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Romney & The Wrong Question: Senator's Statement On Trump's Guilt Captures The Problem With The Manhattan Trial
Jonathan Turley Blog ^ | 04/24/2024 | Jonathan Turley

Posted on 04/24/2024 11:37:10 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Yesterday, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) had a much covered interaction with CNN’s Manu Raju who asked him about Trump’s criminal trial and whether he was guilty of the underlying criminal conduct. Romney responded “I think everybody has made their own assessment of President Trump’s character, and so far as I know you don’t pay someone $130,000 not to have sex with you.” I have previously defended Romney in his votes on impeachment despite our disagreement on the constitutional standard. I also understand that he was making a more general comment on character.

However, his response is precisely what Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is seeking from the jury: a verdict on Trump as a person rather than the underlying criminal allegations.

Trump is currently facing 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree regarding payments made to Daniels during the 2016 presidential election. As I discuss today in the New York Post, many of us (including liberal legal experts) still question whether there is any crime alleged by Bragg. Raju reasonably asked Romney for his own view.

Romney is an interesting person to ask. He is not only a critic of the President from within his own party but he is a former businessman who has had to deal with complex reporting and business obligations.

Romney’s response must be encouraging for Bragg.

Rather than address the ambiguous criminal allegation, Romney suggested that Trump was guilty as charged in having a tryst with a former porn star.

The defense is not contesting the payment and the fact of the affair is not central to the allegations.

The question is whether the payments were unlawfully denoted as legal expenses with the intent to somehow steal the 2016 election.

Asked Mitt Romney about the hush money allegations against Trump.

“I think everybody has made their own assessment of President Trump's character, and so far as I know you don't pay someone $130,000 not to have sex with you." pic.twitter.com/ofBL15MJw1— Manu Raju (@mkraju) April 23, 2024

It is not a crime to use a NDA or other means to quash an embarrassing story.

Bill Clinton had a host of lawyers quashing allegations of affairs and sexual assaults throughout his presidency. He ran into trouble when he committed perjury in the effort to hide what Hillary Clinton called one of his “bimbo eruptions.”

Moreover, denoting this as a legal expense, on the advice of counsel, is not necessarily wrong. It is not clear how it should have been to be denoted. A “nuisance payment”? The campaign of Hillary Clinton and its general counsel Marc Elias hid the funding of the Steele dossier as a legal expense and was fined by the government for doing so. They litigated the question and insisted that that is precisely what it was.

Romney is precisely what Bragg is looking for in these jurors. Smart and savvy, he still viewed the question of the trial as whether Trump had an affair with Stormy Daniels. If so, it was not a legal expense. Yet, quashing the story and avoiding any litigation was a legal matter with the eventual crafting of the NDA.

There are a lot of motivations for NDAs of this kind. Trump was married. He was the host of a hit television show (with a clause on termination for scandalous conduct). And, yes, he was also seeking to be president. He wanted these stories killed and friends like David Pecker were helping in that effort. What those facts say about the former president’s “character” will remain a matter of public debate and, as Romney said, most long ago reached their own conclusions. Yet, it is the crime not the character of Trump that is at issue in Manhattan.

Alvin Bragg would like the trial to remain a verdict on character, which is why he started the trial discussing not the Daniels matter but an uncharged affair and settlement with a former Playboy bunny. It is why he fought hard (and succeeded) in being able to question Trump about past cases involving an alleged assault and fraudulent conduct. As legal experts continue this week to debate if there is even a crime alleged in the indictment, Bragg is making a case that Trump’s lack of character is beyond a reasonable doubt.

To be fair, Romney was not giving a full interview on the case in his statement to CNN and may well have some reservations about the Bragg indictment. However, Bragg is likely hoping that “everybody has made their own assessment of President Trump,” including twelve jurors currently sitting in the Manhattan courtroom.


TOPICS: Conspiracy; Government; Society
KEYWORDS: alvinbragg; hushmoney; romney; trial; turley
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1 posted on 04/24/2024 11:37:10 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

I don’t think Trump’s lawyer claimed he paid $130k for anyone not to have sex with him?


2 posted on 04/24/2024 11:40:03 AM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: SeekAndFind

“Give me a man and I will find the crime.”

