His position is indefensible, and I’m going to go out on a limb and say he gets convicted. Then again…
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I’m failing to understand the defense tactic about “leverage” in this situation. Let’s presume the allegation by the defense is true…Stormy Daniels and her lawyer were pressing hard to get paid right now because after the election they felt they would have no leverage any more. Trump would be President and wouldn’t pay because he wouldn’t care if it came out then so long as he had already won.
That’s the Prosecution’s case, isn’t it? That Trump directed Cohen (and others) to enter into these catch and kill agreements, paying money if needed but ideally screwing people over, to keep everything off the front pages and any payments off the official books until after the election.
That’s a conspiracy to violate campaign finance law and the payments and arrangements were in furtherance of that conspiracy.
The fact that people’s leverage would go away post election is why they needed a conspiracy, right?
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Sleaze just in the life of one lawyer?
C’mon, we’re talking trump here. Sleaze is as common as air in that crowd. With donnie at the top of the heap of sleaze/slime/ infection pus.
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It’s a familiar theme for the defense, and one we’ve hit on repeatedly in our coverage of the trial. Why hold Trump accountable for this if everyone else in his world is filthy, and potentially deserving of prosecution themselves?
The defense needs the closing argument to be given by an old Southern lawyer.
“My client may be a no good, dirty, life sucking piece of scum, but who amongst us isn’t? And it’s not a crime to be a no good, dirty, life sucking piece of scum, just a sign of forgivable human frailty. Look here (to the men), we’ve all paid off porn stars at some point in our life or (to the women) been a porn star looking to obtain a few extra dollars from a man with a wife and newborn, so let’s come down from our high horse, acquit my client, and let him go back to campaigning to run this great country in his image.”
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It goes to the felony charges. If he did the falsification to cover up getting shaken down by a lying porn star and her sleazy attorney, it’s not a campaign finance violation.
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Why hold Trump accountable for this if everyone else in his world is filthy?
Key words: “…everyone else in his world is filthy…” A man surrounded, by his own doing, with filthy people. Of course we need to get a careful definition of filth here. Has Danielson raped any women in dressing rooms? Has he blown up any puppies with a shotgun in a gravel pit? Has he taken billions from people who murder people with bone saws in their embassy? The snoozing shartbag is a brand of filth beyond most. The prosecution has so many examples, hopefully they bring them up often.
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I suppose I can see that being an argument, but boy is it a stretch.
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A couple of comments from people who attended Trump’s Saginaw, MI rally yesterday.
LaCasse is a retired UAW member who worked for 26 years for General Motors in Flint. He’s voted for Trump three times, in two general elections and one primary, and he intends to for him again in November.
He said he’s unbothered by Trump’s current legal troubles, as evidenced by his T-shirt.
“I haven’t seen any solid evidence,” LaCasse said. “I think they’re just trying to tie him down.”LaCasse acknowledged Trump could get on his nerves.
“Some of those Tweets in the middle of the night were a bit much, but he says what he thinks,” he said.
Those weren’t enough to cost Trump LaCasse’s support, who hopes Trump wins to improve the economy and tighten the border.
And another “lifelong democrat” and black, btw:
Smith is a lifelong Democrat and said that through a family connection, he got to meet President Biden when he visited Saginaw in March. He wasn’t awed by Biden, but wanted to hear him out.
He said that’s what brought him to the Trump rally as well.
“I want to hear what he has to say, I don’t want soundbites,” Smith said.
Smith said that he hasn’t followed Trump’s legal troubles closely enough to say whether he thinks crimes were committed but he said he’s suspicious of judges, who can become arrogant.
Smith said he hasn’t decided how he’ll vote in November, but he thinks Trump will win more Black votes in this election than he did in the last one. Biden hasn’t improved life for Black people, Smith said.
Smith. Perfect last name.
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Was thinking the same thing.
If he didn’t want to be in contention with a porn star, don’t have sex with a porn star. Don’t want a reputation for hanging out with creepy, wealthy pedophiles, don’t associate with creepy, wealthy pedophiles. And so on.
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I am an editor, and I don’t think I could fix this word swamp without gagging over the content. It wouldn’t be worth it.
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Yup, Davidson’s a slime ball, Cohen’s a slime ball, David whats-his-name is a slime ball, and Trump is a slime ball. The jury aren’t such delicate flowers that they didn’t have that one figured out early on. The question isn’t “shall we invite them for dinner with our children,” it’s “did TFG cause to be falsified all those banking matters and break all those laws”? I can’t imagine much pearl clutching by this jury.
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Don’t think so. Even when you are only spending your own money on it if it is for the purposes of the campaign it has to be reported as a campaign expenditure. Failure to do do is a crime - a misdemeanor. Trump then falsified business records (which taken alone is itself a misdemeanor) to cover up the other crime of failing to report a campaign expenditure. And that sequence of commiting a crime to cover up another crime makes the whole sequence a felony.
Doesn’t matter how sleazy or not the campaign expenditure is – it could have been buying an ad – as long as he commits the crime of falsifying business records to cover up the crime of failing to report a campaign expenditure the whole thing becomes a felony.
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FYI extortion involves the threats of violence and blackmail does not
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Isolated and by itself, yes. But in combination with other evidence it could be damning to the Orange stain on our nation.
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Trump’s defense: “All these people I associated with are really sleazy.”
Maybe that’s not coming out quite as he hoped it would.
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Hi! To find out what I can do, say @discobot display help.
There it is. He was doing it as a cover-up, and as usual he was looking for a way to use other people. And as always, hoping he might escape paying.
Since then, he has spent other people’s or campaign money for everything. No doubt a 1000 other kinds of campaign spending violations have occurred since then. As far as I know, he isn’t being held accountable for any of them.
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It would be in everyone’s interests for the jury to find them all guilty.
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When the stormy Daniel’s story broke, there was speculation that Keith Davidson was secretly working for TFG. That doesn’t seem to have come up in testimony. How did he wind up representing two women who boinked TFG?
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