Trump on Trial

[BeBMan]

Alliterations

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68671732

Let's see how it goes.

[-Jrabbit]

It's just jury selection for now. Pace yourself.
But good idea to start a thread for it.

[Berzerker]

"He is accused of falsifying his business records to disguise a hush-money payment made to Stormy Daniels, a former adult film star, shortly before the 2016 election. Mr Trump, 77, faces a maximum of four years in jail if convicted, but could avoid jail time and be fined instead."

So if he gets the max he can run in '28?

lol @ democracy

[Berzerker]

I will say Karen McDougal was and probably still is very hot hot hot

[Dauphin]

Betting markets say he'll be found guilty, but serve no jail time.

[Berzerker]

He was greedy, he used campaign funds instead of his own.

"Edwards’ lawyers contended at trial – as Trump’s legal team now argues – that the payments did not violate federal election law because they were aimed at shielding his family from pain and embarrassment rather than trying to conceal an extramarital affair from voters to further his political ambitions.

“It’s the most closely available precedent for this situation, and that’s not a good track record for someone looking to bring a similar case,” said Steven Friedland, an Elon University law professor who attended much of Edwards’ six-week federal trial in Greensboro, North Carolina in 2012.

It’s not clear what charges, if any, the Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg and the grand jury will pursue, stemming from a $130,000 payment made to Daniels just days before the 2016 general election. And legal experts say tying a state criminal charge to federal election law appears to be untested.

But Trump’s allies have begun to draw parallels to Edwards’ case, which resulted in a high-profile loss for the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Division, then headed by Jack Smith. (Smith now serves as the special counsel overseeing federal investigations into parts of the January 6, 2021, insurrection and the retention of classified documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.)

In the 2012 federal campaign-finance trial, the jury acquitted Edwards of one charge of accepting illegal campaign contributions and deadlocked on five remaining counts, including that he made a false statement to the Federal Election Commission by not disclosing on his campaign filings the donors’ spending to hide the mistress."

https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/26/politics/john-edwards-donald-trump-hush-money/index.html

Trump could have hidden the hush $$$ w/o donors but Trump's reputation was known to voters whereas Edwards had a much cleaner image to protect. Obviously both men tried to hide their flings from family but the argument Trump hid his affair because of voters is a stretch.

[Berzerker]

falsifying business records to hide the use of campaign donations as hush money

[-Jrabbit]

The argument that he was shielding his beloved family, not trying to win an election, is just laughable.

[Dauphin]

Trump could have hidden the hush $$$ w/o donors but Trump's reputation was known to voters whereas Edwards had a much cleaner image to protect. Obviously both men tried to hide their flings from family but the argument Trump hid his affair because of voters is a stretch.

It's not a stretch. It's the reason cited by Giuliani and Cohen. The latter going to jail in relation to the same set of facts. It also happened right before the election, 10 years after the activity occurred - the information had currency because of the election. The affair wasn't even a secret and probably known to his family already, as journalists new about it.

Counterpoint - it was nearly in the public domain by 2011 when journos were asking Trump about it. Daniels was at that point allegedly threatened physically and legally to not discuss the incident when she was agreeing to sell the story at that time. Trump was not running for President in 2011, and was certainly not a considered anything more than a novelty candidate, meaning he had non-Presidential election reasons at that time right? So he could get mileage out of that by saying the reasons had not changed even if it also happened to help his election campaign.

[Berzerker]

Election currency was her motive

[Dauphin]

Yes. and based on cost-benefit alone, it was also his.

The price of her silence in 2011 was $10k, and Donny didn't want to pay it. Instead he offered legal action (or other punitive actions).
The price of her silence in 2016 was $135k, and Donny paid it.

He must have perceived increased value in having her keep schtum.

[Ming]

He broke the law... If he had just given her the money, no problem. But he just had to break the law in the way he did it...
Moron. I can't believe some people are defending his stupidity

[BeBMan]

The happy 12 have been selected:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68851832

Didn't follow it in detail, but for coolability they should have done it like in "The 13th Warrior", just minus one guy

[giblets]

He broke the law... If he had just given her the money, no problem. But he just had to break the law in the way he did it...
Moron. I can't believe some people are defending his stupidity

After all the stupid things people have defended, I'd say it's pretty easy to believe.

[-Jrabbit]

Always a solutions guy, Trump has an answer for the cold temperatures in the courtroom...

[Dauphin]

Person sets themself on fire outside the court.

What better metaphor for a man going down in flames.

[too soon?]

[BeBMan]

He's dead now. What a sad and stupid way to go

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/20/man-dies-after-setting-himself-on-fire-outside-trump-trial-courthouse

Article doesn't say if he had mental probs, but I would not be surprised.