1. Hello,


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    StanleyOG.

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  2. Hello,


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  1. shootersa

    shootersa Frisky Feline

    Joined:
    Dec 28, 2010
    Messages:
    86,487
    Yeah?
    Don't see any triggered deplorables, do you?

    But keep on triggering.
    Its funny.
     
    • Agree Agree x 1
    • wtf wtf x 1
    1. 4skin
      What does it have to do with anything? You're just trying to change the subject again instead of accepting the fact that your leader is a compulsive liar
       
      4skin, May 4, 2024
      stumbler likes this.
    2. shootersa
      A liar?
      Careful up there on your high moral ground, your man claimed his uncle was eaten by cannibals.

      They're politicians!
       
      shootersa, May 4, 2024
      sirius1902 likes this.
    3. 4skin
      Biden only does this to piss off the repukes! ... see, they're all the same!
       
      4skin, May 5, 2024
    4. shootersa
      Oh, so then what is trump doing?
      He's triggered you nicely ......:D
       
      shootersa, May 5, 2024
      sirius1902 likes this.
  2. sirius1902

    sirius1902 Porn Star

    Joined:
    Nov 30, 2020
    Messages:
    4,307
    LIVE
    Hush money trial day 11 highlights: Former Trump adviser Hope Hicks testifies

    AP is live from a courthouse in New York where Donald Trump’s hush money trial resumes with a key witness returning to the stand.

    BY MICHAEL R. SISAK AND JAKE OFFENHARTZ
    Updated 4:25 PM EDT, May 3, 2024
    Share
    Today’s live coverage has ended. Donald Trump’s hush money trial will resume Monday at 9:30 a.m. ET. In the meantime, see what you missed below and follow the latest at apnews.com.

    The second week of testimony Donald Trump’s hush money case will wrap up Friday. The prosecution is setting the stage for pivotal testimony from Michael Cohen, the former Trump attorney who paid porn actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 for her silence.

    Here’s what to know:

    What this case is about: Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of a scheme to bury stories that he feared could hurt his 2016 campaign.
    Trump’s investigations: The hush money case is just one of the criminal cases facing the former president.
    The other witnesses: Jurors so far have heard from Trump’s former longtime executive assistant, Rhona Graff, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, and Gary Farro, a banker who helped Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen open accounts.
    3:54 PM EDT
    Trump scored a victory just before court ended for the week
    BY MICHAEL SISAK
    Share
    Before leaving for the week, Judge Merchan denied a request by prosecutors that they be allowed to ask Trump, should he choose to testify, about being held in contempt of court for gag order violations in the criminal trial.

    Merchan said allowing questioning on a matter involving the very same trial would be “so prejudicial it would be very, very difficult for the jury to look past that.”

    3:52 PM EDT
    Trump leaves court
    BY MICHELLE L. PRICE
    Share
    On his way out, the former president spoke briefly to reporters, again decrying the prosecutors in this case and the other criminal and civil cases he’s faced.

    He was asked about Hicks’ testimony but said he couldn’t comment because of the gag order but did say the prosecutors generally “destroyed people’s lives” and “I was very interested in what took place today.”

    Former President Donald Trump returns to the courtroom following a break in his trial Manhattan criminal court in New York, on Friday, May 3, 2024. (Charly Triballeau/Pool Photo via AP)
    Former President Donald Trump returns to the courtroom following a break in his trial Manhattan criminal court in New York, on Friday, May 3, 2024. (Charly Triballeau/Pool Photo via AP)

    Read More
    3:45 PM EDT
    Hicks wraps testimony and court ends for the day
    BY MICHAEL SISAK
    Share
    Hicks left the witness stand after Trump lawyer Emil Bove spent just about 20 minutes questioning her. Bove treated the former White House communications director gingerly, calmly inquiring after she became emotional at the start of his cross-examination.

    Bove used his brief questioning to underscore the defense’s contention that Cohen was acting as a lone wolf, without the blessing of Trump or his campaign, when he paid $130,000 to buy Stormy Daniels’ silence about her claims of a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006.

    Bove elicited testimony from Hicks that Cohen sometimes went rogue in his service to Trump, that he wasn’t officially part of his campaign — though he sometimes tried to insert himself into campaign matters — and that he was known as a “fixer” only because he was “fixing things” he’d already broken.

    Hicks noted that Cohen wasn’t in any of the Trump Tower meetings with Trump and campaign staff following the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape and, in fact, may have been out of the country at the time.

    3:41 PM EDT
    Defense says it is appealing judge’s ruling on gag order violations
    BY MICHAEL SISAK
    Share
    Trump lawyer Todd Blanche indicated in comments in court that the former president is appealing the judge’s finding this week that he violated his gag order.

    Blanche noted that they took particular issue with penalties for what are known as reposts — instances where Trump shared someone else’s post with his followers.

    “We’re appealing but we accept the order of the court,” Blanche said.

    3:32 PM EDT
    Hicks describes Trump’s emotions in wake of ‘Access Hollywood’ leak
    BY JAKE OFFENHARTZ
    Share
    Trump lawyer Bove returned to the day of the “Access Hollywood” tape release, asking Hicks to characterize how Trump was feeling at that moment. She obliged, giving one of her longer answers of the day.

    “President Trump really values Mrs. Trump’s opinion and she doesn’t weigh in all the time but when she does it’s really meaningful to him,” she said. “He really, really respects what she has to say. I think he was really concerned about what the perception of this would be and yeah I know that was weighing on him.”

    “I don’t think he wanted anyone in his family to be hurt or embarrassed by anything happening in the campaign,” she continued.

    As she spoke, Trump appeared to nod slightly, his gaze fixed on the witness box.

    3:27 PM EDT
    Before cross-examination, Hicks recalled what Trump told her about Cohen paying Stormy Daniels
    BY JAKE OFFENHARTZ, MICHAEL SISAK
    Share
    Before Trump’s lawyers began their cross-examination, prosecutors concluded their questioning by asking Hicks to describe what Trump told her about a conversation he had with Michael Cohen in February 2018. That was right after Cohen told The New York Times that he — Cohen — had paid the $130,000 to Daniels out of his own pocket.

    Hicks said Trump told her Cohen said he “felt like it was his job to protect him and that’s what he was doing and he did it out of the kindness of his own heart and he never told anybody about it.”

    Under questioning by prosecutor Matthew Colangelo, Hicks conceded that such an act would be “out of character” for Cohen. “I didn’t know Michael to be an especially charitable person or selfless person,” she said.

    But, even as Trump claimed he never knew about the payments, Hicks said her old boss had eventually come to believe the decision to bury the story before the election was prudent.

    “Mr. Trump’s opinion was that it was better to be dealing with it now and it would’ve been bad to have that story come out before the election,” she said.

    3:11 PM EDT
    Hicks is back on the witness stand
    BY MICHAEL SISAK
    Share
    A recess was called after she started crying on the witness stand.

    3:06 PM EDT
    ‘Your honor, can we take a break?’ Trump lawyer Bove asked
    BY MICHAEL SISAK
    Share
    Merchan then asked Hicks if she needed time. Hicks had turned away from the microphone and appeared to be breaking down in tears.

    “Yes,” she said gently.

    Merchan then sent the jury out of the room. Hicks left a moment later, still emotional as she slipped out a side door.

    3:03 PM EDT
    Cross-examination began, then recess called after Hicks started crying
    BY MICHAEL SISAK
    Share
    Judge Merchan called a sudden recess as Hicks started crying on the witness stand when Trump lawyer Emil Bove started to ask her a question reflecting on her time at the Trump Organization.

    3:01 PM EDT
    Hicks says Trump was ‘concerned’ about wife Melania viewing article on McDougal’s hush money deal
    BY MICHAEL SISAK
    Share
    Hicks said she spoke with Trump on Nov. 5, 2016, the day after the Journal article was published.

    She testified that he “was concerned about the story. He was concerned about how it would be viewed by his wife, and he wanted me to make sure the newspapers weren’t delivered to their residence that morning.”

