From yesterday’s trial testimony (with documents) by Trump company executives — proof the Cohen fee was indeed a cover-up for Stormy payoff, which Trump lawyer denied in his opening statement.
Trump CFO Alan Weisselberg’s contemporaneous handwritten notes recording the underlying scheme – the true reason for payments to Michael Cohen – are written on a copy of the bank account showing the $130,000 hush money wired on Oct. 27 to Stormy Daniels’ lawyer!
———————
But in his opening statement Trump lawyer told jury that’s not what the money was for. Either they didn’t know about the bank statement handwriting, or that was REALLY REALLY stupid. Telling jury stuff you don’t proof is bad move, other side will crucify you.
———————
Trump Controller Jeffrey McConney ‘s handwritten notes showing how they got from $130K to $420K (including grossing up x 2 “for taxes”).
At this point it’s ridiculous for Trump lawyers to keep arguing the Cohen money had nothing to do with Stormy.
Attribution: Trump Farts In Court by Bob Englehart, PoliticalCartoons.com
Craig, vis a vis your thread topic, didn’t the defense object to those records being introduced but the judge let them in anyway? wonder what their argument was as this might come up again in their inevitable appeal.
stephen also recaps trial happenings yesterday
Donald Trump spent his weekend making his Vice Presidential hopefuls debase themselves in front of GOP donors, Gov. Kristi Noem lied about meeting Kim Jong Un, and the parent company of this network is reportedly in merger talks with Sony.
more colorful commenting on the trial according to huffpo
Karen McDougal Appears To Address Trump Trial With Not-So-Subtle Book Choice (msn.com)
Smoking Pistols:
OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: The reaction to Justice Merchan’s stark warning to Trump that he may put him in jail the next time he violates the gag order, and the defense inside the Trump cult of Kristi Noem for murdering her dog and threatening Biden’s dog – these are actually the same story.
The point is: killing.
They are about one thing: at their core, Noem and Trump and MAGA and Trump’s Supreme Court Justices and his slaves inside the House and the Senate believe they have a right to kill. Today, they have a right to kill their dogs. Tomorrow? Your dog. Then the judge. The day after that immigrants. Finally, anything and anybody.
Do not mistake them, nor what this is about. Do not forget that even as chilling a phrase as “political violence” is itself just a euphemism. Political violence is: murder. Individual murder, mass murder, or if the rest of us are lucky, just attempted murder or threatened murder.
Every Trump attack on every witness, on every judge, on every prosecutor, on every opponent; every stochastic call to “end” this; every reference to “bedlam”; every meme of the President of the United States bound and gagged; every Tim Scott refusing to honor the outcome of an election; every reference to patriots and deep states and rigged elections and I am your retribution – they all have the unspoken second half: those who try to stop us will do what we say or we will kill them. One third of Trump supporters who’ve heard about Noem killing her dog told a YouGov poll that it WAS acceptable. 29 percent weren’t sure. So the total of Trump voters who would not criticize it was six out of ten.
Old Berman, Part Two: NYTimes’ Sulzberger is aiding and abetting the Smoking Guns:
AS THIS UNFOLDS, THE NEW YORK TIMES completely disconnects from reality.
“When you are Democrat you start off essentially at 40 percent (of the vote) because you have civil service, you have the unions and you have welfare. They get welfare to vote, and then they cheat on top of that. They cheat,” Trump said of Biden and the Democrats. “’These people are running a Gestapo administration’ Mr. Trump told donors who attended the event at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Palm Beach, Florida, according to an audio recording obtained by The New York Times.”
An audio recording. OBTAINED by The New York Times.
Where is this recording?
Why has this recording not been made public by The Times? Why is the paper suppressing it?
Incredibly, at the same time the paper’s editor gave an interview to Semafor News that discredits everyone who works at The Times as he dismisses any awareness that his coverage has normalized Trump without a sufficient sense of crisis or threat. “To say that the threats of democracy are so great that the media is going to abandon its central role as a source of impartial information to help people vote – that’s essentially saying that the news media should become a propaganda arm for a single candidate, because we prefer that candidate’s agenda,” said Joe Kahn. “It’s our job to cover the full range of issues that people have. At the moment, democracy is one of them. But it’s not the top one – immigration happens to be the top, and the economy and inflation is the second. Should we stop covering those things because they’re favorable to Trump?”
