In a dramatic move on Monday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg began presenting evidence against Donald Trump before a newly empaneled grand jury.
1. I love the irony of *trump's move to Florida cutting short his claim to the statute of limitations.
2. Since *trump claimed his reimbursement to Cohen for Cohen's $130,000 payment to Stormy as a business expense, in addition to falsification of business records, this would also be both federal and state tax fraud, no?
3. And while you suggest that maybe Mr. Pecker may have gone soft on *trump, I suspect he is now going hard on *trump and he's decided to Bragg about it.
I think any federal tax fraud claims would be barred by the statute of limitations or very close. The IRS has shown almost zero interest in pursuing tax claims against Trump or the Trump Org, claiming at one point that it was too complicated….
Let the charges rain down on Trump-whatever it takes to get him behind bars, muzzled, and out of the public eye as he and his cronies continue to spew their lies to which all too many gullible MAGA adherents loyally cling. Every one of the GOP elected officials is culpable of supporting that insane dictator-wannabe. They all need to be expelled from Congress. Every single one. Their lack of conscience or sense that they were elected as public servants to serve we, the people is frightening, appalling, and sickening. Our democratic Republic deserves so much better.
I get and agree generally with your sentiment. I’d love to figure out a way to do it, but every legal avenue to ridding ourselves of these insurrection supporters appears non-viable. So it looks like we will have to ensure they are not elected. At some point we need to have a conversation about the voters who continue to return such anti-democratic representatives to power.
I live in Florida. The Koolaid drinkers are everywhere. Desantis’s educational policies here ensure a next generation of that same ignorant, racist base-educational experts have determined that. You, however, provide hope and light-I share your articles and quote you regularly. Thank you for providing me with insight and talking points for those conversations with those willing to dialogue. I’m really grateful!
More fumbling by the Dems. This is not going to get it done. Nobody cared about the Access Hollywood tape. Nobody cares about Stormy Daniels, which might as well be a cocktail with Jack n' Ginger ale. Get him on the Georgia meddling. Just get him. Please.....
We are learning through overwhelmingly broad evidence this many years later, that there were many parties helping shore up trumps image ahead of the election and tarnish HRCs.
Jay has highlighted many of these recently but lets just relist them. National Enquirer via Michael Cohen/Stormy/Trump, FBI Field office putting their finger on the scale via investigations and influence McGonigal, Trump Campaign/Russian assets/ etc manipulating sentiment in trumps favor.
Yes, people actually do care, because had none of these things happened we would have been left with a flawed speaker with baggage albeit brilliant politician in HRC. God forbid!
Jay, a quick correction, bragg is up for reelection in 2025 (term ends jan 2026). I understand campaigning may begin as early as '24 but the primary and general election are in '25.
"After all, had the Trump Campaign been honest, that payment (to stormy Daniels) would have raised alarm bells at the time, and the whole affair with Daniels that Trump was trying to conceal from the press would have been known to the voters well before the election."
Very likely. But in all honesty, how many tRump supporters would've chosen NOT to vote for him as a result of this information? We all know that tRump supporters are zombies and they don't hear reason, don't care about his misdeeds, and will not deviate from their support of him, no matter what. If the past seven years have taught us anything, it's taught us that no matter WHAT tRump does, his people will stand by him. I doubt very much any of this making the headlines prior to the 2016 election would've changed the outcome significantly.
The zombies didn't elect trump, the fence sitters did. And everything Jay has been talking about recently (FBi field office, payoffs, political scale tipping, russia collusion, etc) was enough to push the fence sitters to trumps side.
Remember pizzagate? remember comey announcing a new email investigation 10 days before the election (but not mention a real valid russian collusion investigation pending at the time)? I remember all of these, I remember fence sitters falling off the HRC wagon because they just needed a legit reason to not vote for her (they didn't like trump but he was NO HRC).