    Asked if Trump was also worried about the story’s effect on the campaign, Hicks testified that everything they spoke about during that time was viewed through the lens of the campaign, with Trump often asking her, “How is it playing?” as a way of gauging how his appearances, speeches and policies were landing with voters.

    Hicks testified that she was almost certain Trump used the phrase to express concern about how the Journal story would affect his election chances and the final days of his campaign.

    2:55 PM EDT
    Jurors see texts between Hicks and Cohen after the Enquirer’ McDougal deal was revealed
    BY JAKE OFFENHARTZ

    Hicks was asked about text messages she exchanged with Cohen immediately after the publication of The Wall Street Journal’s story about the National Enquirer’s parent company buying the rights to McDougal’s story.

    One message, displayed for jurors, showed Hicks requesting Cohen share a phone number for David Pecker, the president of parent company AMI.
    “Mr. Trump wanted to speak with him,” she testified.

    In another message, Cohen informs Hicks he has a “statement by Storm denying everything and contradicting the other porn stars.” Hicks testified she didn’t know what Cohen was referring to “and I didn’t want to know.”

    Both Cohen and Hicks were initially pleased by what Hicks described as a “muted” reaction to the Journal story.

    “It wasn’t being picked up in the same way that something like the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape was,” she said. “It wasn’t wall to wall coverage.”

    2:50 PM EDT
    Hicks says Trump told her to deny claims by Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels to WSJ
    BY MICHAEL SISAK
    Share
    Hicks resumed testifying after a lunch break, with a prosecutor focusing his questions on the Trump campaign’s response to a Wall Street Journal story published days before Election Day in 2016 that exposed the National Enquirer’s $150,000 catch-and-kill deal with McDougal.

    Hicks testified that Trump requested that she convey to the Journal reporter who’d contacted her for comment that he denies McDougal’s claims of an affair and porn actor Daniels’ claims of a sexual encounter with him, which were also mentioned in the article.

    “The denial was from Mr. Trump for both women,” Hicks testified.

    As is standard practice, the Journal contacted Hicks prior to the publication of the article and included Hicks’ statement in the story.

    She read a portion of her denial, as printed in the Journal, on the witness stand: “Hope Hicks, a Trump campaign spokeswoman, said of the agreement with Ms. McDougal: ‘We have no knowledge of any of this.’”

    Hicks recalled that Trump and Cohen spoke by phone after the story was published, but that nothing stood out from the call.

    2:19 PM EDT
    Hope Hicks has returned to the witness stand
    BY MICHAEL SISAK

    And the jury has entered the courtroom for the resumption of testimony following the lunch break.

    2:17 PM EDT
    Trump back in the courtroom after lunch break
    BY MICHAEL SISAK
    Share
    Trump smiled broadly as he walked back into the courtroom and surveyed the gallery.

    Former President Donald Trump walks into the courtroom following a lunch break during the proceedings in his trial at Manhattan criminal court in New York, on Friday, May 3, 2024. (Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
    Former President Donald Trump walks into the courtroom following a lunch break during the proceedings in his trial at Manhattan criminal court in New York, on Friday, May 3, 2024. (Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

    1:42 PM EDT
    Hicks says Enquirer publisher told her McDougal deal was for magazine covers
    BY MICHAEL SISAK

    Before the lunch break, Hicks testified that after striking out with Kushner in her bid to have Rupert Murdoch delay the Wall Street Journal story about AMI buying the rights to McDougal’s story, she called Cohen and then, at his suggestion, Pecker.

    Hicks testified that she didn’t really remember what Cohen said to her, but “there was a reason I called David next.”

    “I think Michael sort of feigned like he didn’t know what I was talking about and that we should connect with David to get more information,” Hicks testified.

    Asked about her conversation with Pecker, Hicks said she “asked what was going on, why was I receiving this email?” -- referring to the request for comment she’d received from the Journal reporter.

    “He explained that Karen McDougal was paid for magazine covers and fitness columns and that it was all very legitimate and that’s what the contract was for,” Hicks testified.

    1:04 PM EDT
    Trial breaks for lunch
    BY MICHAEL SISAK, MICHELLE L. PRICE
    Share
    Hicks will return to the stand around 2:15 p.m. ET.

    Trump ignored shouted questions from reporters as he left the courtroom for lunch but flashed a thumbs-up.

    1:02 PM EDT
    Hicks asked Jared Kushner to try to delay publication of story about former Playboy model
    BY JAKE OFFENHARTZ
    Share
    On Nov. 4, 2016, four days before the election, Hicks said she received a request for comment from a Wall Street Journal reporter for a forthcoming story about American Media Inc. buying the rights to Karen McDougal’s story that she had an affair with Trump years earlier.

    Immediately, Hicks said she reached out to Kushner – in hopes he could use his connections to Rupert Murdoch, the owner of the Journal’s parent company, News Corp., to help delay the story, Hicks testified.

    FILE - In this Aug. 29, 2018, file photo, White House Adviser Jared Kushner waves as he arrives at the Office of the United States Trade Representative in Washington.
    FILE - In this Aug. 29, 2018, file photo, White House Adviser Jared Kushner waves as he arrives at the Office of the United States Trade Representative in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
    FILE - Rupert Murdoch introduces Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during the Herman Kahn Award Gala, in New York, Oct. 30, 2018. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
    FILE - Rupert Murdoch introduces Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during the Herman Kahn Award Gala, in New York, Oct. 30, 2018. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
    “He had a very good relationship with Rupert Murdoch and I was hoping to see if we could buy a little extra time to deal with this,” she said of Kushner.

    Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, told her that he likely wouldn’t be able to reach Murdoch in time, Hicks testified.

    12:58 PM EDT
    Hicks describes hearing Daniels’ name come up in discussion about celebrity golf tournament
    BY MICHAEL SISAK

    She testified that she first heard Stormy Daniels’ name uttered on Trump’s plane about a year before Cohen struck a deal with the porn actor to silence her claims of a sexual encounter with Trump years earlier.

    In November 2015, Hicks said, she heard Trump and some of his security detail “telling a story about a celebrity golf tournament and some of the participants in the tournament and her name came up.”

    The way the story went, Daniels “was there with one of the other participants that Mr. Trump played with that day,” Hicks testified.

    In the final weeks of Trump’s 2016 campaign, Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about what she says was an awkward and unexpected sexual encounter with Trump at a celebrity golf outing in Lake Tahoe in July 2006. Trump denies having sex with Daniels.

    12:44 PM EDT
    Hicks asked Cohen to help dig into rumor of another tape
    BY MICHAEL SISAK

    In the aftermath of the “Access Hollywood” tape’s release, Hicks said she asked Cohen, then a lawyer for Trump, to chase down a rumor of another potentially damaging tape.

    Hicks said she wanted to be proactive in seeking out the supposed tape because “I did not want anyone to be blindsided.”

    She asked Cohen to call a friend of his in the media — whom she did not identify — and ask about the existence of the tape and, if there was a tape, when the campaign could expect it to be published.

    “There was no such tape regardless, but he sort of chased that down for me,” Hicks said.

    12:41 PM EDT
    How Republicans reacted to the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape at the time
    BY JAKE OFFENHARTZ

    Prosecutors read through a series of statements put out by prominent Republicans – including then-Sen. John McCain and Sen. Mitt Romney – in response to the “Access Hollywood” tape, asking Hicks whether she recalled the various condemnations. She appeared increasingly irritated by the line of questioning as it went on.

    Asked about remarks from then-Speaker of the House Paul Ryan calling the tape “sickening,” Hicks replied tersely: “I don’t remember that but it sounds like something he would say.”

    House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., pauses as he gives a farewell speech in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2018. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
    House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., pauses as he gives a farewell speech in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2018. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

    12:38 PM EDT
    Hicks talks about storms caused, and obscured, by the ‘Access Hollywood’ revelations
    BY MICHAEL SISAK

    Hicks testified that the political firestorm that ensued after the release of the tape was so strong, it knocked an actual storm out of the headlines.

    “It was intense. It dominated coverage, I would say, for the 36 hours leading up to the debate,” Hicks testified, referring to an important debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton that Trump had been preparing for when the news broke.

