Several States hit with tornadoes over the past two days.
Crazy footage from yesterday out of Nebraska and Iowa
https://youtu.be/p1wuPBHRi4Q?si=FTwy58Z4f2FRhunj
Oklahoma East of 35 is experiencing multiple PDS warnings for Particularly Dangerous situation.
Heard of radar showing debris as high as 25,000 feet.
David Pecker's testimony and cross-examination is over.
From wiki Rhona Cheryl Graff [1] is a long-standing executive assistant to Donald Trump and senior vice-president of the Trump Organization.[2] She worked at Trump Tower in New York City for nearly thirty years prior to Trump's election to the United States Presidency, and has been described as Trump's 'gatekeeper'.
She is there under a subpoena and has a lawyer paid for by the Trump organization
https://pdfs.nycourts.gov/PeopleVs.DTrump-71543/transcripts/
NY is making daily transcripts available of the NYC Trump trial a day or so after it happens.
So Monday's transcript is up at this link.
Big day for Trump in NYC city today.
**
Criminal Trial**
Opening arguments, first witness I think today and tomorrow trial ends by 2PM.
Judge is issuing "Sandoval ruling" indicating what prosecutors can question Trump on if he testifies.
Bond Hearing
Leticia James has questioned if Knight Specialty Insurance Company can put the bond in NY Fraud case. They are also in court today. I think this is a risk to Trump.
I think there's a nonzero chance they will say this company cannot put up a bond. If that is the case, Trump will have 7 days to find a new bond. In short, by the end of today, it's possible his assets are not protected.
BIG NEWS They have reached an agreement on one of the big issues in the bond hearing. Trump will make changes to the collateral agreement. This might be enough to settle everything. See comments below.
Publisher of the National Enquirer said to be prosecution's first witness Monday morning.
Magazine publisher David Pecker is slated to be the first witness in former President Trump’s criminal hush money trial, The New York Times reported Sunday, setting the stage as the first criminal trial of a former president gets underway Monday.****
https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1781660029835153719?t=gqBGUh8TM0HPr_X2n7Ryjw&s=19
Disgraced Stormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti has been in contact with former President Trump’s legal defense team and is ready and willing to testify against his former client, he told The Post in an interview from jail.
“The defense has contacted me,” Avenatti told The Post in a phone call from Terminal Island, a minimum-security federal prison in Los Angeles where he is currently serving a 19-year sentence for extortion, tax evasion, fraud, embezzlement and other federal crimes.
“I’d be more than happy to testify, I don’t know that I will be called to testify, but I have been in touch with Trump’s defense for the better part of year,” Avenatti said.
NYC trial
The Full Panel of 12 jurors and 6 alternates were selected and sent home.
Bloomberg The Trump team has filed an appeal about jury selection and they are already hearing it. Trump side criticizing how quickly the jury was selected and seeking a halt to the trial and a change of venue.
and we should get a rulling within an hour.
NY Fraud Bond
Leticia James has formally asked the court to reject Trump's $175 million bond in the fraud case. There was already a hearing on this scheduled for 10am Monday. Trump's bond company supplied more info late Monday night an hour before the midnight deadline. They also asked for James to pay their court costs.
It doesn't meet the "requirements of trustworthiness and competence," the AG says. Trump, his co-defendants, and the suretor "have failed to justify [Knight Specialty Insurance Company] as the surety on this extraordinarily large undertaking for a number of reasons," the AG argues. If the judge declares the bond to be without effect, the NYAG wants him to order another bond within seven days. https://x.com/KlasfeldReports/status/1781405951284617543
Here's the filing https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24558931-452564_2022_people_of_the_state_of_v_people_of_the_state_of_memorandum_of_law_i_1738
Mar a Lago case
Judge denies Trump co-defendants' motions to dismiss charges in classified documents case https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4605067-trump-documents-case-co-defendants-motions-rejected/
In the NY criminal trial Trump is going to have to "show cause" why he shouldn't have to pay $1,000 for each of 3 posts on Truth Social prosecutos say violate the gag order the judge imposed on Trump.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24549159-2024-04-15signedotsc
If you remember in the Trump fraud trial, he found a company to put up the $175 million dollar bond to prevent the judgement from being executed while he appeals. Without this bond, Trish James could begin going after his assets.
