NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump has rallied supporters in the Upper Midwest, attended his son’s high school graduation and feted foreign leaders since his historic criminal trial began in mid-April.
Yet those lively detours are the exception, not the norm. Four days a week, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is trapped on the 15th floor of a granite and limestone courthouse just south of Chinatown in lower Manhattan.
The best thing someone might say about the art deco courthouse is that it was probably nice when it opened in 1941.
Today, the elevator is scratched, the hallways are grimy and dim, and the air in the courtroom is either too hot or too cold.
“I’m now convinced the main goal of this trial is psychological torture. But Trump is in great spirits,” posted Sen. J.D. Vance, the Ohio Republican who described the drive downtown from tony Trump Tower to the “dingy courthouse.”
Mr. Trump at least gets a cushioned chair. Throngs of reporters and some members of the public crowd onto hard wooden benches arranged into two sections separated by a center aisle.
For better or worse, they are among the select few witnessing history at the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president.
Mr. Trump’s son Eric and supportive members of Congress pack into the front two rows of the courtroom directly behind him. Court officers who dot the courtroom sometimes obscure their view.
Lawmakers toggle between the wooden benches and camera locations outside the courtroom to attack the proceedings on Mr. Trump’s behalf. Mr. Trump says a gag order on him and the trial writ large are designed to handcuff him while he prepares to take on President Biden.
The case “should have been brought seven or eight years ago,” Mr. Trump said after his attorney subjected the prosecution’s star witness, Michael Cohen, to a bruising cross-examination on Thursday.
“They didn’t do that because they want to bring it up right in the middle of the election, especially since we’re leading in every poll,” Mr. Trump said in the courthouse hallway.
Prosecutors say Mr. Trump, using his attorney turned accuser, paid hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election to suppress her story about a sexual encounter with Mr. Trump.
They say the nature of the payment was concealed through reimbursement checks to Mr. Cohen from Mr. Trump’s revocable trust and personal account. Mr. Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records and denied the 2006 sexual encounter alleged by Ms. Daniels.
The trial could be completed by Memorial Day, though the timing remains fluid. For now, a pen of TV cameras in a poorly lit hallway is what passes for Mr. Trump’s campaign stage.
Beyond complaining about his case, Mr. Trump opines on news of the day, such as the “Biden inflation tax” and the student protests against the Israel-Hamas war roiling university campuses.
Action inside the courtroom is not televised, so the only images most people see are from courtroom sketch artists and still photographs of Mr. Trump at the start of each day.
Reporters dominate the 14 rows of seats. The courtroom has a high ceiling and wooden panels partway up the walls. A small number of seats are available for the public. Additional members of the press and the public can line up outside early to enter the overflow room, where monitors at the front stream the action.
The words “In God We Trust” loom behind state Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan’s head inside the main courtroom.
Judge Merchan is mild-mannered and willing to accommodate jurors who have scheduling conflicts. He tells parties to “enjoy your lunch” at the midday break and to have a pleasant night at the end of court. Yet he runs a tight ship and is willing to scold attorneys he feels are trying to assert too much authority over his courtroom.
Facing the judge, Mr. Trump is seated at the left table with his attorneys while prosecutors sit on the right. The jury box is along the right wall. The witness stand is between the jury box and the judge.
The squared-off corner of the judge’s bench seems to obscure Mr. Trump’s view of the witnesses. Mr. Cohen had to stand up to peer over the bench to point out Mr. Trump when prosecutors asked him to identify his former boss.
Mr. Trump sometimes looks at his attorneys or the witnesses. Most of the time, he tilts his head back with his eyes closed or peers at the TV monitor in front of him.
Despite its dated look, the courthouse is equipped with monitors that show close-ups of the action to the gallery and allow jurors to view emails, phone records and other evidence on screens in front of them.
Security is tight, given the defendant’s high profile, and Secret Service agents mingle with the New York court officers. The use of phones is strictly prohibited and policed, in part to avoid photographs or recordings, though reporters can use their laptops.
Jurors take handwritten notes on legal pads provided by the courthouse. The notes are secured overnight in the court and will be destroyed after the trial.
Few people get a firsthand look at the proceedings, and the experience disheartens some who have.
“That courtroom is depressing,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville, Alabama Republican, said outside the building. “This is New York City — icon of our country — and we’ve got a courtroom that’s the most depressing thing I’ve ever been in.”
Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, an outspoken Trump critic, shamed his fellow Republicans for showing up at all.
“I think it’s a little demeaning to show up in front of a courthouse, particularly one where we’re talking about an allegation of paying a porn star,” Mr. Romney told reporters. “Really, really difficult to watch.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.