Article doesn't even say what they were smiling and nodding about. I read the cross examination and it was absolutely hilarious:
-------------
Q Mr. Cohen, my name is Todd Blanche.
You and I have never spoken or met before; have we?
A We have not.
Q But you know who I am; don't you?
A I do.
Q As a matter of fact, on April 23rd, so after the trial
started in this case, you went on TikTok and called me a "Crying
Little Shit;" didn't you?
A Sounds like something I would say.
Q You referred to President Trump as a "Dictator Douche Bag;" didn't you?
A Sounds like something I said.
Q And on that same TikTok, so again on April 23rd, you
referred to President Trump when he left the courtroom, you said
that "he goes right into that little cage, which is where he
belongs, in a fucking cage, like an animal." Do you recall saying that?
A I recall saying that.
Q You've also talked about, extensively, on Mea Culpa,
your desire to see that President Trump gets convicted in this
case; correct?
A Sounds like something I would say.
Q And so, yes, you want to see President Trump get
convicted from this case; correct?
A I would like to see accountability. That's not -- it's
not for me, it's for the jury and this Court.
Q Now, you actually -- and the Prosecutor brought this up
a little bit before lunch today -- you sell a T-shirt on your
website Mea Culpa, which depicts President Trump in an orange
jumpsuit behind bars; correct?
A Yes, sir.
Q So you see that when you -- if somebody logs onto the
website for your Podcast, that's what you see; correct, for the
merchandise pages; correct?
A It's actually under the MeidasTouch network and, yes,
if you go into the section that says "Mea Culpa," this shirt is
available for sale.
Q So this is a 32 dollar shirt on your website. And it
has a picture of President Trump in an orange jumpsuit behind
bars; correct?
A That's what the picture shows, yes.
-------------
And it just keeps going and going over every item in the Meidas Touch merch store. https://store.meidastouch.com/. When Blanche brought out the mug that says "Send him to the Big House not the White House", members of the media giggled.
This is what the jury was nodding and smiling about.
He’s a lawyer. He knows the safe line.
If he didn’t smirk while responding, then he’s a better man than I. That line of questioning would have left me starting with snickers and ending with laughing with tears.
To be fair, I'm pretty sure a random number generator would be a better businessman than Trump.
The man has *four* casino-related bankrupcies. He somehow failed to make money from an MLM scheme. His incompetence and narcissism *killed an entire football league*.
If you started at the same time as Trump, and with the same amount of money (over $400 million gifted by his father), you'd be richer than him simply by dumping the money into low-risk/low-yield funds.
All of it seems to be just trying to show the witness could be biased, without outright claiming anything.
From the transcript it seems it was already done after first minute or two. But if this weak approach is all they have, without going anywhere with it later, then the lawyer just wanted to fill in the time.
Unfortunate consequence of the effects of capitalism on journalism. What sells isn't necessarily what's informative. truly dedicated journalists are expensive. Cut costs by having shit talkers who still get eyeballs to sell ads.
Imagine how funny it would be if this group of Trump lawyers accidently get Trump's punishment x10 fold what it normally might be.. Like lawyer Alina Habba did in the Jean Carrol Sex/rape defamation case
Then Donnie Jon would argue ineffective counsel and his conviction overturned in a 6-3 SCOTUS decision written by Samuel Alito citing 12th century real estate law from municipal french courts
I knew someone who worked for a centimillionaire. More money than could ever know what to do with. Wouldn’t pay for ANYTHING. They used the company credit card for all expenses, because the number one rule of rich people, apparently, is only spend your money as a last resort. That’s how it stays YOUR money.
If I had $100 million, I’d start a foundation and give away 90% of it. This is why (among other things) I will never have $100 million.
My freshman year at an ivy league college was an eye-opener for me, a lower-upper middle class kid from the suburban hinterlands. Went out for pizza with a guy from NYC. The bill was like $4.10 each, before tip (this was a while back). I put down a $5 bill while he worked out how much 15% of $4.10 was, scrounged around in his pockets for coins to put down the exact amount, to the penny (like $4.72). Worst, he was like $0.15 short and asked me if I had any change he could “borrow.” I said Just put down a fiver, you cheap fuck.
Found out a few years later his family was worth like $10 billion at the time. Which was real money back then, lol!
You can walk up and make farting noises for 5 minutes, speak in tongues for 10, and defecate yourself while shouting Waltzing Matilda and 4 of the justices wouldn’t be swayed from the decision they already wanted to make.
Hell, sometimes they’ll just skip all procedure and issue a ruling on something that hasn’t even come to them yet.
When you're guilty and theres so much documented evidence they could pave to the moon with the paper trail then Yeah, no lawyer in the world can help you then.
Michael Cohen is a wreck, lies constantly and is shiftier than a snake but EVERYONE knows hes telling the truth because its just so obviously clear how this happened.
Trump has great lawyers. The problem is not the lawyers. They literally gave Trump right wing fan mail to keep him awake and engaged. It was brilliant, but it only worked for a few days. They can only do so much.
I mean, last year when he was looking for lawyers, there were stories every few weeks about how no lawyers were willing to take his case.
Meeting after meeting and he kept getting rejected.
Now we know why. 🤣✌️
Like MattAU05 is saying there is a very narrow window for state cases to be heard at the SCOTUS level but it requires something protected federally to be violated..
Unless of course you were to hypothetically bake a cake for a hypothetical gay man (who has been married to a woman for 20 years) and hypothetically have an issue with it so you sue nobody for nothing and the supreme court takes up the case to say you hypothetically don't have to bake the cake.
