Here’s what happened in court with the opening witness during shortened court sessions on Monday and Tuesday, though a Manhattan jury will probably find the former president guilty because of Orange Man Bad.
Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker testified that he collaborated with Trump’s attorney to suppress news that would have damaged Trump’s brand or caused harm to his wife and family. This is the infamous “catch-and-kill” plan, in which informants would contact the Enquirer with a negative report about Trump (this includes prominent figures in Hollywood), pay the sources, and then have the piece removed.
And it proceeded as follows:
- Pecker allegedly told Michael Cohen, Trump’s attorney, about the sensationalized tale.
- Cohen paid a lot of money to get three sources to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
- Trump settled his legal debts, paying Cohen’s fees as well as other expenses.
- The aforementioned are all lawful.
It gets much more torturous from here, so bear with me.
The prosecution’s goal is to demonstrate that Trump frequently used this plan to “affect” the election results. Spoiler alert: There is nothing wrong with trying to influence the election, as Trump’s attorney, Todd Blanche, stated in the opening remarks. However, consider Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration’s involvement in the Russia collusion lie. It is known as democracy, and unlike Hillary’s unlawful espionage and frame-up operation with media amplification, it is legitimate.
Undeterred, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office will now have to employ strong rhetoric and zip ties to persuade a jury in New York that Trump concealed these reports about alleged relationships in order to steal the election. This may resemble the Democratic plot to destroy the Hunter Biden laptop story, except instead of using the Enquirer, they collaborated with all legacy media outlets and retired CIA officials to persuade 2020 voters that the report was a product of Russian misinformation. They wanted to reunite the band, so even though they knew the laptop was real, they reasoned that it would still operate in 2016.
The prosecution accuses Trump of “influencing” and “stealing” the presidential election, but they do not press charges. They did report a new state-related crime on Tuesday, but they have not said anything about the federal link. They assert that a criminal enterprise used the NDAs and “catch-and-kill” tactics to sway the election.
In order to establish an uncharged federal election law offense, jurors must utilize their rhetorical zip ties to link the dull and uncharged election theft pattern with the catch-and-kill pattern. This is a ploy to fabricate felonies in order to prevent Trump from becoming president.
Feel not too horrible. “Delving even one millimeter below the surface leaves you with an extremely complicated situation,” says law professor Jonathan Turley.
Are prosecutors angry that Trump avoided using campaign funds and now faces a campaign finance prosecution? It seems that way.
The DOJ and the Federal Election Commission decided against filing a federal lawsuit over this. Why? Thus, there is no campaign violation. Recall that there are 34 accusations of accounting irregularities in this case. Although it is illegal to use campaign funds for personal needs, they claim that Trump made a mistake when he claimed they were legal bills rather than donations.
Fox News reported on Tuesday’s Pecker testimony. Take note of the false yet sensationalized testimony they wanted the jury to hear:
In his testimony, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker claimed to have collaborated with former Trump attorney Michael Cohen to disprove an unverified rumor claiming that the former president had fathered a child with a Trump Tower maid. Pecker testified on Tuesday during the Trump v. New York trial. “He claimed to have gotten information that Trump Tower doorman Dino Sajudin was trying to sell the story and provide the identity of the concerned maid.”After Pecker informed Cohen of Sajudin’s intentions, Cohen said the information was untrue but promised to look into it. Pecker alleged that the Enquirer eventually paid $30,000 for the article with its own money. The Enquirer could not confirm Sajudin’s allegations, he claimed, adding that if the report had been real, they would have done so soon after the 2016 election. Pecker actually testified that the Enquirer’s final conclusion was that the charges were “100% incorrect.” Pecker subsequently told investigators that, until the event, he had never paid to destroy a story for Trump.”
In her testimony, Pecker also stated:
In addition, he said that he could act as “the eyes and ears” of Trump’s campaign, putting an end to any scandalous claims made by women. Given Trump’s past as an “eligible bachelor” and someone who “dates beautiful ladies,” he said he believed it was inevitable that some women would come forward in an attempt to sell their stories.
Of course, the goal was to harm Trump, but some of the prosecution’s evidence appeared to work in his favor.
Trump urged the “conflicted” judge to step down on Tuesday because of his ties to Democrats. By accident. Manhattan is like this. Trump is the only one going to jail for violating his gag order. We anticipate that the court will rule on the prosecution’s gag order suit before the hearing continues on Thursday.
Some of our astute commentators dubbed this case the Hush Trump case, despite the media calling it a “hush money” case. Touché. You cannot help but question whether there is a fix in place when a judge silences the defendant but not the other trial participants. In this age of restricted media that we live in, where else would you find that to read?
