Donald Trump indicted over 2016 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels

Old_Joe

Following are lightly edited excerpts from a current report in The Guardian:

Donald Trump has been indicted in New York, over a hush money payment made to the adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election. No former US president has ever been criminally indicted. The news is set to shake the race for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, in which Trump leads most polls.

Trump also faces legal jeopardy over his election subversion and incitement of the January 6 attack on Congress; his attempts to overturn the 2020 result in Georgia; his retention of classified records; his business dealings; and a defamation suit arising from an allegation of rape by the writer E Jean Carroll, which Trump denies.

Daniels claims an affair with Trump in 2006. Trump denies the affair but has admitted directing his then lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, to pay Daniels $130,000 for her silence. Cohen was also revealed to have arranged for $150,000 to be paid to Karen McDougal, a Playboy model who claimed to have an affair with Trump. That payment was made by David Pecker, the publisher of the National Enquirer tabloid newspaper, which squashed the story.

Trump has admitted reimbursing Cohen with payments the Trump Organization logged as legal expenses.

Earlier this week, a Trump lawyer, Joe Tacopina, told MSNBC Trump had simply taken advice from his lawyer, Cohen, which was “not a crime”. Tacopina also said the payments to Cohen were simply “legal fees”.

Trump’s lawyers are expected to seek to delay the case.

Andrew Weissmann, a former federal prosecutor in New York, said Trump would in all likelihood not head swiftly to court: “Beyond Trump’s notorious abuse of the legal system by throwing sand in the gears to slow things down, a criminal case takes time. “There is no end of motions that can be filed to delay a trial, which could easily cause the litigation to be ongoing during the Republican primary season [in 2024] – something a court could also find is reason to delay any trial date. “Indeed, even in a more quotidian case, having a trial within a year of indictment would be quick.”

Mark

I'm grateful if for no other reason than seeing the rich and powerful subjected to the same rules of law as everyday folks. My guess is that he will still be treated with kid gloves and all like that but at minimum I expect that he will be booked and fingerprinted.

Sven

Justice is not blind. Surely he will have special arrangement away from the public eyes or press. He was afraid being photographed and showed to the world as he is being booked. Trouble is there are several even more serious cases coming.

hank

It’s a serious matter. My hope would be that everybody - red / blue alike - can try to be as objective / restrained as possible. Let the laws and courts proceed. It’s ironic, to say the least, that even several judges he appointed have ruled against him in one case or another over past few years. Gas-bag? Yes, of course. But, we are a country of laws.

I may be wrong, but I’ve been impressed for some time by Michael Cohen, a chief witness. I think he was a sleazy attorney who did a lot of dirty work for Trump, but who finally realized in the end what a deep hole he’d fallen into and how badly he’d been used by “the company.” He served some prison time if my memory is correct. But he seems to me like a genuinely remorseful person and an honest witness.

Old_Joe

Michael Cohen is a character straight out of "Hill Street Blues", if anyone recalls that excellent TV series.

Crash

Crash

Crash

Old_Joe said:

Michael Cohen is a character straight out of "Hill Street Blues", if anyone recalls that excellent TV series.

"Pizza Man" and his love interest, Attorney Joyce Davenport.

Crash

Reactions: NYT, WaPo, WSJ.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/31/momentous-sad-day-how-us-media-reacted-to-trump-indictment

Old_Joe

Also right out of Hill Street Blues: Trump will never be convicted or anything. Impossible to find a jury without at least one Trumpian juror, and serious felonies require a unanimous verdict. Good luck.

Sven

Agree, and this case will drag on well into next year. The Georgia case is more direct with ample evidence and testimonies. The Mar-La-Go case is serious and Judge Smith is subpoena more testimonies. Nevertheless, it will be messy.

Another piece from VOX that I read that Trump may follow the path of Netanyahu (Israel). Truly troubling.
https://vox.com/2023/3/22/23648925/trump-indictment-arrest-israel-protest-netanyahu-comparison

Mark

Lest we forget, he's not well liked in NY. Not that that means anything, just saying.

Crash

Old_Joe said:

Also right out of Hill Street Blues: Trump will never be convicted or anything. Impossible to find a jury without at least one Trumpian juror, and serious felonies require a unanimous verdict. Good luck.

Shaking my head at this state of affairs, but you're correct. I HATE to admit it.

Sven

Lest we forget, he's not well liked in NY.

How true. He and his family managed to rub many people the wrong way for many years. That is why the entire clan moved to Florida as their permanent home.

MikeM

That is why the entire clan moved to Florida as their permanent home.

Well, more likely the reason was taxes, the same reason most retires move there.

