Trump's Crimes & Investigations

[LFC]

More details. The counts cover Trump using fake business transactions to bury potentially embarrassing stories, including Stormy Daniels. If he had just paid out of his own pocket, there wouldn't have been any charges to make.

Indictment Goes Beyond Stormy Daniels

An early takeaway is that this indictment is not just about the $130,000 payment that Michael Cohen made to Stormy Daniels to buy her silence.

That’s included, but Trump is accused of “suppressing” the accounts of two other people, both of whose stories have been known.

One is a Trump Tower doorman who alleged that the former president fathered an illegitimate child. Prosecutors say that AMI, the parent company of the National Enquirer, agreed to pay the doorman $30,000 without investigating the story, at the behest of then-Trump attorney Michael Cohen.

The other person’s description matches that of Karen McDougal, the model who had a liaison with Trump. In her case, Cohen also arranged for AMI to pay $150,000 to buy her silence.

[jackd]

Unfortunately, it's still thin gruel. Some had speculated that the fraudulent business practices that got his company convicted would be now charged to Trump personally, but apparently not so.

[LFC]

Yeah, because this isn't meant to be intimidation. Meanwhile any of them would screech bloody murder and instantly play the victim if they were treated the same way. Large Marge already has whined furiously over her privacy not be respected as she's done so much to disrespect people's privacy. But that's to be expected from a Republican.

[goldenvalley]

Apr 4, 2023 20:29:01 GMT LFC said:

More details. The counts cover Trump using fake business transactions to bury potentially embarrassing stories, including Stormy Daniels. If he had just paid out of his own pocket, there wouldn't have been any charges to make.

He's too cheap for that.  He allegedly told Cohen to hold off on payment until after the elections.  If he lost, no one would care.  If he won, he's president anyway. 

It seems like this case gets to the essence of Trump in his life.  Do something shady and then try to tap dance around and away from it to avoid being held responsible for it.  Whether in getting nookie or in stiffing contractors...same pattern. And if he gets called on it in public, try to brazen it out by attacking someone or turning lemons into lemonade.  Didn't he say of his second wife something about best sex he ever had while he's dumping and probably cheating on first wife.  What a man!

[LFC]

Trump continues to try to do what he's always done in legal matters; stall, stall, and stall some more. Fortunately he's facing a real judge, not like Judge "Loose" Cannon, and this judge is having none of it.

Already drowning in legal trouble from his recent arrest and two other potential criminal indictments on the horizon, former President Donald Trump continues to delay the New York attorney general’s attempt to bankrupt him—this time, by finding Republican-friendly accountants in Texas.

His family company, the Trump Organization, was forced to scramble and find new accountants early last year amid accusations it regularly faked business records to inflate assets. The shunned Trumps settled on Whitley Penn, a relatively unknown accounting firm that doesn’t even rank among the “Big Four”—not even among the big four in North Texas.

But a potential reason Trump selected Whitley Penn became obvious to AG Letitia James’ investigators last month, when the small firm made clear it wouldn’t simply comply with her team’s subpoenas in New York seeking information about the Trump Organization’s latest finances.

In a March 23 letter, Whitley Penn’s lawyer cited “constraints imposed by confidentiality obligations” and explained how Texas law shields clients from undue intrusions of privacy.

Claiming that it “takes no position on the outcome here,” the Texas accounting firm serving as the Trumps’ “independent auditor” said it would only turn over records “if the Trump Organization consents” or if a judge steps in.

Luckily for James, a judge just did that.

New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur F. Engoron—a judge who has grown exasperated at Trump’s delay tactics and had to intervene half a dozen times to force the former American president to comply with the most basic legal processes—issued an order Friday compelling Whitley Penn to turn over the relevant documents.

In a single year, Engoron has ordered Trump to show up to his deposition at the AG’s office, slapped him with a $110,000 fine for not turning over records, forced him to share documents, and repeatedly batted down attempts to get him replaced as judge.

And so on April 7, Engoron weighed in yet again—this time signing off on an agreement between the AG’s office and Trump’s lawyers that permits the accounting firm to turn over records—and get a certified public accountant to answer investigators’ questions.

The AG’s Office now expects Whitley Penn to hand over what it requested in its Feb. 14 subpoena: any agreement it has with the Trumps, as well as copies of any internal Trump Organization documents it has inspected to prepare the company’s financial statements. Investigators also want any communications Whitley Penn had with the accountants it replaced over at MazarsUSA.

Those communications could prove pivotal, after MazarsUSA ditched the Trump Organization once it became clear that Trump’s financial statements were based, at times, on nothing more than his own self-aggrandizing bluster.

[pnwguy]

Apr 11, 2023 15:56:07 GMT LFC said:

Trump continues to try to do what he's always done in legal matters; stall, stall, and stall some more. Fortunately he's facing a real judge, not like Judge "Loose" Cannon, and this judge is having none of it.

