Trump’s New York hush money case to start April 15

[cigaretteman]

New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan appeared deeply skeptical during a hearing Monday morning about claims by Donald Trump’s defense lawyers in his hush money criminal trial, and said the case would go to trial April 15.

Trump’s lawyers said a late release of more than 100,000 pages of potential evidence should delay the case significantly, and they asked that the prosecutors be sanctioned. Merchan, raising his voice at times, admonished Trump’s attorneys for making what he called very serious allegations without legal backup. He also questioned why the defense did not seek the records from federal officials sooner.

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Here's what to know​

The trial, which had been scheduled to start Monday, was pushed back until at least mid-April after the judge said lawyers needed more time to review the large number of documents turned over this month.
Prosecutors argue that no more than 300 pages are significant to the Trump case, in which the former president is accused of using his then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, to pay for the silence of adult-film star Stormy Daniels about an alleged past sexual liaison.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/25/trump-new-york-hush-money-trial-hearing/

 

[lucas80]

Trump actually has a decent lead counsel in this case, former federal prosecutor Todd Blanche, but Judge Merchan spent a lot of time chastising him in court today. There has been a documented pattern by Trump's lawyers of being more confrontational and hyperbolic when he is in the courtroom, and Merchan made it clear he will run a tight trial. I predict Trump will almost immediately have a gag order placed on him when he goes after jury members, Merchan, Bragg... Everyone.

 

[HROT]

Do any Trump-Ian’s feel this is not a crime as well?

Does it fall under Presidential candidate immunity?

 

[RollingBallofButcherKnives]

Do any Trump-Ian’s feel this is not a crime as well?

Does it fall under Presidential candidate immunity?

Oh it’s a crime alright. It just never happened. Part of Crooked Joe Biden’s DOJ witch hunt to cause election interference on the front runner (by a lot)…🙄

 

[lucas80]

Trump actually has a decent lead counsel in this case, former federal prosecutor Todd Blanche, but Judge Merchan spent a lot of time chastising him in court today. There has been a documented pattern by Trump's lawyers of being more confrontational and hyperbolic when he is in the courtroom, and Merchan made it clear he will run a tight trial. I predict Trump will almost immediately have a gag order placed on him when he goes after jury members, Merchan, Bragg... Everyone.

Merchan has upped the stakes with a more restrictive gag order. I wonder how much Blanche values his ability to practice law in New York? We are about to find out.

 

[ft254]

Oh it’s a crime alright. It just never happened. Part of Crooked Joe Biden’s DOJ witch hunt to cause election interference on the front runner (by a lot)…🙄

Well, if this response isn't comedy, which is unbelievable, it doesn't matter. It will be resolved in court. And, by virtue of court proceedings, evidence will be made public for opinions to form if the legal system fails which happens.

 

[lucas80]

Merchant told Trump to stuff his immunity claim for dismissal. This trial seems to be headed for a 4/15 start. I find it interesting that Hope Hicks has been named as a potential witness along with Kelly Ann Conway. Hicks could be a devastating witness against Trump. I think I read once that her dad was an NFL executive who has a law degree. I assume he made sure he told her to not lie for Trump, and was smart enough to make sure she has her own counsel, and not a lawyer on Trump's payroll.
Conway is so craven I can see her trying to obfuscate and parse in order to help Trump.
Both Hicks and Conway are believed to have been intermediaries via phone, email, and in person contacts between Trump, Michael Cohen, and David Pecker in the scheme to pay off McDougal and Daniels.

 

[Funky Bunch]

Well, if this response isn't comedy, which is unbelievable, it doesn't matter. It will be resolved in court. And, by virtue of court proceedings, evidence will be made public for opinions to form if the legal system fails which happens.

I think he forgot the /s

 

[NoWokeBloke]

Do any Trump-Ian’s feel this is not a crime as well?

Me, and you'll find out that I'm correct.

 

[HROT]

Me, and you'll find out that I'm correct.

Because of (pre) presidential immunity?

 

[RollingBallofButcherKnives]

I think he forgot the /s

I figured this 🙄 meant sarcasm….

 

[NoWokeBloke]

Because of (pre) presidential immunity?

No

 

[EasyHawk]

Do any Trump-Ian’s feel this is not a crime as well?

Does it fall under Presidential candidate immunity?

My trumper brother says none of the indictments nor civil suits nor fraud charges nor sexual assault cases are crimes as if they were he would have been in jail by now. Says it is unpossible for anyone to assault women like that and avoid prison (and also something something about her dress). All a witch hunt and scary dictator-like usage of the justice department.

