MSNBC: 'Direct Evidence': David Pecker Testimony Links Donald Trump To Hush Money Payment

Source:MSNBC with a look at Defendant Don in court.

"Ex-National Enquirer publisher David Pecker spells out details of a "catch-and-kill" scheme in former President Trump's hush money trial. Former FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissman and former Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Catherine Christian provide their expertise." 

From MSNBC

As someone who is looking at this case as a non-lawyer, I think the Manhattan District Attorney has a very specific mission to accomplish here. Not just get a conviction of Donald J. Trump, but convict him of a felony, multiple felonies. 

Even if the Manhattan DA wins on all 34 misdemeanors, Defendant Don wins, at least politically. But, if they prove that he committed real felonies under New York law by: 

They show that he had an affair with Stormy Daniels and perhaps Karen McDougal as well, but that he not just tried to cover up those affairs with hush money. 

And not just try to prevent his wife Melania and his son Barron from finding out about these affairs, but to prevent the voters, especially Independents, as well as Republican college educated, urban and suburban women from finding out about these affairs, before they voted in 2016

As well as covered up these affairs and did that with illegal political contributions to his his own 2016 presidential campaign, that he didn't even report, which is another crime in New York 

They can convict Defendant Don of election interference as well, which is a felony in New York. 

And this David Pecker-Michael Cohen link with the hush money payments is a direct way to move the ball down that road. 

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Don Lemon: SCOTUS: CAN PRESIDENTS KILL OPPONENTS? - With Tim Miller & Sarah Longwell

Source:Don Lemon talking to Tim Miller & Sarah Longwell from The Bulwark.

"Don Lemon is joined by Tim Miller and Sarah Longwell of @BulwarkMedia to discuss the latest case before the Supreme Court and the political influences on Trump's voters." 

From Don Lemon 

"The Supreme Court on Thursday appeared likely to reject former President Donald Trump’s claim of absolute immunity from prosecution over election interference, but it seemed possible Trump could still benefit from a lengthy trial delay, possibly beyond November’s election.

Chief Justice John Roberts was among at least five members of the court who did not appear to embrace the claim of absolute immunity that would stop special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of Trump on charges he conspired to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

But in arguments lasting more than 2 1/2 hours in the court’s first consideration of criminal charges against a former president, Roberts also was among several justices who suggested that the case might have to be sent back to lower courts before any trial could begin. Roberts indicated he was unhappy with the reasoning adopted by the federal appeals court that ruled against Trump. 

The timing of the Supreme Court’s decision could be as important as the outcome. Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee, has been pushing to delay the trial until after the election, and the later the justices issue their decision, the more likely he is to succeed." 

From the Associated Press

If Donald Trump's lawyers were honest (and the sky was green and humans could walk on water and hold their breath for days) they would just argue at the Supreme Court that Donald J. Trump is immune to all criminal prosecutions, simply because he's Donald J. Trump. And they should just say: 

"Our client is running for President of the United States. We need him back in The White House to save America and save it from Joe Biden and the Socialist Democrats. And if we lose here, he's going to prison. So you have to give him absolute immunity here, because he's Donald Trump and he can't save America, while he's in prison, or just being prosecuted."

If the John Sauer's of the world (whose one of Donald Trump's defense attorney's) were honest, that is what their argument would be. And you would probably have Justice Clarence Thomas and perhaps Justice Samuel Alito cheering them on. But perhaps just in private. 

But of course the sky isn't green, (except for perhaps on St. Patrick's Day or when the Celtics win the NBA Finals) humans can't walk on water, (but Donald J. Trump gets damn close to being able to do that everyday) and no human being, perhaps especially Donald J. Trump, who probably has long, unintelligible conversations, out loud, with himself, in his asleep, (assuming he ever sleeps) can hold their breath for days. 

So what you get from the Trump lawyers are all these ridiculous arguments about the President of the United States, well, probably just Donald Trump, has absolute immunity to do whatever the hell he wants to do, whenever the hell he wants to do it, because they're not honest. And has Sarah Longwell pointed out to Don Lemon, they have no shame. 

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The Bulwark: Tim Miller & Olivia Nuzzi: 'Donald Trump is POWERLESS At His Trial'

Source:The Bulwark with Tim Miller & Olivia Nuzzi.

"The one-time most powerful man in the world is now being told when to sit, when to stand, and what he's permitted to say. Scenes from the New York courthouse, with Olivia Nuzzi. Stay tuned for Part 2 of today's episode!" 

