> Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass, reading texts between former National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard and Howard's unnamed relative:
> Howard: "He's just been named President-elect."
> Howard: "At least if he wins I will be pardoned for electoral fraud."
lol whoopsie
>"Some of the disputed evidence, which Judge Merchan is keeping out of the trial for now, involved text messages then-National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard exchanged with a relative around the time of Trump’s 2016 election."
Sadly the jury won't be seeing those messages (yet)
> Trump was so upset that NO ONE showed up at courthouse to support him despite his begging them, he went to a construction site today before court. From the look on his face he was NOT happy with the response! 😀
https://www.threads.net/@deanobeidallah/post/C6L7kJPLvnQ/
This reminds me when Trump was in the White House and the random fair like events would pop up at the White House. Giving us the moments of Trump behind the wheel of a Semi, a fire truck and him swinging a bat at these "[Made in America](https://www.upi.com/News_Photos/view/upi/b4c656d38b0ed0a992090b3274286779/President-Trump-Sits-in-Firetruck-Made-in-America/)" events. That were for him - not open to the public. Basically distractions for the man-toddler.
My guess is they got him out to not only try to show there are supporters out there in NYC, but also to prevent him from posting more shit on social media and be in more contempt.
Guy is All-Caps Truth-maxxing™ at 3am nearly every night then somehow is up fronting literal criminal trial appearances a few hours later.
Don't know any 70+yr old functioning on any level after only getting a couple of hours sleep multiple nights in a row. Hell, I'm up most of every night caring for my ancient dog with dementia who goes on all-night sundowning adventures, and in my mid 30s I'm left as a total zombie wreck after a few back-to-back sleepless nights. Can't bounce back from that with just coffee and a berocca.
The 'Trump white house pharmacy' story comes to mind, and shades of some other notorious former heads of state who had their physician give that little 'pick me up' shot or pill cocktail every morning until the long-term effects started catching up.
At some stage, his body won't be able to maintain it anymore. 'Pick me up' assisted or otherwise. Borrowing future time that will be paid back with interest.
He wasn't at that site to "support the workers" or encourage them and their union to work hard and achieve the American dream.
He was there to recruit soldiers to rally at his trial.
“‘Over the years that I know, that I worked with Michael Cohen, I know he didn’t have any authorization to spend or to disperse any funds from Trump Organization,’ Pecker says.”
Welp, there it is
According to this hardball interview with F&F from 2019, he hardly knew the guy: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q8uQ9TZxf4&t=522s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q8uQ9TZxf4&t=522s)
> "A president has to have immunity. This has nothing to do with me, this has to do with a president in the future, in 100 years from now," he said. "If you don't have immunity, you're not going to do anything. You're going to become a ceremonial president."
And yet, the other 45 Presidents in the 250 year history of this country were able to effectively govern without immunity. Well except maybe for William Henry Harrison.
It's Melania Trump's birthday tomorrow while his adulterous husband is being tried.
Stormy Daniels could be on witness stand tomorrow just in time for her birthday.
To Franklin Graham and all religious leaders supporting Trump, MIDDLE FINGER for you all.
>"Steinglass is now showing the Karen McDougal contract with AMI, the National Enquirer's parent company.
The agreement is dated August 5, 2016"
The jury is seeing some cold hard evidence here.
( I know this deal isn't a part of the charges in this trial, but it does support the Stormy charges immensely and shows a hell of a pattern)
Trump in criminal court while at the very same time his insane fast talking lawyer argues in front of the Supreme Court that trump is immune from basically all crimes - murder, a coup, selling nuclear secrets to enemies.
What a sorry state of affairs.
From CNN Live Update:
> Pecker testified he remembers a call with Hope Hicks and Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
> "Both of them said that they thought it was a good idea," Pecker said, referring to extending McDougal's contract.
WTF? Two *paid White House staff*, being paid with taxpayer dollars, are advising a tabloid publisher to keep paying a woman with which Trump "allegedly" had an affair. They're doing this while working for the public. The hell?
[Edit: kind of sells the point that the payoffs were for political reasons too]
Yea Pecker's testimony has been wild already. He's exposing so much more than just the campaign violation. Even the "technically legal" stuff he's talking about should be major news.
NYT:
> Boris Epshteyn, Trump’s legal adviser who was indicted yesterday in Arizona, is in the courtroom.
> Epshteyn is aggressively using his cell phone, which is barred in court. The court officers who patrol journalists doing the same don’t seem to notice as they walk by the aisle
Hope they catch the fucker and throw him out.
> Some of the disputed evidence, which Judge Merchan is keeping out of the trial for now, involved text messages then-National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard exchanged with a relative around the time of Trump’s 2016 election.
> “At least if he wins, I’ll be pardoned for electoral fraud,” Howard said in one of the messages, which was read aloud in court by a prosecutor.
> Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asks David Pecker if he had any intention of printing Karen McDougal's Trump story.
> Pecker says his company did not. Asked if his main purpose was to suppress her story so that it wouldn't influence the election, Pecker says, "Yes, it was."
https://www.threads.net/@griffinkyle/post/C6ME6klu_8i/
This is newsworthy:
Prosecutor: Did you receive a letter from the Federal Elections Commission and call Michael Cohen?
Pecker: I did. I told Michael I've worried.
He said, Why?**Jeff Sessions is the Attorney General and Donald Trump has him in his back pocket.**
CNN:
Pecker recalled a conversation that he and Cohen had about letters from the Federal Election Commission in 2018.
Pecker said, "We committed a campaign violation."
He testified that he was worried, but Cohen said he was not, telling Pecker: "Jeff Sessions is the attorney general and Donald Trump has him in his pocket."
> **Prosecutor Christopher Conroy just brought up four more instances from the last three days in which Trump allegedly violated Judge Merchan's gag order.**
> Conroy says he has another order to show cause to hold Trump in contempt of court for disobeying the order. @MSNBC
https://www.threads.net/@griffinkyle/post/C6L9eqoOyfu/
Steinglass is asking whether Pecker was aware that corporations making campaign expenditures in coordination with a campaign without disclosing them was unlawful.
Yes, Pecker says.
Well...if you're the defense...that's prob not what you want.
From The Independent:
>For context: In the wake of Cohen’s plea deal with federal prosecutors and sentencing, AMI admitted that the company is subject to campaign finance laws and that such agreements are “unlawful.”
This all seems very bad for Trump:
>Pecker said after conversations with Michael Cohen and Trump he negotiated to buy McDougal’s story for $150,000 five months before the election. Pecker said he believed he would be reimbursed by the Trump Organization or Trump himself, but ultimately never was.
>He testified that he had concerns about the legality of paying to kill a story concerning a political candidate. He also said that he knew at the time the deal with McDougal was illegal and he wouldn’t have entered into it if it wasn’t for Trump’s benefit.
Pecker said he intended to kill McDougal's story so it did not hurt Trump’s campaign. He also said he was aware that corporations making campaign expenditures in coordination with a campaign without disclosing them was unlawful.
>Daniels was "trying to sell a story that she had a sexual relationship with Donald Trump,” Pecker testified. When he told Cohen that American Media Inc. was not going to buy the story, Cohen told Pecker that Trump would be furious with him, he said. Pecker testified he later learned Cohen had paid Daniels out of his own funds.
>At the end of a 2017 meeting, Pecker said Trump thanked him for “handling the McDougal situation.” Pecker said he assumed Trump was worried that stories would impact his campaign because in conversations with Cohen and the former president, Trump’s family was never mentioned.
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-hush-money-trial-04-25-24/index.html
>Pecker said he believed he would be reimbursed by the Trump Organization or Trump himself, but ultimately never was.
Lol, another reason for him to be spilling all these beans.
> Pecker said, "We committed a campaign violation."
