Judge Juan Merchan has been happy to do things his way during the course of the Trump trial. Or should we rename it the Michael Cohen trial? The president's former attorney appears to be the only one in the court room who committed a crime.
That is, unless we count Merchan himself, for 1) not recusing himself, 2) not tossing the case when it became clear the charges were less convincing than a Stormy Daniels movie plot, 3) delaying the final arguments until after the Memorial Day weekend, and 4) berating a witness (Robert Costello) and trying to avoid his damning testimony.
Cohen admitting that he stole money from the Trump campaign should have been the lowlight of the day. Cohen admitted that in his scheme to pay off Daniels and other transactions, he enriched himself by as much as $60,000.
In perhaps the most egregious case yet of prosecutorial bias in the circus trial, Judge Merchan emptied the court room after accusing Costello, a former federal prosecutor from New York, of shooting him "side eye" and sighing, of all things.
The real issue bothering Merchan appears to be Costello's testimony that Trump knew nothing about Cohen's payment to Daniels. The defense produced a record of 75 telephone calls between Cohen and Costello during the period of time in question, whereas Cohen claimed he spoke to Costello "about ten" times.
Trump had the last word after Merchan emptied the chambers, loudly exclaiming, "Get out of the court room, now!"
