Bragg Manhattan DA charges tfg? Hush money. tfg “INDICATED!”

[p0rtia]

So how the heck does Blanche plan to make the case that this was allll Cohen's plan and he had nothing to do with it (and never had sex with McDougal or Clifford).

How? Wouldn't fuckhead have to testify to do this? Of course, fuckhead says he will testify, so perhaps that the The Plan (fuckhead's own, no doubt).

Does Blanche plan to score all his points with blazing cross? By trashing Cohen as a liar you can't believe? I suppose the story is that Pecker and Cohen's stories of catch and kill are all true except for the inclusion of fuckhead. I live to hear the logic behind Cohen carrying out election interference just 'cause.

If I recall correctly there are only two names on the defense witness list, fuckhead and someone whose name I did not catch.

[noblepa]

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.

As I understand it, he does not own the Trump Organization outright. He has minority partners, I believe. At the very least, I think that his kids own a piece of the company.

So, even if he didn't deduct the payment to Ms. Clifford on his taxes, he was defrauding the other owners of the business. He used business funds to pay a personal expense. If only ten percent of the company is owned by others, that means that they paid $16,000 of the $160,000 paid to her. Absent the hush payment, that $160k would have gone to the owners.

So, it seems to me that, in addition to falsifying business records, he was, in effect, stealing money from his partners.

[chancery]

As I understand it, he does not own the Trump Organization outright. He has minority partners, I believe. At the very least, I think that his kids own a piece of the company.

I'm pretty sure that Trump does own the Trump Organization outright. Perhaps you're thinking about the fact that he (through various Trump entities) has only a partnership share in his big real estate holdings. And usually only a minority share.

[bob]

[W. Kevin Vicklund]

Donnie shart doo-doo, doo-dy, doo-doo
Donnie shart doo-doo, doo-dy, doo-doo
Donnie shart doo-doo, doo-dy, doo-doo
Donnie shart

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

[keith]

tfg having difficulty remaining awake. Again.

Cynical of me maybe, but it wouldn't surprise me if his lawyers had him drugged to keep him calm and quiet

[Reality Check]

Inner City Press:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1782 ... 1713881616

Trump and his lawyers have arrived for the contempt of court hearing. Pool photographs are taken - there are repeated admonitions that no one else can take photographs, dark talk of people being banned for doing so. Drum roll...
All rise!
Clerk: This is People of the State of New York against Donald J. Trump.
Justice Merchan: Counsel please come forward.
[They exit stage left - Trump remains alone at defense table]

[They've back]
Justice Merchan: On April 15, the People asked this Court to sign an order to show cause, that the Defendant had violated the gag order on three occasions. Then they alleged additional violations. People, I'll hear you
Prosecutor: I am handing up 10 documents, the violations. Number Nine is the landing page of a Truth Social post linking to an article, 9A is the article that's linked to. Judge, each of the 10 posts violate the order of April 1, which amended the March 25 order
Prosecutor: The defendant sought an emergency stay in the 1st Department. It was denied and defendant hasn't stopped. Yesterday just outside this courtroom the Defendant violated the order again, on camera. He said, "Cohen is a lawyer, he wasn't very good
Prosecutor: The defendant said Cohen put in an invoice, and he [the Defendant] got indicted. So the defendant should be held in contempt of court. On April 10 at 10:07 am, the defendant reproduced a post by Michael Avenatti. Defendant added, 2 sleazebags
Justice Merchan: Can you link this to the gag order?
Prosecutor: Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels are known to be witnesses... Next, defendant posted a picture of a document, Official Statement of Stormy Daniels. He added, Will the fake news report it.
Prosecutor: Next Defendant posted, Has Mark Pomerantz been prosecuted? Or Cohen? Then he added, MAGA2024.... Next, while Defendant was likely in the courthouse, he posted on Truth Social, a series perjurer - a reference to Michael Cohen

Prosecutor: He put on his campaign website, "ICYMI," which I understand to mean, In Case You Missed It, a link to an article... He published on Truth Social, the same link, about Serial Perjurer. On April 16 at 7:09 pm, defendant posted a picture of Cohen
Prosecutor: Defendant posted a link to someone named Jesse Watters, about the jurors quote trying to get on the jury.
Justice Merchan: What did he say?
Prosecutor: On Truth, defendant said, liberal activists lying to get on the Trump jump. It's a violations
Prosecutor: And then we lost juror 2. This is a lawful order of this court, despite ongoing appeals. He violates the order when he posts about witnesses and the jury - not just individual jurors. Defendant was willful.

[RVInit]

One of the talking heads on CNN has said that New York law does not allow Merchan to put Trump in jail for any length of time unless he actually does something inside the courtroom in front of the judge. So, this is just another waste of time where Trump will go right outside the courtroom today and continue thumbing his nose at the gag order.

