(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . "Flush the Orange Turd" - A gem of a program by O'Donnell- historically great reporting on the trial [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-05-11 Lawrence O’Donnell is a great news analyst. He’s excellent. He’s done an outstanding job up to this reporting that I am presenting here. Many of you may have already seen it, but others may not. This is top of the food chain stuff. I respond to Trump trolls frequently, in great detail, in the comment section of You Tube videos. I have a pretty good idea of what to expect when I look at the comment sections. The extremely favorable comments are not normal in my experience even though this is an MSNBC program. . . A comment from the You Tube Video: " Flush the Orange Turd " is a bit like let's Go Brandon. It should become a Biden campaign theme . :-) Lawrence begins by telling us how Donald Trump praised his attorneys the morning that Lawrence aired this program, at 9:23 am. He, then, explains that high priced and well-respected defense attorney Susan Necheles caused her client, Donald Trump, to see himself represented as an “orange turd” repeatedly on numerous devices. She repeatedly mischaracterized posts by Stormy Daniels, making accusations about Ms. Daniels’ posts that were simply untrue and Ms. Daniels called her on it every time. It was an utter fail. Elsewhere, he pointed out that the cross-examination was at least 30 minutes longer than it should have been and, in doing so, she humiliated her client if that is possible. Was that, he asks, the first time that he has heard himself referred to appropriately as the “orange turd”? The orange turd conversation occurred in “hour two that was repetitive, tedious, and almost entirely irrelevant. at 10:20 am, high priced lawyer, Susan Necheles, said to Stormy Daniels, ‘Isn’t it a fact that you keep posting on social media how you’re going to be ‘instrumental’ [this is entirely Ms. Necheles’ word- it is not found in Stormy’s posts] ‘in putting President {He is NOT president now. In this country, we have one president at a time. I hate that they wrongly continue to refer to him as president when they know that he is not, especially in a court of law. That she does this to placate his ego shows that she has sold her integrity to the highest bidder with the lowest moral character.} Trump in jail’ [again, these words are not found in Stormy’s posts and Stormy calls her out on this misrepresentation of her post] . Forgive me, but I must ask what this has to do with the price of tea in China? Suppose that she had posted something saying that she would be ‘instrumental in putting the orange turd in prison where he belongs’. How does that affect her credibility? I’m not sure that it does. I understand what they want to argue, but it just doesn’t work. Why is she so angry with Donald Trump? What generated this? Her recounting of details and his unwillingness to go on the stand whereas she swore under oath about what happened makes her certainly far more credible than him. She testifies to the motive. Why did he make the payments? To make it so that the story of their encounter did not get to the American public before the presidential election of 2016. Returning to Lawrence reading from the transcript: Stormy replied, ‘Show me where I said I would be instrumental in putting President Trump in jail. ‘ Ms. Necheles, “Alright. If we could show the witness J-43 please. Do you recognize that as your post?’ Stormy answered, ‘Yes. And I don’t see the words, ‘instrumental’ or ‘jail’ Ms. Necheles, ‘Blow it up a little bit more. Lawrence: Susan Necheles shows the post on all of the screens in the courtroom for the jurors to see and for the spectators to see and for Donald Trump to see. And then she says Ms. Necheles, ‘You were responding to the post someone else’s post there. Stormy, ‘Yes, someone calling me a human toilet. So, I capitalized on the joke. Ms. Necheles, ‘The other post. Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels, aka the human toilet, are their star witnesses, right?’ Stormy, ‘Yes.’ Ms. Necheles, ‘You said, ‘exactly, making me the best person to flush the orange turd down’ ?’ Stormy, ‘Yes.’ Lawrence: So, Susan Necheles brought the orange turd into the courtroom and kept it there. The questioning about the orange turd went on and on. Stormy Daniels said, ‘I don’t see instrumental or jail there. You’re putting words in my mouth. ‘ Ms. Necheles, ‘So, when you said, ‘You were the best person to flush the orange turd down’ you weren’t saying you were going to be instrumental in causing him to be convicted of a crime? That was not what you meant? ‘ Stormy, ‘No.’ Ms. Necheles, ‘What does that mean?’ Stormy, ‘I am pretty sure this is hyperbole if somebody calls me a ‘ toilet’, I can say, ‘flush somebody’, see how that works? ‘ Lawrence: Now, trying to explain a joke to a lawyer in court is always pointless. Ms. Necheles, ‘You said you were going to flush President Trump?’ Stormy, ‘ I DIDN’T SAY PRESIDENT TRUMP! {LOL!!!!} IT SAYS ORANGE TURD!!! ‘ . Ms. Necheles, ‘So, if that’s what’s interpreted by you, what do you mean?’ Stormy, ‘I don’t know what I mean. ‘ Ms. Necheles, ‘You have no idea?’ Stormy, ‘I’m also not a toilet. So, it’s all ...’ Ms. Necheles, ‘I’m asking you whether you knew what you meant when you said, ‘ AN ORANGE TURD ’ ? ‘ Stormy, ‘YES, I DO! ‘ Ms. Necheles, ‘What did you mean?’ Stormy, ‘I meant I’m not a human toilet, so if they want to make fun of me, I can make fun of them. ‘ Ms. Necheles, ‘You don’t want to admit YOU MEANT MR. TRUMP ?’ Stormy, ‘ I ABSOLUTELY MEANT MR. TRUMP. ‘ Ms. Necheles, ‘Why did you say no?’ Stormy, ‘It doesn’t say, ‘instrumental’ and ‘putting him in jail’ ‘. Lawrence O’Donnell, “And so it went that Susan Necheles repeatedly pretending to quote things that she wasn’t quoting and getting caught by the witness, Stormy Daniels, who then proved that Susan Necheles had mischaracterized what she was presenting to Stormy Daniels and Stormy Daniels did not spend one minute in law school, learning how to do that. ” . . Lawrence O’Donnell, “That is a sample of what happened in the morning, but as I said, the most important part of today, by far, was the end. That’s when Judge Juan Merchan got the last word and provided the most important possible review of Stormy Daniels’ performance on the witness stand as did the Trump lawyers. Stormy Daniels left the witness stand at 12:23 pm, two hours after Susan Necheles had invited to repeatedly call Donald Trump, ‘the orange turd’ to his face in the court room! Three more far less colorful witnesses then took the witness stand and Judge Juan Merchan ended testimony early today, on the early side, at 4 pm so that the Trump defense could have some time to raise two motions, both of which were denied by the judge.” . . Lawrence O’Donnell, “First, criminal defense attorney Todd Blanche, who is the lead defense attorney in this case, and who has already been so thoroughly humiliated in that very courtroom that he enters, exits, and spends the day at the defense table looking like the saddest man in the room every day. Todd Blanche argued a motion to the judge to rewrite his gag order on Donald Trump to now exclude Stormy Daniels from the gag order so that Donald Trump could tweet about her now, do whatever he does, truthsocial. Todd Blanche insisted now that Stormy Daniels had presented what he called, ‘a completely different version of events. Donald Trump should be free to publicly respond to that completely new version of events. ‘ “ . . Lawrence O’Donnell, “The judge asked for an example of what Todd Blanche thought was a completely different version of events. Todd Blanche quoted Stormy Daniels testifying, ‘I felt the room spin in slow motion’ ‘ and a few other lines to which the judge said, ‘I don’t see a new set of facts.’ The district attorney argued that the additional elements from Stormy Daniels testimony were not inconsistent with her previous statements. “ . . Lawrence O’Donnell, “Judge Merchan explained why he would not change the gag order, ‘My concern is not just with protecting Ms. Daniels or the witnesses who have already testified. My concern is protecting the integrity of these proceedings as a whole. That means that everybody sees what happens. Witnesses who have not yet testified will see what happens, they will see how witnesses who have testified are going to be treated by your client and I can’t take your word that no, no, this is going to be low key. This is not going to be an attack. This is just going to be your response to what was said because that’s just not the track record. The reason why the gag order is in place to begin with is precisely because of the nature of these attacks, the vitriol . These were very real, very threatening attacks on potential witnesses , so the track record, your client’s track record speaks for itself. I can’t take your word for it. That he will just say, ‘Hey, I dispute the facts’, so with regard to your application for me to modify the gag order to allow your client to respond to Ms. Daniels, that application is denied. “ . . Lawrence O’Donnell, “And then Judge Merchan listened to Todd Blanche’s motion for a mistrial based on how devastating Stormy Daniels’ testimony was to Donald Trump. Todd Blanche called Stormy Daniels’ testimony about what happened in the hotel room, ‘a completely made up encounter with Donald Trump’ and Todd Blanche complained plaintively as close to tears as any man in that room has come to THE SPANKING, ‘AND THEN QUESTIONED ABOUT PRESIDENT TRUMP SPANKING, BEING ASKED TO BE SPANKED DURING THE INCIDENT AGAIN, how that’s relevant to why we’re hear when