Raw Story

Donald Trump did not testify Tuesday before his defense rested in the Manhattan hush money trial, despite him vowing to take the stand to clear his name of the 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush-money scheme that he's accused of.

One of his former lawyers suggested it could be due to exhaustion.

Trump has spent much of the trial falling asleep or closing his eyes during proceedings. But several times he's said that he wants to defend himself and pledged to testify.

Critics have accused him of cowardice for reneging on that promise.

Even when speaking to the press outside the courtroom Tuesday, Trump claimed he might still speak out — despite his chance to take the stand now having passed.

ALSO READ: Trump’s Manhattan trial could determine whether rule of law survives: criminologist

"Why would I take the chance? But we do want to defend our Constitution. So, at some point, maybe I will take a chance," Trump told the reporters.

It sent MSNBC hosts to ask former Trump lawyer William Brennan why he declined to address the jury.

"I mean, number one, he doesn't have to. That's what the constitutional protections are all about," he said.

But the anchors were curious not about why he refused to testify, but why he wouldn't give a reason when the press asked.

"I mean, it's easy to come up with bombast before the trial," Brennan said. "But when you're in the midst of — this was a fairly long trial for misdemeanors and possibly a felony. He's probably tired at this point and he just doesn't have to is the short answer."

Trump has frequently made fun of President Joe Biden, calling him "sleepy Joe" and implying that he is too old to be in office. Comedians and pundits rushed to mock Trump as he fell asleep in his own criminal trial.

See the comments below or at the link here.

'He's probably tired': Ex-Trump lawyer comes up with excuse why he didn't testify www.youtube.com

Four years ago, during the United States' 2020 presidential race, supporters of then-President Donald Trump accused "Real Time" host Bill Maher of "Trump derangement syndrome" when he predicted that Trump would not accept the election results if he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

But Trump, just as Maher predicted, refused to acknowledge that he lost the election. Now, in 2024, Trump is the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, and Congress — according to the Associated — is full of Republican lawmakers who have either falsely claimed that the 2020 election was stolen or won't commit to accepting the election results if Trump loses to Biden a second time in November.

In a report Tuesday, States United Action — a group that goes after election deniers — found that almost one-third of Congress members supported, in some fashion, Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

READ MORE: The most important litmus test: Every election denier must pledge to certify the 2024 results

According to States United Action, that includes "151 election deniers" in the U.S. House of Representatives and "19 election deniers" in the U.S. Senate.

States United Action's Lizzie Ullmer told AP, "The public should have a real healthy dose of concern about the real risk of having people in power who've shown they're not willing to respect the will of the people."

Wendy Weiser of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University is sounding the alarm as well.

Weiser told AP, "This is deeply alarming. A democracy can only function if the participants commit to accepting the results of popular elections. That is it. That's the entire political system."

READ MORE: 'Unified Reich': Biden campaign slams Trump for German slogan embedded in campaign video

The AP cites specific examples of GOP lawmakers who haven't fully committed to accepting the 2024 presidential election results if Trump loses, including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-F:), Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC). And House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), the AP reporters note, "helped organize Trump's failed legal challenge to Biden's win."

"States United's report details how successful election deniers have been in bolstering their congressional ranks," the AP report states.

"It examines the results of congressional party primaries in the 10 states that have held them this year and found that in each state, at least one election denier has made it to the general election for a House or Senate seat. The report defines election deniers as people who falsely claimed Trump won in 2020, spread misinformation about that election or took steps to overturn it, or refused to concede a separate race."

The AP report adds, "It finds that at least 67 will be on the ballot in the House in November, including 50 incumbents. Three will be running for the Senate — one of whom, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, is an incumbent."

READ MORE:The Alito flag controversy 'makes an ugly situation worse': analysis

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito opened the door to Congress issuing a subpoena to his wife after he implicated her in the display of an upside-down American flag that may have violated his statutory duties, a New York Times writer said Tuesday.

The conservative justice told reporters that his wife displayed the symbol of Donald Trump's "stop the steal" movement in the days between the Jan. 6 insurrection and president Joe Biden's election, when the court was considering the former president's election challenges, and a member of the New York Times editorial board called that out as a potential crime.

"In a statement to The Times, Justice Alito placed the blame for the hoisting of the flag on his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, in response to a dispute with some neighbors," wrote editorial board member Jesse Wegman, who specializes in the Supreme Court, law and politics. "He said nothing about any attempt to remove it, nor did he apologize for the glaring ethical violation. To the contrary, he has failed to recuse himself from any of the several Jan. 6-related cases currently before the court, including Mr. Trump’s claim that he is absolutely immune from prosecution for his role in the Capitol assault."

Alito was obligated to recuse himself from Trump's election challenges and likely his pending claim to broad immunity for inciting the insurrection under the federal recusal law, which Wegman said was clear about his responsibility: “Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.”

Justice Clarence Thomas might be even more conflicted in Jan. 6 cases, because his wife Ginni Thomas actively participated in the wide-ranging effort to keep Trump in power despite losing the election, and Wegman said both justices should be investigated by Congress to determine whether they broke federal law by sitting on cases involving the former president and his attempt to subvert the 2020 election.

ALSO READ: Federal Election Commission kills anonymous donor proposal

"In short, Justices Alito and Thomas appear to be breaking federal law, tanking what remains of the court’s legitimacy in the process," Wegman said. "The challenge is whether anyone is willing to do anything about it."

The Judicial Conference chaired by chief justice John Roberts is statutorily obligated under Ethics in Government Act to refer to the Justice Department any case where there's reason to believe a judge willfully broke the law, although attorney general Merrick Garland doesn't have to wait for a referral, and Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Dick Durbin could convene hearings.

