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

NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump is not known for passing on slights.

Yet the famously combative presumptive Republican nominee has sat in silence for weeks — to the point that at times he appeared to be sleeping — in a sterile Manhattan courtroom, amid a barrage of accusations and insults.

There were times when his former fixer and chief prosecutor was quoted calling him a “clumsy cartoon 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 claimed to have had sex. And there were lengthy descriptions of what prosecutors say was an illegal scheme to hide hush money payments to save his then-flagging 2016 campaign.

Despite all this, even as he and his allies attacked the case outside the courtroom, Trump spent most of his time as a defendant sitting virtually 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 country’s history to stand trial on criminal charges.

Closing arguments in the case are scheduled for Tuesday, after which a jury will decide whether he will become the first former president and major party candidate to be convicted of a felony.

Trump’s courtroom demeanor is a notable departure from the “fight at all costs” persona that has defined him over decades of public life, and marked his transformation from a New York tabloid fixture to a one-off – and possibly future – president has fueled.

And it was at least partly strategic, according to people familiar with Trump’s approach who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter. Trump’s lawyers have warned him that behavior like he did in his previous trials — where he clashed with judges and stormed out — could damage his standing with a jury that is likely to be watching his every move and deciding his fate. determine.

He appears to have concluded that acting is not in his best interests, especially since he risks being locked up if convicted.

Trump has also been able to speak several times a day to a group of media camped outside the courtroom, giving him an outlet to express his frustrations and get his message out. Facing a gag order barring him from criticizing witnesses, his campaign has rallied a slew of supporters — from vice presidential candidates to the speaker of the House of Representatives — to launch those attacks instead.

But the approach comes with its own risks. Some former prosecutors and defense attorneys who have closely followed the case said that while disruptive behavior could harm the jury, there is also a risk of Trump appearing too distant.

“What you want is for your client to appear attentive and respectful and to appear as if nothing is bothering him — but also not to fall asleep,” says Randall D. Eliason, a former assistant U.S. attorney who spent years specializing in white-collar crime.

Trump has repeatedly denied reports from reporters watching him on closed-circuit television that he is sleeping in the courtroom, insisting on his social media site that he simply “closes my beautiful blue eyes, sometimes listens intensely and takes it all in!!!” ”

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

Eliason said Trump’s attitude was “absolutely” something that jurors would notice and possibly perceive as disrespectful if they feel “like he’s acting like it’s not even worth his attention” or think he’s taking a nap.

“If it’s a tactic to give the impression that he’s not concerned about the testimony, I don’t think that would work well,” he said. “I think if he really just listens with his eyes closed, meditates or whatever, it doesn’t seem so bad. But I think the jury would find falling asleep quite disrespectful.”

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

In fact, sleeping in the courtroom would be highly unusual for a defendant.

“I have seen lawyers fall asleep, but never a suspect in a criminal case. Their lives are at stake and in my experience they are not sleeping,” said Stephen A. Saltzburg, a professor at George Washington University Law School who has written about the case.

“It’s possible that it’s all an act to show, ‘Hey, this is fake, I’m not going to pay attention to it,’” he added, but that wouldn’t help either. “Since the jury has to pay attention, that doesn’t send a signal that you respect this entire jury process.”

Trump is not completely numb yet. During jury selection, he appeared alert and engaged, and at one point was reprimanded by the judge for his visible reactions to a juror’s answers.

“While the juror was standing on the podium, approximately ten feet from your client, your client audibly said something … he made audible gestures,” Judge Juan Merchan warned one of his attorneys in April.

“I won’t tolerate that. “I don’t want jurors to be intimidated in this courtroom,” he continued. “I want to make that crystal clear.”

Later, with Stormy Daniels on the stand, Trump’s response to her testimony again prompted Merchan to summon his lawyers to the hearing.

“I understand your client is upset at this point, but he’s swearing audibly, and he’s visually shaking his head, and that’s dismissive. It has the potential to intimidate the witness and the jury can see that,” Merchan said, according to the transcript.

But as the trial dragged on, and especially during the testimony of his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen, Trump was mostly at rest, leaning back in his chair, with his eyes closed, his lips pursed and his head tilted back or to the side. He shifted from time to time – sometimes to scratch an itch. At times he seemed to fall asleep, his jaw dropping as he sat for hours in the fluorescent-lit courtroom.

Other times he rejoined, sitting upright, chatting with his lawyers or scribbling and passing notes. He often leafed through piles of papers, looked around the courtroom or sat upright with his arms folded. He seemed especially alert and engaged during defense witness Robert Costello’s combative testimony, in which the judge threatened to remove Costello from the stand.

But then he returned to the eyes-closed, head-back position that became his standard.

It’s a stark contrast to his attitude during his previous civil trials, when Trump stormed out of the courtroom, actively sparred with judges and made no effort to hide his contempt.

During his civil lawsuit over corporate fraud, in which Cohen also testified, Trump shot a law clerk from the stand, lashed out at the judge and at one point marched out of the courtroom. The judge fined Trump $355 million in that case.

And in his defamation case against E. Jean Carroll, he was reprimanded for mumbling as she spoke, told the judge he would love to be removed from the courtroom, and got up and walked out during Carroll’s closing argument, before the jury. .

Saltzburg said he believes Trump’s conduct in that case is one of the reasons the jury awarded her as much as $83.3 million.

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

In this case, says Jeffrey S. Jacobovitz, a trial attorney with extensive experience in white-collar criminal defense, Trump’s attitude is “something that a jury would certainly notice.”

The perception that he slept “will probably have a negative effect on the jury,” he said, adding: “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 report.