There’s a 3,500 post 200 page thread on this topic already. I’m sure Trump will clear this all up in his testimony.
This case ends in exactly one of 2 ways: acquittal, or pile driven on its face at the appellate level. "...OK, it's a felony in NY IF the biz recs were fudged to conceal a crime. What's the crime? Well, doesn't have to be one. He just has to believe he was covering up a crime. What if he was covering up a scandal to save face with his family? Doesn't matter... we pretend he thought he was covering up a crime." /s/Alvin Bragg, with a straight face. Lol! (Enter Comey's mythical "no reasonable prosecutor..." standard).
GOP when anyone but a republican is the legal target: Law and order! GOP when a republican is the target: This law is unfair, it's not like this in other states, only a red state jury should judge a republican, ignore the defendant's life of crime, ignore the defendant's sordid personal history, it's a witch hunt... It's just so UNFAIR!!!!!!
I think the question of whether they had an affair in fact, is besides the point. He paid to shut her up so that she didn’t damage his campaign in the aftermath of the Access Hollywood tape. She might’ve been a gold-digger, but he paid the gold so that she shut up (before the election). The one thing that I think is now clear is that he didn’t pay her “to protect his family.” Of that were the case, why not pay her years before?
They’re not. That’s why if the jury believes he paid her off primarily to protect his family, he’ll get at most a misdemeanor. But if the jury finds he paid her off primarily to protect his campaign, then it is illegal to pay a campaign expense and it book it as such, amongst other things, and the felony attaches.
Ehh.. no it's pretty important, because if they didn't actually ****, this could be construed as extortion. She made up a lie to extort money out of him. At the very least, it makes a jury more sympathetic even if they believe hush money was paid. That said, this entire case was a witch hunt from the start, as many Democrat leaning pundits have said. Her credibility is obviously now in jeopardy with the whole blacking out thing and it seems nearly impossible to me that a jury would convict a former POTUS with such a sketchy lead witness. Frankly, I would say the same if it was Joe Biden on trial. That's not the message I want to send to the world. "A pornstar with a sketchy story can take out one of our presidents.....but innocent until proven guilty!!" That's a bad look for a country that admits its justice system inevitably allows real criminals (even murderers) to skate at times.
You obviously haven't been paying attention, or else you had your mind made up before the trial started. Wait! I think it's both, in which case it takes a lot of chutzpah to make such a post. Or, are you going to say you didnt have your mind made up, and that it was completely open to the FACTS? I'm betting you will.
No, sorry haven't been following this one much at all, because it's such a weak case. I feel dirty even discussing the merits of it. But her testimony did confirm this is a weaponized justice system being used against the opposition party's lead candidate. This trial should have never gotten to this point. I don't care who the president was. It's a disgrace to the country. Politicians pay off people all the time and vice versa. Presidential candidates routinely categorize items as "campaign expenses" that go far beyond this. People like you would rather tear our country down to carry out a political vendetta.. ie you prefer the banana republic model where corruption is accepted as part of the package.
Surely you understand the law and why he is charged with what he is charged with? Edit: I'll try to make it more clear. He is charged with accounting fraud. He is charged with accounting fraud because the payments were not properly identified. In New York this is only a misdemeanor. Unless the accounting fraud was used to cover up something else, then it becomes a felony. If the accounting hadn't been fraudulent, they couldn't charge him with accounting fraud. If this had been categorized as a campaign expense, the state of New York would have no case against Trump.
I completely understand the law and I understand the group think that is NYC. Thats why I’m confident he will get convicted that this will get pile driven and Figure Foured at appeal. My comment on your naïveté is that the witch hunt would not have stopped if they had not found this nonsense. An NDA is not a crime. It can be a crime if it is used to cover a crime. It’s not a crime to be a sleazeball politician. We established that in the 90’s.
Except of course we have Cohen and Trump on tape discussing this hush money. There facts just never seem to line up with your suppositions. Poor Matt Bevins.
What a day of significance in New York yesterday: Why Is the Judge in Trump's New York Trial Muzzling a Key Defense Witness? (townhall.com) "Smith, having headed the FEC, has many examples from the commission’s enforcement of federal election law that illustrate his point. He knows what he is talking about, and it seems clear that his expert opinion is that paying off Daniels, no matter what one might think of it, is not a campaign expenditure or donation that FECA requires a candidate to disclose. The Trump defense plans to call Smith as a witness. Not because he has any personal knowledge of the Trump transaction but because he understands, and has enforced, the campaign law that Bragg’s prosecutors appear to be planning to use against Trump. But Merchan has forbidden Smith from testifying about most of the issues involved in the case." First, Judge Merchan allows Stormy Daniels testimony about her sexual experience with Donald Trump to make a joke of the trial. Now, it is learned that Judge Merchan is not allowing a key defense witness to testify as he actually has knowledge with direct bearing on the case. It was just another day at the office executing Dictator Biden's game plan. Oh, and Mayor Adams has stated that Riker Island is ready for Trump. Please do Judge Merchan, make my day making a martyr of Donald Trump while sealing Dictator Biden's fate at the same time, not that isn't already decided.
