Lisa Rubin of MSNBC suggested on X (formerly Twitter) this Tuesday that former President Donald Trump’s own defense team bears some blame in an area where, predictably, the political figure and his corner have complained: the length of trial proceedings currently transpiring in New York.
“A representative of CSPAN is the next Trump witness and is here solely to authenticate video, apparently. That likely means Team Trump would not agree that even C-SPAN video is an authentic representation of Trump,” Rubin wrote. The trial that provides the backdrop for this is the case accusing Trump of falsifying business records in connection with hush money from before the 2016 elections. And as Rubin explained, in the expected scenario in which Trump’s team had issue with C-SPAN footage, that puts responsibility on their shoulders for extending the trial.
“That also means that despite Trump and his team’s constant complaints about the trial’s length, they bear the blame for insisting on testimony like this. Even the most aggressive lawyers I know would roll their eyes & agree that whatever CSPAN video is at issue is real,” Rubin added on Tuesday.
Other developments from the trial on Tuesday included presiding Judge Juan Merchan ruling on earlier allegations from prosecutors that defendant Trump violated a gag order that broadly protects witnesses, jurors, and others connected to trial. Merchan held Trump in contempt and imposed financial penalties, calling out the limit on those penalties of $1,000 a violation — though detention is also, in general, a possibility for contempt findings, and that’s still on the table for the future, the judge reiterated in his decision.
