The Case Against Trump is a Sham – Here’s the Proof
I just read the indictment handed down by the grand jury charging President Trump with 34 felonies.
It is ridiculous.
He is accused of “FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and conceal the commission of.”
This is repeated 34 times, in nearly the exact same verbiage, with details sparse enough to be meaningless. They apparently tracked entries in different accounting systems all for the same transactions. The prosecutor has strained himself into creating a felony situation, the indictment makes 34 felonies out of a single non-existent crime.
You can read the account here. https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/04/politics/read-trump-indictment-file/index.html
But there are some slight problems with it.
First, in New York, the statute of limitations on a misdemeanor is two years, and for a felony, it is five years. Since the latest date of any action is December 1, 2017, the statute of limitations is expired on either. If the judge were impartial, this would have already gone away.
Second, where is this mysterious other “crime” that makes this a felony? It is not against the law to pay hush money – although blackmail by the likes of Stormy Daniels is quite illegal in most states. Where is the “intent to defraud”? It is Trump’s company and his business, did someone else suffer some damage from being “defrauded”?
Third, and most basically, were these bookkeeping entries actually improperly done? If they were improperly done, could it have been bad judgment or simply an error in bookkeeping? How does one normally account for alleged “hush money” payments in an accounting system? It is probably not standard, and likely not in the accounting software’s documentation.
A normal prosecutor would have looked at the standard of proof and said the odds are not only that there would not be a conviction on evidence that could be gathered, but also the possibility and/or probability that the accused is actually innocent. Certainly not worth the millions of dollars that have been and will be spent in taking this through a trial.
The problem with criminal prosecution in cases like these is that the accused has no recourse. He can’t sue the prosecutor, he can’t sue a biased judge, he can’t even sue members of a grand jury. The political forces behind all of this are untouchable.
What should you expect?
Trump wants this. He wants to show how the Democrats are making devious moves to undercut his election campaign. You should expect Trump to make a spectacle of all of this and use it to his advantage. He has to slow-play it a bit since if he wins too fast the other side will quit too early.
If it turns out that in addition to a corrupt prosecutor, we have a corrupt judge and a selection of biased jurors (easy to do in an area where almost 90% voted against Trump in the last election), then it will immediately go to an appeals court and get dismissed. Just the statute of limitations by itself should be enough.
Even if you are not a Trump supporter this should piss you off. Blatant abuses of power, blatant corruption of our legal system for the pursuit of partisan political gain.
What has America come to?
My, my, you were fast to pick off the blogosphere top three; congrats. It’s too bad you can only focus on one side of the story, especially since the other point of view is so easily available.
The one thing you missed is this prosecutor and the judge. Trump has pissed him off, but he is not rattled and he is striking back. I have never seen a prosecutor unveil his case in public, much more that he skewered much of Trump’s rants, like this before. This guy is not only ticked off, he is going right at Trump, in public, on the record, with a pretty good fact base. He is pissed. The judge knows Trump, is a no-nonsense, by the book judge, and at it’s core — this is just another white collar crime that they have won many times before, albeit with a few nuances that Joe has pointed out. Joe just missed half of the argument, as any good politically biased opinion writer might do.
On the time: I think the argument will be Trump DOJ took the investigation, played with themselves, indicted Cohen naming Trump unindicted co-conspirator number 1, sent Cohen away as guilty, guilty, guilty, but demurred on prosecuting a sitting President.
New York has a few ideas on how to stop the criminal clock. One is location, if you are outside NY, and cannot be compelled to return, that can stop the clock. It’s weak, since it was known where he was, but….. they will argue that his time as President should be excluded as the great one, Alito, himself said in his Trump v. Vance dissent that concluded this might be a valid interpretation of New York law.
Thus the felonies at five years are more helpful than a misdemeanor at five years.
On the felonies that seem to confuse Joe because of his one-sided focus: while falsifying business records is usually a misdemeanor, under New York law, the charges become felonies if the criminal, Trump in this case, did this crime to hide a separate crime. Court documents state: “The defendant Trump repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 Presidential election.” Which means getting all Stormy about it. FYI: if Stormy testifies, it will be priceless.
