The Trump Indictment Thread

[GermanSuplex]

We don’t necessarily know how well he performs in such interview if it was prerecorded and edited. There are sadly many examples of selective editing in our media. (And remarkably the White House has been found to make edits to Biden’s words in official transcripts and without annotation that).

Jesus Christ. I watched him speak in Normandy this morning. Sharp as a tack, but he did reach for a chair that wasn’t there, never happens to any of us, nobody has ever went to sit down and landed on their ass, so he must have dementia and his eloquent speech must have been a hiccup.

One month he has dementia, the next he’s drugged or coked up, the next he’s a criminal mastermind, or at least his handlers are, who nobody can seem to point out.

The guy is ******* old, we get it. If he’s in a chair, can he think critically and make rational decisions about any given circumstance? I’ve not seen one iota that he can’t, for every quote of worry, there’s a quote from Graham or Kevin McCarthy about how sharp he is.

 

[Nycturne]

So why do you think it will be overturned? Do you not agree that US Attorney's must be confirmed by the Senate?

They are confirmed by the Senate, and Merrick Garland was. Jack Smith isn't an AG, he's an appointed special counsel, under DOJ regulations that have been in effect since the late 90s that AGs from both parties have abided by while in the role.

Why is it suddenly controversial now to appoint a special counsel in a case that has the potential to have the appearance of a conflict of interest? Just based on the fact that Trump has been beating the "conflict of interest" horse on everything heading his way, it seems like it had to be done with a special counsel. I'm with Maier on this one, I don't know what legal house of cards declaring a special counsel illegal would even be built on.

 

[GermanSuplex]

I'm with Maier on this one, I don't know what legal house of cards declaring a special counsel illegal would even be built on.

Trump cards. He’s one-upped the house of cards - there is no house, there are no cards, he just points to a disheveled acre of land, tells you that you’re looking at a mansion of steel and you believe it and go from there. And a lot of people believe him, for god knows whatever reason.

 

[Citysnaps]

trump will be landing in San Francisco, shortly. Looks like he has a good sized crowd along the Embarcadero.Yuck.

 

[Herdfan]

The point is that the scheme was hatched solely to keep the voters from hearing about Stormy Daniels before the election and that records were falsified to hide the payment.

But that's just it, they weren't.

Even if he had reported it 100% properly, those records would not have been public until AFTER the election.

Looking at the reporting dates (only '20 and '24 are available), there is a close of business for what the FEC calls the Pre-General 2 and in '20 it was October 14th and in '24, it will be October 16th.

So if Trump paid Stormy after those dates, the payment would not have been required to be reported until 12/3 for a close of business on 11/23 (that's for '24).

Cohen did not pay Stormy until 10/27 which is after the close of business for the 10/14 report.

So no voters would have known until after the election.

 

[Herdfan]

They are confirmed by the Senate, and Merrick Garland was. Jack Smith isn't an AG, he's an appointed special counsel, under DOJ regulations that have been in effect since the late 90s that AGs from both parties have abided by while in the role. ..................... I'm with Maier on this one, I don't know what legal house of cards declaring a special counsel illegal would even be built on.

Yes all US Attorney's are required to be appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. A Special Counsel acts as a US Attorney. One might say they have more power since they are independent of the AG.

In cases where the AG appointed the SC, they came from the ranks of existing or former US Attorney's who had previously been Senate confirmed (Patrick Fitzgerald, Rod Rosenstein, John Huber, and John Durham are some examples). Jack Smith had never been a Senate confirmed US Attorney (he was an acting USA for a period, but never Senate confirmed). At the time of his appointment, he wasn't even working for the DOJ and was a private citizen.

So let's flip things a bit here. Would any of you be comfortable that if Trump wins, he gets his AG to find some pitbull attorney who is not working for the DOJ, has never been Senate confirmed, and appoint him//her to go after Biden?

 

[Herdfan]

The guy is ******* old, we get it. If he’s in a chair, can he think critically and make rational decisions about any given circumstance? I’ve not seen one iota that he can’t, for every quote of worry, there’s a quote from Graham or Kevin McCarthy about how sharp he is.

