Fogbow

Posted: **Mon Apr 22, 2024 12:31 pm**

https://twitter.com/KatiePhang/status/1 ... 8349332750

Katie Phang
@KatiePhang
And... we have our first sidebar of the morning during Opening Statements.

Why? B/c Blanche told the jury that the agreement was made with the involvement of lawyers. The prosecution immediately objected.

Why was this objectionable? B/c Judge Merchan previously ruled that Trump could not maintain the attorney/client privilege and at the same time, tell the jurors that he believed his actions were lawful because lawyers were involved on both sides of the agreement.

Judge Merchan sustains the objection and orders that Blanche's last comments be stricken from the record.

Won't be the last we've heard of this issue.

Posted: **Mon Apr 22, 2024 12:53 pm**

https://x.com/JoyceWhiteVance/status/17 ... 8111502647

Joyce Alene @JoyceWhiteVance wrote: Trump's lawyer, Todd Blanche, opens, telling the jury he will refer to Donald Trump as President Trump, "he has earned that as our 45th president."

Posted: **Mon Apr 22, 2024 1:00 pm**

Can't stop, won't stop. "supposedly barred"

nikki mccann ramírez @NikkiMcR wrote: Trump goes on a long rant about Michael Cohen as court wraps for the day in his hush money trial. He is supposedly barred from attacking witnesses by a court order.

Posted: **Mon Apr 22, 2024 1:05 pm**

Posted: **Mon Apr 22, 2024 1:06 pm**

https://twitter.com/frankrunyeon/status ... 4575767970

Frank G. Runyeon
@frankrunyeon
NEW: NY Courts will release daily transcripts of Donald Trump's criminal trial.

https://twitter.com/frankrunyeon/status ... 279977403

Frank G. Runyeon
@frankrunyeon
This is a truly remarkable development. Court stenographers control their work and charge varying rates. The transcript is never dropped into the case file.

It can be *$6.50 per page* a day for these "daily" transcripts. A day can be 200 pages = $1,300 a day.

An image of the full announcement is in the first tweet.

Posted: **Mon Apr 22, 2024 1:14 pm**

Oh he's innocent because he did't take a tax deduction?

Posted: **Mon Apr 22, 2024 1:19 pm**

Dr. Ken wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 1:14 pm

Oh he's innocent because he did't take a tax deduction?

I'm no tax expert, but I know you have to pay taxes on illegal receipts. That doesn't mean that illegal disbursements are tax deductible.

Posted: **Mon Apr 22, 2024 1:40 pm**

When the charges were filed I observed that there was no conspiracy charged. In the opening statement the prosecutor tells the jury that there was a conspiracy among Pecker, Trump and Cohen.

That's nice.

Why wasn't it charged? I suspect the D.A. could figure out how to charge that the goals of the conspiracy were unlawful.

A conspiracy is better understood by jurors and for that matter the public at large, than making some errors in paperwork that no one will ever see.

This is a self goal by the prosecution.

Posted: **Mon Apr 22, 2024 1:52 pm**

raison de arizona wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 1:00 pm Can't stop, won't stop. "supposedly barred"
https://twitter.com/NikkiMcR/status/1782452644235092027
nikki mccann ramírez @NikkiMcR wrote: Trump goes on a long rant about Michael Cohen as court wraps for the day in his hush money trial. He is supposedly barred from attacking witnesses by a court order.

We did nothing wrong, we paid our lawyer ...

Nice attempt when used in bribary cases

Posted: **Mon Apr 22, 2024 1:58 pm**

chancery wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 1:06 pm https://twitter.com/frankrunyeon/status ... 4575767970

Frank G. Runyeon
@frankrunyeon
NEW: NY Courts will release daily transcripts of Donald Trump's criminal trial.

https://twitter.com/frankrunyeon/status ... 279977403
Frank G. Runyeon
@frankrunyeon
This is a truly remarkable development. Court stenographers control their work and charge varying rates. The transcript is never dropped into the case file.

It can be *$6.50 per page* a day for these "daily" transcripts. A day can be 200 pages = $1,300 a day.
An image of the full announcement is in the first tweet.

"before the next business day."

This is what so many of us were hoping for!

Posted: **Mon Apr 22, 2024 2:08 pm**

Over/under on when people stop bothering to report gag order violations?
“When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.”

southpaw @nycsouthpaw wrote: A direct violation of the court’s gag order. https://apnews.com/article/trump-gag-or ... 305788b614

Posted: **Mon Apr 22, 2024 2:08 pm**

sterngard friegen wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 1:40 pm When the charges were filed I observed that there was no conspiracy charged. In the opening statement the prosecutor tells the jury that there was a conspiracy among Pecker, Trump and Cohen.

I agree with at least with respect to Cohen.

A single count (with no jail time) wouldn't harm Cohen any more. (Both as to his credibility and him personally.)

I wonder if there was a tactical decision regarding the use of co-conspirators' statements at trial (and it was cleaner if they weren't co-conspirators).