> He testified that he was worried, but Cohen said he was not, telling Pecker: "Jeff Sessions is the attorney general and Donald Trump has him in his pocket."
Good ol' Jeff.
Imagine the great things Trump could do if he had people in positions of power who would gladly do illegal things for him. [Edit: Again]
I agree.
Pecker testified he remembers a call with Hope Hicks and Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
"Both of them said that they thought it was a good idea," Pecker said, referring to extending McDougal's contract.
> [McKinley, NY Times] David Pecker is now describing Trump’s interest in obtaining boxes of material regarding Karen McDougal, saying that Trump was worried about what would happen if Pecker got “hit by a bus” or his company was sold. Trump “did not want someone else to potentially publish those stories.”
> [McKinley, NY Times] David Pecker is describing Michael Cohen’s creation of a shell company, Resolution Consultants, to reimburse Pecker for his payoff to Karen McDougal. Cohen, who was then Trump's fixer, would later set up a similarly named company, Essential Consultants, to pay off Stormy Daniels.
I think he tried that with Stormy, he wanted to wait until after the election to pay her and then actually not pay her. But I think she was smart enough to know to get the money up front. Which is why trump slow paid Cohen.
Considering how very inept, unprepared, and greatly incompetent the Trump defense team has been along with how utterly damaging is Pecker's testimony (and his testimony only being the tip of a mushroom) - I'm only wondering how much jail time Trump gets sentenced.
Most individuals convicted of these felonies would serve some time although not the maximum.
And I understand Trump will appeal and the appeal won't get resolved until after the election (and maybe never if he is elected) - but I marvel at the occasional poetic justice of our universe and how the very first convictions and potential jail sentence of Trump will have included sexual abuse, defamation, and illegally covering up his sexual acts and affairs with a porn star and ex-playboy playmate.
Evidently, the \*\*\*\*\* grabs back.
And it now has him by the balls too.
The universe has a wicked sense of humor.
Why exactly did Pecker flip in the first place? Was he facing prosecution for something related to accepting payments (and/or not reporting it as income?) or was it something else?
Damn, McDougal is gonna be as big of a deal as Daniels! Who woulda thought. All Don had to do is not cheat on his wife repeatedly. I know, impossible...
Or he could have just let them tell their stories instead of trying to cover it all up.
We already knew he was a serial philanderer, and if admitting to sexually assaulting women didn't cost him the election, it's hard to imagine that a couple of extramarital affairs (which he could have just denied happened anyway) would have moved the needle.
Good afternoon everyone! I wanted to share a new little project I am working on.
On April 22nd, The New York Unified Court System had announced in a press release that “The court system is taking the
novel step of posting the daily transcripts of the trial proceedings on its public website–
which falls in line with its landmark innovations to publish online the court’s filings and
decisions, as well as the case exhibits–to ensure broad and continuous public access to
this extraordinarily high-profile case.”
Unfortunately, the documents are limited in their public access. The transcripts are available only in an image format, so there is no compatibility for screen readers what so ever. I have taken the steps to proceed forward in this case to provide in as timely as a manner as possible, the transcripts and evidence submitted in PDF and more importantly with optical text recognition for everyone to have the ability to access. Provided below are the first two days of transcripts and the evidence submitted on April 23rd, 2024. I will actively maintain this collection and will attempt all file uploads in a timely manner. All Documents will also be available in their original obtained format in folders marked “original.”
The master archive.org page can be accessed is [here](https://archive.org/details/nys-v-djt-crim-docs/)
Transcripts:
[April 22nd, 2024 Court Transcript](https://archive.org/download/nys-v-djt-crim-docs/Transcripts/4-22-2024/4-22-2024%20OCR.pdf)
[April 23rd, 2024 Court Transcript](https://archive.org/download/nys-v-djt-crim-docs/Transcripts/4-23-2024/04-23-2024%20OCR.pdf)
[April 23rd, 2024 Court Evidence Submissions. Note: this is a link to the directory so you’ll see all available formats](https://archive.org/download/nys-v-djt-crim-docs/Evidence/Peoples/04-23-2024/)
Thank you!!!
I work in NLP using text that was OCR'd from some crappy image PDFs so I love that you're doing this. Which OCR software/algorithm are you using?
> [Haberman, NY Times] Side note: He's not in the courtroom, but traveling with Trump to the courthouse today for the first time during this trial was Boris Epshteyn, Trump’s legal strategist who was indicted in Arizona yesterday in connection with the efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
Hard to believe that it’s almost been nine years of Trump as a political figurehead. Hopefully, justice *finally* catches up with him. (Hearing that the Supreme Court may reject his immunity claims.)
In the words of the Malibu Chief of Police, I don't like his jerk-off name. I don't like his jerk-off face. I don't like his jerk-off behavior, and I don't like him or his jerk-off family.
Ok now I don't know where the defense is going. Are they implying that the prosecutors trained Pecker to lie on the stand? WTF
>Trump's lawyer Bove: You met Federal prosecutors too, how many times?
>
>Pecker: Five or six times.
>
>Bove: Then the DA's office. They practiced with you - not a script but you knew what was coming, right?
>
>Pecker: Yes
Seems like the old "influence public opinion" strategy of Trump's. Just turn the jury against the prosecution instead of arguing against the charges.
I can attest to this when I was a witness for a criminal trial. I was set to meet with the prosecution leading up to the trial date before the trial was called off since the defendant plead guilty just before.
“One of the texts Howard sent reads: ‘At least if he wins, I’ll be pardoned for electoral fraud,’ according to Steinglass says.”
These fucking people….
meanwhile back at the ranch:
Meanwhile, judge upholds jury verdict against Trump in E. Jean Carroll defamation case
From CNN's Kara Scannell in New York
In New York on Thursday, a federal judge upheld the E. Jean Carroll defamation verdict and $83 million damages award, denying Donald Trump’s motion for a new trial.
Judge Lewis Kaplan, in a written opinion Thursday, said Trump’s legal arguments are without merit. The judge also found that the punitive damages the jury awarded Trump “passes constitutional muster.”
Trump is also separately appealing the verdict.
--CNN
> [Rothfield, NY Times] Despite David Pecker’s assertions that he structured the deal with Karen McDougal to avoid violating campaign finance law, his company later admitted doing just that in its 2018 non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors.
I hope that when they do, the courts in DC and in GA execute on the fact that trumps release bond has been violated due to commission of local/state crimes being committed. Then fed and GA and fed can fight over who gets him.
With the Defense bringing up other celebs, are they trying to make Trump the victim of extortion by Pecker?
That doesn't really work when Trump was telling Pecker to run negative stories about his political opponents.
Hopefully the jury can understand that both things can be true.
If Trump is a major moneymaker for them then it stands to reason that raising his star means more money for them.
Politics and greed go hand-in-hand all the damn time.
> At one point in the 1990s, Pecker testified, the publisher launched Trump Style, a magazine built around Trump’s brand and real estate holdings.
Wikipedia:
> Trump Style was launched by The New York Times Custom Publishing in February 1997. The magazine had a self-reported circulation of 130,000, and was available for free to VIP guests who stayed at Trump's hotel-casino properties in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Trump Style was also available to residents of Trump's five Trump-branded condominium buildings in New York, and to members of his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
I like that term, "Self-reported circulation".
> David Pecker says, back in 2002 and 2003, he was worried about paying to kill a story because of situation with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
> In talking about the Schwarzenegger situation, Pecker said he wanted in the Trump case to make sure the Karen McDougal situation could not be characterized as a campaign contribution.
> **This is the first time, according to @NBCNews, that we've heard any participant in the alleged conspiracy was concerned about campaign finance law violations.**
https://www.threads.net/@griffinkyle/post/C6MCKT1uFSc/
Im getting more convinced every hearing that this, arguably the trashiest and dumbest of all of Trumps trials underway or coming up; is actually gonna be the one that brings him down.
