Tom of Temecula
Tom of Temecula's JournalThe 'unmistakable sign' Alvin Bragg believes Trump trial is a slam dunk
Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner is convinced Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is so pleased with Cohen's performance on the witness stand in former President Donald Trump's criminal hush money case that he's not calling any more witnesses. "There is one unmistakable sign that the prosecutors in Donald Trump's criminal case up in New York believe that Michael Cohen is doing extremely well on the witness stand," Kirschner teased.And that "one sign" is the fact that they signaled they'll rest after Cohen.
"I think one of the most interesting things we learned at the end of the trial day on Tuesday was that the prosecution announced that Michael Cohen would be their final witness," he said. "Earlier on, they suggested there might be other witnesses after Michael Cohen, but it seems pretty clear that the prosecution thinks Michael Cohen is doing so well on the stand that he's going to be the last witness the jury hears from before the prosecutors rest their case."
Bragg's team has spent the past few weeks trying to prove that Donald Trump falsified business documents to coverup hush money payments to an adult movie star who claims to have had a sexual relationship with him. The then-presidential candidate was trying to hide it from voters in the 2016 election, they argue.
Cohen had been Trump's devoted attorney-fixer turned outspoken adversary and played a central role as a bagman in buying the silence of — Stormy Daniels. Trump stands accused of using The Trump Organization to have “grossed up” Cohen’s reimbursement totaling $420,000 for the money paid to Daniels and claim it as legal expenses, according to prosecutors. Trump denies wrongdoing or having the affair.
https://www.alternet.org/alvin-bragg-trial/
Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert Brutally Roasted Outside Trump Trial
Some of Donald Trump’s biggest supporters in Congress showed up at his hush-money trial on Thursday. They didn’t plan on being publicly embarrassed. Representatives Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert were among those who made the trek to Manhattan, ostensibly to support the former president. They quickly found themselves the object of scorn from local New Yorkers.
The audience at the trainwreck press conference also heckled the members of Congress, even chanting “Beetlejuice” at Boebert, a reference to her inappropriate behavior at a live theatrical performance of Beetlejuice last fall. To make matters worse, the heckling came as she tried to get some microphone time as her colleagues quickly left her behind.
The MAGA politicians had other plans for their New York trip. Perhaps they wanted to get out of their actual legislative work, to tease a second insurrection, to make a cringey campaign ad with Trump, or to help him skirt his gag order (which would be illegal). Maybe they think their support will help the presumptive Republican nominee for president’s self-esteem, as his trial is certainly not going well for him.
Trump is facing 34 felony charges for allegedly falsifying business records with the intent to further an underlying crime by using his former fixer, Michael Cohen, to pay off adult film actress Stormy Daniels to cover up an affair before the 2016 election. Each day of the trial brings more damning testimony and evidence against him.
https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1791141525092815265
https://newrepublic.com/post/181648/matt-gaetz-lauren-boebert-roasted-trump-trial
Trump Appears To Be Using Lauren Boebert To Violate Gag Order
Rep. Lauren Boebert showed up in court with Trump, and she is posting on line what appears to be instructions on violating the gag order. Boebert posted:
They may have gagged President Trump.They didn’t gag me. They didn’t gag the rest of us. Why is that fraud Michael Cohen allowed on TikTok with a shirt of Trump behind bars but Trump can’t speak out? Why is Merchan’s daughter allowed to fundraise for every Democrat under the sun? This is a pathetic political witch hunt! I wonder if I’ll run into Judge Merchan’s daughter here in court today. She’s probably too busy being paid millions and millions of dollars by Democrat campaigns all across the country and won’t be able to make it. She’s likely busy working for Shifty Schiff again today… Michael Cohen is a convicted liar yet he’s supposed to be believed now? He sits on TikTok shilling merch of Trump in jail but we’re supposed to take his word as credible? Cohen paid Stormy Daniels off without Trump’s knowledge. That’s from Cohen’s own attorney. President Trump is being blamed for Cohen’s deeds.
These are things that if Trump would have said them would have gotten him jailed. Matt Gaetz is also in court with Trump and Boebert this morning, so it appears that the ex-president has a strategy of using people like Boebert and Gaetz and mouthpieces to get around the gag order.