Previous threads on this.
https://greatawakening.win/p/17siXLad6O/trump-ny-bond-still-not-settled/ https://greatawakening.win/p/17siXNr8xa/more-info-on-the-trump-ny-bond--/
She challenged the bond and the bond company had until Midnight tonight to "justify the undertaking." They just filed their paper with an hour to go. There's a hearing on this next Monday.
The challenge was about
1 Is this company registered in NY
2 Do they have enough capital to cover the bond.
3 Why did they give two different company's numbers when only one company is guaranteeing the bond.
Here's their filing. https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/ViewDocument?docIndex=NJfBycB2k9qVU06lZJUsQQ%3D%3D
So they say they have the money because they have $138 million equity, access to 175 million in Trump's collateral and because their parent company has a billion in equity
Knight Specialty Insurance Company (“KSIC ”) is putting up the bond. ...The $175 million bond is collateralized by $175,304,075.95 in cash held in a Charles Schwab account pledged to KSIC.......KSIC also independently maintains more than $539 million in assets and $138 million in equity and has access to more than $2 billion in assets and $1 billion in equity, of which nearly $1 billion is cash and marketable securities, pursuant to a reinsurance agreement with its parent company, Knight Insurance Company (“KIC”)
As for 1, They argue the don't need to registered with the NY Department of Financial Services because they are allowed to provide a different kind of insurance in NY and are allowed to provide surety bonds in Delaware.
For 2 and 3 They can pay because they have their own money and can access the collateral and KSIC has an agreement with KIC
This might all be good, but it's not straightforward.
1 might be a weird loophole or might be totally legit.
2 and 3 raise my eyebrows. They don't have immediate control of the collateral and only get access to it after 48 of requesting it. And it seems that money can flow out of that account,
The Pledge Agreement also includes a “true-up ” provision that requires the Trust to deposit additional collateral into the Account in the event the Account balance falls below the required minimum.
KIC is not an American company, it's based in the Cayman Islands. >KIC is a Cayman Islands exempt company
Just saying the first bond went through a well known insurance company and they didn't have any issues with it. We see what happens with this next week.
I thought today was going to be boring because it was mostly going to be about Jury selection, but there was tons of news today, because they went over several motions today.
The biggest news is the prosecution will ask the judge to hold Trump in contempt for his attacks on witnesses."
Regarding Trump's Truth Social posts about Cohen, I think this is about violation of the gag order.
From Reuters
New York prosecutors said at the start of Donald Trump's criminal trial on Monday they would ask a judge to hold the former president in contempt after they described a "pressure campaign" against his former fixer and a likely witness Michael Cohen.
Other news This is all from Twitter
Trump asked the judge to recuse himself. Denied.
There was a bunch of stuff about what evidence can be let it and if the evidence would be salacious or prejudicial to Trump.
Aug 2015 meeting with Michael Cohen and David Pecker coordinating coverage on Trump. Trump's lawyers say talking about stories is not illegal and may be prejuidicial.
skeptical that these prepublication meetings were conducted in such a way with the falsification of business records down the road in mind. But he's satisfied probative value exceeds prejudice, if any, and allows it in.
Karen McDougal, the playboy playmate is allowed to testify
No mention of Melania being pregnant/or recently gave birth when this happened
Access Hollywood tape can be talked about but will not be played
E. Jean Caroll deposition cannot be entered, but an email thread about it can
Merchan DENIES prosecution's request to bring evidence of three other allegations of misconduct. Says it's "just a rumor, just gossip, complete hearsay"—doesn't want to "prejudice the defendant on the basis of a rumor."
Discussion of which Cohen crimes they can talk about. Judge says
I don't want the jury to think that because Michael Cohen pled guilty to FICA violations or anything else, that therefore Trump is guilty.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/sec.irpass.cc/2660/0001140361-24-019745.htm
TMTG filed a S1 to issue more stock and to exercise warrants.
Up to 21,491,251 Shares of Common Stock Issuable Upon the Exercise of Warrants Up to 146,108,680 Shares of Common Stock Up to 4,061,251 Warrants to Purchase Common Stock
Trump will be in the courtroom today, but it should be kind of boring. They expect jury selection to last up to 2 weeks.
