Trump lawyer now the 'focus of his wrath' for being 'insufficiently aggressive'

Last week was dominated by the drama of star witness David Pecker, the former National Enquirer publisher who brought to life for the jury the “catch-and-kill” schemes that prosecutors say were intended to benefit Trump’s campaign. But after he finished his testimony Friday afternoon, we settled into what is likely to be the next phase of the case: getting all the evidence in. That means some less dramatic intervals are ahead. But because the narrative and the stakes were made so clear in week one, week two is likely to sustain the interest of the jury and all of us – even if it may not stop the defendant’s penchant for napping.

Pecker had introduced them to a starry world of celebrities and sex scandals, and an alleged backroom deal with a presidency in the balance. Now we are building the details out, piece by piece. So if last week evoked primetime soaps such as “Dallas” and “Dynasty,” this week promises to be “Columbo”– a police procedural putting together all the clues needed to solve the mystery.

This type of testimony, though technical, is essential: Prosecutors can’t just stand up and assert certain payments were made, or present to the jury a document that has not been authenticated and introduced as evidence. The DA has to establish every factual element, and they will do that through the reams of documents that will be introduced into evidence this week. That proof will also help corroborate the testimony of future witnesses, like former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who arranged hush money payments, and payoff recipient Daniels. And any omissions or misrepresentations in documents also help show the intent to cover up the payment scheme to benefit the campaign.

The testimony of Gary Farro, Cohen’s onetime banker, is emblematic of what we are likely to hear from other witnesses this week. Farro began testifying on Friday after Graff, and the prosecution had him corroborate various bank records related to the formation of the limited liability companies that Cohen created as part of the alleged scheme to bury damaging stories during the presidential campaign.

For example, Assistant District Attorney Rebecca Mangold had Farro verify one record in which Cohen offered a detailed description of the purpose of the limited liability company that he had created to facilitate payments to McDougal, one of those who claimed to have had an affair with Trump – but Cohen omitted any mention about acquiring the rights to her potentially damaging story. Mangold also had Farro verify a bank record for the LLC that Cohen had created to facilitate the payments to Daniels on which Cohen affirmed that the entity was not associated with political fundraising. Prosecutors allege the entity was formed to do the exact opposite: make a payoff to influence an election.

Former President Donald Trump is reportedly very displeased that the attorney representing him in his hush-money trial isn't being belligerent enough in court.

The New York Times reports that attorney Todd Blanche has in recent days become "the focus" of Trump's "episodic wrath" over the hush-money trial, in which he stands accused of falsifying business records to cover up payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

In particular, the Times reports that Trump has been venting in phone calls that Blanche is being "insufficiently aggressive" in his handling of the case.

"He has griped that Mr. Blanche, a former federal prosecutor and veteran litigator, has not been following his instructions closely," reports that Times. "Mr. Trump wants him to attack witnesses, attack what the former president sees as a hostile jury pool, and attack the judge, Juan M. Merchan."

While attacking the pool of jurors who have the power to send him to prison might not seem like the wisest idea, the Times notes that "Mr. Trump views himself as own best legal strategist."

While Trump has complained about Blanche being unwilling to lob attacks at jurors and Judge Merchan, he has also questioned friends about why Blanche is charging him so much money, which the Times notes is relevant because Trump "sometimes refuses to pay" the lawyers who represent him in court.

Trump and his counsel are the masters of delay – trying to squeeze every moment of postponement out of the process that they can. After all, the longer this case goes, the further away they can push the scheduling of any other of the criminal trials against him. Accordingly, Team Trump appears to be forcing the DA team to go step by step.

So the jury may be dealing with a relatively more mundane set of topics on and off over the next few days – but they seem up for seeing it through and even interested. And while the odds that Trump may fall asleep again remain high, he would be wiser to remain alert as prosecutors build their case piece by piece.

'The village idiot knows this'

National security attorney Bradley Moss was flabbergasted at newly released details of what former President Donald Trump's body man Walt Nauta told investigators in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case.

This came after security analyst Marcy Wheeler highlighted key passages in the transcript of Nauta's testimony before the grand jury, where he testified that he had "Yankee White" clearance — a classification that allows people to carry a weapon in the vicinity of the president.

Moss in particular was drawn to a moment when he was asked by assistant U.S. attorneys whether classification markings are "printed ... across the top of a page," to which he responded, "I don't remember."

"Hold the phone. Nauta, only two years removed from government service at the time of this GJ testimony, goes from talking about his clearance level to noting that he doesn’t remember how classification markings work?" wrote Moss. "The village idiot on their first day of security training knows this stuff already."

Classified document markings, as well as the markings of folders containing them, are designed to be as obvious as possible, so that no one with access to them could mistake them for anything else and put them somewhere they aren't supposed to be. An infamous photo dating back to the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago shows folders with impossible-to-miss classified markings.

Nauta is one of two associates of Trump indicted alongside him in the Mar-a-Lago case, the other being country club property manager Carlos de Oliveira, who according to prosecutors tried to help Trump destroy security camera evidence of boxes of classified documents being moved around the property.