What did he NOT do?

[SimplyMe]

Then Hillary clinton is a fellon, we know her campaign paid for the steel dossier. Here we don't have that, stormy already said they did not have an affair, does not matter if they did. It is not a felony./ Sounds like you are welcoming this new way of conducting elections. Through the legal system of political prosecution.

What crime was committed by the Clinton campaign (not Hillary personally) paying for the Steele Document? Do you also think it was illegal when various Republicans originally paid for the investigation that became the Steele document?

To give you an answer: there was no crime committed by the Clinton campaign in regards to the Steele Document. Campaigns do "opposition research" reports in pretty much every major election, not just Presidential elections. That Steele gave his report to the FBI, or that other individuals might have notified the FBI of the report, is not a violation of law.

 

[Always in His Presence]

There was however a document drawn up with that name AND he admitted that David Dennison was himself.

Also, you are not my lawyer nor was your document drawn up at my behest.

Do you know what makes a document valid?

A signature

Do you know what was NOT on that sheet of paper, a signature. The piece of paper means zero without the signature.

 

[Servus]

to say there have been other backfires is much the same as saying that Wile E. Coyote and the Dems have a nearly identical record of results and success in their endeavors.

You read my mind.

 

[NxNW]

You read my mind.

Democrats have won the popular vote in 7 of the last 8 Presidential elections.

 

[essentialsaltes]

The piece of paper means zero without the signature.

The NDA is really not of much significance any more.

But... Stormy had to go to court to have the NDA declared unenforceable. So that paper did mean something up until that point, and it took court action to make that happen.

 

[Belk]

to say there have been other backfires is much the same as saying that Wile E. Coyote and the Dems have a nearly identical record of results and success in their endeavors.

<Looks at Social security, the 5 day work week, medicare, and civil rights>

Do tell.

 

[Servus]

Democrats have won the popular vote in 7 of the last 8 Presidential elections.

What does that have to do with their failed Coyote and Roadrunner attempts at nailing Trump?

Maybe you're not familiar with the cartoon were all of the coyote's elaborate attempts to get the roadrunner backfire.

 

[NxNW]

What does that have to do with their failed Coyote and Roadrunner attempts at nailing Trump?

You'll have to be more specific.

 

[Hans Blaster]

You'll have to be more specific.

They must be thinking of Rep. Wiley E. Comer, chair of the ACME committee, and his self-exploding hearings (Or am I confusing Comer with Gym Jordan? It's difficult keeping the self-emolating fools separate.)

 

[DaisyDay]

<Looks at Social security, the 5 day work week, medicare, and civil rights>

Do tell.

And the infrastructure bill that for four years was always coming next Wednesday. Wednesday arrived with Biden.

 

[disciple Clint]

<Looks at Social security, the 5 day work week, medicare, and civil rights>

Do tell.

even a broken clock is right twice a day.

 

[Belk]

even a broken clock is right twice a day.

 

[Ana the Ist]

I read an article that said that almost half of folks believe Trump's arrest was politically motivated.
Ok. But I need some help as perhaps, I may not be totally aware of the situation.

Ok.

As far as I know:
Donald Trump DID have an affair with Stormy DaniOK.

That's what I've heard as well.

Donald Trump DID pay her money to stay quiet

Well....Cohen paid her. I'm pretty sure he both admitted to doing so and this isn't contested.

He used campaign funds to do so.

I've heard Cohen used personal funds to do so....and Trump has a letter from him saying as much...asking Trump for reimbursement.

EDIT: The tone of this may be a bit condescending or negative. IT is not meant to be. I am just flummoxed.

No, I get it....clearly I have a different set of facts than you do. I imagine if I had your facts, I might think the same thing.

The parts to resolve here are....

1. Did Trump or Cohen pay Daniels?
2. If Cohen paid, did he receive reimbursement from Trump's campaign?
3. If Trump paid....did he use campaign funds?

If you have some evidence that resolves these questions, I'd like to see it.

 

[Ana the Ist]

If it's on tape as the deed is taking place, then we know for sure. Trump had full knowledge.

Is this "tape" available somewhere? I'm assuming it's a recording...not an actual tape.

Was it played at trial or something?

 

[Ana the Ist]

That was lawsuit settlement, not hush money.

What was the settlement?

Or do you feel all lawsuits where settlements occur are essentially hush money?

What was the terms of the settlement? If it wasn't hush money, it should be easy to find out.

 

[Ana the Ist]

And the infrastructure bill that for four years was always coming next Wednesday. Wednesday arrived with Biden.

It's weird to see anyone proud of a 10,000 page omnibus bill that's been designed for the purpose of people not knowing what's in it.

It's possible it's a good thing....but these tend to get thrown together as a bunch of garbage with a few good things included, which would be lost, if you don't accept the garbage as well.

I don't see any reason to believe this omnibus any different from the previous ones.

We have legislators who spend years getting nothing done....and then suddenly, here's 10000 pages. For everything that might benefit you or anyone else....there's 100 items that help donors.

 

[Say it aint so]

Is this "tape" available somewhere? I'm assuming it's a recording...not an actual tape.

Was it played at trial or something?

Yes, a recording. It's available to hear.

 

[Ana the Ist]

Sure. Without his client's knowledge. You can believe that and I have credential for Trump University and I can't figure out why nobody will hire me.


These statements were recanted, correct? I'm not saying Cohen is the most honest source but he's certainly more honest than Trump. I don't think you can plead the 5th 400 times and and be held as an honest person.
.

Admitted his affair with Stormy was a long time ago. I mean it was happenning at the same time as McDougall (Against trump) had the ol' "Catch and kill" when Trump's buddy Pecker who owned the National Inquirer (of course he does) helped the man out.

Ok....