Then release his interview with Hur. Make it public so everyone can see if what you are saying is correct.

Or as @AG_PhamD suggests, put him out there without the scripted questions to reporters who aren't going to just give him softball questions.

The debate will be telling.

 

[GermanSuplex]

Then release his interview with Hur. Make it public so everyone can see if what you are saying is correct.

Or as @AG_PhamD suggests, put him out there without the scripted questions to reporters who aren't going to just give him softball questions.

The debate will be telling.

Meanwhile, Trump is on Dr Phil being asked “How do you get up? Why do you do it?”

“You’ve got a thick skin. You’re not one of those people who is afflicted with the need to be loved by strangers,” McGraw told Trump. “You’re a billionaire, you’ve got a great family, you’re a very dedicated father and people might not see that because you keep that kind of private.”



Thanks Dr. Phil, for those hard-hitting questions

Edits in Trump interview with Dr Phil questioned by eagle-eyed viewers

Dr Phil has been accused of pandering to Donald Trump during in an interview at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida

www.independent.co.uk

I expect the debate to be the same as last time - Trump lies and rants, is clearly a mental eunuch, and Biden will stutter but speak like a sane and rational adult.

Why would I expect any different? People will see what they want, I suppose, not saying I’m immune, but at least in this instance, I’m also correct.

 

[GermanSuplex]

I’m annoyed with the predicable thrust from the left calling Trump a convicted felon… as if most of us had not recognized Trump’s moral shortcomings. Idk how he literally defrauded people with his charity and TrumpU and never received criminal charges.

You’re annoyed with the left constantly referring to convicted felon Donald Trump as a convicted felon, despite the fact convicted felon Donald Trump was determined to be a felon by a jury of his peers - agreed on by the convicted felon’s team, which according to the convicted felon’s team the convicted felon had complete and total control of?

I get it, it’s probably going to get tiresome, our predictable behavior of referring to convicted felon Donald Trump - former president and current convicted felon - as a convicted felon. But a convicted felon he is, and a convicted felon he deserves to be.

So if you’re tired of that, imagine how tired we get of hearing about a rigged and stolen election, ESPECIALLY coming from convicted felon Trump and his cult of convicted felons.

Dems should be cognizant about the way they talk about “felons”. 33% of Black adult men in our country have at least one felony. The black community is critical to the party.

That number would go down considerably if we stopped letting convicted felons like Donald Trump determine who should or shouldn’t be felons. Most of those black men have done far less than convicted felon Donald Trump.

Also… black people of all ages are smart enough to “get it”, it’s mildly insulting I even have to say it, and the ones who aren’t probably already support the convicted felon anyways.

 

[Nycturne]

In cases where the AG appointed the SC, they came from the ranks of existing or former US Attorney's who had previously been Senate confirmed (Patrick Fitzgerald, Rod Rosenstein, John Huber, and John Durham are some examples). Jack Smith had never been a Senate confirmed US Attorney (he was an acting USA for a period, but never Senate confirmed). At the time of his appointment, he wasn't even working for the DOJ and was a private citizen.

Rosenstein wasn’t special counsel, but he did appoint Bob Mueller. But Jack and Bob aren’t even the first to be private citizens when appointed, particularly since the point is to get someone who isn’t directly attached to the DOJ (and thus the current executive branch). This whole argument was tried with Mueller in the courts, which didn’t really go anywhere with Manafort and Stone. I don’t see how it would be different here.

This idea hinges entirely on the premise that the DOJ leadership cannot delegate investigations in this manner. But appointed and confirmed leadership positions must delegate investigations to subordinates as a matter of course. Bringing an outsider in under the DOJ’s rules and ethics requirements, who is still subject to the AG’s oversight, makes them more of a contractor for the DOJ than some separate entity as they were under the independent prosecutor role with the now expired law.

