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[locodos 5256]

'So appalled': What witnesses told special counsel about Trump's handling of classified info while still president

 

In the summer of 2019, only hours after an Iranian rocket accidentally exploded at one of Iran's own launch sites, senior U.S. officials met with then-president Donald Trump and shared a sharply detailed, highly classified image of the blast's catastrophic aftermath.

The image was captured by a U.S. satellite whose true capabilities were a tightly guarded secret. But Trump wanted to share it with the world -- he thought it was especially "sexy" because it was marked classified, one of his former advisers later recalled to special counsel Jack Smith's investigators, according to sources familiar with the former adviser's statements.

Worried that the image becoming public could hurt national security efforts, intelligence officials urged Trump to hold off until more knowledgeable experts were able to weigh in, the sources said. But less than an hour later, while at least one of those intelligence officials was in another building scrambling to get more information, Trump posted the image to Twitter.

The public pushback to Trump's post was immediate: Intelligence experts and even international media questioned whether U.S. interests had just been endangered by what Trump did. When pressed about it at the White House, Trump insisted he hadn't released classified information because he had an "absolute right to do" it.

While much of Smith's sprawling classified documents investigation has focused on how Trump handled classified materials after leaving the White House, a wide array of former aides and advisers -- including personal valets, press assistants, senior national security officials, and even Trump's briefers from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence -- have provided Smith with firsthand accounts about how Trump allegedly handled and used intelligence while still in office.

Those firsthand accounts, as relayed to ABC News by sources, underscore what could be at stake as Trump seeks a return to the White House, and they are coming to light as he is likely on the verge of receiving formal government briefings again as the Republican Party's official nominee in the 2024 presidential election.

In interviews with investigators last year, former aides and national security officials who were close to Trump in the White House described a president who could erupt in anger when presented with intelligence he didn't want to hear, who routinely reviewed and stored classified information in unsecured locations, and who had what some former officials described as "a cavalier attitude" toward the damage that could be done by its disclosure, according to sources.

A book published on the CIA's website, describing the intelligence community's experience with Trump during his transition to the presidency and then his time in the White House, said that while Trump was "suspicious and insecure about the intelligence process," he still "engaged with it," even as he publicly attacked it.

The book also noted that Trump was "unique" among presidents in that, before taking over the White House, "he had no experience handling classified information or working with military, diplomatic, or intelligence programs and operations."

'Hand in the woodchipper'
As former officials described meetings with Trump to Smith's team, Trump only wanted to listen to new information about certain parts of the world, according to sources.

In particular, the sources said, Smith's team was told that Trump was uninterested in hearing about Latin America or countries that he similarly thought were not essential. The sources said witnesses confirmed previous public reporting that Trump referred to such places as "s---hole countries" and suggested the United States should stop welcoming migrants from them.

Today, on the presidential campaign trail, Trump continues to rail against migrants from Latin American countries and others who reached the southern border through parts of Latin America.

Sources said former officials also told Smith's team that Trump refused to listen to certain briefings related to Russia, saying Trump "absolutely" didn't want to hear about Russian influence operations, and he couldn't be convinced that Russian troops were already operating inside Ukraine -- even as his own administration was publicly calling out their routine incursions into the country's eastern region to support Russian-backed separatists.

On the campaign trail, Trump recently insisted that he would have prevented Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 if he were still commander-in-chief.

According to the sources, one of Trump's former advisers joked with Smith's team last year that bringing up Russia during a meeting with Trump was like "stick[ing] my hand in the woodchipper again."

In its most recent worldwide assessment, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence concluded that Russia continues to pose a significant threat to U.S. national security and, more broadly, to "rules-based international order."

MORE: Special counsel questioned witnesses about 2 rooms FBI didn't search inside Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence: Sources
As he has done in public, Trump often privately disagreed with conclusions reached by the U.S. intelligence community, especially related to Russia and Ukraine, choosing instead to rely on unverified claims from other people, sources said that Smith's investigators were told.

And sources said former aides confirmed to Smith's investigators previous media reports that Trump almost never read the President's Daily Brief, a report summarizing classified intelligence and analysis on the day's most pressing issues.

Trump preferred to receive such summaries verbally, according to sources.

Reached for comment, a spokesperson for Trump referred ABC News to a statement by the former president in which he called the classified documents case a "two-tiered system of justice and unconstitutional selective prosecution."

A spokesperson for the special counsel declined to comment to ABC News.

'Like a junk drawer'
Throughout Trump's presidency, many of those who interacted with Trump every day saw him bring classified documents to unsecured locations, raising concerns among some of them, several witnesses told Smith's team, the sources said.