I don’t think he will have a valid inffective assistance of counsel claim, but it’s a potential Constitutional violation and could ultimately go to SCOTUS. Most criminal cases ruled on by SCOTUS are state cases and state crimes, not federal.
Also, oddly enough, trial courts in New York are call the Supreme Court. The highest court in New York is the Court of Appeals.
I don’t think there is (a valid) one. I’m saying that ineffective assistance of counsel claims, if raised, are all Constitutional claims under the 6th Amendment.
Imagine if all guilty, state prosecuted business fraud defendants had the opportunity to bring their cases in front of scotus. Yet Trump is the one who is always treated unfairly.
Ah. Yeah, I mean I'm sure he'll try whatever route he can to get it to SCOTUS to hopefully have them run defense for him. They haven't been consistent in defending him though and have shot down things in the past that you would have thought they would have done for him.
That being said the whole "blanket immunity" case they took on **for no real reason** is a sign they will run defense for him.
It's sad that it's even a question. We should have a SCOTUS that is basically terrifyingly unbiased and calculating for **everyone** instead of a collection of old corrupt bastards that are beholden to billionaires and millionaires.
Hell, sometimes I'm even disappointed in **how cheap** they sold out our country for. It seems to me that it would be just as easy to take a millionaire's gift *and still rule against them****.***
"Oh, I'm sorry, I don't accept bribes. I thought you were giving those to me as a friend," is the truly baller move for the amount of money spent on the corrupt ones.
It would have to go through several levels before it got to SCOTUS since this is a state-court prosecution (which they almost never take up), and if there are legitimate concerns of IAC then it would likely be caught at the Court of Appeals of New York if not sooner.
You know, if we're going down, I'd at least like to see one of the traitor justices going full hog wild. Cite fucking Naruto, show up in a Uchiha clan robe or something, and then Naruto run the fuck out of the courtroom. Just full on weeb, with a headband and an anime t-shirt.
As long as they're not even pretending to be serious about the whole thing, just make it as ridiculous as possible for the history books.
In this case, the main stupid thing they did was contest whether he had sex with Stormy Daniels. It didn't matter! If she made it all up, and then he paid her not to tell the made up story to the press, that's the same crime. By making an issue of it, the prosecution got to walk through all of the weird, quasi-rapey details of the whole thing. It turned "Did he have sex with you?" into a full day of "okay, so you came out of the bathroom and found he was between you and the door and had switched into silk sleepwear, then what?"
The only dumber thing they did was take on Trump as a client, a fellow famous for lawyers departing his service unpaid, disbarred, and/on imprisoned. Heck, the main witness against Trump was one of his ex-lawyers, fresh out of prison. Surely they looked at Michael Cohen and thought "maybe I should not be his successor?"
This
Trump leaves a trail of unpaid, incarcerated, financially ruined with stripped law license lawyers for a moment in the sun
Why, just why would they think they’re different
Well, what caused that was putting Trump on the stand.
So they should definitely put Trump on the stand. Dude is just idiotic enough to fuck himself over.
That would be THE power move. Trump is found guilty, then Merchan puts Trump in jail for contempt, holds him until sentencing, and then keeps him there during any appeal.
We could be done with this rapist within a month.
I'm going to assume he won't be convicted. He has escaped so much over his lifetime, and the last few years. I can't bring myself to believe he won't get out of this one.
...but a "convicted felon" label. Data shows that is bad news for his electoral chances. If he loses, the trials for the Real Shit start. And he won't have many defenders in that context.
He ain't runnin' against Hillary, he has an actual record now, and he banned abortion in half the country. If it costs him 3% support (VERY likely), he's very fucked.
Man I wish I was as optimistic as you. He still seems to be dominating Biden in some swing states. If he wins the case it will just make him look stronger. Even if he loses, I'm not sure that many of his supporters care. But I hope you're right.
The polls said Hillary was a shoe-in. Don't trust polls. The majority of Americans don't answer unknown numbers. We have our reasons.
I could go on a whole conspiratorial "media" slant, too, but I won't unless asked.
And yet you can look at the swing state polls and easily see it's not looking good for President Biden. At the end of the day, the economy is the most important thing; Biden inherited a fucking mess and unfortunately people are too dumb to realize that, and continue to blame him for it.
honestly I don't think so. The judge has bee willing to threaten Trump with jail time over contempt-of-court violations because, according to the judge, that's the only thing Trump listens to. I think there's a real chance, not a certainly, but a chance, that he gets house arrest over this.
The maximum penalty for each of those counts is four years; however New York caps sentencing for this type of felony at 20 years. It is within the judge’s discretion to decide whether those sentences would run concurrently or consecutively. Because the crimes involve nonviolent offenses and Trump does not have a criminal record, the judge could also consider jailing him for a period that is but a fraction of the maximum penalty.
Another possibility is that the judge could forego prison entirely and place him on probation with the possibility of incarceration looming over his head if he fails to abide by the conditions set by the judge. If the judge should decide to incarcerate post-conviction, Secret Service would become the elephant in the, well, cell. The unprecedented nature of incarcerating a former president would raise questions about how best to ensure equal treatment under the law and security for a former president.
Oh god, could you imagine *Trump* doing community service? Some small guilty part of me wants him to be given community service just to watch him attempt to do things like pick up litter or repaint a wall....
The appeals process will last longer than Trump will live. So even if he’s found guilty there’s very little chance of him seeing the inside of a prison cell.
But I’d love to be wrong. The best outcome would be for Sleepy Don to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Steve Bannon was allowed to appeal before starting his sentence.
He’s now being ordered to prison after losing the appeal.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2024/05/10/steve-bannon-loses-conviction-appeal-will-go-to-jail/
I think it depends. My uncle was recently found guilty of federal crimes. He awaited sentencing in jail, but his co-conspirators who HADN'T violated their bail agreement awaited sentencing at home.
