Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/05/28/in-closing-trumps-lawyers-continue-to-flail.html
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An acquittal – with all 12 jurors voting not guilty – seems virtually impossible. But the case is unusually complicated (with extra steps requiring the finding of one or more other crimes) so a hung jury mistrial is a real possibility. (And if I am remembering correctly, one seated juror’s questionnaire indicated he got news from “conservative” media…)
And if found guilty, trump will of course appeal – pretty much everyone convicted of a felony appeals – and they should! One issue will be the introduction of of ‘other bad acts’ (eg, the Stormy hotel details), but the defense did not object so that won’t get anywhere unless the appellate judges are specifically out to bail trump out, which seems unlikely.
Normally (at least under California law), a person does not get to postpone their punishment/incarceration while appealing a felony conviction unless they can demonstrate a likelihood of success. Although ‘for some reason’ affluent people are deemed to have a ‘likelihood of success’ more often than others…
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Pff. That fuckstick will never spend a day in prison. If it looks like a certainty he will suddenly ‘manifest’ that dementia we can all see, and he will be ‘unfit’ for prison. Failing that, he’ll flee, or just die - something that actually happens to obese 77 year olds fairly often.
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If he gets convicted, that’s more than enough, even if he doesn’t spend a day in an actual jail cell.
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Yeah, the outcome of the somewhat-similar John Edwards hush money trial has helped temper my expectations for this one. And Edwards didn’t have nearly as many or as ardent of supporters.
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If Trump is medically unfit for prison then he is medically unfit to be president. He can’t have it both ways.
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he doesn’t actually care about winning this case. his entire legal strategy is based on slanting public opinion in his favor, and relying on his hand-picked judges and scotus to do the rest.
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Let’s not be seizing defeat from the jaws of victory, mmmkay?
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Given the business records nature of the charges here, its distinguishable from the Edwards case in a lot of ways.
Trump is charged with falsifying business records, a state crime not directly related to the election process or financing. Whereas the prosecutors of Edwards had to show a direct connection to campaign finance, the ones in NY only had to show were the checks were written by Trump business entities. NY State takes entanglement of business and personal assets very seriously.
Had Trump wrote personal checks for the hush money, there would be no charges.
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I hear that. I’m just so thoroughly disgusted with the legal system at this point that it is hard to be optimistic.
It is abundantly clear that the USSC is going to slow walk the presidential immunity case to prevent his other more serious charges going to trial until he has a chance to maybe pardon himself. Or they will come out with some bullshit nitpick that creates room for endless appeals
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I see this a little differently. (IMHO) They slow walk the immunity case specifically so that they can grant such immunity to Trump but avoid handing Biden the same. And if Biden wins, they shit-can the whole issue. Is that cynical? Hell yes, it is. This is where we are.
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Hmmm.
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Maybe? But I heard on a podcast a while ago that even paying out of pocket and not reporting it could potentially count as an unreported campaign contribution if it was shown that the payment was more about the election than it was about a personal issue.
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But the nature of paying out of pocket is hazy enough that one has to find the purpose for it from extrinsic sources such as testimony of the payor and recipient. Its easy to introduce reasonable doubt with that.
For Trump it was paying through the business. Meaning he created paper trails and had more people scrutinizing the payment as it is generated and sent out. It doesn’t really matter what the payment was for. For these charges the prosecution only had to prove it wasn’t for what was listed in company accounting data and that difference was intentional.
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It’s illegal to falsify business records but that’s not always a felony. My understaning of this case is that the felony comes into play when the falsification of business records was “in furtherance of another crime.” So hopefully the jury is convinced of that point too.
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Remember this is in New York state court. The appeals court would be a New York state appeals court. That court is not full of Leonard Leo approved Fed Soc judges.
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In addition, Trial court (Supreme Court) are elected positions. Appellate Court judges are picked by the governor from available Supreme Court judges. The highest court, Court of Appeals, is picked by the governor from a list created by a bipartisan committee.
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One would think, but this is the same man who simultaneously claimed to be a tremendous athlete and to have crippling bone spurs that precluded him from military service.
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Yes, I am well aware of the New York state judicial system and its organization. I went to law school in Newark. My point was that this isn’t some court full of conservatives approved by the Federalist Society. They aren’t going to rubber stamp a Trump appeal.
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