In President Trump 2.0, he'll just insist we fire all state and federal judges and have Trump family members hear all cases.  But only in the Roman Coliseum sense -- thumbs up or down.  No one needs any actual legal education.  

[LFC]

In typical corrupt and fascist form, Trump reaches out to Congressional Republicans to interfere with the Department of Justice. As always the law, and certainly not ethics, don't apply to Republicans.

Bizarre And Troubling

In an extraordinary, unprecedented, and bordering on lawless move, lawyers for Donald Trump in the Mar-a-Lago documents investigation are lobbying Republicans in Congress to somehow intervene in the case and implausibly block the Justice Department from pursuing a prosecution.

Laying out a partial defense of Trump that amounts to talking points for GOP lawmakers, the Trump lawyers in a letter to House Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH) seemed to be beseeching the former president’s congressional allies to help muddy the waters in the case. (Newsflash: Congress can’t order the Justice Department to stop an investigation.)

Notably their defense of Trump focused mainly on the period before he was subpoenaed by a DC grand jury to return all of the documents. They didn’t have much to offer on the period after the subpoena, when Trump’s greatest legal jeopardy may have attached.

[goldenvalley]

Apr 27, 2023 13:34:34 GMT LFC said:

In typical corrupt and fascist form, Trump reaches out to Congressional Republicans to interfere with the Department of Justice. As always the law, and certainly not ethics, don't apply to Republicans.

Seems to be a pattern with him.  Didn't do anything wrong, no siree. But if I did it it's legal because I have the authority to do it. File all sorts of diversionary motions to delay things.  Attack the prosecution, the judge, any witnesses against him, whoever is pursuing the case. Look to other institutions or people to protect him or give him what he wants. His Atty General will call DOJ to heel or Congress should protect him. To put pressure on Congress on 1/6 he went to a mob for help. Will he do so again?

Really Trump is a political problem violating and generally disrespecting the system of government we have. He's not a strictly legal one.  But the Senate wouldn't convict him on the impeachment so we are left with legal remedies that can't really address all of the wrongdoing that has happened.

[LFC]

Tick-tock, motherf***er.

Former President Donald Trump’s second criminal indictment looks all but certain to go down this summer. You could even mark it in your calendar: Sometime between July 11 and Sept. 1.

That’s because Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has formally asked local officials to beef up security during that window, when she plans to announce charging decisions in her long-running investigation of Trump’s attempt to reverse his 2020 election defeat in Georgia.

She wouldn’t need all that extra security if she weren’t planning to go after Trump himself, former prosecutors and legal experts say.

“The Fulton DA’s letter makes it almost certain that Trump is getting indicted,” said Titus Nichols, an Atlanta-area defense lawyer and former prosecutor from the nearby Augusta Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office. “There is no other reason to send something in writing to the sheriff.”

[LFC]

The surveillance tapes from Mar-a-Lago that were turned over to the government may have been tampered with. Personally, I'd bet on it. I hope Jack Smith starts requesting extremely harsh consequences for further bullshit maneuvers from Trump and his legal team. He's pulled this shit all his life and it's time to

‘Obstruction On Steroids’

Special Counsel Jack Smith is probing whether surveillance video at Mar-a-Lago subpoenaed by a federal grand jury was tampered with, CNN reports.

Smith appears to be focused on what, if anything, happened to the surveillance video after it was subpoenaed by investigators last summer. The surveillance video was subpoenaed in June 2022 because investigators already had suspicions about whether Trump had fully complied with a May 22 subpoena for government documents.

Among the new developments via CNN:

• “Longtime Trump Organization executives Matthew Calamari Sr. and his son Matthew Calamari Jr. are expected to appear Thursday before the grand jury investigating possible mishandling of classified documents brought to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, sources said.”

• “Prosecutors are expected to ask them about the handling of the surveillance footage and Trump employees’ conversations following the subpoena, according to the sources.”

• “Investigators also have previously asked about a text message from [Trump aide Walt] Nauta to Calamari Sr. and subsequent conversations about the surveillance footage, according to two of the sources.”

NYU law professor Ryan Goodman said any tampering with the subpoenaed surveillance video would be “obstruction on steroids”:

[LFC]

Forbes has verified additional pieces of information concerning fraud over the valuations of Trump Tower. I'd say that #3, having Trump involved on tape, must be scaring the shit out of him.

[LFC]

He's in complete and total meltdown. Sounds like he's panicking and out of options at this point other than admitting guilt (yeah, right).

A few comments:

Mueller, She Wrote
@muellershewrote

My *personal* belief/wish is that he's about to be indicted for obstruction and there'll be a meeting for his lawyers to argue against indictment. It's pretty common for the DoJ to invite a target in to make one last argument against indictment.

Mueller, She Wrote
@muellershewrote

All over Truth Social this morning, Donald is complaining about the documents case and obstruction.

Robert Dembia
@rdembia

Maybe because Judge Kaplan scheduled a hearing for Sunday?

grammy1
@grammy178134697

💪🏼💥 “MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell analyzes new reporting from NYT, that Special Prosecutor Jack Smith & his team have secured the cooperation of an insider witness in their investigation of former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified gov.documents after he left office.”

