Why Alvin and not the Feds? Or, why Cohen and not Individual 1?

Because after all.......

Trump makes a desperate attempt to downplay illegal payments to women

President Donald Trump began his week by trying to downplay illegal hush payments to women made late in the 2016 presidential campaign — ones that federal prosecutors now say he directed and coordinated — as a mere “simple private transaction.”
https://www.vox.com/2018/12/10/18134169/trump-payments-daniels-mcdougal-simple-private-transaction

However............

Inside Barr’s Effort to Undermine Prosecutors in N.Y.

Shortly after he became attorney general last year, William P. Barr set out to challenge a signature criminal case that touched President Trump’s inner circle directly, and even the president’s own actions: the prosecution of Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s longtime fixer.

The debate between Mr. Barr and the federal prosecutors who brought the case against Mr. Cohen was one of the first signs of a tense relationship that culminated last weekend in the abrupt ouster of Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States attorney in Manhattan. It also foreshadowed Mr. Barr’s intervention in the prosecutions of other associates of Mr. Trump.

By the time Mr. Barr was sworn into office in February, Mr. Cohen, who had paid hush money to an adult film star who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump, had already pleaded guilty and was set to begin a three-year prison sentence, all of which embarrassed and angered the president.

But Mr. Barr spent weeks in the spring of 2019 questioning the prosecutors over their decision to charge Mr. Cohen with violating campaign finance laws, according to people briefed on the matter.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/25/nyregion/geoffrey-berman-william-barr-michael-cohen.html

Eventually, Billy the Bagman pushed to have the charges against Cohen dropped. From Berman's book..........."While Cohen had pleaded guilty, our office continued to pursue investigations related to other possible campaign finance violations. When Barr took over in Feb. of 2019, he not only tried to kill the ongoing investigations but...incredibly...suggested that Cohen's conviction on campaign finance charges be reversed."

Why?

Because Individual 1 was implicated in the same illegal campaign finance violations Cohen had plead guilty to.

Book: The DOJ almost implicated Trump more directly in a crime

It was a shocking enough document as it was. Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, had pleaded guilty to illegally concealing hush money paid to two women who were accusing Trump of extramarital affairs. The 2018 charging document implicated Trump, named as “Individual-1,” notably by saying he attended a meeting about how he might quash any negative stories about his relationships.

And it might have implicated Trump even further, then-U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman now says — were it not for the kind of politically tinged meddling that he says was endemic in the Trump Justice Department.

The New York Times last week briefly noted that Berman’s new book alleges that a Justice Department official tried to get references to Trump removed from the Cohen charging document. And now that the book is out, we have Berman’s fuller account of the events.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...-almost-implicated-trump-more-directly-crime/

Much has been made by people like me about how ugly things could get with respect to the DoJ should Trump be re-elected. In part based on what kind of retribution he has promised against those involved in trying to bring him to justice. But also because of his track record of using the DoJ, one could say weaponizing it, for his own benefit or against his perceived enemies. Like this...........

‘Really shocking': Trump’s meddling in Stone case stuns Washington

President Donald Trump’s post-impeachment acquittal behavior is casting a chill in Washington, with Attorney General William Barr emerging as a key ally in the president’s quest for vengeance against the law enforcement and national security establishment that initiated the Russia and Ukraine investigations.

In perhaps the most tumultuous day yet for the Justice Department under Trump, four top prosecutors withdrew on Tuesday from a case involving the president’s longtime friend Roger Stone after senior department officials overrode their sentencing recommendation—a backpedaling that DOJ veterans and legal experts suspect was influenced by Trump’s own displeasure with the prosecutors’ judgment.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/12/trump-roger-stone-justice-department-114684

Past, as they say, is prologue.

 

Because of Bill Barr.

 

1. Cohen was convicted of making an in kind contribution. Trump, as the candidate, can't be charged with giving money to his own campaign.

2. The Feds have said Trump didn't violate campaign finance laws, which is true. Bragg thinks he can turn expired misdemeanors into felonies because he thinks he can prove Trump violated Federal campaign finance laws. Without a Federal conviction, that's impossible.

