Trump indicted over hush money payments in Stormy Daniels probe

Did you miss the very next sentence???

"Pursuant to a retainer agreement"

 

Did you notice the quotes ending? That's where the bookkeeping description ends and Bragg adds his own details.

 

Read paragraph 4 of the statement of facts. The payments were not for legal services, and there was no retainer agreement.

 

it IS a violation. You can wax republican all you wnat, buut in the middle of a campaign, paying off someone to NOT say something IS "something of value"

 

It is not a violation. This was already determined years ago.

 

You apparently don't understand that it order for circumstantial evidence to put someone behind bars it would take an abundance of it.

That email does not equal 'abundance'.

 

Define (legally) "abundance".

 

Really, show us that court decision….

 

Show us the court decision that you didn't kill your mother?

The FEC investigated it and determined there was no reason to bring charges. And for the millionth time, we had a recent presidential candidate pay their hush money NDA out of their campaign funds and the DOJ prosecuted them for it saying they couldn't pay for it out of campaign money.. hence, it is not an in-kind contribution since it's not even considered a valid campaign expense by the DoJ. This has been explained to you ad nauseum.

 

So does Trump know when he is lying or is he just delusional?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trumps-t...bs-law-enforcement-source-says-160349195.html

Trump, in an interview with Tucker Carlson said, "When I went to the courthouse, which is also a prison in a sense, they signed me in, and I’ll tell you, people were crying. People that work there, professionally work there, that have no problems putting in murderers, and they see everybody. It’s a tough, tough place, and they were crying. They were actually crying. They said, ‘I’m sorry.’ They said, '2024, sir. 2024.’ And tears were pouring down their eyes.”

And yet someone who was there said this, “Zero,” said the source when asked how much truth there was to Trump’s colorful account. “There were zero people crying. There were zero people saying ‘I’m sorry.’” adding that Trump's story was "absolute BS"

Now given Trump's long distance relationship with the truth there can be little doubt which description of events is to be believed but the question still remains, does Trump know he is lying or is he just delusional? And if he KNOWS he is lying what does that say about his views of us? That we're just too stupid to find out or realize it?

 

"One" unnamed law enforcement source says.... to the news media.

 

Yes, one unnamed source vs. serial liar Donald J. Trump.

I'm going to go with the unnamed source.

Do you believe Trump in this?

 

Of course, you are. Yeah, team.

 

So you believe Trumps account?

 

I feel like a broken record.
1) In order for something to be considered an in-kind campaign contribution it has to be something that has no other purpose whatsoever, no matter how small, other than to influence an election. That is not the case here. Trump had his business persona, relationship with his wife, public image, etc., all at some level of harm. No court could consider this an in-kind contribution because the interpretation would be far too broad.
2) Just because something can be "of value" doesn't mean it's a crime. A bottle of water is "something of value." If you hand one to a candidate actively giving a speech on the campaign trail, you are not required to disclose that "donation" publicly.
3) Trump is allowed to spend an unlimited amount of his own money on his campaign.
4) Trump Org is not a publicly traded company and can also spend unlimited money for political purposes.
5) The FEC has recently said this doesn't even violate civil campaign laws, let alone criminal ones.
6) Stop making this silly argument. It's completely without merit. Try defending it with the law.

 

OK then, show us the actual FEC investigation and decision Seriously, show us the actual FEC decision that said their was no reason to bring charges……tha actual INVESTIGATION

 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/...-stormy-case-not-a-campaign-finance-violation

 

FFS your entire argument is built on the false premise that the FEC investigated, which the didnt !!!

The 3 republicans on the FEC board refused to let them be investigated.

 

They looked at the presented evidence and determined not to move forward with it. You don't like that they didn't do a full-scale timely investigation. But that doesn't mean they didn't investigate the allegation, and it was dismissed outright since it's completely absurd.. for the reasons listed above. There is no possible way this can be a campaign violation. This is by far the dumbest conversation I've had all day.

They looked at the evidence, hearing, etc, and came to the conclusion not to bring charges. Even if they assume everything is true, it's still not a campaign violation because an NDA to silence a mistress cannot be an in-kind contribution. In fact, the DOJ has prosecuted people for claiming it was a campaign expenditure.

 

Exactly, the FEC didn't clear Trump of any charges. The FEC didn't investigate because the FEC is broken and Trump is the person that broke it.

 

This cannot be a campaign violation even if you assume the worst possible scenario for Trump. Even if the far-left conspiracy theorists get everything they claim taken for granted and all their fantasies were true, it's not a campaign violation. All Trump has to say is, "I thought it could hurt my personal or professional image .000000001%" and it is dismissed.

 

That falls under prosecutorial discretion, but one email most certainly is not 'abundance'.

That's really all there is to it. It's all about what a prosecutor believes will persuade a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.

 

Not when the facts point to guilt, not to mention three charges pertinent to the hush money in the Cohen indictment, Cohen pled guilty. Since he is a lawyer, I doubt he pled guilty to a bogus charge.

 

The "hush money" charges were nonsense charges that didn't take anything away from his plea bargain for far more serious offenses. He was convicted for tax evasion and bank fraud. The hush money stuff was nonsense. And, Cohen's not a very good lawyer.. hence his fraud and perjury issues.

 

1. Nothing in there about possible charges against Trump. This is about Cohen.
2. It is as we have said, the letter acknowledges that one of the reasons not to pursue is because of "backlog" due to not being able to seat a quorum. THAT is a direct result of Trump not filling positions. So you don't think it MIGHT be possible that Trump didn't fill positions know that if they were unable to seat a quorum then they would be unable to pursue charges?
3. Another reason for not pursuing the case was because Cohen had already pleaded guilty.