Posted: **Mon Apr 22, 2024 2:12 pm**

chancery wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 1:06 pm https://twitter.com/frankrunyeon/status ... 4575767970

Frank G. Runyeon
@frankrunyeon
NEW: NY Courts will release daily transcripts of Donald Trump's criminal trial.

https://twitter.com/frankrunyeon/status ... 279977403
Frank G. Runyeon
@frankrunyeon
This is a truly remarkable development. Court stenographers control their work and charge varying rates. The transcript is never dropped into the case file.
It can be *$6.50 per page* a day for these "daily" transcripts. A day can be 200 pages = $1,300 a day.
An image of the full announcement is in the first tweet.

That may be a per-page limit by the NY courts, and if so, fine, but I (and anyone else I know who is a SECR) would be charging more than that per page, about $8.00 per page on average. And a full day of court can easily go over 200, up to 250 and sometimes more, so yeah, it's expensive.

Posted: **Mon Apr 22, 2024 2:20 pm**

Maybe it’s because IANAL But it feels like this is the throw everything at the wall to see what sticks defense. I had nothing to do with the check, it’s OK if I wrote the check, so what if I tried to influence an election…

Posted: **Mon Apr 22, 2024 2:26 pm**

zekeb wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 1:19 pm
Dr. Ken wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 1:14 pm

Oh he's innocent because he did't take a tax deduction?
I'm no tax expert, but I know you have to pay taxes on illegal receipts. That doesn't mean that illegal disbursements are tax deductible.

Um... if he was paying a lawyer in the regular course of business, then it's a legit business expense. And turnip has never let the eligibility of an expense or not determine whether he'd take it as a business expense. He would use every deduction, no matter how shaky, as a business expense if it would lower his personal income tax.

It seems to me that the fact he did NOT use it as a business expense makes it look like he did not want to draw attention to the payment, more evidence IMO of knowledge that it was improper. He'd deduct replacement shoestrings if he could.

Posted: **Mon Apr 22, 2024 2:32 pm**

Isn't there a story that he deducted $5 in dues for Don Jr. when he was in the boy scouts?

Posted: **Mon Apr 22, 2024 2:36 pm**

Dr. Ken wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 2:32 pm Isn't there a story that he deducted $5 in dues for Don Jr. when he was in the boy scouts?

Yep I remember that. Back in 2016-18sh, David Fahrenthold was doing a lot of reporting on financial wizardry viz turmp.

Posted: **Mon Apr 22, 2024 2:38 pm**

Regarding the Boy Scout dues, as I recall, he paid that using Trump charity funds.

Posted: **Mon Apr 22, 2024 2:43 pm**

Slim Cognito wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 2:38 pm Regarding the Boy Scout dues, as I recall, he paid that using Trump charity funds.

good memory!

Another unusual feature: One of the foundation’s most consistent causes was Trump himself.

New findings, for instance, show that the Trump Foundation’s largest-ever gift — $264,631 — was used to renovate a fountain outside the windows of Trump’s Plaza Hotel.

Its smallest-ever gift, for $7, was paid to the Boy Scouts in 1989, at a time when it cost $7 to register a new Scout. Trump’s oldest son was 11 at the time. Trump did not respond to a question about whether the money was paid to register him.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... story.html

Posted: **Mon Apr 22, 2024 2:46 pm**

That's it! Fahrenthold was following the charity money trail back then. His articles are why I subbed to the WaPo.

Posted: **Mon Apr 22, 2024 2:52 pm**

America's Best Christian offers a reason why the hush money payments weren't deducted from tfg's taxes.
https://x.com/BettyBowers/status/1782468750089847141

Mrs. Betty Bowers @BettyBowers wrote: It is hilarious that Donald J. Trump is claiming that he is innocent of fraudulently covering up payments to Stormy Daniels in 2016 because he didn't take a tax deduction for them.

Donald paid $750 in taxes in 2017. What was there to deduct from?

Posted: **Mon Apr 22, 2024 7:38 pm**

Busy afternoon of whining and pity party today. https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrum ... 4306913335

The Supreme Court will address the historic question of Presidential Immunity on Thursday, but unfortunately, I will not be able to attend. The Highly Conflicted Judge in the Manhattan D.A. “case” (Soros-backed Alvin Bragg) has prohibited me from attending. Without Presidential Immunity, the President cannot function, as his Political Opponents will blackmail and extort him with the threat of wrongful prosecution at every turn. We look forward to presenting our case to the Supreme Court.

Is he calling Bragg the judge who has prohibited him from attending?

Posted: **Mon Apr 22, 2024 8:10 pm**

Transcripts are out and Maddow is reading them and fact checking them

Posted: **Mon Apr 22, 2024 8:23 pm**

From Michael Cohen's charging document. A refresher.

Section entitled "Campaign Finance Violation." - Using Spoiler Text because it's five pages, with a few paras cut for focus.

► Show Spoiler

Will always hold corrupt DOJ responsible for not charging "individual 1" after his term ended.

Posted: **Mon Apr 22, 2024 8:31 pm**

Been hearing Cruz's name all day long. Would love for a Hill reporter to get in his face about how he feels about this new reporting. *not holding my breath*.