3. Any campaign finance violation has expired, too.

5. The payments made to Daniels weren't illegal.

6. This case is probably the biggest reach in legal history.

 

Just as Don's friend Pecker executed a "catch and kill" on a number of damning stories for Individual 1 over the years, Billy the Bagman did his own version of it by stifling the SDNY's investigation.
It was the kind of corruption of the DoJ that would be exceeded when Trump tried to use the agency to help with his insurrectionist plot.

 

And Con Don true to form, stiffed(did not repay) Pecker on the previous catch and kill that's why Cohen had to step into the breach and fell on the sword.

 

Do you honestly think Barr discouraged anyone from going after Trump at the Federal level. Think, before you answer.

 

The payments are not illegal. Cohen's failure to claim them in his income tax apparently are. If NDA's were illegal 2/3 of democrats and some republicans in congress would be in Jail. Or did you forget about the teapot scandal a few years ago when it came to light that there was a whole congressional department dedictated to dealing with the NDA for staffers and others harassed by congress critters?

 

Do you know why Billie, , is called the Bagman, WBillieK? Think, before you answer.

 

Because Democrats automatically demean anyone who does not fully cooperate in there elicit schemes. Please think before you respond.

 

A troll post similar to many Putin apologist posts. Must be a slow day or the Russians like bag men and useful idiots.

 

I see you didn't take my advice. But then I didn't really expect you would after all this time.

 

Badly constructed, desperate for attention strawmen are understandable. But, they lack substance. Try again?

 

Apparently Don and Dave go way back. Dave is another associate who has paid the price of getting too close to the ball of shyte.

Trump escapes FEC punishment for Karen McDougal hush money, but National Enquirer publisher pays settlement

The Federal Election Commission will let former President Donald Trump avoid punishment for directing hush money payments to his alleged ex-mistress Karen McDougal — but the publisher of The National Enquirer agreed to pay more than $187,500 for its role in the scandal, records showed Tuesday.

The FEC recently likewise failed to approve a recommendation from staff that it sanction Trump for directing a $130,000 hush money payout to former porn star Stormy Daniels, who has said she had sex with him years ago, according to the advocacy group Common Cause.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/01/tru...ey-national-enquirer-publisher-pays-fine.html

Two Repubs on the commission protected Trump from accountability.

 

Deadlock at Broken FEC Fails to Enforce Rule of Law on Trump-Daniels Violations

Crystal Mason, a Black woman, was sentenced to five years in prison for inadvertently violating an election law in 2016. She thought she was allowed to vote and filled out a provisional ballot that was never counted. Donald Trump blatantly and intentionally violated federal campaign finance laws on his way to winning the 2016 presidential election. But former Attorney General Bill Barr—and now Republican FEC Commissioners Sean Cooksey and Trey Trainor—have blocked investigation and enforcement of Trump’s violations.

Now it’s up to the Department of Justice (DOJ) to hold Trump accountable and make clear that no one is above the law. The clock is ticking; a five–year statute of limitations for Trump’s campaign finance crimes gives the DOJ only 5 more months to prosecute these crimes.

In 2018 Common Cause filed complaints with the FEC and DOJ detailing multiple violations of federal campaign finance laws committed by Donald J. Trump, the Trump Organization, Michael Cohen and others through their $130,000 “hush” payment to Stormy Daniels just weeks before the November 2016 presidential election. Cohen pleaded guilty to these crimes and was sentenced to three years in prison. Cohen testified under oath that he had acted at the direction of Trump.
https://www.commoncause.org/press-r...orce-rule-of-law-on-trump-daniels-violations/

Remember that unfair treatment Don is always whining about? In reality he gets preferential treatment.

 

He didn't. They were characterized by Trump and Cohen as "legal fees". Which is an attempt to hide their real purpose. That, in and of itself, is just a misdemeanor. But if the falsification was done to influence the elections, or if it violates New York tax laws... that's a felony. In New York!

There was a time when the fact alone that Trump had sex with a porn star would disqualify him from being a candidate for... anything... in the Republican Party. Not since it became the Church of Trump, though.

Apparently there is NOBODY in the whole Republican Party that Republicans would consider more morally worthy of representing them in the elections.

