Former President Donald Trump, age 77, seemed to fall asleep during the first day of his criminal hush money trial. Democrats mocked Trump as he has repeatedly claimed that President Joe Biden is too old and low-energy to lead the United States.
“Trump appeared to be asleep,” New York Times senior political correspondent Maggie Haberman told CNN. “His head would fall down… He didn’t pay attention to a note his lawyer passed him. His jaw kept falling on his chest and his mouth kept going slack.” Haberman also noted that Trump had seemed to have fallen asleep at other recent trials as well.
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Photographers didn’t capture images of Trump dozing off, possibly because they were only allowed in the courtroom at the start of the trial. Trump is on trial for 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection to hush money payments he made to silence stories of extramarital affairs he allegedly had with adult video performer Stormy Daniels and at least one other woman.
Trump also appeared to doze off a second, according to a Daily Beast reporter. “He sat, unmoving, for close to three minutes with his head leaning slightly to one side before jolting awake, again, and shifting around in an irritated manner,” the publication wrote.
Earlier in the day, Trump wrote via social media that he would be in the courtroom “FIGHTING for the FREEDOM of 325 MILLION AMERICANS!” The above reports suggest that the fight may have made Trump quite sleepy.
Haberman: Trump appeared to be asleep. His head would fall down… He didn’t pay attention to a note his lawyer passed him. His jaw kept falling on his chest and his mouth kept going slack. pic.twitter.com/Y9niQfZc3W
Democratic observers took notice of Trump’s seeming drowsiness, as Trump has previously called Biden “Sleepy Joe,” “senile” and “physically and mentally weak” — even though Biden remains physically active and is only four years older than Trump.
Kate Bedingfield, President Biden’s former communications director, dubbed the ex-president “Sleepy Don” via social media.
Dan Pfeiffer, former senior adviser to President Obama, wrote, “If Trump is too old and weak to stay awake at his own criminal trial, what do you think will happen in the Situation Room?”
Journalist Jemele Hill wrote, “Now had this been Biden, it would have been the lead story on every newscast and Fox News would have talked about this for weeks.”
Even Republicans mocked Trump. Former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele joked, “When you’re old and on trial for falsifying official records you tire quickly. Let the man sleep but watch for that slack jaw, drooling could become a problem.”
On Monday, Trump asked Judge Juan Merchan to suspend the trial on Friday, May 17, so that Trump could attend his son Barron’s high school graduation in Florida. Merchan denied the request and reminded Trump that he could be jailed if he doesn’t appear in court that day.
Trump told reporters outside the courtroom, “It looks like the judge will not allow me to escape this scam, the scam trial.” He also repeated his claim that “presidential immunity” should allow him to do anything he wants without legal consequences. The Republican-leaning Supreme Court is currently considering this claim.
Outside the courtroom the 50 Trump supporters were far outnumbered by reporters, Yahoo! News reported.
The Trump hush money trial explained
Trump and the Trump Organization are accused of hiding its hush money payments, made in 2016 and 2017, to silence potentially unflattering stories about Trump during the 2016 election. Trump and his organization allegedly misrepresented these payments to hide their breaking of federal campaign finance laws.
While falsifying business records is typically a misdemeanor offense in New York state law, if Trump did so to cover up campaign finance violations, that’s a federal crime. Because the falsification occurred to hide another crime, prosecutors upgraded the state charges from misdemeanors to felonies.
Court documents allege that Trump and his organization paid $130,000 to adult video actress Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about their alleged extramarital affair while Trump was married to his current wife, now-former first lady Melania Trump. Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen established a shell company — Resolution Consultants, LLC — to make the Daniels payment seem unconnected to Trump.
Trump allegedly organized two other hush money payments through American Media, Inc. (AMI), the company that owns The National Enquirer and other publications. AMI paid $125,000 to Playboy model Karen McDougal to keep her from alleging her own extramarital affair with Trump.
AMI also paid $30,000 to stop an unnamed Trump Tower doorman from claiming he had proof about a child Trump had out of wedlock. AMI “later concluded that the [doorman’s] story was not true,” but it still paid him to stay silent until after the election, court documents allege. AMI also allegedly misrepresented its payment to McDougal on its company ledgers.
AMI paid McDougal and the doorman money to “not publicize damaging allegations” against Trump in order to “influence” the 2016 election, court documents state — a media legal arrangement sometimes referred to as “capture and kill.”
After winning the 2016 election, Trump allegedly met AMI CEO David Pecker inside Trump Tower in Manhattan to invite him to the inauguration and a White House dinner as thanks for his silencing of McDougal’s and the doorman’s stories.
To repay Cohen for handling Daniels’s payment, Trump and the Trump Organization’s then-CFO Allen Weisselberg allegedly asked Cohen to submit a $35,000 invoice each month throughout 2017 as part of a “retainer agreement” and for “legal services rendered.”
“In fact, there was no such retainer agreement and [Cohen] was not being paid for services rendered in any month of 2017,” the court documents state. Rather, Cohen’s invoices were just reimbursements for the $130,000 he paid to Daniels and an additional $290,000 to reward Cohen for his work, court documents allege.
Trump allegedly signed off on each check from the Trump Organization to Cohen. Each check counts as a falsified business record, prosecutors say. In August 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign finance by mischaracterizing the Trump Organization’s payments. Cohen’s admission, prosecutors say, means that Trump essentially falsified business records to help his lawyer violate federal campaign finance law.
