B-Man

Trump Hush-Money Trial Begins as Experts Scratch Heads COLLIN ANDERSON Brought by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, the case was considered dead three years ago, when Bragg's predecessor and federal prosecutors abandoned it. But Bragg, who campaigned on his record suing the Trump administration more than a hundred times as a deputy in the New York state attorney general’s office, revived the case in 2021, filing felony charges against Trump last year alleging he had falsified the business records pertaining to the Daniels payments. A number of legal experts have questioned Bragg's decision to seek felony charges in the case. In New York, charges over falsified business records are typically brought as misdemeanors and are "rarely the senior offense in an indictment," according to the Financial Times. For the crime to rise to a felony, prosecutors must prove that the defendant falsified records to "commit or conceal another crime." https://freebeacon.com/courts/trump-goes-to-trial-in-hush-money-case-as-legal-experts-voice-skepticism-over-the-merits/ .

Only a fool continues to push a discredited lie. (which explains why Tibs will keep responding) .

Byron York Sharing Judge Merchan's Statement for Prospective Trump Jurors Shows Case for the SHAM It Is Do you lawyer types think this sounds like felony charges?

MAYBE THE PRESIDENT DOESN’T KNOW THAT IT HAS:

NPR’S NEW CEO GETS EMBARRASSINGLY EXPOSED AMID EDITOR BLOWING THE WHISTLE ON THE OUTLET: https://redstate.com/bonchie/2024/04/14/nprs-new-ceo-gets-exposed-by-old-posts-after-editor-blows-the-whistle-on-systemic-bias-n2172740 .

The facts are these: Ms. Daniels has said that in 2006 she and Mr. Trump had one, er, intimate encounter. A decade later, as the 2016 election neared, Mr. Trump’s fixer Michael Cohen paid Ms. Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet. A nondisclosure agreement isn’t illegal. Mr. Bragg’s complaint is about the paperwork. Mr. Cohen was reimbursed through 2017 via a monthly retainer “disguised as a payment for legal services,” the DA said. He padded his indictment by separately charging each invoice, check and ledger entry to get 34 counts. Falsifying business records in New York can be a misdemeanor, but the statute of limitations on that has expired. Mr. Bragg therefore must charge felonies, which under New York law means showing that Mr. Trump cooked the books with “intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof.” Even that requires special dispensation. The 2017 payments are outside the five-year felony window, but state judge Juan Merchan ruled that Mr. Bragg enjoys an extra year of leeway after emergency COVID-19 executive orders stopped the clock on legal cases. Oh dear. In a non-Banana Republic, the law works by uncovering a crime and then prosecuting those guilty of the crime. In a certified Banana Republic, the regime finds someone it dislikes and then calls out the legal bloodhounds to discover or, if need be, to manufacture a crime as a pretext to take out the undesirable person. The latter is what is happening here, which is why the WSJ began its editorial by saying that “it’s a trial that shouldn’t happen in a case Mr. Bragg shouldn’t have brought.” It is worth noting that this is not a partisan issue. It is an issue of fundamental fairness and the impartial application of the law. National Review’s Andrew McCarthy is a staunch critic of Donald Trump. But he is under no illusions about what Alvin Bragg is attempting to do in his prosecution of Trump. “He turns an uncharged misdemeanor into 34 felonies,” McCarthy said recently, “while when dealing with violent crime in Manhattan, he turns felonies into misdemeanors.” Similarly, The Wall Street Journal is not an enthusiastic supporter of Donald Trump. But it is an enthusiastic supporter of the rule of law, which is why it is officially appalled by what is happening in what can only be called a show trial. “Now the country is on the brink of an extraordinary moment, as Mr. Bragg uses a weak and untested legal premise to put the other party’s presidential nominee on trial during the 2024 campaign.” https://amgreatness.com/2024/04/14/the-battle-begins-trumps-trial-tests-american-justice/ https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-trial-alvin-bragg-juan-merchan-stormy-daniels-dcc214a1

* PPP simpleton response, I don't have have to listen to that, it's Newsmax. .

FEELING THE SQUEEZE: Bidenflation Soars To 18.8%, Squeezing Americans. Despite a decrease from the highs of mid-2022, many families continue to face significant inflationary pressures. Prices have increased by 18.8%, while real wages have declined by 2.5%. Average hourly earnings for all employees dropped 2.5% to $11.11 in March 2024 from $11.39 in January 2021 when Biden assumed office. According to Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, the typical U.S. household now requires $1,069 more each month (equivalent to $12,828 annually) compared to three years ago, $784 more per month compared to two years ago, and an additional $227 per month compared to last year. The Allianz Life study found 67% are more concerned about paying bills now than their financial future. Bidenflation and the Fed’s eleven rate hikes to reduce inflation have made housing unaffordable for many people and caused displacements. According to CBRE data, the average monthly payments on a new home soared to $3,322 in the third quarter of 2023. This marks a sharp 90% increase from late 2020, when it stood at just $1,746 before Biden took office. Rising rent and the end of pandemic-era protections are contributing to the homelessness crisis. Therefore, it is unsurprising that inflation and food prices emerged as top economic issues among Americans in a recent nationwide TIPP Poll. https://tippinsights.com/bidenflation-soars-to-18-8-squeezing-americans/#google_vignette “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” should be on repeat from now until Election Day. .

