The Donald Trump False Business records criminal trial begins…And More…

“The first criminal trial of a former U.S. president is about to start in earnest,” the New York Times reports.

New York Times: “As the judge finishes his explanation to the jury, it’s worth recalling that this is an exceptionally busy legal week for Trump. It’s not just opening statements here.”

“Today there’s also a hearing to determine the sufficiency of the bond he put up as he appeals his huge $454 million penalty in his civil fraud case, and on Thursday, even as this trial continues, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on his immunity defense against charges that he sought to overturn the 2020 election.”

“Donald Trump was once, and may soon be again, the most powerful man in the world. But on Monday, his diminished reality as a criminal defendant will become clear in humbling fashion during opening statements in his first criminal trial,” CNN reports.

“The presumptive GOP presidential nominee has long chafed at the constraints of the law, the Constitution and general decorum as he’s presented himself as an omnipotent force throughout his business and political career. But with jury selection now complete in his hush money trial in Manhattan, Trump’s fate is in the hands of prosecutors, his attorneys, a judge and 12 people, who, according to bedrock principles of the legal system, are regarded as peers of the ex-president.”

“Nothing is more antithetical to Trump’s lifelong operating assumption that because of who he is, he is immune from such accountability.”

Politico: “When prosecutors deliver opening statements Monday in the trial of former President Donald Trump, one of their critical goals will be to convince jurors that the charges are as serious as they are salacious.”

Timothy O’Brien: “Trump is veering from rage to petulance, and from slumber to intimidation, in the courtroom because he’s the star of a lurid Manhattan reality show he isn’t producing or directing. He doesn’t control the narrative and others are writing the scripts. And some of the scripts say nasty things about him, his sex life, his bookkeeping and his attempts to bury stories that might have derailed his 2016 presidential campaign.”

“The setting, by Trump’s standards, is all wrong, too. Few courtrooms are more endowed with raw ‘Bonfire of the Vanities’ mojo than those populating New York State Supreme Court, where Trump’s trial is being held. It’s a beaten-up, old-school nexus for judges, cops, reporters and a steady stream of Manhattan legal dramas. Trump, as a younger man, used to deploy lawyers there to try to secure tax abatements and other goodies for projects he was developing. He also eagerly gobbled up tabloid coverage of celebrated clashes litigated there…”

“Trump, in his younger days, probably never imagined he’d be in the State Supreme Court dock as a former president accused of falsifying business records to mask payments to paramours who might have otherwise upended his political career. Yet here he sits, forced to observe the law.”

“Donald Trump was once, and may soon be again, the most powerful man in the world. But on Monday, his diminished reality as a criminal defendant will become clear in humbling fashion during opening statements in his first criminal trial,” CNN reports.

“The presumptive GOP presidential nominee has long chafed at the constraints of the law, the Constitution and general decorum as he’s presented himself as an omnipotent force throughout his business and political career. But with jury selection now complete in his hush money trial in Manhattan, Trump’s fate is in the hands of prosecutors, his attorneys, a judge and 12 people, who, according to bedrock principles of the legal system, are regarded as peers of the ex-president.”

“Nothing is more antithetical to Trump’s lifelong operating assumption that because of who he is, he is immune from such accountability.”

Politico: “When prosecutors deliver opening statements Monday in the trial of former President Donald Trump, one of their critical goals will be to convince jurors that the charges are as serious as they are salacious.”

image…Angela Weiss/NY Times