From The Bulwark

I just have a couple observations here first and then I'll get into what I really want to talk about here. 

Tim Miller and Olivia Nuzzi were talking about how cold it is in Judge Juan Merchan's courtroom and how Donald Trump has been uncomfortable with that. Defendant Don's lawyer Todd Blanche (according to Olivia Nuzzi) asked the Judge could they just turn the temperature up 1 degree. And Judge Merchan said this is a very old building and if they just raised the temperature 1 degree, it would be like 20 degrees warmer and they would all be roasting in the courtroom. 

Imagine if it was too hot in the courtroom: 

The Judge shows up to court wearing a tank top and shades. 

Maybe the male male lawyers are shirtless all together. 

The female lawyers are all there in bathing suits. 

Maybe DJT is sitting in his own outdoor, I mean courtroom kiddy pool trying to stay cool. 

Instead of the lawyers arguing with each other about the facts and evidence of the case, they're arguing over water: 

"Judge, they''re hogging all the water over there. You should hold them in contempt. We're roasting and dying of first over here." Of course the Judge doesn't care, because he has his own pitcher of ice tea and perhaps margarita. I think it might make a good skit for Saturday Night Live, especially if it were real. 

And then Defendant Don's lawyer Todd Blanche (who unless he was kidnapped and forced at gunpoint to represent Donald Trump: I don't feel sorry for him at all) in his own damn opening statement, I guess not turning over a smoking gun and flat out saying that his client had an affair with Stormy Daniels, but instead saying that: "Nondisclosure agreements are not illegal." coming pretty close to acknowledging that the affair happened. I mean it's like the defense attorney saying: "My client is not guilty of anything here. But even if he did it, it's not illegal." 

But Senator Mitt Romney who ever since he stopped running for President after he lost in 2012, has been living with a strong case of candor and honesty had the best line about Donald Trump and his porn chicks: 

“I think everybody has made their own assessment of President Trump’s character,” he told CNN’s Manu Raju outside the Capitol. “And so far as I know, you don’t pay someone $130,000 not to have sex with you.”

From The Hill

As far as Donald Trump in the courtroom; before some MAGA maniac who finally broke out of the state hospital to defend his cult hero Donald Trump, accuses me of calling Mr. Trump a mobster and I'm not saying that DJT has ever ordered the murders of anyone, but only because I don't know that he has, but I think the mobster reference is app here. 

Think about it, Donald Trump has been in complete control of his own life, at least since his father Fred died in 1999. But now he's like a mobster whose essentially at the complete mercy of the Judge in this case and is now getting ordered around in an old, freezing courtroom. And forced to sit in place for several hours at a time and be quiet like a 7 year old boy in a classroom. Maybe falling asleep in court helps this man get though these long days for him.

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Michael Smerconish: David Pecker Exposes The National Enquirer

Source:Michael Smerconish with a look at Donald Trump's tabloid political world.

Source:The New Democrat

"Enquiring Minds.... 

From Michael Smerconish

"David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, testified at Donald Trump's trial Tuesday that the tabloid completely manufactured a negative story in 2016 about the father of Sen. Ted Cruz, of Texas, who was then Trump's rival for the GOP presidential nomination.

The paper had published a photo allegedly showing Cruz's father, Rafael Cruz, with Lee Harvey Oswald handing out pro-Fidel Castro pamphlets in New Orleans in 1963, not long before Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy.

Trump repeatedly referred to the story on the campaign trail and in interviews.

“I mean, what was he doing — what was he doing with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the death? Before the shooting?” Trump said in an interview with Fox News in May 2016. “It’s horrible.”

Manhattan prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked Pecker about the story's origins during the trial Tuesday in Manhattan. Pecker said that then-National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard and the tabloid's research department got involved, and Pecker indicated that they faked the photo that was the foundation for the story.

“We mashed the photos and the different picture with Lee Harvey Oswald. And mashed the two together. And that’s how that story was prepared — created I would say," Pecker said on the witness stand.

Asked by Steinglass whether Cruz had gained popularity in the presidential race at the time, Pecker said, “I believe so.”

The revelation came up as the prosecution focused on negative articles that were published by the tabloid about Trump's Republican opponents at the time. Pecker explained that it was Michael Cohen, Trump's personal lawyer, who would orchestrate the planting of these stories.

