Trump on Trial

This is FABULOUS.

Trump planned to take the stand tomorrow in his own defense during closing arguments in his New York financial fraud trial.  

The judge just ruled that he won't be allowed to.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/10/politics/trump-civil-trial-testimony/index.html

Apparently he set out conditions for such testimony (no campaigning, no disparagement of the court personnel or the process, no claiming the trial is part of a conspiracy against him), and Trump was given THREE deadlines to agree to the terms, and failed all of them.  Accordingly, he will not be allowed to speak.

We all know what he'd say.

It is my fervent hope that, in addition to a meaningful financial penalty, Trump and his devil spawn are barred from ever doing business in New York State ever again. Pffft, no real estate.  No bank loans. No laundering Russian drug money.

HuffPost wrote:

Gaetz and 62 House Republicans introduced a symbolic resolution simply stating that Trump “did not engage in insurrection or rebellion against the United States.”

"Gaetz and 62 House Republicans" should be barred from office under the 14th Amendment.

"Ex-presidential absolute immunity" was laughed out of court today, and done in such a way that SCOTUS will have a very hard time taking it.

I think, perhaps, maybe, hopefully, Trump's legal tide is turning.

MSNBC's legal experts weren't as sanguine about SCOTUS staying out of it.  It only takes four justices to grant "cert" not the five to overrule the 9th Circuit.

Game this out.  Court steps in and agrees with Trump's ridiculous immunity claim. Biden should immediately, for the "good of the country":
1. Remove five rogue Justices
2. Jail a certain lawless New York family in solitary confinement in Guantanamo, along with Bannon, Miller, Giuliani, Jones, Lindell, Stephanik, Gaetz, Jordan, Johnson, et al.
3. Remove 164 Republican insurrection supporters from Congress to Cuba

There wouldn't be anything anyone could do about it.

It's never happened before in our nation's 247-year history, but suddenly Trump says it's a threat to our democracy.

No. Trump is the threat to our democracy.

NoCoPilot wrote:

NoCoPilot wrote:

But they made it such that SCOTUS will be rightly excoriated for doing so, and heavily damaged.  

When faced with a tough choice, do nothing.

Fucking cowards.  There goes the country.

Today's SCOTUS oral arguments about the Colorado court ruling of Trump's ineligibility just reinforced what a corrupt, nakedly political and cowardly court this is.  They argued not at all about the law.

The questions from the bench focused on 1) the chaos it would cause if different states had different ideas what an "insurrection" is, and some retaliated against Colorado by calling Biden an insurrectionist and threw him off their ballot, and 2) endless debate over the difference between "an officer of" and "an officer under," when CLEARLY the 3rd clause was meant to apply to presidents.  Jefferson Davis.  Wholly.  Specifically. And you can't decide what the law is based on fear of what scofflaws might do.

The court's looking for an offramp, to avoid facing the obvious fact that Colorado has the right to exclude him, and CO found in a fair trial that he engaged in insurrection.

Them's the facts.

The court tied itself up in conniption knots to try to obscure the obvious.  It'll probably rule 7-to-2 in Trump's favor.  Colorado's solicitor did a terrible job, allowing himself to be interrupted and shut down every time one of Trump's judges derailed his argument - which they did every time he got started with a cogent point.  He allowed himself to be cowed; he wasn't smart enough to control the conversation.

Thomas especially was breathtakingly venal. If it'd been me up there, defending Colorado, as soon as Thomas opened his yap I would've said, "Excuse me your Honor.  I'm not taking questions from you.  Your wife's an insurrectionist."

The case wasn't lost on the facts.  It was lost by a weak and inexperienced lawyer, and a majority of Justices who'd already decided what outcome they wanted regardless of the law.

Which--when you think of it--is kinda the signature of this Court.

Last night, on one of the MSNBC shows, a guest was talking about the previous day's oral arguments and brought up a very strange line of questioning that came from Brett Kavanaugh.

Kavanaugh asked, seemingly out of the blue, if a president didn't have absolute immunity while in office, whether he could be prosecuted after he left office for giving money to a government that is a sworn enemy of the United States.

It seemed like a weird and irrelevant hypothetical at the time, but so much of the hearing was weird hypotheticals that I soon let it pass.