It´s just evidence upon evidence, and the defence has literally nothing.
“This guy I kept near me kept doing all these things that I didn’t approve of. It’s not my fault. Also, I deserve to have access to America’s nukes again”
Look, it's very simple, Cohen was Trump's personal lawyer and handled everything for him, and Trump kept him close, but only because he didn't trust Cohen and knew Cohen was gonna go off on his own just to backstab him, so that's why Trump had to let him go, but when he hired Cohen, Cohen was a good guy, and Trump authorized him to act as his personal attorney whatever that means but also didn't, so Cohen went off on his own and Trump was right never to trust him but also reasonably relied on what Cohen told him but no you can't see the messages that would be very prejudicial to my client.
"Let the person who hasnt cheated on their spouse, and then paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to cover it up, and then do fraud to account for the expenses cast the first stone"
1. the other trials have even more damning evidence. the classifieds document case and rico case both have documents signed by trump and his people that prove their crimes.
2. the defense hasn't had a chance to make their case. not sure how they would tbh. bring out lawyers who can testify why these actions weren't a crime? like you said their opening Statement was "it happened but it's all good"
That’s just it — no prosecutor anywhere is going to bring a criminal case against a former president unless they are SURE they have the evidence. Plus, he’s always been guilty of shit his whole miserable life, and just got away with it because he had daddy’s money and could bury people in legal fees until they gave up.
“Attorneys signaled that they will not be done with Pecker's testimony today.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said he had about two to three hours left. Trump attorney Emil Bove noted that there's ‘a lot more to come.’”
🍿
Per CNN - As the coooperation agreement is read and displayed.
>One of the lawyers on the jury made a visible facial expression at the agreement as he looked at the screen in front of him.
Interesting. What kind of face I wonder? Shocked? Surprised? Amused? Angered?
Per CNN:
> He also confirms with Pecker that around the time of the "Celebrity Apprentice" show, research showed that Trump was a top celebrity who could drive the most sales for the National Enquirer at the time.
> "So You ran articles about President Trump because it was good for business?"
> "That's correct," Pecker said.
These lawyers must get a special rate for fluffing their client.
>Bove: You had researchers and a model to maximize profit. And President was the top selling celebrity, right?
>
>Packer: Yes
https://www.threads.net/@innercitypressinsta/post/C6MkSYDvs3u
CNN:
What happened in the courtroom on Thursday was "breathtaking," former President Donald Trump said after court wrapped for the day.
He also described former tabloid boss David Pecker's testimony as "amazing."
"Open your eyes, we can't let this continue to happen to our country," he added, reiterating his complaint that this trial should have "never happened."
___________
he thought that was "amazing"? I suspect all the rest of us were flat disgusted by it.
If any SCOTUS judge votes to grant the President absolute immunity, I would argue they must be removed from the court for not protecting the constitution. Even elementary students understand no one is above the law
They obviously wont agree with his immunity claims. The risk is that they punt it back to the lower courts for procedural bullshit to run out the clock.
"On the stand, Pecker recalled the night after the public learned of the infamous 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump discusses **grabbing women sexually without asking permission**, when then-editor Dylan Howard called with an urgent matter."
Really AP? I think there's a word for that.
> [Haberman, NY Times] Pecker, before a tense and focused courtroom, is recounting Trump calling him three days before election day, after the Journal article was published. He was “very upset, saying how could this happen, I thought you had this under control, either you or one of your people have leaked the story,” Pecker says. The call ended with no goodbye from Trump.
---
> [Haberman, NY Times] Pecker has at least three times described Michael Cohen as warning him that “the boss” — meaning Trump — would be “angry” if Pecker didn’t do whatever was being asked of him in that moment. Prosecutors, who have focused on Trump’s tendency to intimidate people in asking for a gag order, know what they’re drawing out here.
“What happened in the courtroom on Thursday was ‘breathtaking,’ former President Donald Trump said after court wrapped for the day.
He also described former tabloid boss David Pecker's testimony as ‘amazing.’
‘Open your eyes, we can't let this continue to happen to our country,’ he added, reiterating his complaint that this trial should have ‘never happened.’”
It seems that when you take naps in court, you may not be 100% aware that things aren’t looking great for you.
Lmao Trump said Pecker’s testimony was “amazing?” He… does realize that Pecker is the *state’s* witness, right? And that Pecker’s testimony is demonstrating that Trump personally directed all of Cohen’s actions?
I'm wondering if something happened with the contempt of court stuff behind the scenes. He hasn't been talking to the press today and has been just giving them a thumbs up. Perhaps they (temporarily) got through to him and he knows he can't use 90% of his already limited vocabulary to talk about Pecker, so all he has left is "amazing".
It's sound bites for the people not watching the trials, his voters.
They know they don't pay attention except for the right wing framing. A lot of the whole thing is about creating opportunities and media to present things a certain way.
Whenever I see Peckers name I'm reminded of Matthew McConaughey's character in Tropic Thunder, [and what I consider one the best scenes in comedy ever.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw-GrGfd-RU)
>Pecker has just given us a very detailed description of Jared Kushner walking him into Trump Tower, and then into Trump’s office, shortly before Trump's inauguration as president. In the office were four noteworthy people: James Comey, Sean Spicer, Reince Priebus and Mike Pompeo. Three were Republicans who would go on to work in the Trump administration, while the fourth, Comey, would eventually become one of Trump’s chief adversaries. Into that tableau walks Pecker, to be asked about Karen McDougal by the president-elect.
>Pecker says that in front of Comey, the head of the F.B.I., Trump thanked him for purchasing the stories — and likely committing at least one crime in the process, as Pecker well knew. It's of course not clear what Comey heard. But this is a wild, wild scene we are hearing about.
Comey was present for this? Seems like there needs to be a little more investigating... and indicting.
Hashtag never forget what that snake Comey did, with his imaginary, unprecedented nonsense claims a few days before the election just to really dig the knife in to Clinton. And the. He tried to do some nonsense rehabilitation being all “oh Donald was baaaad”.
> He again addresses the Supreme Court, which is hearing oral arguments today on whether he’s immune from prosecution
> “I would have loved to have been there,” Trump said
Trump's lawyers: "Oh shit that was *today*?!?!"
This trials so far, sounds like a ace attorney trial.
Having a big publisher, that send out fakes news articles about Trump's political opponents and helping paid off porn starts, then get Michael Cohen who is low level mafia guy, that testify against the boss himself.
Trump himself even sounds like a character with ace attorney. Reality TV star, somehow becoming president
Also we may Trump lawyers call in porn star to testify later.
>Prosecutors objected to that line of questioning, and Justice Merchan appears to agree with them: Joshua Steinglass, a prosecutor, says that Hicks was simply not mentioned in the 2018 meeting with federal prosecutors and thus there was no inconsistency in Pecker’s story, as Bove was suggesting. “It’s misleading and we’re going to correct this tomorrow,”Justice Merchan says, adopting a scolding tone with Bove for the first time.
Every time Trump's legal team is scolded, an angel gets its wings.
> Trump was asked by reporters what he thought of the testimony and when he last spoke to Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, and Trump responded by saying “David’s been very nice, a nice guy.”
Pecker better stay clear of windows ......
Trump's legal team,
(at least by the transcripts I've been reading over at https://www.threads.net/@innercitypressinsta/post/C6MCEVmukYB)
Seems to have gotten their first objection actually sustained by the Judge today.
The Prosecution was attempting to lead David Pecker into asserting the Donald Trump was personally aware of the payment structures. Prosecution
But Essentially we've learned the AMI, after running story after story to help Trump win his Primary Race, was not reimbursed for their help catching and killing the Karen McDougal story.
