ooohhhhh, THAT call...

Quote:

---

The jurors are now seeing the text exchange between Keith Schiller and Michael Cohen.

Reports in court are not seeing the exchange because the phone numbers have not been redacted on the exhibit.

---

Quote:

---

Trump attorney Todd Blanche has pulled up a call log from around the time of some pivotal conversations involving Michael Cohen, Donald Trump and Trump's former bodyguard Keith Schiller.

Blanche is asking Cohen to confirm that when he called Schiller on one occasion, the intent of the phone call was actually to speak to Trump about the Stormy Daniels deal.

---

Quote:

---

Defense attorney Todd Blanche is asking Michael Cohen about a number of harassing calls Cohen was receiving around the same time he testified before the grand jury.
"Do you remember that on the 24th at around 7 p.m. at night the person who was harassing you forgot to block their number and you got their number," Blanche asks.
"No sir," Cohen said.
"Let me show you," Blanche says as he begins to cite a text message.
According to Blanche, Cohen texted that the person, "Would have to explain to the Secret Service." And the person replied, "I'm 14, please don't do this."
"Do you recall at 7:48 p.m. texting Keith Schiller about this 14-year-old," Blanche asks.
"I don't recall," Cohen says.
He says Cohen asked who he should speak to, and Schiller, Trump's former bodyguard, replied at 8:02 p.m., according to Blanche, telling Cohen to call him.

---

Quote:

---

The court has been dismissed for a lunch break.

Michael Cohen will continue to be cross-examined by the defense when the court returns.

---

Trump's lawyer Blanche: You are lying.
Cohen: Based on the records I think I spoke about both.
Blanche: We are not asking for your belief. This jury does not want to hear about what you think happened
Prosecutor: Objection!
Justice Merchan: Sustained.

— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) May 16, 2024

Blanche raising his voice again, questioning Cohen about this potential lie. Blanche’s voice cracking, again asking Cohen if that was a lie.

Cohen denies.

My Note: I worked with Keith Schiller, I find it very hard to believe that Keith would have decided to tell Cohen to call…

— Andrew H. Giuliani (@AndrewHGiuliani) May 16, 2024

Rest of the tweet.

Quote:

---

My Note: I worked with Keith Schiller, I find it very hard to believe that Keith would have decided to tell Cohen to call him to deal with this 14 year old matter while he was in the same room as President Trump. Keith would have gone to a separate room so as not to disturb or distract President Trump. Reminder, this was a 96 second call!

---

Trump's lawyer Blanche: The people's chart omitted your texts with Keith Schiller - you claim you were telling the truth on Tuesday?
Cohen: Based on the documents.
Blanche: So you testified off documents the People gave me, and not your own memory?

— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) May 16, 2024

Quote:

---

Blanche: So you testified off documents the People gave me, and not your own memory?

---

Let's see the documents and put those in evidence.

Quote:

---

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is pressing Michael Cohen over his prior testimony that he had spoken to Donald Trump about resolving the Stormy Daniels hush money payment in an October 2016 phone call.
Blanche has been showing text messages and a call log that he says indicate Cohen was asking Trump's bodyguard Keith Schiller for help with harassment he was receiving not calling Schiller in order to speak with Trump about Daniels, as he testified Monday.
Cohen insists that while "part of" the correspondence was regarding the harassment, "I know that Keith was with Mr. Trump at the time and there was more potentially than this."
Blanche asks skeptically whether Cohen really "had enough time to update Schiller about all the (harassment) problems you were having and also update President Trump about the status of the Stormy Daniels situation, because you had to keep him informed."

Quote:

---

"I always ran everything by the boss immediately, and in this case it would have been saying, 'Everything been taken care of it's been resolved,'" Cohen says, maintaining his composure.

---

Cohen says he testified about the nature of the call, "Based upon what was going on, and based upon the text messages and so on based on the other text messages about the Stormy Daniels matter."
Blanche challenged Cohen to confirm that his trial testimony was based on the material prosecutors showed him in preparation for questioning, not his own recollection.
"Yes, that refreshed my recollection," Cohen said calmly.
Some context: The defense was expected to challenge Cohen's recollection of this phone call in a substantial effort to undercut his credibility.
Blanche grew animated during this portion of questioning, flailing his arms and speaking in a high-pitched tone.

---

Quote:

---

Michael Cohen has been testifying under cross-examination for a little over four and a half hours over two days.