The guest last night (Chuck Rosenberg?) said, no, pay attention to that.  If Biden loses the election or immunity is denied, apparently right-wing forces in Trump's orbit including contributors to SCOTUS may be planning to indict Biden for releasing funds to Iran. Note, this is not a gift of funds from the US to Iran, but rather lifting a hold on Iranian electricity revenues that the US had held up.

The MAGA branch of Congress may (probably will) make this a campaign issue before the election, in fact, with a special counsel and an impeachment.

Which is rich, coming from a party that all but worships Vladimir Putin. In fact, his fingerprints are all over this.

Trump just got fined $355,000,000.00 in his New York civil fraud case.

And is banned from doing business in New York State for 3 years.

And his business remains under a strict conservatorship.

And, in order to appeal the ruling, he has to post a $355m bond before the appeal.

That should shut the fucker up for at least a few days.  He still owes $88.3m + $5m = $93.5m to E. Jean Carroll, with interest, so the total is well over $100m now. And the IRS apparently entered some kind of judgment on him for another $100m.

Half a billion dollars. And his NY money-laundering racket is kaputsky, just like Navalny.

Civil trials.

The E. Jean Carroll trial was a civil trial, no possibility of jail time, just a financial penalty.

The New York financial fraud case is a civil trial, no possibility of jail time, just a financial penalty.

There's a lawsuit against Trump by several Capitol Police officers and others injured on January 6. That's a civil case, damages only.

Other legal cases against Trump -- the classified documents case, the Georgia election interference, the Jan 6 election interference case, the Stormy Daniels hush money case -- these are criminal cases, with a higher burden of proof and the possibility of jail.

I'm reminded of the federal takedown of the American Mafia. They weren't prosecuted for murders or racketeering. They were prosecuted for tax fraud.

MUCH easier to prosecute. Result is the same.

Trump will be bankrupted. He'll never face responsibility for the many many crimes he committed, but if he's bankrupted and sidelined, the result is the same: he'll be out of the picture.

Trump has bills.  A half a billion dollars worth.

Can you blame him for licensing his name to a brand of sneakers? Probably made in China by child labor.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/17/politics/trump-sneakers-pay-millions-new-york-trial/index.html

But they're misnamed.  They shouldn't be called "Trump Sneakers."

They should be called "Low Down Lying Cheating Sneakers."  I hope Tish James and E. Jean Carroll each get a free pair.

Goodbye democracy.  It was nice knowing ya.

Elie Mystal made a great point on Alex Wagner’s show tonight, at least TWO justices (Thomas & Alito) absolutely NEED Trump to get re-elected so they can retire in the next four years. They will not leave the bench if the president is a Democrat.

Lawrence Tribe on Lawrence O’Donnell says the ONLY legal point on which the Supreme Court can hear arguments is the EXTENT of presidential immunity. He cannot be immune when ordering the execution of x political rival. He cannot be immune from obstructing the peaceful transfer of power.

But Tribe, and all the other analysts tonight, are working on the assumption that this SCOTUS gives a smelly shit about the law.

They don’t.

They only care about two things: feathering their own nests, and doing the bidding of Leonard Leo. This is a “legal” court with total disregard for the law.

Three justices were appointed by Trump, and so should recuse themselves. One is married to an unindicted co-conspirator in the case, and absolutely HAS to recuse himself. By all law, this case should be decided by the remaining five justices.

Do you see that happening?  I don’t either.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Today's SCOTUS oral arguments about the Colorado court ruling of Trump's ineligibility just reinforced what a corrupt, nakedly political and cowardly court this is.  

The court hinted it might hand down (love that phrase) its ruling on the Colorado ballot case today, one day ahead of Super Tuesday.

It's almost inconceivable they won't rule in Trump's favor.  Two justices want to retire under him, and three more are nakedly partisan.

Despite the bald fact that the law is crystal clear on the opposing side.

If they expand the ruling—which seems entirely likely—to conclude the ORC did not engage in insurrection (because it was unsuccessful) then poof there goes Jack Smith's case against him, poof there goes Fani Willis's Georgia case, and Aileen Cannon's Florida documents case would be severely damaged. 

Today could be all the marbles. And the justices don't even have to embarrass themselves—or open up a Biden can of worms—by ruling that presidents have absolute immunity.

Trump will still be on the hook for half a billion dollars in civil penalties, but the Saudis and Putin will pay that in a heartbeat to get him back in office... permanently.

It wasn't unanimous.  It was an unsigned opinion, which means the 5-vote majority decided not to allow a "minority report."

