As I understand it, the issue isn't with him having an affair or paying her off. He could have "hired" her as an aide, and paid her a salary + bonus that would have equalled the pay off money.
It's that he didn't want there being any link between her and him so he got his lawyer to pull funds from an account not his own, and the funds came from an account used for the campaign. It boils down to him being accused of tax fraud which funnily enough is how they got Capone in the end.
Yes, that's helpful thank you.
The second issue sounds like it's irrelevant to Trump so I presume the emphasis will be on the first one.
It sounds like that in turn will come down to what Michael Cohen says Trump told him to do. In previous instances he said that Trump "Never explicitly told me what to do but he made his intentions clear indirectly" so that might be tricky - especially since the defence can just label Cohen as a convicted criminal who also bears a grudge against Trump.
The simplest way to remember it that I saw earlier, is that it's financial fraud due to misrepresentation, which is a state crime, and done for the purposes of hiding the info from the electorate in the run-up to the election, which would be a federal crime.
David Pecker was present at a meeting with TFG and Cohen where this plan was hatched. Pecker is the first prosecution witness today. It's an election interference case, not a "hush money" case. Cohen lied to Congress about this, and went to prison. TFG has lied identically about it, and if he lies again in court, it should be easy to convict
Trump's lawyers in his civil fraud case have agreed to the AG's demands regarding the bond. So another stay of execution in terms of seizing his assets.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/trumps-attorneys-argue-acceptance-175m-bond-civil-fraud/story?id=109475776
If Trump were to take the stand and dispute the things which Cohen has already been jailed for, would that be an automatic charge of lying in court and the judge has to send him down for that?
I had a read off of this guy's wikipedia page. No mention of him moving back to Australia (where he's originally from) nor his spinal condition. Both must have happened relatively recently. Interesting that…
Trump…
Anyone heading to the fancy dinner to see Donalds favourite speaker tonight ?
Whatever you say about Nancy, at least she was able to keep her conference together. A skill that's eluded the Republicans completely.
Time to see if the judge has some balls...
he also complained about the heavy police presence (just days after someone lit themselves on fire) and the dearth of MAGA protestors present at the courthouse - why do there need to be fewer cops for MAGA protestors to show up, Don? 🤔 Could it be the majority leftovers of his support are still out wanted for January 6 crimes or do you just not have much diehard support left? Or maybe he doesn’t assume his base have jobs 😆
https://www.mediaite.com/trump/trump-melts-down-over-lack-of-supporters-protesting-his-new-york-trial/
Could have been a potentially good networking event for someone who is a running a successful business.
Of course it depends on what your business actually does and if it has any potential outside of its current existence to determine if it would be worth your while attending or not.
Klepper's coverage of the trial scene last week and his commentary this afternoon on it
The hearing today should be interesting...
I just want the judge to take the great scene from Porky’s and ask Stormy which is Donald’s tallywhacker and have a tallywhacker line up.
NSFW clip from Porkys.
Less smiley but this is it.
ladies and gentlemen of this jury this oaf read this placard then bluffed his way through a live television broadcast a few minutes later saying maybe we should shove sunlight up peoples butt and inject them with bleach
”OBJECTION! Your honor my client clearly said inject them with disinfectant, not bleach” a distinction without a difference your honor. “Overruled”
One of the key issues comes down to the fact that Trump is a mean , miserly git (who doesn't actually have anything like the money he claims).
There are various violations of accounting/reporting practices etc. that are the crimes that he is being charged for , but fundamentally it all comes do to the fact that he was trying to hide the payment as a business expense through he company so HE wouldn't have to pay for it personally.
A supposed "Billionaire" couldn't just give the ~$130k cash to her privately from his own funds (directly or indirectly) - No he had to try an hide them as a business expense so he could write it off and save the money.
His skinflint meanness is what has him here , followed by his innate corruption and apparent inability to do even the most basic things legally.
It's not that simple. If he had given her the money from his own funds then that's a taxable benefit in kind. He'd have to declare it. I'm not sure what the rules are in America but certainly here if you want to give large sums of cash, as a gift, to a stranger then tax needs to be paid on that.
In short there's no legal way to give her that money without declaring it in one way or other.
Could've hired her to work in an office and paid her directly, normally, through the business. Or as special assistant for mushroom cultivation. Whatever. Perhaps Cohen's or Pecker's testimony will clear up how they came up with their ludicrous scheme.
As others have said , he could have "hired" her for something and paid her that way - I mean Melania got paid $250k+ for "designing the table arrangements" at a Trump political event so there are any amount of bullsh!t things he could have hidden the payment behind.
But he wanted to keep it quiet AND he didn't want to have to pay it himself so he took company money and lied about its purpose. Because his first instinct is to see if he can find a way to get someone else to foot the bill for him.
And even if he had just written her a cheque and paid the BIK taxes etc. , proving that the payment was "election interference" would have been infinitely harder than proving the "illegal payment" stuff that he's facing now..
Thats exactly it. There's a line from Frasier of all things, and the lawyer is shouting into the phone "Any idiot knows you pay a hooker in cash!".
By trying to not pay for it himself, he has created a paper trail which amounts to tax fraud.
World domination. Seriously. Soon he'll be leader of the biggest nuclear power on Earth and with a cult-like following he can do whatever the f0ck he likes.
Jack Smith filing reveals he has a witness, Person 16, who will testify Walt Nauta was promised a pardon in a 2nd Trump term if he lied to the FBI on the classified docs case
https://www.mediaite.com/news/witness-in-bombshell-new-trump-filing-says-trump-offered-pardon-to-co-defendant-in-2024-even-for-lying-to-fbi/
Exactly - He could have put it down as a "gambling loss" on his personal tax returns and said he'd "put it all on black" and lost..
I mean he's a high roller right???
If he was married with a couple of kids, living in a two-up two-down, and didn't want the wife seeing the charge on the joint account to Stringfellows, so he used his corporate credit card, he would be fired. Many people have made that mistake in the past.
I really doubt he and Melania have a joint account. Or that she reviews his accounts in general.
Trump dealt with the problem the way he dealt with all his problems...
Bribe, threaten, cheat on his taxes.
His first thought when faced with any kind of bill is "How can I get away without paying this?" followed closely by "How can I get someone else to pay this?"
So, he's an insurance company? Anyway, looks like he and his "best people" attorneys are digging themselves a massive hole in court.