Oh well. It was fun thinking that maybe there is the teeniest tiniest chance someone will be able to do something to stop this monster.

[Reality Check]

Oh well. It was fun thinking that maybe there is the teeniest tiniest chance someone will be able to do something to stop this monster.

I seem to recall that in the civil case once Judge Engoron started hitting him in the wallet he shut up at least for a while.

[Reality Check]

Adam Klasfeld:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1782 ... 07553.html

Good morning from New York.

Before jurors hear a word of witness testimony this morning, the court has an unfinished order of business: Trump's contempt hearing over the gag order.

Follow every wrinkle of it and the trial here.

ICYMI, openings

‘Election Fraud, Pure and Simple’: Trump’s Prosecutors Move Beyond Stormy Daniels in Wide-Lens Trial Opening
Prosecutors present historic case against Trump through a narrative about election influence that went beyond any single hush-money scheme.
https://www.justsecurity.org/94927/trump-trial-opening/
"What have we done?"

— Stormy Daniels' then-lawyer's text message to the National Enquirer's then-editor in chief on election night 2016, as Trump's inched toward victory

ICYMI: @Lawrence unpacked the blockbuster line on @TheLastWord.


What's the exact language of the gag order and the alleged violations?

@NormEisen, @KFAlegal, @AndrewWarrenFL, @JNKGoodman, and @SivenWatt lay them out—with copious screenshots—here.

They offer their analysis and predictions at @Just_Security.


Why Trump Will Likely be Held in Contempt and What Then
Explaining former President Donald Trump's gag order in his New York criminal trial, the alleged violations, and the legal framework.
https://www.justsecurity.org/94878/why- ... what-then/
This is the current language of the order.

Expect it to be parsed, in molecular fashion, during the morning session.
ORDERED, that the Court’s Order of March 26, 2024, is amended as indicated below. Defendant is directed to refrain from: a. Making or directing others to make public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses concerning their potential participation in the investigation or in this criminal proceeding; b. Making or directing others to make public statements about (1) counsel in the case other than the District Attorney, (2) members of the court’s staff and the District Attorney’s staff, or (3) the family members of any counsel, staff member, the Court or th...
Trump has entered the courtroom and is now seated at the defense table.

He's back to the usual red tie.
Trump flinches a bit the moment the photojournalist pool sets up in front of him for their daily photos.

The session, as usual, is brief, and they're led out of the courtroom.

"All rise."

Justice Merchan enters and assumes the bench.

The attorneys register their appearances.

Merchan: "Good morning, Mr. Trump."
Per @BenFeuerherd in the hallway press pool:

"Trump ignored questions about why he did not appeal his DC gag order, if he'll continue to post about the witnesses, what he would do to quell protests at college campuses and if he thinks Michael Cohen is a 'sleaze bag.'"
Merchan:

"Two matters have been called into the record.

On April 15, prosecutors "asked this court to sign an order to show cause" on allegations that Trump violated the gag order on three occasions.

On April 18, they did so again on seven more alleged violations.
ADA Christopher Conroy:

The court found the "types of extrajudicial statements" Trump made pose a "very real threat" to the integrity of the proceedings.

Yesterday, "here in this building, right outside those doors [...] the defendant violated the order again on camera."

Conroy says prosecutors will be filing another application for an order to show cause "on this violation later today."

The prosecutor says Trump seems to think: "No one is off-limits to this defendant, and he can attack and intimidate any one he wants."
Conroy says he's going to go through the violations, one by one.

Here's the first.
Image
This is the second, "posted five days before jury selection," Conroy notes.
Image
This is the third:

"Here again, judge, Michael Cohen is a 'reasonably foreseeable witness.' [...] This is again going after Michael Cohen's credibility, which is a recurring theme in these posts."

Two days before jury selection.
Image
The fourth:

The NYP calling Cohen a "serial perjurer."
Image
Next: The same Post article, amplified by Trump's campaign.
Image
There are two more alleged violations sharing the same news articles, again — one with the "ICYMI," "in case you missed it," tag.
This one, the ninth on the show-cause motion, screenshots an article in full going after Michael Cohen.
Image
Conroy calls this post particularly "disturbing," noting that Trump added to the quote.

Watters didn't initially say, "to get on the Trump jury."

That was Trump's embellishment.

"That was last Wednesday evening that that was going on," Conroy says.
Image
The next day, Conroy noted, a juror wound up getting cold feet because of the fear of disclosure of personal information.

"We ended up losing a juror," Conroy says, adding that was what the gag order was designed to prevent.

Conroy:

"There is no doubt that the defendant made these statements."