 

This isn't "influencing an election". If it was, every politician in the country would go to jail.

Besides, Trump is charged with "trying to influence an election", so it's impossible that that's the felony charge. More proof that none of you have the first GD clue what the trial is about...lol

 

Fake News. It's not illegal to make hush payments to women.

Alvin Bragg's Witch Trial

'Until today, it had been over 200 years since the state of New York held a witch trial. Jane “Naut” Kanniff, defended herself against charges that she was a witch in a 1816 New York court. Miss Kanniff, however, at least knew what “crime” she was charged with having committed. She survived the process with an acquittal. Alvin Bragg, in contrast to Kanniff’s prosecutors, is taking Donald Trump to trial while accusing him of covering up a crime he has not specified.'



'Bragg’s indictment repeatedly alleges Trump made a false business entry to, “commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof.” What crime? The indictment doesn’t say.'

'The New York hush money case indictment is nonsensical and unconstitutional on its face. Trump should not have to wait until trial to discover what law he’s accused of having broken. A jury should not be allowed to find Trump used his business records to “commit another crime” unless somebody proves beyond a reasonable doubt that “another crime” was committed.'

'Corporate media ignores this obvious weakness in the case by salaciously harping on Donald Trump’s alleged affair with Stormy Daniels. Such an affair, if it happened, is not illegal and is not the crime with which Trump is charged. They hint darkly at a campaign finance violation. Again, Trump has not been charged with violating any campaign finance laws in this case. They speak solemnly about a hush money agreement used to hide the affair. Again, not illegal and not charged.'

'In the accompanying “Statement of Facts,” Bragg accused Trump of hiding, “damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.” If true, that is also not a crime nor has Trump been charged with hiding damaging information. Bragg also alleged Trump, “violated election laws.” Which laws? According to whom? Bragg does not say and Trump has not been charged by Bragg or anyone else with “violating election laws.”'

'Defendants (other than Trump) are normally entitled to the Sixth Amendment guarantee, “to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation,” before a criminal trial can be held to imprison him. So again, he should know what crime he’s accused of covering up before showing up to trial.'

The NY Trial is an indictment of the NY "Justice" system.

 

What’s illegal about Trump’s hush payments to women, briefly explained

In his latest spin about federal prosecutors implicating him in felonies, President Donald Trump managed to pack three falsehoods into a mere two sentences.

During an interview with Reuters that was published Tuesday evening, Trump, alluding to hush payments made by his longtime personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen to two women who claimed to have had extramarital affairs with him, said, “Number one, it wasn’t a campaign contribution. If it were, it’s only civil, and even if it’s only civil, there was no violation based on what we did. OK?”

But prosecutors are conducting a criminal investigation, and they determined that the payments, which were made to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal in the weeks leading up to the 2016 presidential election, were indeed meant to help Trump’s candidacy. Cohen was charged with campaign finance violations (among other crimes), pleaded guilty, and on Wednesday was sentenced to three years in prison.

What’s illegal about Trump’s hush payments to women, briefly explained
Debunking the president’s desperate spin about being incriminated in felonies.
www.vox.com

 

That will have to be proven to a jury in the trial.

If they did it they SHOULD go to jail. The OP points out that Cohen already did... So why not Trump?

 

THE GRAND JURY OF THE COUNTY OF NEW YORK, by this indictment, accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRSTDEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows: The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about February 14, 2017,with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an invoice from Michael Cohen dated February 14, 2017, marked as a record of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

SECOND COUNT:

AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows: The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about February 14, 2017,with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an entry in the Detail General Ledger for the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, bearing voucher number842457, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

https://thehill.com/homenews/3933605-read-trump-indictment-and-statement-of-facts/

 

After you, first look up straw man you don't seem to understand the concept.

 

So please tell me how calling money paid to a lawyer for services rendered legal fees is falsifying records?

 

That isn't a charge. What part of that don't you understand?

Trump is a former president. That makes a difference. Like, or not.

 

Pivoting to another deflection shows an even weaker hand for Russia's useful idiots or worse.

 

Hohohosanna another hoax buyer.