AMI Didn't want a paper trail that linked them directly to Cohen or Trump as that would have been too clear to his competitors what he was doing.
This is funny tho and just happened:
"Justice Merchan: I think there are details that could be redacted.
Prosecutor: We'll send around some proposed redactions to [defense] counsel
Trump's lawyer Bove: This is a text message between Dylan Howard and
Prosecutor: WOAH!
Bove: Sorry, I didn't mean that"
Still the hardest roast from Michelle Wolf up until today:
> “I’m never really sure what to call Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Is it Sarah Sanders, is it Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is it Cousin Huckabee, is it Aunt Huckabee Sanders? What’s Uncle Tom but for white women who disappoint other white women? Ah I Know, Aunt Coulter”
And the classic:
“I actually really like Sarah. I think she’s very resourceful. But she burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smokey eye. Like maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s lies. It’s probably lies.”
Why is Pecker being so forthcoming as a prosecution witness?
Even if he doesn't care about his good buddy Trump, he is saying things that incriminate himself and his tabloid.
He got a non prosecution agreement for his role in a pretty massive election fraud conspiracy. Not disclosing anything in his testimony could get that agreement scrapped. He's probably trying to get out ahead of absolutely anything prosecutors could uncover to save his own ass.
He’s been granted immunity for his testimony. So either take the stand, spill it all and walk free or refuse and have someone else implicate you and face the music.
The only way to save his own skin is testify truthfully and in full.
The National Enquirer's publishing company, AMI, has a non-prosecution agreement that hinges on their full compliance, so his testimony can't be used against him or his tabloid.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/tabloid-publisher-involved-trump-hush-money-payment-reaches/story?id=59779050
> Why is Pecker being so forthcoming as a prosecution witness?
[In 2018, Pecker was granted immunity in exchange for providing federal prosecutors with information about the payments. ](https://www.npr.org/2024/04/23/1246435476/david-pecker-trump-trial)
He's under oath and the evidence to catch him lying is strong. Imo he and his tabloid don't lose much from this testimony. Everyone knows he and his rag are scummy. That's the appeal.
This is rich. Donnie’s having a rally at MSG to honor the police?
Would that include the Capitol police who were brutally beaten on 1/6 as a direct result of his election lies?
Apparently this whole "Red Curve" shadow/dark money organization was another avenue for him to pay hush money.
It's run by Trump's 2024 campaign manager, and they were offering Cassidy Hutchinson a "job" (hush money) if she 'altered' or 'abbreviated' her J6 testimony.
https://cdn.getarena.im/cm/662aa79c54f955db56f26152.png?w=800&q=85
This courtroom sketch cracks me up, how they even sketched out the photos of Trump and (presumably) McDougal behind Pecker.
Imagine buying stories about celebs to ‘kill’ them, and then somewhere down the line they get announced in a court case the world is watching.
Tiger woods
Arnie
Mark Whalburg
Ron Pearlman
All fuming right now.
I think McDougal is going to end up causing more trouble for him than Stormy. Stormy was a one off who stayed around with the promise of a role on the apprentice, Karen (allegedly) had a full blown affair with him and said they were in love and it lasted almost a year. I think she will be a bigger player in the case than we thought, and I can't wait to see what she says. Even though she knew she would be shamed for sleeping with a married man, with a new baby she was very honest in her interview and took the heat.
Remember, paying her and Stormy off to stay quiet is not illegal ! It's the HOW and WHY and WHEN and for what reason, where did the monet come from, was it to influence the election? Etc
If I were Melania I'd be fuckin furious right now, but she fully knew what she was getting into.
Almost sounding like the Pecker "nice guy" was code to Pecker on the direction his story should go during the defense .......
Trump and Pecker are STILL in cahoots.
> [Bromwich, NY Times] It’s really interesting to hear Schwarzenegger and Trump linked through Pecker: the two Republican politicians share a lot, including their place in the celebrity hierarchy and their successful campaigns. This also speaks to the media environment in which Trump thrived, one in which name-brand recognition and Hollywood charisma had become more and more important, no matter the industry.
> Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass, reading texts between former National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard and Howard's unnamed relative: > Howard: "He's just been named President-elect." > Howard: "At least if he wins I will be pardoned for electoral fraud." lol whoopsie
>"Some of the disputed evidence, which Judge Merchan is keeping out of the trial for now, involved text messages then-National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard exchanged with a relative around the time of Trump’s 2016 election." Sadly the jury won't be seeing those messages (yet)
Oh snap, which live thread is that from? I'm on CNN and NYT and neither reported that. Edit: Nevermind, found it on AP
https://www.threads.net/@griffinkyle/post/C6MLx6Ru7og/
> Trump was so upset that NO ONE showed up at courthouse to support him despite his begging them, he went to a construction site today before court. From the look on his face he was NOT happy with the response! 😀 https://www.threads.net/@deanobeidallah/post/C6L7kJPLvnQ/
He was there at 6:30am, which means he was up to do his morning routine even earlier. He's going to fall asleep in court again.
This reminds me when Trump was in the White House and the random fair like events would pop up at the White House. Giving us the moments of Trump behind the wheel of a Semi, a fire truck and him swinging a bat at these "[Made in America](https://www.upi.com/News_Photos/view/upi/b4c656d38b0ed0a992090b3274286779/President-Trump-Sits-in-Firetruck-Made-in-America/)" events. That were for him - not open to the public. Basically distractions for the man-toddler. My guess is they got him out to not only try to show there are supporters out there in NYC, but also to prevent him from posting more shit on social media and be in more contempt.
Guy is All-Caps Truth-maxxing™ at 3am nearly every night then somehow is up fronting literal criminal trial appearances a few hours later. Don't know any 70+yr old functioning on any level after only getting a couple of hours sleep multiple nights in a row. Hell, I'm up most of every night caring for my ancient dog with dementia who goes on all-night sundowning adventures, and in my mid 30s I'm left as a total zombie wreck after a few back-to-back sleepless nights. Can't bounce back from that with just coffee and a berocca. The 'Trump white house pharmacy' story comes to mind, and shades of some other notorious former heads of state who had their physician give that little 'pick me up' shot or pill cocktail every morning until the long-term effects started catching up. At some stage, his body won't be able to maintain it anymore. 'Pick me up' assisted or otherwise. Borrowing future time that will be paid back with interest.
That fucking idiot is so eager to shake the hand of an asshole that won't even look at him. There's no saving some of these fools.
He wasn't at that site to "support the workers" or encourage them and their union to work hard and achieve the American dream. He was there to recruit soldiers to rally at his trial.
His face looks like he got an early start on the sharting in that photo
“‘Over the years that I know, that I worked with Michael Cohen, I know he didn’t have any authorization to spend or to disperse any funds from Trump Organization,’ Pecker says.” Welp, there it is
Someone please pull up the video of Trump repeating over and over “You’ll have to speak with my lawyer a Michael Cohen, he’s in charge of all this.”
According to this hardball interview with F&F from 2019, he hardly knew the guy: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q8uQ9TZxf4&t=522s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q8uQ9TZxf4&t=522s)
> "A president has to have immunity. This has nothing to do with me, this has to do with a president in the future, in 100 years from now," he said. "If you don't have immunity, you're not going to do anything. You're going to become a ceremonial president." And yet, the other 45 Presidents in the 250 year history of this country were able to effectively govern without immunity. Well except maybe for William Henry Harrison.
[удалено]
"No not like that!" -conservatives probably
> Well except maybe for William Henry Harrison. Hey, cut him some slack. [He died in 30 days](https://youtu.be/r8N7BSsU5oo?si=3v38rDRxE3SdqPDb)
How did I know exactly what video that would be?
