Trump On Trial: The First Prosecution Of A US President Begins Today In Manhattan

"Election Interference": Trump falsified business records to conceal an agreement with others to defraud the American people and unlawfully influence the 2016 presidential election.

The first ever prosecution of a United States president (former or current) will begin Monday, April 15, in downtown Manhattan.

The People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump is not a hush money case, despite what you’ve read in and heard from most media. Or it’s not primarily a hush money case. That’s not why this case is important; giving someone money in exchange for their silence on a particular matter is not necessarily a crime.

Here is the full text of Judge Juan Merchan’s Case Summary:

The Defendant, Donald Trump, is charged with 34 counts of Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree.

The allegations are in substance, that Donald Trump falsified business records to conceal an agreement with others to unlawfully influence the 2016 presidential election. Specifically, it is alleged that Donald Trump made or caused false business records to hide the true nature of payments made to Michael Cohen, by characterizing them as payment for legal services rendered pursuant to a retainer agreement. The People allege that in fact, the payments were intended to reimburse Michael Cohen for money he paid to Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, in the weeks before the presidential election to prevent her from publicly revealing details about a past sexual encounter with Donald Trump.

Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies the allegations.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg says the “core” of the case “is not money for sex”:

It’s about conspiring to corrupt a presidential election and then . . . lying in New York business records to cover it up. . . . [This case is a] clear-cut instance of election interference, in which a candidate defrauded the American people to win the White House in 2016.

Norman Eisen, author of Trying Trump: A Guide to His First Election Interference Criminal Trial, calls this “one of the most important trials of alleged election wrongdoing in American history”.

The defendant put it best:

Trump and his lawyers filed 11 different motions in a desperate, flailing attempt to delay the trial, dismiss the charges, or have the judge recused — which is exactly what a completely innocent person would do. They went 0-for-11. #somuchwinning

The trail is expected to last about six weeks and Trump is required to be in court every day (which will likely be four days each week (not Wednesdays)).

CNN’s chief legal analyst Laura Coates, on what happens if Trump is found guilty (note that Michael Cohen was sentenced to prison on the exact same charges Trump is facing):

If Trump were to be found guilty of all of the counts, he could theoretically be facing more than a decade in prison. The 34 felony counts are classified as Class E felonies in New York, the lowest level felony in the state.

The maximum penalty for each of those counts is four years; however New York caps sentencing for this type of felony at 20 years. It is within the judge’s discretion to decide whether those sentences would run concurrently or consecutively. Because the crimes involve nonviolent offenses and Trump does not have a criminal record, the judge could also consider jailing him for a period that is but a fraction of the maximum penalty.

Another possibility is that the judge could forego prison entirely and place him on probation with the possibility of incarceration looming over his head if he fails to abide by the conditions set by the judge.

Trump was asked: “Do you plan to testify in your trial in New York?”

Yeah, I would testify, absolutely. It’s a scam. It’s a scam. That’s not a trial. That’s not a trial. That’s a scam. . . . I’m testifying. I tell the truth. I mean, all I can do is tell the truth. And the truth is that there’s no case. They have no case. . . . It’s very unfair that we have this judge who hates Trump and has tremendous conflict as you know, tremendous conflict. Nobody can believe that this judge isn’t recusing himself. The conflict is at a level that nobody’s ever seen before.

CNN’s Abby Phillip did not seem convinced:

The Trump show simply has not changed. The themes are all the same. The props, like the speaker, are the same. The rambling, ridiculous claims are a track that no one laughs at anymore. And his promises are the same too. Trump again, says, he’ll testify, that he would take the stand and that he would tell the truth. A classic Trump promise that is classic BS.

This would be a suicide mission for Trump, who is literally incapable of telling the truth about anything — and he certainly cannot be honest about the facts of this case. He would commit perjury every three or four words. Over the last six months, Trump has repeatedly confessed publicly to all of the numerous crimes he has been charged with in his other cases. He cannot answer a question about any of the charges without offering another confession, which can and will be used against him.

Of course, the blustering bozo has made a fuss about testifying in past matters. He had the chance to clear his name and testify to the grand jury investigating the payment to Stormy Daniels that led to his indictment, but he declined. He promised to testify before the January 6 Committee. He promised to testify in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation trial (he also famously refused (fighting in court for years) to submit a DNA sample that could have cleared him of sexual assault). He promised to testify in his his civil trial on business fraud charges. In each case, Trump chickened out and (if asked) threw out a nonsense excuse for his cowardly refusal to stand up for himself. He has promised to testify in his Florida trial for stealing (and then refusing to return) classified documents — “that I look forward to”.