That is why this all matters. Hopefully we hold our media accountable to report news instead of soundbytes in the future. They were manipulated by trump just like voters were. The best of us, even me, at times were shook by some of the crap that came out about HRC but I personally never wavered. There are those among us that weren't strong enough to resist the pull. That were emotionally swayed.
I agree. Sometimes I even thought there was something wrong with me because I seem to be wavering back and forth. What was right and what was wrong. It was a terrible feeling, but I did make the right choice.
I remember them, too, George, but the thing is, we absolutely underestimated what tRump's supporters could/would do--including the stooges he installed in places of power. SCOTUS, for one. These people are lunatics. Look at what DeSantis is doing in FL. He's tRump-Lite. But he's just as dangerous, if not more. If tRump realizes that his presidential bid will fail, and DeSantis predictably throws his hat in the ring, expect tRump to get behind him. You are spot-on when you say that those on the far right are emotionally swayed. All they need to do is bring up murdered babies, or they're coming for your guns, or some other hot-button topic and people will hold their noses and vote Republican. And what if the GQP in Congress get their hands on voting rights and gerrymandering, as they're doing already?
I live outside of Atlantic City, NJ. I saw what tRump did there. They're still trying to dig out of the mess he left behind, but the area is so tainted with Republicanism, they're struggling to sort it out. Yet despite that, he managed to trick people into believing he was the right person to be president. I sat at my dining room table in the dark the night of the election, 2am, and cried. I knew we were in for a disastrous presidency. And I had no idea how wrong I was--it was FAR worse than I ever imagined. I don't want to see that again.
Holding the media accountable is the first step. But who's going to do it? We can all write and email and call, but they're throwing red meat to their followers, and they get their viewership, that's what sells ads. How about changing the laws so that there MUST be factual accounting of NEWS? There used to be laws that restricted the spreading of untruths in news reporting. Who ditched that? Reagan? We need it back. Verifiable facts, not 'entertainment.'
There's a guy I volunteer with at a military base who's frothing at the mouth over Central Bank Digital Currency. He claims that the government is going to mandate companies stop paying people with 'currency,' and pay them with 'credits' that can be used like money. He's absolutely insisting that 'the DEMS' are going to regulate what you can buy with these credits, and restrict your use of them. For example, if you're diabetic and want to buy Twinkies, it won't let the purchase go through. This is the brainwashed stupidity that these people believe, and FTR, I'm of the opinion that if 'CBDC' ever happens, it would be at the hands of the Republicans to control people even more than they already do, while claiming they want smaller government. There's so much to fix, and it's going to take generations. IF it ever IS fixed.
I agree with everything you said. about 33% of the country supports trump. We saw that we could swing it against him with the right message.
All of the things you noted, I believe starting back in Nixon's time, have led to what we are experiencing now. It really started to gain momentum during reagan's presidency.
The reporting from NY times regarding Barr is a good first step in true blue truth to power investigative reporting.
While I don't agree with this person you note about CBDC it actually already exists in programs like SNAP which limit purchases to food products.
Yes, George, that Times article throwing Barr under the bus is a beautiful thing. It should not be a rare occasion. But it is. We absolutely need more of this kind of reporting WITH RECEIPTS. We need to hold our elected (and appointed) officials to a higher standard.
I vehemently disagree with my co-volunteer regarding his version of the CBDC. I am aware that there are programs that utilize this 'currency' and he claims that there are "200 countries already using it" as their main form of employee pay. I doubt that. He insists that currency, "greenbacks" as we know it, will cease to exist in our lifetime. I fully disagree with that prediction. As for SNAP, yes, I understand that there would be restrictions of what one may purchase on taxpayer-funded programs. However, this fella is suggesting that even money (or credits) earned as compensation for work rendered would be restricted because the government would know our personal (and medical) history and know what to allow to individuals to purchase or not. I call BS. I am my elderly parents' caretaker, and I am diabetic. They are NOT. I buy groceries for them all the time. If my father wants a bag of M&Ms, I will buy them for him. This guy suggesting that the government wouldn't allow me to purchase M&Ms because *I* am a diabetic seems like overreach to me. He's insisting it will happen.