It's Melania Trump's birthday tomorrow while his adulterous husband is being tried. Stormy Daniels could be on witness stand tomorrow just in time for her birthday. To Franklin Graham and all religious leaders supporting Trump, MIDDLE FINGER for you all.
“She knew what she signed up for” Paraphrasing what he told a gold star family…
Someone should ask trump in the court house when her birthday is
>"Steinglass is now showing the Karen McDougal contract with AMI, the National Enquirer's parent company. The agreement is dated August 5, 2016" The jury is seeing some cold hard evidence here. ( I know this deal isn't a part of the charges in this trial, but it does support the Stormy charges immensely and shows a hell of a pattern)
Trump in criminal court while at the very same time his insane fast talking lawyer argues in front of the Supreme Court that trump is immune from basically all crimes - murder, a coup, selling nuclear secrets to enemies. What a sorry state of affairs.
While we also learn he offered a pardon to Nauta to lie to the FBI. Like that alone should be a career ending scandal.
From CNN Live Update: > Pecker testified he remembers a call with Hope Hicks and Sarah Huckabee Sanders. > "Both of them said that they thought it was a good idea," Pecker said, referring to extending McDougal's contract. WTF? Two *paid White House staff*, being paid with taxpayer dollars, are advising a tabloid publisher to keep paying a woman with which Trump "allegedly" had an affair. They're doing this while working for the public. The hell? [Edit: kind of sells the point that the payoffs were for political reasons too]
Yea Pecker's testimony has been wild already. He's exposing so much more than just the campaign violation. Even the "technically legal" stuff he's talking about should be major news.
Sarah Sanders dirtied her hands by dealing with Pecker? Well, I never
NYT: > Boris Epshteyn, Trump’s legal adviser who was indicted yesterday in Arizona, is in the courtroom. > Epshteyn is aggressively using his cell phone, which is barred in court. The court officers who patrol journalists doing the same don’t seem to notice as they walk by the aisle Hope they catch the fucker and throw him out.
Sounds like they aren’t noticing on purpose but maybe I’m misinterpreting
> Some of the disputed evidence, which Judge Merchan is keeping out of the trial for now, involved text messages then-National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard exchanged with a relative around the time of Trump’s 2016 election. > “At least if he wins, I’ll be pardoned for electoral fraud,” Howard said in one of the messages, which was read aloud in court by a prosecutor.
That's what we in the business call "a bad fact". Hope the prosecution can find a way to get it into evidence.
Tbh I'm a bit surprised the defense kept that out
> Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asks David Pecker if he had any intention of printing Karen McDougal's Trump story. > Pecker says his company did not. Asked if his main purpose was to suppress her story so that it wouldn't influence the election, Pecker says, "Yes, it was." https://www.threads.net/@griffinkyle/post/C6ME6klu_8i/
This calls for a celebratory ice cream sandwich.
Wait. So Trump thanked Pecker for doing illegal shit right in front of the FBI director?
The FBI director that literally just threw the election to Trump. Yes.
Trump thought Comey was his bro
This is newsworthy: Prosecutor: Did you receive a letter from the Federal Elections Commission and call Michael Cohen? Pecker: I did. I told Michael I've worried. He said, Why?**Jeff Sessions is the Attorney General and Donald Trump has him in his back pocket.**
Guess we better get Ole Jeff on the stand. I'm sure he doesn't have a bone to pick
CNN: Pecker recalled a conversation that he and Cohen had about letters from the Federal Election Commission in 2018. Pecker said, "We committed a campaign violation." He testified that he was worried, but Cohen said he was not, telling Pecker: "Jeff Sessions is the attorney general and Donald Trump has him in his pocket."
"Jeff Sessions is the attorney general and Donald Trump has him in his pocket." Well thats not good for the current campaign
Well, Trump does wear large pants and Sessions is quite a small man so....
“I don’t want the National Enquirer to be associated with a porn star”, Pecker. I nearly spit my beer out.
Of all the garbage they do, this is the bar too low?
Dear Arizona, It would be kinda boss if you served Trump notice at his daily cry diatribe. Sincerely,
Cryatribe? New word.
> **Prosecutor Christopher Conroy just brought up four more instances from the last three days in which Trump allegedly violated Judge Merchan's gag order.** > Conroy says he has another order to show cause to hold Trump in contempt of court for disobeying the order. @MSNBC https://www.threads.net/@griffinkyle/post/C6L9eqoOyfu/
Steinglass is asking whether Pecker was aware that corporations making campaign expenditures in coordination with a campaign without disclosing them was unlawful. Yes, Pecker says. Well...if you're the defense...that's prob not what you want.
Shouldn’t he have pled the 5th on that one?
I think he may have a deal.
From The Independent: >For context: In the wake of Cohen’s plea deal with federal prosecutors and sentencing, AMI admitted that the company is subject to campaign finance laws and that such agreements are “unlawful.”
This all seems very bad for Trump: >Pecker said after conversations with Michael Cohen and Trump he negotiated to buy McDougal’s story for $150,000 five months before the election. Pecker said he believed he would be reimbursed by the Trump Organization or Trump himself, but ultimately never was. >He testified that he had concerns about the legality of paying to kill a story concerning a political candidate. He also said that he knew at the time the deal with McDougal was illegal and he wouldn’t have entered into it if it wasn’t for Trump’s benefit. Pecker said he intended to kill McDougal's story so it did not hurt Trump’s campaign. He also said he was aware that corporations making campaign expenditures in coordination with a campaign without disclosing them was unlawful. >Daniels was "trying to sell a story that she had a sexual relationship with Donald Trump,” Pecker testified. When he told Cohen that American Media Inc. was not going to buy the story, Cohen told Pecker that Trump would be furious with him, he said. Pecker testified he later learned Cohen had paid Daniels out of his own funds. >At the end of a 2017 meeting, Pecker said Trump thanked him for “handling the McDougal situation.” Pecker said he assumed Trump was worried that stories would impact his campaign because in conversations with Cohen and the former president, Trump’s family was never mentioned. https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-hush-money-trial-04-25-24/index.html
>Pecker said he believed he would be reimbursed by the Trump Organization or Trump himself, but ultimately never was. Lol, another reason for him to be spilling all these beans.
> Pecker said, "We committed a campaign violation." > He testified that he was worried, but Cohen said he was not, telling Pecker: "Jeff Sessions is the attorney general and Donald Trump has him in his pocket." Good ol' Jeff. Imagine the great things Trump could do if he had people in positions of power who would gladly do illegal things for him. [Edit: Again]
I agree. Pecker testified he remembers a call with Hope Hicks and Sarah Huckabee Sanders. "Both of them said that they thought it was a good idea," Pecker said, referring to extending McDougal's contract.
> [McKinley, NY Times] David Pecker is now describing Trump’s interest in obtaining boxes of material regarding Karen McDougal, saying that Trump was worried about what would happen if Pecker got “hit by a bus” or his company was sold. Trump “did not want someone else to potentially publish those stories.”
probably why he took all those classified documents when he was leaving the White House.
> [McKinley, NY Times] David Pecker is describing Michael Cohen’s creation of a shell company, Resolution Consultants, to reimburse Pecker for his payoff to Karen McDougal. Cohen, who was then Trump's fixer, would later set up a similarly named company, Essential Consultants, to pay off Stormy Daniels.
I did not know that Trump stiffed Pecker the $150K he paid McDougal. But not surprised of course.
Using the words 'Trump', 'stiffed', and 'pecker', that close together in a sentence was a bold move. I'll allow it.
I think he tried that with Stormy, he wanted to wait until after the election to pay her and then actually not pay her. But I think she was smart enough to know to get the money up front. Which is why trump slow paid Cohen.