On the book keeping, good luck, they have the audit trail and documents. They may knock some out, but the vast majority are golden, legally at least. This is pretty much a cut n dry paper chase with Cohen being the icing on top. If he testifies, watching the defense tear into him as a liar will be fun given the person in the box.
Yes, Trump is using this for his election. He’s even amplifying that by going his show in NY, the OJ-like parade of SUVs, the TRUMP plane, it’s a spectacle all right. But it’s the voters that will make that successful or not. He’s a master from profiting from disaster, he probably knows to the penny what each “show” will bring from his base, the marks, but it’s a dance and it takes two to tango. For example, I doubt Larry is donating to the Trump nomination campaign, but he might on the Presidential even if not a fan. And even some Trumpians might get tired of seeing the OJ (orange-haired jerk-wad) parade of a dozen SUVs for one man, the extra suvs that they paid for with their donations, the rest we pay for with our tax dollars. Carter, Bush, Clinton, never cost us so much — Trump even outspends Obama. Or maybe Trumpets will question the spectacle for donations when he could have “zoomed” the entire arraignment in. Already his base has stood down against multiple Trump attempts to rile them into action. Protests have been minimal; MTG spent as much time in the SUVs talking to cable than she did on the street talking to Trumpers. Other protests have been invisible. I guess the Trumpers can put 2 and 2 together and figure out they could be arrested.
Now we go into motions where Team Trump submits, loses, and then does it again. Trump will stand down, stand ready but with this judge, he won’t mouth off too much for too long. So it will go quiet. That will happen until trial which, at best case, will be out a year. Methinks even more Trumpers may lose interest in that time.
Trump will blame Democrats and the Deep State for his rape case, a further pull on reality and his fervent followers can get down on their knees and swallow that. Given a number of Trump rape victims will testify as to prior actions, it’s gonna be tawdry. This will be in a couple of weeks.
Then Georgia will hit and all those phone calls. Not the one you know, but the other one(s). Suddenly, the Don using don-speak, will once again ask “hey, I have a favor to ask of you…..” and his followers can chew on that one. Georgia will probably be by the end of the month.
That’s a hot Spring coming for Mr. Trump. We’ll see how the fundraising continues, that’s the acid test.
And then Mar A Loser Documents which burn hotter every day with the strange Trumpian desire to keep things he never even read, forcing his lawyers to lie, and more. Should be a nothing, but Trump seems hell bent to make it something.
And then, potentially —- 1.6.2021 —- there’s 1,000 arrests at the bottom, getting harder to believe there was no one at the top.
Nope, my bet is that many of his followers will lose faith, jump ship, and get aboard the DeSantis train soon. The others will look lonely screaming RINO blah de blah, with no one listening. Probably not on this case, but by the time we get to Georgia, end of this month, the Trump trolley may finally stop. Big donors will shift to DeSantis, Trumper small donors will continue to erode, and the Don will be once again searching for new sources of cash. As long as the rallies are popular, he can keep going, he will survive. But will he thrive?
One thing seems blatantly, brutally, true: apparently, the Don can not falsify business records on 5th Avenue and get away with it.
First of all, this judge is known to be biased. Apparently everyone except you knows that. Second, Your line of argument about the statue of limitations is B.S. Trump wasn’t charged with anything until yesterday. It has nothing to do with whether he was in the state or not. Any “ideas” played here that do not follow New York law will cause the case to be reversed on appeal.
There are no “rape victims.” That is yet another story made up by hard core Democrats. Just like the whole Russia collusion case, and the stupid Ukraine phone call. I’ll give the Democrats credit though, when they make something up, they play it to the end.
The rest of your rant is liberal propaganda, all of that effort and Trump is not in jail. And it goes on and one and one… You must have really had a snoot full for this one.
Joe, it’s great to open a dialog on the issues. First, I should have added that IMO, many of the observations you have copied are going to be defense arguments and some of the responses I have found will be pitched against for the judge to decide. That’s what a year of motions will bring. IOW, on many of these, neither of us are wrong per se, at least yet. As to your specific recent comments…
“First of all, this judge is known to be biased. Apparently everyone except you knows that.” Are you really that weak that you have to submit the old “everyone except you knows that” catch all defense which seems that you want to demean my intelligence without having to actually back up your allegation. After all, “everyone knows it,” how stupid is someone who doesn’t.