“ANTI-WAR” ACTIVISTS FOR WAR: Jewish Insider: In Chicago on Saturday, 300 anti-war activists were meeting to discuss plans to disrupt the Democratic National Convention in August when an activist took to the stage to announce that Iran had attacked Israel. The crowd burst into cheers at the news, The Free Press reported. The event was co-hosted by several groups, including the Chicago chapter of SJP. https://jewishinsider.com/2024/04/daily-kickoff-israels-next-step-after-irans-attack/ .

California is the homeland of progressive anti-Semitism: Even Jewish progressives are waking up to the reality of anti-Semitic hate on the Left. One 19th century Gentile described California as “the Jews’ earthly paradise”. It is paradise no longer. Reports of attacks on Jewish businesses, homes and institutions are becoming ever more commonplace, while university campuses – hardly considered to be bastions of hate – have allowed acts of flagrant anti-Semitism to go unpunished. Just last week, pro-Hamas students interrupted a graduation party for UC Berkeley law school graduates at the home of the school’s Jewish dean. The ‘protest’ occurred on private property, but that didn’t prevent the leader of ‘Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine’ from smearing the professor who confiscated the microphone from the interrupting student’s hand as an “Islamophobe”, accusing her of “assault”. It appears that California’s Jews can’t even relax in their own homes without being confronted by zealous radicals. Prior to the event, posters had been shared on social media showing the dean holding a bloody knife and fork, captioned “No dinner with Zionist Chem while Gaza starves.” It’s little wonder that dean Chemerinsky, a well-known progressive, wrote in response that “nothing has prepared me for the anti-Semitism” currently festering on Berkeley campus. What happens in California says much about the future of the beleaguered Jewish diaspora. California, with 1.2 million Jews, has almost three times as many Jewish people as the three largest foreign diaspora countries – France, England and Canada. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/comment/2024/04/14/california-uc-berkley-antisemitism-gaza-palestine-israel/ .

Waaaaahhh ! We can't broadcast propaganda pictures of Trump in Court. . . . . . . . . it's unfair ! "Unlike nearly every other state, New York does not allow cameras in the courtroom and also prohibits audio recordings..." "... of witness testimony and other proceedings.... In an era when even the U.S. Supreme Court streams live audio of oral arguments, New York is way behind the times; the official court rules for coverage of People v. Trump allows for about 60 journalists (including two sketch artists) to witness the proceedings with 'no video, no photographs, no audio recording.'... In New York — again, in a departure from the federal system and every other state — official rules state that transcripts of what gets said in court must be purchased from the court stenographers who have the job of recording, on a specialized keyboard, every word, action, and ruling in criminal cases." From "Free the Trump Trial Transcripts/The New York court system’s maddening lack of transparency is about to be a national embarrassment" (New York Magazine). Click for more »https://althouse.blogspot.com/2024/04/unlike-nearly-every-other-state-new.html#more .

Supreme Court Will Hear Arguments on Thursday That Could Overturn Convictions of Hundreds of J6 Rioters RICK MORAN On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear a case that could impact the 2024 presidential election and lead to the release of or reduction in sentences for hundreds of January 6 rioters. Before the trials began, the J6 prosecutors decided that the most serious charge they could get a conviction for was an obstruction charge. The prosecutors were alleging that the rioters obstructed an official proceeding of Congress, making the crime eligible to be prosecuted for anyone who "corruptly alters, destroys, mutilates, or conceals a record, document, or otherr object, or attempts to do so, with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding; or (2) otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so.” There are two points of contention for defense attorneys. The first is the definition "corruptly" and the second is the "otherwise" wording that leads, they say, to an overly broad interpretation of the statute. https://pjmedia.com/rick-moran/2024/04/14/supreme-court-will-hear-arguments-on-thursday-that-could-overturn-convictions-of-hundreds-of-j6-rioters-n4928165 .

.

A serial perjurer will try to prove an old misdemeanor against Trump in an embarrassment for the New York legal system by Jonathan Turley The famous Roman philosopher and orator Marcus Tullius Cicero once said, “The more laws, the less justice.” This week, New York judges and lawyers appear eager to prove that the same is true for cases against Donald Trump. After an absurd $450 million decision courtesy of Attorney General Letitia James, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg will bring his equally controversial criminal prosecution over hush money paid to a former porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. Lawyers have been scouring the civil and criminal codes for any basis to sue or prosecute Trump before the upcoming 2024 election. https://nypost.com/2024/04/14/opinion/a-serial-perjurer-will-try-to-prove-an-old-misdemeanor-against-trump-in-an-embarrassment-for-the-new-york-legal-system/ .

New York Times Admits Voters Looking Back ‘More Positively’ on Trump’s Presidency as Biden Fails at Everything by Ben Kew The far-left New York Times has admitted that growing numbers of voters are looking back “more positively” on Donald Trump’s presidency as the Biden administration continues to fail at everything it does. In an article published Sunday, the Times conceded that voters have a “rosier picture” of Trump’s tenure when compared with Biden, particularly on issues such as immigration, the economy and law and order. The paper reported: Views of Donald J. Trump’s presidency have become more positive since he left office, bolstering his case for election and posing a risk to President Biden’s strategy of casting his opponent as unfit for the presidency https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/04/new-york-times-admits-voters-looking-back-more/ https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/14/us/politics/poll-trump-views.html

.

.