this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2024
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  • Opening statements began in Donald Trump's hush-money trial on Monday. 
  • Trump faces 34 felony counts for falsifying business records in the historic case.
  • "This case is about a criminal conspiracy and a coverup," ADA Matthew Colangelo said.

Opening arguments in Donald Trump's historic criminal trial got underway on Monday with a prosecutor describing the case as being about a "criminal conspiracy," while a defense attorney for the former president likened hush-money payments to "democracy."

"This case is about a criminal conspiracy and a coverup," Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo told the 12-person Manhattan jury in the hush-money trial.

Prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office allege Trump illegally falsified business records by covering up a $130,000 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

All trials should be available to the public (video, transcript, etc). Body cams on cops and court cameras, transparency is necessary for justice.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Oh no. .. have his attorneys missed the point of the trial too?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

No, they are confusing the issue so the jurors won;t know what he was really accused of. Their best tactic, and one that could very well pay off for them, sadly. Jury trials are a joke.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The judge and the prosecutors ought not to have too big issues with explaining this though right?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I'm not a legal expert but I wonder if the defense can actually object to that as they'll see it as pressing the jury to make a judgment framed in a specific way.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago
[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago

I think they're confusing democracy from capitalism

[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Im I wrong to think that we (the media) should stop calling it a "hush-money" case? I think its a poor move to put more focus on the moral issues of him spending a night with a porn star and paying them to keep quiet than to focus on the fact that he falsified business records to save face during a presidential campaign.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

I don't tend to mind the "hush money" framing, since that makes him sound like the mobster that he definitely is.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

No...and it's like Trump already won the court of opinion due to it. It's terrible messaging.

No one really cares that he banged a prostitute. Clinton was all over that too...We DO care that he committed fraud.

But reading through this...well...who cares really: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/22/trump-hush-money-trial-charges/

Instead of framing this as Trump is a terrible person who did terrible things, it's worded like he tripped on a very complex piece of legislature.

TL;DR: You made an important point.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Yes, let's talk upfront about how the system is failing.

[–] [email protected] 66 points 4 months ago (2 children)
  • That didn't happen.
  • And if it did, it wasn't that bad. <-- We are here
  • And if it was, that's not a big deal.
  • And if it is, that's not my fault.
  • And if it was, I didn't mean it.
  • And if I did You deserved it.
[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

We’re at step 1

The problem is the falsifying records to hide the payments

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I'm pretty sure we're way further down that list

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

It jumps around a lot

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

It's more of a circle really

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

meanwhile, the ex-president can't attend the hearing on the unlicensed bond he claimed to secure for the nine-figure fraud judgment against him because he's in a different court on trial for charges of criminal falsification of records to influence an election

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Just like corporate donations are "speech". Some Citizens United logic here.

[–] [email protected] 58 points 4 months ago (2 children)

"Democracy is when you give money to porn stars" - Julius Ceasar

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Mentioned it to his best friend, Brutus, as he was crossing the Rubicon.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

When you give money to cover up a time when you awkwardly, briefly, floundered your body on a sex worker.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 months ago (1 children)

One of the best parts of this story is Mr Art of the Deal, the master negotiator payed a porn star to keep quiet and she wrote book.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

I like this take

[–] [email protected] 80 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Remember when Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about sex?

It's not about the sex it's about the lies.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Like I personally don't give a shit that Clinton had sex with an intern. If it was all informed and consensual, that should between them and his wife. Same for any president. If Biden or Trump wants someone to give him a blow job in the oval office, go for it. I genuinely don't care how the president gets their rocks off, as long as it's not illegal or rape.

But the fact that its considered bad to have sex in puritanical society, they have to lie and now its a perjury case. It's weird how we can impeach a president for lying about getting a blowjob, but we can't stop an orange fucker for making a riot happen in the capitol.

Maybe this is me starting to be mentally coherent during the second term of Dubya, but Jesus Christ. You can lock kids in cages and no one gives a shit, you can start an attempt at a coup, and almost nothing happens. But somehow a blowjob was a major scandal that harmed the next election because your VP is running.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

It's not democracy, but pay for play, hush money, and an overall culture of bribery is more American than apple pie ever was.

The prominence of Trump is just a symptom of America's long running greed disease of putting capital miles above people.

If we had altered our economy and culture not to worship at the alter of sociopathic avarice and reckless growth/metastasis, Donald Trump would have gone to jail before he was a game show host, let alone POTUS.

I'm voting for Biden to keep my conscience clean but without hope, because the sad truth is, Donald Trump absolutely represents what America is in all it's grotesque, sociopathic, schadenfreude reveling, toxic hyper-individualistic, inhuman glory.

He's like a cartoon embodiment of who we actually are as a society in practice, and why I can't stand this place, a nepo-wealth bully obsessed with wealth hoarding that's got his, knows that means he makes the rules, and fuck you 🇺🇸

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