The regulations are there to try to keep the conflict of interest away from the investigation, but they are DOJ regulations. It doesn’t create requirements for the DOJ that somehow supercede their obligations under the law. And the AG should step in and stop the counsel if they are violating the DOJ’s obligations under the law, per those same regulations.

So let's flip things a bit here. Would any of you be comfortable that if Trump wins, he gets his AG to find some pitbull attorney who is not working for the DOJ, has never been Senate confirmed, and appoint him//her to go after Biden?

This gets into the whole norms thing. Trump himself could appoint the counsel (wouldn’t even be the first President to do so) to do this, based on my reading of historical use of such a position, and the fact that I see few (if any) lawyers appointed by Presidents for the role being US attorneys.

If Trump wins, I fully expect he’ll try to do this. He’s been saying as much in that sort of “wink, wink, nudge, nudge” way he likes so much.

Being comfortable with it or not has more to do with Trump than it does with Presidential authority, per se. And the scenario you describe is something that would come from strong unitary theory anyways, which is another whole philosophical fight at the moment. Incidentally, the same thinking that would restrict the type of oversight Congress has over Presidential appointments such as what you are arguing shouldn’t happen. Yet it’s the Trump camp arguing for strong unitary theory at the moment. Sorry, this isn’t the sort of gotcha you think it is.

 

[Alli]

But that's just it, they weren't.

Even if he had reported it 100% properly, those records would not have been public until AFTER the election.

Looking at the reporting dates (only '20 and '24 are available), there is a close of business for what the FEC calls the Pre-General 2 and in '20 it was October 14th and in '24, it will be October 16th.

So if Trump paid Stormy after those dates, the payment would not have been required to be reported until 12/3 for a close of business on 11/23 (that's for '24).

Cohen did not pay Stormy until 10/27 which is after the close of business for the 10/14 report.

So no voters would have known until after the election.

How did you manage to so entirely miss the point of this?

 

[Huntn]

But that's just it, they weren't.

Even if he had reported it 100% properly, those records would not have been public until AFTER the election.

Looking at the reporting dates (only '20 and '24 are available), there is a close of business for what the FEC calls the Pre-General 2 and in '20 it was October 14th and in '24, it will be October 16th.

So if Trump paid Stormy after those dates, the payment would not have been required to be reported until 12/3 for a close of business on 11/23 (that's for '24).

Cohen did not pay Stormy until 10/27 which is after the close of business for the 10/14 report.

So no voters would have known until after the election.

Um, catching and killing the story by David Pecker was intricate to the goal of preventing the story getting out, including the payment to silence her. So it’s your position is that the pay off scheme was NOT designed to keep these payments secret, and the NY law was not violated by altering business records to hide the reason for these payments?

 

[Herdfan]

Um, catching and killing the story by David Pecker was intricate to the goal of preventing the story getting out, including the payment to silence her. So it’s your position is that the pay off scheme was NOT designed to keep these payments secret, and the NY law was not violated by altering business records to hide the reason for these payments?

My point was simply that had they been reported properly, they would not have been disclosed until AFTER the election.

 

[Eric]

They are confirmed by the Senate, and Merrick Garland was. Jack Smith isn't an AG, he's an appointed special counsel, under DOJ regulations that have been in effect since the late 90s that AGs from both parties have abided by while in the role.

Why is it suddenly controversial now to appoint a special counsel in a case that has the potential to have the appearance of a conflict of interest? Just based on the fact that Trump has been beating the "conflict of interest" horse on everything heading his way, it seems like it had to be done with a special counsel. I'm with Maier on this one, I don't know what legal house of cards declaring a special counsel illegal would even be built on.

Well said, you get why Cmaier wouldn't even dignify that with a response. Republicans are going by talking points handed out to them by Fox News with no real clue of what's real and what isn't, you've never seen more compliant and ignorant group of sheep.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

My point was simply that had they been reported properly, they would not have been disclosed until AFTER the election.