Except for this guy. And he’s not everyone, he’s Trump’s lawyer. From The Hill: “During an appearance on ABC News’s “This Week,” Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina told George Stephanopoulos he doesn’t agree with the former president’s claims.
“No, I don’t believe the judge is biased,” Tacopina said.” When questioned again, he added: “Do I think the judge is biased? Of course not,” he said. “How could I subscribe to that when I’ve had no interactions with this judge that would lead me to believe he’s biased?”
His client is “entitled to his own opinion,” he added. “I’m not his PR person. I’m not his spokesperson.””
BUSTED from Trump’s own lawyer’s mouth, but everyone except Joe already knows that :>)
“Second, Your line of argumentation about the statue of limitations is B.S.” I just noted what other experts, including Judge Alito have said, but everyone except Joe knows that.
“There are no “rape victims.”” The case will be adjudicated in a few weeks answering that exact question. You might be right. Trump has already lost most motions so we will possibly hear from a number of Trump victims of either physical and verbal abuse of a misogynistic fashion. Good chance Trump may hit the stand too. We’ll find out what’s made up and what’s criminal. It’s been a long time, there’s he said, she said, it’s tough but promises to be tawdry. Bring popcorn. I am still put off by a guy who boinks a porn star while his wife is nursing their new baby. Bill Clinton says “thanks for looking even more of a cad than I.” Remember when you folks said: “Hilary is weak, she should have left him.” Crickets for Trump’s porn star escapades. Family values party my sweet fat white ass.
Is the victim a Democrat? I did not know that. Got a source? Of course you can’t prove it. I do know you are gullible to believe this guy’s lies. We couldn’t prove Russiagate, but come on — over 100 Russian meetings with Team Trump, before the election, some before the nomination, and you say — hey, that’s just swell? Maybe we couldn’t prove it, but it stinks.
How many of his close confidants are adjudicated criminals starting with his lawyer, his CFO, his campaign manager, his campaign manager’s deputy, his national security advisor, his fundraiser, his campaign CEO, and three, count em, three senior advisors. To date, more to come no doubt. This is who you chose to believe and to support.
The phone call to Ukraine is there, he said what he said; your side should have impeached and then 1.6.2021 would not have happened and we wouldn’t be watching SUVs on the FDR ruining the NYC commute.
“The rest of your rant is liberal propaganda,” Nope, I checked and I was not only spot on but everyone I know agrees. I do agree with you that Trump will probably never see the inside of a jail cell. After all, he was the President. For one short term.
For the millionth time, I rarely imbibe. Hope that makes you happy to dive so low just for your childish personal gratification from trying your worst to make someone feel bad. You would not dare to do that in person.
Frank, you continue to go through the Democrat talking points one by one. Do you honestly think that a lawyer going in front of a judge is going to trash that judge? And like all of the other BS Democrat mouthpieces you convict Trump of crimes he has never committed – not because you believe it but because you hate Trump
Face it, you have an irrational hate that forces you to believe anything bad about him, obsessively gathering the bits and pieces from unreliable and speculative sources. You watched the Democrat impeachment shows and believe every bit of the anti-Trump BS even after you saw the evidence to the contrary. You even read the entire transcript of the “call” with Ukraine and you find impeachable stuff there.
You write long diatribes expecting us to debate you point by point, but what good would that do? So we don’t. But keep at it, maybe somebody else with take the bait.
From this point,Trump will follow the rule of law. All of your points will be answered after a year
One down, one more to come soon, one more indicnent before end of month. and the two federal ones to consider.
The rape case will conclude first, might he your best chance for a not guilty
And continue not ro defend against my facts. Tis your right to. Clearly not everyone knows what you say they do. You were wrong again and that’s that.
The good news is that this sort of political abuse of the DOJ is obvious to Independent voters and has even drawn the attention of prominent Leftists such as Alan Dershowitz, who no doubt will soon be turned against by hateful Progressives. They jumped the shark on this one.
Wisconsin liberals are Supreme.
The voters have spoken.
Trump is toxic
Trumpism is not wanted.
Return to Republicanism or lose.
