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Post by dlancer on Apr 15, 2024 21:23:43 GMT
I bring it up because those are the other crimes you repeatedly ask for. Duh?
Among those crimes, Cohen pleaded guilty to violating the per-person $2,700 limit of the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA).
Cohen admitted the payments were made to help Trump's chances of winning the election.
Those crimes are already on the books.
Bragg didn't need to specify them before the trial because Trump isn't being charged with those other crimes.
There is no crime on the books that says a candidate can't spend his own money on his own campaign to influence an election. That's literally what campaigning is, you absolute retard. You're not reading what is written.
Using that money to influence an election is legal, but doing so is what turns it into a campaign payment, and not a business payment.
By being a campaign payment, it is beholden to 2016's $2,700 per-person limit.
You can spend all the campaign money you want on advertisements, but when it comes to individual people you could only give up to $2,700 in 2016.
Today it's something like $3,300.
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Post by cts1 on Apr 15, 2024 21:25:02 GMT
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Post by PaulsLaugh on Apr 15, 2024 21:31:13 GMT
It's another made-up victimless crime. I don't care that he had sex with a porn star, and don't care if he paid her to stay quiet. You treat Trump like he’s your favorite NBA basketball player.
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Post by Isapop on Apr 15, 2024 22:23:24 GMT
The second crime, call it the "predicate", seems to be a smorgasbord of crimes that NY State law allows Bragg to present to the jury without having to specify in the indictment beforehand. I'm guessing that the reason is that Trump is not actually being charged with the predicate crime. Here's a layout of it: The statute requires the falsification of a business record with intent to defraud, and it requires that the falsification be part of an attempt to commit another crime, to aid another crime, or to conceal another crime. For the ease of explanation, call the referenced crime the criminal “predicate.” The indictment identifies thirty-four falsified business records, but it didn’t indicate what the criminal predicates were, because New York law doesn’t require that it do so. But some clues about the predicates can be found in the 13-page Statement of Facts that accompanied the indictment, as well as from Bragg’s comments in a press conference following the arraignment.
The statement creates certain inferences about the predicates. Generally speaking, the statement describes an “unlawful scheme” designed to “influence the 2016 presidential election by identifying and purchasing negative information about [Trump] to suppress its publication and benefit the Defendant’s electoral prospects.” In short, the DA alleges what the popular press calls a catch-and-kill scheme, which itself consists of more specific unlawful activity. The scheme itself was illegal, says the indictment and accompanying statement, as was much of the activity used to effectuate it. Some combination of the activity used to effectuate the scheme and the scheme itself predicates each of the thirty-four charges under § 175.10. The second paragraph of the indictment indicates that the predicating criminality includes (1) violations of “election laws” and (2) violations associated with “mischaracterize[ing], for tax purposes, the true nature of the payments[.]” The third paragraph makes clear that the election law predicates include Michael Cohen’s federal conviction for “making an illegal campaign contribution.” In paragraphs 41 through 44, the statement alleges that Cohen worked with Trump and American Media Inc. (AMI), the parent company of the National Enquirer, to effectuate the scheme. Those paragraphs also recite AMI’s agreement that it purchased the salacious stories without ever having intended to publish them.
The Bragg press conference provided some additional clues about the predicates. Bragg repeatedly emphasized that the § 175.10 offense was concealment of prior criminality: “That is exactly what this case is about. Thirty-four false statements made to cover up other crimes.” Bragg’s prepared remarks detailed the catch-and-kill scheme generally, and suggested the DA’s view that the scheme or its parts violated several different criminal laws: (1) New York Election Law § 17-152, making it a crime to conspire to promote a candidacy by unlawful means; (2) federal limits on campaign contributions (federal election law); (3) New York laws violated by false statements on AMI’s books; and (4) tax laws violated by a mischaracterization someone made or planned to make to taxing authorities.
The major point is this: Bragg is sketching a lot of different predicates involving a lot of different people. Importantly, the predicates do not have to be crimes committed by Trump; they can be crimes committed by Cohen, AMI, or someone else. So the universe of predicates might look something like a 2x2x2 grid: (1) federal tax law violations by Trump; (2) federal tax law violations by third parties; (3) New York tax law violations by Trump; (4) New York tax law violations by third parties; (5) federal election law violation by Trump; (6) federal election law violations by third parties; (7) New York Election Law § 17-152 violations by Trump; and (8) § 17-152 violations by third parties. The list is a touch under-inclusive, because it doesn’t capture the possibility that AMI’s false statements violated some other provision of New York law, which is something that Bragg alluded to several times in his remarks.www.lawfaremedia.org/article/preemption-and-known-unknowns-trump-indictmentBut you can't actually cite the election law that was violated? How can you have a trial when you don't know what the crime is? I thought you might comprehend from the passage that no one can cite the specific predicate crime because Bragg will only be making that public during trial at the time of his choosing. It might not even be a crime that Trump himself committed. It may be several crimes. Trump is NOT on trial for the predicate crime. He IS on trial for the crime specified by statute in the indictment. And (in the theory of the prosecution) if it can be proven that his crime was committed in order to cover up some other (the "predicate") crime, then the crime Trump is charged with in the indictment becomes a felony.
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Post by ayatollah on Apr 15, 2024 23:06:47 GMT
It's another made-up victimless crime. I don't care that he had sex with a porn star, and don't care if he paid her to stay quiet. You treat Trump like he’s your favorite NBA basketball player. No I'd say that about anyone.
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Post by cts1 on Apr 16, 2024 0:24:08 GMT
why you don't you just make this the official 'election interference thread' ? Why bring Russian interference or January 6 into this thread?
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Post by dk56 on Apr 16, 2024 0:26:18 GMT
why you don't you just make this the official 'election interference thread' ? Why bring Russian interference or January 6 into this thread? Russia is 2017-2020 and Jan 6 definitely qualifies
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Post by CrepedCrusader on Apr 16, 2024 2:02:14 GMT
Sihtheads call Joe Biden "Sleepy Joe" while their shitstain of a hero literally falls asleep in court.
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Post by Factchecker3Point0 on Apr 16, 2024 2:03:25 GMT
Sihtheads call Joe Biden "Sleepy Joe" while their shitstain of a hero literally falls asltin court.
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Post by Fetzer Zinfandel ♀︎ on Apr 16, 2024 2:12:50 GMT
Don Snoreleone is whining because the judge *may* rule that he can't miss a felony trial to attend Barron's graduation. Ironic, given he's on trial for trying to tip an election by paying Stormy hush money after barebacking Stormy while Barron was at home breast feeding.
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Post by poutinep on Apr 16, 2024 2:44:01 GMT
MAGAts are so dumb they think trump should not have to be present at his own criminal trial, even though that is the law and what every criminal defendant does.
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Post by Foxy on Apr 16, 2024 6:22:41 GMT
When he had his press conference with Speaker Moses this weekend, he stood in the background and at certain points I noticed he fell asleep. While standing up.
Every accusation by Trump against Biden/Dems is a confession pertaining to himself.
And this is who MAGA wants back in the White House; Dementia Donnie who can’t stay awake. Lol
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Post by jeffersoncody on Apr 16, 2024 9:39:33 GMT
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Post by jeffersoncody on Apr 16, 2024 9:44:52 GMT
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Post by abbey1227 on Apr 16, 2024 9:55:43 GMT
You treat Trump like he’s your favorite NBA basketball player. No I'd say that about anyone.
Every time I call it a game, you call it a business. And every time I call it a business, you call it a game.
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