You see liberals it was to pay off a company!!!! Game over!!! /s
It's crazy when the former president has a criminal trial and a case before SCOTUS on the same fucking day.
And yet… he is still on the ballot. Weird huh?
Considering how very inept, unprepared, and greatly incompetent the Trump defense team has been along with how utterly damaging is Pecker's testimony (and his testimony only being the tip of a mushroom) - I'm only wondering how much jail time Trump gets sentenced. Most individuals convicted of these felonies would serve some time although not the maximum. And I understand Trump will appeal and the appeal won't get resolved until after the election (and maybe never if he is elected) - but I marvel at the occasional poetic justice of our universe and how the very first convictions and potential jail sentence of Trump will have included sexual abuse, defamation, and illegally covering up his sexual acts and affairs with a porn star and ex-playboy playmate. Evidently, the \*\*\*\*\* grabs back. And it now has him by the balls too. The universe has a wicked sense of humor.
>tip of the mushroom LMFAO, this is great XD
Why exactly did Pecker flip in the first place? Was he facing prosecution for something related to accepting payments (and/or not reporting it as income?) or was it something else?
Immunity in the case - I guess he figured that felony election fraud wasn't something he wanted to take a chance with.
Damn, McDougal is gonna be as big of a deal as Daniels! Who woulda thought. All Don had to do is not cheat on his wife repeatedly. I know, impossible...
Its dumber than that. All he had to do was not claim the payouts as a business expense.
Or he could have just let them tell their stories instead of trying to cover it all up. We already knew he was a serial philanderer, and if admitting to sexually assaulting women didn't cost him the election, it's hard to imagine that a couple of extramarital affairs (which he could have just denied happened anyway) would have moved the needle.
Trump fundraising off of Malaria’s b-day while he sits in a court about his ”affairs”.
Good afternoon everyone! I wanted to share a new little project I am working on. On April 22nd, The New York Unified Court System had announced in a press release that “The court system is taking the novel step of posting the daily transcripts of the trial proceedings on its public website– which falls in line with its landmark innovations to publish online the court’s filings and decisions, as well as the case exhibits–to ensure broad and continuous public access to this extraordinarily high-profile case.” Unfortunately, the documents are limited in their public access. The transcripts are available only in an image format, so there is no compatibility for screen readers what so ever. I have taken the steps to proceed forward in this case to provide in as timely as a manner as possible, the transcripts and evidence submitted in PDF and more importantly with optical text recognition for everyone to have the ability to access. Provided below are the first two days of transcripts and the evidence submitted on April 23rd, 2024. I will actively maintain this collection and will attempt all file uploads in a timely manner. All Documents will also be available in their original obtained format in folders marked “original.” The master archive.org page can be accessed is [here](https://archive.org/details/nys-v-djt-crim-docs/) Transcripts: [April 22nd, 2024 Court Transcript](https://archive.org/download/nys-v-djt-crim-docs/Transcripts/4-22-2024/4-22-2024%20OCR.pdf) [April 23rd, 2024 Court Transcript](https://archive.org/download/nys-v-djt-crim-docs/Transcripts/4-23-2024/04-23-2024%20OCR.pdf) [April 23rd, 2024 Court Evidence Submissions. Note: this is a link to the directory so you’ll see all available formats](https://archive.org/download/nys-v-djt-crim-docs/Evidence/Peoples/04-23-2024/)
Thank you!!! I work in NLP using text that was OCR'd from some crappy image PDFs so I love that you're doing this. Which OCR software/algorithm are you using?
Bless you!!
Supposedly David Pecker is gonna unleash on a ton of juicy details today, at least according to one of his old colleagues.
I don't want any Pecker unleashing anything juicy, it's fucking 9am Lemon
> [Haberman, NY Times] Side note: He's not in the courtroom, but traveling with Trump to the courthouse today for the first time during this trial was Boris Epshteyn, Trump’s legal strategist who was indicted in Arizona yesterday in connection with the efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
Hard to believe that it’s almost been nine years of Trump as a political figurehead. Hopefully, justice *finally* catches up with him. (Hearing that the Supreme Court may reject his immunity claims.) In the words of the Malibu Chief of Police, I don't like his jerk-off name. I don't like his jerk-off face. I don't like his jerk-off behavior, and I don't like him or his jerk-off family.
Ok now I don't know where the defense is going. Are they implying that the prosecutors trained Pecker to lie on the stand? WTF >Trump's lawyer Bove: You met Federal prosecutors too, how many times? > >Pecker: Five or six times. > >Bove: Then the DA's office. They practiced with you - not a script but you knew what was coming, right? > >Pecker: Yes Seems like the old "influence public opinion" strategy of Trump's. Just turn the jury against the prosecution instead of arguing against the charges.
Having lawyers on the jury will help with this one. Preparing witnesses is standard operating procedure.
I can attest to this when I was a witness for a criminal trial. I was set to meet with the prosecution leading up to the trial date before the trial was called off since the defendant plead guilty just before.
Putting clouds of doubt around the witness is a typical ploy.
I don't think the defense knows where they're going
They don't want it to go anywhere. They want it to take as long as possible.
“One of the texts Howard sent reads: ‘At least if he wins, I’ll be pardoned for electoral fraud,’ according to Steinglass says.” These fucking people….
This is an insane text.
When you turn over the rock and look in the dark places and are astonished at how many things are scurrying there ...
meanwhile back at the ranch: Meanwhile, judge upholds jury verdict against Trump in E. Jean Carroll defamation case From CNN's Kara Scannell in New York In New York on Thursday, a federal judge upheld the E. Jean Carroll defamation verdict and $83 million damages award, denying Donald Trump’s motion for a new trial. Judge Lewis Kaplan, in a written opinion Thursday, said Trump’s legal arguments are without merit. The judge also found that the punitive damages the jury awarded Trump “passes constitutional muster.” Trump is also separately appealing the verdict. --CNN
This is getting ridiculous trying to keep track of all the cases and appeals.
> [Rothfield, NY Times] Despite David Pecker’s assertions that he structured the deal with Karen McDougal to avoid violating campaign finance law, his company later admitted doing just that in its 2018 non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors.
What happened to the gag order violations? Are we getting a ruling?
I hope that when they do, the courts in DC and in GA execute on the fact that trumps release bond has been violated due to commission of local/state crimes being committed. Then fed and GA and fed can fight over who gets him.
With the Defense bringing up other celebs, are they trying to make Trump the victim of extortion by Pecker? That doesn't really work when Trump was telling Pecker to run negative stories about his political opponents.
As others pointed out probably trying to change the narrative to "see we did this for profit not politics!" I'm not sure how well this is gonna work
Hopefully the jury can understand that both things can be true. If Trump is a major moneymaker for them then it stands to reason that raising his star means more money for them. Politics and greed go hand-in-hand all the damn time.
> At one point in the 1990s, Pecker testified, the publisher launched Trump Style, a magazine built around Trump’s brand and real estate holdings. Wikipedia: > Trump Style was launched by The New York Times Custom Publishing in February 1997. The magazine had a self-reported circulation of 130,000, and was available for free to VIP guests who stayed at Trump's hotel-casino properties in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Trump Style was also available to residents of Trump's five Trump-branded condominium buildings in New York, and to members of his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. I like that term, "Self-reported circulation".
All subscriptions to Mr John Barron at various addresses
> David Pecker says, back in 2002 and 2003, he was worried about paying to kill a story because of situation with Arnold Schwarzenegger. > In talking about the Schwarzenegger situation, Pecker said he wanted in the Trump case to make sure the Karen McDougal situation could not be characterized as a campaign contribution. > **This is the first time, according to @NBCNews, that we've heard any participant in the alleged conspiracy was concerned about campaign finance law violations.** https://www.threads.net/@griffinkyle/post/C6MCKT1uFSc/
Im getting more convinced every hearing that this, arguably the trashiest and dumbest of all of Trumps trials underway or coming up; is actually gonna be the one that brings him down. It´s just evidence upon evidence, and the defence has literally nothing.