As early as 2018, the Office of the Staff Secretary, which manages the documents flowing to the Oval Office, began asking personnel in the White House about documents that had gone missing, including some classified ones, one of Trump's personal valets told investigators, sources said.

And at one point, sources said the valet recalled, he even warned the staff secretary's office that classified documents were being taken out of secure locations in white boxes and ending up in all sorts of potentially concerning places.

According to the sources, several witnesses told Smith's team that they routinely saw classified documents or classified folders in Trump's White House residence, and that Trump would sometimes store as many as 30 boxes in his bedroom, which one valet said Trump treated "like a junk drawer."

"I did not think that he respected what classified information was," sources quoted one former official as telling investigators.

In Trump's first year in office, several media reports described how Trump had allegedly exposed sensitive information: In February 2017, he and Japan's then-prime minister reportedly discussed a response to North Korea's latest ballistic missile test over dinner in a crowded dining room at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and then two months later Trump told the Philippines president on a phone call that the U.S. military had positioned two nuclear submarines near North Korea.

The following month, Trump reportedly shared highly-sensitive intelligence about ISIS with Russian officials visiting the White House.

Some witnesses who spoke with Smith's team, however, said they were not concerned by what they saw while Trump was president.

Robert O'Brien, who served as Trump's national security adviser at the end of his presidency, told Smith's team that Trump "consistently" handled classified information appropriately, sources said.

'The Hunger Games'
As some former officials described it to Smith's investigators, discussing the latest intelligence with Trump could be an unpredictable task, sources said.

At times he would become so upset over what senior national security or intelligence officials were telling him that it would derail entire meetings, according to sources familiar with what witnesses told investigators.

In one series of meetings, ahead of an international summit in Europe, Trump met with then-CIA director Gina Haspel, then-Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and others to help plan for the summit. But when Trump was told positive things about one of the people he would likely meet at the summit, Trump "lost it," insisting that he didn't care, then he "lost it" again when he was being updated on a tax-related negotiation involving Mnuchin, sources said.

The sources said Trump then pitted one of his top aides against Mnuchin in front of everyone else, escalating the tension so much that it reminded one of those present of the movie "The Hunger Games," with its dystopian death match broadcast live on national TV.

The book published on the CIA's website quoted former President Barack Obama's director of national intelligence, James Clapper, as saying that Trump was prone to "fly off on tangents; there might be eight or nine minutes of real intelligence in an hour's discussion."

And while the intelligence community worked with evidence, Trump "was 'fact-free' -- evidence doesn't cut it with him," according to Clapper.

Still, Clapper said Trump could be "courteous, affable, and complimentary" when he engaged with or referred to members of the U.S. intelligence community.

'People were really angry'
Sources said that, as one former official described it to Smith's team, Trump's posting of the image from Iran's failed rocket launch revealed how the then-president "just didn't care" about protecting classified information.

In 2021, Yahoo! News described how, during his briefing with intelligence officials, Trump thought the image "was very neat, and asked if he could keep it," which made some of the intelligence officials nervous, according to an administration official. But that news report didn't offer the same detailed account provided to Smith by witnesses last year.

Sources told ABC News that while speaking with Smith's team, former aides and officials said Trump was specifically warned at the time that while he had the authority to declassify the image of Iran's botched launch, there were also potential risks associated with doing that.

Trump initially agreed to wait while intelligence officials were then consulted, sources said, but the intelligence officials apparently took too long; about an hour later, Trump posted the image online.

"I was so appalled," one former national security official told Smith's team, according to the sources.

The former official noted that Trump may have believed it wasn't a big deal -- but only an expert would know if releasing such classified information could reveal "how we got it" it and whether it could "compromise our ability to get [it] in the future," the former official explained to Smith's team, according to the sources.

[TexArcher 37103]

3 hours ago, honolulu horn said:

COURT CANCELLED TODAY! Rigged judge finally decides to do the Right thing and cancel this mockery of justice. No one at the Courtroom today because They Know they have been found out as the crooked sheep they are. EXONERATED!

You know, a lot of people are saying this is the greatest exoneration in history, believe me.  Commemorative exoneration desk lamps will be available for $14,750 on Truth Social by this evening, sure to become a collector's item when I'm convicted in plus-or-minus six weeks.

[Pancho 42992]

Trump named “unindicted co-conspirator #1”

[Fudge Nuggets 18995]

2 hours ago, Dahobbs said:

This is a horrible trial schedule. It is essentially half-days and partial weeks. Gross. 

Bunch of lazy fucks. 

[tx 3 putt 75522]

 

[YGIFS 19445]

3 hours ago, locodos said:

Sticking it to The MAN!

Even though they get Wednesdays off, you know it's been a grueling trial schedule when you can only jerk off one ghost at a time, instead of a double-dutch.  

