Tag: Alvin Bragg

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Crime Donald Trump

Alvin Bragg Has A ‘Very Compelling’ Piece Of Evidence To Destroy Trump’s Defense: Former Prosecutor

One of the main defenses that will be employed by attorneys for former president Donald Trump in his Manhattan hush money trial is to suggest that the disgraced ex-president had no idea his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, had paid off Stormy Daniels to buy her silence on the affair she allegedly had with Trump.

But that defense can easily be torn to shreds by District Attorney Alvin Bragg, according to former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann.

Weissmann was a guest on MSNBC yesterday, and he told host Ari Melber that all Bragg has to do is to lay out the evidence which shows there’s absolutely no way Trump couldn’t have known what Cohen was doing.

“I think here, one of the things that you’re going to hear about, is first, Donald Trump’s management style,” Weissmann explained. “We’re not talking about a person who is running Exxon, who had hundreds of thousands of people working for him. This is a small family business with somebody who is, I think by all accounts, very hands-on and very focused on the details.”

Also, Weismann noted, Trump wrote the checks in question.

“So you’re going to see checks that he signed, and I think that in itself is going to be very compelling evidence, because he reimbursed Michael Cohen for the hush money payments, is what you’re going to hear. But it wasn’t on a one to one basis. Because they had to say, oh, these are legal fees, that meant that Michael Cohen was going to have to pay taxes on them. So instead of reimbursing Michael Cohen $130,000, he had to true up the amount so that Michael Cohen would actually get the full $130,000. You wouldn’t need to do that if these were actually legal fees. This is not how this would work. So, and as you pointed out, there are a lot of prior inconsistent statements and you’ll hear from the prosecution about, look, if this was an innocent scheme, why is his story changing so much over time?”

Weissmann concluded, “So I think those are all of the kinds of things you’ll hear to undermine an exalted CEO, I didn’t know what David Pecker and Michael Cohen were doing at the ground level.”

Trump has no real defense for what he did regarding Daniels. He was desperate to keep the affair secret, knowing that if news of it broke in the midst of his 2016 bid for the White House, his chances of winning would be doomed.

But if it can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump did indeed know about the payments, then he’s guilty not only of falsifying business records to hide his actions, but also of election interference, which could land him in a New York prison for several years.

Categories
Crime Donald Trump

Manhattan Discovery List Suggests Donald Trump Fathered An Illegitimate Child

 

If you take a close look at the discovery list given to attorneys for former President Donald Trump by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, you’ll see a reference to a book alleging that the ex-president fathered an illegitimate child.

That book, MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin notes, is of particular interest since the underlying crimes Trump has been indicted for in Manhattan involve hush money payments he allegedly made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in order to keep her from revealing their affair.

Rubin explained what she thinks the book about the possible Trump love child has to do with Bragg’s case, writing on Twitter, “In New York state, a defendant is entitled to receive all witness testimony before the grand jury and any and all other witness statements provided to the relevant prosecutor’s office. But here, the Manhattan DA’s office also attached this two-page list of books.”

What really caught Rubin’s eye, however, was a book by Dino Sajudin, who worked as a doorman at Trump Tower.

“But what really popped for me was a book by Dino Sajudin, a onetime Trump World Tower doorman who was paid by the National Enquirer’s parent company, American Media, for his story that Trump had a child out of wedlock with a concierge at that building. As the New York Post notes here, Sajudin’s account has been vigorously denied by the woman in question. So is it on the list to show that AMI had a habit of catching and killing stories damaging to Trump? Or for other reasons?”

Rubin continues:

“In any event, I don’t know why Mr. Sajudin’s book is on the Manhattan DA’s discovery list, but I sure would like to find out. Watch this space. p.s. @KatiePhang’s memory FTW: She reminds me the payment to Dino Sajudin — and its mischaracterization in American Media’s books & records — is discussed in the DA’s statement of facts” with a screenshot that you can see below.”

As for the reference to the New York Post article which earlier this year, here’s what it reveals:

Sajudin claims that, when he complained about the concierge at the tower — a Colombian-born woman who, he said, was often rude to residents — he was warned by Trump Organization officials to keep quiet.

“I had to wonder what it was about her that kept her in the tower’s good graces,” Sajudin writes.

He adds that he soon found out that the woman, who is not named in his book, had worked as a housekeeper for the Trump family in the past and was given special treatment as a result.

In addition to taking long lunches and buying “$3,000 handbags and $500 shoes” at Bergdorf, the concierge allegedly pushed everyone around, including top Trump executives.

