re: #101 Targetpractice

Necheles gave the performance that we were told earlier in the trial Trump was pissed that Blanche wasn’t providing him: angry, combative, and destructive. Instead of approaching Daniels as a fact witness and keeping the cross-exam short by focusing on inconsistencies in her testimony, Necheles instead spent her time trying to attack Daniels’ motives for testifying and restoring Trump’s reputation by ruining hers. The jury’s not there to judge her on her career choice or her reasons for going to the press with her story, they’re there to hear her confirm that the two had a sexual encounter and that he paid her for it.

I think they genuinely fucked up the cross-examination today. Necheles going so hard on the sex part of the story and Daniels’ black out/disassociation opened the door for the prosecution on redirect. They didn’t seem to spend any real time or energy on the NDA or negotiations, you know, the stuff that might actually help their client.