[dcbc 14282]

5 hours ago, YGIFS said:

Yeah, I would think in a "normal" trial with a low profile defendant who doesn't have access to a mob...it would be a mistrial and chalked up to some insane lone wolf looking for attention.  But in this case, Trump is literally stirring up his minions to act out.  Hard to prove, but the fingerprints are already there in his posts and press conferences.  Maybe that's a separate legal issue on its own, but I guess---what is the threshold for "You did this to disrupt the case, so we're seating an alternate juror and moving ahead?"  I would imagine it's a whole other ball of motions, filings, and contentions?  

The invited error doctrine (I'm paraphrasing): you don't have a legal basis to complain of error for which you are responsible.  If they can tie back any prejudice toward Trump as being caused by Trump in the first place, he doesn't have a legal basis for that argument.

 

The mob always was smart enough not to overtly intimidate jurors.  They'd find out who they were, go up to them during their day to day life outside of court, and try to reason with them to see it the defendant's way.  That juror would be afraid for his own, Mrs. Juror's and little Timmy's safety, and would hang the jury during deliberations rather than squeal about it.

But Trump's "mob" isn't The Mob, so when he or one of his minions tries to intimidate people, it tends to be in a loud, blundering way, and they get caught and it gets linked to some blather on Trump's Truth social.  Wash.  Rinse.  Repeat.

 

Plus, Trump's fixers are kind of busy testifying against him at the moment.

Edited April 24 by dcbc

[Gatorubet 29764]

5 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

Bobb fucked around and is about to find out.  I would like to be there when she asks her employer to pay for her legal defense.

I think she just got a gig as council at the RNC.  Credit the simulation - as she is apparently counsel for “Election Integrity”.

More sum bitches who will not be able to be pardoned by Trump if convicted. 

 

 

[tx 3 putt 75522]

Just now, Gatorubet said:

Bobb fucked around and is about to find out.  I would like to be there when she asks her employer to pay for her legal defense.

I think she just got a gig as council at the RNC.  Credit the simulation - as she is apparently counsel for “Election Integrity”.

More sum bitches who will not be able to be pardoned by Trump if convicted. 

 

 

id hate fuck her for all of us

[Sawbonz 26892]

Just now, Gatorubet said:

Bobb fucked around and is about to find out.  I would like to be there when she asks her employer to pay for her legal defense.

I think she just got a gig as council at the RNC.  Credit the simulation - as she is apparently counsel for “Election Integrity”.

More sum bitches who will not be able to be pardoned by Trump if convicted. 

 

 

Is that your name or, like, what you do?

[dcbc 14282]

3 hours ago, locodos said:

Sticking it to The MAN!

FIFY

 

[Upgrayedd 5777]

59 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

 

Cunt Kelli Ward in there too 

[High Plains Drifter 10937]

2 hours ago, locodos said:

and they are coming to light as he is likely on the verge of receiving formal government briefings again as the Republican Party's official nominee in the 2024 presidential election.

 

Absolutely no reason, other than turdition, that Biden has to let the DOTarD get briefed. Biden should deny the briefings, and if he gets called out, issue a statement something like

"Given the fact that the Republican nominee is currently under criminal indictment for mishandling of confidential documents, as well as the reports of his cavalier attitude to top secret information during his time at the White House, we have decided to deny his request to be part of these briefings." 

[Ted Lange 15934]

At least Rudy has plenty of money to hire an excellent legal team to defend him.  Oh wait.  

[Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand 13485]

How it started 

How's it going 

[TexasEd 8030]

5 hours ago, YGIFS said:

Has anyone in these attorneys' sphere of influence bothered to tell them what happens when just writing down "legal reimbursements" on an expense report is validated now?  

Bought a hooker?  Totally fine, reimbursed my attorney who paid her in cash

Bought a kilo of blow?  Totally fine, reimbursed my attorney who paid him in cash

Had somebody killed on contract?  Totally fine, reimbursed my attorney who paid the assassin in cash.  

I cannot wrap my head around how this is an actual defense strategy.  Surely they can some up with something better.  This is like bad plot device left outta the script,  from Lethal Weapon 2 

This is the plot to Breaking Bad. 

[GopherRock 1762]

2 hours ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

Absolutely no reason, other than turdition, that Biden has to let the DOTarD get briefed. Biden should deny the briefings, and if he gets called out, issue a statement something like

"Given the fact that the Republican nominee is currently under criminal indictment for mishandling of confidential documents, as well as the reports of his cavalier attitude to top secret information during his time at the White House, we have decided to deny his request to be part of these briefings." 

What the briefing should say is that the freshwater condenser on Midway Island is out of commission. 

[TexasEd 8030]

22 minutes ago, GopherRock said:

What the briefing should say is that the freshwater condenser on Midway Island is out of commission. 

