November 7, 2024
"Merchan doesn’t have the stomach to imprison a former president or president-elect. Now that Trump has won, his criminal problems go away."
Said former prosecutor Neama Rahmani, quoted in "Judge in Trump’s ‘hush money’ trial considers tossing felony conviction after election win" (NY Post).
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94 comments:
Our esteemed hostess is a law professor emerita. Can she explain to us bumpkins the crime(s) of which Donald Trump was convicted?
I try not to be vindictive, but everyone involved in that sham trial (excepting jurors) should feel pain.
Bragg, Merchan, et. al. need to not be forgotten. They must be remembered as villains.
Well his daughter already got her boodle as a Democrat consultant. So with the family till topped up, why go ahead and further sully your family name.
Plausible apologetics belies liars" ulterior motives. The witch hunt became politically inconvenient, a burden when the political rug was pulled. Abort.
Trump should wear any further persecution by this judge as a badge of honor, a war wound. And remember Pres Ford when the nyt printed “Ford to NY, drop dead.”
It presents an interesting question in how he could walk away from it. Some piece of evidence suddenly becomes inadmissible?
I say it is 50/50 whether Merchan tries to sentence Trump to prison. Of course, trying to do so will expedite the federal courts' entrance into this case which will be overturned for being utterly corrupt beginning to end.
Now, if Merchan has an IQ above 100, he will dismiss the case himself so that he can control the narrative for the why of it.
And what? Did Hochchul hire Beelzebub as her press agent? She is tripple distilled hate.
Alvin better leave the country along with Jack Smith.
There’s nothing wrong with correcting a bad decision - even if it’s for reasons you don’t agree with.
He'll dismiss it. The balance of power has totally shifted. When he considers all the possibilities now, he'll conclude it's...not a good idea.
"Let's let bygones be bygones, eh?"
I must politely disagree. Trump should have the book thrown at him by this judge, to cement this stain upon the judicial system in our national history. Ford pardoned Nixon before a criminal conviction to heal the nation's wounds, and all that got us was 50 years of lawfare by Dems. Let this judge sentence Trump to jailtime, immediately. The it would be up to dementia Joe's handlers to pardon Trump, or the appeals courts to toss this garbage case asap, or we'd have a popular, newly elected President kept from his transition duties very publicly by a kangaroo court judge. I say let the judge continue being an ass, braying publicly as loud as he can.
The judge knows the verdict and the entire trial was bullshit. Their plan to lock Trump up before the election didn't work. If the charges, crimes, and convictions were real, why throw them out if the law applies to everyone?
Biden can't pardon Trump. This is a state conviction, not a federal one.
I think there's a good chance that the jury instructions will found to have been incorrectly written. They were specifically written to bring about convictions rather than follow the actual law.
Oh, right, Biden can't pardon Trump. Hochul, you're up!
He’s refused to take any off ramp up to this point so I’m skeptical he would now. I also doubt he cares that the case will be tossed. More likely he considers it his resistance duty to go down swinging. In any event, continuing the case would insure his place in the cool kids country club hall of fame. And that’s all he really cares about
My, what a big pile you've got, there. See you in Federal Court, with my bright, shiny, new DOJ.
I think she already told us she couldn’t. In her usual way.
Dismissal adds to the heap of evidence it was always about politics, not the law...
yupper...
No. The jurors were complicit too.
As if we needed it, but this should be immortalized together with Jack's folly and the documents case as the shining, inevitable proof that all of these cases were 100% political, beginning, middle, and end.
I really want to see that smug prick Engoron get disbarred. Letitia James, too.
Hochthulhu.
He should vacate the verdict because it was based on inadmissible evidence, starting with evidence of immune presidential conduct. He also allowed the jury to be non-unanimous in determining whatever underlying crime Trump was supposed to be hiding by writing "legal" on the subject line of checks to his lawyer. Also, he excluded testimony from Trump's expert witness that there were no FEC violations while allowing Stormy Daniels to opine on a number of irrelevant topics.
