Raw Story

Donald Trump hasn't listened to anyone telling him to sit down since he was sent to boarding school, but that streak ended with Judge Juan Merchan the other day, according to a man who was in the room at the time that it happened.

During an appearance on MSNBC, columnist and longtime Washington insider Jonathan Alter set the scene for what happened when Merchan instructed Trump to have a seat. It has been reported that Trump was "fuming" after being made to sit like a dog would.

The host asked Alter how the event might affect Trump's "psyche."

ALSO READ: Revealed: What government officials privately shared about Trump not disclosing finances

"In the final minutes of the trial on Friday as Donald Trump was standing to leave the courtroom, the judge firmly told Donald Trump, 'Sir, can you please have a seat?' That moment has come to represent the stripping of control from a man who used to be the most powerful person in the United States, some could argue in the world. How could you -- how does this impact Donald Trump's psyche?" she asked Alter.

"Well, first of all, I was in the courtroom when it happened and it was a stunning, dramatic moment," he said. "You know, you have a former president of the United States who since the time he was a little boy never listen to anything -- anyone about anything. He was sent to military academy for being disobedient. Ever since, he has never sat down when someone told him to. In this case, he had to. He sat down meekly, like the obedient little boy he never was, and it was quite striking and I think it symbolizes that he is not the most powerful person in that courtroom."

"That honor," accord to Alter, "belongs to his honor, Judge Juan Merchan, who the country is becoming increasingly familiar with."

"And he is going to make Donald Trump face the music."

Watch the video below or click the link.

Law professor Alan Dershowitz predicted that Donald Trump would be murdered in prison if he is stripped of his Secret Service protections.

Dershowitz made the remarks to Newsmax after Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) introduced a bill to revoke Secret Service benefits if the former president is convicted of a crime.

"So he would not have Secret Service if he's behind bars," a Newsmax host told Dershowitz.

"Well, that's ridiculous," the law professor replied. "That means that they want him killed, because he's obviously a target. We live in an age where everybody is in danger."

"Look, Bobby Kennedy ought to be getting Secret Service protection, but certainly Donald Trump needs to get a Secret Service protection," he insisted.

ALSO READ: A criminologist explains why keeping Trump from the White House is all that matters

In the end, Dershowitz predicted Trump would never serve jail time.

"The judge is going to bluff and fine and threaten, but he's not going to throw Donald Trump in jail," he explained. "That would be a guaranteed victory."

"It would even get people like me, perhaps, to vote for him if he was thrown in jail on an unconstitutional charge," Dershowitz added. "So I don't think it's going to happen."

Watch the video below from Newsmax or at the link.

As Donald Trump sits in criminal court facing 34 felony charges for purported financial records violations stemming from an attempt to bury a story about an alleged affair with an adult film actress, he may also face a separate prosecutor seizing his real estate holdings, according to a legal expert.

Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner published a "Justice Matters" video on Saturday in which he covers a recent filing by New York A.G. Letitia James, who sued Trump in a civil case for business fraud based on his chronic exaggeration of assets to get better loan terms. Specifically, the ex-prosecutor noted how James recently urged state Judge Arthur Engoron to reject the $175 million bond that Trump has posted in his civil fraud case, citing trustworthiness and competency concerns with the institution that agreed to bond him.

For Kirschner, this tells us a good amount about what might happen in the future as these cases move forward.

ALSO READ: Revealed: What government officials privately shared about Trump not disclosing finances

Kirschner first covers the three reasons James gives for doubting the validity of the bond, including that the company purportedly doesn't have the financial backing to provide such a large bond, and then goes on to explain what will happen if the judge agrees with her and Trump does nothing to cure the problem.

"At this rate, it looks like there is a fair chance that while Donald Trump is in that New York courtroom being prosecuted for 34 felony crimes, Attorney General Tish James might be up the street seizing Trump's properties," he said. "And I'm OK with that."

Watch the complete video below or click the link here.

A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction of a Republican operative who had been pardoned by Donald Trump in the waning days of his presidency.

The District of Columbia Circuit Court rejected an appeal by Jesse Benton, a former senior aide to Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Rand Paul, of his November 2022 conviction for orchestrating a scheme to conceal a $100,000 donation from a Russian national to his GOP consulting firm — and pocketing most of it.