    Hicks said that at the time she received an email from a Washington Post reporter around 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 7, 2016, informing her of the looming publication of a story revealing the tape, the news was dominated by a Category 4 hurricane that was charging toward the East Coast.

    “I don’t think anybody remembers” where that hurricane hit, Hicks said.

    Hurricane Matthew, which had hit Haiti and Cuba as a Category 4 storm earlier in the week, made landfall in the U.S. in South Carolina as a Category 1 hurricane on Oct. 8, the day after the tape was made public.

    12:33 PM EDT
    Hicks describes Trump’s initial opinion on the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape leak
    BY JAKE OFFENHARTZ

    Hicks said that he felt “this wasn’t good, but it was also like two guys talking privately, locker room talk.”

    “It wasn’t anything to get so upset over,” she said of Trump’s feelings. “Certainly he didn’t want to upset anybody. He felt like this was pretty standard stuff for two guys chatting with each other.”

    12:32 PM EDT
    ‘This was a damaging development,’ Hicks testified
    BY MICHAEL SISAK
    Share
    Hicks said after receiving The Washington Post’s request for comment, she next went to a conference room on a different floor of Trump Tower where Trump and a group of his aides and advisers were doing debate preparations.

    She said she called over Jason Miller and others close to Trump and, as they huddled, it was clear to Trump “something was afoot.” She said she read some of the email and attached transcript to Trump.

    “He said that didn’t sound like something he would say,” Hicks testified. She said Trump was upset.

    “Fair to say he was as mad as you had ever seen him?” Colangelo asked. A Trump lawyer then objected and Judge Merchan prevented Hicks from answering.

    Asked her first reaction to the tape, Hicks said she was “a little stunned,” adding that “it was definitely concerning.”

    “I had a good sense to believe this was going to be a massive story and that it was going to dominate the news cycle for the next several days,” Hicks testified. “This was a damaging development.”

    Asked why she was so concerned, she testified: “It just didn’t feel like the kind of story — obviously it wasn’t helpful — but there were just a lot of layers to it that complicated where we wanted to go with the campaign. This was just pulling us backwards in a way that was going to be hard to overcome.”

    12:27 PM EDT
    Jurors see ‘Access Hollywood’ transcript; Hicks describes her response
    BY JAKE OFFENHARTZ

    “I was concerned, very concerned,” Hicks said, speaking slowly. “Yeah. I was concerned about the contents of the email. I was concerned about the lack of time to respond. I was concerned that we had a transcript but not the tape. There was a lot at play.”

    Hicks said she then forwarded the request to other campaign leadership, including Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway, with the recommendation to “deny, deny, deny.”

    The transcript of the conversation, which was attached in an email from a Washington Post reporter, was not read aloud in court, but was shown on monitors visible to jurors. Hicks was asked to read portions of the transcript to herself before responding.

    Trump sat stone-faced as the transcript appeared on screen, whispering at points to his lawyers.

    Prosecutors contend that the tape, which emerged just days before a debate, jolted Trump’s campaign and hastened his then-lawyer Michael Cohen’s hush money deal with porn actor Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about claims she had a sexual encounter with Trump years earlier.

    12:15 PM EDT
    Hicks recalls Trump’s interactions with the National Enquirer publisher David Pecker
    BY MICHAEL SISAK

    Hicks testified that she doesn’t remember if she was involved in the August 2015 Trump Tower meeting where Pecker said he told Trump and Cohen he’d be the “eyes and ears” of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign by helping identify negative stories so they could be suppressed.

    “I don’t have a recollection of that, but it’s certainly possible,” Hicks said.

    Pecker testified last week that Hicks was present for some of the meeting, and Hicks said Friday that she’d frequently pop in and out of Trump’s office while he was meeting with other people.

    Hicks recalled some of Trump’s other interactions with Pecker, including phone calls in which then then-candidate praised the publisher for articles critical of his political rivals.

    She testified that she had a “vivid recollection” of hearing Trump on the phone with Pecker congratulating him on a National Enquirer article about medical malpractice allegations against Dr. Ben Carson. Another time, Trump called Pecker to compliment a negative article about U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.

    “Mr. Trump was just congratulating him on the great reporting,” Hicks testified. Sometimes he would say things like “this is Pulitzer worthy,” Hicks added.

    12:06 PM EDT
    Trump ‘was responsible’ for his campaign’s media strategy, Hicks testifies
    BY JAKE OFFENHARTZ

    In response to a question by prosecutors about the extent of Trump’s involvement in the campaign’s media strategy, Hicks didn’t mince words.

    “I would say that Mr. Trump was responsible,” she says. “He knew what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it, and we were all just following his lead.”

    12:03 PM EDT
    Before Hicks took stand, jury was given Trump responses to ‘Access Hollywood’ tape
    BY MICHAEL SISAK

    Before Hicks took the stand, the court saw and heard some of Trump’s response to the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape in October 2016.

    They included a video he posted to Twitter in which he apologized and called the video a “distraction from important issues we face today,” and a tweet in which he called his comments in the 2005 video “locker room remarks.”

    Jurors also heard about a March 2023 Truth Social post in which Trump said he “did nothing wrong” and included a derogatory nickname for Stormy Daniels. In the post, he referred to Cohen, his ex-lawyer, as a “convicted liar and felon jailbird” and stated: “Never had an affair with her. Just another false acquisition by a sleazebag.”

    In another social media post, he maintained “Nothing ever happened with these women” and “No one has more respect for women than me.”

    11:53 AM EDT
    How Hicks followed Trump from real estate to politics
    BY JAKE OFFENHARTZ

    Hicks described the sudden transition from working for the Trump Organization to working for a presidential campaign.

    “Mr. Trump one day said we’re going to Iowa and I didn’t really know why,” Hicks recalled.

    When Trump later said she would be his press secretary, Hicks said her first thought was that he “might be joking.”

    “I had no experience and worked at the company, not the campaign, so I didn’t take it very seriously,” she said. “Eventually I started spending so much time on the campaign that I became a member of the campaign and I was the press secretary.”

    Counselor to the President Hope Hicks waves to the crowd after President Donald Trump asked her to come to the stage during a campaign rally at the Ocala International Airport, Friday, Oct. 16, 2020, in Ocala, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
    Counselor to the President Hope Hicks waves to the crowd after President Donald Trump asked her to come to the stage during a campaign rally at the Ocala International Airport, Friday, Oct. 16, 2020, in Ocala, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

    11:51 AM EDT
    Hicks talks about the Trump Organization
    BY MICHAEL SISAK

    Colangelo used the start of Hicks’ testimony to give jurors a window into Trump’s real estate company, the Trump Organization, including its personnel and even the physical layout of its offices.

    Hicks worked there before joining Trump’s campaign and administration.

    Colangelo quizzed Hicks on other Trump Organization figures, including Trump’s longtime bodyguard Keith Schiller, his former executive assistant Rhona Graff, ex-chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg and ex-lawyer turned key trial figure Michael Cohen. He also asked her to describe what she meant by the “26th floor,” the section of Trump Tower where Trump and other executives had their offices.

    11:47 AM EDT
    Hicks speaks highly of Trump
    BY JAKE OFFENHARTZ, MICHAEL SISAK

    The former adviser is speaking about Trump in glowing terms, complimenting him multiple times in the first few minutes of her testimony.

    She described him as a “very good multi-tasker, a very hard worker.” Asked who she reported to while working as communications director for the Trump Organization, Hicks said, “Everybody that works there in some sense reports to Mr. Trump. It’s a big successful company but it’s really run like a small family business in some ways.”

    Hicks, who currently has her own communications consulting firm, is testifying under a subpoena and, unlike other former Trump employees, is paying her lawyers herself.

    11:44 AM EDT
    Hicks says she’s ‘really nervous’
    BY MICHAEL SISAK

    “Is this close enough? I’m really nervous,” Hicks said as she adjusted the microphone at the witness stand.

    She’s being questioned by prosecutor Matthew Colangelo.