[TeeDubya 3329]

26 minutes ago, GopherRock said:

What the briefing should say is that the freshwater condenser on Midway Island is out of commission. 

“AF will soon have amazing fresh water.  The very best.  Wow.  It will be beautiful and tremendous.  Even though they said it could never be done.”

Edited April 25 by TeeDubya

[Gil Bang 25681]

29 minutes ago, GopherRock said:

What the briefing should say is that the freshwater condenser on Midway Island is out of commission. 

there ain't nuthin' wrong with the freshwater condenser...I wuz just ovah there

[Jhawkmvp 1488]

14 hours ago, The Dog said:

 

This is also how you know the Jeffrey Epstein related stuff (rape of minors) is likely true. He never attacked Maxwell. He never attacked Epstein either. Never dug at Hilary by talking about Bill and Epstein. Epstein and Maxwell knew where the all bodies were buried regarding his misdeeds with them. Same with Pecker. He is not going to attack him because decades of covered up shit might start hitting the Enquirer or come out in court. 

He is attacking Cohen because Cohen already spilled most of their misdeeds since Cohen was heading to prison anyway or Cohen won't bring up anything else that might see Cohen back in prison.  Same with Stormy, probably has no more dirt on him.  It is interesting he has not attacked McDougal, as far as I know. She probably knows other dirt on him from the Playboy days that he would not want known.

Edited April 25 by Jhawkmvp

[TeeDubya 3329]

1 minute ago, Gil Bang said:

there ain't nuthin' wrong with the freshwater condenser...I wuz just ovah there

“Just send it, wouldja?

[The Dog 43482]

[Gil Bang 25681]

Kaitlan Collins is really growing on me. 

[ChiTownDoc 20905]

6 hours ago, locodos said:

'So appalled': What witnesses told special counsel about Trump's handling of classified info while still president

 

In the summer of 2019, only hours after an Iranian rocket accidentally exploded at one of Iran's own launch sites, senior U.S. officials met with then-president Donald Trump and shared a sharply detailed, highly classified image of the blast's catastrophic aftermath.

The image was captured by a U.S. satellite whose true capabilities were a tightly guarded secret. But Trump wanted to share it with the world -- he thought it was especially "sexy" because it was marked classified, one of his former advisers later recalled to special counsel Jack Smith's investigators, according to sources familiar with the former adviser's statements.

Worried that the image becoming public could hurt national security efforts, intelligence officials urged Trump to hold off until more knowledgeable experts were able to weigh in, the sources said. But less than an hour later, while at least one of those intelligence officials was in another building scrambling to get more information, Trump posted the image to Twitter.

The public pushback to Trump's post was immediate: Intelligence experts and even international media questioned whether U.S. interests had just been endangered by what Trump did. When pressed about it at the White House, Trump insisted he hadn't released classified information because he had an "absolute right to do" it.

While much of Smith's sprawling classified documents investigation has focused on how Trump handled classified materials after leaving the White House, a wide array of former aides and advisers -- including personal valets, press assistants, senior national security officials, and even Trump's briefers from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence -- have provided Smith with firsthand accounts about how Trump allegedly handled and used intelligence while still in office.

Those firsthand accounts, as relayed to ABC News by sources, underscore what could be at stake as Trump seeks a return to the White House, and they are coming to light as he is likely on the verge of receiving formal government briefings again as the Republican Party's official nominee in the 2024 presidential election.

In interviews with investigators last year, former aides and national security officials who were close to Trump in the White House described a president who could erupt in anger when presented with intelligence he didn't want to hear, who routinely reviewed and stored classified information in unsecured locations, and who had what some former officials described as "a cavalier attitude" toward the damage that could be done by its disclosure, according to sources.

A book published on the CIA's website, describing the intelligence community's experience with Trump during his transition to the presidency and then his time in the White House, said that while Trump was "suspicious and insecure about the intelligence process," he still "engaged with it," even as he publicly attacked it.

The book also noted that Trump was "unique" among presidents in that, before taking over the White House, "he had no experience handling classified information or working with military, diplomatic, or intelligence programs and operations."

'Hand in the woodchipper'
As former officials described meetings with Trump to Smith's team, Trump only wanted to listen to new information about certain parts of the world, according to sources.

In particular, the sources said, Smith's team was told that Trump was uninterested in hearing about Latin America or countries that he similarly thought were not essential. The sources said witnesses confirmed previous public reporting that Trump referred to such places as "s---hole countries" and suggested the United States should stop welcoming migrants from them.

Today, on the presidential campaign trail, Trump continues to rail against migrants from Latin American countries and others who reached the southern border through parts of Latin America.

