Trump: Convicted fellon

Lawfare run amok

Time to weigh in on the latest news: a jury of 12 New Yorkers found Trump guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records.

The case itself is complex, and not straightforward, and that seemed to have been on purpose.

First, a quick explanation:

The 34 counts that Trump has been charged with, and found guilty on, are all about the same case. In 2016, Trump paid $130.000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels in order for her not to go public with that, in the middle of his first presidential campaign. Daniels was basically blackmailing Trump with that sexual relationship, which Trump from the beginning denied. Demanding hush money is illegal, but paying it is not. And yet, here we are, with a court case initiated in 2018 by Cyrus Vance, Jr. (Manhattan District Attorney Vance 2010-2021). This case was put on hold because of a federal investigation on the same payments, but when the federal inquiry concluded in July 2019 without charges, the Manhattan case remained paused. It was Vance’s successor Alvin Bragg (Manhattan District Attorney, 2022-present) who revived the case. His angle was simple: the payments were filed under an incorrect reason, and this constituted falsifying business records. Cohen would bill Trump for a series of monthly payments in order to get full repayment for the hush money, some legal work he had done, plus a bonus. In those bills, he would cite “pursuant to the retainer agreement”, while there was no such retainer agreement. The problem: this is only a misdemeanor, and well past its statute of limitations.

A little creativity was applied, and Bragg argued that Trump had made those false statements, mislabeling the payments, in order to conceal more serious crimes. This would be falsifying business errors, first degree, and a felony, allowing more serious punishment, and evading the statute of limitations. Under New York State Law, such a charge requires that “the intent to defraud includes an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof”. At first, Bragg did not specify what that other more serious crime was, that Trump tried to conceal by falsifying those business documents.

Only later did he add those: a violation of federal campaign finance limits, a violation of state election laws by unlawfully influencing the 2016 election, and a violation of state tax laws regarding the reimbursement.

It is easy to start to rip this apart. The campaign finance violation is a federal charge, and cannot be brought by Bragg (the earlier federal inquiry did not find anything actionable, let’s not forget that, either). On top of that, the campaign laws deal with the contributions to a candidate, and not the spending of the candidates themselves.

The charge about ‘violation of state election laws by unlawfully influencing the 2016 election’ is bizarre. Under this reasoning, the whole Hunter Biden laptop case would also be ‘unlawful influencing of the 2020 election’. Or the story about the Biden diary. Important to note: is paying hush money to a false charge an attempt at ‘unlawful influencing an election’? This completely turns around the case: Daniels blackmails Trump, but Trump’s attempt to keep that out of the news is what is ‘unlawful’?

And State Tax law violation? Apparently because Trump paid twice the amount invoiced, in order to ensure that Cohen would receive full reimbursement, offsetting the taxes Cohen would have to pay on such an amount. What is illegal about that?

But while such questions can legitimately be raised, it misses the point. Bragg introduced 3 alleged crimes WHICH HE NEVER PROVED. The trial was about the documents, and never about those 3 crimes those documents ‘tried to conceal’. As such, Trump was right whenever he stated that there was no crime.

What happened with the assumption of innocence? Trump was charged with those crimes in order to make that expired misdemeanor a felony. In the course of the trial, those crimes were never proven, nor was Trump at any time convicted of any of those 3 crimes. If there is no crime, how can Trump have had the intent to conceal committing that non-existent crime?

But that was the sleight of hand Bragg used. Judge Merchan agreed with this reasoning, and ordered the jury that they did not need to reach unanimity over the concealed crime, only that they needed to reach unanimity about the charges on falsifying business documents.

From the court case:

“The defendant said in his business records that he was paying Cohen for legal services pursuant to a retainer agreement. But, those were lies. There was no retainer agreement. Cohen was not being paid for legal services. The defendant was paying him back for an illegal payment to Stormy Daniels on the eve of the election. The defendant falsified those business records because he wanted to conceal his and others' criminal conduct.”

How this happened, the prosecution detailed:

“The fraudulent cover-up scheme involved falsifying three different types of business records: An invoice, falsely describing a request for payment for legal services rendered in a given month; a voucher entry in the Trump Organization's general ledger system falsely describing the payment as one for legal services; and payment checks with check stubs that also falsely describe the nature and payments.”

And the main argument:

“Each invoice repeated the lie that Cohen and defendant had agreed on in advance, that Cohen was requesting payment for legal services pursuant to a retainer agreement which didn't exist.”

Example of such invoice:

This falsification charge also includes 11 counts for falsified checks. This is one of the checks paid to Cohen by Trump:

Where does it say anything ‘falsified’ on those checks? Beats me.

Also, notice that this is a PERSONAL check, others were from the ‘Donald J. Trump – Revocable Trust Account’.

Again, this is a personal trust account in Trump’s name. Nothing is linked to his campaign.

The story about Daniels first broke when the Wall Street Journal wrote an article titled “Trump Lawyer Arranged $130,000 Payment for Adult-Film Star’s Silence - Agreement just before election required woman to keep quiet about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, people familiar with the matter say”, and appeared in the January 13, 2018, print edition as 'Trump Lawyer Paid Porn Star.'

