squistion

The first criminal trial of a former President begins today in New York with jury selection. Post any trial news, updates or your commentary on the proceedings in this thread. https://www.npr.org/2024/04/15/1238536885/trump-hush-money-trial Trump's criminal trial, a first for a former president, begins Monday For the first time in U.S. history, a former president will sit in a courtroom for the first day of his criminal trial. Former President Donald Trump faces 34-count felony counts alleging that he falsified New York business records in order to conceal damaging information to influence the 2016 presidential election. Monday kicks off an 18-person jury selection for the trial that is expected to last about six weeks — even as Trump campaigns to be president once again. The trial begins after a 20-day delay was granted by New York Judge Juan Merchan to give both legal teams time to review 31,000 records provided by the U.S. Attorney's Office. In recent weeks, Merchan also issued a gag order on Trump that specifically bars him from making, or directing others to make, public statements about witnesses, prosecutors or jurors. He later extended the order to cover the families after Trump went after the judge's daughter by name on the former president's social media site. [...] The district attorney hopes to make this case about 2016 election interference A grand jury indicted Trump in the spring of last year, marking the first time a former or sitting president faced criminal charges. Republicans quickly dismissed the indictment as an overreach of power by District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who had brought the charges. Trump has pleaded not guilty. At the center of the trial are 11 "hush money" payments to adult film actor Stormy Daniels who, at the time Trump was first running for president, threatened to go public with accusations she'd had an affair with him not long after he married Melania Trump. The lawsuit alleges that payments were made from Trump's flagship Trump Organization to Michael Cohen, then a vice president and counsel at the company. The payments were described by the Trump Organization falsely as "legal retainers"; they were, in fact, reimbursements to Cohen for paying Daniels. Cohen transferred that money to Daniels less than two weeks before the 2016 election. After Trump won, he reimbursed Cohen, including with his own personal checks. Trump has denied an affair with Daniels, but in 2018 he admitted reimbursing Cohen for money paid to her, arguing it had nothing to do with the campaign. The indictment also includes a separate $150,000 payment to another woman – the Playboy model Karen McDougal, who has spoken openly about her experience – who claimed to have had an intimate relationship with Trump. The fact of the payments and the false records isn't in dispute. What Bragg has to prove is that Trump made them in order to further other crimes, such as violating campaign finance law and mischaracterizing the payments for tax purposes.

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1786454447431864410 Hope Hicks says that when she learned in 2016 the Wall Street Journal was planning to publish a story about Karen McDougal — including details that McDougal had a story that was purchased by the Enquirer about her relationship with Trump that was never published — she went to Jared Kushner, hoping he could get in touch with executives at the Journal to delay publication.

Listening to his recent speeches, he may indeed be suffering from dementia.

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1786041724378218571 Judge Merchan to Trump's lawyer: "You're telling me the scrutiny is outrageous, but nobody's forcing him" to talk to the press in the hall. "The entire area has been set up the way it has been set up so that your client, who is a candidate for president," can exercise his political speech rights.

He didn't get jail time for that, see above in the thread.

Yeah, talk about a false equivalency.

Yes, it is, as karma can be defined as the direct consequence of one's actions (it doesn't have to have anything to do with the supernatural).

He was and probably still is a complete jerk.

Did you miss the thread where it was predicted that all of these stores will go out of business in California due to the new $20 an hour minimum wage? Article doesn't mention one California store closure.

How many of those are in California?

Contrary to what the OP claims, this is some sort of joke/parody/satire and proof of that is that only "news" on this supposedly new Pride Flag is from Twitter posters such as "End Wokeness" or "Libs Of TikTok" etc.

Yes. And yes.

Did the OP ever get the $60 Trump Bible he ordered?

So, if you were charged with multiple felonies, you would probably fall asleep during your trial, just like Trump?

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1785330812809777570 Prosecutors and Trump's defense team are reviewing texts from ex-National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard and whether they should redact one saying "there is shady going on." It was from Oct. 19, 2016 — in the midst of negotiations over the Stormy Daniels deal. Daniels' publicist Gina Rodriguez, believing there were delays with Daniels' payment, texted Howard, "There is some shady going on."

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1785327115526672884 Asked by prosecutors whether any of the wire transfer paperwork indicated that Michael Cohen wanted to transfer money on behalf of a political candidate, banker Gary Farro says "no" and that additional questions would've been asked if that were the case. Farro denies any of the wire transfer paperwork indicated that money was being transferred for payment to an adult film star. @NBCNews

Jon claimed that but he could never provide a link and I couldn't find one either with a Google search.