Nothing to see here. Just the editor-in-chief of The New York Times living in a world defined by Fox News talking points, and populated entirely by strawmen.
AI is cool and all, but can it shoot puppies?
Stormy on the stand today
Plumpty feigning surprise
I’m curious what they need Stormy for. It’s irrelevant to the case whether or not they had sex, and the negotiations for payment went through her lawyer who has already testified.
PatD, yes they did object to those records and lose. Even if you have a lousy argument, need to preserve it for appeal.
Poobah, I suspect that the prosecution is putting Stormy on for 2 reasons – the first, because if they didn’t the jury would wonder why not since the payment was to silence her during the election period (is that relevant? Yes, to the extent it violates federal election law.) and second, to rebut the widespread public denial of Dumbass about having had sex with her while Melania was busy wit the new baby, which goes to Dumbass’ credibility. Neither is a big deal but if Merchan allows testimony about that, it puts pressure on Dumbass to testify in rebuttal to it. I think THAT’A what Bragg’s team is really up to. My thought is they are trying to play his narcissistic personality to overcome any tendency he might have to follow his lawyers’ advice for a change. Plus, there’s always the chance they might ask her about his mushroom.
And of course, there’s this – WaPo:
Of course the aid through the Rafah crossing stopped. Isn’t that the point?
Yep Pogo. That could be the motive. Best I can figure is she can testify to the sudden urgency to shut her up after the Access Hollywood tape, which goes to proving they only paid her off for the election.
If he really isn’t going to graduation the judge should revoke his day off. Newsweek: Donald Trump to attend fundraiser on day of Barron’s graduation https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-attend-fundraiser-day-barrons-graduation-1897759
Smart move having woman question Stormy. SUSAN HOFFINGER — The chief of the district attorney’s Investigation Division, she returned to the office in 2022 after more than 20 years in private practice with her sister, Fran. She worked on the Trump Organization tax fraud prosecution.
Stormy met Trump in hotel gift shop. Had not heard that before. He promised her a spot on Apprentice. Wonder how often he used that line.
Probably three to five times a week.
With her testimony about the sexual encounter I wonder if prosecutors are trying to bait Trump into testifying, because he has always strongly denied it ever happened.
Uh-oh looks like they might be going to the Forbes magazine spanking
He told her she reminds him of his daughter, Stormy says
Media pool report: “Daniels says when Trump showed her a photo of Melania, she said she was beautiful. He said not to worry, “We don’t even sleep in the same room.” Trump shook his head and muttered something to his legal team as she said this. He appears increasingly irritated as she testifies.”
I can now see a prosecution rationale in that by getting into the details of their encounter it reinforces why Trump was so eager to silence her before the election.
Oh, we’re into the creepy stuff now. Think I’ll skip it, make lunch
Will the orange blob blow up? When it goes off will jail be available? A fun day for all.
creeping minds want to know
Up with the creepy. I’m definitely here for the creepy.
CC where are you monitoring it ?
Media pool report: ‘Trump has touched the arm of his attorney seated to his right, Susan Necheles, twice now, seeming to urge her to object to the questioning.”
Sturg, I am following several reporters on X, who are in the courtroom or media room. But CNN doing a good job keeping up in real time.
Downgraded from “affair” to “tryst.”
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/05/07/nyregion/trump-trial-hush-money-stormy-daniels
(I believe her story.)
https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/tryst
Kudos to Stuart Varney for not letting her wiggle out.. ‘You Need to Stop!’ Kristi Noem Loses It At Fox Host For Repeatedly Asking About Puppy Killing.. https://mediaite.com/a/zulzi
“This interview is ridiculous, which you are doing right now,” she exasperated to her host. “So you need to stop! It is okay. It is. Let’s talk about some real topics that Americans care about,” to which the Fox Business host replied. “I’m afraid we’re out of time.”
today’s meme…
Sounds like quite the morning.
The courtroom sketches are uuuh, a laughable abomination. They’ve made Stormy look like Adolf’s fraternal twin. Ahhh, I wish there were cameras in that courtroom. When is Georgia?
Almost on topic.
BiD — On the Georgia case, Fanni’s request for an Aug. 5 trial is still on the table. Judge hasn’t said no, but hasn’t ruled on a schedule. Although it might have been telling he recently denied defense requests to postpone deadline for pre-trial motions.