Democrats screw their mothers
Joe, as I have often said of you, you are an idiot!!! You do not research before posting. I did not even read your post! As an Independent/Unaffiliated voter, I went right to Frank’s post and found it to be very accurate. Listen to him, he is telling you the truth. And please stop being an idiot.
“Joe, as I have often said of you, you are an idiot!!! You do not research before posting. I did not even read your post! As an Independent/Unaffiliated voter, I went right to Frank’s post and found it to be very accurate. Listen to him, he is telling you the truth. And please stop being an idiot.”
Joe says the judge is biased; I printed where Trump’s lawyer says no, Joe says lawyer is lying to impress the judge. Joe sources for his allegation of bias is “everyone knows it.” He uses this level of support a lot. Apparently Joe knows people. But he’s totally wrong about the judge being biased, it’s just that Trump and many of his friends are liars and criminals. I noted the criminal friend’s list above which, as everyone knows, pretty much blows Trump’s “mr. business that hires well” lie right out of the water. As to the judge:
It’s worth noting that there is no record of Merchan making any donations to political candidates, according to a search on OpenSecrets.org of Federal Election Commission records.
Merchan has been an acting justice on the New York Supreme Court since 2009, appointed by Bloomberg.
Trump first claimed Merchan “’railroaded’” Weisselberg to plead guilty and “treated my companies, which didn’t ‘plead,’ VICIOUSLY.” As Joe would say, Trump’s a lying criminal so, of course, he would say that. Weisselberg pleaded guilty to evading taxes on $1.76 million of income from his employer, the Trump Organization, paid in the form of rent and utilities for his Manhattan apartment, “multiple Mercedes Benz automobiles, private school tuition for his grandchildren, unreported cash and furnishings for his apartment and home in Florida,” Weisselberg paid more than $2 million in back taxes and penalties under the deal. Weisselberg freely admitted this was a company-wide scheme and agreed to testify to that in the case for the Trump Organization on tax evasion. Sure Joe, it’s all a set up and not an objective court case.
A court case where the jury found Trump Corp. and Trump Payroll Corp. guilty of criminal tax fraud and many other charges. Merchan is tough, he sentenced the companies to pay $1.6 million in fines, the maximum penalty under state law.
Merchan did say, on the record had there not been a plea deal, he would have imposed a harsher sentence than the five months of jail time.
Trump claimed Merchan “GAVE HORRIBLE JURY INSTRUCTIONS” in the press where he freely lies. On the record, Merchan told the members of the jury to “set aside any biases you might have in favor of or against Mr. Trump and his family” in deciding the case. You be the judge of accuracy —- Joe’s “everyone knows,” or the facts.
Trump further claims the judge and his entire family were “HIGHLY PARTISAN,” what a loon. He even said Merchan’s daughter “worked for Kamala Harris” and “now receives money from the Biden-Harris campaign.” The man is attacking the judge’s daughter. How low a lie is that? She’s not the judge in this case. She works for a digital campaign consulting firm that does work for progressive clients, including the two campaigns mentioned by Trump. Who’s Don’s kids work for?
EVERYONE thinks the judge is tough, but fair. EVERYONE except Trump and his family.
“He’s a serious jurist, smart and even tempered,” Ron Kuby, a long-time defence lawyer in Manhattan, told NBC News. “He’s not one of those judges who yells at lawyers, and is characterized as a no-nonsense judge. But he’s always in control of the courtroom.”
Sure, that’s another lawyer. However, Trump, nor Joe, have provided any evidence to the allegations of bias. There is no evidence of bias in the record of his court actions, all of which are on the record. You can’t claim bias just because you are a criminal and lost your court case. That’s called adjudication.
All Joe has provided evidence for is that he is a blind follower, a sheep, who will believe anything Trump says as backed up by “everyone knows it.” And WE ALL KNOW THAT JOE.
enough of this. it’s Spring and the judge has ruled that the Meadows can talk to all of us as to what happened on 1.6.2021. Sorry, Joey, Trump lost another one.
Get used to it.