---

Quote:

---

Michael Cohen delved into the role he wanted to have working for Trump and how the logistics played out in the hush money payment. The cross-examination continued until the court lunch break.
Here are the highlights of his testimony:
Which White House role: Cohen reiterated he wanted to be considered for Trump's chief of staff for "ego" purposes, as he testified earlier, but he said that wasn't the position he wanted. He said he asked Trump for a personal attorney to the president role, adding that he had wanted a hybrid role with access to Trump but also outside the government.
Using AI to make fake legal cases: Cohen admitted to submitting fake legal cases, generated by AI, to support his application for early termination of supervised release. The defense confirmed Cohen had been disbarred and was no longer a lawyer at the time he provided his attorneys with the fake cases.
Hush money payment: The defense asked Cohen about the logistics of the hush money payment at the center of the case. Here are some key points in the exchange between Cohen and the defense:

• Cohen had testified that he told Trump in a 2016 call that the Stormy Daniels hush money payment was funded, and the issue was resolved.
• Cohen said he was receiving multiple harassing phone calls from a 14-year-old around the same time he testified before the grand jury.
• The defense showed call logs and text messages to show Cohen was asking Trump's former bodyguard Keith Schiller for help with harassment he was experiencing, as opposed to talking about the Stormy Daniels deal he testified about.

---

aggiehawg said:

---

Rest of the tweet.

Quote:

---

My Note: I worked with Keith Schiller, I find it very hard to believe that Keith would have decided to tell Cohen to call him to deal with this 14 year old matter while he was in the same room as President Trump. Keith would have gone to a separate room so as not to disturb or distract President Trump. Reminder, this was a 96 second call!

---

---

Lol. One thing I've learned about this trial is that everyone involved is very vindictive. I could actually see this conversation happening:

Cohen: Mr. President. I've got a situation. BigDEnergy13875 is harassing me. I've tracked him down and it's this 14 year kid in Kansas

Trump: F' BigDEnergy13875. You want me to send the Marines to his house?

Cohen: No, Secret Service will be fine

Trump: Alright. It's done. That kid has no idea what's about to happen to him.

Quote:

---

Michael Cohen's testimony about an October 2016 call with Keith Schiller and Donald Trump gets at the core of the case and could potentially be problematic for prosecutors, CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said.
"Michael Cohen on his direct testimony said, 'I had this phone call in late October of 2016, I called Keith Schiller and he patched me through to Trump, I don't remember if he put me on speaker but I was speaking to the two of them and I told them then that Stormy Daniels had been paid and the matter was resolved.' Right? We've been asking, 'When are they going to go with the core?' This is the core the case," Honig explained.
He added that Trump's attorney Todd Blanche then raised two points regarding this testimony.
First, the texts leading up to the call that day show that Cohen texted Schiller nothing about Daniels, but about instead about a 14-year-old who was harassing him.

Quote:

---

Second, Cohen never mentioned in previous testimony that this call was about Daniels, including a prior grand jury testimony and extensive statements he's given to the district attorney.

---

"If that's a the case, it's a big problem," Honig said.

---

Gee, you think?

Tramp96 said:

---

PA24 said:

---

Jury will convict IMO, community service at a minimum to take him off the trail. My guess is the travel restrictions will interfere with the scheduled debate date.

---

But the million dollar question is...what will they convict him of?

---

Whatever the state instructs them to

I think, how did this dumbass become trump's lawyer?

Then I think, maybe he was pretty good, but when you get greedy and lie like a dog, and have to lie to cover up lies, you are going to eff up and you cant remember your lies.

aggiehawg said:

---

Quote:

---

Michael Cohen's testimony about an October 2016 call with Keith Schiller and Donald Trump gets at the core of the case and could potentially be problematic for prosecutors, CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said.
"Michael Cohen on his direct testimony said, 'I had this phone call in late October of 2016, I called Keith Schiller and he patched me through to Trump, I don't remember if he put me on speaker but I was speaking to the two of them and I told them then that Stormy Daniels had been paid and the matter was resolved.' Right? We've been asking, 'When are they going to go with the core?' This is the core the case," Honig explained.
He added that Trump's attorney Todd Blanche then raised two points regarding this testimony.
First, the texts leading up to the call that day show that Cohen texted Schiller nothing about Daniels, but about instead about a 14-year-old who was harassing him.

Quote:

---

Second, Cohen never mentioned in previous testimony that this call was about Daniels, including a prior grand jury testimony and extensive statements he's given to the district attorney.

---

"If that's a the case, it's a big problem," Honig said.

---

Gee, you think?

---

It would be the most amusing part of this case to me if that call was on speaker phone, and the defense calls Schiller to describe how Cohen was complaining about harassment from a 14 year old. Heck, it may not have been on speaker but Schiller could describe the half of the conversation he heard.