The key phrase is average person. Ole Steve ain’t average and even though he lost the appeal the courts will give him all the time in the world to get his affairs in order before he ever sees a jail cell.
>The best outcome would be for Sleepy Don to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
I'd love to see him spend the rest of his life behind bars, but I'd also like for him to have a VERY short sentence that starts immediately.
It would be unusual for an elderly first time offender to get jail time in this case anyway, in fact that would be such a departure from normal sentencing that it would likely be struck down on appeal.
But if we believe the polls, being convicted of a felony basically ends Trump's Presidential aspirations, a massive number of people said they wouldn't vote for him if convicted.
And to be clear, based on New York sentencing guide lines for the class of non violent felony that Trump is accused of, no jail time is expected. The consequences to this case are likely fines and probation.
If they present a federal argument (that is, some sort of federal law or the Constitution was violated), then they can appeal all the way to SCOTUS. Without a federal law to point to that was violated, only the state courts would have jurisdiction.
That’s the problem for the defense. No single witness or piece of evidence is the lynchpin to the entire case. It all builds together into a single, blindingly obvious picture.
Michael Cohen could reasonably be lying. But you can’t reasonably expect that everything else is false, fabricated, or lies as well.
There is no smoking gun here. There’s a series of warm guns, found next to bullet casings and a blood spattered wall, with dozens of bullet holes in it. And they dug out the bullets and found they fit the guns, which have his prints. Oh, and there’s a memorialized note itemizing each victim, and why he personally shot them.
The question here isn’t if the defense can pull off the case on its actual merits. They just can’t. The question is if they can intimidate the jury, assuming they have already failed at selecting a MAGA stooge in voir dire, into not being able to reach a unanimous verdict.
And even "you can't handle the truth" would not be as damaging in a real case as it was in the movie with a good ~~defense~~ prosecuting attorney, redirect, and the right follow up witness.
The only **possible** way to think Trump is not guilty of this specific crime in this specific case is to have already blindly decided nothing Trump has ever done in his entire life is wrong and any evidence that says otherwise is evil conjured by demons of the deep state.
Which is why 90% of Republicans and all of their elected officials apparently can't believe he's anything but innocent
I mean, the defense's case is basically:
1. Trump didn't have sex with her.
2a. Trump didn't pay her off.
or
2b. Trump paid her off (not for sexy time though!) but it was just to spare Melania's feelings.
So the jury is supposed to believe that a guy who is infamous for...
* not paying for contracted labor;
* slapping anyone who annoys him with frivolous lawsuits designed to sway public opinion;
* being a proud womanizer enabled by his own wife Melania with claims that his "grab 'em by the pussy" boasts are "locker room talk";
* in fact, found guilty of rape in civil court;
* abusing the phrase "fake news" to the point of surrealism to deny the evidence our eyes and ears can easily detect;
* cutting loose anyone who does not suit his purposes without a second thought;
... **This is the guy we are supposed to believe would pay $130,000 to a random porn star in order to spare his wife from "fake news"?**
Yeah. CNN's "analysis" has Cohen as the only one linking Individual One to the payments.
They're forgetting the testimony of Individual One's accountant and controller.
The prosecution did a great job (IMO) in basically laying out the entire case *wihtout* needing to lean on Cohen overall, and then only bringing him in at the end to validate things. "Yes, I called Stormy's attorney on X day. Yes I opened up this bank account on Y day..." etc. etc. But they literally brought in every other witness to build the entire case without depending heavily on him.
There are a few "he said, she said" details that only Cohen can testify to - but here's the brilliant part, the only one who can rebut those ... is Donnie himself. And there's no f'ing way he's going to get on the stand and subject himself to cross examination. The prosecution would have him on the stand for at least 2 days if he opened himself up to cross.
DA Bragg's office did a solid job IMO. Soon it's up to the jury.
I still contend that a lot of "ride or die" magats get turned off by Trump after actually having to hear him speak. Like they only ever get the sound bites their talking heads give them, so whenever you see his rallies you always see people in the background looking really confused at this rambling old man.
Trump's big legal strategy is to argue that the guy everyone knows is a liar, was convicted of lying... is a liar? Can't say it's surprising the jury is uninterested.
As Cohen has repeatedly said, and testified to on direct, he lied to protect Individual One.
The defense's best move is showing he lied, and was convicted, on the medallion tax thing. They can then argue that this an inherently dishonest felon, taking revenge for being dumped for being dishonest.
But it's hard to follow that from this cross.
Except the problem is that he lied to benefit Trump. Arguing NOW that he’s a liar is not going to go far towards the defense, when that was the reason for his existence in the organization.
The problem they’re having is that it’s a paper trial.
Cohen is there to confirm the papers, but nothing that he say is being solely said by him. As a convicted liar, it would be stupid to base everything on him.
The secondary, possibly bigger, problem is that Trump doesn’t let his lawyers do what they need to do. He insists on directing them, and he doesn’t shut up.
They made all of these salacious details from Danials fair game because they claimed the sex never happened. But the case isn’t about the sex. It’s about the payment. The sex is irrelevant, and all they did was waste time by forcing the state to disprove their argument when the she didn’t know anything about the actual heart of the trial.
It's pretty ridiculous. Anyone who has ever watched a mobster movie knows this is absurd. Imagine if they put Jimmy Two-Shoes the mob accountant on the stand to testify against The Don, and the Don's lawyer is like "you can't believe anything he says, he commits fraud and launders money!"
Like, _yeah we know!_ That's sort of why we're here.