According to Michael Cohen, “the likelihood of Donald Trump being on the stand is equal to the likelihood of me waking up tomorrow and being 7-foot-6 and playing center for the New York Knicks. It’s not going to happen.”

Trump uploaded more than 14 videos to Troth Senchal the other day. He often does this. The videos are perhaps one minute long. Here is the transcript for one in which Trump whines about how unfair the New York judge is being to him (video here):

I was recently informed that another corrupt New York judge, Juan Merchan, gagged me. That’s gagged, like you can’t talk. But he gagged me with respect to a case that everyone including the DA felt should never have been brought. Plenty of people have gagged me recently because when I talk in New York, I explained to the people, and they understand, these cases are all rigged. It sounds fair, doesn’t it, to be gagged, but it’s not. It virtually never happens. It only happens to me because I’m able to tell people what’s happening and those people get extremely angry with what’s happening. This judge should be recused and the case should be thrown out. He’s totally conflicted. There’s never been a judge more conflicted than this one. There has virtually never been anything like it. Thank you very much.

Trump is losing what is left of his decaying mind. On Thursday evening, he addressed a group of wealthy donors in Florida. He claimed (more than once) he was being prosecuted by “Letita Jones”. He claimed he “single-handedly built Twitter” but now his knock-off site is better. He appeared jealous of Al Capone’s ability to get away with murdering people — which he mentioned right after talking about Joe Biden. And what the fuck is this about? “Trump bizarrely suggests his social media director, Dan Scavino, who has access to Trump’s Truth Social account, could end Trump’s political career by posting how he ‘doesn’t like’ his voters or posting ‘something horrible’ and ‘very sexually oriented.’”

Speaking of not knowing which end is up, Trump’s elite strike force team of lawyers subpoenaed the wrong man for records relating to Trump’s New York trial. The guy mouthed off and trolled Trump’s lawyers a little bit, so naturally they went crying to the judge. It was only at that point that they learned of their mistake — when the prosecutors pointed out their dumbass move. It turned out there was more than one man in Brooklyn with the same first and last name. Trump’s pro-bono-but-don’t-know-it-yet lawyers were not smart enough to check middle names. (Or they did it deliberately as a delay tactic. I’m still leaning towards stupidity.)

Nikki McCann Ramirez offers a comprehensive round-up of Trump’s indictments, lawsuits, and legal cases at Rolling Stone, a guide to the six biggest cases against him and what is likely to happen:

In barely a year, Trump has been indicted in four criminal cases, lost multiple civil lawsuits, and been ordered to pay hundreds of millions in damages to various parties.

Trump views the legal maelstrom . . . as part of a grand conspiracy to prevent him from retaking what he feels is his rightful place as head of government. . . .

The list of probes, prosecutors, trials, court rulings and government bodies investigating the former president is long, and takes on a bewildering level of complexity when one factors in the nearly constant stream of subpoenas, letters, lawsuits, and insider reports emerging on a near-daily basis.

Donald Trump is lying when he says he doesn’t think about going to jail at all. Michael Cohen says Trump is “absolutely petrified” of going to prison. John Kelly says he is “scared shitless”. Chris Christie says Trump goes to bed every night “thinking about the sound of the jail cell door closing”. He is Former Florida Republican congressman David Jolly said his frequent tantrums on social media are evidence that “the old man’s afraid of prison”.

Last fall, there were reports that Trump was worried about being sentenced to a “bad” prison rather than a cushy “Club Fed” facility. Would he be forced to wear “one of those jumpsuits”? Would the government take away his Secret Service protection? How small will his cell be? Trump is also allegedly worried about new federal investigations into matters that have not yet been made public.

All he can do is post all-CAPS temper tantrums and pity parties on his failing-and-soon-to-be-worthless social media site. On eve of the jury selection, Trump is playing his greatest hits, posting the same old tired — but always revealing — warhorses about a “totally conflicted Judge” and the “Corrupt Prosecutor” and how unfair he’s being treated by “a Legal System in CHAOS” in this “communist show trial”.

Trump refers to his four indictments and criminal trials as a “badge of honor” and tells his loyal cult, “I’m proud to do it for you”, yet he whines about it non-fucking-stop and his audience remains convinced he’s a tough, strong, alpha man who never backs down from anyone or anything.

Tom Nichols’s essay — “Donald Trump, The Most Unmanly President” (The Atlantic, May 2020) — is essential reading on this matter.

