(CNN) — Donald Trump is entering the most dangerous phase of his hush money trial, in addition to the moment when the jury retires to consider its verdict.
Former adult film star Stormy Daniels returns to the stand Thursday to continue what has been at times explicit and edgy testimony about her alleged sexual encounter with Trump nearly two decades ago, which set off a winding chain of events that led to the first criminal trial of a former president of the United States. Her testimony Tuesday was deeply embarrassing for Trump and prompted aggressive cross-examination from her attorney seeking to destroy Daniels’ credibility.
Trump spent this Wednesday, a day of rest from the trial, at his home in Florida. He will return deeply in conflict with Judge Juan Merchan, who had previously threatened him with jail if he again violated a silence order that he has already flouted 10 times. Merchan also ordered Trump attorney Todd Blanche to restrain his client after complaining that the defendant had audibly cursed and shook his head during Daniels’ testimony. The judge was concerned that the jury would notice that the witness was being intimidated, something he warned he could not allow to continue.
So far, Trump — who has launched scathing attacks on the judge — has managed to refrain from openly attacking Daniels since she took the stand. But her continued testimony will test him even more. And his appearance is just an appetizer of the explosive evidence expected in the coming days from the biggest star witness, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen. His testimony is likely to be much more relevant to the underlying allegations that Trump falsified business records to cover up a hush money payment from Daniels about the relationship he described Tuesday. Trump denies the matter and has pleaded not guilty in the case.
Cohen at the epicenter of Trump’s world
Cohen — a colorful figure in his own right who often tried to replicate his boss’s bluster, once saying he would “take a bullet” for Trump — facilitated the $130,000 payment to Daniels. The former president, who now views Cohen as a traitor, has spent months trying to destroy his usefulness as a witness by highlighting the time he spent in jail for what a judge once called “a veritable potpourri of fraudulent conduct.”
Daniels’ testimony and an upcoming appearance by Cohen could amount to a forensic excavation of Trump’s past life that he would prefer never see the light of day, and the hush money payment he made before the 2016 election is proof of it. He now surfaces years after the alleged transgressions took place during a new campaign for the White House.
The coming days will therefore require qualities that Trump has always struggled to demonstrate in a hectic life in business and politics: restraint and self-discipline. Any behavior that could be construed as witness intimidation, or an attempt to influence the jury on social media or in the courtroom, could push Merchan beyond the red line he established earlier this week. The judge told Trump that he didn’t want to slap him with prison sentences, which could be as limited as a matter of hours, but that if he had to act to protect the integrity of the trial, he would do so.
Sarah Matthews, Trump’s former White House deputy press secretary, told CNN’s Jim Acosta on Wednesday that the former president’s spirits would be broken after his ordeal in court on Tuesday. “I certainly wouldn’t want to be working on his campaign team or being one of his attorneys right now, given that, I think, he’s more than certainly lashing out at them. He’s upset after that testimony,” Matthews said. .
However, Matthews argued that Trump might temper his reactions in public for fear of consequences, even as he says he is willing to spend time behind bars to reinforce his campaign’s narrative that he is a persecuted political dissident. “I don’t know if we’ll ever see Donald Trump break the gag order again. Look, he has an extreme fear of germs,” Matthews said. “I don’t think he wants to go to jail, honestly. I don’t think he’ll ever get to that in the end. I think he’ll take it to the limit.”
Trump has a history of digging himself into deeper legal holes
Cohen’s time on the stand could be especially unbearable for the former president. Although Daniels’ account of his alleged meeting with her in a Lake Tahoe hotel suite in 2006 was painfully embarrassing, she is not considered to hold the key to the case against him. Prosecutors brought up her story because they needed to explain to jurors why Trump was so keen to cover it up with a cash payment before the 2016 election, which they allege was an attempt to mislead voters and interfere in an election. federal.
But Cohen is the most critical pillar of the entire case: His actions and knowledge cut directly to the question of whether the former president knowingly falsified business records in a way that the prosecution can prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.
Therefore, he can be expected to face even more withering questioning from Trump’s legal team than Daniels. In fact, dismantling his evidence represents Trump’s best hope of introducing doubt into the minds of one or more jurors that could lead to an acquittal.
Trump’s trigger-happy temperament often kicks in when he feels he is being unfairly attacked. And his life’s credo dictates that when he is hit hard, he hits back harder.
His behavior was especially acute during the civil fraud trial against him, his adult children and the Trump Organization, which ended with a nearly $500 million judgment against him. His histrionics reached a fever pitch with extraordinary testimony in his own defense, which at times seemed more like a campaign stunt than a grim judicial proceeding. He consistently trampled on court decorum, prompting Judge Arthur Engoron to once plead with Trump’s lawyer: “I beg you to rein him in if he can.”
Although Trump was not sanctioned, the judge alluded to the former president’s disdain for the case and the rule of law in detailing the massive fraud that was designed so that Trump would receive more favorable treatment from financial institutions. Engoron said of Trump and his children that “their total lack of contrition and remorse borders on the pathological.” In another case, Trump’s continued attacks on writer E. Jean Carroll following a defamation trial influenced the size of an $83 million judgment against her.
The parallels are not exact in Trump’s first criminal trial. Trump is not on the stand, so he has fewer opportunities to challenge Merchan’s authority over the court. (Many legal experts believe that any attempt by Trump to honor his vows to testify in his own defense would be a daunting legal mistake.) At the same time, however, the presence of a jury in this case means that he has even less room to behave badly, especially after Merchan’s two warnings put him in an even more delicate situation.
A former president who built his personal brand on always being the most dominant figure in the room has been slow to realize that his displays of contempt in the room continue to get him into trouble. The coming days of the hush money scandal trial will show whether that has changed.