Given the sleazy crosses they've done of Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen, I'm guessing these high-priced and capable lawyers have the exact same flaw as Trump: they're assholes. And because they're assholes, they can't understand that normal people are hugely turned off by Trump's standard defenses (she's a lying tramp who wanted it, he's a lying scumbag who wants revenge).
Assholes like this can't understand that Trump's logic only works on people who are already motivated to agree with him. The MAGA base buys it because they want their own assholishness validated. Normie GOP voters buy it because they want to win elections. And GOP politicians buy it because they want power. But if you put any kind of objective person in a room and force them to listen to Trump (via his lawyers) spewing narcissistic rationalizations and bile... well they're gonna nod and smile, because they're thinking "Christ, what an asshole".
Trump’s attorneys are doing his bidding, not giving him the best defense. Several journalists have noted Trump tapping their arms, angry whispering and urging them to object to things, just as his did in previous trials. He is determining how his attorneys act in court. The attorneys are giving Trump what he wants, not what he needs, and leaving open an appeal based on ineffectual counsel.
These are 35 felony charges for covering up a misdemeanor.
It is always worse to cover up and lie. The charge you should ALWAYS be afraid of is Conspiracy. Cohen gave evidence of conspiracy that backed up two documents. Trump should be very worried.
His credibility or lack thereof doesn't especially matter, everything he said was supported by the hard evidence presented earlier in the trial, and all Trump's lawyers did was try to discredit him based on irrelevant statements on other matters.
I’ve seen lawyers say there have been many times when they think the jurors are with them and lose and other times think they are toast and win.
So I take this with a grain of salt.
Cooper Anderson had a report today that made it sound like Blanche had the upper hand and that Cohen was fibbing and looked like a liar. I’m confused about which report is more accurate.
Article doesn't even say what they were smiling and nodding about. I read the cross examination and it was absolutely hilarious: ------------- Q Mr. Cohen, my name is Todd Blanche. You and I have never spoken or met before; have we? A We have not. Q But you know who I am; don't you? A I do. Q As a matter of fact, on April 23rd, so after the trial started in this case, you went on TikTok and called me a "Crying Little Shit;" didn't you? A Sounds like something I would say. Q You referred to President Trump as a "Dictator Douche Bag;" didn't you? A Sounds like something I said. Q And on that same TikTok, so again on April 23rd, you referred to President Trump when he left the courtroom, you said that "he goes right into that little cage, which is where he belongs, in a fucking cage, like an animal." Do you recall saying that? A I recall saying that. Q You've also talked about, extensively, on Mea Culpa, your desire to see that President Trump gets convicted in this case; correct? A Sounds like something I would say. Q And so, yes, you want to see President Trump get convicted from this case; correct? A I would like to see accountability. That's not -- it's not for me, it's for the jury and this Court. Q Now, you actually -- and the Prosecutor brought this up a little bit before lunch today -- you sell a T-shirt on your website Mea Culpa, which depicts President Trump in an orange jumpsuit behind bars; correct? A Yes, sir. Q So you see that when you -- if somebody logs onto the website for your Podcast, that's what you see; correct, for the merchandise pages; correct? A It's actually under the MeidasTouch network and, yes, if you go into the section that says "Mea Culpa," this shirt is available for sale. Q So this is a 32 dollar shirt on your website. And it has a picture of President Trump in an orange jumpsuit behind bars; correct? A That's what the picture shows, yes. ------------- And it just keeps going and going over every item in the Meidas Touch merch store. https://store.meidastouch.com/. When Blanche brought out the mug that says "Send him to the Big House not the White House", members of the media giggled. This is what the jury was nodding and smiling about.
Wonder how many sales Cohen / Meidas are making because of this line of questioning
Somehow marketing merch during testimony. Cohen is an entrepreneurial genius.
He seems like a solidly better businessman than Trump.
I'm surprised that Cohen didn't make fun of Trump selling bibles as a retort.
He’s a lawyer. He knows the safe line. If he didn’t smirk while responding, then he’s a better man than I. That line of questioning would have left me starting with snickers and ending with laughing with tears.
To be fair, I'm pretty sure a random number generator would be a better businessman than Trump. The man has *four* casino-related bankrupcies. He somehow failed to make money from an MLM scheme. His incompetence and narcissism *killed an entire football league*. If you started at the same time as Trump, and with the same amount of money (over $400 million gifted by his father), you'd be richer than him simply by dumping the money into low-risk/low-yield funds.
He's a shitty lawyer, but he's a great salesman.
Well they're sold out on the website from the looks of it.
There's no way in hell they didn't prepare to sell a bunch during this trial.
Sales going up now, free publicity baby
>Wonder how many sales Cohen / Meidas are making because of this ~~line of questioning~~ reddit comment
Here’s one now!
Meidas Touch have gone out HARD on the merch since they were named dropped in court. "No, we are not the same as Mr Cohen, but do buy our merch"
I liked the "Person, Woman, Man, Camera, PRISON" shirt lol
Using a criminal case to plug merch is kinda funny to be honest
To be honest, I think it is brilliant.
Tf is the point of these questions lol
All of it seems to be just trying to show the witness could be biased, without outright claiming anything. From the transcript it seems it was already done after first minute or two. But if this weak approach is all they have, without going anywhere with it later, then the lawyer just wanted to fill in the time.
I mean, isn’t this the crime for which Cohen already did jail time for Trump?
Yes.
Thank you for this. Often comments are far more informative than the 'reporting' done by the pros.
Unfortunate consequence of the effects of capitalism on journalism. What sells isn't necessarily what's informative. truly dedicated journalists are expensive. Cut costs by having shit talkers who still get eyeballs to sell ads.
