Wednesday with Chickens JOYCE VANCE MAY 9 It’s an early night for me tonight. I have a disgustingly early flight to Detroit for the Sisters-in-Law live podcast show tomorrow night. I’ve tucked in the chickens (we’re expecting storms) and will be heading off to bed as soon as TV is over tonight. Guida was the last chicken in the coop tonight—too busy rampaging through my garden Lots going on, most notably news that neither the Fulton County case nor the classified documents prosecutions are going to see the light of day before the election. Although that already seemed preordained, it’s now formal. In Fulton County, the Georgia Court of Appeals will review Judge McAfee’s decision that Fani Willis can stay on the case. Whichever side loses the appeal will likely apply to the Georgia Supreme Court for another bite at the apple. The process will take months. In Florida, Judge Cannon has removed her May 20 trial date from the calendar. She refused to set a new one, but scheduled almost all of the pending motions in the case—she’s let them pile up—for hearings between now and July. Just the unresolved issues regarding the possible use of classified information by the defense could hold this case up past November. It’s a straightforward prosecution that should have gone to trial early this year. Tomorrow, Stormy Daniels returns to the witness stand in Manhattan. On Tuesday, we learned from the daily transcript that the Judge held a sidebar conference with Trump’s lawyers because Trump was “cursing audibly” while Daniels testified. The Judge was concerned that might intimidate Daniels, which seems logical and also something of an understatement given the situation. Judge Merchan also commented that Trump was going on in full view of the jury. There is no doubt they took note. While Trump’s lawyers claimed Stormy Daniels’ testimony went too far and asked for a mistrial, which the Judge denied, if anything prejudiced the jury against him yesterday, it was Trump’s own behavior. Judge Merchan could have admonished Trump directly, but instead, he spoke with lawyer Todd Blanche, characterizing the former president’s behavior as “contemptuous.” He said he didn’t want to embarrass Trump in court and told Blanche to have a talk with his client, concluding, “I won’t tolerate that.” Tomorrow is going to be a very interesting day. Scotch the Rooster We’re in this together, Joyce