FUMR 🖕


3 posted on 04/24/2024 11:41:36 AM PDT by shanover (...To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.-S.Adams)
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To: SeekAndFind

Dodged the VN war through four draft deferments for marriage and working as a Mormon missionary in France (this was rare, Mormons served well in all our wars). And apparently, he spent time at his rich prep school forcibly cutting the hair of some guy who dared to be different. This tells me all I need to know about Mr. Romney.


4 posted on 04/24/2024 11:43:26 AM PDT by laconic
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To: SeekAndFind

Mittens—the useful dupe…


5 posted on 04/24/2024 11:45:09 AM PDT by Skybird
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To: SeekAndFind

I’d like to know the names of ALL DC politicians who have paid off their ‘binbos’..


6 posted on 04/24/2024 11:46:06 AM PDT by joethedrummer (We can't vote our way out of this, folks..)
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To: SeekAndFind

What a tool.

I’m so happy I dud not vote for this worthless jerk in 2012.


7 posted on 04/24/2024 11:46:33 AM PDT by Fledermaus (Is it me, or all of a sudden have the buried trolls come out on FR like cicadas? It's all noise.)
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To: laconic

His essential shallowness doesn’t allow enough room for anything resembling real principles.


8 posted on 04/24/2024 11:56:10 AM PDT by kiryandil (what Ukrainian electrical grid doink?)
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To: SeekAndFind
The defense is not contesting the payment and the fact of the affair is not central to the allegations.

The question is whether the payments were unlawfully denoted as legal expenses with the intent to somehow steal the 2016 election.

And on the latter, no, there is no apparent crime and no attempt to steal the election through paying off the whore.

Interesting distinction of convicting Trump for behavior vs. convicting him of a crime.

9 posted on 04/24/2024 11:58:51 AM PDT by Reno89519 (If Biden is mentally unfit to stand trial, he is mentally unfit to be president. He needs to resign.)
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To: Fledermaus
I’m so happy I dud not vote for this worthless jerk in 2012.

I held my nose and voted for him as Obama was multiple times worse.

10 posted on 04/24/2024 12:05:43 PM PDT by cpdiii (cane cutter-deckhand-oilfield roughneck-drilling fluids tech-geologist-pilot-instructor-pharmacist)
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To: laconic

Dodging VN isn’t a great criticism since Trump did the same thing.


11 posted on 04/24/2024 12:12:48 PM PDT by Nazu
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To: joethedrummer

they have a whole office that funds peccadillo eruptions in the house


12 posted on 04/24/2024 12:18:28 PM PDT by bdfromlv (Leavenworth hard time)
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To: SeekAndFind

Goody two shoes Romney makes me sick. Obama beat him like a rented mule. He who is without sin, cast the first stone.


13 posted on 04/24/2024 12:18:41 PM PDT by DeplorablePaul
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To: SeekAndFind

There are a few people that are deliberately fomenting the fall of America. MR is one. There are only a few. Remember the fable about the ants and grasshoppers.


14 posted on 04/24/2024 12:28:38 PM PDT by bk1000 (Banned from Breitbart)
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To: SeekAndFind

Romney would not ever be mentioned unless he had something negative to say. Romney understands the media agenda.


15 posted on 04/24/2024 12:31:05 PM PDT by Racketeer
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To: cpdiii

He got 59% of the state and 70% of my county.

So I had breathing room.


16 posted on 04/24/2024 12:36:56 PM PDT by Fledermaus (Is it me, or all of a sudden have the buried trolls come out on FR like cicadas? It's all noise.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Huh?

5.56mm


17 posted on 04/24/2024 12:45:01 PM PDT by M Kehoe (Quid Pro Joe and the Ho have got to go. )
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To: DeplorablePaul

If “hiding” things or NDA’s are deemed automatic guilt, then what is the story behind Pierre Delecto, Mittens?


18 posted on 04/24/2024 12:45:13 PM PDT by theyreallthesame
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To: theyreallthesame

Right? I bet Pierre is a cross dresser.


19 posted on 04/24/2024 12:51:45 PM PDT by DeplorablePaul
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To: SeekAndFind

So Romney thinks if you are accused of something, you are presumed guilty. Just as he was guilty of not paying his taxes. A fellow Mormon claimed that in the Senate.


20 posted on 04/24/2024 1:04:05 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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