NY: Trump on Trial!

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Democrats are charging him over something like this so he can look like a poltical martyr to republicans as they want to run against Trump in 2024.

Do we? Should we? It seems we would be far more likely to win a general election with Trump sniping at the Republican nominee from the sidelines (maybe even explicitly saying don't vote for the guy) than we would against a party that will inevitably line up in 100% support of nominee Trump.

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Every Republican politician bends the knee to Trump. This what you get whenever you vote Republican.

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34 counts kinda implies that this isn't some random nitpicky witch-hunt.

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2020 was settled by <45k votes. That's nearly a coinflip. You run that election 100x, Trump wins at least 40.

You can't say that for sure. What's to say that 2020 was a median outcome anyway? It could have been a 90th percentile scenario for Trump, and still wasn't enough to win.

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2020 was settled by <45k votes. That's nearly a coinflip. You run that election 100x, Trump wins at least 40.

You can't say that for sure. What's to say that 2020 was a median outcome anyway? It could have been a 90th percentile scenario for Trump, and still wasn't enough to win.

Or it could be a 90th percentile scenario for Biden. An unbiased prior suggests both directions are equally likely.

It "could" be either but the it was likely high percentile result for Trump, given the huge popular vote win Biden got. It was kinda fluky that the # of votes needed to flip the results was so small.

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one of the biggest lib propagandists says Trump is sleeping, and people take her word as true

lol Maggie plz

Maggie is a lifelong Trump fan and gave him more favorable coverage during his presidency than anyone left of center in all of America...

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So that juror list is definitely going to be leaked, right? Those jurors are going to face a lifetime of threats and harassment from the Trump cultists...

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No way in Hell I would ever be a juror in this case. We saw how MAGA cultists ruined the lives of those poll workers who just did their jobs. Imagine what they'll do to people who convict Trump...

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Guys it's no big deal at all to fall asleep during Court! I've done it lots of times, and I've seen judges do it too!!!1

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Every single juror identity going to leak, and they're going to have their lives ruined, just like those poll workers in 2020. What a totally f'd situation.

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Every single juror identity going to leak, and they're going to have their lives ruined, just like those poll workers in 2020. What a totally f'd situation.

This sort of stuff would result in prison sentences in Britain.

It would in America too for anyone other than Trump.

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You could hold the trial anywhere in America, even the territories, and Trump's team would still try to doxx, harass, and threaten the jurors.

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Have you considered being normal about juries?

I don't understand what you are trying to say.

The defendant and his people simply choosing not to threaten the physical safety of the jurors trying him would be a good start.

There were two anti-Trump plants in the jury. Should they just let them stay?

"Plants"?  You do understand that people are randomly selected for jury duty?  They don't volunteer for it?

Grow up.

Yes. But if they are biased, they should excuse themselves. They shouldn't need encouragement from their friends and family to realize that, or investigation by the DA.

These people weren't "biased," they were understandably scared of their lives being ruined by this (or worse). I would never agree to be on this jury for that reason. We already know what the MAGA cult will do to innocent people who were just doing their jobs correctly.

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Have you considered being normal about juries?

I don't understand what you are trying to say.

The defendant and his people simply choosing not to threaten the physical safety of the jurors trying him would be a good start.

There were two anti-Trump plants in the jury. Should they just let them stay?

"Plants"?  You do understand that people are randomly selected for jury duty?  They don't volunteer for it?

Grow up.

Yes. But if they are biased, they should excuse themselves. They shouldn't need encouragement from their friends and family to realize that, or investigation by the DA.

These people weren't "biased," they were understandably scared of their lives being ruined by this (or worse). I would never agree to be on this jury for that reason. We already know what the MAGA cult will do to innocent people who were just doing their jobs correctly.

I already posted this, but I will repeat for you.

Any person who is not anti-Trump will not feel threatened.

You can post it 10,000 times if you want to, and you'll never be right. If this jury finds Trump guilty, regardless of the politics of the jurors, regardless of the evidence, regardless of anything, those jurors are going to be suffering for it forever.

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Can you imagine if Democrats (including MSNBC hosts) were doxxing and threatening jurors who had previously voted for Trump and then said "Any person who is not pro-Trump will not feel threatened!" ?

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A fair-minded person would not even consider a possibility that they would be a target of intimidation.

A "fair-minded person" would look at what happened to the poll workers who literally did NOTHING WRONG and had their lives ruined by the Trump cult and had to go into hiding over legitimate and justified fears they would be murdered, and know that they want nothing of that. The people agreeing to be on this jury are either secretly Trump superfans determined to acquit him, or otherwise pay so little attention to politics that they never heard about the poll worker abuse stories.

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Do anyone else think that Bragg is leaving a much stronger case on the table by concentrating on this election interference stuff?

The basic facts of this case are that Trump falsified business records to cover up affairs.  In order for the falsification to be a felony, it needs to be in furtherance of another crime.  So to do this, Bragg for some reason thinks he needs to think of some convoluted way in which the hush money payments constitute election interference or campaign finance violations.  This part of the case has always struck me as incredibly weak.

But he shouldn't need to do this.
Adultery in New York is a crime.  If you are falsifying records to cover up an affair, it can be prosecuted as a felony because the affair itself in the underlying crime.
Trump might not be guilty of adultery with Stormy Daniels, because my impression was the affair was not conducted in New York.  But he almost certainly did commit adultery in New York with Karen McDougal.

So why not concentrate this case on the payments to McDougal to cover up the crime of adultery, and just leave out any feeble connection to election interference?

I know the adultery law in New York might not be popular, but an unbiased jury would be expected to uphold the law whether they like it or not, and this seems like an ironclad case if judged by the letter of the law.

My first thought is that no politician in either party wants to start prosecuting over adultery.

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What a dumbass.

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Lawyer folks: what's your take on Hope Hicks breaking down in tears on the witness stand?

She feels bad for betraying the guy who gave her the opportunity of a lifetime.

This seems to be Lisa Rubin's take on air too who was in the courtroom. She's broken up about doing this to someone to whom she was devoted.

Pretty silly. He'd do it to her without a second thought.

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Merchan denies defense long shot motion for mistrial on basis of Stormy’s salacious testimony. But he concedes that “In fairness to the people, I think the witness was a little bit difficult to control” and ““that there are some things that would have been better left unsaid.”

Yet you read this thread , you will hear claims that Stormy has been  “sharp, likable, and in control”

Personal preference

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Guys the New York Post is a bastion of high-quality objective journalism! We can take what it says TO THE BANK!

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Guys CNN is a bastion of high-quality objective journalism! We can take what it says TO THE BANK!

This isn't the snappy comeback you think it is.

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Bragg has no case, dismiss it. I hate to defend Trump but I am with him in this case.

On what grounds? No one is really disputing the facts of the case, even on Fox News all they ever say it that it just wouldn't be appropriate to convict Trump on this. They never lay out any case for him being innocent, or for it being too ambiguous to convict. It all boils down to "millions of Americans love Trump so therefore he shouldn't be found guilty."

I think if he did it beyond reasonable doubt (and again, no is bothering to try to convince me otherwise), he should be found guilty no matter how many people like him. Being popular shouldn't make someone above the law.