Edit: am I understanding it correctly that this phone call is one of the key points of the prosecution's theory of the case?

Ducks4brkfast said:

---

The absolute shift in tone on CNN and MSNBC is incredible. They are absolutely shook by today's testimony. MSNBC said Tuesday caused body bruising to Cohen and today there's actual blood.

---

that may be the case, but juries can be stupid/manipulated.

Ducks4brkfast said:

---

The absolute shift in tone on CNN and MSNBC is incredible. They are absolutely shook by today's testimony. MSNBC said Tuesday caused body bruising to Cohen and today there's actual blood.

---

This is why for the life of me can't fathom that Cohen will be the final witness in the state's case in chief.

State will not be able to rehabilitate him much if at all on redirect. And they are not that stupid, they know Bob Costello is waiting in the wings to finish the destruction of Cohen's contrived story.

So how did Costello get into this position? SDNY was investigating Cohen in early 2018 with the raid of his home, offices and hotel room in April 2018. Costello is contacted to meet with Cohen at the Regency Hotel a few days after the raid. Costello asks Cohen if he had anything on Trump with which to trade with the SDNY? Cohen repeatedly tells him he does not. But at the same time, Cohen tells him he's suicidal and considered jumping off of the roof of the hotel.

A few months later by July 2018, Cohen has other counsel, Guy Petrillo and Lanny Davis. He changes his story to them saying that Costello in conjunction with Giuliani pressured him to maintain the Trump-didn't-know narrative, dangling a pardon among other types of protection if he stayed on the Trump Team.

Davis and Petrillo report that to SDNY. SDNY says that in order to investigate Cohen's new claims, he will have to formally waive attorney client privilege as to Costello. Now Cohen is trapped and has to agree so he does.

Costello is advised of the waiver and called into SDNY to be interviewed by US Attorneys and FBI agents. He bring all of his emails and text messages from the eriod in which he was Cohen's attorney with him. After a few hours, the US Attorneys and FBI agents are laughing with Costello as it is clear that Cohen is lying and has nothing to offer them regarding Trumpto offset the other tax, bank fraud and other potential charges unrelated to Trump.

So that's how Costello has become the potential star witness for the defense. Self-inflicted error on Cohen's part. (And orchestrated by Clinton crony Lanny Davis.)

I realize Blanche wants to be as thorough as possible in laying out the case that Cohen is a habitual liar and his testimony can't be trusted, but isn't there a point of diminishing returns when it comes to keeping the jury's focus?

Yes, there are two attorneys on the jury, but the rest are common folk like me. There has to be a sweet spot on the bell curve between being thorough and losing the jury, right?

Quote:

---

Judge Juan Merchan is back on the bench and the court is in session.

---

You generally want a cross exam to be short. Hit the key points and move on with a bloodied witness.

Cohen offers so much material though.

At what point do we find out that Cohen was doing Stormy on his own, and this is all an elaborate ruse to save his marriage?

Tramp96 said:

---

I realize Blanche wants to be as thorough as possible in laying out the case that Cohen is a habitual liar and his testimony can't be trusted, but isn't there a point of diminishing returns when it comes to keeping the jury's focus?

Yes, there are two attorneys on the jury, but the rest are common folk like me. There has to be a sweet spot on the bell curve between being thorough and losing the jury, right?

---

Remember when I was saying Merchan may not allow the defense to call Costello? Or maybe severely limiting his proposed testimony? Blanche has to walk that fine line risking pissing off the jury but also ratcheting up the pressure on Merchan to allow Costello to testify without limitations.

So in effect, Blanche is playing to two audiences, the jury and the judge. If that makes sense.

aggiehawg said:

---

Tramp96 said:

---

I realize Blanche wants to be as thorough as possible in laying out the case that Cohen is a habitual liar and his testimony can't be trusted, but isn't there a point of diminishing returns when it comes to keeping the jury's focus?

Yes, there are two attorneys on the jury, but the rest are common folk like me. There has to be a sweet spot on the bell curve between being thorough and losing the jury, right?

---

Remember when I was saying Merchan may not allow the defense to call Costello? Or maybe severely limiting his proposed testimony? Blanche has to walk that fine line risking pissing off the jury but also ratcheting up the pressure on Merchan to allow Costello to testify without limitations.

So in effect, Blanche is playing to two audiences, the jury and the judge. If that makes sense.

---

It does...thanks!

Quote:

---

Prosecutors are asking Judge Juan Merchan to clarify the record over the questions about the unsealing of the Trump indictment, arguing that attorney Todd Blanche's questions had suggested there was an impropriety with the district attorney's office over an apparent leaking of the indictment.

