A story about a pathetic man's downfall [34 Felony Convictions]

[The Dog 44,180]

13 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

and he smells

Look on the bright side - we can all fart in H-E-B and if anyone says anything just say “if Trump can drop ass in public then so can I!”

[pyrohornIII 4,838]

On 4/20/2024 at 1:03 PM, 4th&Five said:

I’m not as pessimistic as y'all but either way him having to sit there while 2 of his mistresses, Cohen and Hope Hicks talk shit about him will be glorious. 

Another point of interest will be in how Melania reacts to all this being aired in public as factual testimony instead of being able to brush it off as gossip or hearsay.  Everything in this trial will be good fodder for her divorce case.  

 

Stupid question amnesty:   imagine this has been discussed ad nauseum, but how can someone convicted of a felony not be able to vote, but can still run for an elected position?   He can run for president, but isn't allowed to vote for himself?

 

[YGIFS 19,453]

It was simply never codified in the Constitution or the resulting amendments.  They're have been plenty of examples of an elected official convicted of a felony while in office/after office and thus unable to vote again.  But the no Federal/US Code/Annotated Code or most Stete Codes ever bothered to take into account that person would even bother trying to run again for elected office.  It really just never came up.  So much of what protects Trump is codified articles and case law that simply never addressed what to do with a President/former President capable of such crimes against the Republic simply because they didn't think it would ever happen, so why bother.  

50 years from now, our children will look back at how we legislated, or lack thereof, A.I. law, or robotics law, or space law, or whatever the fuck.  We just don't know what can possibly happen so rather than write restrictive, short-sighted legal-ease..we frequently opt to write nothing at all and hope future case precedence (I know, a contradiction) sets the boundaries of the era that we will never know or see.  

You could build a time machine and go back to the framing.  And tell them that a future sitting President would place a telephone call to a Colonial Georgia senior official to extract from digital voting machines the exact number of votes needed to tilt the state to his favor.  And they'd hear the words "perfect phone call", "electronic ballots", and ponder the obvious fraud of the President staking that claim.  But they'd be so freaked the fuck out, they would't write a law about it, they'd just shoot you for being batshit insane and assume the EC would go according to plan.  

[Fudge Nuggets 19,276]

5 hours ago, Keef said:

Shout out to Juror 4 and Alternate 2 for living my dream and successfully avoiding all news.

The Meidas people say juror 4 got thrown off the jury for lying about never being arrested.  He’s also tied to some kind of corruption case as well according to them.

[WhatTheBuck 28,825]

2 hours ago, pyrohornIII said:

Another point of interest will be in how Melania reacts to all this being aired in public as factual testimony instead of being able to brush it off as gossip or hearsay.  Everything in this trial will be good fodder for her divorce case.  

Right. Like when a whole lot of folks on here were predicting she was going to divorce Trump as soon as he left office.

Not. Gonna. Happen.

What? You think THIS will be the final straw?

She knows damn well Trump cheats on her. She doesn’t care. The only thing that bothers her is that these trysts were made public. She responded by renegotiating her prenup. She’s a grifter and a gold digger. She’s not in it for love or honor or dignity or anything noble. She’s in it til the end. The only way she’d ever file for divorce is if Trump were left absolutely penniless with no properties or assets of any kind. She ain’t leaving him before the well has run dry. 

[atomheartbevo 90,041]

12 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

She ain’t leaving him before the well has run dry.

Especially since she has all of those young and fit Secret Service agents around.....

[Brisketexan 105,569]

Look on the bright side - we can all fart in H-E-B and if anyone says anything just say “if Trump can drop ass in public then so can I!”

Like I needed that green light.

[Pato del Muerto 52,854]

17 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

The only way she’d ever file for divorce is if Trump were left absolutely penniless with no properties or assets of any kind. She ain’t leaving him before the well has run dry. 

Little late by then. Do it when he can pay the prenup- if you can make him. 

[Horn Under a Bad Sign 20,617]

8 hours ago, Underdog said:

 

I'm old, I know
But eeeeven so
I really shart a lot
Really shart a lot
Sharts are like a flame
They burn you when they're hot
Trump smells
Oooh, oooh Trump smells 

[tx ind 7,014]

20 hours ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

I pray to God that Stormy, Hope and the other one testify that he has a 1.5" dick.

