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RickJay
Moderator
Pure speculation by a former federal prosecutor:
Michael Cohen is on fine form there, at the end of the article. When asked what Donald would do if Ivanka were in the crosshairs, he replied:
Indeed.
This is a small diversion, but I admit to being exasperated with the fact that more and more news is “A guy says something could theoretically happen.” That is not news. News would be “Ivanka Trump will be charged with a number of crimes this week” or even “A reliable source inside the NYAG office tells us Ivanka Trump will be charged.”
Literally not one single word in this link - not a single one - constitutes actual reporting on evidence of charges being laid against Ivanka Trump. It’s logically equivalent to me writing an article saying “Johnny Depp could die this weekend” and quoting “sources” saying that, well, it is theoretically possible Johnny Depp could inadvertently step in front a bus while crossing the street this coming weekend. It’s undeniably a true statement as written, but it’s meaningless and not news.
As much as I dislike Ivanka Trump, this sort of “reporting” is a disgrace. It’s a waste of electrons, and it’s appallingly lazy; it’s the kind of thing a person writes because it’s relatively easy to paste together and because actually investigating a real story would have taken longer.
I agree with that, except that it’s worth extracting from the speculation the point that Weisselberg also played the “employee/non-employee” shell game that Ivanka is believed to have done. As such, it’s worth seeing how much weight that is given in Weisselberg’s case.
I’m in total agreement with RickJay on this. There is just way too much speculation without evidence to even be noteworthy.
“Is believed to.” I will not be at all surprised if she’s charged with crimes; she’s scum. The Trumps are dirty. But it’s not news until there are facts to report.
Richard Nixon was a paranoid scumbag but if Woodward and Bernstein had written something years in advance, like in 1969, saying “Nixon is a paranoid scumbag, so he might possibly have knowledge of a burglary at some point, and we think he’d cover it up” that wouldn’t have been worth the newsprint it was printed on. Watergate become reportable news when new facts came to light.
Yeah, that’s our job. Stay in your lane, VF! 
Update:
This is the former daughter-in-law of the Trump Organization’s CFO (Allen Weisselberg).
Apparently, in her divorce proceedings, she came into documents that “described how Allen Weisselberg used company funds to pay for apartments and tuition. According to the indictment, Trump personally signed tuition checks — which prosecutors said amounted to untaxed income.”
Stay tuned …
I’m a bit jaded since he can try to overthrow the government and still, no indictment. The above will become a fine at best.
And of course THAT will end up being more money in Trumps pocket when he asks for more donations. I doubt he will go the Al Capone way.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he was syphilitic. It would explain a lot.
I was talking tax evasion. But it would not surprise me in the least if you are correct.
guilty on all counts!
This?
j
ETA - there are so many actions, I lose track
yes, that.
Anyone knowledgeable in this area care to weigh in on consequences? Or are we still several appeals and stalling tactics away from actual consequences?
All I know is that they were found guilty of 17 counts and the 17th letter of the alphabet is Q! Cue the conspiracy theorists.
There will be the inevitable motion to set aside the jury’s verdict. It will be denied by the trial judge.
There will be as many appeals as can be made, on as many grounds as the defendant can pull out of his ass think of.
In short, yes, there are several appeals and stalling tactics that remain available to avoid actual consequences. For awhile.
Well, I’m still sure that Don will never actually go to jail, but I’ll enjoy this stain on the otherwise fine reputation of the Trump Organization.
Har Har Yuk Yuk
Appeals will happen. Business will slide over to Trump Org Mark II to try and distance it from this ruling and the stain of fraud. Setting those aside, the main consequences are:
- Weisselberg is going to jail for a little while and has been thrown under the bus by the Trumps and everyone else;
- The firm has to pay a rather desultory $1.6 million;
- Donald is throwing a whiny tittybaby tantrum online;
- This will put a serious dent on the firm’s ability to raise money through loans and investments, although this may just encourage more money laundering type cashflows into and through the business; and
- It will seriously bolster the civil case AG James is moving forward with, which is aiming for a much, much higher fine for the firm and individual fines from Donald and certain of his offspring.
The last one is the most material consequence of this, particularly as it does not have to wait for the criminal appeals process to grind slowly on. James must be thrilled.