‘Are you missing my point?’: Trump attorney sharply upbraided by judge after jury goes home in hush-money trial

The third day of Donald Trump’s New York City hush-money trial drew to a close with the judge in charge of the case briefly upbraiding one of the former president’s attorneys over how he questioned a witness.

After jurors were dismissed for the day, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan and the parties discussed an earlier-lodged objection regarding the testimony of David Pecker, 72, the onetime CEO of the National Enquirer’s parent company, American Media Inc.

Leading the defense on Thursday was attorney Emil Bove, an alum of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Before Bove took first chair, the majority of Trump’s defense had been led by attorney Todd Blanche — who himself received a dressing down from Merchan earlier this week during a combative gag order hearing.

The basis of the state’s objection on Thursday was the defense’s allegedly improper impeachment of Pecker over the witness’ varying recollections about who attended a 2015 Trump Tower meeting, according to a report by Just Security fellow Adam Klasfeld.

“Mr. Bove, are you missing my point?” the frustrated judge said. “Because I don’t think you’re responding to what I’m saying.”

As testimony in the case wrapped up, Bove pressed Pecker over who, exactly, he remembered was or was not at the meeting where the “agreement among friends” over the 2016 election came into being.

That agreement, Pecker previously testified, resulted in the National Enquirer acting as the Trump presidential campaign’s “eyes and ears” about damaging stories. Meanwhile, the tabloid itself received premier access to the candidate, especially in regard to negative stories about his rivals, and was basically guaranteed increased sales because the readership loved Trump and wanted him to win.

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The upshot of Bove’s questioning suggested Pecker told federal prosecutors Hope Hicks, a onetime White House communications director, was not at the meeting while telling state prosecutors she was there, according to a report by the New York Times.

The defense moved to quiz Pecker about his grand jury testimony — prompting another quick objection and the judge ending proceedings.

Explaining the state’s objection, Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass complained that Bove’s line of questioning was “improper” and left jurors “with a misimpression” about what Pecker said. Rather, the prosecutor explained, Hicks’ name did not come up at all during Pecker’s August 2018 meeting with federal investigators.

Bove briefly defended himself by saying he was not trying to be misleading — only to prove that Hicks was not in the meeting.

“It’s misleading and we’re going to correct this tomorrow,” Merchan said.

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The court will issue a curative jury instruction, the judge said, adding that the defense improperly impeached the witness about a prior inconsistent statement by referring to a document without proper foundation, according to a report by Law&Crime’s Terri Austin.

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