    11:32 AM EDT
    Former Trump adviser Hope Hicks takes the witness stand
    BY MICHAEL SISAK, JAKE OFFENHARTZ
    Share
    Trump tilted his head toward her and watched as she got on the stand, with no visible expression.

    11:21 AM EDT
    Trump pays gag order fine
    BY MICHAEL SISAK
    Share
    Trump has paid his $9,000 fine for violating the gag order in his hush money criminal trial.

    The former president paid the penalty Thursday, ahead of a Friday deadline. Trump’s legal team supplied the court clerk’s office with two cashier’s checks, one in the amount of $2,000 and one for $7,000.

    Judge Merchan ordered Trump to pay the fine after holding him in contempt of court and finding that posts he made online about his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen, porn actor Stormy Daniels and the complexion of the jury had violated the gag order.

    Merchan is weighing a prosecution request to hold Trump in contempt again and fine him $1,000 for each of four more alleged violations last week. Merchan has warned Trump that he could be jailed if he keeps breaching the gag order.

    11:03 AM EDT
    Paralegal explains how she used National Archives to verify Trump’s social media accounts
    BY MICHAEL SISAK
    Share
    A government agency at the heart of Trump’s separate classified documents criminal case got a name drop at his New York hush money trial.

    Before the break, Longstreet testified that she used the National Archives and Records Administration’s archive of the official presidential Twitter account to help verify the authenticity of Trump’s account.

    Longstreet noted that Trump’s official government account, @POTUS45, frequently reposted tweets from Trump’s @realdonaldtrump account.

    There was no visible reaction from Trump to the mention of the National Archives, whose pursuit of records he took from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after his 2020 election loss led to charges alleging that he illegally hoarded classified documents.

    10:57 AM EDT
    Trial takes a morning break
    BY MICHAEL SISAK
    Share
    During the break, Trump conferred for a few minutes with his lawyers about a potential agreement with prosecutors regarding what evidence can be shown to jurors. He then stood with a frown and walked to the rail to speak with his adviser, Boris Epshteyn, who stood in the first row of the gallery.

    10:49 AM EDT
    The next witness is a paralegal from the Manhattan district attorney’s office
    BY PHILIP MARCELO
    Share
    Georgia Longstreet has been assigned to the Trump case for the past year-and-a-half. Her role has been to review publicly available records relevant to the case, including Trump’s social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Truth Social.

    10:47 AM EDT
    Defense raises questions about key recording played in court
    BY JAKE OFFENHARTZ
    Share
    Picking up where he left off on Thursday, Bove plied Daus, the forensic analyst, with a set of deeply technical questions meant to suggest Cohen may have doctored a 2016 recording played in court the previous day.

    As evidence, Bove noted that the audio cuts off suddenly, as well as “gaps” in the chain of custody of the phone that Daus agreed were “not ideal.”

    Prosecutors say the abrupt ending of the recording was the result of Cohen receiving another call. Under questioning from Bove, Daus said there was no record of an incoming call in the phone’s metadata -- but said it would be difficult to say for sure without looking at call log data from Cohen’s phone carrier.

    “In many ways, we’re just going to have to take Michael Cohen’s word for it, aren’t we?” Bove said.

    “Yes,” Daus replied.

    With that, Bove concluded his cross-examination.

    10:18 AM EDT
    Trump’s attorney invokes ‘Weinstein decision’ to keep out evidence
    BY JAKE OFFENHARTZ, MICHAEL SISAK
    Share
    Before testimony resumed, Judge Merchan ruled to prevent prosecutors from showing the jury a photograph of Trump with Billy Bush and soap opera actor Arianne Zucker at the time of the infamous “Access Hollywood” recording.

    Trump lawyer Todd Blanche had asked for the image to be excluded from the trial, pointing to a recent court decision overturning former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction. In that case, the appeals court ordered a retrial because the judge had allowed testimony at trial unrelated to the allegations.

    Merchan said the appeals court decision “doesn’t really factor into this” case, noting the ruling had not laid out any new law, but nevertheless agreed to block prosecutors from introducing the photograph.

    Prosecutors had said the image would help establish the timeline of the revelations about the “Access Hollywood” tape, in which Trump could be heard bragging about grabbing women without permission.

    Merchan has previously ruled the 2005 tape cannot be played in court for jurors, but said prosecutors can still question witnesses about the recording.

    9:57 AM EDT
    Forensic analyst who examined Michael Cohen’s phones is back on the stand
    BY MICHAEL SISAK
    Share
    Trump lawyer Emil Bove has resumed cross-examination questioning of Douglas Daus, a forensic analyst at the Manhattan district attorney’s office who extracted recordings, text messages and other evidence from two of Cohen’s iPhones.

    9:42 AM EDT
    Judge also clarifies that the gag order won’t stop Trump from testifying
    BY MICHAEL SISAK
    Share
    Judge Juan M. Merchan started the trial day also by clarifying that Trump’s gag order doesn’t prohibit him from testifying on his own behalf, apparently responding to comments the former president made after court the day before.

    “The order restricting extrajudicial statements does not prevent you from testifying in any way,” Merchan said, adding that the order does not in any way limit what Trump says on the witness stand.

    Merchan directed his comments to Trump and his lawyers, saying it had come to his attention that there may have been a “misunderstanding” regarding the order.

    9:38 AM EDT
    Trump speaks about gag order, testifying before going into court
    BY MICHELLE L. PRICE
    Share
    Former President Donald Trump arrives at Manhattan criminal court in New York, on Friday, May 3, 2024. (Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
    Former President Donald Trump arrives at Manhattan criminal court in New York, on Friday, May 3, 2024. (Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

    Read More
    Speaking to reporters before heading into court, Trump clarified comments he made the day before about the gag order, saying it does not stop him from testifying in the case but that the order stops him from “talking about people and responding when they say things about me.”

    After court Thursday, Trump had responded to questions about what he’d thought of the day’s testimony by saying, “I’m not allowed to testify. I’m under a gag order,” causing some confusion. The gag order bars him from making public statements about witnesses, jurors and some others connected to the case.

    He also commented on the latest job numbers showing that U.S. employers scaled back hiring in April and said they’re “horrible.”

    9:05 AM EDT
    Trump arrives at courthouse
    BY ANGIE WANG
    Share
    The former president’s motorcade has arrived at the courthouse in lower Manhattan.

    Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York, Friday,, May 3, 2024. (Jeenah Moon/Pool Photo via AP)
    Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York, Friday,, May 3, 2024. (Jeenah Moon/Pool Photo via AP)

    Read More
    9:01 AM EDT
    Former Trump adviser Hope Hicks could testify as soon as today
    BY ERIC TUCKER, JAKE OFFENHARTZ
    Share
    That’s according to two people familiar with the matter.

    Hicks served as Trump’s 2016 campaign press secretary and spoke with Trump by phone during a frenzied effort to keep his alleged affairs out of the press in the final weeks before the election. Hicks later held various roles in his White House, including communications director.

    The two people who described her forthcoming appearance to The Associated Press insisted on anonymity to discuss internal trial preparations.

    In this Feb. 27, 2018 photo, White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, arrives to meet behind closed doors with the House Intelligence Committee, at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
    In this Feb. 27, 2018 photo, White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, arrives to meet behind closed doors with the House Intelligence Committee, at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

    Read More
    8:40 AM EDT
    Trump headed to court for another day of his trial
    BY KAREN MATTHEWS
    Share
    The former president’s motorcade has left Trump Tower.

    7:31 AM EDT
    “What have we done?”
    Share
    Jurors also heard more than six hours of crucial testimony this week from Keith Davidson, a lawyer who represented Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels in their negotiations with Cohen and the National Enquirer — the tabloid that bought and buried negative stories in an industry practice known as “catch-and-kill.” Davidson on Thursday described being shocked that his hidden-hand efforts might have contributed to Trump winning the 2016 election.

    “What have we done?” Davidson texted the then-editor of the National Enquirer on election night when it became clear that Trump was going to win. “Oh my god,” the tabloid editor responded.

    7:01 AM EDT
    What this case is about
    Share
    Donald Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of a scheme to bury stories that he feared could hurt his 2016 campaign.

