No, my expertise is in consumer law. In the distant past I've studied/had training on civil procedure, rules of evidence law, cross examinations for criminal cases, etc., but I ultimately decided to keep criminal law as a hobby rather than a profession.

Anyway, none of that really matters. A child with a basic understanding of how courts work can see that Trump is breaking the rules and ignoring direct instructions from the judge. It's a pretty basic idea that both sides should make the best arguments they can, and shouldn't try to intimidate witnesses or undermine the authority of the judge.

Any adult with critical thinking skills should be able to discern why, for example, Trump keeps pretending that he wants to testify but makes up excuses for not doing so. Or why Trump's statements to the media are so different to his statements in court.

And then anyone with a background in law enforcement should immediately be able to see right through Trump, because they deal with people like him every day.

The trial is going to be over in a few days, and Donald hasn't volunteered to testify yet.

Just to be clear, he is allowed to testify. He has every opportunity to testify. He could testify later this week. If he doesn't testify, it's because his team knows it'll do more harm than good, and they chose not to testify.

So don't be surprised next week when Donald whines about not being allowed to speak at court. That's his default lie. Hopefully a few of his supporters are smart enough to recognise the lie this time.

Picture this: It's 2040, and it's time to make a film about the attempt to steal the 2020 election.

Do you play up Rudy hiding from his indictment as a goofy misadventure where he's in a party hat and the sherriffs yell "surprise!"; or do you show it in Godfather-style third act montage where each of the co-conspirators get their come-uppance?

Is it a black comedy or a crime drama? I'm not sure anymore.

They either don't know anything about the law, or they don't care about upholding the law.

I can't see any other explanation.

So he went into hiding for a few days to try to avoid the indictment, but then invited a bunch of guests to his birthday party (while in hiding), and bragged about it on Twitter?

That must be real. It's too stupid to be fiction.

Also, I'm pretty sure the law doesn't work that way, Rudi. If this is the quality of your legal advice, no wonder your former boss is on trial for so many crimes.

It's a work of historical fantasy fiction, featuring a character that nobody knows much about, but who has been depicted as a samurai or a samurai-like figure in a bunch of Japenese stories.

There's nothing controversial here. People are just being racist assholes, but hiding it behind silly arguments of historical accuracy (in a series that includes Atlantis and the Norse gods).

While they're at it, they should remake the first game but have Altair die every time he jumps off a roof into a haystack. I mean, that's a massive historical inconsistency, and I have no idea how they missed that in development.

Or they should remake the first game, but have the Animus not work because the technology doesn't actually exist in real life.

I mean, Ubisoft must be complete fucking idiots if they think genetic memory is real, right?

Thank the gods the last few games were historically accurate.

Extremely. I assume you wore a fedora while typing that.

Glancing through this thread, I have to wonder when gamers got so fucking stupid. It's embarrassing.

Like seriously, the guy's Wikipedia article called him the first recorded foreign-born samurai until the trailer dropped, then someone edited the article and started a culture war about it.

Stop being such imbecilic children. It's a videogame. None of this fucking matters.

So I missed it in yesterday's court adventures (where Cohen detailed every aspect of Trump's intention to pay hush money to ilegally influence the election, and Trump's knowledge of the cover-up attempt to hide those payments)...

...but at one point yesterday, Trump's lawyer said that they don't have any rebuttal witnesses at the moment. They're thinking of bringing in an expert witness next week, but they might not even do that.

What does that mean?

It means Trump doesn't want to testify.

This explains why he's in such a tantrum about the gag order (which doesn't stop him testifying, but tricks his cult into thinking he is being silenced) and why he needs his minions to front the media in front of the courthouse (because he wants to spread his version of events without anyone fact-checking him).

It's pathetic, but nothing new for Mr Trump.

In other news, I missed that Judge Canon has postponed the documents trial by at least another 2 months.

That's fine though. If Trump wins the election, Biden should just postpone any transition of power until Trump has been cleared of all charges. You can't give someone classified documents while they are on trial for criminally mishandling classified documents, and you can't allow someone to be president if they can't be trusted with classified documents.