Trump can’t get more than his son Eric to show up in court for him, but he has got the likes of Gaetz and Boebert. If Boebert is making an impression on the jury, it may not be a good one.
https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1791142254566146230
https://www.politicususa.com/2024/05/16/trump-lauren-boebert-court.html
Trump's Lawyer Utterly Tanks During Additional Questioning Of Michael Cohen At Trial
Well, things were going seemingly quite poorly for Trump lawyer Todd Blanche this Thursday as questioning of former Trump ally Michael Cohen continued amid the ongoing New York City trial of the ex-president on charges of falsifying business records.
Legal expert Norm Eisen was among those providing updates. “OMG, Blanche asks if can approach and discuss all the objections sustained,” Eisen relayed after a series of objections from prosecutors received the judge’s backing. “Judge: (quietly, shaking head) no.Smackdown. Blanche is not up for this.”
Earlier portions of Cohen’s time under questioning specifically from Trump’s defense team also went poorly for Donald’s lawyers, with — again — Blanche being upbraided by the judge after some of his initial questions focused on alleged animosity from Cohen towards… Blanche, rather than the defendant (Trump). The judge put Blanche on the spot at the time, insisting that the questions needed to focus someplace other than alleged bias against the lawyers.
“I did not think it could get worse that Tuesday’s start to cross for Blanche,” Eisen added. “Maybe its not worse, but it ain’t much better. He needed to come out swinging, impose his will on Cohen, rattle him & make impression on jury. Not happening.”
https://bipartisanreport.com/2024/05/16/trumps-lawyer-utterly-tanks-during-additional-questioning-of-michael-cohen-at-trial/
Analyst Suggests GOP Senators Could Face Subpoenas After Showing Up For Trump
Eric Lisann, a former prosecutor, suggested in new commentary on social media that Republican Senators who have shown up to support former President Donald Trump during his ongoing criminal trial in New York City on charges of falsifying business records could face subpoenas connected to some of their surrounding commentary.
Specifically, Lisann was discussing the possibility of pursuing consequences against Trump on the theory that he was effectively behind some of the antagonistic comments made by these figures, deemed “surrogates” by Trump himself. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), for instance, seemingly lambasted the jury, questioning even their citizenship. And in a later Newsmax interview, Tuberville confirmed that he’d been interested in effectively getting around an active gag order on Trump that protects jurors, witnesses, and others.
The order also blocks Trump from directing that others make covered comments on his behalf, so if he’s tied to the diatribes, that could be a problem for Donald. He was already threatened with jail-time for future violations of the order, with presiding Judge Juan Merchan — known in local legal parlance as a Justice — bemoaning that the maximum in financial penalties was just $1,000 per violation, something obviously not going to leave a huge impact on Trump, considering his wealth.
“The judge, Justice Merchan, can order Trump to show cause why he should not be held in contempt. The DA can request that also. Subpoenas could go out to Scott, Vance, and Tuberville. But they think it would be a distracting circus and it could well be. That doesn’t mean though it is less problematic than doing nothing,” Lisann posted.
https://bipartisanreport.com/2024/05/16/analyst-suggests-gop-senators-could-face-subpoenas-after-showing-up-for-trump/
Russian Disinformation Videos Smear Biden Ahead of U.S. Election
Last month, a video began circulating on social media purporting to tell the story of an internet troll farm in Kyiv targeting the American election.
Speaking in English with a Slavic accent, “Olesya” offers a first-person account of how she and her colleagues initially worked in support of President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. Then, she says, after a visit by mysterious Americans who were “probably C.I.A.,” the group began sending messages to American audiences in support of President Biden.
“We were told our new target was the United States of America, especially the upcoming elections,” the woman in the video says. “Long story short, we were asked to do everything to prevent Donald Trump from winning the elections.” The video is fake, part of an effort to cloud the political debate ahead of the U.S. elections.
U.S. officials say the video is consistent with Russian disinformation operations as internet warriors aligned with Russia appear to be honing their strategy. Some of the old tactics of 2016 or 2020 could be used again, with new refinements.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/15/us/politics/russia-disinformation-election.html
Mary Trump: Here's why Ivanka and Don Jr. haven't shown up to their father's 'tawdry' trial
The niece of former President Donald Trump recently weighed in on why two of her high-profile cousins haven't yet shown up in Manhattan to stand by their father in his first criminal trial. During a Wednesday night MSNBC YouTube stream, Mary Trump was asked why she thinks Donald Trump Jr. — the ex-president's eldest son — and his eldest daughter Ivanka are absent from trial proceedings. She responded that they see little to be gained by standing alongside their father in Manhattan.