So this must be why they weren’t objecting . defense moves for a mistrial. Claims the testimony was not relevant, outside guardrails & very prejudicial
The trouble with this approach instead of objecting — the jury heard the objectionable testimony.
When getting a mistrial is your strategy you must think you’re losing.
This is must be where the mistrial motion comes from..
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
THE PROSECUTION, WHICH HAS NO CASE, HAS GONE TOO FAR. MISTRIAL!
May 07, 2024, 1:56 PM
… and “Echoing his attorneys’ request for a mistrial, Donald Trump posted an all-caps message on social media, saying the prosecution ‘HAS GONE TOO FAR. MISTRIAL!'” Flirting with another contempt petition for commenting on a witness and evidence? I’m guessing that mistrial motion will fall on deaf ears.
How he spent his lunch break .
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
This Witch Hunt is FALSE ANCIENT HISTORY that was fully adjudicated by the Voters in the 2016 Presidential Election. It only has to do with Election Interference, and trying to help Crooked Joe Biden get elected because he can’t do it by himself. It is a vicious attack by the Soros backed D.A., Alvin Bragg, in strict coordination with the D.O.J. and the White House, on Biden’s Political Opponent, ME. IT IS ILLEGAL, UNCONSTITUTIONAL, AND STRICTLY THIRD WORLD COUNTRY!
May 07, 2024, 1:56 PM
How was it “adjudicated by the voters” when you hid it from them?
As I predicted:
Nice try, though.😂
Judge just struck down mistrial motion, but said witness was a “bit out of control” and he was surprised they didn’t object more, suggesting he might have sustained them.
Ha!
Echoing your comment, Poobah, WaPo
Dumbass is disconnected from himself. The video the jurors were shown a week ago laid the basis for what would otherwise have been irrelevant (except to the extent it went to stae of mind). He said “Didn’t happen.” She refuted that.
RR, love that meme.
hence the all-caps panic-posting
hell of a prosecution, guess we’ll
see if the jury is uncompromised 🤔
Ruh roh. NYT.
Contempt anyone?
LOL, from NYT:
I guess that all caps posting during the lunch break just tuckered Dumbass out.
Stormy was on a show (Kimmel?) and the signature didn’t look like hers.
If I ever have to sign something under duress, it will definitely not look like my signature.
He couldn’t be “solidly asleep” unless they have him buckled into the chair.
Defense is trying very hard to prove Stormy lied about their encounter, but even if the jury believes she’s lying, that doesn’t change the fact that she was paid for silence with falsely reported money to hide her story from voters — which is the charge.
https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2024/05/kristi-noem-memoir-kim-jong-un/678313/?utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_content=edit-promo&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook
Some Late-Breaking Adjustments to My New Autobiography
Which is entirely true, by the way.
By James Parker
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/us-has-been-holding-up-several-weapons-shipments-israel-2-weeks-source-says-2024-05-07/
“U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has been holding up certain Boeing-made arms shipments to Israel, four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, in what two of them said was an apparent political message to the close U.S. ally.”
“The shipments, which have been delayed for at least two weeks, involved Boeing-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions, which convert dumb bombs into precision-guided ones, as well as Small Diameter Bombs.”
“Israel’s campaign to destroy Hamas has led to a seven-month-long military campaign that has killed a total of 34,789 Palestinians, most of them civilians, the Gaza Health Ministry said.”
“The conflict has also left many of Gaza’s 2.3 million people on the brink of starvation…”
When we are tired we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago.
—FW Nietzsche
Apparently, Stormy got a little too graphic for their taste. She must have been talking about mushrooms again.
Trump’s federal classified docs trial date postponed indefinitely
https://www.axios.com/2024/05/07/trump-classified-documents-trial-date-court
Sad when avoiding juries is the only way to win.
lol most blatant play for a potential SCOTUS nom ever 🤮
“…he can’t make me Chief Justice if he’s not the President!”
Judge Cannon is in over her head with the complexities of the case, plus the pressure to perform to the expectations of the defendant. She’s boondoggling in the hopes the job will magically go away before revealing her incompetence or precluding her promotion out of it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/07/us/politics/biden-antisemitism-holocaust-speech.html
Judge Loose Cannon.
Noem’s story has the glide path of a rock.
wisest lyric ever?
(the whippersnapper set has not heard these songs two million times like us 🤯)
“One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you’re into jazz.”
-Lou Reed
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