Former U.S. Attorney and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Harry Litman is providing commentary on former President Donald Trump‘s criminal trial in Manhattan, where the presumptive GOP nominee is facing 34 felony counts for allegedly falsifying business documents to cover up payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 presidential election. (Daniels testified that she had a sexual encounter with Trump, which he denies.)
Lots of evidence at the trial was admitted in the blink of an eye and not explored at the time. It’s designed to be used in the DA’s closing summations, which will be heavily graphic. Call by call, transcript by transcript.
— Harry Litman (@harrylitman) May 20, 2024
On Day 19 of the trial, Litman reports: “Lots of evidence at the trial was admitted in the blink of an eye and not explored at the time. It’s designed to be used in the DA’s closing summations, which will be heavily graphic. Call by call, transcript by transcript.”
Note: In November 2018, Litman penned the New York Times op-ed essay ‘How Long Before Trump Destroys the Rule of Law?’ Litman wrote about then-President Trump, who had ordered his White House counsel, Don McGahn, to prosecute his 2016 Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton and former FBI Director James Comey. (McGahn shot down Trump’s idea.)
Litman wrote: “The crazy and terrifying lesson of the order to prosecute Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Comey is not that our legal norms can withstand a despot; rather, it’s that within a matter of months we can find ourselves praying that they hold, and with little recourse if they don’t. Repairing the damage to our basic political culture will require many years and shared resolve across the political spectrum.”