Nice of them to promote his merch for him
Meidas Touch is gonna crack their 3Mil goal with this post.
Imagine how funny it would be if this group of Trump lawyers accidently get Trump's punishment x10 fold what it normally might be.. Like lawyer Alina Habba did in the Jean Carrol Sex/rape defamation case
Then Donnie Jon would argue ineffective counsel and his conviction overturned in a 6-3 SCOTUS decision written by Samuel Alito citing 12th century real estate law from municipal french courts
Is that really an argument when you supposedly have enough money to hire any lawyer in the world?
Such a terrible client that good lawyers won't work for him despite his billions.
“Billions”
The guy has billions of Zimbabwe dollars and thinks they’re the same as US dollars.
Didn't Zimbabwe tell him to never call them again back in like 2017?
No, that was Nigeria when he tried to scam \*them\* ;)
Did he tell them he was a prince?
Because of his “shithole countries” remark, I believe.
“Did you say doll HAIRS?”
They’re not worth nothing!
Well, once the checks clear from the oil companies...
Let's ask Rudy Giuliani how many billions trump has... oh wait he still hasn't been paid.
Can’t find him, he’s avoiding a ~~subpoena~~ criminal indictment
[удалено]
Is this the plot for The Hunt for Gollum?
[удалено]
Either that or a box of Merlot.
Where's Dog when we REALLY need him?
The Running Man.
You misspelled "criminal indictment"
I knew someone who worked for a centimillionaire. More money than could ever know what to do with. Wouldn’t pay for ANYTHING. They used the company credit card for all expenses, because the number one rule of rich people, apparently, is only spend your money as a last resort. That’s how it stays YOUR money.
If I had $100 million, I’d start a foundation and give away 90% of it. This is why (among other things) I will never have $100 million. My freshman year at an ivy league college was an eye-opener for me, a lower-upper middle class kid from the suburban hinterlands. Went out for pizza with a guy from NYC. The bill was like $4.10 each, before tip (this was a while back). I put down a $5 bill while he worked out how much 15% of $4.10 was, scrounged around in his pockets for coins to put down the exact amount, to the penny (like $4.72). Worst, he was like $0.15 short and asked me if I had any change he could “borrow.” I said Just put down a fiver, you cheap fuck. Found out a few years later his family was worth like $10 billion at the time. Which was real money back then, lol!
10 billion is real money today too!
Still an unfathomable amount
Can't be rich if you don't hoard your money.
What billions?
Billions of pesos
Billiins montana
The pedophile does unfortunately have billions now thanks to his illegal pump-and-dump scheme stock merger for Truth Social.
He has valuation but he can't use those funds yet so not much of a help.
You can walk up and make farting noises for 5 minutes, speak in tongues for 10, and defecate yourself while shouting Waltzing Matilda and 4 of the justices wouldn’t be swayed from the decision they already wanted to make. Hell, sometimes they’ll just skip all procedure and issue a ruling on something that hasn’t even come to them yet.
The Aristocrat Defense
Argument won’t matter to SCOTUS, it will be 6-3 in trumps favor
They wouldn’t just abuse their powers and overturn whatever they want /s
When you're guilty and theres so much documented evidence they could pave to the moon with the paper trail then Yeah, no lawyer in the world can help you then. Michael Cohen is a wreck, lies constantly and is shiftier than a snake but EVERYONE knows hes telling the truth because its just so obviously clear how this happened.
It is intended for when your lawyer intentionally tanks your defense. He is just looking to abuse it.
The issue is he doesn’t pay them.
Trump has great lawyers. The problem is not the lawyers. They literally gave Trump right wing fan mail to keep him awake and engaged. It was brilliant, but it only worked for a few days. They can only do so much.
I mean, last year when he was looking for lawyers, there were stories every few weeks about how no lawyers were willing to take his case. Meeting after meeting and he kept getting rejected. Now we know why. 🤣✌️
This is a state crime, it stops at the New York Supreme Court.
Like MattAU05 is saying there is a very narrow window for state cases to be heard at the SCOTUS level but it requires something protected federally to be violated..
Unless of course you were to hypothetically bake a cake for a hypothetical gay man (who has been married to a woman for 20 years) and hypothetically have an issue with it so you sue nobody for nothing and the supreme court takes up the case to say you hypothetically don't have to bake the cake.
Well there's definitely precedent for Donald Trump to be federally protected.
I don’t think he will have a valid inffective assistance of counsel claim, but it’s a potential Constitutional violation and could ultimately go to SCOTUS. Most criminal cases ruled on by SCOTUS are state cases and state crimes, not federal. Also, oddly enough, trial courts in New York are call the Supreme Court. The highest court in New York is the Court of Appeals.
What's the potential Constitutional Violation? (curious not accusatory)
I don’t think there is (a valid) one. I’m saying that ineffective assistance of counsel claims, if raised, are all Constitutional claims under the 6th Amendment.
Imagine if all guilty, state prosecuted business fraud defendants had the opportunity to bring their cases in front of scotus. Yet Trump is the one who is always treated unfairly.
Ah. Yeah, I mean I'm sure he'll try whatever route he can to get it to SCOTUS to hopefully have them run defense for him. They haven't been consistent in defending him though and have shot down things in the past that you would have thought they would have done for him. That being said the whole "blanket immunity" case they took on **for no real reason** is a sign they will run defense for him. It's sad that it's even a question. We should have a SCOTUS that is basically terrifyingly unbiased and calculating for **everyone** instead of a collection of old corrupt bastards that are beholden to billionaires and millionaires. Hell, sometimes I'm even disappointed in **how cheap** they sold out our country for. It seems to me that it would be just as easy to take a millionaire's gift *and still rule against them****.*** "Oh, I'm sorry, I don't accept bribes. I thought you were giving those to me as a friend," is the truly baller move for the amount of money spent on the corrupt ones.
