you’ve been arguing this whole time that Trump is definitely guilty because Cohen pled guilty.
Let’s start from the beginning. Micheal Cohen is the one who took out a personal loan from his house, then created a shell company to put those funds in, and then used those funds to pay off Stormy Daniel’s. Cohen was then charged by the DOJ who determined that this was an illegal campaign contribution. Cohen then plead guilty to it.
At this point it is Cohen and Cohen alone that is guilty. Donald Trump as far as the federal government is concerned is considered innocent.
The indictment did of course list “Individual 1” whom we all know for a fact to be Donald Trump as a co-conspirator in this crime, but that fact is only useful as a data point in a moral/ethical discussion about this, so for the sake of the legal debate that is set to the side as irrelevant.
What the Cohen plea establishes legally, is that the actions of Micheal Cohen were as a matter of fact, criminal.
That fact, and that fact alone is what gets carried over to the state trial. So far none of this has to do with Donald Trump.
In the state trial, Trump is accused of falsifying his business records with an intent of aiding or concealing the commission of a crime.
Did he falsify his business records? Yes, according to the jury.
Did he do so with the intent of aiding or concealing another crime? That’s what the trial was about.
The trial then puts forward the case by examining Trump’s role in this scheme which did by the way, take place almost entirely in NY. Through the evidence established in the trial, the prosecution proved that Trump was in fact, at the very least, involved in Micheal Cohen’s scheme.
So to recap, since Micheal Cohens scheme was in fact illegal, and since Donald Trump was found via the evidence presented at trial to be involved in it, that proves to the jury that when Donald Trump falsified his New York business records, that he did so with the intent to (at the very least) conceal another (Micheal Cohen’s) crime.
That is not an adjudication of federal law. That is not a determination of Donald Trump’s guilt in committing a federal crime. It is a determination as to what Donald Trump’s intentions were while he was violating NY criminal law. Because the reason you violate a law is relevant to how severe your violation is.
So do you understand how Cohen pleading guilty =/= Trump is guilty? Do you understand that Trump’s role in this scheme had to be proven at trial (the opposite of assumed) in order for that connection to be made? Do you understand how this is very different from “Cohen plead guilty, therefore you must all accept as fact that Trump is guilty”???
“Jurisdiction” “juror unanimity” “a fair an impartial judiciary” …an individual not being ASSUMED to have committed a crime without his day in court. These are not my “opinions” or “technicalities”, its basic process
Legal arguments, such as ‘the state must ignore what is established at the federal level to be a crime’ is not a moral/ethical argument sufficient to substantiate being for or against a moral/ethical charge (such as the justice system is being weaponized against Trump). That is the legal game attorneys must play to defend or convict a defendant through our system of rules that were put in place to protect the innocent.
If you want to keep playing that game that’s fine, but don’t confuse these two very different conversations.