[S]ince his first day as a presidential candidate, I have been baffled by one mystery in particular: Why do working-class white men—the most reliable component of Donald Trump’s base—support someone who is, by their own standards, the least masculine man ever to hold the modern presidency? The question is not whether Trump fails to meet some archaic or idealized version of masculinity. . . . Rather, the question is why so many of Trump’s working-class white male voters refuse to hold Trump to their own standards of masculinity—why they support a man who behaves more like a little boy.

I am a son of the working class, and I know these cultural standards. The men I grew up with think of themselves as pretty tough guys, and most of them are. They are not the products of elite universities and cosmopolitan living. These are men whose fathers and grandfathers came from a culture that looks down upon lying, cheating, and bragging, especially about sex or courage. . . . They are men who still believe in a day’s work for a day’s wages. They feel that you should never thank another man when he hands you a paycheck that you earned. . . .

Not every working-class male voted for Trump, and not all of them have these traits, of course. And I do not present these beliefs and attitudes as uniformly virtuous in themselves. . . . I am noting that courage, honesty, respect, an economy of words, a bit of modesty, and a willingness to take responsibility are all virtues prized by the self-identified class of hard-working men, the stand-up guys, among whom I was raised.

And yet, many of these same men expect none of those characteristics from Trump, who is a vain, cowardly, lying, vulgar, jabbering blowhard. Put another way, as a question I have asked many of the men I know: Is Trump a man your father and grandfather would have respected?

Nothing About Trump Or His Campaign Is Authentic

A women who shouted out her support for Donald Trump and got a hug in an Atlanta Chick-fil-A the other day was actually a Republican political consultant planted by Team Trump. Videos of the woman went viral on social media and were used as proof that Black people like Trump. It was a complete hoax. (Trump also called Chick-fil-A “the Lord’s chicken”.)

The woman — Michaelah Montgomery — is the founder of a conservative themed group, Conserve the Culture, and during an interview with Fox, Montgomery admitted to knowing ahead of time that Trump would be at the fast food joint. For the record, random citizens don’t receive Trump’s travel schedule ahead of time. Montgomery has also worked as a Republican Party of Georgia intern for years (at least as far back as 2018). She describes herself as a “political consultant” and a “director of outreach and engagement” for Blexit, which was founded by Candace Owens to convince Black voters to support Trump. Blexit is controlled by Turning Point USA and proud racist and hypotelorism-sufferer Charlie Kirk. Its director has compared Black categories on Netflix to segregated water fountains in the Jim Crow South.

Everything Trump does is fake and a lie. Trump’s supporters are also creating and sharing AI images purporting to show Trump hangin’ with Black folks. Ronny Chieng, The Daily Show: “Wow, it took the most cutting-edge technology to get Trump to hang out with six Black guys.”

The Battle of Gettysburg: “So Beautiful In So Many Different Ways”

Trump’s brain was glitching and buffering last night in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania. He “struggled through his meandering speech . . . repeatedly slurred and mispronounced words and suffered from numerous cognitive lapses.” As usual, he lied constantly and tossed out unhinged beliefs like Mardi Gras beads.

He said the US was showing “weak nicks” regarding attacks on Israel, he called Rolling Stone “a magastine that I’ve never read”, he said the United States Seal Company was being sold to Japan, migrants “don’t know the names of the country from which they came”, and he called himself “perhaps the most honest guy almost in the world”. He had these thoughts: “Wind doesn’t work. It kills all your birds” and “We’re ready to be a failed nation.” But Trump’s most demented moment of the night came when he segued into babbling about the Battle of Gettsyburg. He called it “beautiful”. (Over only three days, roughly 50,000 soldiers were killed, injured, or captured. It was the deadliest battle of the Civil War. Gorgeous.)

Gettysburg, what an unbelievable — battle that was. The Battle of Gettysburg. What an unbelievable — I mean, it was so much, and so interesting, and so vicious and horrible, and so beautiful in so many different ways—it represented such a big portion of the success of this country. Gettysburg wow. I go to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to look and to watch. And the statement of Robert E. Lee, who’s no longer in favor—did you ever notice it? He’s no longer in favor. “Never fight uphill, me boys, never fight uphill.” They were fighting uphill, he said, “Wow, that was a big mistake,” he lost his big general. “Never fight uphill, me boys,” but it was too late.

He’s a second-grader who didn’t bother to read the book and now has to give a report in front of the class. He goes to Gettysburg (really?) to watch (does he think the battle is still being fought?). Note: Trump said nothing about whether the Union Army took over the Gettysburg Airport.