So, these are criminal charges. Despite your bias or anyone else's....Trump is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

I think that everyone seems to agree that Cohen paid off Daniels. Although I'm not sure where this recording between Trump and Cohen is, or what it contains, it seems very unlikely he'll produce evidence that would contradict previous testimony and result in perjury charges. I also don't know what's in the letter or if the NDA is unsigned. I can certainly understand why it seems unlikely that a lawyer would pay hush money without his client's knowledge. I'm also aware that as a fixer...getting Daniels to sign the NDA without Trump's knowledge protects his client from disclosure in a number of situations....and Cohen probably understood this. He probably waited till after the election to reveal the agreement and payment....or not.

Either way, the important thing isn't what I believe, you believe, or anyone else believes. You may believe Hunter Biden is an amazing painter whose art is worth millions. I don't.

If a crime is going to be proven here....there needs to be some sort of evidence that Trump made the payment with campaign funds. It's possible that Bragg has some bombshell evidence I'm not aware of....but if the summary above is a fair representation of the case, he doesn't have anything. He shouldn't have brought charges and the judge should have thrown this out. I hope Bragg has something more than we know about or it's just going to be an embarrassing thing for the left and push Trump's popularity up.

Surely you understand that without any new evidence, and considering the previous DA didn't move forward with the case, and this DA is one of the many woke DAs turning violent felons loose on the streets, and he's backed by Democratic donors...

That, along with what looks like an absurd number of charges, the number of years sought....

It looks like a political witchhunt to me. I have no problem saying that with some new evidence I haven't seen....that can change. Is there at least evidence he paid Cohen with campaign funds? You don't think the timing of this, along with the Clarence Thomas accusations (which are even weaker) the hundreds of highly classified Pentagon docs being leaked for months now, and the fact that they seem to be closing in on bribery, abuse of power, soliciting bribes, are all being spoken of in open testimony with a lot of confidence lately. These legislators don't really risk being so blatant....because their testimony can get scrubbed if they can't substantiate those kinds of claims. They aren't even being asked to substantiate any of it....the last thing Dems want is evidence being provided.

 

[Ana the Ist]

Yes, a recording. It's available to hear.

Ok....where?

 

[SimplyMe]

Ok....

So, these are criminal charges. Despite your bias or anyone else's....Trump is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

I think that everyone seems to agree that Cohen paid off Daniels. Although I'm not sure where this recording between Trump and Cohen is, or what it contains, it seems very unlikely he'll produce evidence that would contradict previous testimony and result in perjury charges. I also don't know what's in the letter or if the NDA is unsigned. I can certainly understand why it seems unlikely that a lawyer would pay hush money without his client's knowledge. I'm also aware that as a fixer...getting Daniels to sign the NDA without Trump's knowledge protects his client from disclosure in a number of situations....and Cohen probably understood this. He probably waited till after the election to reveal the agreement and payment....or not.

Either way, the important thing isn't what I believe, you believe, or anyone else believes. You may believe Hunter Biden is an amazing painter whose art is worth millions. I don't.

If a crime is going to be proven here....there needs to be some sort of evidence that Trump made the payment with campaign funds. It's possible that Bragg has some bombshell evidence I'm not aware of....but if the summary above is a fair representation of the case, he doesn't have anything. He shouldn't have brought charges and the judge should have thrown this out. I hope Bragg has something more than we know about or it's just going to be an embarrassing thing for the left and push Trump's popularity up.

Surely you understand that without any new evidence, and considering the previous DA didn't move forward with the case, and this DA is one of the many woke DAs turning violent felons loose on the streets, and he's backed by Democratic donors...

That, along with what looks like an absurd number of charges, the number of years sought....

It looks like a political witchhunt to me. I have no problem saying that with some new evidence I haven't seen....that can change. Is there at least evidence he paid Cohen with campaign funds? You don't think the timing of this, along with the Clarence Thomas accusations (which are even weaker) the hundreds of highly classified Pentagon docs being leaked for months now, and the fact that they seem to be closing in on bribery, abuse of power, soliciting bribes, are all being spoken of in open testimony with a lot of confidence lately. These legislators don't really risk being so blatant....because their testimony can get scrubbed if they can't substantiate those kinds of claims. They aren't even being asked to substantiate any of it....the last thing Dems want is evidence being provided.

I think you misunderstand what the charges are. The issue is that Cohen made the original payments, using a mortgage on his home to get the money to pay off Ms. Daniels. When Donald Trump paid him back, the payments were entered in the business ledgers as "legal services" -- meaning income payments to Mr. Cohen for working as a lawyer. It also meant the business paid more than what Mr. Cohen paid Ms. Daniels, as Mr. Cohen -- since it was payment for services -- had to report and pay taxes on the amount as "income" rather than repayment of a debt.

Now, normally this type of false entry would be a misdemeanor. The issue was that the payment was made to prevent Ms. Daniels from telling her story to the media (or selling the story to the media, if you prefer), so that the voters would not hear about Candidate Trump (at the time) having sex with a porn star while his wife was at home tending to their newborn son. There is allegedly an audio recording where Trump instructs Mr. Cohen to try to delay making the payment for as long as possible, that if Mr. Cohen can delay the payment until after the election that they won't need to pay her -- clearly implying the payment was solely to aid his campaign, to prevent the American people from learning about it before the election, and not to hide the alleged affair from his wife. It is possible the secondary crime, raising the crime to a felony, is that Mr. Cohen illegally made a "campaign contribution" by paying off Stormy Daniels; even though he was paid back, it still amounted to an unreported loan to the Trump campaign by an individual over the legal limit.

By Trump falsifying the business records to "hide" a second crime elevates the charges to felony counts. We'll hear more about the case, and DA Bragg's complete legal theory as to the crimes, as this case unfolds.