Trump and his attorneys have denied the former president had any affairs with employees and called the Post report “fake news.”

 

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Congress GOP

Protesters In New York Greet Jim Jordan With Calls To Indict Him As A ‘Traitor’: Video

House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) is taking his dog and pony show to Manhattan today in an effort to curry favor with indicted former president Donald Trump, and he got one hell of a welcome from New Yorkers as his “field hearing” began.

Jordan claims the purpose of the hearing is to focus on crime in Manhattan and failures allegedly made by the borough’s district attorney, Alvin Bragg, who indicted Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records last month.

According to Punchbowl News correspondent Mica Soellner, Jordan was greeted by New Yorkers by calls for the Ohio Republican to be indicted for treason.

The hearing could also wind up being humiliating for Jordan in other ways, according to political analyst Matthew Dowd, who said Sunday during an appearance on MSNBC:

 “If he really wanted to find out answers to the unanswered questions about crime, then hold it on the Ohio State University campus and ask about the sexual abuse scandals that occurred while he was the wrestling coach. That would be a more formal and more interesting thing to find out undiscovered information.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jm0HiRXBhc&t=1s

Categories
Congress GOP

Jim Jordan’s Sordid Past Will Be Fair Game For Democrats At Next Week’s Alvin Bragg Hearing: Report

When he brings down the gavel Monday for a House Judiciary Committee hearing being held on the topic of crime in Manhattan, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) may wish he had never conceived of what is clearly a publicity stunt, according to a political analyst.

Matthew Dowd told MSNBC host Ayman Mohyeldin on Sunday morning that as Jordan continues his accusations against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for what he calls his “pro-crime, anti-victim policies,” the congressman had better expect his own sordid past to be fair game for Democrats on the committee.

Specifically, Dowd noted, is the lingering questions about Jordan’s involvement in the sexual assault of wrestlers at Ohio State University while he was a coach of the team. Jordan never reported any of the attacks on student-athletes.

“The facts is, not only does Columbus have three times the crime rate that New York City has, the actual hometown and where Jim Jordan is from has a higher crime rate a small town has a higher crime rate than New York City in the course that eight of the top ten crime rate states in America are red states,” Dowd began.

That led to Dowd referencing Jordan’s past:

“And, the other thing, I’ll just add: if he really wanted to find out answers to the unanswered questions about crime, then hold it on the Ohio State University campus and ask about the sexual abuse scandals that occurred while he was the wrestling coach. That would be a more formal and more interesting thing to find out undiscovered information.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jm0HiRXBhc&t=1s

Monday’s hearing should be fascinating in all sorts of ways.

Categories
Congress Crime Donald Trump GOP

Jim Jordan Hit With Lawsuit That’s Bad News For Him And Donald Trump

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg made it clear Tuesday that he’s sick and tired of Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) attempting to interfere with his prosecution of failed, one-term former president Donald Trump.

Bragg has filed a lawsuit against Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and is requesting that a court block Jordan’s congressional investigation until the Trump case is completed.

NBC News reports:

Calling it an “unprecedently brazen and unconstitutional attack” of an ongoing investigation, Bragg in the suit filed Tuesday said allowing Jordan’s demands, including subpoenaing former assistant DA employee Mark Pomerantz, would cause “imminent irreparable harm if the secret and privileged material is compelled to be disclosed.”

Bragg’s suit asks the court to block a subpoena issued by Jordan to Pomerantz. Jordan, R-Ohio, wants Pomerantz to sit for a deposition as part of the Judiciary panel’s investigation into the indictment of Trump. The former president pleaded not guilty last week to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to his alleged role in hush money payments toward the end of his 2016 presidential campaign.

Bragg released a statement shortly after the suit was filed.

“Chairman Jordan’s subpoena is an unconstitutional attempt to undermine an ongoing New York felony criminal prosecution and investigation. As our complaint details, this is an unprecedented, illegitimate interference by Congress that lacks any legal merit and defies basic principles of federalism.”

On Monday, Jordan announced that the Judiciary Committee would be holding a “field hearing” in New York next week to discuss the issue of crime in Manhattan. However, that hearing may be placed on hold if a judge blocks the Ohio Republican from interfering in an ongoing criminal matter.

Since Trump was indicted in March, Congressional Republicans have repeatedly tried to interfere in Bragg’s case against the disgraced ex-president. Some have even suggested that all federal funding to New York should be cut off if the Manhattan DA doesn’t drop the charges against Trump.