Hillary did nothing that deserves indictment. She was sloppy, not negligent or obstructive. You don't get indicted for that. To get indicted you have to obstruct and not cooperate, like Trump at Mar a lago.
Trump did break election law and business records law in NY but he'll be acquitted because this is his personal life and traditionally, we give a pass to public figures trying to save marriages or whatnot.
I'll be much happier with an indictment in GA and slightly less so for the Mar a lago documents case. That's the main crime. This NY stuff...weak sauce.
I think most would say using campaign funds would be a crime--what got Edwards in trouble. What the accusation is is that he _should_ have used campaign funds, not doing so was the crime. Again, what a joke.
Lets go over the implications if the Manhattan DA's interpretation of the law is correct.
If hush money is a campaign expense, it certainly helps someone like Maxine Waters, she doesn't have to make up services by her daughter in order to pay her. After all, her daughter knows embarrassing things--a cool couple million to keep her quiet; much better than the $100,000 or so every campaign cycle.
Makes it pretty easy for Hunter to cash in too.
Trump can probably justify paying just about everyone he's every worked or socialized with, and they are probably pretty wealthy for the most part--means the going rate is a lot higher than Walter's daughter; couple 10's of millions for most.
I think most would say using campaign funds would be a crime--what got Edwards in trouble. What the accusation is is that he _should_ have used campaign funds, not doing so was the crime. Again, what a joke.
Lets go over the implications if the Manhattan DA's interpretation of the law is correct.
If hush money is a campaign expense, it certainly helps someone like Maxine Waters, she doesn't have to make up services by her daughter in order to pay her. After all, her daughter knows embarrassing things--a cool couple million to keep her quiet; much better than the $100,000 or so every campaign cycle.
Makes it pretty easy for Hunter to cash in too.
Trump can probably justify paying just about everyone he's every worked or socialized with, and they are probably pretty wealthy for the most part--means the going rate is a lot higher than Walter's daughter; couple 10's of millions for most.
it's also that Trump changed his business records to cover it up, and that he categorized the payment as 'legal services' instead of something truthful.
the idea is that to prevent business fraud you can't just let people say whatever they want in regard to their business' finances.
it's not the 'hush money' that is the crime - it's the campaign expense and business records issues.
Lets go over the implications if the Manhattan DA's interpretation of the law is correct.
If hush money is a campaign expense, it certainly helps someone like Maxine Waters, she doesn't have to make up services by her daughter in order to pay her. After all, her daughter knows embarrassing things--a cool couple million to keep her quiet; much better than the $100,000 or so every campaign cycle.
Makes it pretty easy for Hunter to cash in too.
Trump can probably justify paying just about everyone he's every worked or socialized with, and they are probably pretty wealthy for the most part--means the going rate is a lot higher than Walter's daughter; couple 10's of millions for most.
it's also that Trump changed his business records to cover it up, and that he categorized the payment as 'legal services' instead of something truthful.
the idea is that to prevent business fraud you can't just let people say whatever they want in regard to their business' finances.
it's not the 'hush money' that is the crime - it's the campaign expense and business records issues.
here's CNN's description of the alleged crimes:
The potential crimes at play Hush money payments aren’t illegal. Prosecutors are weighing whether to charge Trump with falsifying the business records of the Trump Organization for how it reflected the reimbursement of the payment to Cohen, who said he advanced the money to Daniels. Falsifying business records is a misdemeanor in New York. Prosecutors are also weighing whether to charge Trump with falsifying business records in the first degree for falsifying a record with the intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal another crime, which in this case could be a violation of campaign finance laws. That is a Class E felony and carries a sentence of a minimum of one year and as much as four years. To prove the case, prosecutors would need to show Trump intended to commit a crime. The Trump Organization noted the reimbursements as a legal expense in its internal books. Trump has previously denied knowledge of the payment.
I've always thought it was embarrassing that the two people nominated for president in 2016 were Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton and joked it would be great to see both end up in prison.
Well Trump is saying he'll be arrested on Tuesday for paying Stormy Daniels to stay quiet about their affair. Now, while my disgust for Trump and Hilary stemmed from my belief that that the Presidency should be reserved for the best of the best and we have 300 million to choose from,and I was choosing these two would be at the bottomof the list, but I'm not a fan of this Trump arrest.
When electing people, we should hold the candidates to a very high standard. But we should not be prosecuting them for stuff they wouldn't be prosecuted for as normal citizens. That ends up turning the US into a kangaroo court wher the parties just jail the other side once they gain power.
The logic for calling Trump's payment to Stormy a felony election law crime is a stretch.