Sources said former officials also told Smith's team that Trump refused to listen to certain briefings related to Russia, saying Trump "absolutely" didn't want to hear about Russian influence operations, and he couldn't be convinced that Russian troops were already operating inside Ukraine -- even as his own administration was publicly calling out their routine incursions into the country's eastern region to support Russian-backed separatists.

On the campaign trail, Trump recently insisted that he would have prevented Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 if he were still commander-in-chief.

According to the sources, one of Trump's former advisers joked with Smith's team last year that bringing up Russia during a meeting with Trump was like "stick[ing] my hand in the woodchipper again."

In its most recent worldwide assessment, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence concluded that Russia continues to pose a significant threat to U.S. national security and, more broadly, to "rules-based international order."

MORE: Special counsel questioned witnesses about 2 rooms FBI didn't search inside Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence: Sources
As he has done in public, Trump often privately disagreed with conclusions reached by the U.S. intelligence community, especially related to Russia and Ukraine, choosing instead to rely on unverified claims from other people, sources said that Smith's investigators were told.

And sources said former aides confirmed to Smith's investigators previous media reports that Trump almost never read the President's Daily Brief, a report summarizing classified intelligence and analysis on the day's most pressing issues.

Trump preferred to receive such summaries verbally, according to sources.

Reached for comment, a spokesperson for Trump referred ABC News to a statement by the former president in which he called the classified documents case a "two-tiered system of justice and unconstitutional selective prosecution."

A spokesperson for the special counsel declined to comment to ABC News.

'Like a junk drawer'
Throughout Trump's presidency, many of those who interacted with Trump every day saw him bring classified documents to unsecured locations, raising concerns among some of them, several witnesses told Smith's team, the sources said.

As early as 2018, the Office of the Staff Secretary, which manages the documents flowing to the Oval Office, began asking personnel in the White House about documents that had gone missing, including some classified ones, one of Trump's personal valets told investigators, sources said.

And at one point, sources said the valet recalled, he even warned the staff secretary's office that classified documents were being taken out of secure locations in white boxes and ending up in all sorts of potentially concerning places.

According to the sources, several witnesses told Smith's team that they routinely saw classified documents or classified folders in Trump's White House residence, and that Trump would sometimes store as many as 30 boxes in his bedroom, which one valet said Trump treated "like a junk drawer."

"I did not think that he respected what classified information was," sources quoted one former official as telling investigators.

In Trump's first year in office, several media reports described how Trump had allegedly exposed sensitive information: In February 2017, he and Japan's then-prime minister reportedly discussed a response to North Korea's latest ballistic missile test over dinner in a crowded dining room at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and then two months later Trump told the Philippines president on a phone call that the U.S. military had positioned two nuclear submarines near North Korea.

The following month, Trump reportedly shared highly-sensitive intelligence about ISIS with Russian officials visiting the White House.

Some witnesses who spoke with Smith's team, however, said they were not concerned by what they saw while Trump was president.

Robert O'Brien, who served as Trump's national security adviser at the end of his presidency, told Smith's team that Trump "consistently" handled classified information appropriately, sources said.

'The Hunger Games'
As some former officials described it to Smith's investigators, discussing the latest intelligence with Trump could be an unpredictable task, sources said.

At times he would become so upset over what senior national security or intelligence officials were telling him that it would derail entire meetings, according to sources familiar with what witnesses told investigators.

In one series of meetings, ahead of an international summit in Europe, Trump met with then-CIA director Gina Haspel, then-Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and others to help plan for the summit. But when Trump was told positive things about one of the people he would likely meet at the summit, Trump "lost it," insisting that he didn't care, then he "lost it" again when he was being updated on a tax-related negotiation involving Mnuchin, sources said.

The sources said Trump then pitted one of his top aides against Mnuchin in front of everyone else, escalating the tension so much that it reminded one of those present of the movie "The Hunger Games," with its dystopian death match broadcast live on national TV.

The book published on the CIA's website quoted former President Barack Obama's director of national intelligence, James Clapper, as saying that Trump was prone to "fly off on tangents; there might be eight or nine minutes of real intelligence in an hour's discussion."

And while the intelligence community worked with evidence, Trump "was 'fact-free' -- evidence doesn't cut it with him," according to Clapper.

Still, Clapper said Trump could be "courteous, affable, and complimentary" when he engaged with or referred to members of the U.S. intelligence community.

'People were really angry'
Sources said that, as one former official described it to Smith's team, Trump's posting of the image from Iran's failed rocket launch revealed how the then-president "just didn't care" about protecting classified information.

In 2021, Yahoo! News described how, during his briefing with intelligence officials, Trump thought the image "was very neat, and asked if he could keep it," which made some of the intelligence officials nervous, according to an administration official. But that news report didn't offer the same detailed account provided to Smith by witnesses last year.