you, especially when you weigh it and compare it to the prejudicial nature of that sort of testimony, a series of questions about ROLLING UP A MAGAZINE AND SPANKING him? The designated family supporter, Eric Trump didn’t show up today, so there were no family members sitting in that court room, listening to all the legal talk ABOUT DONALD TRUMP BEING SPANKED BY STORMY DANIELS. ” . . Lawrence O’Donnell, “Todd Blanche insisted that this is not a case about sex. Todd Blanche said there should not have been any testimony at all about sex including the moment Stormy Daniels described right before the sex. Todd Blanche quoted Stormy Daniels’ testimony to the judge, she says, ‘I went to step around. I laughed nervously. I tried to make a joke out of it and to step around, to leave even though I was moving like I was in slow motion. I was like, ‘Great. I put myself in this bad situation like what did I do? How did I misread everything? He stood up between me and the door, not in a threating manner. He didn’t come at me. He didn’t rush at me. He didn’t push his hands on me or nothing like that. I said, ‘I’ve got to go’ He said, ‘I thought we were getting somewhere. We were talking. I thought you were serious about what you wanted, if you ever want to get out of that trailer park . Now again, this is a power description. This is an extremely prejudicial statement by a witness that was never said to, there is no evidence that that was said to AMI, there was no evidence that that was said to Mr. Cohen, there was no evidence that that had anything to do with the motive of anybody involved in this case to enter into that NDA in 2016. “ . . Lawrence O’Donnell, “Prosecutor Josh Steinglass had an answer for that. ‘Mr. Blanche says, ‘Well, she never said any of this to Michael Cohen or AMI in 2016. She didn’t speak to Mr. Cohen or AMI in 2016. But you know who knew what happened in that room? Mr. Trump knew. And those details of what happened in that room, those messy details, THAT IS MOTIVE !!! THAT WAS MR. TRUMP’S MOTIVE TO SILENCE THIS WOMAN BEFORE SHE COULD TELL HER STORY IN 2016 LESS THAN A MONTH BEFORE THE ELECTION. SO THESE ARE NOT, THIS IS NOT IRRELEVANT. MR. TRUMP WAS AWARE OF THOSE DETAILS AND THE FACT THAT THE TESTIMONY IS PREJUDICIAL AND MESSY ACCORDING TO MR. BLANCHE, THAT IS WHY MR. TRUMP TRIED SO HARD TO PREVENT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE FROM HEARING ABOUT THIS!’ “ Lawrence continues, “The prosecutor told the judge about additional details of the sexual encounter that Stormy Daniels revealed in her interview with the district attorney’s office. The district attorney deliberately did not use those details in Stormy Daniels testimony because the district attorney knew that the judge wanted to minimize the details of the sexual encounter in the testimony. Here is an example of what the prosecutor deliberately left out of Stormy Daniels court room testimony ,’At one point, Ms. Daniels was asked, you know, ‘Did you feel anything unusual?’ Now the answer to that question was going to be, ‘I felt what it felt like to feel the skin of a 60 year old man. I was 27 years old and that was a different, that was different than anything I had ever felt before. ‘ Now that’s the kind of detail that would corroborate her account of what having a sexual interaction with the defendant but was not elicited. Your honor sustained the objection there are other details that I don’t want to put on the record. ‘ “ . Lawrence O’Donnell, “The prosecutor said that the defense can offer evidence that nothing sexual happened in that room simply by putting Donald Trump on the witness stand where he can say anything he wants about Stormy Daniels. There is no gag order on the witness stand. Todd Blanche was outraged that Stormy Daniels testified that Donald Trump did not use a condom. The prosecutor’s response to that was that Donald Trump ‘asked a lot of questions about the testing in the adult film industry, how often the testing happens whether performers are required to wear condoms etc. , but questions about that and the reason, the reason that is relevant is because it explains his decision to not wear a condom and the fact that that testimony about him not wearing a condom comes out because the description of the conversation that she had with Mr. Trump again corroborates her story. Todd Blanche (unintelligible) to speak again very briefly after the prosecutor completed his argument. “ . Judge Merchan, ‘Mr. Blanche is there, very briefly, the court, very briefly, ‘ . Mr. Blanche, ‘ I mean Judge, what they are saying is not true. So, for example, the people just told you that Ms. McDougal was not on the witness list’ . Judge Merchan, ‘I’m not going to get bogged down on that.’ . Mr. Blanche, ’But Judge, the court’ . Judge Merchan, ‘It’s not relevant to this motion. That’s why I’m saying very quickly, whether she was going to be called or not, going to be called, has nothing to do with this motion for a mistrial.’ . Mr. Blanche, ’But it does, your honor. ‘ . Judge Merchan, ‘No, it doesn’t. I am making the ruling and I decide whether it does or it doesn’t. I’m telling you it doesn’t. ‘ . Lawrence O’Donnell, “ Now, it is so difficult to convey how angrily and how brusquely Judge Merchan treated Todd Blanche in that court room. It is something we haven’t seen in that courtroom before because Judge Juan Merchan is normally a mild voice, calm speaker in court, who makes you lean forward to hear him and you always do because he is so clear. So simply raising his decibel level slightly and the quickness and intensity of his speech slightly as he did has an enormous affect in that room. It is bombastic in its way. Judge Merchan plays his role in such an understated way that when he leans into anything, it lands like an explosion as it did today. and so Judge Merchan, after ordering Todd Blanche to sit down again, launched into his decision on the mistrial saying that the mention of the condom should not have come out and what he couldn’t understand is why Donald Trump’s high priced criminal defense lawyer specifically Susan Necheles did not object. The judge said, ‘I wished those questions hadn’t been asked and I wished those answers hadn’t been given, but for the life of me, I don’t know why Ms. Necheles didn’t object, she had just made about ten objections, most of which were sustained, why on Earth, she wouldn’t object to the mention of a condom, I don’t understand. ‘ “ . Lawrence O’Donnell, “ And so it went. for most of the issues raised by Todd Blanche, but the crushing blow to Todd Blanche’s motion and to Todd Blanche’s work as a lawyer in this case came when the judge explained to him with Donald Trump sitting there listening that Todd Blanche lost this motion for a mistrial with the very first thing he said in this trial on the first day. “ . Judge Merchan, ‘Mr. Blanche, in your opening statement, your denial puts the jury in a position of having to choose who they believe Stormy Daniels or Donald Judge Merchan explained that Stormy Daniels had explained in her interview with the district attorney that seeing the movie, ‘Bombshell’ made her review her own thoughts and feelings about what happened in that room with Donald Trump. The movie, ‘Bombshell’, is a brilliant film starring Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie, John Lithgow, Allison Janney, and the horror story of Roger Ailes sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape of women working at Fox News while Roger Ailes was running that poisoned workplace, the judge said, ‘Ms. Daniels had watched this movie years later and it was at that point that certain memories came back and certain explanations came back to her for her feelings. I ruled immediately that that could not come in. I felt that to somehow to inject Roger Ailes into these proceedings would be unduly prejudicial to your client and I did so even though these feelings of the numbness of hands, the room spinning, the blacking out went unexplained. and I did that to protect your client. I disagree with your narrative that there is any new account here. I disagree that there is any change in story. What’s happened is that people have gone into more detail than they originally planned and the fact that you went after her right on opening statements and attacking, attacking, your claim that they never had sex, you didn’t attack that there was a fabrication of business records, you didn’t attack any of the other elements of the offense, you said, ‘My client denies there was ever a sexual encounter again, as I said before, right off the bat, that puts your client’s words against Ms. Daniels’ words and that in my mind allows the people to do what they can to rehabilitate her and to corroborate her story, your motion for a mistrial is denied. I will see you tomorrow at 9:30. ‘ . Lawrence O’Donnell, “ At 9:23 am today, Donald Trump was in the hallway before entering the courtroom, giving one of those five minute speeches of his to the cameras while ignoring every question he was asked and he said then, ‘I want to thank my lawyers . They’ve done a very good job.’ That was exactly one hour before Susan Necheles called him, ‘ THE ORANGE TURD ’ and it was seven hours before Juan Merchan crushed and humiliated Donald Trump’s criminal defense lawyers. Todd Blanche said, ‘This is not a case about sex.’ but Judge Merchan said that in Todd Blanche’s opening statement, Todd Blanche made the mistake of making this a case about sex. “ . . . [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/5/11/2240115/--Flush-the-Orange-Turd-A-gem-of-a-program-by-O-Donnell-historically-great-reporting-on-the-trial?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/