Yet the article cites the below statement, signed by Daniels, from 2 days earlier, apparently as people tried to get ahead of media having gotten wind of the story.

Daniels would later claim that was not her signature, but it matches one variant of signatures she used under her porn actress name (her real name is Stephanie Clifford):

It is interesting to hear then Senator Biden, on the Clinton impeachment trial that went on, say that “But the need for restraint then, is even greater now than it was in 1974 [the Watergate Scandal]. The impeachment question then was not as politically charged as it is as it is today.” “And separation of powers. But the entire essence of our constitutional system is built upon the notion of the consent of the governed. And when we deign to overturn a decision of the governed, we are on very thin ice.” Yes, indeed.

Clinton was never brought to court for his perjury, denying his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinski, either. Yet Trump is dragged through a court case that tries to allege falsification of business documents, in 34 counts, based on ‘a lack of retainer agreement’, where Trump, from the moment the story broke, already in 2018, had argued on Twitter that the bills themselves formed a ‘monthly retainer’.

From what I can tell, this was indeed the case.

Nothing in the NYC court case has proven otherwise.

Not only was the ‘falsification’ never proven, Bragg added another layer, to make the misdemeanor a felony, by inserted 3 OTHER crimes. Those crimes were never proven in court, yet served as the basis from which the Jury was asked to determine Trump’s guilt in falsifying business errors, first degree. No unanimity was required, even.

To which another lawyer responded:

If we look at Richardson, we find this:

Granted, for a federal case, not a NY State case, but the principle, I would assume, remains the same. If a prosecutor enters a secondary crime to enhance/add to the initial charge, that added element needs to be proven, and it needs to be unanimously found that such element was proven. Bragg did not enter a ‘series’ of crimes into the charge to upgrade it to a felony, he added 3 separate elements, 3 distinct crimes. All three need to be proven, and all three need to be unanimously found to be proven by a jury.

But this was the plan from the beginning. They had a verdict, and a convict, they were just missing a crime. The solution? Insert an indictment that draws from 3 other unmentioned and unproven crimes. Have the judge be in on it, and tweak the jury deliberation instructions to create enough wiggle room to overlook such requirement.

This goes against EVERY legal standard in this country. Presumption of innocence. Fair trial. Knowing what you are charged with. Right to proper defense. Etc.

If the three crimes Bragg referred to had already been proven in a court of law,

On a separate note, it appears that it was Cohen himself who had an affair with Daniels, and tried to cover that up, and make extra money, by working with Daniels to extort Trump instead. That Cohen is a serial liar and untrustworthy, is proven not just by his past claims to a host of different institutions and people, but in this trial itself. He was confronted by Trump’s counsel, and forced to admit he had lied in his witness. Not only that, he was forced to admit he had stolen from Trump by charging for services that were not rendered.

On top of that, Tony Seruga alleged that Avenatti (yes, THAT Avenatti, who, as a sworn enemy of Trump, offered to testify in Trump’s defense against Cohen and Bragg and Daniels) had informed him that Daniels and Cohen had an affair since 2006...

And it doesn’t stop there, and Seruga added:

 “I am speaking with two hotel employees that reached out to me a few weeks ago, alleging Cohen and Daniels had multiple ‘stays’ at their hotel. My PI had to verify the two had in fact been employed at said hotel.” and “Getting to the bottom of this alleged affair. I’ve been told by someone who worked security at the time that Cohen and Daniels met at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas in 2014 during the AVN awards. Cohen offered to help Daniels become a contestant on The Apprentice.”

Let’s not even mention Matthew Colangelo, one of the Manhattan District Attorneys.

Zerohedge reports:

“Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on Thursday as part of a probe into whether the Biden DOJ coordinated with Trump prosecutors.

"The investigations and subsequent prosecutions of former President Donald J. Trump appear to have been conducted in coordination with the United States Department of Justice," Baily posted in a lengthy thread on X.

"This is demonstrated by the move of the third-highest ranking member of the Department of Justice, Matthew Colangelo, to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in order to prosecute President Trump in December 2022," Baily continues.”

Everyone seems to agree that this whole trial was a sham.

Nothing about it holds up when placed under even basic scrutiny.

The result is Trump’s reelection.

His campaign donation website is overwhelmed with donations, and has been inaccessible several times, due to overload: too much traffic.

Tomorrow, Trump will hold a press conference. Is his gag order finally over? (That, too, was an absurdity: he was barred from speaking about the trial, while Cohen and others openly attacked Trump in lengthy media appearances).

And Biden will address the nation from the White House, to warn about the threat against democracy that Trump poses. Using the White House, and the gravitas of a public address, to make a campaign speech. How much more clear can they make it, that the current Democrat administration is pulling all stops, using and abusing the whole government apparatus, to go after a political enemy?

As Trump said:

"They opened up Pandora’s box. Now we can look at the Bidens. [...] The box has been opened and it has been wide open so I'm allowed to do that. People will say, now we get it."

It is baffling to see just how low the United States is sinking. Our justice system in complete shambles. If this can happen in one of the preeminent legal districts in the country, against a former president, because he poses a threat to the system, it can happen to everyone of us.

The good news is that this will further wake up millions.

All is well.