It took a while and many editorials in this space, including four this month, but our constant hammering on the absolute vital need to make freely available to all the transcripts of Donald Trump’s criminal trial has built something historic and of great public importance: Starting today, each day’s full transcript will be posted on the website of the state Office of Court Administration.
Now, every person in the country, and every person in the world, will be able to read exactly what is happening in Trump’s trial before Acting Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, which began yesterday with the opening statements of Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Matthew Colangelo and Trump’s defense counsel Todd Blanche.
Then the prosecution called their first witness, David Pecker, the former chief of the National Enquirer, who began his testimony, but he was only on the stand for less than half an hour before the day ended. Pecker will be back today, following a hearing on if Trump violated the gag order.
We don’t need to get into the details, which you can read elsewhere in today’s Daily News and as published by our competitors or you can just read the entire thing for yourself. And that’s the whole point.
When the announcement was made shortly after yesterday’s court session by Chief Administrative Judge Joe Zayas and First Deputy Chief Administrative Judge Norman St. George, clearly reflecting the view of their boss, state Chief Judge Rowan Wilson, we received calls and texts and emails of congratulations.
Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, lawyers and judges, all lauded our successful advocacy, but this is not a victory for the Daily News, it is a victory for everyone. And others joined the effort.
Attorney Nick Akerman, an occasional op-ed writer in these pages and frequent TV commenter, wrote about it in the Washington Post and submitted a letter to Merchan. Our former colleague, Errol Louis, pushed it in his New York magazine column. Common Cause New York and New York Focus filed an application by their lawyers Jim Walden and Deanna Paul with Merchan. The chair of the state Senate Judiciary Committee, Brad Hoylman-Sigal, made a phone call to Wilson.
The argument for all was the same: Let the people in. Since New York is the only state besides Louisiana that forbids cameras and microphones from trials when witnesses are giving testimony and the Merchan’s courtroom only has a very limited number of seats, it came down to the transcripts.
But the people who make those transcripts, the court stenographers, despite being well-paid full-time employees of the court system, also sell the transcripts, which can cost hundreds of dollars per day and they personally keep the proceeds.
In the Trump case, all the stenographers have salaries of at least $130,000 a year (which ironically is the amount of hush money that Trump paid Stormy Daniels to stay quiet in the fall of 2016 about their 2006 sexual encounter).
Zayas and St. George promise the transcripts will appear before the end of the next business day, meaning 5 p.m., but we hope it can be earlier, perhaps even the same day. But that’s a minor matter and it’s worth celebrating the new transparency. Now start reading!
The Trump transcripts are now free: Everyone can read every word of the court sessions
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24.04.2024
It took a while and many editorials in this space, including four this month, but our constant hammering on the absolute vital need to make freely available to all the transcripts of Donald Trump’s criminal trial has built something historic and of great public importance: Starting today, each day’s full transcript will be posted on the website of the state Office of Court Administration.
Now, every person in the country, and every person in the world, will be able to read exactly what is happening in Trump’s trial before Acting Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, which began yesterday with the opening statements of Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Matthew Colangelo and Trump’s defense counsel Todd Blanche.
Then the prosecution called their first witness, David........
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