[C-Man 27,347]

Or maybe that juror marked those sources in an attempt to be excused. 

Not a chance. He’s an investment banker.

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19,242]

 

Doesn't remember his longest serving Chief of Staff.  

 

[tx 3 putt 77,920]

3 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Especially since she has all of those young and fit Secret Service agents around.....

#hooker 

[SKJ 1,311]

15 hours ago, YGIFS said:

Astute observation.  Conspiracy theories aside, I'm starting to wonder if they haven't gamed this out already.  What is the best way to defeat him or cause him to die that will cause the smallest outburst/backlash from his minions.  He can't do jail time because he can still correspond with the outside party through surrogates.  He can't be killed because it will be seen as a deep state operation or foreign invasion and cause panic.  He can be convicted of 1 or more charges and not do time but that risks him being re-elected.  He can be so overwhelmingly convicted that he loses legit, but that causes an uproar among his base that will make january 6th look like a picnic.  He can die of natural causes due to the stress, but 25mm Americans won't believe it and may lash out violently.  He'll never commit suicide.  You can't have him live in exile and fuck with our government by proxy from overseas.  

How do you stick this landing?  There has to be a way.  An accident on live television is about the only way to thread the needle.  It will implicate the Secret Service but it's the smallest fallout.  But we're open to other suggestions.  

Call their bluff. 

 

[BamaATL 16,593]

So today his first criminal trials starts, down the hall his bond is up for rejection, and later this week his ridiculous immunity claim will be heard at the Supreme Court.  It's a good day.  

[Horndog 2,268]

10 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

Right. Like when a whole lot of folks on here were predicting she was going to divorce Trump as soon as he left office.

Not. Gonna. Happen.

What? You think THIS will be the final straw?

She knows damn well Trump cheats on her. She doesn’t care. The only thing that bothers her is that these trysts were made public. She responded by renegotiating her prenup. She’s a grifter and a gold digger. She’s not in it for love or honor or dignity or anything noble. She’s in it til the end. The only way she’d ever file for divorce is if Trump were left absolutely penniless with no properties or assets of any kind. She ain’t leaving him before the well has run dry. 

She doesn't want to be his ex. She wants to be his widow.

[Francisco 2.0 32,432]

4 minutes ago, BamaATL said:

So today his first criminal trials starts, down the hall his bond is up for rejection, and later this week his ridiculous immunity claim will be heard at the Supreme Court.  It's a good day.  

 

 NY Times with the play by play:

 

Donald J. Trump has entered the courtroom, striding in next to one of his lawyers, Todd Blanche. They’re followed by the rest of the defense team. Trump scans the room, brushes off the top of his chair and takes a seat.

Maggie Haberman
Trump spoke to the press in the hallway and excoriated the case. He ignored some of the questions he was asked, like, “Where’s Melania?”

 

Edited April 22 by Francisco 2.0

[Francisco 2.0 32,432]

What are the odds that Trump interrupts this?

 

Quote

The prosecutors say their opening statement will take 40 minutes; the defense will take 25.

 

[Francisco 2.0 32,432]

And so it begins:

Quote

Justice Merchan says court will break early today because an alternate juror has a medical issue. The judge also says a juror called saying they had concerns about being here. The juror is present but Merchan wants lawyers to speak with him or her in chambers.

 

[BamaATL 16,593]

1 minute ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

What are the odds that Trump interrupts this?

 

 

I'd say zero because when it comes right down to it he's a giant pussy.  However, given his advancing dementia, I'd give it 10% before the trial is over he has some sort of outburst.  

[Francisco 2.0 32,432]

I've got work to do today, so I can't keep spamming the thread with Times updates, but this one is poignant:

 

Quote

As his lawyers enter into the judge’s chambers to discuss the concerned juror, Trump sits alone at the defense table motionless, occasionally scanning the empty bench where the judge typically sits. It is a striking image for a person who is typically surrounded by so many people.

 

If anything, Trump is alone in life, and has been for years.  This is just a microcosm of it.

