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WSJ Opinion: Potomac Watch

Inside the Donald Trump Trial Courtroom

WSJ Opinion: Potomac Watch

The Wall Street Journal

News, Society & Culture

4.22.8K Ratings

🗓️ 3 May 2024

⏱️ 25 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The third week of Donald Trump’s hush-money trial in New York included testimony from his former aide Hope Hicks and audio tapes secretly made by Michael Cohen. What are the defense and the prosecution each doing, and what's the atmosphere inside the courtroom? Kyle Peterson shares his experience observing the proceedings and discusses what's yet to come. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

My mother was very familiar with her neighborhood, but one day she stopped at the stop sign and she wasn't even really sure where she was at.

0:07.0

When something feels different, it could be Alzheimer's. Now is the time to talk.

0:11.0

A message from the Alzheimer's Association

0:13.4

and the Ad Council.

0:15.3

From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal,

0:21.0

this is Potomac Watch.

0:24.2

Donald Trump on Thursday finished his 10th day in a Manhattan courtroom in his

0:29.0

hush money trial, where he stands accused of falsifying business records regarding payments made to a former adult film star.

0:36.5

How's a trial going? What's the latest and what is it actually like in that courtroom?

0:41.7

Welcome to Potomac Watch. I am Kim Strassle and today we've got a special

0:45.6

treat for you because we can answer that question. My colleague Kyle Peterson spent yesterday

0:51.2

in person in that space watching this drama unfold and he's

0:55.1

going to give us a first-hand account. Hi Kim how you doing? Good. So my first

0:59.2

question just because it's one that's been plaguing me ever since this trial began. Is it really as

1:05.3

cold as Donald Trump claims it is in the courtroom? Did you need a jacket? Did your

1:09.8

fingers go numb? How cold is it in there? It didn't seem cold to me. Maybe I run a little hot. I was more

1:15.0

hankering for the cup of coffee that I was denied. No eating or drinking in the courtroom,

1:20.1

no cell phone usage, which these days sometimes is almost worse than no coffee but it is a

1:25.4

fascinating space so the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse is a big art deco building in

1:31.0

downtown Manhattan the press starts lining up there around 7 o'clock. The building looks like kind of the bottom of the Chrysler building. But inside the vibe is more aging high school, fluorescent lights. The courtroom is on the 15th floor, high

1:45.0

ceilings and wood paneling, but the floor is a tan tile like something out of an old

1:50.4

school cafeteria. You have the judge up there on the bench, the defense and the prosecution at tables in front, the jury in two rows of seats on the right wall, heads going back and forth between the witness and the prosecution and the defense,

...

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