Sources told ABC News that while speaking with Smith's team, former aides and officials said Trump was specifically warned at the time that while he had the authority to declassify the image of Iran's botched launch, there were also potential risks associated with doing that.

Trump initially agreed to wait while intelligence officials were then consulted, sources said, but the intelligence officials apparently took too long; about an hour later, Trump posted the image online.

"I was so appalled," one former national security official told Smith's team, according to the sources.

The former official noted that Trump may have believed it wasn't a big deal -- but only an expert would know if releasing such classified information could reveal "how we got it" it and whether it could "compromise our ability to get [it] in the future," the former official explained to Smith's team, according to the sources.

Think of how infuriating this is.  Then think of all the DT posters who don’t want to discuss dotard.  Really weird.  Comical they have the gall to make fun of aggy while supporting THE BIGGEST aggy EVER.  

[ChiTownDoc 20905]

2 minutes ago, Gil Bang said:

Kaitlan Collins is really making me grow down there. 

Well said.  

[TwiceHorn 30851]

5 hours ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

Bunch of lazy fucks. 

It's mostly because Merchan holds a mental health court on Wednesdays and considers it too important to push off.

Good for him.

[ChiTownDoc 20905]

3 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

It's mostly because Merchan holds a mental health court on Wednesdays and considers it too important to push off.

Good for him.

Seems a trump trial would fall well within the bounds of a mental health court…

[Fudge Nuggets 18995]

5 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

It's mostly because Merchan holds a mental health court on Wednesdays and considers it too important to push off.

Good for him.

Nah, pawn it off to a substitute judge and get on with the shit show. 

[Underdog 28229]

7 hours ago, Gil Bang said:

Kaitlan Collins is really growing on me. 

You should see a Dr about that. 

[Hermanator 6693]

7 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

It's mostly because Merchan holds a mental health court on Wednesdays and considers it too important to push off.

Good for him.

What's a mental health court?

[TwiceHorn 30851]

6 minutes ago, Hermanator said:

What's a mental health court?

A diversion court in which people with mental illnesses connected to their crimes avoid criminal sanction by receiving mental health treatment.

[Willfully Horn 7890]

7 hours ago, ChiTownDoc said:

Think of how infuriating this is.  Then think of all the DT posters who don’t want to discuss dotard.  Really weird.  Comical they have the gall to make fun of aggy while supporting THE BIGGEST aggy EVER.  

That’s not the complete picture. They don’t want anyone talking about tfg, (or Abbott, et al.) Just check out the year’s end thread on the board discussion board. Rex and hammer were pitching the idea imma would see big money, from oodles of snowflakes, flowing to him and Surly’s NIL, if not for the discussions in CR. 
 

Props to Imma for offering to help those disaffected millionaires set up their own Longhorn NIL deal, so they could support their university without the Surly stank. Funnily enough, they did not take him up on his offer.

 

[YGIFS 19445]

59 minutes ago, Hermanator said:

What's a mental health court?

surlyhorns.com 

[The Original Greaser Bob 2729]

1 hour ago, Hermanator said:

What's a mental health court?

[Post Oak 20114]

13 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

id hate fuck her for all of us

 

 

[Gatorubet 29764]

Which Jenna Ellis will show up for trial?

Twitter photo Jenna

….or plead guilty in Georgia photo Jenna?

I think that this new indictment is worth at least another 54 pints of Häagen-Dazs.

[Biff Tannen 45209]

1 minute ago, Gatorubet said:

Which Jenna Ellis will show up for trial?

Twitter photo Jenna

….or plead guilty in Georgia photo Jenna?

I think that this new indictment is worth at least another 54 pints of Häagen-Dazs.

[Post Oak 20114]

Oh you know which one

[Francisco 2.0 32213]

Programming note:  I have a directors meeting from 9-10 am, so I will be out of pocket.  But I'll catch things up.

In the meantime, they have started in NYC:

 

Michael Cohen, David Pecker and Dylan Howard, the National Enquirer editor who interviewed McDougal, had a phone conversation after the interview. Howard said that McDougal was claiming to have had an affair with Trump. Cohen denied the affair had taken place immediately, but then said that he would look into it. Eventually, he said that a member of the group should try to buy the story.

Pecker, explaining why McDougal said she didn’t want her story told, said, “She said she didn’t want to be the next Monica Lewinsky.”

 

David Pecker says that allegations about women and Trump were always met by this response from Michael Cohen, Trump’s then-fixer: “It’s not true.”

 

Pecker resumes testifying about Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who said that she had a sexual relationship with Trump. Prosecutors had saved the specifics of McDougal’s story for today. It’s an attention-catching way to start and the jurors are listening closely in these opening moments.