 

EDIT:  and the judge has returned

Quote

Justice Merchan returns to the stand, and says the juror will remain on the panel.

 

Edited April 22 by Francisco 2.0

[Red Five 41,066]

So today his first criminal trials starts, down the hall his bond is up for rejection, and later this week his ridiculous immunity claim will be heard at the Supreme Court.  It's a good day.  

Sounds like the ideal time to run for President of the United States.

[YGIFS 19,453]

He's about two weeks away from asking for his donated Presidential salary back to cover some of his bail issues.  

[Francisco 2.0 32,432]

Quote

Trump is struggling to stay awake. His eyes were closed for a short period. He was jolted awake when Todd Blanche, his lawyer, nudged him while sliding a note in front of him.

 

[WhatTheBuck 28,825]

28 minutes ago, Horndog said:

She doesn't want to be his ex. She wants to be his widow.

And she doesn’t want death threats against her or her son. She’s morally bankrupt just like the rest of the family. (And there’s no “fake Melania” stand-in.” She’s the prop.)

[Francisco 2.0 32,432]

Oh, and this gem:

 

The judge reads his ruling on the Sandoval hearing aloud. This determines what prosecutors can ask Trump about if he testifies. Justice Merchan says he will allow the prosecution to bring up six different determinations from four other cases, including his loss in the civil fraud trial earlier this year, in which Trump was found liable for conspiring to manipulate his net worth and penalized hundreds of millions of dollars.

Justice Merchan will also let prosecutors ask about Trump’s attack on a law clerk in that case, in violation of a gag order.

Prosecutors will also be allowed to ask Trump about having been found liable twice for defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll. But for now, Justice Merchan does not mention that Trump was also found liable for sexually abusing Carroll.

 

 

Justice Merchan’s ruling has significantly increased the potential blowback Trump will face if he decides to take the stand and testify in his own defense. In the end, it’s his call and his alone to make. But the judge just handed the prosecution a fairly heavy legal cudgel to use against Trump if he does decide to testify.

Kate Christobek
April 22, 2024, 9:55 a.m. ET9 minutes ago
9 minutes ago

Trump shook his head several times as Justice Merchan read his ruling into the record.

[immamac 43,554]

This seems not good. 

[dieucla98 2,942]

1 minute ago, immamac said:

This seems not good. 

I assume you mean this in the Dave Chapelle "you hate to see it" gif, sense, right? Or am I missing something big?

[SydneyCarton 48,296]

3 minutes ago, immamac said:

This seems not good. 

Which part? 

[immamac 43,554]

1 minute ago, dieucla98 said:

I assume you mean this in the Dave Chapelle "you hate to see it" gif, sense, right? Or am I missing something big?

Yeah, bad for Donald trump. It really does seem like they’ve got a case that is so strong they are gonna go in no lube. This isn’t congress so it may be a lot different than what we’ve seen before. 

[Captainant 27,970]

Just now, immamac said:

Yeah, bad for Donald trump. It really does seem like they’ve got a case that is so strong they are gonna go in no lube. This isn’t congress so it may be a lot different than what we’ve seen before. 

What, you think they'll allow the prosecution to show documentary evidence? That would be first for trump to defend against 

[Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand 13,596]

13 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

Oh, and this gem:

 

The judge reads his ruling on the Sandoval hearing aloud. This determines what prosecutors can ask Trump about if he testifies. Justice Merchan says he will allow the prosecution to bring up six different determinations from four other cases, including his loss in the civil fraud trial earlier this year, in which Trump was found liable for conspiring to manipulate his net worth and penalized hundreds of millions of dollars.

Justice Merchan will also let prosecutors ask about Trump’s attack on a law clerk in that case, in violation of a gag order.

Prosecutors will also be allowed to ask Trump about having been found liable twice for defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll. But for now, Justice Merchan does not mention that Trump was also found liable for sexually abusing Carroll.

 

 

Justice Merchan’s ruling has significantly increased the potential blowback Trump will face if he decides to take the stand and testify in his own defense. In the end, it’s his call and his alone to make. But the judge just handed the prosecution a fairly heavy legal cudgel to use against Trump if he does decide to testify.