    6:27 AM EDT
    How long will this trial go on for?
    BY MICHAEL R. SISAK
    Share
    Jury selection began April 15. A jury of seven men and five women, plus six alternates was chosen for the case.

    Witness testimony began on April 22. The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks.

    6:01 AM EDT
    A recording and a tabloid
    Share
    A recording played Thursday was secretly made by Michael Cohen shortly before the 2016 election. Cohen is heard telling Trump about a plan to purchase the rights to former Playboy model Karen McDougal’s story from the National Enquirer so that it would never come out. The tabloid had previously bought McDougal’s story to bury it on Trump’s behalf.

    5:26 AM EDT
    Here’s what you missed this week in the trial
    BY MICHAEL R. SISAK, JAKE OFFENHARTZ, PHILIP MARCELO, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
    Share
    Former President Donald Trump exits the courtroom during a break from his trial at Manhattan criminal court in New York, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (Jeenah Moon/Pool Photo via AP)
    Former President Donald Trump exits the courtroom during a break from his trial at Manhattan criminal court in New York, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (Jeenah Moon/Pool Photo via AP)

    Read More
    Prosecutors have spent the week using detailed testimony about meetings, email exchanges, business transactions and bank accounts to build on the foundation of their case accusing the presumptive Republican presidential nominee of a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election. They are setting the stage for pivotal testimony from Cohen, who paid porn actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 for her silence before he went to prison for the hush money scheme.

    5:00 AM EDT
    Week two of the Trump hush money trial comes to a close
    BY MICHAEL R. SISAK, JAKE OFFENHARTZ, PHILIP MARCELO, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
    Share
    Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (Jeenah Moon/Pool Photo via AP)
    Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (Jeenah Moon/Pool Photo via AP)

    Read More
    The prosecution’s star witness has yet to take the stand in Donald Trump’s hush money trial. But jurors are already hearing Michael Cohen’s words as prosecutors work to directly tie Trump to payments to silence women with damaging claims about him before the 2016 election.

    The second week of testimony in the case will wrap up Friday after jurors heard a potentially crucial piece of evidence: a recording of Trump and Cohen, then his attorney, discussing a plan to pay off an ex-Playboy model who claimed to have an affair with Trump. The former president denies the affair.


    The Associated Press is an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting. Founded in 1846, AP today remains the most trusted source of fast, accurate, unbiased news in all formats and the essential provider of the technology and services vital to the news business. More than half the world’s population sees AP journalism every day.
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    1. View previous comments...
    2. sirius1902
      I can tell you didn't read it because its not word salad, its the actual testimony dumb ass!!!! However, I can see how you came to that conclusion in this erroneous and laughable court proceedings!
       
      sirius1902, May 5, 2024
    3. shootersa
      Thank you, Sirius for the post. The only unbiased, un propagandized reports on this forum.
       
      shootersa, May 5, 2024
      sirius1902 likes this.
  3. Distant Lover

    Distant Lover Master of Facts

    Joined:
    Oct 23, 2007
    Messages:
    62,101
    How is president Trump a threat to democracy? Do you mean the Donald is a threat to the Constitutional Federal Republic?

    - Nosebleeds

    ------------

    Trump is a threat to democracy because he lies and encourages the poorly educated angry white men who are his core constituency - as they were Rush Limbaugh's - to believe his lies. He tells them lies they want to believe. His most destructive lie is that he won the 2020 election, and was robbed of it. This lowers confidence in democratic procedure. Democracy only works when people on each side of disputes accept lost elections.

    Trump is a threat to democracy because his only cure to a bad economy is more tax cuts to the rich. This leads to more national debt that he uses to defund or eliminate popular domestic spending programs.

    Trump is a threat to democracy because he wants to make it difficult for anti Trump demographics to vote, and consequently to disfranchise them.

    Trump is a threat to the United States because he is not presidential and he lacks gravitas. The poorly educated people he pretends to love either do not notice, or do not care, but his prominence in American politics lowers international prestige for the United States.

    -----------

    Forbes, Jun 10, 2021

    Other countries have a much more positive perception of the United States now that Joe Biden is in office, according to a Pew Research Center poll released Thursday which shows international opinion has rebounded significantly from the historic lows it hit under Donald Trump.

    KEY FACTS
    In 12 countries surveyed both this year and last, Pew found 75% of respondents expressed confidence in Biden, compared with 17% for Trump in 2020.

    The favorable ratings stem from a more positive perception of Biden’s leadership abilities and his policies, the polling shows.


    A median of 77% described Biden as well-qualified to be president versus 16% who felt this way about Trump.

    Meanwhile, a median of 89% across 16 countries surveyed by Pew approved of the U.S. rejoining the World Health Organization and 85% supported the U.S. rejoining the Paris climate agreement.

    Pew deemed the boost in favorability from 2020 to 2021 one of the U.S.’s “steepest recoveries in years,” noting that ratings of the U.S. in most countries were “at or near” historic lows last summer.

    Some 62% of respondents said they now have a favorable view of the U.S., a number that was at 34% by the end of Trump’s tenure.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemima...-changed-from-trump-to-biden/?sh=3fd21a661dbd
     
    • Disagree Disagree x 1
    Last edited: May 4, 2024
  4. Distant Lover

    Distant Lover Master of Facts

    Joined:
    Oct 23, 2007
    Messages:
    62,101
    Trump's antics are not meant to be comical, but they are.
     
    • Funny Funny x 1
    1. sirius1902
      You trying to bash trump is hysterical!
       
      sirius1902, May 5, 2024
  5. stumbler

    stumbler Porn Star

    Joined:
    Oct 10, 2006
    Messages:
    106,324



    It was actually pretty funny because Judge Merchan caught wind of that and not only told Trump to his face in open court that was not true he then asked both Trump and his lawyers do you understand? And all Trump could do was hang his head and say yes.
     
    • Funny Funny x 1
    1. 4skin
      That is hilarious! No wonder Fox News didn't report any of this!
       
      4skin, May 5, 2024
  6. stumbler

    stumbler Porn Star

    Joined:
    Oct 10, 2006
    Messages:
    106,324
    The prosecution did a masterful job with Hope Hicks for a witness getting her to confirm the elements of their case. And did it in ways to make sure it sunk in on the jury.

    'Damaging for Trump': What Hope Hicks didn't testify about tells us more than what she did

    David McAfee
    May 4, 2024 6:28PM ET



    [​IMG]
    Hope Hicks (CNN screenshot)




    Former Donald Trump aide Hope Hicks spoke under oath at length about how the former president sought to silence women who claimed to have had affairs with him in order to affect the 2016 election, but it's what she didn't say that stood out to one legal expert.

    MSNBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos, who has previously provided analysis of Trump's various criminal cases, appeared on the network on Saturday to discuss Trump's case in which he is charged with felonies for allegedly disguising hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels as legal fees to his former lawyer. Trump could potentially face jail time if he is convicted at trial.

    Specifically, the host asked what "stood out" to him about Hicks' testimony.



    "I would say what stood out to me is what Hope Hicks didn't testify about," Cevallos responded. "I was really curious to see what Hope Hicks was going to say, because unlike people like Michael Cohen or Stormy Daniels, Hope Hicks has been completely silent other than testifying before, say, a grand jury. We didn't know what she was going to say. So it was possible that we would be hit with some Trump bombshell, because this is somebody that was very close to Trump for a long period of time who may have overheard things."

    He added that Hicks' testimony was "damaging for Trump," but noted "there were little tidbits in there for the defense, including painting Michael Cohen, as you said, like a bumbling Mr. Fix-it, which was an ironic name because she said he would break things and then fix them."

    Watch below or click here.




    https://www.rawstory.com/trump-hope-hicks-damaging-for-trump/
     
    • Funny Funny x 1
  7. stumbler

    stumbler Porn Star

    Joined:
    Oct 10, 2006
    Messages:
    106,324
    Its a shame Trump's hush money trial is not televised, But at least they get the transcripts out almost instantly. And when they do there are always really important details that most the reporting missed. And what makes it interesting is the prosecution knows exactly where they are going and what they want a witness to say and a lot of times the reporting misses those very important details. But others will dig them out just like this one.



