Pretty sure that isn’t illegal. Isn’t yelp basically a platform for people to complain and companies make money getting paid by businesses and people to have those complaints removed ?
That’s not what Trump is charged with. It has to do with … and it might shock you … he falsified business records documenting the hush money. He booked it as legal expenses to Cohen rather than a payment to Stormy Daniels.
The NDA isn't illegal. Neither is Pecker paying for a catch and kill of the story. What Trump is being tried for is using campaign monies to pay for all this, then lying about it calling it all a legit legal expense on the books. The lying about the payment is a misdemeanor in NY. What makes this a felony charge is the campaign cash use. Trump's defense is trying to pin this all on Cohen, already a convicted felon and proven liar. But there's good reason why Cohen isn't the first prosecutor witness. If the prosecution can establish Trump knew what he was doing all along before Cohen takes the stand, it will make it difficult to blame this all on Cohen.
ok. So the charge is he tried to expense an NDA payment ? That seems like an IRS thing, but I’ll admit to not knowing the statute he is being charged.
For some reason, Anna Bower stopped tweeting from inside the courtroom when DT's attorney started arguing bit George Conway is, likely from spillover room. Not going well for DT
No, the charge is that he willfully falsified business records. Here is the statute: https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/PEN/175.10 The additional crimes committed by his co-conspirators have already been adjudicated with the co-conspirator's guilty pleas, specifically Cohen's illegal campaign contribution and AMI falsifying their business records.
Well, no. But he broke the law when he claimed in his campaign financing that the $130,000 was for a payment to Mr. Cohen, when in fact it was a payment to Stormy Daniels to buy her silence about their purported dalliance. Had he properly disclosed the payment, paid for by his campaign and not his own money, all would be lawful. But because he used campaign money (to pay for her silence), as opposed to his person funds, he needed to lawfully disclose the money and how it was expended. To be sure, others involved have already been charged and convicted of related crimes.
They don't understand you can't pay off porn stars with campaign money. LOL. Apparently, they're ok with it though. I mean he's selling bibles to the rubes. They believe anything he says. Quite sad.
Honestly, of all the things he has done, and of all the things he has been accused of doing, this case falls pretty far down the list of bad acts.
It's a slam dunk. No one is above the law. He is cratering in the polls. The GOP desperately wants to get rid of him. They may just tank this election just to finally remove the tumor.
Merchan reserves ruling. He is in a tough position. I still think, and I am mindful that I my be giving DT too much credit, that he is trying to provoke this. At a minimum, Merchan and his family will need security for years if he does.
If the other trials ever happen, this also goes to prospective jurors and the risks they are prepared to take to fulfill their civic duty. Modern day brownshirts.
Don’t get me wrong, I want a conviction. I’m at the polar-opposite side of the “witch hunt” crowd. The fact that he has committed so many crimes so many times means to me he should answer for his crimes “many times”. With all of his bad acts (cheating charities, sexual abuse, repeated bankruptcies, multiple companies engaged in consumer fraud, unrelenting lies to the American public, hate-enabling podium speeches, election lies, election interference, and attempting to disrupt the transfer of power, amongst so many more), this is the least interesting, least dramatic of the acts.
Trump laments that NUPD is stopping his supporters from assembling outside the courthouse. Naturally it's a lie and he does have a supporter outside. One! LOL it's a feature of all his trials/protests even going back to the Mar a GoGo raid. None of his supporters show up. If he were dropped in a Volcano (we should be so lucky) we'd never hear another word from the MAGA crowd.
offense - collaborated/schemed/planned to pay national enquirer to pay people to remain silent to keep the truth from the public to help his election chances and then categorized those expenses as legal expenses on his tax forms. the original offense, cheating on taxes, becomes felony in pursuit of the scheme to hide the information from the public during an election. the crime is election fraud, and it is a felony under the law. don't have the statue but it is in the filing djt attorney and the head of the National Enquirer are both on record that these facts are correct. I'm sure there are multiple other witnesses and documents to corroborate the facts. this, just like the Atlanta case, and the business fraud, contains facts not in dispute. any reasonable jury judging just the facts should not have a challenge deciding these cases.
so when his supporter, head of the NE, testifies that he schemed with djt and cohen to kill these stories, you believe the jury will ignore him too? saying he didn't follow the accounting didn't work in the fraud case, why would it hold water here? He signed the statements, two people that were int he room both on record that djt knew what the money was for, ie pay the Enquirer to kill the stories.