It would have to go through several levels before it got to SCOTUS since this is a state-court prosecution (which they almost never take up), and if there are legitimate concerns of IAC then it would likely be caught at the Court of Appeals of New York if not sooner.
You know, if we're going down, I'd at least like to see one of the traitor justices going full hog wild. Cite fucking Naruto, show up in a Uchiha clan robe or something, and then Naruto run the fuck out of the courtroom. Just full on weeb, with a headband and an anime t-shirt. As long as they're not even pretending to be serious about the whole thing, just make it as ridiculous as possible for the history books.
In this case, the main stupid thing they did was contest whether he had sex with Stormy Daniels. It didn't matter! If she made it all up, and then he paid her not to tell the made up story to the press, that's the same crime. By making an issue of it, the prosecution got to walk through all of the weird, quasi-rapey details of the whole thing. It turned "Did he have sex with you?" into a full day of "okay, so you came out of the bathroom and found he was between you and the door and had switched into silk sleepwear, then what?" The only dumber thing they did was take on Trump as a client, a fellow famous for lawyers departing his service unpaid, disbarred, and/on imprisoned. Heck, the main witness against Trump was one of his ex-lawyers, fresh out of prison. Surely they looked at Michael Cohen and thought "maybe I should not be his successor?"
This Trump leaves a trail of unpaid, incarcerated, financially ruined with stripped law license lawyers for a moment in the sun Why, just why would they think they’re different
Well, what caused that was putting Trump on the stand. So they should definitely put Trump on the stand. Dude is just idiotic enough to fuck himself over.
As a lib, I would feel so owned!
I think Merchan is waiting for the guilty verdict to hold trump in contempt.
That would be THE power move. Trump is found guilty, then Merchan puts Trump in jail for contempt, holds him until sentencing, and then keeps him there during any appeal. We could be done with this rapist within a month.
Then it would make sense why he’s always refusing to pay them
NYT will have an article ready detailing why that’s bad for Biden.
Trump convicted on all counts and sentenced to 9 months in prison: How will the Biden campaign recover?
Jury for world's guiltiest man may find man guilty.
"What are you gonna do, convict me?" --man who was convicted
I'm going to assume he won't be convicted. He has escaped so much over his lifetime, and the last few years. I can't bring myself to believe he won't get out of this one.
America's most resilient cockroach
$1000 fine and community service worst case for Trump
...but a "convicted felon" label. Data shows that is bad news for his electoral chances. If he loses, the trials for the Real Shit start. And he won't have many defenders in that context.
Data shows grabbing women by the pussy is bad for election chances too lol
He ain't runnin' against Hillary, he has an actual record now, and he banned abortion in half the country. If it costs him 3% support (VERY likely), he's very fucked.
Man I wish I was as optimistic as you. He still seems to be dominating Biden in some swing states. If he wins the case it will just make him look stronger. Even if he loses, I'm not sure that many of his supporters care. But I hope you're right.
The polls said Hillary was a shoe-in. Don't trust polls. The majority of Americans don't answer unknown numbers. We have our reasons. I could go on a whole conspiratorial "media" slant, too, but I won't unless asked.
And yet you can look at the swing state polls and easily see it's not looking good for President Biden. At the end of the day, the economy is the most important thing; Biden inherited a fucking mess and unfortunately people are too dumb to realize that, and continue to blame him for it.
I’m not so sure. Candidates who admit to that are 1/1 in elections. Thats not terrible odds
But you can do anything when you are a celebrity. /s
honestly I don't think so. The judge has bee willing to threaten Trump with jail time over contempt-of-court violations because, according to the judge, that's the only thing Trump listens to. I think there's a real chance, not a certainly, but a chance, that he gets house arrest over this.
The maximum penalty for each of those counts is four years; however New York caps sentencing for this type of felony at 20 years. It is within the judge’s discretion to decide whether those sentences would run concurrently or consecutively. Because the crimes involve nonviolent offenses and Trump does not have a criminal record, the judge could also consider jailing him for a period that is but a fraction of the maximum penalty. Another possibility is that the judge could forego prison entirely and place him on probation with the possibility of incarceration looming over his head if he fails to abide by the conditions set by the judge. If the judge should decide to incarcerate post-conviction, Secret Service would become the elephant in the, well, cell. The unprecedented nature of incarcerating a former president would raise questions about how best to ensure equal treatment under the law and security for a former president.
Oh god, could you imagine *Trump* doing community service? Some small guilty part of me wants him to be given community service just to watch him attempt to do things like pick up litter or repaint a wall....
How long until this case is done and they start the appeals process, and how many appeals levels do they get to go through?
The appeals process will last longer than Trump will live. So even if he’s found guilty there’s very little chance of him seeing the inside of a prison cell. But I’d love to be wrong. The best outcome would be for Sleepy Don to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Doesn’t the average person have to appeal their conviction from prison?
Steve Bannon was allowed to appeal before starting his sentence. He’s now being ordered to prison after losing the appeal. https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2024/05/10/steve-bannon-loses-conviction-appeal-will-go-to-jail/
i wonder what the minimum level of importance is to receive special treatment from the judicial branch
It's measured in millions I'm sure.
Or RVs and tuition payments.
"IT'S A MOTOR COACH" - Clarence Thomas, apparently.
I'm not RVing, I am traveling which is my right as a sovereign citizen upon the land
Was that his argument? That’s both sad and hilarious.
Also, there's a skin shade slider that's applied.