So I finally had time to read the full interview with Walt Nauta. Some folks on here have called Nauta a traitor. I don't read it that way. Read page 82, they are trying to flip him
So the interview takes place on May 26 2022. So this before the search warrant at Mar a Lago. Nauta has a lawyer with him, so this wasn't casual, he wasn't caught off guard. He knew he was going to be talking the FBI that day.
- FBI opens very jokey trying to get create a light atmosphere. They are trying to get him to relax
- They inform him its voluntary. He can take breaks, he can not answer any question, he can ask them to leave the room and talk to his lawyer alone. They inform him about the law about false statements to the FBI.
- They tell him its about a sensitive investigation
They then get some info on Nauta himself. He was a Senior chief petty officer in the Navy and culinary specialist. One of the FBI agents was Navy. They banter about this. They even joke Nauta is a Navy Seal, because in the movie Under Siege Steven Seagal was an ex Navy Seal who was working as a cook.
- They ask about what he does
- It must be cool to work for the former President, fly with him etc
- Explain what he did at the White House
- WH valets are from the military and (the main task of a culinary specialist is food security) and a group within them become WH valets who also take care of the First Family
- Nauta went everywhere with Trump 7am - 3PM "Everywhere he goes, I go. 95 % of the time."
They then turn into why they want to talk to him. In Jan 2022 some boxes were sent back to the National Archives and he helped load them. They let him know classified info was found in those boxes.
- boxes were moved from Pine Hall, a room off Trump's suite.
- he didn't know what were in the boxes
- the fbi has him describe Pine Hall in detail
- first time he loaded boxes on the truck was the first time he saw those type of boxes
page 35, I just started noticing redactions marked W4 and W5, I assume that means witness
- have you ever notice Trump with a US document. NO.
- Were you aware of any government documents at the residence. NO
- Nauta left his WH job in May, so he worked there for a bit after
- He helped move stuff to FL on the last day and then flew back after
page 46, they summarize what Nauta told them....then they shift into how the documents were secured, I assume it will be less relaxed now
- Nauta didn't have full access to Mar a Lago, but he was in the "45 Office"
- They ask him if Trump had to store boxes, where would he. Nauta says he owns a lot of properties down here, so I'll say I don't know
- Were you aware that NARA was talking about these boxes with the 45 Office for a year. NO
- Did you see or hear anyone talking about looking for them? did you help? NO
- The FBI wanted to talk to Nauta for a while, but the other Mar A Lago employees didn't know his last name. He was just Walt.
Page 56. Relaxation is over
- We have a discrepancy.
- We talked other people and there's video cameras everywhere and we are getting conflicted stories about a storage room "and your presence in it."**
- Other people saw you in this storage room
- I might have been moving a box with his personal items .....WOW....hairspray and shampoo Trump tends to hoard those.
- Do you know if Mar a Lago currently has a SCIF? SCIF?
- They explain SCIF a senstive compartmented information facility and Nauta says he doesn't think a SCIF is at Mar a Lago
- They ask how does one get to the storage room with the personal items
Big
- Do you remember an incident where Trump showed a document with classification marking on a Plane. I don't recall that.
I don't think this is part of the indictment. Seems new.
- If you did know about that incident, how would you feel about it.
His attorney objects. The first time the the attorney has spoken I think. It starts to get testy. Nauta asks if they are questioning his character. His lawyer says I've given you "some leeway with the accusations of potentially lying."
They change topics.
They start asking about traveling and working at Bedminster. They are being chummy again and bringing up navy life vs "5 star" life
- They ask Nauta if W1 or W2 knows he is at the FBI office (I assume that's where this is taking place)
- W2 mentioned his own FBI interview.
- Nauta says only his lawyer knows he is there. page 76
- They ask Nauta, you work there and you know what we are looking for, if you were in our shoes who should we talk to. I DON'T KNOW
This is why I don't think Nauta is backstabbing Trump.
- They play on his military background and ask him or his lawyer to come to them if he learns anything on this classified information that needs to be secure, this "national defense information." That's language right out of the indictment. This was never just an informational interview.