    Newly revealed detail makes Trump aide's testimony 'even more incriminating' than reported

    David McAfee
    May 4, 2024 7:07PM ET



    [​IMG]
    Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images




    There is a key detail in the official transcript of the testimony of Donald Trump's longtime aide, Hope Hicks, that is even "more incriminating" to the former president's criminal case than has previously been reported, a law professor said on Saturday.

    Hicks testified in the New York criminal case, where her former boss stands accused of committing felonies in connection with covering up hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in order to impact the election in 2016. Legal analysts have suggested the Hicks testimony was "damaging" for the former president.

    New York University law professor Ryan Goodman, who often discusses Trump's legal woes on CNN, said on Saturday that the transcript of the testimony showed more than reports that surfaced from the courtroom.

    ALSO READ: Marjorie Taylor Greene is buying stocks again. Some picks pose a conflict of interest

    "Transcript of Hope Hicks' final Q&A is even more incriminating than some reports," the analyst said. "Trump not only communicates 'it would have been bad to have that story come out before the election.'"

    He then added, "Trump also links it to Cohen hush money: 'had Michael not made that payment.'"

    Goodman also included a screenshot of the printed version of the ex-aide's testimony.

    "Did he say anything about the timing of the news reporting regarding---" the transcript shows Hicks was asked regarding the purported hush money payment.

    "Yes," she replied. "He wanted to know how it was playing, and just my thoughts and opinion about this story versus having the story -- a different kind of story before the campaign had Michael not made the payment."


    There has been a lot of focus on the first part of her comments, but that last line, Goodman points out, confirms that Trump knew about Cohen paying the money.


    Ryan Goodman
    @rgoodlaw

    ·
    Follow
    Transcript of Hope Hicks' final Q&A is even more incriminating than some reports. Trump not only communicates "it would have been bad to have that story come out before the election." Trump also links it to Cohen hush money: "had Michael not made that payment."


    [​IMG]

    2:51 PM · May 4, 2024

    https://www.rawstory.com/trump-hope-hicks-even-more-incriminating/
     
  8. shootersa

    shootersa Frisky Feline

    Joined:
    Dec 28, 2010
    Messages:
    86,487
    What she didn't testify to .......
    So the get trump crowd takes note that Hicks testimony could have been more damaging, but wasn't because she didn't lie or play to the media.

    Good thing juries don't consider what isn't said, eh?
     
    • Agree Agree x 3
  9. mstrman

    mstrman Porn Star

    Joined:
    Sep 2, 2020
    Messages:
    37,707
    Bill Maher fumes over Merrick Garland: ‘Attorney General Barney Fife’ ‘sucks’ at his job
    The liberal comedian slammed the 'Attorney Genial' for slow-walking the Trump criminal cases.

    "Real Time" host Bill Maher clobbered Attorney General Merrick Garland for stalling the criminal cases against former President Trump.

    "At the top levels of our federal government, giving a guy a job because he got screwed over for another job isn't a good reason to give a guy a job, especially if the job is attorney general, and especially if it's during a time when we need a tough AG to catch a real criminal,"

    Maher began his closing monologue on Friday. "Merrick Garland, who is that attorney general I speak of and who SPOILER ALERT: sucks, was you may recall President Obama's pick for the Supreme Court in 2016 after the Clintons murdered Justice Scalia with a pillow. And while our government dysfunction continues to grow, one thing remained sacrosanct. When a Supreme Court justice dies, the president gets to fill the seat… until Mitch McConnell said ‘F--- that. New rule. F--- you.’ Garland never even got a hearing."

    "So when Biden got elected, the Democrats said 'Wouldn't it be funny as payback if we gave Garland the attorney general job?' And that's how we got Attorney General Barney Fife," Maher quipped, referring to the iconic Don Knotts character from "The Andy Griffith Show."

    The HBO host railed against Democrats, who he said "worry so much about appearing nonpartisan, they get behind someone who lets actual crimes go unpunished." He linked Garland to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who ultimately did not charge Trump with any crimes in the Russia collusion investigation.

    "But with Mueller as with Garland now, when we needed a pitbull, we got a purse dog." Maher quipped. "It's so interesting. When it comes time for Republicans to appoint a special prosecutor. They always appoint a Republican and when it comes time for Democrats to appoint one, they also appoint a Republican. A Democrat has served as a special prosecutor in a major investigation since Watergate. Somehow the rule became it has to be a Republican or it's unfair, you know, a Dudley Do-Right type."

    Maher then took aim at former FBI Director James Comey, who was often compared as being a "Boy Scout" but tore him apart for reopening the Clinton probe just days before the 2016 election while keeping Russiagate a "secret."

    "He was a boy scout all right. He gave me a knot in my stomach," Maher joked. "Trump whines he's the victim of selective prosecution. The truth is he's the beneficiary of selective non-prosecution. Take the case that's going on in New York right now. We call it a hush money trial, but really it's an election interference case. And Trump is clearly complicit in breaking the same laws that Michael Cohen pled guilty to, and served prison time for. So tell me how can the fixer who delivers the hush money be guilty of election interference, but the candidate who orders it pays it conceals it and benefits from it not be? Charles Manson didn't personally go on the killing spree but he went to prison for it! El Chapo didn't have the drugs in his a--!"

    "The problem with this case isn't that Trump isn't guilty, it's that it's being tried in the wrong court. If Garland had done his job, Trump would be in federal court charged with breaking campaign finance laws instead of state court charged with falsifying business records," he continued.

    He went on to Trump's classified documents scandal, which he jokingly referred to as "Crapper's Delight" and how Garlard appointed the Trump-appointed Robert Hur to oversee the probe in Biden's classified documents scandal, which Hur ulimately chose not to prosecute in part because of Biden's "poor memory."

    "With Biden, Garland appointed a special prosecutor instantly. With Trump it took 20 months. 20 months! I know liberals love drag but maybe don't do it with the justice system," Maher joked. "And now with the most serious of the Trump trials, the one involving his illegal schemes to remain in office, it's happening again. 59% of Americans, including 26% of Republicans, say they want to verdict on this case before the election. But it's doubtful they'll get one because for nearly two years, our slow jam attorney genial looked at the statue of Lady Justice and thought ‘I want to be like her: incapable of moving.'"

    "Merrick Garland is just so slow he's like if the 405 was a person," Maher said, comparing the AG to the traffic-clogged California highway. "He's the embodiment of the liberal judge and every 70s cop movie, The one who always lets the psychopath out on a technicality and then the psychopath rapes a nursing school and Clint Eastwood has to kill him with a bazooka. At least the optics were good!"
     
    • Like Like x 1
    1. stumbler
      Its just funny as fuck you would post an article about Merrick Garland not being aggressive enough prosecuting Trump. That really cracks me up.
       
      stumbler, May 5, 2024
    2. mstrman
      Well that's good that you cracked up about it because you're the living joke.
       
      mstrman, May 5, 2024
  10. stumbler

    stumbler Porn Star

    Joined:
    Oct 10, 2006
    Messages:
    106,324
    It was obvious Hope Hicks is still loyal to Trump and did not want to hurt him. But on the other hand she didn't want to end up in jail either. So Hicks just told the truth. And of course nothing hurts Trump more than the truth.




    Hope Hicks' bombshell has Trump trial headed for a 'fast and furious' end: legal expert

    Tom Boggioni
    May 5, 2024 1:21PM ET



    [​IMG]
    Donald Trump (MSNBC screenshot)




    During an appearance on MSNBC on Sunday afternoon, attorney Andrew Weissmann stated former Donald Trump White House aide Hope Hicks filled in a big gap in the hush money prosecution case this week.

    Speaking with MSNBC host Jen Psaki, the former FBI general counsel claimed the 34-felony count Manhattan trial should accelerate due to Hicks' testimony.

    As e explained, "If you recall, until she testified, there was a lot of talk about how he [Trump] did not sign the agreement between Stormy Daniels and essentially Michael Cohen. That there were four signature lines but only three were signed: Donald Trump didn't sign."

