ChiGoose

If the can do it to Trump, they can do it to any one of us who falsifies dozens of business records to hide payments to a porn star in order to benefit our election campaign.

Lots of soft on crime clickservstives are big mad that the law is being enforced. SAD!

I have no doubt that red state DAs will try to politicize prosecutions. But that says more about them than anything else. Seems like there may be a lot you’re missing.

The economy performs better under Dem presidents than GOP presidents. If you distrust the wealthy elite, you should avoid the GOP.

Remember when the GOP tried to impeach Biden but it fell apart because they are morons and there wasn’t evidence? Pepperidge Farms remembers

You’re projecting quite a bit here.

I’m not so confident that Biden wins, but if Trump is alive in 2028, hard to see how he isn’t the GOP nominee.

Very unlikely that the election would have been stolen since that’s never happened before. You could make an argument for 1876 but that’s about it. Given the GOP’s plans, however, it’s unlikely that future elections wouldn’t be fixed. Personally, I’ll be fine. I’m a straight white dude with a great job living in a blue bastion. I’ll be sad, and there’s a chance his policies impact my job negatively, but overall, it won’t be a disaster for me. I’ll have to check in with my more vulnerable friends to see if they need support. At least one friend does have plans to head to Canada due to being LGBT. My wife and I will have to have a serious talk about if we want more kids. She has a condition that makes her likely to miscarry (she’s had five miscarriages) and if Trump signs a national law that mirrors what we see in Texas, her getting pregnant will be a serious risk for her health. Everything points to him being more off the hook and unrestrained than last time. I have a hard time seeing him championing policies I would support.

I don’t know about four years. He definitely will not see the inside of a prison before the election. Even if sentenced to time, he’ll rightfully appeal and that sentence should be suspended pending resolution of the appeals. Unbelievably to anyone familiar with his history, he is technically a first time offender. Had he been convicted of just one of these, he wouldn’t see any jail time. Maybe even a couple. With 34, you gotta think some time in prison is on the table, but these are fairly low level felonies so I wouldn’t expect it to be much, if any.

I’m old enough to remember when Trump said we only had a handful of COVID cases and they would simply go away, and also when Bloomberg reported a 100% chance of a recession in 2023.

I wouldn’t be surprised. I’d guess it is more likely to hurt him than help him but there is clearly a large percentage of Americans living in a bubble who may be convinced that this was all improper. They could rally around him in the end.

The election is likely to be extremely close. Any small thing could tip it one way or the other.

Probably? It doesn’t seem like most people are following the election closely right now. Those of us talking about politics all of the time are the weirdos. The general electorate is more concerned about day-to-issues and may not really tune in until closer to the Fall. Who knows what they think when they do?

“Look, it was totally unfair. That’s all you need to know. Just because we can’t point to a specific reversible error doesn’t mean it won’t be overturned. It has to be overturned based on my feels.” This charge is fairly routine for NY and has been used this way for years (including against other politicians) without it being overturned for something like being unconstitutionally vague. I won’t rule out this iteration of SCOTUS eventually doing something nuts but to claim that it is for certain going to be overturned is just betraying ignorance. Could he potentially win on appeal? Sure. But to say it is certain is just wishcasting.

Dangerous levels of copium on the board today

Juror 2 might disagree…

What was the reversible error?

Well, here we go

Bingo. Not the most efficient system but it’s what they do… They have a buzzer that calls a court officer. They can ask for testimony, evidence, rereading the jury instructions, etc. I believe I saw a report that one of them asked for Alka-Seltzer, which is pretty relatable.

Standard practice in NYS courts. I believe the concern is that if the jurors have a copy of the instructions they’ll focus on that instead of the actual evidence.

Another point in the column for Hanlon’s Razor

I would try not to read anything into it. Juries can be unpredictable.

There wouldn’t have been a crime if the payments were from campaign funds and properly disclosed. The allegation is that they used non-campaign funds to benefit the campaign so they could avoid disclosure. (Same thing Pxcker and Cohen got in trouble for). The crimes charged are NYS crimes. To step up to a felony, they must have been committed to conceal another crime. The statute does not require that the concealed crime be a state crime or have been successfully committed. Just that the falsification of business records was done with the intent of covering up that crime. The allegations are that the falsification was done to cover up state election crimes, federal election crimes, tax crimes, and I believe additional document falsification crimes. Evidence for the elements of these crime were presented at trial. These types of charges are not uncommon in NY, including against past politicians. What has the judge done that deviates from the normal practice in NY enough to warrant a claim of bias?

What did he conclude? I thought he was just saying that as of now, the trial doesn’t seem to be affecting the polls. That seems true. And likely to change if Trump is convicted.