- We know we are putting you in a bind lying to your boss. I didn't lie. He just assumes i'm out on a run.
- They called him a week before.
Trying to flip him? They start telling him
-
you're the low man on the totem pole, just following orders, maybe someone takes advantage and you're hung out to try.
-
The attorney says you're hinting at something can you be pointed in your questions, so Walt is clear
-
OK. Who knows you're here. Did anyone tell you how to answer questions
-
They talk about another room with boxes. FBI asks a bunch of questions
Page 91
- They start talking about having to protect classified info and need to know where these boxes were for over a year and Nauta's lawyer asks for a break.
- they stop recording, but it's not clear for how long
- When they come back and record again, it seems the lawyer has drawn a diagram of the different rooms.
- They clarify some details of locations and his attorney say I want to clarify he hasn't told anyone, but people at the office might be gossiping and assuming he's with the FBI
That's the last important stuff. I don't think he gave them anything.
Given that this happened way back in 2022 before the search warrant and the fact that Nauta himself has since been indicted for 8 federal crimes, it seems to me that if Nauta wanted to break with Trump he has had plenty of chances.
A judge denied Trump's request to delay the trial based on pretrial publicity.
Jury Selection begins tomorrow. Expected to last two weeks
Trial will be Mon, Tues, Thursday, Friday. 9:30 to 4:30.
The prosecution witnesses are expected to be
White House
- Hope Hicks - worked on Trump campaign and in WH
- Madeleine Westerhout - director of Oval Office operations,
National Enquirer
-
David Pecker Executive at American Media which owns the National Enquirer
-
Dylan Howard National Enquirer editor-in-chief
Trump Org
-
Rhona Graff Trump's long term assistant.
-
Jeff McConney Trump Org controller
-
Deborah Tarasoff accounts payable supervisor,
Others
-
Michael Cohen convicted felon
-
Stormy Daniels star of Beaver Snacks
-
Karen McDougal Playboy playmate
-
Keith Davidson lawyer for Stormy Daniels not the felon one
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24543180-fbi-interview-with-walt-nauta
Lawyers for Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, Trump's employees and codefendans, will be in court today arguing the charges against them should be dropped.
In their filing, Nauta's lawyer included his FBI interview.
Trump asked for a delay in his NY criminal trial and change of venue, he tried to get the trial moved out of Manhattan to Staten Island citing pretrial publicity
It was denied.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKq_IK-XgCAeK0_?format=jpg&name=large
Jury Questionnaire is out. Some atypical questions https://www.nycourts.gov/LegacyPDFS/press/PDFs/Letter-re-jury-selection-4-8-24.pdf
Have you ever considered yourself a supporter of or belonged to any of the following:
- the QAnon movement
- Proud Boys
- Oathkeepers
- Three Percenters
- Boogaloo Boys
- Antifa
Have you read (or listened to audio) of any of the following books or podcasts by Michael Cohen or Mark Pomerantz? 7f so, please let us know if what you have heard or read affects your ability to be a falr and impartial juror in this case.
- Disloyal: A Memoir
- Mea Culpa (the podcast)
- Revenge
- People Vs. Donald Trump
I posted yesterday about issues with the bond in the NY fraud case. Trump needs to post a bond to keep Leticia James from enforcing the judgment which could lead to her beginning to seize his assets. I learned a lot more about what's going on.
First let's look at Trump's other bond. He had to post a bond in the E. Jean Carroll case. In that case Trump went to Chubb insurance, a known surety bond provider and worldwide issue group. And there's been no issues with it. It was formally approved by the court yesterday.
This new bond has a ton of issues and first I thought they were just paperwork stuff, but they seem much deeper.
So SUREty bonds and inSURance have something in common, making sure someone gets paid. The company putting up the bond is making a guarantee. They do not transfer money up front. I had thought that money is put into an escrow account, but that is not what happens. A bond is just a legal document saying you are responsible for paying. This is why insurance companies like Chubb are involved in surety bonds, they as a company are regulated to ensure they can pay out what they say they can out.
Let's say they put up a million dollar bond in 15 different cases, they need prove they have a surplus that let's them cover all the different cases. They can't pledge the same million dollars 15 times.
