob H.]

15. Laughed at this exchange

Somehow I don't think Cohen is that impressed with Blanche.

"Have you regularly commented on your podcasts that you want President Trump to be convicted in this case?" Blanche asks.

"Yes, probably," Cohen says.

"Do you have any doubt?" Blanche responds.

"No," Cohen says.

Asked why he answered it that way, Cohen says, "Because I don’t specifically know if I used those words but yes I would like to see that."

"Do you want to see President Trump convicted in this case?" Blanche asks.

"Sure," Cohen says.

Blanche follows up and asks him to answer the question "yes" or "no."

Cohen responds, "Sure."

[littlemissmartypants]

26. Ditto. ❤️

[LymphocyteLover]

40. LOL!

[Johonny]

16. Dont ask questions you dont want answers to

That's like legal 101.

[Tom of Temecula]

17. "Sounds like something I would say"

Cohen is hardly alone on that one.

[Barry Markson]

21. Calculated for an appeal of trump's gag order

And just more fodder for an appeal of a conviction.

[Traurigkeit]

24. Appellate Division of NYS judges will have a laugher when they read through this

Supreme Court of the State of New York
NYCourts.gov
Appellate Division, First Judicial Department
Hon. Dianne T. Renwick, Presiding Justice
Susanna Molina Rojas, Clerk of the Court

[Ping Tung]

22. Blanche was actually objecting to the word "little" which he considered to be sexist.

[ancianita]

27. While shut-eyed Trump defies the process, Todd Blanche talks to Cohen like a prosecutor. Because that's his goal.

Now court is adjourned for the day.

But in the last minutes of cross, Blanche seemed to be scattershot in portraying the contradictory and lying behavior of Cohen around Trump, attempting to discredit even Cohen's honesty.

Blanche raised a number of harsh criticisms Cohen lobbed at Trump on his podcast after he was released from prison to home confinement because of the coronavirus in 2020. The broadsides included calling Trump:

A boorish cartoon misogynist
A Cheeto-dusted cartoon villain
And the statement: “I truly fucking hope this man ends up in prison"
Blanche then played a recording of Cohen’s “Mea Culpa” podcast through headphones on the witness stand. The clip has not yet been played in open court.

When Blanche questioned Cohen about the clip, prosecutors objected, but Justice Merchan overruled the objection. In response to the objection, Blanche said: “Sorry for speaking.”

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2024/05/14/trump-hush-money-criminal-trial/more-of-cohens-trump-comments-00157973

[viva la]

31. He's doing the same self-revealing tactic Neckeles used--

Telling the jury what a monster Trump is.

"Do you admit that you called Mr. Trump the mushroom of the month?"
"Yeah. And I also called him the onion-skinned artichoke. And--"

I mean, what exactly do they expect the jury to get out of this? I suppose it's that these witnesses are biased? I don't think that's the most likely response.

[ancianita]

32. Agree. He's prosecuting Cohen to distract from the fact of the smoking gun document. It won't work

with this jury.

[3Hotdogs]

38. I hope that Cohen gets asked if he referred to Trump as Von Shitzenpantz.

I would love to see the courtroom drawing of Anal Fistula's face on that one.

[ancianita]

42. Did he?? I thought that came from somewhere else.

[ancianita]

43. Ah, he did! I thought it was Jimmy Kimmel.

Blanche won't, though, because Marchan just struck the first "shit" reference from the court record.

[SunSeeker]

29. Terrible way to open the cross-examination. This isn't about you, Blanche!

Pundits on MSNBC's Deadline White House are saying the word among the courtroom observers is that Blanche is bombing.

[Oopsie Daisy]

33. He's the one who grimaces while standing behind Trump as he rages outside the courtroom *

* yeah... Blanche is TOTALLY a "crying little shit."

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

34. LOL!! I LOVE IT!!

[czarjak]

41. Good lawyers pound the facts.

Todd.

[peppertree]

50. Mike Cohen is as New York as they come

I grew up in Mi'ssippi - where the smiling backstab was more common.

When they slithered toward you, and oozed out an "Oh, hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!" - you knew something was up.