Sort like the trial
Didn't a state appellate court take up this appeal? I saw some scathing questions to the prosecution. IMHO, the appellate court strikes this down HARD with punishments to prosecutors and the judge so they can say they took care of it.
He was convicted of falsifying business documents in order to disguise a series of hush money payments to Stormy Daniels to keep her from disclosing Trump's actions as a John. C'mon, you guys all know this. Stop pretending. (I'm wonder if Trump didn't want Daniels to spill it to keep the fact of the encounter hidden from his wife or because he was concerned the world would learn of the possibly unflattering (to him) particulars of the encounter she might disclose.)
a LOT of things (and people) have Just Disappeared!
Did God Rapture Some 15 Million Democrat Voters? If Not, Where'd They Go?
The Trump DOJ is going to come knowicking on his and his daughters door and bank accounts...
Look what happened to Kim Gardner in St Louis after what she did to Eric Greitens.
If Merchan is intelligent as he is corrupt, he would immediately flee the USA to Iran where the Ayatolla would glady make use of his judicial ethics in their show trials.
As noted, the power dynamics have shifted, by the results of the election. Trump is no longer the former President or Presidential candidate, but President Elect. That means USSS protection above everyone else than the serving President. They can’t jail him without a sufficiently large and well armed Secret Service detail. Besides, he hasn’t yet exhausted his appeals. Can they hold him pending the appeal? Unlikely. Is he likely to flee the country? After his campaign, decidedly not. He wants to be President again. Badly. And earned it the hard way.
Then after the inauguration, he has plenty of levers to push. Want to use the FBI Crime Lab? Sure, but they have a two year backlog. Plenty of other ways to pressure the city and state with loss of federal help. Possibly a trade with the governor of federal assistance or funds, in exchange for a pardon. Best done for all around if it is implied. Etc.
And, yes, the conviction will be overturned on appeal. If nothing else, it’s was a fairly blatant Due Process violation. So, why might the judge sit on his hands for awhile? Because some Dems are planning on trying to keep Congress from confirming his win in the Electoral College, using that he is a convicted felon as their justification. I don’t think that they have the votes, esp if the House votes by state, instead of by representation.
I'm wonder if Trump didn't want Daniels to spill it to keep the fact of the encounter hidden from his wife
so, Even the Esteemed Constitutional Law scholar Robert (The MAN) Cook thinks that it WAS NOT a felony.. Thanx for your input Professor Cook!
The smart thing would be to grant a new trial and then the State of NY would dismiss. Too many reversible errors to list here.
He was convicted of mischaracterizing the NDA payment that was funneled through his lawyer's office as legal fees rather than as the epitome of human evil.
A payment to a lawyer was listed as “legal expenses.” Oh deary me!
After reading the transcript of Sunny Daniels’s testimony I think (1) there never was a sexual encounter between her and Trump, and (2) whether there was or wasn’t, it’s a slam dunk that she was guilty of extortion.
I'd bet he'll blame SCOTUS. Their ruling could mean that some of the evidence at trial should have been excluded. I'd also bet he won't specify which evidence, and will strongly hint that SCOTUS's ruling was outrageous and wrong and he hates having to let this felonious scofflaw go unpunished -- no one is above the law, and all that.
I predict the conviction will be upheld and the sentence will be a large fine, which Trump will never pay.
My guess is that they were fraudulent in 2020. Harris’ total votes were not that out of line with those that could be projected from Crooked Hillary’s and Obama’s totals. Then, we got a big, >10 million vote bump in 2020, that disappeared in 2024. I think that the difference was that the Republicans were watching things closely around the country, and esp in the swing states. The Dems going into polling places wearing official looking badges? In court within hours, and a court order that they stay 100 yards from the polling locations. We saw a lot of this sort of thing the last days of the campaign. The Republicans had a lot of observers on the ground, and lawyers ready to go to court, or even wake judges up in the middle of the night.
