NY: Trump on Trial!

[emailking]

Interesting tidbit from the Atlantic article.

WHAT THE 2024 ELECTION IS REALLY ABOUT FOR TRUMP SUPPORTERS
He promised them: “I am your retribution.”

...

The trial date for the hush‐money case was later set during a hearing with Judge Merchan where Trump appeared via video from a room in Mar‐a‐Lago. For most of the appearance, Trump silently listened, his microphone on mute. But when the judge announced the court date—March 25, 2024—he reacted angrily, waving his hands and shaking his head. No one in the courtroom could hear him, but he appeared to be yelling at the lawyer sitting next to him in Mar-a-Lago, Todd Blanche. According to a source there with Trump, the former president erupted at Blanche because the March 2024 trial would be during a crucial point in the presidential campaign.

“That’s in the middle of the primaries!” Trump yelled. “If I lose the presidency, you are going to be the reason!”

Trump’s tantrum, according to the source, continued for nearly 30 minutes after the court appearance ended and the camera was turned off—a withering attack on perhaps the most highly regarded lawyer on Trump’s troubled legal team.

“You little [******]!” Trump yelled at Blanche. “You are going to cost me the presidency!”

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/what-2024-election-really-about-trump-supporters/675869/

I censored an f bomb, you can see it in the article.

[emailking]

It was set long before that. She asked him if it was ok to schedule it in March and he said yes. He's said he'll reschedule this in February if another trial will conflict. Anyway, I was mainly trying to point out Trump's ridiculous tantrum lol.

[emailking]

Manhattan’s District Attorney Is Quietly Preparing for a Trump Trial
As prosecutors navigate calendars and appeals, Alvin L. Bragg may take the former president’s first criminal case to trial. He has said that covering up a hush-money payment was a fraud on voters.

Federal prosecutors have accused Donald J. Trump of plotting to subvert American democracy and mishandling nuclear secrets. But with those cases in limbo, state prosecutors in Manhattan are gearing up as though they will be the first to try the former president on criminal charges — for covering up a potential sex scandal.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office has begun to approach witnesses to prepare them for trial, including Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former fixer, according to people with knowledge of the matter. He and at least two others involved in buying a porn star’s silence about her story of a tryst with Mr. Trump are expected to meet with prosecutors in the coming weeks.

With the potential trial drawing near, the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, has also added one of his most experienced trial lawyers to the team assigned to prosecute Mr. Trump.

And in recent public appearances, Mr. Bragg has presented the loftiest possible conception of the case, casting it as a clear-cut instance of election interference, in which a candidate defrauded the American people to win the White House in 2016.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/25/nyregion/trump-hush-money-trial-stormy-daniels.html

[emailking]

Ex-Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg in perjury plea talks, sources say

Former Trump Org. Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg is in plea talks with the Manhattan district attorney’s office to resolve a potential perjury charge, sources familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.

If the negotiations succeed, Weisselberg would plead guilty to lying on the witness stand when he testified in October at the civil fraud trial that names him, his former boss — former President Donald Trump — and others as defendants, the sources said.

The plea negotiations, which the sources described as being in the early stages, were first reported by The New York Times. A spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined to comment. An attorney for Weisselberg did not respond to a request for comment.

https://kvnutalk.com/ex-trump-organization-cfo-allen-weisselberg-in-perjury-plea-talks-sources-say/

^ Likely part of a cooperation agreement for this case if true.

[emailking]

Judge says the trial is moving ahead on March 25 with jury selection!

Something could still come up and push it back, but at least now we know it's not being held up by his other trials.

[emailking]

Trump will face his first criminal trial on March 25 in New York

A judge ruled former President Trump will face his first criminal trial on March 25 in New York.

This comes after Judge Juan Merchan denied Trump’s motion to dismiss the charges against him in the criminal hush money case Thursday.

The decision comes as other criminal charges against Trump in other states have yet to be scheduled, as they are going through pre-trial motions and being challenged in court.

The trial will come in the middle of the ramp up to the general election.

https://www.cnn.com/webview/politics/live-news/trump-hearings-ny-georgia

[emailking]

The judge pushed back today on the notion that this case is a joke. He said he thinks that they are very serious charges. (The federal judge said the same thing when Trump tried to get this transferred to federal court.) So if you think the case is not a big deal, well, the person who's going to be sentencing Trump if convicted thinks it is.

[emailking]

I just realized only 2 weeks to go until Trump is on trial, for real. Wow!

[emailking]

Nahh, he already waived his right to appeal the immunity question that he lost. And the statements can't come out of evidence because he was President, that's absurd. It's not happening.