Kate Christobek
April 22, 2024, 9:55 a.m. ET9 minutes ago
9 minutes ago

Trump shook his head several times as Justice Merchan read his ruling into the record.

Attacking the judge's daughter was a bad choice.

[DigglerontheHoof 21,273]

3 minutes ago, Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand said:

Attacking the judge's daughter was a bad choice.

"stable genius" at work.

[immamac 43,554]

8 minutes ago, Captainant said:

What, you think they'll allow the prosecution to show documentary evidence? That would be first for trump to defend against 

Yeah it seems like trump and his attorneys misjudged the is pretty hard. 

[YGIFS 19,453]

The Biden Crime Family?  Meanwhile, this literal boss of a mob is effectively saying, "You've got a nice daughter there judge, be a shame if anything happened to her."

Also, what the fuck with the $175mm bond claim?  He says he put up all the cash but the issue is the AG has an issue with the bonding company in California?  Is like a Boogie Nights reboot?

"Look man, I don't know your industry lingo.  I put up the $175mm already so forget about the bond company okay?  Well, I didn't directly turn over $175mm in cash, that's the bond company's duty.  I can't put up the $175mm in cash that I said I did until I get the bond with the collateral I can't put up until I can buy it back with the $175mm I get from the bond company to pay to you once you release it to me.  Don't you get it man, these are my tapes!"  

I think he's going to start rambling about tariffs any minute now.

[TwiceHorn 31,677]

2 minutes ago, immamac said:

Yeah it seems like trump and his attorneys misjudged the is pretty hard. 

His attorneys didn't misjudge much of anything, I practically guarantee.  They have a very difficult client who is a pretty terrible criminal defendant.

[Francisco 2.0 32,432]

And we are off:

 

Matthew Colangelo, one of the prosecutors, stands up to deliver his side's opening statement.

 

Colangelo is known for his writing, but he has very little experience in Manhattan criminal court — I’ve never heard him give an opening before. He begins by telling the jury that Trump lied “over and over and over” again by disguising business records.

Colangelo is saying that Trump, Michael Cohen and David Pecker “formed” a conspiracy at a meeting early in the campaign to help Trump get elected.

Colangelo tells the jurors that Cohen paid the porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to silence her story of a “sexual encounter” with Trump, in order to influence the presidential election. This story, that we’ve known for years, is finally being presented in full to a jury in a criminal case.

[Francisco 2.0 32,432]

Matthew Colangelo has moved neatly through the crime, and is on to the grand jury indictment of Trump last year. His opening is expected to take less than an hour and I can see why it will be relatively quick: We’re moving briskly here already.

 

Trump has attacked Colangelo on Truth Social repeatedly. He worked at the Department of Justice before being hired to work on this case in 2022. Trump has used that fact to baselessly claim the existence of a widespread conspiracy against him.

 

As Matthew Colangelo says that Trump orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election, Trump shook his head.

It remains to be seen if Trump has learned the lesson of the second Carroll trial, which he attended. He acted out in front of the jury throughout the trial. He ended up facing an $83.3 million civil judgment.

Edited April 22 by Francisco 2.0

[Red Five 41,066]

5 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

It remains to be seen if Trump has learned the lesson of the second Carroll trial, which he attended. He acted out in front of the jury throughout the trial. He ended up facing an $83.3 million civil judgment.

The republican nominee for President, ladies and gentlemen. 

[Francisco 2.0 32,432]

Colangelo is now describing the practice of “catch and kill,” in which The National Enquirer bought stories that were problematic to Trump and then buried them. To be clear, this is not a normal journalistic practice.

I see one juror smiling slightly as Colangelo describes some of the National Enquirer headlines that helped Trump's campaign in 2016, embarrassing campaign opponents including Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. Prosecutors only won the right to talk about those headlines last week. We can see how important they are here today, as they go to what prosecutors say was Trump’s intent: seeking to assist his candidacy by promoting negative stories about others and suppressing those about himself.

One of those catch-and-kill deals involved a story that turned out to be false about Trump fathering a child out of wedlock. A doorman at a Trump building was a key figure in it.

[Js1 85,744]

3 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

I see one juror smiling slightly as Colangelo describes some of the National Enquirer headlines that helped Trump's campaign in 2016, embarrassing campaign opponents including Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.