    ALSO READ: 16 worthless things Trump will give you for your money

    "So there was an issue if Michael Cohen did this on his own and Donald Trump never knew," he elaborated. "She basically made it clear of course he knew and she has a direct statement from him as well as her concern there is no way Michael would not have told him."

    "Finally we are going to see this week the sort of the end result of what she is saying which is that he [Trump] reimbursed that $130,000 and, I just want to make it very clear, he is on record in a civil case saying 'I reimbursed Michael Cohen for those hush money payments,'" he continued. "This remains in the case as something that is on paper."

    "You can really see the end of this coming up fast and furious with the DA just closing it out on the actual reimbursement scheme, which is something that cannot really be denied credibly by Donald Trump's team," he concluded.

    Watch below or at the link.






    https://www.rawstory.com/trump-hope-hicks-2668169240/
     
    • Funny Funny x 1
  11. shootersa

    shootersa Frisky Feline

    Joined:
    Dec 28, 2010
    Messages:
    86,487
    Wait.
    Have they established the actual crime?
    Doesn't sound like it...
     
    • Agree Agree x 2
    • Disagree Disagree x 1
  12. mstrman

    mstrman Porn Star

    Joined:
    Sep 2, 2020
    Messages:
    37,707
    New revelations in Florida documents trial put Trump on offense against 'deranged' special counsel.

    The 45th president is calling for Special Counsel Jack Smith's arrest



    Former President Trump is calling for Special Counsel Jack Smith’s arrest after the prosecutors handling the 45th president’s classified documents case admitted seized documents are no longer in their original order and sequence.


    "Now, Deranged Jack has admitted in a filing in front of Judge Cannon to what I have been saying happened since the Illegal RAID on my home, Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida – That he and his team committed blatant Evidence Tampering by mishandling the very Boxes they used as a pretext to bring this Fake Case," Trump posted to Truth Social on Friday. "These deeply Illegal actions by the Politicized ‘Persecutors’ mandate that this whole Witch Hunt be DROPPED IMMEDIATELY. END THE ‘BOXES HOAXES.’ MAGA2024!"


    "ARREST DERANGED JACK SMITH. HE IS A CRIMINAL!" Trump added in a follow-up post.


    Prosecutors admitted in a court filing on Friday that "there are some boxes where the order of items within that box is not the same as in the associated scans." The prosecutors had previously told the court that the documents were "in their original, intact form as seized."


    "The Government acknowledges that this is inconsistent with what Government counsel previously understood and represented to the Court," a footnote in the filing reads.


    The filing comes after one of Trump’s co-defendants in the case asked for a delay as lawyers were having trouble figuring out the origin of some of the documents in the evidence boxes.


    The FBI agents seized 33 boxes of documents in August 2022 from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, spurring another legal battle that Trump has called a "scam." The investigation is overseen by special prosecutor Smith, whom Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed to the job, and has charged Trump with 40 felony counts, including allegedly violating the Espionage Act, making false statements to investigators and conspiracy to obstruct justice.


    Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and slammed the case as an "Election Inference Scam" promoted by the Biden administration and "Deranged Jack Smith."

    The case is slated to head to trial on May 20, though the date may change, with presiding Judge Aileen Cannon underacting a trove of documents in the lead-up to the trial that have provided notable updates to the case.


    BIDEN ADMINISTRATION INVOLVEMENT

    Judge Cannon recently unredacted more than 300 pages of evidence in the case, including emails and conversations related to the Biden administration’s contact with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) the year prior to the documents’ seizure from Trump’s home, Real Clear Investigations recently reported. Biden has previously publicly said he was not involved in the case, though the filings show other White House officials were involved in the early stages of the investigation.

    The unredacted documents allege that just weeks after Trump left office in 2021, the White House Office of Records Management under the Biden administration began working with NARA "on exaggerated claims related to records handling under the Presidential Records Act," Trump’s attorney wrote in a court filing to compel discovery.


    The Archives’ general counsel, Gary Stern, sent a letter to Trump’s Presidential Records Act representatives in May 2021 asking the whereabouts of "roughly two dozen boxes of original Presidential records [that] have not been transferred to NARA." Stern explained that he "had several conversations" with White House Office of Records Management officials where they discussed "concerns" regarding Trump's possession of the documents, according to Real Clear Investigations.

    Stern’s letter detailed that the team was looking for "original correspondence between President Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jung-un" and "the letter that President Obama left for President Trump on his first day in office," Real Clear reported.

    He added that he understood that transitioning administrations was "very chaotic" and it could take "several more months" to transfer the documents, the Federalist reported. By June of that year, a national archivist appointed by former President Barack Obama, David Ferriero, told the Trump team he was running "out of patience," unredacted filings show. The filing states that Ferriero dismissed "good-faith efforts by President Trump’s PRA representatives to address issues raised by NARA."

    The filing continued that Ferriero allegedly "threatened" a PRA representative for Trump in August 2021, saying he presumed 24 boxes of "alleged – and non-existent" documents were "destroyed," and that he was taking the issue to the DOJ. Ferriero and Stern contacted DOJ officials and Deputy White House Counsel Jonathan Su. Stern met with Su at the White House, according to White House logs reported by Real Clear Investigations.


    "At this point, I am assuming [the boxes] have been destroyed. In which case, I am obligated to report it to the Hill, the DOJ, and the White House," Ferriero wrote in a warning to Trump’s team in August 2021, according to the documents.


    "To my knowledge, nothing has been destroyed," a Trump representative responded.


    The unredacted filing states that in September, Stern emailed Ferriero and a deputy archivist that he had "reached out to DOJ counsel about this issue," and that "WH Counsel is now aware of the issue."


    Another email, sent on Sept. 15, details that Stern reportedly spoke with Su to "get him up to speed on the issue and the dispute whether there are 12 or 24 missing boxes," which was followed by another email that "[White House counsel] is ready to set up a call to discuss the Trump boxes."


    DOJ INSTRUCTS NARA HOW TO PROCEED

    Trump’s team delivered 15 boxes of documents to NARA in January 2022, with the Archives’ White House liaison director reporting back to Ferriero and another archivist that the boxes mostly contained newspaper clippings and magazines, in addition to "lots of classified records," according court filings.


    Unsealed documents show that following the review of the returned boxes, Su urged Stern to contact Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. Monaco’s office subsequently "instructed" how Stern could proceed with the matter, including contacting the inspectors general for the Archives and intelligence community, and DOJ National Security Division Chief Jay Bratt, court filings reported by Real Clear show.


    DOJ INSTRUCTS NARA HOW TO PROCEED

    Trump’s team delivered 15 boxes of documents to NARA in January 2022, with the Archives’ White House liaison director reporting back to Ferriero and another archivist that the boxes mostly contained newspaper clippings and magazines, in addition to "lots of classified records," according court filings.


    Unsealed documents show that following the review of the returned boxes, Su urged Stern to contact Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. Monaco’s office subsequently "instructed" how Stern could proceed with the matter, including contacting the inspectors general for the Archives and intelligence community, and DOJ National Security Division Chief Jay Bratt, court filings reported by Real Clear show.


    "At no time and under no circumstances were NARA officials pressured or influenced by Committee Democrats or anyone else," acting National Archivist Debra Steidel Wall wrote in a letter to congressional Republicans in 2022.


    ALLEGATIONS OF IMPROPER ATTEMPTS TO INFLUENCE WALT NAUTA'S COUNSEL

    Trump was charged alongside his personal aide and valet, Walt Nauta, as well as Mar-a-Lago maintenance chief Carlos De Oliveira. Unredacted court filings show Nauta’s attorney was allegedly threatened he could lose a shot at becoming a federal judge if Nauta didn’t flip on Trump.


    A motion filed in June 2023, and recently unredacted, reported that Nauta’s attorney Stanley Woodward met with DOJ National Security Division Chief Jay Bratt just weeks after the raid on Mar-a-Lago and "was led to a conference room where Mr. Bratt awaited with what appeared to be a folder containing information about Mr. Woodward," the Federalist reported.

