Weakened (Ex-President) Open Thread

By
Greg Diamond
– April 8, 2023Posted in: "The OC", Donald Trump, Fresh Juice

One of my oldest friends (outside of my family) is a man with exquisite creativity and etiquette. refined over many years in commerce. He was never, over the decades I’ve known him, particularly interested in politics — until Donald Trump became President. It didn’t take long for him to become disaffected, then alarmed, and — after January 6, 2021 — to hold a massive and lasting grudge. But unlike many people I know in politics, he brings his politesse to bear in his political activism. This week, he did something that I don’t think I’ve seen before, with elan and wit.

He found a congratulations card with an inscription that can be read two ways. I think it’s brilliant. It appears below.

(And If you know whose handwriting this is, shut up.)

I’ve whited out the area of the signature so that you (or your whole family) can put in your own signatures, should you, say, want to print this out and past it onto two sides of a postcard.

For those who question whether District Attorney Bragg really deserves congratulations for his 34-felony count indictment, let me explain a few things that were missing in the initial spate coverage.

First, yes, all of the charges regarded falsification of business records — it was falsely reported as a retainer for “legal work” — three different felonies per months for all of 2017, involving his repaying Michael Cohen the $130,000 for the payoff that Cohen made to Stormy Daniels in the waning days of the 2016 campaign, at what he says was Trump’s behest, to keep her quiet about the 2006 that she claims she had with Trump. (He still denies it. But, then, why pay the hush money?)

Trump has argued that, if he had paid the hush money, it would have been because he didn’t want his wife Melania to know about the affair that he had with Stormy D. This is belief because it’s clear form documentary evidence that his concern was about the information coming out at all, but about it coming out in time to affect the 2016 election results. That is what transforms the misdemeanor of falsifying business records — even internal ones, which of course could be audited — into a felony: falsifying records in order to facilitate commission of hide the existence of a felony turns it into a felony. Money spent to silence a witness for a candidate’s crimes would be a campaign expense. Yes, you can legally do this — but you’d have to record it and report it as a campaign expense. (Under California law, a late expenditure of that size would have been reported within 24 hours and rendered Michael Cohen into a major donor. Trump could have made the expenditure himself, but it would have left a paper trail that he didn’t want.)

Some of the criticisms of Bragg from the Left have been that his charges didn’t include counts of conspiracy, and didn’t contain detail that would explain the above reasoning. (Even seasoned journalists made this mistake.) What many people overlooked is that Bragg had released a “Statement of Facts” that put meat on the bare bones of the indictment.

Finally (at least in this story), some people have complained that Bragg omitted some federal crimes. (Note that campaign finance corruption with regard to federal elections within NY State (where the actions took place) is still a crime under New York state law, violations of which the Manhattan DA does prosecute.) This overlooks the brilliance of a strategic maneuver here. Trump would like to steer the case through the federal courts — which takes a long time, potentially long enough to get him not only through the 2024 primaries, but also the 2024 election — and then eventually be decided by what he hopes would still be his compliant Supreme Court majority.

But the final voice on this matter — barring some successful argument federalizing the case — would not be the U.S., Supreme Court, but the New York State equivalent: the Court of Appeal. The judges (not called “Justices,” a term used for the judges on the state’s “Supreme Courts,” which are the equivalent of California counties’ “Superior Courts”) are not as likely to be in the tank for Trump. It does point out the importance of the NY Governor’s race last year, because Trump’s best chance of not remaining in prison, or the federal penitentiary, is the election of both a NY Governor and an U.S. President who can pardon him.

I may add more to this later, including links to the Indictment and the Statement of Facts, but this will do as we head into Easter Sunday. Those of you not being held in our Trash folder may use this to discuss this or any other matters that you’d like, within reasonable bounds of dignity, discretion, and decorum.

Tags: , , , ,

About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that. Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too. He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.) His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)