Get used to it.  This is the new Amerika.

Quote :

The court’s three liberals – Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson – sharply criticized the majority for the breadth of the opinion. The issue of Trump’s eligibility could have been decided simply, they said, by ruling that states can’t enforce the insurrectionist ban on their own.

“In a sensitive case crying out for judicial restraint,” they wrote, the court’s unsigned opinion, “abandons that course.”

The three focused their ire on the fact that the majority opinion limited federal enforcement of the insurrection ban as well as state enforcement. That decision, they said, wasn’t before the Supreme Court in the case and would “insulate all alleged insurrectionists” from future challenges.

Pay attention to that highlighted part.  It's the end of our democracy.

Fucking UNBELIEVABLE corruption in our legal system.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-bond-reduced-fraud-appeal_n_660198c0e4b059750143d44c

Our democracy deserves to die.

Trump's unable to come up with the $454 million bond to file an appeal.

So a corrupt judge with no legal justification whatsoever reduced it to $175 million, simply for Trump's pleasure it seems.

Will he be able to post $175 million?  Possibly.

By drawing on the RNC campaign chest, thus hurting all other candidates in November. And by borrowing surreptitiously from foreign governments (Russia and Saudi Arabia) which will make him beholden to them.

He also gained a bunch of money ($3 billion?) this week by merging Truth Social with an established publicly-traded firm.  Funny story though, he is legally prohibited from cashing out any of his share for 6 months.

Will he use this "future revenue" as collateral to take out loans (after every lender already told him to pound sand)?

I believe the banks are savvy enough to know that DJT very rarely pays back his loans. And savvy enough to know that Truth Social isn't worth a bucket of warm spit. It only has 6.5 million viewers, and they're not worth $1000 each.

A big collapse in value, and subsequent financial bankruptcy (to go along with his moral bankruptcy) is the most likely outcome I think.

Mrs NoCo predicts Biden will win by a landslide.

But we only consume progressive news.  Remains to be seen what the "alternative facts consumers" will do in November. My hope is there's not enough of them to give Biden a run for his money, but my fear is that if Trump is within 20 points of Biden he'll cheat the results.

Then there's this:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/election-2024-trump-congress_n_6608d7f5e4b088173d052148

If women turn out as they can, Republicans might not win anything.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WGnglYYNw4

If that can happen in Alabama, it can happen anywhere. The key is to get the women voting.

Judge Cannon on trial
https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/03/politics/legal-fights-judge-trump-documents-trial/index.html
And faces removal
https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/03/opinions/aileen-cannon-trump-mar-a-lago-case-eisen-perry-kolb/index.html

Photos from a recent Trump rally showed the popular flag "Trump Won. I Know It. You Know It."

But here's the thing. He filed what was it 64 lawsuits to overturn the results and all of them failed. He had recounts in five or six battleground states and all of them found Biden won by an even bigger margin than reported.  He's had at least three lawyers disbarred for spreading false election rumors.

On what do his fans base their certainty?

It would have to be an AWFUL BIG conspiracy to have his own Cyber Ninjas implicated.

It... it just boggles the imagination.  It's not even debatable.

And the next one will be even worse.

I think... I think at this point the election deniers are like holocaust deniers and moon landing deniers: believers believe precisely BECAUSE it drives rational people bonkers. Their need to be contrarian means the more disproven their theory is, the more they cling to it. It's evidence-free belief.  It's believing they can create their own little reality to live in, like a bomb shelter or hurricane bunker under their house, and nobody "out here" matters to them.

The ORC's increasingly desperate attempts to sideline his election interference trial that starts Monday indicate he REALLY doesn't want to be tried by a jury of his peers.

I can see him pulling out all the stops.  Look for one or more of the following:

1. The judge or someone connected to the case gets injured or killed (in a very Putin way -- falling down a flight of stairs, falling from a sixth floor balcony, being mysteriously poisoned, getting sideswiped on the way to work)
   
2. Trump himself fakes illness
   
3. Somebody in Trump's family fakes illness
   
4. Trump's Secret Service detail mysteriously fails somehow
   
5. Bomb threats called into the courthouse
   
6. Security breach at the courthouse
   
7. Trump fires his legal team, and claims the trial must be halted (probably won't work, but it plays into his self-depiction as a victim)
   
8. The identity of one or more of the anonymous jurors gets leaked