Trump Hush Money Case Is Moving At A Brisk Pace – Thanks To One Man

(Photo by BRENDAN MCDERMID/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

The judge is controlling his courtroom and he is not tolerant of wasted time. This judge is conducting the voir dire as every judge should: He hears arguments, for or against cause and he makes a decision. He doesn’t countenance pontification and unnecessary argument. Yet what’s clear to me is he is handling, he is inviting and accepting, an argument that is focused on the issue at hand.

— New York white-collar defense attorney Robert Gottlieb told law.com the speed at which the criminal case against Donald Trump is coming together is no accident. Gottlieb noted, “They have clearly cleaned the decks to allow the judge to devote his undivided and full attention to this trial without any interruptions.” And that the judge was in firm control of everything gong on in his courtroom, “You do not see the type and extent of control that Judge Merchan is exercising in every case.”