 

[lucas80]

It sounds like Trump is losing his mind more than normal this morning about the upcoming trial. The walls are closing in on him.
Nicole Wallace said something interesting yesterday on Lib TV, this is the only case that Donald Trump doesn't want to talk about. Every other case he rails against publicly, especially at his emotional support rallies. He drives fundraising off of his trials, and he whips up his supporters. This case he never talks about. I guess it's harder for him to try and sell that he's the victim when the case is about having sex with other women while your 3rd wife is at home with kid #5, and then trying to hide the affairs with payoffs.

 

[franklinman]

Do any Trump-Ian’s feel this is not a crime as well?

Does it fall under Presidential candidate immunity?

Hell no, Filthy Don wasn't a president when he commited this crime, GUILTY !

 

[tumorboy]

Fighting this case is more about keeping his wife happy isn’t it. Think he’s going to take the stand. This one is going to be entertaining.

 

[ft254]

No

And if witnesses confirm he did, will it change your opinion of him?

 

[Rifler]

In this particular case, what actually is the crime that he's being charged with?...

1. Being unfaithful to his wife.
2. Paying a woman to not publicly discuss an indiscretion he participated in.
3. Attempting to hide the above payment.
4. Making the above payment with campaign funds.
5. Not making the above payment with campaign funds.

 

[ft254]

In this particular case, what actually is the crime that he's being charged with?...

1. Being unfaithful to his wife.
2. Paying a woman to not publicly discuss an indiscretion he participated in.
3. Attempting to hide the above payment.
4. Making the above payment with campaign funds.
5. Not making the above payment with campaign funds.

JFC. Read the damn indictment. Hint: Google.

It's the propensity of the Right to be uninformed to justify not knowing anything, but god dam, at what point does it translate to wanting to remain uniformed.

 

[nu2u]

In this particular case, what actually is the crime that he's being charged with?...

1. Being unfaithful to his wife.
2. Paying a woman to not publicly discuss an indiscretion he participated in.
3. Attempting to hide the above payment.
4. Making the above payment with campaign funds.
5. Not making the above payment with campaign funds.

Does anyone read indictments any more? They are made public.

 

[B1GDeal]

JFC. Read the damn indictment. Hint: Google.

It's the propensity of the Right to be uninformed to justify not knowing anything, but god dam, at what point does it translate to wanting to remain uniformed.

They don't care.

 

[St. Louis Hawk]

Does anyone read indictments any more? They are made public.

When you don’t really want to know, they are easy to avoid.

 

[lucas80]

Does anyone read indictments any more? They are made public.

They don’t read them out loud on Fox, so you will have to excuse Rifler. That’s his silo.

 

[Rifler]

I've read the indictment..
And regarding my questions, the correct answer is #5. This case primarily hinges on the fact that Trump did not make the payment to Daniels with campaign dollars,.. Only in New York.

 

[jneffer]

I've read the indictment..
And regarding my questions, the correct answer is #5. This case primarily hinges on the fact that Trump did not make the payment to Daniels with campaign dollars,.. Only in New York.

he's indicted for falsifying business records to conceal the reimbursement to cohen for the hush money payments

this isn't complicated...no matter how hard you want to try to misunderstand it

 

[gohawks50]

I've read the indictment..
And regarding my questions, the correct answer is #5. This case primarily hinges on the fact that Trump did not make the payment to Daniels with campaign dollars,.. Only in New York.

Why does FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS keep being repeated in the indictment then?

Read the full indictment against Trump

apnews.com

 

[lucas80]

I've read the indictment..
And regarding my questions, the correct answer is #5. This case primarily hinges on the fact that Trump did not make the payment to Daniels with campaign dollars,.. Only in New York.

Daniels isn’t his big problem in this case. It’s what Karen MacDougal and Hope Hicks might say.
If his defense is he lied on his books because he was afraid Melania might swing by to run an audit he’s screwed.

 

[Rifler]

he's indicted for falsifying business records to conceal the reimbursement to cohen for the hush money payments

That by itself would only be a misdemeanor,.. Trump is being charged with falsifying business records in the furtherance of committing election fraud by not claiming these payments as a valid campaign expense. Tying these two elements together, even though he has not been charged or found guilty of campaign finance violation, elevates this New York case to felony status.

 

[jneffer]

That by itself would only be a misdemeanor,.. Trump is being charged with falsifying business records in the furtherance of committing election fraud by not claiming these payments as a valid campaign expense. Tying these two elements together, even though he has not been charged or found guilty of campaign finance violation, elevates this New York case to felony status.

so, you do understand what's going on...that's good

were you just presenting a quiz to everyone else earlier?

