Cruelty is the point: A Trump ghoul brags about entrapping homeless people

[snigs]

Or Steve Mnuchin was generous with surplus counterfeit. Or Trump. I’d frankly prefer if ex-presidents were trafficking in counterfeit money instead of nuclear secrets.

[hecep]

@rchrdschndr

No names, no dates, no evidence, no matter. I’ve been seeing that pattern for years.

Incels need stories. What else have they got.

[GutRot]

Fair, he might be passing out very realistic counterfeits. Which makes all the legal consequences mentioned in the thread more relevant.
In any case. He’s still acting like he’s the smart one and everyone else is stupid. Which still makes him an asshole in addition to a probable felon.
The consequences for unknowingly using a counterfeit bill are higher for lower privilege people. Which I suspect he knows. Which is why he’s doing it. Like I said, asshole.

[gatto]

@GutRot

A reminder, there was a whole thing a few years ago where a guy was murdered when he was accused of using a fake 20.

it never hurts to say george floyd’s name.

eta:

@danimagoo

I doubt if the homeless people could be charged, actually, unless they realize the money is fake and try to spend it anyway.

that’s how it should work – but the pretext is often enough. and even getting accused by the cops can be a death sentence.

[johnson]

What Elements Need to be Established to Charge Someone With Counterfeiting?
The prosecution needs to prove that a defendant knowingly attempted to or successfully passed, uttered, published, sold, or kept in their possession an ‘obligation or other security’ of the United States that was forged, altered, or counterfeited, and that they did so with the intent to defraud.

“To pass or utter” means to try to offer the forged or counterfeited item to another person or to a bank with an intent to defraud them. It is not necessary to prove that anything of value was actually received in exchange and the prosecution don’t need to prove that the instrument was even accepted to charge you under this statute.

Are There Defenses to Charges of Passing or Possessing Counterfeits?
The most important element of the charge is that the defendant acted with an intent to defraud. This can also be the hardest element for prosecutors to prove. If you possessed the forged items for prop-purposes and never intended to pass them, or as part of an art piece, that could be a defense to the charge. Another possible defense would be that you did not know that the bill was counterfeit. The prosecution needs to prove that a defendant knew the note, bill, security, or obligation was counterfeited to be able to convict someone under this statute.

[airshowfan]

@jlw

Here’s the thing: They literally don’t care if something is illegal. Oh, that’s illegal? It’ll be fine.

Everybody together now:

@beschizza

Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.

[Brainspore]

@snigs

I’d frankly prefer if ex-presidents were trafficking in counterfeit money instead of nuclear secrets.

Secret Service agents tasked with protecting the former President and Secret Service agents tasked with catching counterfeiters clocking in for work:

[smulder]

@johnson

The most important element of the charge is that the defendant acted with an intent to defraud. This can also be the hardest element for prosecutors to prove.

… except in this case intent is the part he already confessed to

[MikeR]

Wouldn’t this also catch those holier-than-thou assholes who leave church brochures made to look like cash as tips in restaurants?

[Hanglyman]

@GutRot

A reminder, there was a whole thing a few years ago where a guy was murdered when he was accused of using a fake 20.

Well, that’s putting it mildly. Good call, but in that case I’m not sure there needed to even be a counterfeit bill involved. George Floyd was murdered for the “crime” of Existing While Black. My point isn’t that what McEntee is doing is harmless, though, just that calling police on people trying to spend fake money (knowingly or not) isn’t typical store policy as he seems to imagine.

[SpunkyTWS]

@Hanglyman

ETA: Weirdly enough, the only counterfeit money I’ve come across while counting is a movie prop dollar bill with some text scratched off in an attempt to make it less obvious, and a counterfeit dime, for which I honestly have no explanation.

Good to know you haven’t taken any wooden nickels.

[Steve_L]

@MikeR

Wouldn’t this also catch those holier-than-thou assholes who leave church brochures made to look like cash as tips in restaurants?

I’d like to say yes, but they’d probably argue that the fact that the tract only looks like a bill on one side makes it clear they didn’t have “the intent that the same be passed, published, or used as true and genuine”. And that argument does seem reasonable.

That argument doesn’t prevent them from being bleeps but it does prevent them from being counterfeiters IMO.

[TinFoilHatReview]

As a former property man on T.V. shows, I’ve seen “Hollywood” prop money.
On the most cursory of inspections, (the presidential portraits were often of Jefferson Davis!) the bills don’t past muster ~

[Oboo_San]

It might make a good feels film. I get an “Emil and the Detectives” vibe from that setup. Perhaps you could make up a treatment and shop it around? Not sarcastic in case anyone asks, I see it playing in my head. Possibly a period piece to make it more workable?

[MBrody]

@Brainspore

So… you’re the criminal trying to pass counterfeit money. You realize how this makes you the criminal, right?

I’m not sure he’s breaking any laws, to be honest. He’s not using the phony money to make a purchase. Plus it’s clearly marked as motion picture prop money rather than bills trying to pass as real currency. I have no idea though, just trying to see things from all sides. Either way, he’s a jerk.

[GagHalfrunt]

This is the crime he is committing:

@Steve_L

Whoever buys, sells, exchanges, transfers, receives, or delivers any false, forged, counterfeited, or altered obligation or other security of the United States, with the intent that the same be passed, published, or used as true and genuine, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.

By his own admission he hopes that the bills will be “used as true and genuine”.

@Brainspore

“So I always keep this fake Hollywood money in my car, so when a homeless person asks for money, and I give them like a $5 bill, I feel good about myself, they feel good,” said McEntee, also a senior advisor to Project 2025. “And then when they go to use it, they get arrested, so I’m actually helping to clean up the community and get them off the street.”

[Brainspore]

During WWII the Nazis launched an operation to forge and distribute British bank notes in an attempt to crash the economy. They weren’t initially planning to spend any of the fake money, they were just going to drop crates of cash all over Britain hoping locals would find it and put it into the economy themselves.

You better believe that anyone caught aiding or abetting such a plan would have been subject to some serious consequences under local laws whether or not they personally tried to spend the money on goods and services.