 

David Pecker enters, looking as calm and unfazed by the spotlight as ever. Today he is wearing a dark suit, a pink shirt and a dark orange tie. (note:  orange and pink?)  He will resume his testimony as soon as the jurors enter.

The 12 jurors and six alternates are seated and Pecker’s testimony continues.

 

They’re now describing Trump's comments at an event this morning as another violation. Trump was asked by reporters about David Pecker’s testimony, and Trump called Pecker “a nice guy.” Prosecutors say it was a message to Pecker and others: be “nice,” or get attacked.

As the prosecutor, Christopher Conroy, lays out the violations, Trump whispers to his lawyer Todd Blanche and frowns. After they speak, Blanche rubs his face several times.

 

Prosecutors are submitting what they say are an additional four times Trump has violated the gag order, including an attack on Michael Cohen while speaking to reporters gathered in the hallway outside the courtroom. Those reporters are there so that Trump, who claims he’s denied his constitutional right to speak to them, can do so. Another violation prosecutors mention is an interview in which Trump referred to the jury as "95 percent Democrats."

“He’s doing what the order tells him not to do,” Christopher Conroy, a prosecutor, about Trump’s alleged additional violations of the gag order.

Trump enters the courtroom, with an array of lawyers and aides.

Juan M. Merchan, the judge in the case, has taken his seat, and we are beginning for the day.

 

The line for members of the public to get into the trial this morning was the longest I have seen. There were easily several dozen people in it. It was a mixed bag of people, but heavy on retirees. A lot of people were talking about the details of the case, like sports fans waiting to get into a big game.

Edited April 25 by Francisco 2.0

[Gatorubet 29764]

2 minutes ago, Post Oak said:

Oh you know which one

The thing about Jenna is MAGA turned on her when she played guilty after her GoFundMe page received a bunch of money. So she’s not gonna get any money from the true believers anymore.    Her broke ass only has one option, and that is pick up the phone today and be the first person in - who doesn’t have to pay a bunch of attorneys fees

[Red Five 40449]

2 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

They’re now describing Trump's comments at an event this morning as another violation. Trump was asked by reporters about David Pecker’s testimony, and Trump called Pecker “a nice guy.” Prosecutors say it was a message to Pecker and others: be “nice,” or get attacked.

This seems like a reach.

[Gatorubet 29764]

1 minute ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

Programming note:  I have a directors meeting from 9-10 am, so I will be out of pocket.  But I'll catch things up.

When y’all get together, do you bring your little sticks that you point at the musicians with?

[Gatorubet 29764]

2 minutes ago, Red Five said:

This seems like a reach.

do not talk about jurors means do not talk about jurors positively or negatively. I don’t care what he said when he was told not to discuss jurors.

Edited April 25 by Gatorubet

[Francisco 2.0 32213]

Hey, I’m back (sort of).  Still at the meeting, but my portion is over.  So, out came the iPad and here we are:

 

David Pecker testifies that once negotiations had taken place with Karen McDougal, Pecker again asked Michael Cohen who would pay for her story. Cohen — who Pecker said just minutes ago had earlier promised that Trump would take care of it — this time said, “You should pay.” Pecker was reluctant, having already purchased another story on Trump’s behalf, but Cohen again pledged that Pecker would eventually be made whole by Trump.

 

In addition to $150,000 for her lifetime rights, Pecker says that McDougal had a number of other requests, including being able to write for celebrity magazines, appearing on the cover of health and fitness magazines, and starting her own fitness clothing line and beauty product line. She also wanted to work as a red-carpet anchor.

 

Side note: He's not in the courtroom, but traveling with Trump to the courthouse today for the first time during this trial was Boris Epshteyn, Trump’s legal strategist who was indicted in Arizona yesterday in connection with the efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

 

David Pecker is now attesting to a key point prosecutors made in their opening statement, that Trump was famously frugal. He testifies that he knew that Michael Cohen “didn’t have any authorization to disperse any funds from” the Trump Organization. Even when the two went for lunch, Pecker says, Pecker always paid.

 

Joshua Steinglass, the prosecutor, is now asking David Pecker, the former National Enquirer publisher, about a call he had with Trump about Karen McDougal. The call came after Dylan Howard interviewed her and the three-way call with Michael Cohen, and the jurors have heard about it already. But Steinglass is reminding them that it happened, and reemphasizing that Trump himself was personally involved, this time with more details. These chronological leaps would not work in a written story, but they’re almost like a “previously on” tag here at trial.

 

Pecker is testifying about a conversation he had with Trump where Trump described Karen McDougal as “a nice girl.” Pecker said this conversation made him believe that Trump “knew who she was.” Trump is stone-faced as Pecker talks about this conversation.

