Todd Blanche, the lawyer who led Donald Trump’s hush cash protection, mentioned the previous president was “concentrating” when he sat at size along with his eyes shut in courtroom.
“He was not sleeping, and I feel finally the press realized he wasn’t sleeping,” Blanche mentioned throughout a current look on the “For the Protection with David Oscar Markus” podcast.
“His eyes could be closed, however he could be concentrating,” continued Blanche, in a clip of the podcast alternate flagged by the MeidasTouch community. “And I do know that to be true, as a result of he would write me a word and make it clear that he heard what was occurring.”
“Pay attention, sitting in courtroom all day is absolutely freaking boring, even for those who’re the defendant,” he mentioned, including that Trump “would shut his eyes to chill out, however I by no means, we by no means needed to wake him up.”
Quite a few journalists and others current within the courtroom in the course of the trial reported that Trump gave the impression to be asleep, generally for lengthy stints of the proceedings.
After attending courtroom on Could 14, MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell mentioned that Trump’s eyes had been shut for nearly 90% of the day.
Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, informed MeidasTouch Trump’s eyes have been closed “at the very least 95% of the time” throughout his many hours of testimony.
On the primary day of Trump’s trial, April 15, the New York Instances’ Maggie Haberman reported that Blanche handed Trump notes for “a number of minutes earlier than Mr. Trump appeared to jolt awake and see them.”
Trump and his allies have insisted he was awake. Trump has mentioned he was simply closing his eyes to “take all of it in,” and that it was “very vibrant” within the courtroom.
His supporters have been extra artistic with their excuses. Fox Information’ Jesse Watters, for instance, claimed Trump was in a “meditative state.”
Jurors concluded final week that Trump was responsible on all 34 counts of falsifying enterprise information in connection to a hush cash fee to porn star Stormy Daniels forward of the 2016 election.