Merchan says he's going to give Blanche the chance to clean up the potential for misunderstanding by the jury before deciding whether he needs to give a curative instruction.

---

Quote:

---

Judge Juan Merchan just said a juror has told the court they have an appointment next Thursday at 1:30 p.m. ET.

Merchan is going to inquire further with that juror and said he'd take one attorney from each side with him during the break.

---

Quote:

---

Michael Cohen is back on the stand. Trump attorney Todd Blanche is questioning him.

---

BMX Bandit said:

---

Owlagdad said:

---

I think, how did this dumbass become trump's lawyer?

Then I think, maybe he was pretty good, but when you get greedy and lie like a dog, and have to lie to cover up lies, you are going to eff up and you cant remember your lies.

---

He fits right in there with most of Trump's hires.

Cohen was a butt kissing buffoon. No doubt Trump has very good trial lawyers here, but this is like taking candy from a baby with this loser.

---

I'd argue that the worst of Trumps hires/appointments while president were often (yes butt kissers) but based on suggestions and advice from political advisors around him. Take Wray as just one example. That's one thing I hope if he gets a second term is he makes his own choices without any suggestion from "political" hack advisors.

Quote:

---

Trump attorney Todd Blanche begins by asking Michael Cohen whether he has any evidence that "anyone at the DA improperly leaked or even leaked at all" the indictment before it was unsealed.
"No sir," Cohen says.
Blanche continues asking about the indictment and the judge asks the lawyers to briefly approach. He's back at the podium.
Blanche reminds Cohen that he went on TV that day.
"When you did those interviews, the indictment was unsealed by the court, correct?" Blanche asks.
"I had read through the New York Times article," Cohen says.
"By the time you went on CNN, it was public, correct?" Blanche asks.
"Yes," Cohen says.

---

aggiehawg said:

---

Quote:

---

Judge Juan Merchan just said a juror has told the court they have an appointment next Thursday at 1:30 p.m. ET.

Merchan is going to inquire further with that juror and said he'd take one attorney from each side with him during the break.

---

---

Yet we couldn't have a break in the trial for Trump to attend his sons HS graduation...I'm sure will get a day off though for this...

Quote:

---

The jury is now seeing the text exchange Michael Cohen had with a 14-year-old who he says was harassing him by phone in 2016.
Cohen testified earlier that the teen had failed to block his number at one point, giving Cohen the ability to see who was calling him repeatedly.
The texts shown in court show Cohen telling the recipient that the number has been sent to the US Secret Service. The teen apologizes and says it wasn't them making the calls, and that their friend had told them to call.
"This number has just been sent to secret service for your ongoing and continuous harassing calls over the past 3 days," Cohen writes. "If you are a minor, I suggest you notify your parent or guardian."
"I DIDN'T DO IT," the other person texts back, adding "Im 14" and "Please don't."
Cohen wrote back for the teen's parent or guardian to contact him "before the secret service reaches out to them."
Why these messages are relevant: The defense has tried to show that Cohen's phone call to Donald Trump's bodyguard around this time was about helping Cohen deal with the harassment not the Stormy Daniels payment, as Cohen has testified.
Cohen has said he spoke about both things with the bodyguard, Keith Schiller.
These messages were not displayed publicly before lunch because they needed to be redacted. Trump attorney Todd Blanche circled back to them now that they were redacted and accepted into evidence.

---

Quote:

---

Donald Trump's attorney Todd Blanche says he is now going to go back chronologically over Michael Cohen's testimony.

---

Quote:

---

Todd Blanche asked whether Michael Cohen "worked very hard" to get positive stories into the press about Donald Trump and the things he was doing.
"Yes," Cohen says.
Blanche then asks if Cohen also worked very hard to make sure there were positive stories about him at times.
"Yes sir," Cohen replies.
Blanche asks Cohen about how he worked with journalists both for positive stories and for negative stories.

---

Owlagdad said:

---

I think, how did this dumbass become trump's lawyer?

Then I think, maybe he was pretty good, but when you get greedy and lie like a dog, and have to lie to cover up lies, you are going to eff up and you cant remember your lies.

---

I think all Trump wanted was a pit bull that could help him negotiate down contracts and deal with other New York seedy types. People don't like to admit that New York pretty much runs on that type of back scratching.

He probably also got an ego boost from Cohen's massive sucking up that he did on a daily basis.

But Trump probably should have known that if you give a pit bull scumbag a $350K salary (1099'd of course) and put him in an office down the hall, eventually he's going to get bitter that you're more successful than he is, and rather than being thankful for the opportunity, he's gonna get greedy.