He adds that Trump's addition to the Watters statement goes to the former president's "willfulness."
Conroy:

"All of the posts here are made concerning the criminal proceeding." [...]

"It's just very clear that they were linked to this case."
Conroy, disputing the notion that Trump is simply engaging in political speech:

"Throwing a 'MAGA' into a post doesn't make it political. It may make it more ominous."
Conroy confronts Trump's defense that he's just responding to attacks by Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels.

The Appellate Division informed him otherwise, the prosecutor notes.

"He knows he's forbidden. That's what the order says."
Conroy:

"There is no provision in this order for responding to attacks."
Conroy:

"By his logic, if someone not covered by the order says something mean," then he can attack them.

That view is "tortured at best" and would "eviscerate the clear meaning of this order" if the court would adopt that, the prosecutor adds.
Conroy:

Trump is violating the "crystal-clear, unequivocal lines" of the court's gag order.

He pivots to the argument that reposts aren't his statements.

"That flies in the case of common sense."
Conroy:

"We are not yet seeking an incarceratory penalty."

"Defendant seems to be angling for that."
Up next: Trump's lead attorney Todd Blanche

"Just to set the record very straight and clear: President Trump does know what the gag order" allows him to do and not do.

Blanche claims that there's been no violation.

Blanche:

There's no dispute that Trump's facing a "barrage" of attacks from all corners, particularly from Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels.

Trump's comments "back to them" were not about their testimony.
Blanche:

"Michael Cohen directly responded to this comment by Mr. Avenatti politically."

The judge asks him for a citation.

He responds that it's in the defense papers, referring to one of Cohen's posts about the "orange menace."
Blanche on Trump responding to Cohen:

"He's allowed to respond to political attacks, your honor."

Justice Merchan corrects the chronology: Trump's post preceded Cohen's, he says.

[Reality Check]

Trump's attorney Blanche keeps pissing off Judge Merchan. Excellent strategy there - almost Taitz like.

[Reality Check]

Katie Phang is doing an excellent job too.

Merchan: What is your caselaw that supports your position that your client can repost and that doesn't violate the gag order?

Blanche: I don't have any cases. It's just common sense.

Katie's Sidebar: DON'T do this in court.

Edit: But.. she does seem to know that she needs to keep replying to herself to keep everything in one conversation.

[p0rtia]

Blanche is humiliating himself. Fun!

My fave among many (so far) is that since the Pros didn't mention two other violations by fuckhead, that means they accept them, and the gag order is waived.

[p0rtia]

Lordy, I hope we get the transcript of this!

[Reality Check]

Adam Klasfeld:

Blanche: "President Trump is being very careful to comply" with the gag order.

Merchan, sharply: "Mr. Blanche, you are losing all credibility."

I told you. What's next? Enlarged zibits?

[Reality Check]

ICP:

More Taitz like by the minute.

Justice Merchan: You're not giving me-
Blanche: I -
Justice Merchan: I wasn't finished

[Foggy]

Merchan, sharply: "Mr. Blanche, you are losing all credibility."

Oh, ouchy. That's a terrible thing for a judge to say about a lawyer in court. That means "I don't believe a word you're saying." Might as well call him a liar.

[Foggy]

Merchan is gonna find that he violated the gag order, but what will he do about it?

[realist]

Merchan is gonna find that he violated the gag order, but what will he do about it?

Not much.

[Reality Check]

Lordy, I hope we get the transcript of this!

I believe we are going to get daily transcripts for the remainder. I assume this would include hearings.

[p0rtia]

One of the talking heads on CNN has said that New York law does not allow Merchan to put Trump in jail for any length of time unless he actually does something inside the courtroom in front of the judge. So, this is just another waste of time where Trump will go right outside the courtroom today and continue thumbing his nose at the gag order.

Oh well. It was fun thinking that maybe there is the teeniest tiniest chance someone will be able to do something to stop this monster.

Cheer up -- Every other talking head I've heard says that jail-time is on the table (though they all agree it won't happen today). Including The prosecution in front of Merchon this morning during the hearing.

[jemcanada2]

Adam Klasfeld:

Blanche: "President Trump is being very careful to comply" with the gag order.

Merchan, sharply: "Mr. Blanche, you are losing all credibility."

I told you. What's next? Enlarged zibits?

That are inartfully collated and defectively stapled?

[raison de arizona]

"Off his rocker"? Ha! tfg can do whatever he likes.

Can he do this? Yes. Is he absolutely off his rocker for posting it in the courthouse? Also yes.

[Kendra]

CNN just had a nice long back and forth with Brian Stelter, now with Vanity Fair (I think that's what I heard). I have missed his Sunday Reliable Sources show.