The '24 Seven - 4/23/24
Special edition - The top seven themes shaping the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president
Hi friends, we’re sending out a special edition of The ‘24 Seven today as the first criminal trial of a former president hits full stride. Look for a regular return of our newsletter and some other new items from 24sight as we continue ramping up our modest news outlet.
If you see something we missed or have some suggestions or a hot tip, drop us a note: info@24sight.news.
1 Re-platformed
Trump hasn’t taken the stand to testify, but he’s already facing a new round of possible punishment on grounds that he violated the “gag order” — which in this case bars a defendant from attacking possible witnesses, prosecutors, members of the judiciary — with his repeated attacks, lately, against likely star witness Michael Cohen. (On Monday, Trump hosted another de facto press conference outside the courtroom in which he accused Cohen of lying repeatedly.)
Judge Juan Merchan will have a number of options to choose from as he considers whether Trump broke the gag order, ranging from issuing another sternly-worded warning to potentially jailing Trump, Politico reports.
For more on Trump’s legal strategy of attacking members of the judiciary to draw out a gag order, we recommend 24sight’s interview with Just Security journalism fellow Adam Klasfeld on the 24sight Pod. Follow Klasfeld’s live updates from the trial over at the platform formerly known as Twitter.
2 ‘Election fraud, pure and simple’
The prosecution opened its case Monday arguing that Trump’s alleged scheme to have his then-lawyer, Cohen, pay porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about their affair amounted to “election fraud, pure and simple.” The state will have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the payment, routed through Cohen, which was then reimbursed to Cohen by the Trump Organization under the alleged false pretenses of being a legal retainer. More from NBC News here.
3 ‘Convicted liar’
Trump’s defense team, led by former prosecutor Todd Blanche, laid out its gameplan Monday, attacking Cohen and Daniels as un-credible witnesses, with the likely goal of attempting to seed enough doubt to have at least one of the 12 jurors find there’s not enough evidence to find Trump guilty of election fraud.
“President Trump is innocent. President Trump did not commit any crimes,” Blanche said in his opening statement, the Associated Press reports.
4 Trapped in 2016
Stormy Daniels, Michael Cohen, Karen McDougal, David Pecker, Hope Hicks. The gang is all back on the national stage, whipping up a tabloid-style political spectacular which used to hold the nation enthralled. Now most swing voters, moderates and anyone not explicitly a political junkie has tuned out much of the circus — while the political world remains engrossed in an election which happened almost a decade ago.
5 Read history for yourself
The internet can be an endless echochamber of noise and distractions.
But it’s also a highly democratic repository of highly vetted information and original source documents, if you know where to look. (One reason, among many, why professional reporters are always in demand.)
Case in point: The Supreme Court of New York announced Monday it will be publishing transcripts of the trial to its website. Read them and other relevant motions and details here.
6 Checkbook ‘journalism’
Paying sources for information is not journalism.
Some outlets do it, the vast majority of news outlets do not because it’s unethical, unprofessional and opens the door to questions of accuracy and motives. The National Enquirer made a cottage industry out of it and, according to these historic charges, helped swing a presidential election in the process.
During the trial’s opening Monday, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, said that anyone they paid more $10,000 required his sign-off. The Enquirer paid alleged Trump mistress Karen McDougal, $150,000, to “catch” (collect the details of her story under the false premise they would write it) and “kill” the piece (the money was really to keep her quiet.)
Highly recommend this New York Times essay from Lachlan Cartwright, who details the practice in gut-wrenching prose.
7 Unflinching normalcy
The court adjourned for the day Monday at 12:30 p.m. ET out of respect for a juror’s dentist appointment. They’re back in promptly this morning, Tuesday, April 23, 2024.
(Programming note: You may have noticed we’ve been posting more podcasts lately and the esteemed ‘24 Seven newsletter went dark for a bit. It’s back on an adjusted schedule, and we’ll be rolling out some additional features here at 24sight as we continue building out our scrappy news outlet. Keep it tuned here, friends. You can always find us at tom@24sight.news, warren@24sight.news and pilar@24sight.news. For any business inquiries, please drop a note to info@24sight.news.)