Posted on 04/03/2023 5:57:43 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Former President Trump posted his schedule for Monday and Tuesday on his social media company, Truth Social. He flies to New York today at noon. He will spend the night at Trump Tower. Tuesday his arraignment will happen at 2:15 p.m. and he will return to Mar-a-Lago after that. He announced that he will deliver a statement about the indictment at 8:15 p.m. That statement, however, is now in question. There is rumored to be a possibility that the judge in the case will issue a gag order to stop Trump from speaking out.
Sunday on CNN, Lanny Davis, the lawyer for Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, revealed that Cohen provided Manhattan prosecutors with documentation of Trump’s payment to a second woman who claims to have had an affair with him. This is an important piece of information because it may mean that D.A. Alvin Bragg’s case is broader than just the Stormy Daniels payment case. Lanny Davis told Axios that he can’t discuss the conversations with Braggs office but “he infers “100%” that Karen McDougal, the second woman, and a former Playboy model, is part of Bragg’s case.”
When the indictment is unsealed during Tuesday’s arraignment, it will be interesting to see what the charges are against Trump and how many there are. Are there felony charges? Does the investigation involve both Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal? McDougal hasn’t been mentioned as much lately as Daniels has in the case before the grand jury. Or, maybe it’s just because Daniels has been speaking to the press since the leak was put in the media about Trump’s indictment. Some experts think the McDougal case was more legally threatening than the Daniels case. Karen McDougal was Playboy Magazine’s Playmate of the Year in 1998. She said she began a 10-month relationship with Trump in 2006. She allegedly was paid $150,000 for her silence. David Pecker, the former National Enquirer CEO, was called to testify recently, and that raised eyebrows.
So, we may learn that Bragg’s case is larger than originally thought. Either way, it is still highly unusual for a man, especially a former president, to be charged with a crime for paying a former mistress to keep quiet. Successful men do that kind of thing all the time to keep their extramarital affairs out of the eye of the public. This was exposed as a political case long ago, not a criminal case. Bragg is trying to save face after a long investigation into a former president and succumbing to pressure from progressives, to whom he is beholden for his election.
Trump will go to New York and then show up for his arraignment in the courthouse in Manhattan. It should be no surprise that he plans to make a statement to the press after all of that is over and he returns to Mar-a-Lago. When has Trump been silent on anything that involves him in politics? Almost 80% of Republicans consider Bragg’s investigation a witch hunt, as Trump claims. Trump is reaping the benefits of the publicity, as bad as it is, and raising big bucks off of it. In the first 24 hours, he raised over $4 million. That number grew to over $5M by 48 hours after the story broke.
Bragg’s office doesn’t want Trump to put his story out in the press after he goes to court tomorrow. Everyone knows that Trump will fight and he doesn’t pull any punches. It’s bad enough that a line has been crossed and Bragg is indicting Trump. Will he continue down this unprecedented path and issue a gag order to keep Trump quiet? Like him or not, Trump is a former president and that office carries a certain cachet. No one is above the law but a former president is treated with deference, at least until Trump’s presidency.
Who is next? The reason that even Trump’s critics are angered over Bragg’s action is that they know that if this is happening to Trump, it will happen to one of their guys, perhaps sooner rather than later. There are several investigations into the dealings of Biden, Inc., for example, that may come back to bite Democrats. Once a precedent has been set, there is no going back. Bragg overreached for purely political reasons and everyone knows it.
Trump’s team is considering bringing on a First Amendment lawyer because of the talk about a gag order.
The extraordinary move to potentially silence a candidate for president will likely enflame Trump’s supporters as he prepares to fly out of his Florida home.
‘The Trump legal team now thinks that the Manhattan judge will take the unprecedented step of silencing the presidential frontrunner with an unconstitutional gag order tomorrow,’ said a source.
‘The Trump legal team is considering adding a First Amendment lawyer to the effort to combat this and will fight it all the way.’
Breaking the gag order could trigger a fine of $1000 and a prison sentence of as much as 30 days, under New York law.
All of the process will play out on Tuesday in front of media cameras. Extra security has been arranged, if the need arises, around the courthouse. Traffic barricades are going up. It’s going to be a zoo. Trump, however, will play it to his advantage. Since the indictment, besides raising lots of money, his poll numbers have risen. People not planning on supporting Trump in 2024 now feel he is the victim of a witchhunt and are responding accordingly.
We’ll see what happens in that courtroom on Tuesday. The world will be watching.
So the guy is a swordsman and that drives the flaccid democrats nuts.
Next, they’ll accuse him of banging Cleopatra.
Hmmmm ...
Don't commit adultery. How about that, guys?
If a gag order is issued, Trump need only appear before
the press with a gag, then silently leave...
I don’t care
Why is it illegal to pay someone not to speak? My company pays me not to leak industrial secrets (or that’s part of the job). Should our CFO and CEO go to jail?
I don’t care either...I’m not married to the man...I just want someone to save this country from the communists and he’s the guy.
And OBTW, this so-called “indictment” is basically the same thing as their so-called “impeachment”. Both are nothing more than a formal accusation.
As with the phony impeachment, this phony indictment will go no further and those forwarding this nonsense will probably find themselves before a judge soon enough.
RE: Why is it illegal to pay someone not to speak?
I think we will soon find out that the non-disclosure agreement is NOT the issue.
If I were to surmise a guess ( which will be revealed tomorrow when the indictment is unsealed ), it will probably be related to TAXES.
You can get deductions for a lot of business expenses but paying Playboy playmates not to make public a one night stand or a secret affair DOES NOT COUNT as a business expense. Doing so, would be misdemeanor.
But that’s just my guess ( and I could be wrong ).
It has been widely claimed that Trump’s $450,000ish in payments to Cohen was reimbursement for buying the “stories” of this Playboy model and the stripper, plus Cohen’s legal expenses and fees, a bonus, and extra to cover Cohen’s tax liability for this income. I’m not faulting you for posting, but I am faulting Lanny Davis and the author for recycling old news as if it were a revelation.
First, it is not illegal to pay somebody not to speak about something that is not illegal in the first place. While having an extra marital affair is at best, morally questionable, it is not illegal, and that’s paying somebody to be quiet about it is also not illegal.
Second, this is the Manhattan DA. He can charge anybody with state crimes. Where does he get off charging Trump for FEC violations, especially when the FCC itself did investigate this very matter, and found no cause to proceed further. In addition, the DOJ investigated this, and also found no reason to proceed further.
This DA needs to be sued for malicious prosecution, with a complaint filed with the New York State Bar. He deserves not to be a lawyer anymore. This is a naked case of abuse of prosecutorial authority.
So, when did paying off prostitutes become a crime? If it is, we going to need more jails in D.C. and NY. If there a clearly written law that indicates whether such is a business expense or a personal expense? How do other politicians designate the payments (because don’t tell me it hasn’t been done before)? Is there even written guidance from the IRS as to how such should be categorized if paid via your attorney?
I figure if I was paying an attorney to handle matters for me and wrote him a check for $5,000 to handle the expenses and time spent, I’d just write “legal fee” in the memo line and let the attorney cover any expenses (postage, filing fees, prostitution pay-off) out of that amount.
I don’t think the charge is about paying somebody NOT to speak. Nor is it anything related to paying prostitutes.
See my Post #11 above.
How 1998 can you (they) get?
Indeed
Seems reasonable enough.
The first I read about that possible gag order said it would prevent him from talking about the case or the campaign.
They sure aren’t giving the lawyers much time to work up a defense if another woman has been added to the charges.
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