Also, this fella's a veteran, and laments regularly, "The country I fought to protect has gone down the Democrats' toilet!" and my eyes roll so hard, I see my brain.
Trump won by very small margins in three key states, so there may have been enough independent voters who decided either to vote against him or to not vote at all. I suppose we’ll never know.
I guess what I'm trying to say here is that I'm *afraid* to underestimate the power of the stupidity, willful ignorance, and blind faith of tRump's followers. He fell ass-first into the presidency, and has since gained a cult-like following who are willing to forgive anything and everything he does. Those are the 'zombies' who should be considered, even if they are a smaller group than the 'reasonable' Republicans and everyone else who votes. Because even though there are far fewer cultists, there were enough of them to vote in all those hard-core GQPers who now are in Congress making our laws.
Alvin Bragg is wholly unimpressive. Although I'm glad yet one more case against Trump will cause him to spend his supporters' money on yet more lawyering, this seems stale. We need Merrick Garland to step up and do the job he promised to do from the beginning ("without fear or favor") and for Fani Willis, who seems to have three times the courage of any DOJ official we've heard from yet, to file charges. I predict the Bragg thing will go nowhere: Weisselberg clearly will take a bullet for his boss, and his testimony about Trump's involvement is critical to making the charges stick. Just more fodder for the media!
"Holding the Line: Inside the Nation's Preeminent US Attorney's Office and Its Battle with the Trump Justice Department" is a nonfiction book by former Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman.
According to Rachel Maddow Berman recounts the efforts of Barr to make the "Stormy" affair go away with the DOJ and NY.
If so, this helps explain why this faded into the background while TFG was in office. But not after.
1. I love the irony of *trump's move to Florida cutting short his claim to the statute of limitations.
2. Since *trump claimed his reimbursement to Cohen for Cohen's $130,000 payment to Stormy as a business expense, in addition to falsification of business records, this would also be both federal and state tax fraud, no?
3. And while you suggest that maybe Mr. Pecker may have gone soft on *trump, I suspect he is now going hard on *trump and he's decided to Bragg about it.
I think any federal tax fraud claims would be barred by the statute of limitations or very close. The IRS has shown almost zero interest in pursuing tax claims against Trump or the Trump Org, claiming at one point that it was too complicated….
Too complicated?
Two words: Al Capone.
And another two: Meyer Lansky.
“Yes, we could go after the tax treat. But that requires effort.”
Oh, for gods sake!
Ouch 😏
Let the charges rain down on Trump-whatever it takes to get him behind bars, muzzled, and out of the public eye as he and his cronies continue to spew their lies to which all too many gullible MAGA adherents loyally cling. Every one of the GOP elected officials is culpable of supporting that insane dictator-wannabe. They all need to be expelled from Congress. Every single one. Their lack of conscience or sense that they were elected as public servants to serve we, the people is frightening, appalling, and sickening. Our democratic Republic deserves so much better.
I get and agree generally with your sentiment. I’d love to figure out a way to do it, but every legal avenue to ridding ourselves of these insurrection supporters appears non-viable. So it looks like we will have to ensure they are not elected. At some point we need to have a conversation about the voters who continue to return such anti-democratic representatives to power.
I live in Florida. The Koolaid drinkers are everywhere. Desantis’s educational policies here ensure a next generation of that same ignorant, racist base-educational experts have determined that. You, however, provide hope and light-I share your articles and quote you regularly. Thank you for providing me with insight and talking points for those conversations with those willing to dialogue. I’m really grateful!
The Florida Kool-aid is some strong brew!
Lol-all too true! Travel safely!
Yeah… I guess it might even be a strong is poison
More fumbling by the Dems. This is not going to get it done. Nobody cared about the Access Hollywood tape. Nobody cares about Stormy Daniels, which might as well be a cocktail with Jack n' Ginger ale. Get him on the Georgia meddling. Just get him. Please.....
We are learning through overwhelmingly broad evidence this many years later, that there were many parties helping shore up trumps image ahead of the election and tarnish HRCs.