NaomiOhMy 🌻💛🐝 Is On #Spoutible
@naomiomy_

Learned from @emptywheel that Trump's "people" can be charged with conspiracy and get the exact same punishment as he does--up to 10 years of prison per page of classified documents withheld. That's a WHOLE lot of incentive for them to fully cooperate/flip against The Orange One.

Trump's defense?

[LFC]

Man, if this is true then Trump's obstruction game is pretty much played out. If the judge is landing this hard they aren't going to let Trump's attorneys pull any more shit.

[AnBr]

May 5, 2023 20:35:14 GMT LFC said:

He's in complete and total meltdown. Sounds like he's panicking and out of options at this point other than admitting guilt (yeah, right).

He could go running to Putie and ask for asylum, but what happens when Putie wakes up with a bullet in his head?

[indy]

It's still unclear whether or not the nooses will find the right necks but it looks more likely than it did a year ago.

[pnwguy]

May 6, 2023 13:23:25 GMT AnBr said:

May 5, 2023 20:35:14 GMT LFC said:

He's in complete and total meltdown. Sounds like he's panicking and out of options at this point other than admitting guilt (yeah, right).

He could go running to Putie and ask for asylum, but what happens when Putie wakes up with a bullet in his head?

MBS is his plan B, I would think.  He'd be fine in a country that treats women as breeding slaves.  Melania can model the latest in haute burka fashion, although I would think this would be her chance to get rid of him.

But getting him to not make any "Two Corinthians" mistakes about the Koran could be a challenge.  If I was MBS, I'd have his tongue cut out and not allow him smartphone access while exiled in Trump Tower Riyadh.  Then a year later when the press coverage goes down, the bone saw team will visit him.  

[LFC]

May 6, 2023 16:38:10 GMT pnwguy said:

MBS is his plan B, I would think.  He'd be fine in a country that treats women as breeding slaves.  Melania can model the latest in haute burka fashion, although I would think this would be her change to get rid of him. 

Definitely her chance to dump his ass. He couldn't come back for the divorce proceedings and a buttload of his assets are fixed in the U.S. You can't put a golf course into a Bahamian bank very easily. Keep an eye open to see if he suddenly starts taking huge loans with his properties as collateral.

[goldenvalley]

May 6, 2023 13:23:25 GMT AnBr said:

May 5, 2023 20:35:14 GMT LFC said:

He's in complete and total meltdown. Sounds like he's panicking and out of options at this point other than admitting guilt (yeah, right).

He could go running to Putie and ask for asylum, but what happens when Putie wakes up with a bullet in his head?

Wasn't he in Ireland on Friday?  If I were him, I'd not come back to US soil.

If he was really smart, he'd have $$ stashed in all sorts of places across the world that he could live off of. That is he would if he actually had the kind of money he always claimed he had.

Or he catch pitch a tent on one of his Scottish or Irish golf courses if Putin won't take him in.  Not sure MBS is an option.  He was more Jared's buddy than Trump's. Maybe his good North Korean friend will take him in.

[pnwguy]

Five million in damages against the sexual abuser. Maybe Trump went to some NYC drag queen shows and was groomed.

Of course the National Pussy Grifter may get $50 million in fund raising revenue out of his next victimhood appeal.

[goldenvalley]

Trump was truthing about how this case is BS, never should be heard because he's a presidential candidate yesterday and this morning. What's he going to say on the CNN town hall tonight?  If he doesn't come down with food poisoning and be unable to attend.  If there are sane people around him they'll be working hard to keep him from going on the air and having a melt down.

[LFC]

May 9, 2023 19:37:56 GMT pnwguy said:

Five million in damages against the sexual abuser. Maybe Trump went to some NYC drag queen shows and was groomed.

Of course the National Pussy Grifter may get $50 million in fund raising revenue out of his next victimhood appeal.

What are the odds that the $5M is not ultimately paid by the campaign. I can't imagine him digging into his own wallet for that money.

[goldenvalley]

He could have gone to court to testify to this but he didn't.

It won't change the cult's mind.  And those who are indifferent will remain indifferent.  

[goldenvalley]

Pity the victimized wealthy men...

[indy]

Kinda weird verdict, no? They believed her but just not to the extent that she knew whether or not he forced her to have intercourse? I mean, how do you reach that conclusion? Was it some sort of compromise verdict among the jury?

[goldenvalley]

May 9, 2023 20:51:20 GMT indy said:

Kinda weird verdict, no? They believed her but just not to the extent that she knew whether or not he forced her to have intercourse? I mean, how do you reach that conclusion? Was it some sort of compromise verdict among the jury?

She couldn't testify to all details like dates so maybe the jury decided that something happened but she didn't prove the penetration part to their satisfaction. So maybe the "grab by the pussy" line from the Access Hollywood tape and her testimony on that subject seemed too on the nose to be credible.