The defense's argument has essentially been "none of this is a crime because we said so!"
And try to somehow how throw Michael Cohen under the bus as a rogue actor, when there's so much evidence to the contrary.
“This guy I kept near me kept doing all these things that I didn’t approve of. It’s not my fault. Also, I deserve to have access to America’s nukes again”
Look, it's very simple, Cohen was Trump's personal lawyer and handled everything for him, and Trump kept him close, but only because he didn't trust Cohen and knew Cohen was gonna go off on his own just to backstab him, so that's why Trump had to let him go, but when he hired Cohen, Cohen was a good guy, and Trump authorized him to act as his personal attorney whatever that means but also didn't, so Cohen went off on his own and Trump was right never to trust him but also reasonably relied on what Cohen told him but no you can't see the messages that would be very prejudicial to my client.
"Let the person who hasnt cheated on their spouse, and then paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to cover it up, and then do fraud to account for the expenses cast the first stone"
To be fair, he doesn’t have a viable defence in any of his cases.
Has Trump stood up and yelled, "I declare immunity!" yet?
That is what he’s doing in the Supreme Court essentially
1. the other trials have even more damning evidence. the classifieds document case and rico case both have documents signed by trump and his people that prove their crimes. 2. the defense hasn't had a chance to make their case. not sure how they would tbh. bring out lawyers who can testify why these actions weren't a crime? like you said their opening Statement was "it happened but it's all good"
That’s just it — no prosecutor anywhere is going to bring a criminal case against a former president unless they are SURE they have the evidence. Plus, he’s always been guilty of shit his whole miserable life, and just got away with it because he had daddy’s money and could bury people in legal fees until they gave up.
[удалено]
“Attorneys signaled that they will not be done with Pecker's testimony today. Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said he had about two to three hours left. Trump attorney Emil Bove noted that there's ‘a lot more to come.’” 🍿
Per CNN - As the coooperation agreement is read and displayed. >One of the lawyers on the jury made a visible facial expression at the agreement as he looked at the screen in front of him. Interesting. What kind of face I wonder? Shocked? Surprised? Amused? Angered?
The kind of face you make when you recall the immortal words, "Is you takin' notes on a criminal fucking conspiracy? Fuck is you thinkin', man?"
Per CNN: > He also confirms with Pecker that around the time of the "Celebrity Apprentice" show, research showed that Trump was a top celebrity who could drive the most sales for the National Enquirer at the time. > "So You ran articles about President Trump because it was good for business?" > "That's correct," Pecker said. These lawyers must get a special rate for fluffing their client.
>Bove: You had researchers and a model to maximize profit. And President was the top selling celebrity, right? > >Packer: Yes https://www.threads.net/@innercitypressinsta/post/C6MkSYDvs3u
I think they’re creating the narrative that AMI ran the stories for financial profit not political reasons.
But they didn't run the stories. They bought them and buried them. Making them public would have been more profitable.
CNN: What happened in the courtroom on Thursday was "breathtaking," former President Donald Trump said after court wrapped for the day. He also described former tabloid boss David Pecker's testimony as "amazing." "Open your eyes, we can't let this continue to happen to our country," he added, reiterating his complaint that this trial should have "never happened." ___________ he thought that was "amazing"? I suspect all the rest of us were flat disgusted by it.
If any SCOTUS judge votes to grant the President absolute immunity, I would argue they must be removed from the court for not protecting the constitution. Even elementary students understand no one is above the law
They obviously wont agree with his immunity claims. The risk is that they punt it back to the lower courts for procedural bullshit to run out the clock.
"On the stand, Pecker recalled the night after the public learned of the infamous 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump discusses **grabbing women sexually without asking permission**, when then-editor Dylan Howard called with an urgent matter." Really AP? I think there's a word for that.
> [Haberman, NY Times] Pecker, before a tense and focused courtroom, is recounting Trump calling him three days before election day, after the Journal article was published. He was “very upset, saying how could this happen, I thought you had this under control, either you or one of your people have leaked the story,” Pecker says. The call ended with no goodbye from Trump. --- > [Haberman, NY Times] Pecker has at least three times described Michael Cohen as warning him that “the boss” — meaning Trump — would be “angry” if Pecker didn’t do whatever was being asked of him in that moment. Prosecutors, who have focused on Trump’s tendency to intimidate people in asking for a gag order, know what they’re drawing out here.
“What happened in the courtroom on Thursday was ‘breathtaking,’ former President Donald Trump said after court wrapped for the day. He also described former tabloid boss David Pecker's testimony as ‘amazing.’ ‘Open your eyes, we can't let this continue to happen to our country,’ he added, reiterating his complaint that this trial should have ‘never happened.’” It seems that when you take naps in court, you may not be 100% aware that things aren’t looking great for you.
Lmao Trump said Pecker’s testimony was “amazing?” He… does realize that Pecker is the *state’s* witness, right? And that Pecker’s testimony is demonstrating that Trump personally directed all of Cohen’s actions?
I'm wondering if something happened with the contempt of court stuff behind the scenes. He hasn't been talking to the press today and has been just giving them a thumbs up. Perhaps they (temporarily) got through to him and he knows he can't use 90% of his already limited vocabulary to talk about Pecker, so all he has left is "amazing".
It's sound bites for the people not watching the trials, his voters. They know they don't pay attention except for the right wing framing. A lot of the whole thing is about creating opportunities and media to present things a certain way.
Whenever I see Peckers name I'm reminded of Matthew McConaughey's character in Tropic Thunder, [and what I consider one the best scenes in comedy ever.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw-GrGfd-RU)
>Pecker has just given us a very detailed description of Jared Kushner walking him into Trump Tower, and then into Trump’s office, shortly before Trump's inauguration as president. In the office were four noteworthy people: James Comey, Sean Spicer, Reince Priebus and Mike Pompeo. Three were Republicans who would go on to work in the Trump administration, while the fourth, Comey, would eventually become one of Trump’s chief adversaries. Into that tableau walks Pecker, to be asked about Karen McDougal by the president-elect. >Pecker says that in front of Comey, the head of the F.B.I., Trump thanked him for purchasing the stories — and likely committing at least one crime in the process, as Pecker well knew. It's of course not clear what Comey heard. But this is a wild, wild scene we are hearing about. Comey was present for this? Seems like there needs to be a little more investigating... and indicting.
This MF'er Comey continues to piss me off, even in 2024?!?
Hashtag never forget what that snake Comey did, with his imaginary, unprecedented nonsense claims a few days before the election just to really dig the knife in to Clinton. And the. He tried to do some nonsense rehabilitation being all “oh Donald was baaaad”.
It seems Comey omitted that part from his book...
Lordy, I hope there are tapes.
The stock market is crashing? What a lying piece of shit.
> He again addresses the Supreme Court, which is hearing oral arguments today on whether he’s immune from prosecution > “I would have loved to have been there,” Trump said Trump's lawyers: "Oh shit that was *today*?!?!"
typically its a lawyer only event with a supreme court
Trump: I’m a lawyer, a lot of people don’t know that, I’m actually a very good lawyer, maybe the best
This trials so far, sounds like a ace attorney trial. Having a big publisher, that send out fakes news articles about Trump's political opponents and helping paid off porn starts, then get Michael Cohen who is low level mafia guy, that testify against the boss himself. Trump himself even sounds like a character with ace attorney. Reality TV star, somehow becoming president Also we may Trump lawyers call in porn star to testify later.