[Francisco 2.0 32,432]

Prosecutors are going to highlight three hush-money deals over the course of the trial. As our colleague Michael Rothfeld recently explained, Trump’s allies paid off the porn star, the Playboy model and the doorman.

 

Matthew Colangelo emphasizes that it was the first time that David Pecker, of The National Enquirer, had paid for information relating to Trump. He’s emphasizing the key point: That every one of these acts involving hush-money deals sprang from the meeting at which he said the conspiracy was hatched.

In other words, prosecutors are accusing Trump of using The National Enquirer to do for Trump what Trump says all the time that others do against him: promote “fake news.”

[Born to Run 6,582]

Funny how people that see signs from god all over the place don’t see a rained out Trump event as one. 

Isn't it ironic? Don't ya think?

Like rain on your rally day

[Francisco 2.0 32,432]

Colangelo is now describing the second “catch-and-kill” deal in question, relating to Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who said she had an affair with Trump. Colangelo says evidence will show that Trump “desperately” didn’t want that information public. “Before the meeting, during the meeting, after the meeting,” Colangelo says, The National Enquirer publisher was in touch with Michael Cohen, putting this deal right at Trump’s doorstep.

 

Colangelo says Pecker will testify that $150,000 was more than The National Enquirer would typically have paid for such a deal, and that Pecker had trouble being reimbursed for it. Crucially, Colangelo says, Pecker will testify that he spoke to Trump about it.

Colangelo mentions that the alleged affair with Karen McDougal happened while Trump was married. It will be interesting to see how much the prosecutors lean into the idea of infidelity in presenting their case. The sexual encounter that Stormy Daniels describes, in 2006, also would have occured when Trump was married.

 

And obligatory:

Edited April 22 by Francisco 2.0

[Francisco 2.0 32,432]

 

As Colangelo describes the “Access Hollywood” tape that he says turned the 2016 campaign upside down, he refers to this email chain. We learned it would be admitted as evidence only last week. It’s really striking how much important evidence in this opening was just allowed in, and it emphasizes the importance of the judge’s decisions.

 

Colangelo is now describing the emergence of the "Access Hollywood" tape on Oct. 7, 2016, beginning with email outreach to Hope Hicks, the Trump spokeswoman, by our now-colleague David Farenthold, who was then a reporter at The Washington Post. Colangelo is reading out loud the most explosive language from Trump, who bragged about grabbing women’s genitals.

[4th&Five 41,701]

i remember being out at ACL when the Access Hollywood story broke and people kind of celebrating when talking about it because we thought he was finally finished.  oh what sweet children we were!

[The Original Greaser Bob 2,853]

Judge in chambers, trying to assuage the jurors' concerns:

[Francisco 2.0 32,432]

For years, this story has been told by reporters with caveats and caution. So it’s really striking to hear Colangelo lay the hush money scheme directly at Trump’s feet, with perfect clarity. “It was election fraud, pure and simple,” Colangelo says bluntly.

 

Colangelo then continues the narrative, saying the Access Hollywood tape’s emergence was the precursor to a story from a porn star named Stormy Daniels that was about to become public. “So at Trump’s direction, Cohen negotiated a deal to buy Ms. Daniels’s story in order to prevent American voters from learning that information before Election Day,” he says.

“Another story about sexual infidelity, especially with a porn star, on the heels of the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape, could have been devastating to his campaign,” Colangelo says of the Daniels story. He says that “with pressure mounting and Election Day fast approaching, Donald Trump agreed to the payoff and directed Cohen to proceed.”

Someone in the courtroom well giggles as Colangelo says Trump told Cohen to drag out paying Daniels, in the hopes of getting past the election and then not paying her at all.

As Colangelo said that Trump did not want the Stormy Daniels story to come out, Trump pursed his lips and wrote a note on a notepad, which he passed to one of his lawyers, Todd Blanche. He later tapped another lawyer, Emil Bove, on the arm and whispered to him.

[4th&Five 41,701]

[Francisco 2.0 32,432]

What the hell.  I thought I was putting all this in the Indicted thread, which is where it really belongs.  So...off to the Indicted thread.