Are you saying the Stormy Daniels affair wouldn’t have leaked before the election or the coverup wouldn’t have leaked? If it’s the latter, I think there was more a belief that the public knowing about the affair could have changed voter opinions. But having said that, there is a scary amount of people who think the entire case against Trump was about having an affair with a porn star and that’s it. They are correct that, that isn’t illegal, but that’s not what the case is about. I guess we’ll also forget that the right claims to be the champions of morality and family values when it comes to this affair.

 

[Roller]

But that's just it, they weren't.

Even if he had reported it 100% properly, those records would not have been public until AFTER the election.

Looking at the reporting dates (only '20 and '24 are available), there is a close of business for what the FEC calls the Pre-General 2 and in '20 it was October 14th and in '24, it will be October 16th.

So if Trump paid Stormy after those dates, the payment would not have been required to be reported until 12/3 for a close of business on 11/23 (that's for '24).

Cohen did not pay Stormy until 10/27 which is after the close of business for the 10/14 report.

So no voters would have known until after the election.

The plan to pay Daniels was hatched shortly after Cohen was informed about her dalliance with Trump. Everyone knew that if the story came out right after the Access Hollywood tape, that might have sunk Trump's chances, so Stormy was paid by Cohen before the election to prevent voters from hearing about it. Had Cohen's reimbursement not involved Trump Organization records, that would have been it. Paying Daniels to not reveal what happened may have been sleazy, but it wasn't illegal. However, falsifying company records to make Cohen's reimbursement look like something else was.​

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Damning Report on Judge Cannon Reveals She’s Prone to Exploitation

Lawyers who appeared before Judge Aileen Cannon had some sharp critiques of how she oversaw the courtroom.

newrepublic.com

I think it’s fair and generous to say she is way too green to get a case of this magnitude.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Top Sports Talk Host Tears Into Trump For 'Trying To Sell Me An America That Doesn't Exist'

Pundit and podcaster Colin Cowherd disputed the former president's gloomy picture of America.

www.huffpost.com

“Donald Trump is now a felon,” Cowherd said. “His campaign chairman was a felon. So is his deputy campaign manager, his personal lawyer, his chief strategist, his national security adviser, his trade advisor, his foreign policy advisor … they’re all felons.”

The list of Trump’s former team members who’ve been convicted of a crime is expansive. Among them: Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and former campaign vice chairman, Rick Gates; his former fixer, Michael Cohen; his former chief strategist, Steve Bannon; his former national security advisor, Michael Flynn; his former trade advisor, Peter Navarro; and his former foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos.

“If everybody in your social circle is a felon, I don’t think it’s ‘rigged,’” Cowherd added. “I don’t think the world’s against you. And to get people to agree on anything, 34 counts? Zero for 34? That’s a batting slump even the New York Mets could be impressed with.”

 

[Roller]

Top Sports Talk Host Tears Into Trump For 'Trying To Sell Me An America That Doesn't Exist'

Pundit and podcaster Colin Cowherd disputed the former president's gloomy picture of America.

www.huffpost.com

“Donald Trump is now a felon,” Cowherd said. “His campaign chairman was a felon. So is his deputy campaign manager, his personal lawyer, his chief strategist, his national security adviser, his trade advisor, his foreign policy advisor … they’re all felons.”

The list of Trump’s former team members who’ve been convicted of a crime is expansive. Among them: Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and former campaign vice chairman, Rick Gates; his former fixer, Michael Cohen; his former chief strategist, Steve Bannon; his former national security advisor, Michael Flynn; his former trade advisor, Peter Navarro; and his former foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos.

“If everybody in your social circle is a felon, I don’t think it’s ‘rigged,’” Cowherd added. “I don’t think the world’s against you. And to get people to agree on anything, 34 counts? Zero for 34? That’s a batting slump even the New York Mets could be impressed with.”

@Herdfan, are you a Cowherd fan?

 

[Herdfan]

@Herdfan, are you a Cowherd fan?

I used to listen to him several years ago when he was on ESPN radio right after Mike & Mike. But when he left for Fox I stopped.

He’s OK and has some interesting takes, but he will repeat the same line 3-4 times in 5 minutes and that gets old.