The Troth Scam

Troth Senchal’s stock price continues to plummet like a rock down a well. It’s lost more than half of its (imaginary) value in the last week or so. In 2023, Troth brought in $4.1 million in revenue but reported losses of $58.2 million — and thus was valued by the three-card monte artists at the stock market at $8 billion. One investor remarked: “Man, I really thought we were gonna see a jump today.” Another investor: “Doesn’t it seem strange that the price goes down steadily every day?” [No. No, it doesn’t. The whole enterprise is a scam.] A third sucker: “It’s in Trump’s hands, and he’s got plans. I have no doubt it’s going to explode sometime.” MAGA morons are investing their life savings and nest eggs, according to the WaPo, and many are “baffled” by the stock’s sinking price. (I guess Trump’s 3,905,826 previous scams didn’t make much of an impression.)

The per share price of the stock has dropped from $66 in March to $32. An amateur trader in Oklahoma believes the stock could “go to $1,000 a share, easy” if only the media would stop writing negative things about it. “This isn’t just another stock to me. . . . I feel like it was God Almighty that put it in my lap.” . . . Trump may have violated several securities laws by posting false and misleading statements in a transparent attempt to boost a cratering stock’s value.

Trump’s Diet Coke Valet told the FBI that Trump has hoarded deodorant and cans of hair spray in a storage room in his bedbug-infested golf motel.

What is Trump looking for in a Vice President?

“Attractive”

“Telegenic”

“Not taller than Trump himself”

Committed to upholding the lie that the 2020 election was stolen

Around, but not a lot (“Trump wants someone he sees in person but doesn’t see too much”)

A winner, in that they’ve won a previous election

Not going to take over the MAGA movement from him (“He would prefer that the Republican Party duke it out for his endorsement in four years”)

… The Mud-Brown That He Has Decided Makes. Him. Look. His. Best.

Last Thursday, Lawrence O’Donnell (MSNBC) addressed the jurors that will be picked for Trump Trial #1:

While you are sitting there in the jury pool, listening to the judge describe this case to you, Donald Trump is sitting at the defense table, looking like this —

Let’s take that back down to a half screen of Donald Trump. Now, we normally don’t allow Donald Trump to occupy your full television screen during this program. But for this one time, as you consider yourself sitting there on Monday in the position of a juror, looking at him, let’s look at what they will actually see, without hearing a word from Donald Trump. And for that, we’re going to go back to the full screen, so you can take in what this man actually looks like, now.

Donald Trump is likely to be sitting there, as he is in this recent campaign video — that’s a picture of him when he’s trying to look his absolute best, in his campaign video which in his mind includes a face partially covered in some form of homemade bronzer in which he always forgets — the ears. He always forgets his ears are visible, showing the real color of Donald Trump in contrast to the mud-brown that he has decided makes him look his best and to some eyes actually makes him look like a horror movie character.

That is not a face you want to present to a criminal jury whose job it is to concentrate on the evidence in the case. Those jurors will be listening to Judge Merchan’s questions while having trouble fighting the urge to steal another peak at that profoundly strange-looking man sitting at the defense table, whose voice they will probably never hear in court. Because it is impossible, as Donald Trump and his lawyers know, for Donald Trump to testify under oath without committing perjury — perjury he will not get away with.

And Donald Trump will not be able to testify under oath and get away with trying to lie about what actually happened when he was alone in his hotel room with Stormy Daniels, who will testify under oath about what happened in that room. Donald Trump will not be able to get on the witness stand and successfully lie about his communications and conversations with Michael Cohen about paying off Stormy Daniels so that his presidential campaign could survive, and Michael Cohen will testify about that.

And so, with Donald Trump unable to testify in his own defense, the only thing he brings to his defense is that silent, discolored face, a face that lies to you without Donald Trump saying a word, a face that claims to be a color of brown that is betrayed by his 77-year-old pink ears, a face that is topped by hair that is lying to you about exactly where Donald Trump’s hairline might actually be. Every day that the jurors spend in that courtroom with defendant Trump, they will be wondering how he can be so deeply oblivious to the truth, the truth of what he looks like, with that stuff that he slaps on his face. Some of them will be thinking — correctly — he can afford the best professional makeup, but this, this is what he chooses. They will be wondering about what other truths about himself is Donald Trump unable to admit. They will be wondering why he literally cannot look at himself in a mirror. That silent face will be the only way that Donald Trump, in effect, testifies to his first criminal jury. And what those jurors will see, on that face, every day, in that courtroom, is a lie. No matter how many days those jurors spend in that room with Donald Trump, they will never come to understand why he chooses to look like that. But they will easily be able to figure out why he paid Stormy Daniels. The evidence will show that he paid Stormy Daniels in order to be elected president.