Maggie Haberman, the New York Times reporter who’s been front and center in Manhattan Criminal Court for Donald Trump’s hush-money trial, sees an increasingly frustrated judge as Trump's team gets bolder in court.
In an interview with CNN, the former Trump White House correspondent spoke on the Trump legal team and their clashes with Judge Juan Merchan, who Haberman said has seemingly “finally just had enough.”
“Merchan — while the Trump team doesn’t like him — he has tried being really fair on a bunch of points,” Haberman said, pointing to an instance where Merchan called Trump’s lawyer into a sidebar to avoid embarrassing his client. Haberman, who called Trump’s criminal fraud trial a “circus,” said that Merchan’s treatment of the defendant was different up to this point.
Per Haberman, Merchan is becoming increasingly frustrated with Todd Blanche and Susan Necheles, Trump’s main attorneys, and their “bad faith” arguments.
“He really lit into Susan Necheles, who had done the cross examination of Stormy Daniels, and said she had every opportunity to object to X, Y, Z, and didn’t,” Haberman explained. “Merchan said, ‘Your opening was that there was no sexual encounter. That opens the door for all the other questions.’”
Merchan denied Trump a mistrial for that very reason, asking “why on Earth [Necheles] wouldn’t object” to parts of Daniels’ testimony, with which the defense found issue.
Haberman also questioned whether Necheles’ aggressive cross-examination of Daniels was helpful.
“The jury sees this, and it ends up risking looking like you’re just badgering this woman,” Haberman said. “Continuing to go at Stormy Daniels in this very contentious back and forth felt, in the courtroom, like a losing prospect after the first several times.”