Russian businessman Roman Vasilenko wired the money under his own name to the consulting firm, but Benton kept $75,000 for himself and gave $25,000 under his name to the presidential campaign for Trump, who posed for a photo with Vasilenko. Benton then filed a false report with the Federal Election Commission to conceal the source of the funds, the court found.

The Trump campaign was not aware of the true source of that donation.

Benton had appealed the conviction, saying Trump's 2020 pardon should have prevented the jury from hearing about his previous election crimes before convicting him of the newer charges.

ALSO READ: 11 ways Trump doesn’t become president

However, prosecutors argued that the unusual manner in which Trump handed out pardons by sidestepping the Justice Department's Office of the Pardon Attorney should have allowed them to present evidence of Benton's previous conviction for bribing an Iowa politician to switch his endorsement in 2011 to Ron Paul's long-shot presidential campaign.

The 45-year-old Benton, who is married to Ron Paul's granddaughter, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for that straw donor scheme.

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Eagle-eyed New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman once again caught former President Donald Trump dozing off during a hearing related to his hush-money trial in New York on Friday.

In an update posted to the New York Times' live blog of the proceedings, Haberman wrote that "Trump appears to have fallen asleep in court again," and then added that "it happened several times just now" as "his eyes were closed for extended periods and his head dropped down twice."

Haberman also had some observations about Trump's appearance as he entered court on Friday.

"His hair is uncharacteristically messy," she wrote. "Like the wind hit it on the way into court."

Multiple reporters this week have observed Trump nodding off during his criminal trial for allegedly falsifying business records related to his 2016 hush-money payments of adult film star Stormy Daniels.

READ MORE: Busted: Paul Gosar campaign consultant linked to antisemitism and white nationalism

Trump's sleeping through an event that could end with him becoming a convicted felon has led to widespread ridicule on the internet all week, as Twitter hashtags such as "#SleepyDon" and "#DonSnoreleone" have trended at various times.

Although Trump appears to be subdued inside the courtroom, his behavior is markedly different outside of it, where he has gone on extended tirades against Judge Juan Merchan, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and even trial witnesses such as former "fixer" Michael Cohen and adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Trump's trial related to hush-money payments is far from the only legal trouble he faces, and many legal experts have called the other charges that have been leveled against him — including allegedly trying to defraud the United States with a scheme to illegally stay in power and allegedly obstructing government efforts to retrieve top-secret government documents from his Mar-a-Lago resort — as significantly more serious.

Reacting to an angry rant delivered by Donald Trump when he showed up for court on Friday morning, CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig noted the former president looked "frazzled," which could be a clue to prosecutors that they are getting to him after only three days in court.

Speaking with host Kate Bolduan after the former president had already been admitted into the courtroom, where he will tried on 34 felony counts in the Stormy Daniels hush money trial, Honig noted that Trump seemed agitated as he addressed the press and listed off a series of grievances.

"Elie, from just watching how Donald Trump was in speaking to reporters before he went in, he was — he was definitely at least projecting that he was angry and frustrated, if he wasn't actually angry and frustrated," CNN's Bolduan prompted her colleague. "If you're a prosecutor and you're watching him act the way he did this morning, what do you think? Do you already think you are winning?"

ALSO READ: A neuroscientist reveals how Trump and Biden's cognitive impairments are different

"So he definitely looked frazzled," the legal analyst replied and then added, "I think that's a good word we can use for this."

"If he's frazzled now, just wait until week three because I think what Donald Trump is learning is that it is enormously stressful to be on trial," he continued. "I've never even had, of course, the experience of being the defendant, I've just done it as a lawyer."

"It's incredibly stressful," he elaborated. "It's long days, it's excruciating. It can be boring. We saw him nodding off during jury selection and it will get to him.

"And I think, if I'm the prosecutor — I'm not so into the head games in the psychology of it all — but I do think I would see someone who's perhaps fraying a bit at the edges and, who knows, that may lead to poor strategic decisions by Donald Trump or other behavior that could be self-destructive."

Watch below or at the link.

CNN 04 19 2024 09 33 00 youtu.be