Trump swaps bluster for silence, and possibly sleep, in his hush money trial

NEW YORK – Donald Trump isn’t recognized for letting slights move.

Yet for weeks, the famously combative presumptive Republican nominee has sat silently — to the point of sometimes seeming asleep — in a sterile Manhattan courtroom amid a barrage of accusations and insults.

There had been the days his former fixer-turned-chief prosecution witness used to be quoted calling him a “boorish cool animated film misogynist” and a “Cheeto-dusted” villain who belonged in a “cage, like an animal.” There were the graphic details relayed by a porn actor about the night she claims they had sex. And there were lengthy descriptions of what the prosecution argues was an illegal scheme to conceal hush money payments to salvage his then-flailing 2016 campaign.

Through it all, even as he and his allies attacked the case outside the courtroom, Trump has spent the majority of his time as a criminal defendant sitting nearly motionless for hours, leaning back in his burgundy leather chair with his eyes closed. He ultimately chose not to testify in a case that made him the first former president in the nation’s history to stand trial on criminal charges.

Closing arguments in the case are scheduled for Tuesday, after which a jury will decide whether to make him the first former president and major party nominee convicted of felony charges.

Trump’s demeanor inside the courtroom has been a notable departure from the fight-at-all-costs persona that has defined him through decades of public life, fueling his transformation from a New York tabloid fixture to a onetime – and possible future – president.

And it has been at least partially strategic, according to people familiar with Trump’s approach who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the case. Trump’s attorneys have warned him that behaving as he did in his previous trials — where he tangled with judges and stormed out — could damage his standing with a jury that is likely watching his every move and will determine his fate.

Acting out, he appears to have concluded, is not in his best interest, particularly as he faces the risk of imprisonment if he’s convicted.

Trump has also been able to speak several times a day to a gaggle of media camped outside the courtroom, giving him an outlet to vent his frustrations and get his message out. Facing a gag order that prohibits him from criticizing witnesses, his campaign has assembled a host of supporters — from vice presidential contenders to the House speaker — to deliver those attacks instead.

But the approach comes with its own risks. Some former prosecutors and attorneys who have been closely following the case said that while disruptive behavior could prove detrimental to the jury, there’s also a risk of Trump appearing too disengaged.

“What you want is for your client to look attentive, respectful and look like nothing is bothering him — but also not falling asleep,” said Randall D. Eliason, a former assistant U.S. attorney who for years specialized in white-collar crime.

EYES WIDE SHUT

Trump has repeatedly denied reports from journalists watching him via closed-circuit television that he is sleeping in court, insisting on his social media site that he simply closes “my beautiful blue eyes, sometimes, listen intensely, and take it ALL in!!!”

“No, I don’t fall asleep,” he told Telemundo Miami. “I sometimes will sit back, close my eyes. I hear everything perfectly. At some point I may fall asleep. But I will let you know when that is.”

Eliason said Trump’s demeanor was “definitely” something jurors would notice and could potentially perceive as disrespectful if they feel ”he’s acting like it’s not even worth his attention” or suppose he is taking a snooze.

“If it’s a tactic to try to make it look like he’s not concerned about the testimony, I don’t think that would play well,” he mentioned. “I guess if he’s really just sort of listening with eyes closed, meditating or whatever, that doesn’t seem so bad. But I think falling asleep, the jury would find quite disrespectful.”

On the other hand, he added, “You don’t want him to get really agitated” as he did during previous trials.

Actually, sleeping in court would be highly unusual for a defendant.

“I have witnessed lawyers fall asleep, but never a defendant in a criminal case. Their lives are at stake and they don’t sleep in my experience,” mentioned Stephen A. Saltzburg, a professor on the George Washington University Law School who has been writing in regards to the case.

“It’s possible it’s all an act to show: ‘Hey, this is bogus, I’m not going to pay attention to it,’” he added, however that may even be unhelpful. “Since the jury has to pay attention, that doesn’t send a message that you respect this whole jury process.”

‘YOUR CLIENT IS UPSET’

Trump hasn’t been completely sedated. During jury variety, he gave the impression alert and engaged, and used to be at one level reprimanded via the pass judgement on for his visual reactions to 1 juror’s solutions.

“(W)hile the juror was at the podium maybe 12 feet from your client, your client was audibly uttering something … he was audibly gesturing,” Judge Juan Merchan warned one among his attorneys in April.

“I won’t tolerate that. I will not have any jurors intimidated in this courtroom,” he went on. “I want to make that crystal clear.”

Later, when Stormy Daniels used to be at the stand, Trump’s reaction to her testimony as soon as once more brought about Merchan to summon his attorneys to the bench.

“I understand that your client is upset at this point, but he is cursing audibly, and he is shaking his head visually and that’s contemptuous. It has the potential to intimidate the witness and the jury can see that,” Merchan mentioned, in keeping with the transcript.

But because the trial dragged on, and in particular all the way through his ex-attorney Michael Cohen’s testimony, Trump maximum steadily sat in repose, leaning again in his chair, with his eyes closed, his lips pursed and his head tilted again or to the facet. He shifted every so often — every so often to scratch an itch. Sometimes he looked as if it would fall asleep, his mouth falling agape as he sat for hours in the fluorescent-lit court.

Other instances, he re-engaged, sitting upright, speaking to his attorneys or scribbling and passing notes. He steadily leafed via stacks of papers, seemed across the court or sat upright, with his palms folded throughout his chest. He gave the impression particularly alert and engaged all the way through defense witness Robert Costello’s combative testimony, all the way through which the pass judgement on threatened to take away Costello from the stand.

But in a while, he returned to the eyes-closed, head-back place that was his default.

PAST OUTBURSTS

It’s been a marked distinction from his demeanor at his previous civil trials, when Trump stormed out of the court, actively sparred with judges and made no effort to protect his disdain.

During his business fraud civil trial, all the way through which Cohen additionally testified, Trump blasted a courtroom clerk from the stand, lashed out on the pass judgement on and, at one level, marched out of the court. The pass judgement on in that case issued Trump a $355 million penalty.

And in his E. Jean Carroll defamation case, he used to be reprimanded for muttering whilst she spoke, informed the pass judgement on he would find it irresistible if he had been got rid of from the court, and stood up and walked out all the way through Carroll’s final argument, in entrance of the jury.

Saltzburg mentioned he believes Trump’s habits in that case is among the causes the jury awarded her a whopping $83.3 million.

“They wanted to send a clear message to him and they thought it would take a lot of money to do it,” he mentioned.

In this situation, mentioned Jeffrey S. Jacobovitz, a trial lawyer with intensive revel in in white-collar felony protection, Trump’s demeanor is “something that a jury would certainly notice.”

The belief that he is been napping “is likely to have a negative effect on the jury,” he mentioned, including, “I think I would prefer angry Trump.”

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Associated Press writers Michael R. Sisak, Jake Offenhartz, Jennifer Peltz and Michelle L. Price contributed to this file.