More: The five-man Team Trump on the Supreme Court made it perfectly clear that they intend to further delay the criminal prosecution beyond the election at the oral argument about Trump's absurd absolute immunity claim on Thursday. The Court already has caused at least six months of delay by scheduling argument for the last day of oral arguments in the current session, and refusing to take Trump's appeal directly from the DC District Court. The Court has done this in other high-profile appeals (US v. Nixon, Pentagon Papers). Their questioning of appellate counsel did not concern the facts of the case before them, but rather scenarios involving "official" criminal acts. At one point in the argument Justice Alito told the government's attorney that he was not interested in the facts of the case, but rather answers to his hypotheticals. One respected law professor labeled the Trump Team's speculative questioning a "shameful display" of partisanship. Apprarently they heard Trumpillini's 2am post for HELP!
The Boss' unprecedented attempted coup involved a string of acts related to his presidential campaign for life; these facts were pointed out by Justice Jackson. In fact the DC Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in Blassingame that campaigning is not part of the president's official duties in a civil context. There is no need to create new jurisprudence concerning criminal immunity for official acts.. As originalists should know, the Court is supposed to address "cases" and "controversies" before it under the Constitution Article Section 2, NOT create a "rule for the ages"--a phrase coined by Justice Gorsuch. A remand to sort unnecessary factual distinctions in federal district court will take time, pushing trial beyond the election. Court observers do not expect a Court decision until at least the end of the current session in June. One silver lining to a remand order: the Special Prosecutor could publicly reveal evidence of Trumpilini's culpability not available to the January Sixth Committee at a lower court fact-finding hearing before the election. {25.04.24}The historic criminal trial of a former president got under way this week. The first witness was David Pecker, former publisher of the
National Enquirer. Testified to an agreement between his tabloid magazine and Don Legit to "catch and kill" unfavorable stories about him before the election. A meeting took place in 2015 between Trump, Cohen and Pecker to discuss the arrangement after a Trump Tower doorman touting a story about Trump fathering an illegitimate child with a Tower maid. The prosecution emphasized in its opening address to the jury that the case is not about paying hush money to a porn star, but about falsifying business records to influence the election outcome. Falsifying business records is a felony offense in New York if the records are used to commit other crimes. In this case the other crimes are violations of campaign finance laws.
The prosecution has promised to submit corroborating evidence of how pay-offs were made to look like routine payments for legal fees from Michael Cohen. Alan Weisselburg, former CFO of Trump.org took handwritten notes concerning the scheme to coverup the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels. Cohen took out a home equity loan in order to advance the sum to Daniels.
Justice Merchan has not yet ruled on whether the Ochre Menace should be held in contempt for violating his gag order that prohibits the defendant from speaking about jurors and witnesses. A show cause hearing was held on Tuesday morning. Apparently just hours before his attorneys argued in court that their client had not violated the order, the defendant taped an interview with an ABC reporter in which he criticized Michael Cohen as a "convicted liar without credibility". Prosecutors have counted 16 instances of Donny Mouth violating the court order. At the maximum fine of $1000 per violation, that is $16,000-- a healthy sum even for Donny Rich Kid.
In Arizona, a grand jury has indicted 18 supporters of the would be dictator including former chief of staff Mark Meadows, Trump lawyer Rudy Guiliani, Boris Epshetyn, and John Eastman. Trump is described as an unindicted co-conspirator as is Ken Chesebro. Chesebro is known to have cooperated with the Arizona AG's investigation. Eleven named conspirators are the those party activists who posed as electors for Trump despite Joe Biden's narrow victory in the state. The indictment includes felony charges for fraud, forgery and conspiracy similar to what has been charged in Georgia. The charging document says, “Defendants and unindicted coconspirators schemed to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency to keep Unindicted Co-conspirator 1 in office against the will of Arizona’s voters." It is unlikely that any of the defendants will go to trial before the election in November, although some may decide to plea guilty.
 |
| credit J. Heller |