"Ivanka made the calculation a long time ago that it was not in her best interests to remain in any way associated with the rest of her family. She doesn’t need them,” Mary Trump said. “All of these relationships are transactional. She is a legitimately wealthy person because of the person she is married to. She doesn’t need Donald for anything."
"She’s not going to show up in a courtroom to support him especially in a case which is so, seriously, at its base so depressingly tawdry," she added.
In regard to Donald Trump Jr., Mary observed that his brother, Eric, simply drew "the short straw," noting that it would either be he or his brother going to the trial, and that both going wouldn't make sense. However, she added that if their father demanded it, all would be in attendance "maybe with the exception of Ivanka." Mary Trump then used their absence to posit that perhaps their father cares less about the support of his own children than he does about public support from Republicans, like the ones who recently held a press conference outside the courtroom.
https://www.alternet.org/ivanka-trump-trial/
Trump Walked Into A Biden Debate Trap
Trump and his advisers are reportedly irked that President Biden has jumped in and taken the debate narrative away because the Biden campaign set them up. Kristen Holmes reported on CNN:
Just to give an overall view here, talking to Trump’s senior advisers and those in his orbit, they’re a little bit irked right now by the fact that Joe Biden somehow took over the debate narrative, despite the fact that Donald Trump has been really using this as a narrative at all of his campaign rallies. He’s been up on stage with an empty podium next to him saying, come debate me, and he’s often said, I will debate anywhere, anytime. This has been kind of a rallying cry for Donald Trump and for some of his top advisers. Now, what we saw today was Joe Biden taking control of the narrative, and now Donald Trump is trying to take it back.
Since Trump has little campaign operation and barely campaigns one day a week, this is the first time his campaign has gone up against Biden’s campaign. The results were not good. The Biden campaign set Trump up. Since Donald Trump thinks he is an expert dealmaker and negotiator, he assumed that he could agree to all of Biden’s terms and then negotiate more debates.
Why does Trump want more debates if he is winning? Even though Trump uses the polling as propaganda, he and his campaign appear not to believe that he is winning. Trump is a lousy debater. He has never been good at debates, so the idea that he wants many debates was always more narrative-spinning than reality.
Donald Trump has a history of refusing to debate. It appears that he bought his own BS about Biden, and as soon as Biden stepped up and set the terms, Trump was trapped and fell into a trap. Biden set the ex-president up, and Trump never saw it coming.
https://www.politicususa.com/2024/05/15/trump-walked-into-a-total-biden-debate-trap.html
Donny shoots a mysterious white projectile from his nose
Watch closely now.
https://twitter.com/santiagomayer_/status/1303114177079173121
'You're A Wuss': George Conway Rips 'Scared' Trump For Not Testifying
George Conway turned directly to the camera and addressed Donald Trump about why he will not testify in his election interference trial. Trump's lawyers indicated they haven't made a decision about his testimony, but as Conway pointed out, he'd be shredded in about 3 minutes because, as one of Trump's prior lawyers pointed out, "he's an effing liar."
Conway also reminded viewers that he doesn't listen to his lawyers, instead making his own poor decisions about how the trial should go, which is why the cross-examination of Stormy Daniels was such a failure.
"If he doesn't testify, it's not going to be because he all of a sudden decided to follow legal advice," Conway asserted. "He's causing his lawyers to do stupid things in court, like the cross-examination of Stormy and the miscues the other day and the cross-examination of Michael Cohen. He doesn't listen to his lawyers."
He added, "If he doesn't testify, it's because he's scared." This is where it got fun. Conway looked directly in the camera and laid down a gauntlet to Lumpy: "Donald, you are scared. You like to go out and stand out there in the hallway and say all the things that you say because nobody gets to ask you questions and if they ask you questions, you just turn around and walk away. You, Donald, I hope you're listening to me, you are a wuss."
https://crooksandliars.com/2024/05/wuss-george-conway-calls-trump-coward-not
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