Sorry. But if the state wins in the NY appeal courts, it then goes into the federal courts, for US Constitutional violations - at a minimum, 5th Amdt Due Process violations (though Begley has a long list of violations). In the end, if everything else fails, the Republicans have a 6-3 advantage in SCOTUS.
MY guess is that the reason that the judge hasn’t sentenced Trump is that he knows that he will be slaughtered on appeal.
Cookie: Did you forget the part about the underlying felony already?
Democrat bigwigs are giving Merchan an earful. There's a new Sheriff in town. Their lawfare gambit failed. Those convictions will go away by appeal. Merchan probably retires sooner.
PS: Glad to see you back, Cookie. Still looking for Inga, though.
"He was convicted of falsifying business documents in order to disguise a series of hush money payments to Stormy Daniels to keep her from disclosing Trump's actions as a John. C'mon, you guys all know this"
So like Gary Hart, whom the Federal Government also declined to prosecute, and he paid off the bimbo with campaign contributions?
Or like Hillary Clinton, who reported the expenses involved in faking up the dossier as legal expenses. She was fined for this, she was actually legally guilty, and the purpose of it was to steal the election from Trump. When is she going to be prosecuted?
Imagine if this family were Republican Trump supporters, instead of Democrats making bank off of Daddy Judge's malicious prosecution of Trump
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/dem-clients-of-daughter-of-ny-judge-in-trump-hush-money-trial-raised-93m-off-the-case/ar-BB1kNRmm
Sorry, but this isn't yet the Soviet Union. The purpose was to defeat Trump, it didn't work. Now New York State has to worry about recovering its reputation for being a place where the rule of law is minimally respected.
The same will apply to that huge fine for business as usual loan application where everybody involved made money, and certainly nobody was hurt. Even the governor of the State of New York came out with a statement saying "don't worry, real estate developers. we are only using this to go after Trump."
"Still looking for Inga, though."
Inga and gadfly have both flounced.
Didn't the appelaste court throw it out?
Merchan is going to give Trump a suspended sentence.
Anyone with an IQ above room temperature knows that the conviction will be overturned upon appeal, but Merchan is hoping that Trump will let it go if the sentence is suspended.
The court is taking it's sweet time issuing an opinion. Loaded with Democrats, they still questioned the validity of the case. Indicating that at least they were thinking of actual law.
A lot of people are gonna be looking over their shoulder for the rest of their lives,
Merchen is a biased leftwing freak. I"ll believe he "doesn't have the guts" when he frees TRump.
That won't happen. Trump will appeal all the way, even if, in the meantime, the sentence is suspended or reduced to a slap on the wrist. Knowing that's the case, the state should ask to dismiss it. Or the appeals court will (I predict) either dismiss the indictment or order a new trial, which would then force the AG to drop the case because they can't force a sitting president to appear for trial, let alone try to incarcerate him.
I see no real reason for the AG to even want to pursue this now. To what end? The case was obviously brought just to damage Trump's electoral hopes, and that backfired. Let it go.
I suspect that Trump will settle for nothing less than total exoneration in every case.
He won't accept a pardon from Hochul or a weasel worded, undefended summation of the "evidence" from Smith.
Bruce, you have detailed some of the aspects of the new balance of power I was referring to. It completely changes their mindset, on both a professional and personal level. When they instigated their bogus lawfare charges on Trump, they had absolutely nothing to fear since they knew they had powerful allies at every level above them right up to the President. But now, as the incoming President he can unload a world of hurt not just on them (including personally financially) but also on all their allies above them (state, district, etc.), and with the full force of every agency and every law/regulation/policy they have at their disposal. And they know that he knows it now.
There are going to be a lot of very tight sphincters among the co-conspirators very, very soon.
Hochtooee!
Corrupt frauds.
Take dat walleyed bitch down!
Agreed.
Merchan is all in, because he lives in NY. To do otherwise would make his life almost unlivable. If it weren't for his daughter's company that faces potential criminal charges, he would certainly uphold and sentence. However, he'll likely make the political decision (and almost everything he's done is based on politics) to toss the case with the backchannel understanding that she'll be spared.
