Apparently MTG left her protest outside the court house after about 5 minutes b/c it was too loud, with lots of people blowing whistles. Plot twist: The whistles were passed out by a Trump supporter who didn’t know MTG was going to be there and wanted people to make noise.
Well, he’s officially under arrest…only the second former President to have been in such a situation.
(Apparently Grant was once arrested due to a reckless horse…total penalty of $20.)
All the newspapers over here in Europe are tracking the story live.
I was hoping for some perp walk pics with him in cuffs.
But apparently, they negotiated no cuffs. Bummer.
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He just went into the courtroom, looking rather somber.
There were reports that he was going to make a brief comment to the press before going in, but that didn’t happen.
his lawyers have a miserable job (that they chose to perform) in working to keep him quiet.
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34 counts of falsifying business records, normally misdemeanors, elevated to the lowest-class felony by virtue of attempts to commit a crime or hide the commission of a crime (in this case, campaign law)
Here’s the indictment (it doesn’t say much):
and here’s the statement of facts:
Or possibly new York tax law. Didn’t he deduct those business expenses?
The DA is speaking now. Sounds like it’s campaign finance.
EDIT: The falsifying aspect of it seems to be claims that the payments to Cohen were for “legal services”, and the mischaracterization of expenses as income to Cohen.
EDIT2: One of the laws is NY § 17-152: “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.” There seems to perhaps be a bit of a jump in logic on the “election by unlawful means” aspect.
EDIT3: I’m definitely not an expert on such laws. Several posts back I said that I was reserving judgment to see what the charges are. Now that the charges are out… this feels like something that really ought to be just a significant fine rather than something that merits jail time.
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“whiskey away”? That is funny!!!
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I think I have changed my mind. This might be the perfect thing for Trump to be arrested for. This is going to be an embarrassing trial.
Have the conditions of his release on recognizance been made public?
It’s the lowest class of felony, and if he gets convicted of a first offense (or of 34 first offenses) he may not serve time in jail for it. I think the judge can give a suspended sentence and maybe a fine for a first offense.
WSJ has a good article today. It says the case is weaker than many expected.
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I see the flags have 50 stars instead of 13. No surprise, as image bots are bad at counting.
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Perception of a weak case just being political persecution will help his run for the GOP nomination, I think.
That’s good from my perspective of really not wanting Desantis to win the White House next year…but I do get indigestion from the prospect of the improved odds of Trump winning (even if I still think Biden should be able to beat him).
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The foremost flag on the right side has 30 stars.
The one behind and just to the left has 48 stars.
Maybe that’s after Marjorie Taylor Greene gets her red state divorce.
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Fox News is right on top of the DA on this one. Found a whopping three Democratic Voters who say the DA s overstepping on Trump.
Surprised Fox News is still letting Trump grab their pussy.
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