Manhattan Prosecutors file criminal charges for Trump re Stormy Daniels case - ongoing discussion here (Guilty on all 34 counts, May 30, 2024)

Politics & Elections
3301

It’s certainly threading a needle.

Someone correct me if I’m misunderstanding, but the defense is essentially conceding that business records were falsified, but they’re not conceding (obviously) that this was done to conceal a crime – that crime being a campaign finance violation.

In order to do this, they need to convince the jury that Trump was not significantly (?) motivated by concerns about his campaign. And this line of questioning is to paint Daniels in such a negative light that the jury will think that voters wouldn’t have bought here story, and therefore Trump wasn’t concerned that her story would affect his campaign.

Given all the people who have and will testified that Trump was concerned about the campaign, this line of questioning seems pointlessly cruel, but if you’re going to attack every angle, I guess it makes sense.

3302

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is asking Stormy Daniels about her history making porn movies.

“You have a lot of experience of making phony stories about sex appear to be real,” Necheles says.

“Wow,” Daniels says with a pause. “That’s not how I would put it. The sex in the films is very much real just like what happened to me in that room.”

They’re sparring over whether Daniels made up the story with Donald Trump.

“If that story was untrue, I would have written it to be a lot better,” Daniels said.

3303

I believe that they’re saying that it was a legitimate legal expense, for a lawyer who regularly engaged in buying and suppressing stories.

Cohen may have then gone on to use false businesses, false mortgages, etc. to structure the deal so that it wouldn’t be obvious. But that was all his doing, without anyone ever having asked him to do that. (Trump is being charged for the financial entries made by Trump Inc not for the other stuff that Cohen did.)

3304

Ah, just seen that Trump’s biographer wrote the following on Twitter yesterday:

So Trump’s false claim and fraudulent defense here—to avoid a more reasonable defense like advice-of-counsel that would expose more of his misconduct—is that Cohen and Daniels are criminals seeking to engage in Extortion as part of a Conspiracy.

This is a big lift in court.

This is actually close to my theory which I was saying with my tongue in my cheek. Okay Trump is going to lose this trial. Unbelievable.

3305

I’m sorry, but this is hilarious. Well done to Ms Daniels for skewering a stupid question.

Even better!

3306

ms daniels is much more relaxed on the stand today. we will have to wait until the reporters in the courtroom come out at a break to know how this is being viewed by the jury.

apparently, she is going over well with the overflow room.

necheles is now going through various bits of daniels story with various outlets.

Judge Juan Merchan just told Trump lawyer Susan Necheles to give Stormy Daniels time to answer each question.

The two are going back and forth so quickly they’re stepping on each other’s sentences.

Necheles has been pressing Daniels, and Daniels often pushes back on the attorney’s account of events.

3307

Well, she’s used to performing in uncomfortable circumstances.

3308

If Trump’s defence is indeed that he was the victim of a criminal conspiracy by Cohen and Daniels then yes the prosecution did have to call her on to the stand because the Defence would have done it otherwise. It also explains why the prosecution wanted to go into so many details about the “event” because they need to convince the jury that it wasn’t a fabrication. It also now explains why the Defence is so keen to discredit Daniels.

It’s a defence that will be extremely difficult to pull off.

3309

i am amused by the giant possum.

seriously, living in new orleans, of course you are going to be in a haunted house situation.

3310

For Trump and his MAGA super PAC.

3311

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is now pressing Stormy Daniels about her 2018 interview with Anderson Cooper.

During the interview, Cooper asks Daniels if they went out for dinner. She says no. He asks if they had dinner in the room. She says yes. Daniels says it was dinner time but they didn’t eat dinner.

“Your words don’t mean what they say, do they?” Necheles asks.

Judge Juan Merchan then sustained an objection.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles asks whether she made “a big deal” about not getting dinner when going to Donald Trump’s hotel room.

“I went to dinner and didn’t get dinner,” Daniels says.

Necheles is reading a few different interview accounts from over the the years, including Daniels telling Jimmy Kimmel she was “very food-motivated,” so she stayed in the hotel room because she was holding out for dinner.

Necheles then asks whether Daniels said the opposite in her 2011 InTouch interview.

“I never said we ate,” Daniels says. Necheles is now bringing up the article for Daniels to review.

Daniels defends herself: “My story’s the same.”

“I’ve maintained that I didn’t see any food,” Daniels. “It was dinner but we never got food.”

“All of these interviews I would have talked about the food,” Daniels adds.

Trump lawyer Susan Necheles is focusing repeatedly on Stormy Daniels’ comments for a 2011 article in the gossip magazine InTouch about a dinner with Trump.

Daniels has pushed back as Necheles tries to highlight potential discrepancies in her story, saying the article wasn’t meant to be a perfect record of events.

“This is an entertainment magazine. This is short and frivolous. It’s an abbreviated, entertaining version of the events,” Daniels says of the interview.

Necheles asks if Daniels was telling the truth in her 2011 interview.

“It is minus some details,” Daniels responds.

3312

I don’t see how that is a defense. Assuming the sex thing was made up and they were trying to get money from Trump by threatening to say it publicly, what Trump and Cohen did with the business documents would still be a crime.

(similar to Trump’s efforts to overturn the election would be criminal even if it really had been “stolen.”)

You don’t get to falsify business records because you’re an extortion victim.

3313

I really liked Seth Meyer’s take on this.

Paraphrased (cued up video):

Sean Hannity thinks prosecutors have an ulterior motive. That she was there for one reason, to embarrass Trump. Look, if you don’t want an adult film star testifying in a trial of a former president, don’t vote for a president who slept with an adult film star. And you might say “But I didn’t know he slept with an adult film star before I voted for him” and that’s because he paid her off so she wouldn’t tell anyone.

3314

He won’t let the America-hating fuckstick’s attorney Gish-gallop? UNFAIR!

/s

3315

Funny…but also probably truly germane.

3316

oh dear, more slut shaming going on. necheles is trying to use daniels porn career against her regarding the hotel room encounter.

cnn live update:

Trump lawyer Susan Necheles is suggesting that Stormy Daniels sees naked men and women in these movies all the time, questioning whether it was surprising to her to see a man in boxer shorts and a T-shirt to the point she felt like she was going to faint.

Daniels is pushing back, saying, “If I came out of the bathroom and saw an older man in his underwear that I wasn’t expecting to see there, yeah.”

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is continuing to press Stormy Daniels on the hotel room encounter.

“This wasn’t the first time in your life someone made a pass at you,” Necheles says.

“No, but it is the first time they had a bodyguard standing outside the door,” Daniels says. She adds that Trump was twice her age and bigger than her.

i believe that daniels reluctantly concented. that the sex act was transactional

3317

I got yet another thing wrong in my thoughts about Michael Cohen’s charges and the potential for using one or more of them as the predicate crime in Bragg’s case.

Michael Cohen actually entered into TWO Plea Agreements. I only reviewed one.

  1. DOJ - SDNY - 8/21/2018: tax fraud, false statements to a bank and campaign finance violations tied to his work for Trump.

  2. DOJ - SPECIAL COUNSEL’S OFFICE - 11/29/2018: Making false statements to the US Congress.

So, Cohen could present Bragg with even more opportunities than I first considered.

3318

Heaven help her if she’s ever interrogated about shooting a clerk…

3319

“How dare that woman act exactly like our client!”

3320

The court is taking a 15-minute break now.

finally! necheles is not helping the defence. she is giving the prosecution a lot for cross exam.

thank you for the correction kayla’sdad. yes, redirect.

jake tapper is in the courtroom and doing very nice artwork along with his play-by-play.