"So what is Congress so afraid of?" Wegman wrote. "Committees can and should hold hearings and subpoena witnesses to answer questions before the nation. They can subpoena Justice Alito himself. If he declines to show, subpoena his wife. He implicated her, after all, and she certainly has no separation-of-powers claim."

"Then subpoena Chief Justice Roberts, who declined to testify last year when he was asked politely," Wegman added. "If he still doesn’t show up, Congress should remember it has the power of the purse and can reduce the court’s nonsecurity budget."

Although those two justices may be in their mid-70s, Wegman said Congress must take action against them to warn a younger generation of even more extreme ideologues that the Supreme Court remains accountable to its co-equal branches and to help restore credibility to the court.

"Young Americans who are voting for the first time this year were born after Bush v. Gore; some were not even in high school when Senator Mitch McConnell stole a Supreme Court seat from Barack Obama," Wegman wrote. "For all they know, this is how the court has always been, and always will be."

"That’s why now is the time to show future generations that the nation needs a court that can be trusted to be fair, a court whose justices have the capacity for shame," he added. "The Supreme Court is an institution that we depend on as much as it depends on us."

A criminal defense attorney who had been approached to defend Donald Trump concluded that the former president had a "devastating day" in court Monday.

During a Tuesday interview on CNN, attorney David Oscar Markus reflected on the anger of Justice Juan Merchan on Monday when defense witness Robert Costello was nearly found in contempt for taunting the judge.

"What a devastating day for the defense, right?" Markus said. "It should have been a positive day for the defense, ending with this terrible witness, Michael Cohen, and now it was just an awful day for the defense."

"And when a witness tells a prosecutor something like, speak into the mic, all the jurors ... are gonna side with the examiner, with the prosecution there, and not side with the witness," he continued. "So it's just terrible the way it went down."

Markus called the decision to put Costello on the stand "a big risk" and said the defense "struck out badly."

ALSO READ: Home Depot's political committee just got jacked

"The jury sees that, and you saw them look at each other," he added. "That is really, really bad."

Markus noted that the defense team had to take risks if they felt they were losing the case.

"Now, this risk didn't pan out, but if you don't take risks as a defense lawyer in court, you will lose a hundred out of a hundred times," he remarked. "So, you know, they must have believed they were losing at the point that they called Costello, because otherwise you wouldn't call him, right?"

"If you believed you were winning the case, you rest at that point."

Watch the video below from CNN.

Former President Donald Trump's witness at his Manhattan criminal trial raised a massive stir after his conduct forced Judge Juan Merchan to clear the courtroom — but that's not all that happened.

Merchan further threatened that he would remove Robert Costello from the witness stand if there were any further breaches of decorum in the courtroom, according to court transcripts obtained by Lawfare's Anna Bower.

Costello, the former legal adviser for Trump's estranged attorney and fixer Michael Cohen, was called to court at Trump's insistence — reportedly over the misgivings of some of his legal team — to echo claims he made to a Republican-controlled House committee last week, that Cohen has been lying to the court and previously told Costello that he had no criminal information on Trump when Cohen himself was facing criminal prosecution.

But things went off the rails when he openly antagonized the judge, complaining about Merchan's orders and glaring at him.

The transcripts show just how angry Merchan was about the breakdown of order, after he cleared his courtroom.

"The fact that I had to clear the courtroom and that the court officers, including the Captain, had great difficulty clearing the courtroom, and that there was argument back and forth between the press and including counsel for the press, goes to why I had to clear the courtroom in the first place," said Merchan.

"And that is, sir, your conduct is contemptuous right now. I'm putting you on notice that your conduct is contemptuous. If you try to stare me down one more time, I will remove you from the stand."

This comes as the prosecution is preparing to give its closing arguments, and as the defense appears to have little more to add other than the move to call Costello.

It also comes after several days of exhaustive cross-examination of Cohen himself, who testified extensively to Trump's involvement in the hush payment scheme but also admitted to some problematic information, including that he stole $30,000 from the Trump Organization.

The financial problems plaguing former President Donald Trump's media company and social platform appear not to be getting any better, according to a new analysis.

The Daily Beast reported Monday that Trump Media, the publicly traded parent company of Trump Social, reported a net loss of nearly $330 million in the first three months of 2024.

"Trump Media...reported $770,500 in revenue—crediting its “nascent advertising initiative”—down from $1.1 million last year," the report states. "However, it also reported a net loss of $327.6 million during the first three months of the year, as compared with a loss of $210,300 a year ago."

Trump Media has been struggling ever since it went public through a merger with the "blank check" firm Digital World Acquisition Corp., the report notes.

"The social media company is grudgingly reporting its dire performance so far this year," according to the Daily Beast.

ALSO READ: 'Most transparent president' Trump won't meet financial transparency deadline. Again.

Shares initially traded over $65, but plunged to less than half that value before slightly rallying to just under $50 — still far short of the original market capitalization, multiple reports show.

In a statement, CEO Devin Nunes, who previously served as a Trump ally in Congress, "pointed $311 million in non-cash expenses to 'merger-related expenses' linked to a company called Digital World Acquisition Corp. earlier this year," according to the Daily Beast.

"Promising that it had 'sufficient working capital to fund operations for the foreseeable future,' Trump Media reported cash and cash equivalents of $273.7 million at the end of the quarter. It said it was still in an 'early stage' of its development, and that it remained 'focused on long-term product development,' including a live streaming platform to be launched through Truth Social, 'rather than quarterly revenue.'"

This also comes as the company that previously audited Trump Media, Colorado-based BF Borgers, has been charged with fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission, prompting the company to drop them. The company's quarterly earnings report had been delayed due to the issues surrounding that dismissal.