[emailking]

The prosecution does not oppose a 30 day delay in the trial start because of 30 thousand pages of discovery they just handed over. The judge will likely grant that. It's not related to Trump's claim that some statements he made cannot come into evidence because of Presidential immunity.

[emailking]

NY prosecutors say they’re willing to delay Trump hush money trial until late April

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is willing to delay Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial for up to 30 days, according to a court filing.

The trial is currently scheduled to start on March 25.

Trump’s defense teams have employed a strategy of consistently trying to delay the trials past the election and this unexpected move — by one of the prosecution teams – throws the date for what is supposed to be the first trial into question.

The proposed delay is to review new materials turned over by federal prosecutors this week, the DA’s office said.

The US attorney’s office sent about 31,000 pages of discovery material Wednesday and will have more to share, the new filing states.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/14/politics/hush-money-trial-delay


This material apparently relates to Michael Cohen that they just got from the Southern District of NY, that came from a subpoena by Trump's team a couple months ago, and that they refused to provide to the prosecutors last year.

[emailking]

The NY trial will be delayed due to Trump's immunity claim, again until the SCOTUS decides that.

As I told you before, he already waived his right to appeal his immunity claim, that he lost on, in this case. So that's done. What he's claiming now is that certain statements he made while President can't come in as evidence because of Presidential immunity. It will be denied by Merchan. It's also not a question the Supreme Court is considering in the J6 immunity appeal they will be hearing April 22. Even if they were to rule the J6 case has to be thrown out it doesn't have direct bearing on this case because only some of the charged conduct occurred while he was President and the Federal courts have already ruled they weren't official acts. (Again, SCOTUS is weighing whether he is immune from prosecution for official acts). And he waived his right to appeal that!

[emailking]

I don't see how it's going to delay the trial. He can just rule against it and that's it. Trump will still be able to appeal it after the trial. Not everything that could possibly affect the trial is eligible to be appealed before hand. His claim is borderline frivolous.

Cannon's trial does not automatically take precedence because it's Federal. Merchan would have to defer to her there, which yes is the way it usually goes, but here you are theorizing that she's gaming the system to keep Trump from going to trial at all, so he surely knows that's a possiblity too.

[emailking]

Even if they do a 30 day delay and decide the start the trial the following Monday, and even if you think the SCOTUS case is relevant to this one, it's not like SCOTUS will have ruled by then. The estimates we've heard from legal experts range from a month at the earliest until sometime in July. So I don't see that it matters at all the exact start date that week or the following.

[emailking]

Jury selection for any criminal case involving Trump sounds like an absolute nightmare. How do you find a panel of jurors without preconceived biases around the most famous man in the world?

As long as they say they can set that aside and judge the case solely on the evidence, they're allowed to be jurors.

[emailking]

Honestly it's probably going to be delayed more than 30 days because there's 3 times as much stuff, it sounds like, being produced by SDNY next week. We'll see what the judge says.

[emailking]

Well that's not too bad I guess. We're converging on the trial start anyway.

[emailking]

Judge also ruled he cannot use as a defense that his indictment is politically motivated.

[emailking]

Media needs to do a better job of framing it as election interference than just "hush money." Bragg is apparently going to push this hard in the trial so maybe the narrative will change there but I wouldn't count on it either way.

[emailking]

I don't see why people view this case as not bad for Trump? Seems pretty likely he'd be found guilty here.

Because he's actually not guilty under an intuitive, plain language interpretation of the campaign finance laws, even if he did everything the prosecutors allege he did.

I say this as someone who believes he should absolutely be convicted of basically everything he charged with in all his other trials, as well as all sorts of other criminal activity he hasn't yet been charged with.

Just to clarify, even if true, that would make what he's charged with (falsifying business records) a misdemeanor instead of a felony. That might make it "not bad" for some people, but he definitely does not appear to be innocent of that based on what we know (but we'll see what his defense is).

[emailking]

Hmm, that I'm not sure about.

[emailking]

So then 1 of them, the first one, has to be a misdemeanor only right? Or he's not charging that?

[emailking]

The mathematician in me is recoiling at the circular logic there but ok lol.

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts I guess.

[emailking]

The judge may even dismiss the case after all the evidence is heard.

That's true in any trial. After the prosecution rests, the defense always moves for a directed verdict on the grounds the state hasn't proved the case. It's rarely granted.

[emailking]

I meant I wasn't sure if hypothetically they were going to be charged as misdemeanors vice felonies if it would be allowed at this point because of statute of limitations.