THE ONLY REASON THEY ARRESTED PRESIDENT TRUMP IS THIS.THEY ARE AFRAID HE WILL WIN IN 2024.THE CORRUPT DEMOCRATS WAN’T A ONE PARTY AND ONLY CARE FOR POWER. IT REMINDS ME OF 1938 WITH HITLER. AMERICANS ARE TO SMART TO FALL FOR THIS CHARADE. THEY WANT A CLEAN FREE COUNTRY. UNDER BIDEN WE ALREADY LOST LAW AND ORDER. WHAT OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES PRESIDENT CALLS FOR ”’ABOLISH” THE POLICE. IT IS THE JOB OF EVERY NORMAL LEADER TO ENFORCE THE LAW AND KEEP HIS CITIZENS SAVE. BUT BIDEN HAS CRIMINALS RUNNING AMOK IN EVERY CITY. LETS CRIMINALS IN TO OUR COUNTRY 6 MILLION WITH HIS OPEN BORDER. BUT THIS IS ONLY THE TOP OF THE ICEBERG, JUST LOOK AT ALL HE HAS RUINED , HE IS UNABLE TO GOVERN AND KEEP US SAVE.TIME TO BRING BACK TRUMP ASAP.
DID I HEAR HITLER. MUST BE SPRING. WE WOULD LOVE TO RUN AGAINST TRUMP IN 2024. WE BEAT HIM IN 2020, WE DEMOLISHED TRUMP ENDORSED CANDIDATES IN 2022. WE JUST BEAT HIS CANDIDATE IN 2023 WISCONSIN SUPREMES
If you look back, objectively, you can see what a disaster TRUMP has been and get a better idea of where you are going: HELL.
In the 2018 House elections, Democrats gained of 40 seats to take the House — their largest gain since Watergate and did you listen, Fuck No.
Then Trump lost the presidency.
Then you Republicans blew two, count em, two runoff elections in Georgia to lose control of the U.S. Senate.
Then Republicans used their best election tactic to date: they stormed the Capitol.
So, feeling heady about your outcomes, Republicans won over abortion as Trump-appointed justices reversed Roe v. Wade.
And because of that brilliance, the GOP lost one political battle after another as they went one way and America voted the other way.
Undaunted by their failures, Republicans put high-profile election deniers on the 2022 midterm ballot in key state and federal races and lost most of them in what was seen as easily winnable elections.
Republicans blew a chance to control the Senate by nominating too many hard-to-elect-in-a-swing-state Trump clones.
Hopes of a big House majority were smashed, creating a PITA majority for Speaker McCarthy.
And in past weeks, very progressive Democrats triumphed in two of this year’s most consequential elections.
Brandon Johnson was elected Chicago mayor.
In swing state Wisconsin, Democrat-backed Janet Protasiewicz flipped the state Supreme Court to liberals in a landslide, after leaning into her support for abortion rights. Landslide. Legendary victory.
Republicans can see what loses but are baffled as to finding something that wins. Their boat anchor, TRUMP, if anything, is stronger and more likely to win the nomination than he was after the midterms. Republicans in Congress have rallied to boat anchor TRUMP’S defense since his indictment. He is creaming DeSantimonious. But everyone knows his national fate is the same as we have seen for Trumpism since 2018 — his character and his policies are national losers. The country, on average, does not like this man or what this man does.
As the indictments and court cases mount up, the sheep may continue to shell out their beer budgets, but America has tuned outs, turned off, and just want this guy to drop out.
If they did this to POTUS Trump . . . They can do it to YOU! Basically, YOU could be NEXT. Get RID of these CORRUPT people OUT of OFFICE!
JoeyP: ex-twice-impeached-POTUS TRUMP did this to himself by having a tryst with a porn star and attempting to hide it via illegal payments. That part is pretty much black-letter law, all documented, already have been convictions in this matter for others, and he is “unindicted co-conspirator 1” who would have been convicted if not POTUS at the time the charges were first made. That’s pretty much a no brainer, slam dunk crime, usually of the misdemeanor type.
The uplift to FELONY level to help skirt the STATUTE of LIMITATIONS is what’s to be tested, it’s a reach but not a stretch, and pretty doubtful would be required to get a normal citizen.
But the actual crime is well documented, black letter law, with previous convictions where TRUMP is labelled “unindicted co-conspirator 1.”