Pecker said Cohen would call and say they'd like his publication to run an article on a certain candidate, adding that Cohen would then send him a piece about Cruz, for example, and the National Enquirer "would embellish it from there."

Pecker suggested that Trump was directly involved in the process, too. He said that the negative stories about Trump's opponents were published as part of an arrangement that was struck in 2015 at a Trump Tower meeting that also included a directive to write positive stories about the real estate mogul." 

From NBC News

Sorry for the tabloid title of this post. Actually, that's a lie. I'm definitely not sorry for the title. But what's a little lie anyway when you are talking about a tabloid publication anyway? Lies for tabloids are what food are for restaurants, gas is for cars, lawyers, politicians, fundamentalist preachers even for prostitutes, it's how they stay in business. 

I think the David Pecker revelations (I'm still having a hard time writing his last name without laughing and I'm 47 years old) is a perfect example of why American voters are stereotyped as stupid. At least gullible because here you had this well-known, national tabloid magazine, that promoted stories about Donald J. Trump back in 2015-16, to get him into The White House and you had 10s of millions of American voters, who simply bought all of those garbage stories. 

10s of millions of American voters. probably mostly Independents, as well as some blue-collar Democrats, who perhaps weren't ready for a female President of the United States, bought those garbage stories, as if they were buying an 1985 Ford Escort, thinking that car was as good as a Mercedes SEL, or a Jaguar sedan, etc. Without doing any of their homework: "Hey, if The National Enquirer says that Ted Cruz's father was involved in the JFK assassination, it must be true." 

And so yesterday, you have the Manhattan prosecutors laying out exactly what The National Enquirer was doing in partnership with Donald J. Trump, with the man who was in charge of this entire scheme, their publisher at the time David Pecker, exposing (pun in intended) this whole operation. And they have all the texts, the emails, the phone calls even, to back up all of Mr. Pecker's claims here on what they were doing for Mr. Trump.

Michael Popok: 'Donald Trump Co-Conspirator SCREWS HIM To HIS FACE At Trial'

Source:Meidas Touch- left to right- David (don't call me Richard) Pecker & Defendant Don.

"David Pecker the lead road map witness for the Manhattan DA is absolutely killing Trump with his testimony today, as he “cashes all the checks” that the prosecution wrote to the jury in their opening statement yesterday. Michael Popok explains the impact of Pecker’s testimony on the jury of him confessing that he entered into a criminal conspiracy with Trump and Michael Cohen to help the 2016 Trump campaign by buying negative  “women stories” against Trump." 

From the Meidas Touch

I think Michael Popok laid this out very well. The thing that I would add to this is to remind people exactly why Donald J. Trump is being prosecuted here. 

Donald Trump is not being prosecuted for adultery in Manhattan. I mean think about it, this is Manhattan, if anything adultery is encouraged here. If you are not rich and divorce by the time you are 40, if you are a man who doesn't have kids with multiple women, by the time you are 40, you are considered to be some outsider, who should go move to Cleveland or some place. You are not considered a real Manhattanite, certainly not a real New Yorker. 

Donald Trump is not being prosecuted for paying off a porn chick, who he was having an affair with, when his wife Melania was pregnant with his son Barron. Hell, Defendant Don is not even being charged with cheating on his wife, while she was pregnant with their son. Again, this is Manhattan, they're not looking for saints and for people who are playing to make it to Heaven. I'm having a little fun with this, but you get the idea. 

What Donald J. Trump is being prosecuted here for, is for falsifying his business records and his campaign contributions that he made to himself, that he didn't report during the 2016 election campaign season. Specifically the payment that he made to Stormy Daniels on behalf of his campaign. 

As well as the catch and kill scheme, this "checkbook journalism" (as David Pecker called it) that Pecker and Trump were involved with together, to get DJT into The White House. And Pecker has all the goods on Defendant Don. I guess you could say that David is exposing Defendant Don with his Pecker and screwing him over "bigly". But only to stay out of prison himself. 

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Harry Litman: 'Judge Merchan EVISCERATES Donald Trump in Gag Order Hearing'

Source:Harry Litman- Not that I'm a psychic, but I'm thinking Judge Juan Merchan is not a fan of Defendant Don.

"Judge Merchan held a hearing this morning in which prosecutors argued that Trump is in violation of his gag order due to several of his Truth Social posts. Merchan did not yet rule on the issue." 