Reason Mag wrote:
It looks like Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, intends to pursue criminal charges against former President Donald Trump. But the charges he seems to have in mind, based on a 2016 hush payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, are so iffy that they reinforce Trump's reflexive complaint that he is, as always, the victim of a long-running Democratic "witch hunt." Daniels claims she had a sexual affair with Trump in 2006, when he was married to his current wife, former First Lady Melania Trump. Although Trump denies the affair, he arranged a $130,000 payment to Daniels in the fall of 2016 to keep her story out of the press. There is nothing inherently illegal about that payment. But Michael Cohen, the Trump lawyer who paid off Daniels and was reimbursed by Trump, pleaded guilty in 2018 to violating federal law by making an excessive campaign contribution. The theory underlying that charge was that Cohen "contributed" the hush money at Trump's behest for the "principal purpose of influencing [the] election," as opposed to avoiding personal embarrassment for Trump or sparing Melania Trump's feelings. As former Federal Election Commission Chairman Bradley Smith noted at the time, that interpretation was open to question. "The best interpretation of the law is that it simply is not a campaign expense to pay blackmail for things that happened years before one's candidacy—and thus nothing Cohen (or, in this case, Trump, too) did is a campaign finance crime," Smith wrote in a 2018 Reason essay. "But at a minimum, it is unclear whether paying blackmail to a mistress is 'for the purpose of influencing an election,' and so must be paid with campaign funds, or a 'personal use,' and so prohibited from being paid with campaign funds."
If you are going to go out of your way to charge Trump, then certainly Hilary needs to be arrrested for her emails. The head of the FBI basicallys aid what she did was a crime, he just didn't think it was one that warranted prosecution as she didn't do it intentionally.
PS. I guess counter argument would be we need to hold our candidates to even higher standards? I guess that would be ok if we then applied that to everyone, not just the candidates we most dislike. So if you do Trump, you also need to do Hillary.
That's what you get for banging a porn star when your wife is home caring for your newborn.
Know who else is probably happy about this? The girls who were barged in on by flappy head while undressing at numerous beauty contests.
Hope they shave his head in jail so we could see what's doing under there.
Rojo, you say your goal is to see the both of them imprisoned,
Could you make your goal to be an impartial board arbitrator and not take political stands? It cheapens the whole enterprise, as others have said, and uses your powers unfairly.
Trump announced that he expects to be srrested because it keeps him in the spotlight, riles up his supporters and is a great flashpoint for raising money. Everything Trump does or says is designed to gain attention and raise money.
No matter how Fat Donny spins it, he's being arrested for having sex with a porn star.
He was caught, made secret payment(s), and now he's going to be freaking ARRESTED for it. How could his son EVER take anything seriously that comes out of his mouth.
Wow. Trump derangement syndrome rages on amongst the increasingly fascist American left. Why are you all so afraid of Trump? Worried he might stop WWIII from starting?
"Sure, he's a pu**y grabbing, lavishly corrupt, 2x impeached, soon to be indicted Putin-fellating shambling umber mound who ordered a terrorist attack on the Capitol and tried to steal the election but otherwise drag queen antifa BLM Muslim Mexicans will impose sharia communism".
^^^ Prime case of Trump derangement syndrome.
As someone who didn't vote for Trump in 2016 or 2020, if this is all libs can charge him with after YEARS of trying, I may consider voting for him in 2024.
The potential crimes at play Hush money payments aren’t illegal. Prosecutors are weighing whether to charge Trump with falsifying the business records of the Trump Organization for how it reflected the reimbursement of the payment to Cohen, who said he advanced the money to Daniels. Falsifying business records is a misdemeanor in New York. Prosecutors are also weighing whether to charge Trump with falsifying business records in the first degree for falsifying a record with the intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal another crime, which in this case could be a violation of campaign finance laws. That is a Class E felony and carries a sentence of a minimum of one year and as much as four years. To prove the case, prosecutors would need to show Trump intended to commit a crime. The Trump Organization noted the reimbursements as a legal expense in its internal books. Trump has previously denied knowledge of the payment.
Falsify business records to conceal another crime--the other crime being campaign finance laws.
What is the campaign finance law? Well, it is not paying your mistress hush money _with_ campaign money.
And then there is the note above that they would have to show that he intended to commit a crime--so Trump would have to have known that he should have used campaign, rather than personal, funds. Hard to do since Rojo's original post had a former Federal Election Commission Chairman quoted as that interpretation being very iffy.
Again, this is a clown show.
The saying is that you can indict a ham sandwich. The reason is the defense gets no say in front of a grand jury. The DA could have at least indicted Trump on something that would have actually been crime if he did it.
Trump announced that he expects to be srrested because it keeps him in the spotlight, riles up his supporters and is a great flashpoint for raising money. Everything Trump does or says is designed to gain attention and raise money.
I wonder…how do his supporters afford hotel stays at Trump’s rallies (eg in DC Jan6th) if in many cases the ones breaking the law for him can’t afford basic necessities?
I'd like nothing more than to see Trump behind bars. He took over a country on the upswing, with low unemployment and a growing economy. He left us with high unemployment, mask mandates, high fuel prices, growing inflation, and more. For the first time in my 50+ years I had to wonder if I could find toilet paper at the grocery store. If I left my own country, I could be refused re-entry if I didn't pass a covid test. The man was an absolute disaster.