Prosecutors are done with Pecker. Now the defense is up to question him.
Why am I expecting a shit show
Because he only hires the best lawyers
Governor Huckabee Sanders might be getting some blowback from this testimony today. Couldn’t happen to a nicer gal.
Other than Katie Phang (who is at the Supreme Court today), who is the best twitter feed to follow for updates?
>Prosecutors objected to that line of questioning, and Justice Merchan appears to agree with them: Joshua Steinglass, a prosecutor, says that Hicks was simply not mentioned in the 2018 meeting with federal prosecutors and thus there was no inconsistency in Pecker’s story, as Bove was suggesting. “It’s misleading and we’re going to correct this tomorrow,”Justice Merchan says, adopting a scolding tone with Bove for the first time. Every time Trump's legal team is scolded, an angel gets its wings.
> Trump was asked by reporters what he thought of the testimony and when he last spoke to Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, and Trump responded by saying “David’s been very nice, a nice guy.” Pecker better stay clear of windows ......
Translation: "Pecker has a TON more dirt on me."
He’s speaking live? Y’all making me leave my ‘Mama’s Family’ for this…
"Mr. Pecker, would you agree Trump is the smartest, most handsomest and healthiest man to ever be President?"
Trump's legal team, (at least by the transcripts I've been reading over at https://www.threads.net/@innercitypressinsta/post/C6MCEVmukYB) Seems to have gotten their first objection actually sustained by the Judge today. The Prosecution was attempting to lead David Pecker into asserting the Donald Trump was personally aware of the payment structures. Prosecution But Essentially we've learned the AMI, after running story after story to help Trump win his Primary Race, was not reimbursed for their help catching and killing the Karen McDougal story. AMI Didn't want a paper trail that linked them directly to Cohen or Trump as that would have been too clear to his competitors what he was doing. This is funny tho and just happened: "Justice Merchan: I think there are details that could be redacted. Prosecutor: We'll send around some proposed redactions to [defense] counsel Trump's lawyer Bove: This is a text message between Dylan Howard and Prosecutor: WOAH! Bove: Sorry, I didn't mean that"
Even Sarah Huckabee was involved in this. They should drag her hairy ass there and make her testify under oath
Still the hardest roast from Michelle Wolf up until today: > “I’m never really sure what to call Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Is it Sarah Sanders, is it Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is it Cousin Huckabee, is it Aunt Huckabee Sanders? What’s Uncle Tom but for white women who disappoint other white women? Ah I Know, Aunt Coulter”
And the classic: “I actually really like Sarah. I think she’s very resourceful. But she burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smokey eye. Like maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s lies. It’s probably lies.”
why did you make me picture her hairy ass?
She's busy making elementary school children do hard labor.
Why is Pecker being so forthcoming as a prosecution witness? Even if he doesn't care about his good buddy Trump, he is saying things that incriminate himself and his tabloid.
He got a non prosecution agreement for his role in a pretty massive election fraud conspiracy. Not disclosing anything in his testimony could get that agreement scrapped. He's probably trying to get out ahead of absolutely anything prosecutors could uncover to save his own ass.
He’s been granted immunity for his testimony. So either take the stand, spill it all and walk free or refuse and have someone else implicate you and face the music. The only way to save his own skin is testify truthfully and in full.
The National Enquirer's publishing company, AMI, has a non-prosecution agreement that hinges on their full compliance, so his testimony can't be used against him or his tabloid. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/tabloid-publisher-involved-trump-hush-money-payment-reaches/story?id=59779050
They’re letting a little fish go to catch a bigger one.
He was given immunity to testify and I don't think they are friends anymore.
> Why is Pecker being so forthcoming as a prosecution witness? [In 2018, Pecker was granted immunity in exchange for providing federal prosecutors with information about the payments. ](https://www.npr.org/2024/04/23/1246435476/david-pecker-trump-trial)
I think everything he's admitting to came out in the Cohen trial, but Trump was only an "unindicted co-conspirator" in that one.
most likely he has an immunity deal
He has an immunity agreement in exchange for his testimony.
Immunity. As part of the immunity deal he has to be truthful and answer questions completely. If he lies he loses immunity and jail time comith.
He's under oath and the evidence to catch him lying is strong. Imo he and his tabloid don't lose much from this testimony. Everyone knows he and his rag are scummy. That's the appeal.
This is rich. Donnie’s having a rally at MSG to honor the police? Would that include the Capitol police who were brutally beaten on 1/6 as a direct result of his election lies?
or the police he´s been complaining about guarding the trial he´s on.
Pecker is up once again on the witness stand.
We can see that, but what’s the guy’s name?
I really wonder how much money Trump has paid hush money total. Must be in the millions!
Apparently this whole "Red Curve" shadow/dark money organization was another avenue for him to pay hush money. It's run by Trump's 2024 campaign manager, and they were offering Cassidy Hutchinson a "job" (hush money) if she 'altered' or 'abbreviated' her J6 testimony.
https://cdn.getarena.im/cm/662aa79c54f955db56f26152.png?w=800&q=85 This courtroom sketch cracks me up, how they even sketched out the photos of Trump and (presumably) McDougal behind Pecker.
So the best Trump's lawyer has is, "Ah ha! Trump was out of town that day!"
[удалено]
I'd love to see all the talking points arise from the confirmations of his affairs. I love this for him
"This is the person for the modern Christian. Not like that Biden, who actually goes to church every week..."
Imagine buying stories about celebs to ‘kill’ them, and then somewhere down the line they get announced in a court case the world is watching. Tiger woods Arnie Mark Whalburg Ron Pearlman All fuming right now.
FYI I think it's Ron Perelman from Revlon, not the actor
So still nothing on the contempt of court?
there's going to be another hearing on it next Wednesday afternoon.
Trump doing the Organ-Grinder-Monkey move....
Jackie Gleason: *and away we go!*
I totally forgot the McDougal story, Pecker really has the Jurys attention with that one.
I think McDougal is going to end up causing more trouble for him than Stormy. Stormy was a one off who stayed around with the promise of a role on the apprentice, Karen (allegedly) had a full blown affair with him and said they were in love and it lasted almost a year. I think she will be a bigger player in the case than we thought, and I can't wait to see what she says. Even though she knew she would be shamed for sleeping with a married man, with a new baby she was very honest in her interview and took the heat. Remember, paying her and Stormy off to stay quiet is not illegal ! It's the HOW and WHY and WHEN and for what reason, where did the monet come from, was it to influence the election? Etc If I were Melania I'd be fuckin furious right now, but she fully knew what she was getting into.
Almost sounding like the Pecker "nice guy" was code to Pecker on the direction his story should go during the defense ....... Trump and Pecker are STILL in cahoots.
Ooh they used Signal for some of their calls. Totally normal
Not Pecker. That old bastard had no clue what the hell these youngins were talking about. What do you mean a message is destroyed? Nonsense.
You’re damn right it’s about election interference
Arnie must be hating this part from Pecker.
> [Bromwich, NY Times] It’s really interesting to hear Schwarzenegger and Trump linked through Pecker: the two Republican politicians share a lot, including their place in the celebrity hierarchy and their successful campaigns. This also speaks to the media environment in which Trump thrived, one in which name-brand recognition and Hollywood charisma had become more and more important, no matter the industry.
Schwarzenegger also hosted _Celebrity Apprentice_ for one season during the 2016 election.
Ahh, accordion hands is always my favorite
Apparently Melania *believed* Donald's story that he never bedded Stormy or McDougal.
Is Mercedes there today?
Sources say she was planning to be there but all the crime and security outside the courthouse prevented her from coming in /s
Is there anyway to listen in live, or is this information all just coming from the transcripts?
Nothing live. Just reporters in the room.