Jay has highlighted many of these recently but lets just relist them. National Enquirer via Michael Cohen/Stormy/Trump, FBI Field office putting their finger on the scale via investigations and influence McGonigal, Trump Campaign/Russian assets/ etc manipulating sentiment in trumps favor.
Yes, people actually do care, because had none of these things happened we would have been left with a flawed speaker with baggage albeit brilliant politician in HRC. God forbid!
I too found Pecker's name amusing in the context in which it appears.
Per Daniels in a more intimate context apparently it's a little Peckeroni.
Haha!
Tooooooo funny!
As an ex-Trial attorney I highly value the testimony of a percipient Witness.
Well, the motivations do make one curious, but, hey, strike up rhe band!
Jay, a quick correction, bragg is up for reelection in 2025 (term ends jan 2026). I understand campaigning may begin as early as '24 but the primary and general election are in '25.
"After all, had the Trump Campaign been honest, that payment (to stormy Daniels) would have raised alarm bells at the time, and the whole affair with Daniels that Trump was trying to conceal from the press would have been known to the voters well before the election."
Very likely. But in all honesty, how many tRump supporters would've chosen NOT to vote for him as a result of this information? We all know that tRump supporters are zombies and they don't hear reason, don't care about his misdeeds, and will not deviate from their support of him, no matter what. If the past seven years have taught us anything, it's taught us that no matter WHAT tRump does, his people will stand by him. I doubt very much any of this making the headlines prior to the 2016 election would've changed the outcome significantly.
The zombies didn't elect trump, the fence sitters did. And everything Jay has been talking about recently (FBi field office, payoffs, political scale tipping, russia collusion, etc) was enough to push the fence sitters to trumps side.
Remember pizzagate? remember comey announcing a new email investigation 10 days before the election (but not mention a real valid russian collusion investigation pending at the time)? I remember all of these, I remember fence sitters falling off the HRC wagon because they just needed a legit reason to not vote for her (they didn't like trump but he was NO HRC).
That is why this all matters. Hopefully we hold our media accountable to report news instead of soundbytes in the future. They were manipulated by trump just like voters were. The best of us, even me, at times were shook by some of the crap that came out about HRC but I personally never wavered. There are those among us that weren't strong enough to resist the pull. That were emotionally swayed.
I agree. Sometimes I even thought there was something wrong with me because I seem to be wavering back and forth. What was right and what was wrong. It was a terrible feeling, but I did make the right choice.
I remember them, too, George, but the thing is, we absolutely underestimated what tRump's supporters could/would do--including the stooges he installed in places of power. SCOTUS, for one. These people are lunatics. Look at what DeSantis is doing in FL. He's tRump-Lite. But he's just as dangerous, if not more. If tRump realizes that his presidential bid will fail, and DeSantis predictably throws his hat in the ring, expect tRump to get behind him. You are spot-on when you say that those on the far right are emotionally swayed. All they need to do is bring up murdered babies, or they're coming for your guns, or some other hot-button topic and people will hold their noses and vote Republican. And what if the GQP in Congress get their hands on voting rights and gerrymandering, as they're doing already?
I live outside of Atlantic City, NJ. I saw what tRump did there. They're still trying to dig out of the mess he left behind, but the area is so tainted with Republicanism, they're struggling to sort it out. Yet despite that, he managed to trick people into believing he was the right person to be president. I sat at my dining room table in the dark the night of the election, 2am, and cried. I knew we were in for a disastrous presidency. And I had no idea how wrong I was--it was FAR worse than I ever imagined. I don't want to see that again.
Holding the media accountable is the first step. But who's going to do it? We can all write and email and call, but they're throwing red meat to their followers, and they get their viewership, that's what sells ads. How about changing the laws so that there MUST be factual accounting of NEWS? There used to be laws that restricted the spreading of untruths in news reporting. Who ditched that? Reagan? We need it back. Verifiable facts, not 'entertainment.'