Somebody is acting guilty as hell. Well, looky here. It was Pelosi fanboy, capitol police liar Michael Fatone who lied and claimed he had a heart attack and a brain injury caused by some imaginary white supremacists on January 6th. Hiding the truth Mikey?? Scared you may have to go the the DC gulag that you and Pelosi threw innocent people into to cover up your asshole lies??
I hope you suffer, and go through what your lies put others through. You can't suffer enough. (unless we stick Nancy in there with you)
Byron York
@ByronYork
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Former DC police officer Michael Fanone is in the mountains, armed, drinking beer, and ready to shoot it out with the Trump agents he believes are coming for him. From WP: https://washingtonpost.com/style/power/2024/11/06/michael-fanone-election-results-jan-6-capitol-police/
This is where I got the story....
https://revolver.news/2024/11/anti-trump-former-cap-police-officer-in-the-mountains-armed-drinking-beer-ready-for-shootout-with-agents/
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Jeff Clark
@JeffClarkUS
Let's compare Old Barr and New Barr:
Old Barr said Trump was likely "toast" over the "solid," "very damning" Jack Smith documents case indictment. That's the clip on the left.
New Barr (trying to curry favor with Trump and return to his good graces) says that all of the federal cases against Trump are "weak" and were "climbed out on a limb." That's the clip on the right.
See how this works? This is how much of DC works. Supposed experts and turncoats give silly predictions for political reasons. And then later pretend they never predicted what they'd originally predicted. (Reminiscent of 1984's "we've always been at war with East Asia" revisionism.)
Why does Fox keep putting Barr on? He speaks with forked tongue.
https://x.com/JeffClarkUS/status/1854580410870644969
It was a "campaign violation" Cook. Even though it did not violate NY campaign laws. Or federal law. I'm not seeing that addressed in your supposed explanation.
The jurors deserve shame, ridicule, and the horrifying knowledge that in some small way, their partisan vindictiveness helped re-elect Donald Trump.
We should also allow for the non-zero probability that it was done under duress. I would not be surprised in the slightest if that despicably evil Letitia woman made sure that each juror was quietly told that their names and addresses would be leaked if there was a hung jury, and wouldn't it be a shame if Antifa burned down their houses with their families inside.
As a matter of fact, yes some of the "evidence" was privileged, because it was Trump's discussions with his staff. SCOTUS recommended all the cases on appeal be examined in light of their ruling on immunity.
The bad decision was to proceed at all with such a flawed case, allow the extremely prejudicial testimony and deny Trump a vigorous defense. You don't undo that with an "Oh well" and move on. This makes it obvious that the point of the trial was to disrupt Trump's campaign, not to find facts and adjudicate a crime.
Well. You said it with few words. That is it.
There is a very great deal wrong with this case, not the least of which was the desire to convert a misdemeanor into felonies by nesting the alleged NY misdemeanor (with a 2yr statute of limitations) into a federal felony over which the state has no jurisdiction. But the Ingas and Cooks of this world celebrate the creativity of this abuse for political purposes.
We all know what Paybacks are.
- Krumhorn
That would be a second question to come after "Where did the 15 million Democrat voters come from in the first place?"
As noted, the power dynamics have shifted, by the results of the election. Trump is no longer the former President or Presidential candidate, but President Elect.
With the House (probably), the Senate, a friendly Supreme Court, a majority of governors and state legislatures, and a thumping mandate from the electorate that includes a convincing victory in the popular vote.
He is more powerful at the moment than any incoming president has been in a very long time.
I think that's what I was referring to above, MyNGH.
Indeed. The corrupt left just wanted to call Trump a Felon.
Did you see the video of the appelate court judges grilling James? She did not aquit herself well. The judges weren't buying her line of bull.
"Didn't the appellant court throw it out?" No, because the trial hasn't completed until the sentencing, that was how Merchan kept a campaign issue.
The appellant court did hear the civil case on Trump's supposed bank fraud for loans. They didn't seem amused by the prosecution, but they haven't ruled.
