Trump Indicted by Manhattan District Attorney

[Voronwë the Faithful]

That lawsuit, of course, was filed on Stormy Daniels/Stephanie Clifford's behalf by Michael Avenatti, who later was convicted of, among other things, embezzling money from her. It was a stupid lawsuit to file, but I still think it was a bad decision by the judge to grant the SLAPP motion to dismiss and order such excessive attorney's fees. But that is neither here nor there with regard to the current charges against Trump.

If anyone else had engaged in the exact same conduct that Trump did there would be unanimous condemnation and agreement that he should be held criminally liable. But with Trump, not only are his supporters outraged, even the never-Trump Republicans are outraged, and a sizeable portion of Democrats are unimpressed with the charges. The main criticism, so far as I can see, boils down to some version of "well he has done so much worse so why charge him with this." Well, he may well have done so much worse, but without this criminal scheme he very likely never would have become president, and none of the other three cases that he is being investigated about would exist.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I'm not sure who this person is, but I have noticed the exact same thing.

[N.E. Brigand]

I know of Quinta Jurecic from Lawfare: she "is a fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and a senior editor at Lawfare. She previously served as Lawfare's managing editor and as an editorial writer for the Washington Post." She may be best known for her work analyzing whether Donald Trump's actions involving the Russia investigation amounted to obstruction of justice. She created a spreadsheet or "heat map" about that subject which was widely shared in 2019, even turning up in a Congressional hearing.

The reason I predicted that Trump will eventually plead to the Manhattan charges is that enough people who work on law in New York said Tuesday that the case was strong enough to convict, and I figure that rather like the Trump University settlement, he'll decide the risk and cost of continuing to fight is too great. Also he's likely to be overwhelmed by other prosecutions. I'm wondering if there's any chance of a global settlement across all cases sometime in 2024.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I don't think that a global settlement is even possible. As for the current charges I think it is more likely that he will bollocks up the prosecution with delay tactics than that he will reach a plea deal. As common as such deals are in most prosecutions, there are very compelling reasons why both sides will not want to do so in this case.

[N.E. Brigand]

Fair enough! Time will tell, and you've been right more often than me as regards Trump's future.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

A lot remains to be seen. As Renato Marrotti and others have noted, it is likely that Trump's team will file what is called a motion for a bill of particulars in order to gain more clarity about what the "other crimes" are that the prosecutors are relying on to raise the charges from misdemeanors to felonies. If, as is expected, they are relying in part on either federal campaign finance laws or state election laws, the Trump team will likely try to file action in federal court claiming that the the charges should be preempted by federal law. Which I think they will lose, but it will delay things considerably.

[N.E. Brigand]

Judges in New York are elected and partisan. Some commentators are making hay with the fact that the judge in Donald Trump's case has made small donations to Democrats over the years, including a $35 donation to Joe Biden in 2020. They argue that this means the judge should recuse himself from this case.

Those commentators don't mention that someone else involved in the case mad a $1,000 donation to Joe Biden in 2000: Donald Trump. Which is a weird omission, because I'm pretty sure they'd love for Trump to be recused from this case!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Bragg ain't foolin' around.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Well, the lawsuit was assigned to Judge MARY KAY VYSKOCIL, aka Judge Cannon of the north, a Trump-appointed District Court judge who has already rejected a case previously filed by Karen MacDougal against Tucker Carlson for defamation because he accused her of extortion. She has already rejected the requested temporary restraining order, ordered Bragg to serve all defendants by 9 pm tonight, scheduled a hearing for 4/19 and ordered defendants to respond by 4/17, without giving a date for a any replay by the plaintiff. She claims that the declaration that Bragg's attorney Theo Boutrous, filed in support of the motion was not in the docket, even though it is in the docket. I suspect that if Bragg is going to win it will be on appeal.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

More nutsy-cuckoo-ness!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[N.E. Brigand]

Yahoo News: "Trump's tale of crying Manhattan court employees was 'absolute BS,' law enforcement source says."

Trump had made these claims in his interview two days ago with Tucker Carlson. But in reality, there were no tears, and the "only hiccup came when his fingers were too dry for his fingerprinting, at which point district attorney employees provided lotion for his fingers, the source added."

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Also, if you look closely at the tweet in my last post, you will see that it lists the demand for Trump's suit against Michael Cohen not as $500 million (which is what the complaint says) but $500 billion

[Sunsilver]

Yes, I saw that. Totally ridiculous!

[N.E. Brigand]

Also, if you look closely at the tweet in my last post, you will see that it lists the demand for Trump's suit against Michael Cohen not as $500 million (which is what the complaint says) but $500 billion

Mint the Co(h)in!

[N.E. Brigand]

Michael Cohen is still a shady guy, and the D.A.'s office will have its work cut out defending his credibility as a witness in their prosecution of Donald Trump, but I do appreciate his response here to CNN's attempts to bothsides Trump's $500,(000),000 lawsuit against him.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

And then there is this.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Well, the lawsuit was assigned to Judge MARY KAY VYSKOCIL, aka Judge Cannon of the north, a Trump-appointed District Court judge who has already rejected a case previously filed by Karen MacDougal against Tucker Carlson for defamation because he accused her of extortion. She has already rejected the requested temporary restraining order, ordered Bragg to serve all defendants by 9 pm tonight, scheduled a hearing for 4/19 and ordered defendants to respond by 4/17, without giving a date for a any replay by the plaintiff. She claims that the declaration that Bragg's attorney Theo Boutrous, filed in support of the motion was not in the docket, even though it is in the docket. I suspect that if Bragg is going to win it will be on appeal.

My description of Judge Vyskocil is proofing to be quite accurate.

[Voronwë the Faithful]