There's a guy I volunteer with at a military base who's frothing at the mouth over Central Bank Digital Currency. He claims that the government is going to mandate companies stop paying people with 'currency,' and pay them with 'credits' that can be used like money. He's absolutely insisting that 'the DEMS' are going to regulate what you can buy with these credits, and restrict your use of them. For example, if you're diabetic and want to buy Twinkies, it won't let the purchase go through. This is the brainwashed stupidity that these people believe, and FTR, I'm of the opinion that if 'CBDC' ever happens, it would be at the hands of the Republicans to control people even more than they already do, while claiming they want smaller government. There's so much to fix, and it's going to take generations. IF it ever IS fixed.
I agree with everything you said. about 33% of the country supports trump. We saw that we could swing it against him with the right message.
All of the things you noted, I believe starting back in Nixon's time, have led to what we are experiencing now. It really started to gain momentum during reagan's presidency.
The reporting from NY times regarding Barr is a good first step in true blue truth to power investigative reporting.
While I don't agree with this person you note about CBDC it actually already exists in programs like SNAP which limit purchases to food products.
Yes, George, that Times article throwing Barr under the bus is a beautiful thing. It should not be a rare occasion. But it is. We absolutely need more of this kind of reporting WITH RECEIPTS. We need to hold our elected (and appointed) officials to a higher standard.
I vehemently disagree with my co-volunteer regarding his version of the CBDC. I am aware that there are programs that utilize this 'currency' and he claims that there are "200 countries already using it" as their main form of employee pay. I doubt that. He insists that currency, "greenbacks" as we know it, will cease to exist in our lifetime. I fully disagree with that prediction. As for SNAP, yes, I understand that there would be restrictions of what one may purchase on taxpayer-funded programs. However, this fella is suggesting that even money (or credits) earned as compensation for work rendered would be restricted because the government would know our personal (and medical) history and know what to allow to individuals to purchase or not. I call BS. I am my elderly parents' caretaker, and I am diabetic. They are NOT. I buy groceries for them all the time. If my father wants a bag of M&Ms, I will buy them for him. This guy suggesting that the government wouldn't allow me to purchase M&Ms because *I* am a diabetic seems like overreach to me. He's insisting it will happen.
Also, this fella's a veteran, and laments regularly, "The country I fought to protect has gone down the Democrats' toilet!" and my eyes roll so hard, I see my brain.
Trump won by very small margins in three key states, so there may have been enough independent voters who decided either to vote against him or to not vote at all. I suppose we’ll never know.
I guess what I'm trying to say here is that I'm *afraid* to underestimate the power of the stupidity, willful ignorance, and blind faith of tRump's followers. He fell ass-first into the presidency, and has since gained a cult-like following who are willing to forgive anything and everything he does. Those are the 'zombies' who should be considered, even if they are a smaller group than the 'reasonable' Republicans and everyone else who votes. Because even though there are far fewer cultists, there were enough of them to vote in all those hard-core GQPers who now are in Congress making our laws.
Boy if the rest of the world wasn't so f*cked up this would be a real embarrassment for this country. ;)
Alvin Bragg is wholly unimpressive. Although I'm glad yet one more case against Trump will cause him to spend his supporters' money on yet more lawyering, this seems stale. We need Merrick Garland to step up and do the job he promised to do from the beginning ("without fear or favor") and for Fani Willis, who seems to have three times the courage of any DOJ official we've heard from yet, to file charges. I predict the Bragg thing will go nowhere: Weisselberg clearly will take a bullet for his boss, and his testimony about Trump's involvement is critical to making the charges stick. Just more fodder for the media!
An awesome article. 😁👊🖖
"Holding the Line: Inside the Nation's Preeminent US Attorney's Office and Its Battle with the Trump Justice Department" is a nonfiction book by former Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman.
According to Rachel Maddow Berman recounts the efforts of Barr to make the "Stormy" affair go away with the DOJ and NY.
If so, this helps explain why this faded into the background while TFG was in office. But not after.