Surprise Verdict guilty on all 34 counts
No verdict today. Jury sent home
Court has just begun. The jury has asked for page 7 through 35 of the jury instructions read to them. and Testimony from Pecker and Cohen. they will come back to the courtroom for that.
There's been some confusion about what jury is actually looking at and what they will need to find trump guilty.
The Big Picture is did Trump pay Michael Cohen $400K+ in 2017 for legal services or did he reimburse Michael Cohen for paying Stormy Daniels and another expense. These payments were spread out over 11 checks.
Trump is charged with falsifying business records in the first degree.
11 falsified invoices
12 falsified general ledger entries
11 checks
For a conviction, the jury will need find that these are false and they will need to find Trump caused them to be false.
If they find that Trump will be guilty of a misdemeanor. The jury needs to be unanimous on this
However, it becomes a felony if the records were falsified to cover up another crime. The DA is saying that other crime is a NY election law to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means.
The jury needs to be unanimous this occurred.
The DA is proposing three different "unlawful means"
- violations of federal election campaign act
- falsification of other business records; or
- violation of tax law
The jury doesn't not need to be unanimous about which unlawful means occurred.
The is because in NY you need to prove the ELEMENTS of the crime. The jury needs to unanimous on the elements, of the crime, but they do not need to be unanimous on the MEANS of the crime. (The witness saw the murdered beating the victim in the head and then get in his car. Witness got the license plate. Beating is the ELEMENT. Beating with a rock vs a hammer is MEANS of the crime)
The story the prosecutors are saying is that David Pecker, Michael Cohen and Donald Trump met in Trump Tower in 2015 and conspired. Specifically they are saying they violated this law
Section 17-152 - Conspiracy to promote or prevent election. Any two or more persons who conspire to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means and which conspiracy is acted upon by one or more of the parties thereto, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. N.Y. Elec. Law § 17-152.
As part of these scheme Michael Cohen formed a company that executed an NDA with Stormy Daniels and paid her $130,000 in 2016. Later Trump reimbursed Michael Cohen this money plus extra money for tax purposes. This occurred over a series of 11 checks.
So today the jury has asked to hear David Pecker's and Michael Cohen's testimony. This is the beginning of the case. It's where the prosecution started.
Thank you for this succinct explanation. Here’s my question:
An NDA is a legal agreement. NDA’s are a common practice in business and politics. NDA’s are legal. So where is the unlawful means here?
NDA’s are a legal document; therefore, a legal expense.
Legal expenses are tax deductible.
The FEC found no grounds to “charge” or punish President Trump for this matter, nor did the DOJ. So how can this be perceived as violating a federal law?
The prosecutor had a snappy line for this in closing arguments, let me see if I could find it.
So it's about how the NDA was paid for. I believe if Trump just paid her with his own money in 2016, they couldn't have charged him with any thing.
Unfortunately, there's a few pieces of evidence where Trump has called it a reimbursement including this tweet. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/tweets-may-3-2018
He also revealed it as personal debt on a government form.
I also think legal expenses would be for working on the contract, the NDA itself, but not paying the contract the $$ to SD. Like if buy a business for $100,000 and my lawyer works on the papers, the lawyer isn't expected to the pay the $100,000 to the owner of the business.
Trump's lawyer said the tweet shows there was nothing shady.
Tax issues
The other crime in the NY statue doesn't have to be committed by Trump. Cohen plead guilty to campaign violations. David Pecker signed a nonprosecution agreement. I know there are jury instructions about this. The agreement can not be viewed as Trump being guilty of that crime.
they went over a lot of your questions in closing arguments. transcripts can be found here https://pdfs.nycourts.gov/PeopleVs.DTrump-71543/transcripts/
Thanks for clarifying all of this. Truly pathetic attempt against Trump.
Kangaroo court
Kek
"my caaa is double paaaked"
Um. This is literally what the other side did. They boarded up windows so people couldn't see what was going on, had election sites that had busted water pipes for the entire day, instructed people to fill out ballots with the wrong types of pens, accepted mail in votes beyond the closing time for elections, stood at polls and gave instructions to voters in order to sway opinion, shifted votes in the middle of the night, prevented the use of voter ID, gathered voters who didn't exist in those counties and were dead to cast their votes, on and on and on. This is literally what they did:
"Section 17-152 - Conspiracy to promote or prevent election. Any two or more persons who conspire to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means and which conspiracy is acted upon by one or more of the parties thereto, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. N.Y. Elec. Law § 17-152."
Where's the accountability? Will we ever see it? What upside down world is this that we got shifted to? Everything is backwards. Everything. They are literally mirroring their own actions.
I really am at the point where I'm just praying God steps in and that we are literally living in a time period where Christ returns to the Earth and puts an end the lawlessness. And I do think that time is coming. The Bible does tell us that in those days, all truth will be revealed. And remember Christ's second return, he does not come bringing peace - instead, he comes "with a sword" to cast judgement.
Let's go, Christ. "How much longer will we wait and cry out to you?" "Just a little while longer."
I am asking for that practically every single day. I am tired of watching injustices and to shove into our throats LGBTQ+ knowing that part of Israel has a lot of those demons. Those are the ones giving us the misery. Also, illegals terrorists killing our citizens. We ask our Lord Father in the name of Jesus Christ to stop all nonsense.
Amen.
Waiting game again.
https://www.tickcounter.com/countup/361009/trump-jury-deliberations
Trumped up charges...
Judge not, lest you be judged....
MAGA needs these filthy animals to get MAGA'd....
I'm throwing in a couple of Yoots for good measure...😁
Here's the testimony the jury wanted to hear again. This was all read in court about 45 min ago.
https://x.com/AnnaBower/status/1796198854766772429
Trump had a conversation with Pecker about buying Karen McDougal's story and told Pecker to talk to Cohen about it.
Jurors heard both Trump and Cohen's version of the Trump Tower meeting with Trump. On Cross examination, Pecker says "catch and kill" was never used. Jurors hear that David Pecker called off the deal to sell Karen McDougal's story to Cohen, he tells Cohen he's out and to rip up the deal.
One Key thing I forgot, the jurors wanted speakers or headphones, so they must want to listen to audio. Cohen recorded Trump. and there's another phone call I think.
Verdict is IN. Time to turn on the b00btube.
Hokey Smokes!
3 days ago i goy a msg from the trump campaign saying 72 hours! It felt ominous
Crazy day
What a fricken sham. Please show me the president who has not “conspired” to promote their election? What about all the campaign money funneled in via shell NGOs etc. into the Biden campaign!???
This is absolutely ridiculous and the American public - 2/3 total- are being shafted by this scumbag and his cronies calling themselves public servants. The only thing they’re serving is their pockets.
This is a travesty and makes a mockery of the American judicial system. We have here a kangaroo court.
There is no Justice in this country. It died long ago, but this is the final mail in the coffin.
So an hour ago. They excused the jury. I thought They were going home for the night.
USA sucks
All over Tic Tock, they are saying Trump has not been found guilty. I have seen nothing on the Fake News media yet. So I will say at this point it is fake news that President Trump was found not guilty.
CCP trying to stoke riots early lmao
Sooooooo score one for the fake news media?