So that's the backstory to the screwy stuff that is going on.
So the company is that posting the bond for Trump called Knight Specialty Insurance when they filed they paperwork it got rejected for correction.....not by the Engoron or Leticia James, but at the clerk level
Screwy stuff
- Nobody signed the document (no lawyer in fact)
- No power of attorney was given (showing someone at the company agreed to pay)
- The required financial statement was missing (nothing to show they had $175 million they could guarantee)
So they went back and fixed 1, 2 and 3 and refiled. You can see their financials here https://eddsa.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/public/452564_2022_PEOPLE_OF_THE_STATE_OF_v_PEOPLE_OF_THE_STATE_OF_BOND_UNDERTAKING_1707.pdf
But this revealed more screwy stuff
- Page 2. Knight Specialty Insurance Company is the company providing the guarantee for $175 million
They said they meet the requirements to "transact business and issue this undertaking in NY." (This part of the process is called the the undertaking.)
- Page 7 Knight Specialty Insurance Company doesn't seem to have $175 million.
They include their financial statement. They have 539 million in assets and 400 million in liabilities.
This means they have about $139 million in surplus not enough to cover the 175 million.
- Page 8 includes another financial statement. There's a billion dollar surplus here.
But it's a different company. It's Knight Insurance Company LTD. If this company can cover the $175 million why didn't they just list this company as the bond provider.
- Knight Specialty Insurance might not be allowed to operate in NY
CBS did a story on this that I pointed to in my old post.
New York Attorney General Letitia James .... "exception to the sufficiency of the surety" given by Trump and the other defendants. She objected to the fact that the bond was issued by a company that is not an admitted carrier in New York, and lacks the certificate of qualification required by New York Insurance Law Section 1111.
They talked to an attorney who has filed these bonds before and he has never seen errors like this before
was struck by "glaring errors" in the bond. "In all the years I've been doing this, you always have to have a certificate from the Department of Financial Services saying that you're licensed to issue a surety bond," he said, referring to the missing certificate of qualification. Lederman also noticed that Knight Specialty is not listed on New York's Department of Financial Services website
- NY law says you can't pledge more than 10% of your capital in any one case.
A former assistant NY attorney general noted a number of issues with the bond.
"Including that the company doesn't appear to be licensed in New York and doesn't appear to have enough capital to make this undertaking," Pollock said. The company also does not appear to meet a restriction under New York insurance law barring companies from putting more than 10% of its capital at risk.
So now they are going to go back to court on April 22 and Knight Specialty is going to have to prove they can issue this bond.
Yesterday, the bond/undertaking that Trump's team posted in the NY fraud case was sent back for corrections.
The insurance company that put up the bond seem to be unfamiliar with the rules in NY. They were told to fix their paperwork and include a financial statement.
But the surety bond was missing vital information typically included in those filings, experts say. These standard elements include documents related to power of attorney for the bond provider, Knight Specialty Insurance Company, a financial statement from the company and a certificate of qualification from the Department of Financial Services.
They did so. Then a ton of stuff happened.
Then Leticia James filed an exception
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-175-million-civil-fraud-bond-valid-new-york/
Is Trump's $175 million civil fraud bond valid in New York?
the company doesn't appear to be licensed in New York and doesn't appear to have enough capital to make this undertaking," Pollock said.
Knight Specialty is not licensed in New York to issue surety bonds, and Lederman noted the company's absence from the Department of Financial Services database. But the company contends it is nevertheless authorized to issue the bond.
The company also does not appear to meet a restriction under New York insurance law barring companies from putting more than 10% of its capital at risk.
There's a ton of stuff in the article.
The docket for the Trump civil case says the bond was returned and they have to fix the paperwork
1707 BOND/UNDERTAKING Returned For Correction
From Twitter they have to
include a current financial statement
have the attorney in fact added and
power of attorney added.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKQWhL6WkAAnPvq?format=jpg&name=medium
EDIT So I'm hearing it's the BOND COMPANY that needs to put this up, not Trump. So it's the financial statment of the insurance company that put up the bond.
It's down 21% and trade even lower after hours?
Was there some news over the weekend?