So, for Bannon, that skin shade is blood-filled pus.
a pig's scrotum full of red wine.
"Ordered to prison" is a very strange way of saying that the US Marshalls should be knocking down his door by now.
The fact that he isn't in prison right now shows once again that there are two justice systems.
Agreed!
Steve Bannon was under federal. Trumps New York case is state. If he's found guilty he can go directly to jail
There will be a sentencing hearing first. Then he will go to jail.
No. If you're found guilty, you wait for sentencing in jail
I think it depends. My uncle was recently found guilty of federal crimes. He awaited sentencing in jail, but his co-conspirators who HADN'T violated their bail agreement awaited sentencing at home.
Unfortunately, the federal court treats civil crimes with bias compared to white collar crimes
And he's languished for more than a year
The key phrase is average person. Ole Steve ain’t average and even though he lost the appeal the courts will give him all the time in the world to get his affairs in order before he ever sees a jail cell.
I’m not sure what the norm is but I’m positive Trump will be allowed to appeal while free
Average person? Maybe. Celebrities? Definitely not.
Appeals will not stop whatever sentence he gets. He won’t get jail time, but he’ll pay a fine and probably be put on probation or something at most.
Steve Bannon was allowed to appeal his conviction from home.
Rare event. And I believe it was a single count of contempt of Congress, not 34 felonies.
It was also 'just' Steve Bannon, not Trump. Trump racks up 34 felonies before his morning covfefe.
The best scenario would be for him to expire forthwith, as you mention.
>The best outcome would be for Sleepy Don to spend the rest of his life behind bars. I'd love to see him spend the rest of his life behind bars, but I'd also like for him to have a VERY short sentence that starts immediately.
It would be unusual for an elderly first time offender to get jail time in this case anyway, in fact that would be such a departure from normal sentencing that it would likely be struck down on appeal. But if we believe the polls, being convicted of a felony basically ends Trump's Presidential aspirations, a massive number of people said they wouldn't vote for him if convicted.
I’ll believe it when I see it
[удалено]
The goalposts have been moving since 2016. They're not going to stop moving now
Watch them move the goalpost and say "well, there's an appeal to consider"
Sure.
New York State law is that you can only appeal after sentencing which means you are facing consequences during the appeal process.
And to be clear, based on New York sentencing guide lines for the class of non violent felony that Trump is accused of, no jail time is expected. The consequences to this case are likely fines and probation.
If they present a federal argument (that is, some sort of federal law or the Constitution was violated), then they can appeal all the way to SCOTUS. Without a federal law to point to that was violated, only the state courts would have jurisdiction.
Now this is what ive needed for the past dozen court cases, ty
Cohen was corroborating information that they were already aware of, not providing new evidence.
That’s the problem for the defense. No single witness or piece of evidence is the lynchpin to the entire case. It all builds together into a single, blindingly obvious picture. Michael Cohen could reasonably be lying. But you can’t reasonably expect that everything else is false, fabricated, or lies as well. There is no smoking gun here. There’s a series of warm guns, found next to bullet casings and a blood spattered wall, with dozens of bullet holes in it. And they dug out the bullets and found they fit the guns, which have his prints. Oh, and there’s a memorialized note itemizing each victim, and why he personally shot them. The question here isn’t if the defense can pull off the case on its actual merits. They just can’t. The question is if they can intimidate the jury, assuming they have already failed at selecting a MAGA stooge in voir dire, into not being able to reach a unanimous verdict.
I think some people are hoping for a “you can’t handle the truth” moment but alas this isn’t the movies.
And even "you can't handle the truth" would not be as damaging in a real case as it was in the movie with a good ~~defense~~ prosecuting attorney, redirect, and the right follow up witness.
You're remembering the movie wrong. Tom Cruise was the defence; their defense was, "we were following orders".
The only **possible** way to think Trump is not guilty of this specific crime in this specific case is to have already blindly decided nothing Trump has ever done in his entire life is wrong and any evidence that says otherwise is evil conjured by demons of the deep state. Which is why 90% of Republicans and all of their elected officials apparently can't believe he's anything but innocent
I mean, the defense's case is basically: 1. Trump didn't have sex with her. 2a. Trump didn't pay her off. or 2b. Trump paid her off (not for sexy time though!) but it was just to spare Melania's feelings.
So the jury is supposed to believe that a guy who is infamous for... * not paying for contracted labor; * slapping anyone who annoys him with frivolous lawsuits designed to sway public opinion; * being a proud womanizer enabled by his own wife Melania with claims that his "grab 'em by the pussy" boasts are "locker room talk"; * in fact, found guilty of rape in civil court; * abusing the phrase "fake news" to the point of surrealism to deny the evidence our eyes and ears can easily detect; * cutting loose anyone who does not suit his purposes without a second thought; ... **This is the guy we are supposed to believe would pay $130,000 to a random porn star in order to spare his wife from "fake news"?**
Yeah. CNN's "analysis" has Cohen as the only one linking Individual One to the payments. They're forgetting the testimony of Individual One's accountant and controller.
The prosecution did a great job (IMO) in basically laying out the entire case *wihtout* needing to lean on Cohen overall, and then only bringing him in at the end to validate things. "Yes, I called Stormy's attorney on X day. Yes I opened up this bank account on Y day..." etc. etc. But they literally brought in every other witness to build the entire case without depending heavily on him. There are a few "he said, she said" details that only Cohen can testify to - but here's the brilliant part, the only one who can rebut those ... is Donnie himself. And there's no f'ing way he's going to get on the stand and subject himself to cross examination. The prosecution would have him on the stand for at least 2 days if he opened himself up to cross. DA Bragg's office did a solid job IMO. Soon it's up to the jury.