 

Pecker is now describing a follow-up conversation with Michael Cohen in which he asked Cohen who would pay for McDougal’s story of having had an affair with Trump. This was a central concern for Pecker. Cohen reassured him, telling him, “The boss will take care of it.”

 

A recurring theme is the concern over who would pay for these Trump-related efforts.

 

Edited April 25 by Francisco 2.0

[Francisco 2.0 32213]

It’s really interesting to hear Schwarzenegger and Trump linked through Pecker: the two Republican politicians share a lot, including their place in the celebrity hierarchy and their successful campaigns. This also speaks to the media environment in which Trump thrived, one in which name-brand recognition and Hollywood charisma had become more and more important, no matter the industry.

 

David Pecker just talked about Arnold Schwarzenegger for a long time, coming off as meandering as he described doing catch-and-kill deals for Schwarzenegger once he entered politics. But Joshua Steinglass, the prosecutor, then helped him link those deals to the matter at hand, asking: “Did you come to appreciate the legalities surrounding such an arrangement with a political candidate?” Pecker says he did.

 

I remember when The Los Angeles Times published its story about Schwarzenegger. It was seismic, and very damaging to him

 

David Pecker is now describing a 2002 conversation with Arnold Schwarzenegger where he asked Pecker not to run negative stories about him before his run for governor of California. He was ultimately elected and served from 2003-2011.

 

Pecker says that women did come forward about relationships that they had with Schwarzenegger and he did not publish stories on them. One that Pecker passed on ended up in The Los Angeles Times, he says.

 

For context, July 2016 was when Trump was becoming the presidential nominee after a hard-fought G.O.P. primary.

 

This was one of the few memorable stumbles in Pecker’s testimony thus far. It may not end up mattering, but it’s not ideal for the prosecution that the former publisher didn’t go where they were expecting with that question.

 

 

We are now looking at an exchange between Dylan Howard and David Pecker, The Enquirer's editor and publisher, from July 2016, right around the time the deal to buy Karen McDougal's story took place. A message from Howard says “spoke to MC” (Michael Cohen) “about that other issue.” If Pecker had said the exchange referred to McDougal, it could have helped his credibility here. But he says he doesn't recall what Howard was referring to. Joshua Steinglass, the prosecutor, is now seeking to clarify.

Edited April 25 by Francisco 2.0

[Francisco 2.0 32213]

The deal went above and beyond for McDougal and included the hiring of ghostwriters to pen her stories.

 

Pecker says that the contract was intended to stipulate that McDougal would perform “services” for A.M.I., that there was a basis for the $150,000 she was receiving.

 

David Pecker is now detailing the agreement American Media Inc., The National Enquirer's parent company, struck with Karen McDougal. The contract guaranteed she would be put on two magazine covers and that the company would have the right to publish fitness columns by her. It’s worth noting how bizarre this set-up was. It wasn’t just buying her story — it was also giving her work within the A.M.I. empire.

 

David Pecker is an interesting witness on the stand: he’s openly admitting to his involvement in a catch-and-kill scheme and he’s doing so quite candidly. He has also developed a rapport with the prosecutor conducting the direct examination, Joshua Steinglass. The optics of it are also fascinating as these salacious details are coming from a graying, petite man in his early 70’s.

Edited April 25 by Francisco 2.0

[The Original Greaser Bob 2729]

Has anyone else other than me had the passing thought "Gosh, as I look back on my life, it might have been fun to engage in at least one or two shenanigans/deviltry/monkey business that required a Pecker to "catch and kill"?"

[Francisco 2.0 32213]

Pecker’s last few minutes of testimony were really key. He said that his company had disguised the hush money payment to Karen McDougal as a deal for services she would perform for American Media. This is hugely important for the prosecution’s case: They have to show that the conspiracy that they accuse Trump of participating in to win the 2016 election was conducted through “unlawful means.” Pecker just indicated that it was. The jury may never catch this complicated point, but it’s enormously important for the legal viability of the case.

 

The jurors are carefully looking at screens on which the evidence — the contract, text exchanges — is being displayed.

 

Despite David Pecker’s assertions that he structured the deal with Karen McDougal to avoid violating campaign finance law, his company later admitted doing just that in its 2018 non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors.

 

David Pecker is asked if The National Enquirer had any intention to publish Karen McDougal’s story, which it bought for $150,000. Pecker is blunt: “No, we did not.” This is catch and kill in a microcosm.

Edited April 25 by Francisco 2.0

[royiv 9045]

Calling Trump frugal is the most ridiculous thing ever. The man has the most garish taste where gold plated and things being yuge equate to classy. He’s not frugal, he’s a deadbeat welcher.