Georgia trial
Trump is *choosing* to run for office. Question is, is it election interference if, before an election, a criminal case is slated? Judge McAfee asks about this. What’s absurd about this comment from Trump’s attorney is the unspoken premise that people who are going to VOTE have no say in knowing whether the former president is a crook, and especially one that tried to interfere with a previous election.
“This trial does not constitute election interference. Let’s be clear,” said Nathan Wade, an attorney for Willis’ office. “This is moving forward with the business of Fulton County. I don’t think it in any way impedes defendant Trump’s ability to campaign or doing whatever he needs to do to seek office.”…
Several defense attorneys emphasized the unprecedented nature of the indictment, calling it unconstitutional. Will Wooten, Fulton County deputy district attorney, said the defense has not explained any specific statute that is being applied unconstitutionally.“We’ve heard from the other side that this is the first time a prosecution of this type has been brought. And that may be true,” he said. “But this is the first time a criminal enterprise has gotten together and tried to overturn the results of an election. I don’t think that’s a particularly persuasive argument. That doesn’t make it unconstitutional.”
This type of issue was ruled on in the DC federal trial when setting the trial date for Trump’s election interference trial. NY Times
The March 4 date set by Judge Chutkan for the federal election case at a hearing in Federal District Court in Washington is the day before Super Tuesday, when 15 states are scheduled to hold Republican primaries or caucuses.
Judge Chutkan said that while she understood Mr. Trump had both other trial dates scheduled next year and, at the same time, was running for the country’s highest office, she was not going to let the intersection of his legal troubles and his political campaign get in the way of setting a date.
“Mr. Trump, like any defendant, will have to make the trial date work regardless of his schedule,” Judge Chutkan said, adding that “there is a societal interest to a speedy trial.”
Can Trump claim presidential immunity from lawsuits?
United States of America vs Donald Trump (Florida Federal trial)
Here again is the indictment. Trump regularly lies about what he was indicted for, do read it and compare.
Attorney for Trump told him (NYTimes
it would be a crime if he did not comply with the demand, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The lawyer, Jennifer Little, this year related the account of her discussion with Mr. Trump to a grand jury overseen by the special counsel Jack Smith. She is one of several witnesses who prosecutors were told had advised Mr. Trump to cooperate.
A few months after Ms. Little testified to the grand jury, Mr. Smith charged Mr. Trump with violating the subpoena for the documents and obstructing the government’s repeated efforts to reclaim nearly three dozen classified documents that he removed from the White House.
As part of her grand jury appearance, Ms. Little told prosecutors that the former president clearly understood her warning, the person familiar with the matter said.
Fraud Trial in New York vs Trump company
Remember that the judge has already ruled that the Trump organization committed fraud. From The Independent Nov 22
Handwritten notes on Mr Trump’s financial statements at the centre of the case suggest that it was the former president and his chief executives who had the final word. One of Mr Trump’s net worth statements from 2014 explicitly stated “DJT TO GET FINAL REVIEW”.
Mr Trump, whose own meandering testimony repeatedly veered into insults against the judge and the attorney general, even at one point admitted he would sometimes “look” at those statements of financial condition and maybe offer “suggestions”.
The civil trial inside New York State Supreme Court will determine remaining claims in the lawsuit – including insurance fraud, falsifying business records and conspiracy charges – and what penalties, if any, Mr Trump and his co-defendants will face.
Boing Boing – from Forbes, Trump lying abut the size of Trump Tower
“This is the entire floor of Trump Tower, just so you understand,” Trump said in the interview. “This isn’t like, I’ll show you. Now, this wraps all around the building. All around the elevators. And I have three times three. So there’s like 11,000 feet on a floor. So I have three. So 33,000—and I have the roof.”
In fact, the total square footage of the apartment was just under 11,000 square feet.
Forbes also notes that the recording undercuts Trump’s claims made at the trial that he had personally noticed the problem and had ordered his accountants to correct it.
“In fact, Forbes uncovered the square-footage discrepancy and informed Weisselberg and McConney that the apartment was 10,996 square feet in February of 2017,” writes Forbes. “The Trump Organization nonetheless continued to use the incorrect square footage on a net-worth statement dated mid-March. Forbes then published an article headlined ‘Donald Trump Has Been Lying About The Size Of His Penthouse’ in May 2017. It was only after that story came out—while Donald Trump was in the White House—that the Trump Organization changed its calculation to reflect the true square footage of the apartment.”
The criminal trial in New York (Manhattan) -Alvin Bragg PDF
Defendant Donald J. Trump is charged with thirty-four felony counts of falsifying business
records in the first degree as part of an expansive and corrupt criminal scheme to conceal damaging
information from the voting public in advance of the 2016 presidential election.
From August 2015 to December 2017, defendant orchestrated—and then tried to conceal—
a scheme with others to influence the 2016 presidential election by identifying and purchasing
negative information about him to suppress its publication and benefit his electoral prospects. One
component of this scheme was that, at defendant’s request, Michael Cohen—a lawyer who then
worked for the Trump Organization as Special Counsel to defendant—covertly paid $130,000 to
an adult film actress just weeks before the presidential election to prevent her from publicizing a
sexual encounter with defendant. This payment was illegal, and Cohen pleaded guilty to making
an illegal campaign contribution and served time in prison
Interesting point about Trump trying to say “but I’m running for office” as a way to avoid criminal responsibility
We address one threshold argument at the outset. Defendant repeatedly suggests that
because he is a current presidential candidate, the ordinary rules for criminal law and procedure
should be applied differently here. DB: 1-2, 4, 6, 9, 42, 45. This argument is essentially an attempt
to evade criminal responsibility because defendant is politically powerful. Courts have repeatedly
rejected defendant’s demands for special treatment and instead have adhered to the core principle
that the rule of law applies equally to the powerful as to the powerless. “To create a special
exception here would defy our Nation’s foundational principle that our law applies ‘to all, without
regard to numbers, wealth, or rank.'” Trump v. United States, 54 F.4th 689, 701 (11th Cir. 2022)
(quoting Georgia v. Brailsford, 3 U.S. (3 Dall.) 1, 4 (1794)). The neutral application of the facts and
the law demonstrates that there is no basis to dismiss this case. And like any other defendant whose
arguments for dismissal are meritless, this defendant’s motions should be denied, and this
prosecution should proceed to trial.
New Lawsuit against the Trump company re: Trump International Golf Club. Alice Bianco v Lamington Farm Club dba Trump National Golf Club, Bedminster.
PDF Case involves a sexual harassment allegation against an employee at the Golf club but that’s not the worst part. After these issues regarding “sexual actions” and covering it up, with a letter, Aline Habba on July 28, 2021, “Alina Habba…approached Plaintiff while she was serving during a morning shift on the patio in the clubhouse…. Habba encouraged Plaintiff to fire her lawyer… , said she was neutral, “continued the process of grooming Plaintiff, pretending that they were friends, stating that she only wanted to help her ‘two really good friends’, meaning Ms Bianco and Donald Trump'”, had her sign a settlement letter that she said would be tax-free. Ms Habba “fraudulently induced Ms Bianco to agree to a paltry settlement for a quid pro quo sexual harassment case and included in the Settlement Agreement drafted by her law firm illegal terms that violate New Jersey laws about non-disclosuer. Plaintiff says that Habba was representing the interests of Donald Trump. More about Alina Habba from Above the Law Not that Alina Habba is a paragon of ethical behaviour.