AndyJ

I'm seeing a fair number of media reports and comments on same that assume that what the charges are is clear. But no, they won't be until the judge makes the terms of the indictment public on Tuesday.

Observant1

Michael Cohen has frequently lied in the past therefore his credibility may be questioned.

Anna

"He said, he said" becomes a bit of "he lied, he lied", fanning more confusion in the dysfunctional mind of the average American seat potato.

AndyJ

Delete.

Observant1

Sven said:

Agree, and this case will drag on well into next year. The Georgia case is more direct with ample evidence and testimonies. The Mar-La-Go case is serious and Judge Smith is subpoena more testimonies. Nevertheless, it will be messy.
[snip]

Trump's legal team is trying to derail the Georgia election interference case.
The filing echoes common themes from the Trump playbook - obfuscate and cast doubt on the judicial process.
This seems like a desperate attempt to block all prosecution related to the special grand jury's investigation.

"Former President Donald Trump's attorneys filed a motion Monday seeking to essentially shut down prosecutors' ability to issue indictments based on a special purpose grand jury investigation into the failed attempt to overturn Georgia's 2020 election."

"Throughout the filing, Trump's lawyers attack the investigation despite not having any involvement with the process, castigating the DA for behavior that 'does not paint the picture of an open-minded, uninterested prosecutor,' accusing the judge of making 'improper comments' and blasting interviews given by the grand jury foreperson and other grand jurors after their service was complete."

Link

Crash

Simply shameless.

MikeM

Well, this is what lawyers get paid for. The Georgia lawsuit is the biggie, the "mega", and the one he is most worried about.

LewisBraham

And yet here we are: https://politico.com/news/2023/03/31/donald-trump-indictment-00090001

Observant1

Unfortunately, Trump's statement from his 2016 presidential campaign rings true:
“I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters, ok?
It’s, like, incredible.”
Video

Although legal travails may increase Trump's popularity in the GOP primary,
they will be detrimental in the general election.

Crash

Although legal travails may increase Trump's popularity in the GOP primary,
they will be detrimental in the general election.

Yes, I think you're correct. I'll never understand how anyone could have voted for him the first time. Many did not vote for him again, in 2020. Those Trumper-apostates are not going back to him, I figure. Sadly, there is enough "woke" craziness among the Dems that will bring people to vote for the Repugnants, in reaction. ...Since the Dems have Hawaii locked up, "anything goes." You can claim to be a Dem, but not behave and think and vote like the Dem. base does. (Tulsi Gabbard, much? Her membership was rescinded, at last.)

Sven

The Georgia case is even bigger and with evidences. Surely the grand jury will examine these tapes.

2. “Lordy, there are tapes.”

The centerpiece of the Georgia case against Trump would seem to be his taped Jan. 2, 2021, phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Trump asked the state’s top election official “to find 11,780 votes,” exactly one more than he needed to overturn Biden’s victory in Georgia.

In another recorded call, Trump pointed Frances Watson, Georgia’s chief elections investigator, to urban Fulton County, instructing her to search only there for “dishonesty.”

Last month, we learned there was a third recorded call Trump made: this one in December 2020 to then-Georgia House Speaker David Ralston. He apparently rebuffed Trump’s request to call a special legislative session to reverse Biden’s win.

Trump — again, on tape — reportedly asked Ralston who would stop him from doing so. Ralston’s response? “A federal judge, that’s who.”

For prosecutors, there’s no better evidence than inculpatory recordings.

https://msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/new-york-trump-indictment-shouldnt-eclipse-potential-georgia-indictmen-rcna77739

Old_Joe

@Sven- I have no doubt of the accuracy and depth of the incriminating evidence that was examined by the grand jury.

The unfortunate problem is that it may prove impossible to impanel a jury that does not contain at least one rabid Trump partisan, who will negate the entire prosecution regardless of the evidence. Remember- a unanimous decision is required.

I'm afraid that this may also hold true for the Federal prosecution of the classified documents issue.

Sven

@Old_Joe, Truly troubling as 2024 election is not far away.

Like LB pointed out in another post that democracy is fragile and declining toward authoritarian.

Crash

Old_Joe said:

@Sven- I have no doubt of the accuracy and depth of the incriminating evidence that was examined by the grand jury.

The unfortunate problem is that it may prove impossible to impanel a jury that does not contain at least one rabid Trump partisan, who will negate the entire prosecution regardless of the evidence. Remember- a unanimous decision is required.

I'm afraid that this may also hold true for the Federal prosecution of the classified documents issue.

Yes. Can't un-drink the Kool-Aid.