    "Mr. Bratt thereupon told Mr. Woodward he didn’t consider him to be a ‘Trump lawyer,’ and he further said that he was aware that Mr. Woodward had been recommended to President Biden for an appointment to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia," the motion stated, the Federalist reported. "Mr. Bratt followed up with words to the effect of ‘I wouldn’t want you to do anything to mess that up.’ Thereafter, Mr. Bratt advised Mr. Woodward that ‘one way or the other’ his client, Walt Nauta, would be giving up his lavish lifestyle of ‘private planes and golf clubs’ and he encouraged Mr. Woodward to persuade Mr. Nauta to cooperate with the government’s investigation (this was prior to the appointment of the Special Counsel)."


    Bratt was later appointed lead prosecutor to Jack Smith’s case.


    The DOJ argued that "at no point during the meeting did Woodward suggest that any of the prosecutors’ comments were improper."


    Legal experts, including James Trusty, Trump attorney and former chief of the Justice Department's organized crime unit, have said the allegations in the filing amount to "extortion."

    Read balance:

    www.foxnews.com
     
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  13. Distant Lover

    Distant Lover Master of Facts

    Joined:
    Oct 23, 2007
    Messages:
    62,101
    Trump's crime is being a foul mouthed, foul smelling, bounder. If that is not illegal, it should be.

    I do not care what hey get him on. I want them to get him really good and hard.
     
  14. stumbler

    stumbler Porn Star

    Joined:
    Oct 10, 2006
    Messages:
    106,324
    Trump has already been complaining about this. He knows year in and year out sex sells. And his hush money trial is just full of it. Which adds a lot more than just the normal about of attention and interest. And nothing like a Playmate of the Year to add emphasis.


    Karen McDougal throws 'brutal shade' with rare Trump reference as trial heats up

    David McAfee
    May 4, 2024 8:46PM ET



    [​IMG]
    Karen McDougal at the Playboy Golf Tee-Off Party in 2007. (s_bukley / Shutterstock.com)




    Former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal on Saturday issued an eyebrow-raising reference to Donald Trump, with whom she has claimed to have had an affair, as the former president's criminal hush money cover-up case heats up.

    McDougal, who has had her story discussed at length in Trump's criminal trial to give prosecutors context for charging document fraud in connection with a similar scheme involving adult film star Stormy Daniels, is not directly related to the charges.

    Yet she referenced them in a social media post over the weekend.

    ALSO READ: Trump’s Manhattan trial could determine whether rule of law survives: criminologist

    McDougal, who typically posts about Jesus or sports on her X account, has not posted about Trump in at least the last year, according to a review by Raw Story. However, that changed on Saturday.

    In a simple post with a one-word caption, McDougal said a lot.

    "Reflecting," she wrote along with a photo of herself in the bath.

    As she sits in the bath with a candle and a glass of wine, McDougal has a book. It's Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow. Farrow has written about the practice of Trump and other celebrities to buy controversial stories just to "kill" them and prevent bad press.

    In response, attorney Howell Ellerman said, "Brutal shade. Fantastic book."

    Reporter Olivia Nuzzi also chimed in, saying, "Karen McDougal weighs in on the Trump trial."




    Karen McDougal
    @karenmcdougal98

    ·
    Follow
    #Reflecting


    [​IMG]

    4:55 PM · May 4, 2024




    https://www.rawstory.com/karen-mcdougal-trump-shade/
     
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  15. latecomer91364

    latecomer91364 Easily Distracte

    Joined:
    Aug 3, 2017
    Messages:
    53,186
    [​IMG]
     
    • Agree Agree x 2
  16. stumbler

    stumbler Porn Star

    Joined:
    Oct 10, 2006
    Messages:
    106,324
    'This court will have to consider a jail sanction': Judge Merchan puts Trump on notice

    Brad Reed
    May 6, 2024 9:36AM ET



    [​IMG]
    NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 16: Former president Donald Trump visits a bodega store in upper Manhattan where a worker was assaulted by a man in 2022 and ended up killing him in an ensuing fight on April 16, 2024 in New York City. The worker, Jose Alba, was arrested before the Manhattan District Attorney decided to drop charges for lack of evidence. Trump visited the bodega after spending a second day in court where he faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first of his criminal cases to go to trial. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)




    Judge Juan Merchan on Monday put former President Donald Trump on notice that he really could face jail time if he keeps violating his gag order against attacking witnesses and jurors in his hush-money trial.

    As reported by legal reporter Adam Klasfeld, Merchan issued the warning after having found Trump in contempt of court for the 10th time for violating the gag order.

    "Going forward, this court will have to consider a jail sanction," said Merchan, according to Klasfeld.

    The judge also emphasized that he did not want to order Trump detained for future gag order violations.

    "The last thing that I want to do is to put you in jail," he said. "The magnitude of such a decision is not lost on me, but at the end of the day, I have a job to do."

    READ MORE: Inside the Trump Crime Syndicate and MAGA kitchen cabinet of knaves and rogues

    Last week, Merchan fined Trump $9,000 for nine separate gag order violations and the former president has continued railing against the order as being purportedly "unconstitutional" despite the fact that such orders are routine in criminal cases.

    New York state law states that judges may fine defendants no more than $1,000 for each gag order violation, and Merchan has said that the only alternative left to him should Trump continue to flaunt the order would be incarceration.



    https://www.rawstory.com/trump-jail-2668174775/
     
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  17. shootersa

    shootersa Frisky Feline

    Joined:
    Dec 28, 2010
    Messages:
    86,487
    Uh oh.
    The despicables could be getting their perp walk out of trump afterall, and probably even his orange jump suit photo.
    They'll be jizzing all over the forum if that happens.

    Course, it still doesn't explain what they're gonna do if(when) brandon can't continue with the election.
     
    • Like Like x 2
    1. mstrman
      They'll get their perp walk maybe even the old jumpsuit if you believe raw story's account is credible.
       
      mstrman, May 6, 2024
      sirius1902 likes this.
  18. shootersa

    shootersa Frisky Feline

    Joined:
    Dec 28, 2010
    Messages:
    86,487
    Well, we know, if it's an american hater copy N paste and it's a wrong story hit job, we can pretty much be sure it's wrong or false.
    Their reputation(s) precede them.
     
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  19. mstrman

    mstrman Porn Star

    Joined:
    Sep 2, 2020
    Messages:
    37,707
    Ex-top Biden DOJ official now prosecuting Trump was once paid by DNC for 'political consulting'
    Matthew Colangelo's move from DOJ to the NY Trump prosecution has drawn allegations of politicization.

    By Brooke Singman Fox News

    EXCLUSIVE: The Democratic National Committee paid Trump prosecutor Matthew Colangelo thousands of dollars for "political consulting" in 2018, Fox News Digital has learned.

    Colangelo delivered opening statements in the unprecedented criminal trial of former President Trump and currently serves as a top prosecutor with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's Office on the case.

    Colangelo joined Bragg’s office in December 2022 after the resignations of Mark Pomerantz and Carey Dunne — prosecutors who were investigating Trump and resigned in protest of Bragg’s initial unwillingness to indict the former president. Colangelo left a senior role at the Biden Justice Department to join Bragg's team. Bragg afterward brought charges against the former president in April 2023, raising questions among some in the GOP about alleged politicization of the case.


    House Republicans are investigating Colangelo and his past work as he prosecutes Trump.

    According to Federal Election Commission records reviewed by Fox News Digital, DNC Services Corp/Democratic National Committee paid Colangelo twice on Jan. 31, 2018. Colangelo was given two payments of $6,000, for a total of $12,000.

    The "description" for the purpose of payment is labeled "Political Consulting."

    Neither the Manhattan District Attorney's Office nor the DNC immediately responded to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

    At the time, Colangelo was serving in then-New York Attorney General Eric Scheiderman’s office as the deputy attorney general for social justice, assuming the role from Bragg. Bragg, at the time, was appointed as chief deputy attorney general.


    Read entire story here: /www.foxnews.com/politics/