STATEMENT OF FACTS — Read this to get a feel for what will actually be talked about in court
Hush-money?
No, paying hush-money to someone under normal circumstances is basically just a business deal. “I don’t want you to reveal this, and I’ll pay you this money not to.” Perfectly legal, in and of itself. Although, “hush-money” may help keep the jury’s attention, for what this trial is actually about……….
Donald John Trump, ex-president and presumed 2024 nominee for president, was indicted a little over a year ago, by a New York grand jury.
Trump is charged in a New York State Supreme Court indictment with 34 counts of Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree.
Less sexy, huh?
But the crime isn’t the sex.
The crime isn’t the adultery.
The crime isn’t even the payoff.
The crime is calling the payoff what it wasn’t…………
Oh, you will likely hear some salacious details during testimony (Donald Trump’s greatest worry). Ari Melber thinks DA Alvin Bragg is hoping the sex will help keep the jury’s attention. But the damning evidence was already revealed to congress by Trump’s “fixer” Michael Cohen, on February 27th, 2019.
A paper trail exists. Michael Cohen kept the documents. Likely because he had seen that Donald Trump’s loyalty was only ever a one-way street. And he revealed them to the congressional record on live TV.
Here is a copy of one of the checks that Michael Cohen received and held on to (just in case) which will be entered into evidence in this trial:
That check was entered into Trump’s books to Michael D. Cohen ESQ, as a payment for “legal services.” What this check actually was, was a reimbursement to Michael Cohen for paying porn actress Stormy Daniels (AKA Stephanie Clifford) to keep quiet about sex she had engaged in with Donald Trump, over a decade before.
But it wasn’t only checks. It was false entries of invoices and vouchers as well.
The 34 felony counts are for entering these checks into Trump Org’s financial records, as something that they were not (we will talk about that “felony” part later).
Paying off porn actresses is apparently not a valid “legal service” in the state of New York.
I say “apparently,” because this is one of the things DA Bragg will have to prove to the jury in the following weeks.
But falsifying business records in the state of New York is just a misdemeanor.
Normally, it is.
But has anything done by Donald Trump EVER been “normal?”
HE. CHEATS. AT. GOLF.
From the indictment:
THE GRAND JURY OF THE COUNTY OF NEW YORK, by this indictment, accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:
The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about February 14, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an invoice from Michael Cohen dated February 14, 2017, marked as a record of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.
That part: ”...and intent to commit another crime….” is what jacks these charges up into felony territory.
And what is that “other crime?”
In order to secure felony convictions, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office must convince a 12-person jury that Trump falsified the records in order to commit or conceal another crime. In this case, Bragg argues Trump was trying to conceal a federal campaign finance law violation by falsely recording his reimbursements to Cohen as payments for legal services. The federal violation was a limit-exceeding contribution to Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, as the payment was allegedly designed to keep Daniels' story from hurting the then-Republican nominee's election prospects. Bragg also alleges Trump was trying to conceal a plan to violate New York tax and election laws.
But DA Bragg does NOT have to prove to the jury that this other crime was even committed. Just that Trump committed the crimes he is charged with “to commit or conceal another crime.” Trump has NOT been indicted for any federal or state campaign finance law violation(s).
This is a quirk in NY State law. A “quirk” that was investigated fully by legal analysts a year ago, and since. And though some analysts then insisted that this would open a quagmire of legal challenges (including through the US Supreme Court), so far very little of that has happened.
Yes, AFAIK, none of those esoteric challenges has yet been brought up to this court. Nor to the Supreme Court. And if you don’t want your client to experience an actual trial, you would do everything in your power to keep that from happening. Before it can happen.
So, unless Trump tries to involve SCOTUS last minute before Monday morning, they got nothin’.
Just for clarification, Trump’s lawyers on this case are not idiots. Yes, former prosecutor Todd Blanche humiliates himself regularly by filing ridiculous motions. Quite obviously at Trump’s demand. Nearly all of which have been denied. The following one, being the most egregious:
Merchan grew impatient, pressing Trump lawyer Todd Blanche to cite even a single legal precedent for his argument.
When the lawyer couldn’t, the judge laid into him, saying: “You’re literally accusing the Manhattan DA’s office and the people assigned to this case of engaging in prosecutorial misconduct and of trying to make me complicit in it. And you don’t have a single cite to support that position.”
But beginning April 15th, you will see seasoned trial lawyers doing their utmost to present enough reasonable doubt to the jury, to get Trump acquitted of these charges.
I will write a separate diary, should the conviction happen, about the probability (possibility) of prison time for Trump.
Until then…………
HAPPY TRIAL, EVERYONE!!!!
The full indictment
ANNOUNCEMENT OF CHARGES
STATEMENT OF FACTS — Read this to get a feel for what will actually be talked about in court
Ari tells all