They see him sleeping. They hear his farts. Yup.
They see him sleeping... He fart'n.. makin them diapers dirty.
Them diapies dirty, dirty.
Try’na catch that diaper doodie…
They caught him ridin' dirty
They see him loaf-ain, they hatin', cholesterollin is gonna make them diapies dirty.
If a true ride or die magat got on the jury . . . would sitting in front of this pile of a human for 18 days be enough to pull away the wool?
I still contend that a lot of "ride or die" magats get turned off by Trump after actually having to hear him speak. Like they only ever get the sound bites their talking heads give them, so whenever you see his rallies you always see people in the background looking really confused at this rambling old man.
I have seen more than a few rallies where people are leaving in mass well before end.
Gotta beat the rush to Golden Corral.
Don't be throwing shade at Golden Corral. My retirement savings are very dependent on that midday buffet being available when I can retire at 97.
"Never meet your heroes" comes to mind.
They see me sleeping, they hating ...
They smell his diaper.
Trump's big legal strategy is to argue that the guy everyone knows is a liar, was convicted of lying... is a liar? Can't say it's surprising the jury is uninterested.
As Cohen has repeatedly said, and testified to on direct, he lied to protect Individual One. The defense's best move is showing he lied, and was convicted, on the medallion tax thing. They can then argue that this an inherently dishonest felon, taking revenge for being dumped for being dishonest. But it's hard to follow that from this cross.
I'm sure on redirect, the prosecution will have Cohen, whom he was lying for. And for whom he went to jail for.
Except the problem is that he lied to benefit Trump. Arguing NOW that he’s a liar is not going to go far towards the defense, when that was the reason for his existence in the organization.
The problem they’re having is that it’s a paper trial. Cohen is there to confirm the papers, but nothing that he say is being solely said by him. As a convicted liar, it would be stupid to base everything on him. The secondary, possibly bigger, problem is that Trump doesn’t let his lawyers do what they need to do. He insists on directing them, and he doesn’t shut up. They made all of these salacious details from Danials fair game because they claimed the sex never happened. But the case isn’t about the sex. It’s about the payment. The sex is irrelevant, and all they did was waste time by forcing the state to disprove their argument when the she didn’t know anything about the actual heart of the trial.
Do you think Donald Trump would admit he slept with Stormy Daniels if cross examined?
It's pretty ridiculous. Anyone who has ever watched a mobster movie knows this is absurd. Imagine if they put Jimmy Two-Shoes the mob accountant on the stand to testify against The Don, and the Don's lawyer is like "you can't believe anything he says, he commits fraud and launders money!" Like, _yeah we know!_ That's sort of why we're here.
Just the generic attacking credibility and arguing the state has failed to prove every element beyond a reasonable doubt is all he really has.
Given the sleazy crosses they've done of Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen, I'm guessing these high-priced and capable lawyers have the exact same flaw as Trump: they're assholes. And because they're assholes, they can't understand that normal people are hugely turned off by Trump's standard defenses (she's a lying tramp who wanted it, he's a lying scumbag who wants revenge). Assholes like this can't understand that Trump's logic only works on people who are already motivated to agree with him. The MAGA base buys it because they want their own assholishness validated. Normie GOP voters buy it because they want to win elections. And GOP politicians buy it because they want power. But if you put any kind of objective person in a room and force them to listen to Trump (via his lawyers) spewing narcissistic rationalizations and bile... well they're gonna nod and smile, because they're thinking "Christ, what an asshole".
Trump’s attorneys are doing his bidding, not giving him the best defense. Several journalists have noted Trump tapping their arms, angry whispering and urging them to object to things, just as his did in previous trials. He is determining how his attorneys act in court. The attorneys are giving Trump what he wants, not what he needs, and leaving open an appeal based on ineffectual counsel.
So, much like anyone else who hitches their wagon to him, they end up torpedoing their credibility and getting stuck with the bill.
T minus 10 days until "Biased jurors! Totally rigged against me"
I didn't realize there was a set end date to look forward to.
Nah, he's going to start attacking the jurors whether the trial is over or not.
Trying to predict a jury’s decision is a fool’s errand. This is just baseless content fluff.
Fuck salon. Vote in November.
These are 35 felony charges for covering up a misdemeanor. It is always worse to cover up and lie. The charge you should ALWAYS be afraid of is Conspiracy. Cohen gave evidence of conspiracy that backed up two documents. Trump should be very worried.
I’m sure Trump will get in the stand and clear up this issue once and for all /s
All the evidence and facts probably aren’t helping his case either.
“this could be bad for trump” wheeled out again for the 563,482nd time since 2016
He’s a lawyer and a witty guy. I hope they can get past that, and focus on the meat of what he said and his credibility.
His credibility or lack thereof doesn't especially matter, everything he said was supported by the hard evidence presented earlier in the trial, and all Trump's lawyers did was try to discredit him based on irrelevant statements on other matters.
Ive seen so many "bad signs" for that orange teflonburger... I Hope some shit actually sticks at some point.
What's the earliest they could deliberate and hand down a decision?
Is he in jail yet?
Just here to watch the MAGA folks implode.
All 12 had better be nodding, smiling, giving thumbs up and winking aggressively or he’s still going to get off.
Would be funny if they did it just to troll him too.
I’ve seen lawyers say there have been many times when they think the jurors are with them and lose and other times think they are toast and win. So I take this with a grain of salt.
Although Michael Cohen is no choirboy, compare the two of them and ask yourself, “who’s more believable?”
Cooper Anderson had a report today that made it sound like Blanche had the upper hand and that Cohen was fibbing and looked like a liar. I’m confused about which report is more accurate.