From Harry Litman

I'm willing to bet this is not a great reference, I doubt it's even a good reference, but when I'm watching courtroom dramas, which at time can seem more like courtroom soap operas and even courtroom comedies, you see out-of-control defendants all the time. And the judge will say something like: "Mr. Jones (or whatever the name of the lawyer is) please get your client under control, or I'll hold him in contempt. And if these outbursts continue, I'll hold you in contempt as well." 

Now, other than falling asleep in court and perhaps badly in need of some under armour, perhaps even taking a shower before showing up in court, perhaps even issues with flatulence, (and that's as nice as I'll be about this) Donald Trump hasn't yet been in violation of Judge Juan Merchan's rules in court yet. It's outside the court where Defendant Don has been in clear violation of the Judge's gag order. 

But I'm wondering if Defendant Don keeps violating the gag order, could the Judge take that out on his lawyer and do that first, before he holds the defendant in contempt and throws him in a holding tank. 

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Michael Popok: 'Judge QUICKLY Makes Move On Donald Trump Bond'

Source:Meidas Touch- left to right: New York State Judge Arthur Engoron & Defendant Don.

"Judge Engoron has successfully brokered a deal to keep Trump’s $175 million dollar bond in place in the $456 million dollar civil fraud case, with Trump agreeing to keep $175 million cash in a locked account to secure the bond. Michael Popok is joined by former NY State Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jaffe, a colleague, and friend of the judge’s, for her observations having had a ring side seat in court today for the hearing." 

From the Meidas Touch

"Former President Donald Trump agreed on Monday to additional restrictions on the $175 million bond in the former U.S. president's New York civil fraud case, resolving concerns by the state attorney general that the funds were not secure.

The bond issued by Knight Specialty Insurance is meant to secure Trump's compliance with a $454.2 million judgment won by state Attorney General Letitia James if he does not succeed in an appeal. 

Justice Arthur Engoron imposed the penalty after finding that Trump, the Republican presidential candidate to face President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 election, fraudulently inflated his net worth and real estate assets to deceive banks and insurers into providing better terms.

James, a Democrat, had challenged the bond this month, saying Trump still had access to the Charles Schwab account pledged to the insurer as collateral. 

But at a hearing on Monday, down the block from where jurors heard opening arguments in Trump's criminal hush money trial, lawyers for Trump and Knight agreed that the funds would remain as cash and not be traded for securities.

They also agreed that Knight would have exclusive control of the account and not withdraw funds, and to provide James with monthly statements to assure that the cash isn't going anywhere. 

The agreement was reached after Engoron questioned the security of the collateral.

"You keep using the word agreement, what if they break the agreement?" he asked Trump's lawyer Christopher Kise. "It all seems like a house of cards."

Knight is owned by billionaire Trump supporter Don Hankey.

Earlier on Monday, Trump defended the bond outside the courtroom at the criminal trial.

"We put up cash and the number is 175," Trump said. "She shouldn't be complaining about the bonding company. The bonding company would be good for it because I put up the money. I have plenty of money to put up." 

James had argued in court papers that a Trump-owned trust still controlled the account, and Knight's own financial arrangements appear insufficient to cover the bond.

Hankey previously said in an interview that he charged Trump a low fee as he did not anticipate problems.

"We thought it would be an easy procedure that wouldn't involve other legal problems and it's not turning out that way," he said. "We probably didn't charge enough."

Hankey made his fortune in subprime car loans, with some regulators criticizing his companies' debt collection tactics. He is worth $7.4 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

Trump was originally required to obtain a guarantee for the entire verdict while he appeals, but a state appeals court let him post a smaller bond.

With much attention now focused on Trump's criminal trial, Engoron noticed the relative paucity of courtroom attendees compared with when he oversaw the civil fraud trial.

"Where is everyone?" he joked at the beginning of the hearing." 

From Reuters 

Not that Chinese, Greek, Arabic, Russian, (whatever foreign language you want to name) are my first languages, (generally just English is hard enough for me) I'm going to translate here. 

To put this in plain English: Don Hankey and company (and that name is hard to say with a straight face because it sounds like the name of a West Hollywood pimp or pornographer) is on the hook for Donald Trump's bond. 

Knight Speciality Insurance put up the 175 million for Donald J. Trump. And if he doesn't pay that, assuming he loses his appeal here in the New York fraud case, KSI is on the hook and out 175 million. And then probably would have to sue a Bankrupt Don, whose now just out 500 million dollars, but at severe risks of losing his business properties, if he hasn't lost those properties already. 

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