Judge Merchan should be so lucky as to not be formally sanctioned and removed from bench altogether for his malfeasance and obvious failure to comply with federal and state statute laws. Guy failed jurisprudence 101.
Jurors don't know the law, operate on basis of their own personal bias. Trump, like any prominent Republican Party operative, did not receive a fair trial, nor a fair conviction. The jurors should be ashamed for their willful ignorance and overt prejudice in this trial-conviction outcome.
He was convicted of falsifying business documents in order to disguise a series of hush money payments to Stormy Daniels to keep her from disclosing Trump's actions as a John
No, he wasn't. Because that's a misdemeanor, the statute of limitations for that is 3 years, and the "crime" was more than 3 years before charges were filed.
He was charged with doing that in furtherance of 1 of 3 other "crimes".
And the reason why this case will be thrown out is because Marchan violated Richardson v US & didn't require the jury to unanimously agree on one of those "crimes".
As @alexthechick would say, some court is going to issue a DIFS (Did I f'ing Stutter) ruling an toss the case,
With luck they're also going to strike down teh ruling that says that you can be prosecuted even when the "other crime" I not even theoretically possible.
As NO campaign forms about the payments would have had to been filed until after the election, it's literally impossible for the "falsification" to have been election fraud, which was one of the 3 "other crimes" options
Jersey is right. Honest jurors would have found Trump not guilty. They all deserve to have their lives destroyed, too.
If you participate in a show trial, you are sh!t. They were eager participants
1: None of Stormy's testimony should have been allowed
2: The jury should have been informed they had to unanimously agree on a singe "other crime"
3: It was undisputed testimony that Trump had nothing to do with how things were entered into the charging system, so he couldn't have been found guilty of the initiate crime
4: NY law is wrong in saying you can be convicted of attempting a "crime" that is not even theoretically possible. In this case you can't be charged with doing "X" to "influence an election" when your actions happened after the election
Those are the most obvious to me problems with the trial
Yep, which is why I was hoping he'd try to throw Trump in jail before the election, and still hope he's stupid enough to try now
Stop it, Cookie. I know you are distraught. Take a week off and think about things.
He was convicted of falsifying business documents in order to disguise a series of hush money payments to Stormy Daniels to keep her from disclosing Trump's actions as a John.
Which is a misdemeanor charge ... on a law upon which the statute of limitations had already run out.
That duplicitous fat bastard should not be allowed anywhere near the new Trump Administration.
It seems to me that if Jack Smith resigns (from a position he was illegally appointed to) and those two prosecutions go away, and if Merchan effectively makes Bragg’s prosecution go away, we are seeing how you can say the prosecutions only ever were political without actually admitting that they never were other than political.
My solution to this is to assign US Attorneys to investigate Merchan, along with all the prosecutors, investigators, and federal agents involved in the witchhunt, for civil rights violations. The process is the punishment, and it is past time that those who happily joined in the process found out how that feels from the victim's side. That is the only way to keep it from happening again.
Drone him. That way we get to watch the footage afterwards.
As of today in California, Harris' undervote compared to Biden in 2020, is nearly 5 million votes. California has some ridiculous numbers of votes that haven't been tabulated yet though. Which seems absurd as well.
The D.A. will ask that the case be dismissed and the judge will grant that request. Then they will both pray everyone forgets what they did and not hold them accountable.
G-Pub
Letitia James should also dismiss to avoid her impending loss in the appellate court. But, it appears she won’t. The “stay” option can’t work if a half-billion dollar civil judgment is permitted to earn interest or four years.
G-Pub
"...so, Even the Esteemed Constitutional Law scholar Robert (The MAN) Cook thinks that it WAS NOT a felony.. Thanx for your input Professor Cook!"
Hahaha! I don't know how you can extract that meaning from anything I've said. I'm not a lawyer and I can't assert from my own knowledge if "it WAS NOT a felony," or if it was. My understanding is that falsifying business documents to conceal the hush money payments per FORBES MAGAZINE, among other sources, is wherein the felonies lie.
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