 

[Rifler]

I was,.. Primarily because most don't truly understand how severely Bragg has had to contort himself to visualize a path to conviction here.

 

[lucas80]

I was,.. Primarily because most don't truly understand how severely Bragg has had to contort himself to visualize a path to conviction here.

Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.
Do you understand how severely you are contorting yourself to visualize how Orange Jesus is a victim?
I really hope you don’t work at a for real business if you don’t understand why falsifying records and mislabeling payments is bad. Even at a shabbily run, small time company like Trump Org it’s wrong.

 

[jneffer]

I was,.. Primarily because most don't truly understand how severely Bragg has had to contort himself to visualize a path to conviction here.

doesn't seem that difficult to me

business records were falsified to conceal reimbursement of payments that facilitated another crime

cohen was convicted and sentenced to 3 years for his role...so its not like they suddenly invented the fact that crimes other than the falsifying of business records ocurred

 

[Rifler]

Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.
Do you understand how severely you are contorting yourself to visualize how Orange Jesus is a victim?
I really hope you don’t work at a for real business if you don’t understand why falsifying records and mislabeling payments is bad. Even at a shabbily run, small time company like Trump Org it’s wrong.

Trump's certainly not a victim,.. The guy ran around on his wife and paid off the other woman to be quiet about it. The fact that he attempted to keep this payment quiet makes him normal. The fact that he didn't attempt to use campaign dollars to make this payment makes him appear almost honest,.. The fact that Bragg has had to bend himself into a pretzel to even create a felony case makes this a joke.

 

[Huey Grey]

I've read the indictment..
And regarding my questions, the correct answer is #5. This case primarily hinges on the fact that Trump did not make the payment to Daniels with campaign dollars,.. Only in New York.

I can guarantee that you didn't

 

[Huey Grey]

Trump's certainly not a victim,.. The guy ran around on his wife and paid off the other woman to be quiet about it. The fact that he attempted to keep this payment quiet makes him normal. The fact that he didn't attempt to use campaign dollars to make this payment makes him appear almost honest,.. The fact that Bragg has had to bend himself into a pretzel to even create a felony case makes this a joke.

This is why I don't think you read the actual indictment. He created a shell company to secretly pay her off and falsified business records to conceal everything he was doing. This is not honestly. It's the exact definition of dishonesty.

 

[TC Nole OX]

Stormy weather in NYC next week

 

[ICHawk-I]

Trump's certainly not a victim,.. The guy ran around on his wife and paid off the other woman to be quiet about it. The fact that he attempted to keep this payment quiet makes him normal. The fact that he didn't attempt to use campaign dollars to make this payment makes him appear almost honest,.. The fact that Bragg has had to bend himself into a pretzel to even create a felony case makes this a joke.

So there are 2 problems here. 1) Trump is a moron - beyond a reasonable doubt he is guilty on this count. 2) Trump spent the money to repay Cohen to bury the story, which is fine, except that its either A)It's campaign contribution since it was made in an effort to keep this from the public and thus help his election. Not reporting this is a crime. 2) Not a campaign contribution which he took a tax deduction on. Not sure where in the IRS code that counts, so that is the other crime. Then came the falsification of records to cover the tracks where the other charges lie. If he would have just paid off Stormy with a check from his business and put "Non-disclosure payment" in the memo line he'd have been fine. So its going to be pretty easy to prove intent to conceal a crime, especially when Cohen has him on tape talking about it in code.

 

[lucas80]

So there are 2 problems here. 1) Trump is a moron - beyond a reasonable doubt he is guilty on this count. 2) Trump spent the money to repay Cohen to bury the story, which is fine, except that its either A)It's campaign contribution since it was made in an effort to keep this from the public and thus help his election. Not reporting this is a crime. 2) Not a campaign contribution which he took a tax deduction on. Not sure where in the IRS code that counts, so that is the other crime. Then came the falsification of records to cover the tracks where the other charges lie. If he would have just paid off Stormy with a check from his business and put "Non-disclosure payment" in the memo line he'd have been fine. So its going to be pretty easy to prove intent to conceal a crime, especially when Cohen has him on tape talking about it in code.

And, unless Hicks, Conway, Westerhout and the rest lie to protect Trump, there will be more corroboration as to why Trump was lying, and why Trump was paying Cohen to pay Daniels and MacDougal.

 

[EasyHawk]

Just saw trump on tv with his sidekick Mike Johnson. Talked about how he’s up huge in the polls now and how it will take time to undo the damage that’s been done, probably the second year of his admin before we notice bigly. And very large men and now even larger women continue to come to him with tears in their eyes.

 

[EasyHawk]

Trump vows “all Hell will break loose” Monday.