Why Trump lawyer’s 'comparison' of GOP 'surrogates' and the public is not 'apt or fair': legal expert

16 May 2024

Top Republican lawmakers like House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), House Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good (R-A), North Dakota governor and ex-GOP presidential candidate Doug Burgum, are just a few of the prominent GOP leaders who have traveled to New York this week to support Donald Trump during his ongoing hush money criminal trial.

MSNBC's Alicia Menendez spoke with NBC legal correspondent Lisa Rubin — who has been in the Manhattan courtroom — Thursday night about the sometimes "disruptive" presence of Trump's GOP "posse".

"Can you help me understand, Lisa, given the amount of time you've spent in the courtroom," Menendez said, asking, "how it is that people get into that courtroom, how they get seated, and what it tells you that he has about a dozen folks?"

"I am so glad that you asked me this question," Rubin replied, "because today, on the record from the DA's office, they said, 'Hey, you had a bunch of surrogates for the former president who came in at an awkward moment. They were disruptive of the cross-examination. They came in at a time when members of the public would not be allowed to come in and out, could you ask them to stop doing that?'"

Rubin continued, "And [Trump lawyer] Todd Blanche for his part said, 'One, I don't control these people. Two, they are members of the public.' Let's accept his first proposition that he, Todd Blanche, as a member of the legal team, does not control them. The proposition that they are members of the public is simply belied by what we can see. They do not come in the same public courthouse entry that I come in every day."

The legal correspondent added, "From what we can tell, they are transported with the former president. They are admitted into his bubble by the Secret Service. Whether they undergo additional security at the back entrance of the courthouse from which Trump enters is not clear to us. But I can tell you this: They enter the courthouse through the president's holding room, which we understand is an additional courtroom that has been cleared. They come out with him as he makes his statements to the press in the hallway, and then they enter the courtroom with him in this bizarre procession that almost resembles a militaristic parade. It's a long line almost in order of hierarchal importance of who comes in with him. The legal team, the aids, members of Congress, et cetera."

"To call them members of the public, akin to the guy you showed on tape earlier, who had been waiting in line for hours and hours, that's just simply not an apt or fair comparison," Rubin emphasized. "And I want to say one other thing: Matt Gaetz might be making statements that make our jaws drop, and Donald Trump might be violating the gag order, but some of these people don't have to say a word. And that's because from where they are sitting, each of the witnesses is marched directly in front the first row of Trump observers. Each side, meaning the prosecution and defense, has the first two rows of the gallery in the courtroom."

Rubin noted, "That means, if you were Michael Cohen this morning, who did you walk by? Eric Trump, as you are trying to get into the courtroom to your seat. You are not walking down the center aisle of the courtroom as we see in procedural dramas, but rather, in a separate entrance designed to maximize your security and your protection from the remainder of public, given what is going on here and how controversial it is with some members of the public."

Watch the video below or at this link.

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