34 Felony Counts Guilty

Author: ebuc

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ADreamOfLiberty
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@Double_R
The argument has never been that NDA’s are illegal.
Then how could Trump pay for an NDA?
By reporting it as a campaign contribution
And a campaign expenditure?


Indictment unnecessary, guilty until proven... actually just guilty no proof will be accepted.
Apparently you missed the trial where they provided documents, played recordings and interviewed witnesses. You are free to use google you’d like to catch up.
You're free to stop lying at anytime.

No charge of violating election law was brought against Donald Trump.


He pleaded guilty to it
He was never charged with it, it is impossible to plead guilty to crimes you were never charged with.
Funny, the southern district of NY seems to think otherwise.
Alright I was wrong, but it's clear they tacked that on to get Trump. Guilty pleas are not binding legal precedent. Cohen was not punished for this, they combined the other charges into a plea deal to confuse the issue.


But why listen to them? The only person who understands how the law works is ADOL on debateart.com.
Better than cultists like you, but I would also refer you to Alan Dershowitz, Robert Barnes, and thousands of others. Also history before 2023 AD.
Double_R
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@Greyparrot
Because there exists a law where you do not have to be charged for an underlying crime to be found guilty.
The crime he was charged for was the falsification of business records *with the intent* to commit another crime. It is not a 6th amendment violation to say that he must have actually committed the other crime in order to be charged and convicted here.

The point of the law is that the reason you do something matters. If I am on house arrest and I leave my house, that’s bad. But if the reason I left my house was to mug someone, that is far worse than if I left my house because I saw someone being mugged and decided to come to their rescue.

If your overly simplistic and purposeful misapplication of logic and morality was applied, not only would there be no difference between these two things, but the only way to determine that the action of leaving my house could only be deemed worse if I succeeded in mugging someone. So if the person turned out to be an MMA fighter and whooped my ass then because my attempt failed my actions were no worse. That’s nonsense.

This is how we go about assessing people’s actions in every other aspect of our lives. There is nothing wrong and certainly nothing unconstitutional about applying the law in the exact same way. In fact it’s how almost every law is adjudicated since the country’s founding.
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@Double_R
The crime he was charged for was the falsification of business records *with the intent* to commit another crime. It is not a 6th amendment violation to say that he must have actually committed the other crime in order to be charged and convicted here.
I know that's what the law says, but it's still unconstitutional, as intent is anything a judge or jurist can decide in the fantasyland of their own minds, which isn't based on anything logically consistent with an evidentiary trial that our justice system is based on. This is the precise mechanism that allows the law to be weaponized. I don't doubt the SCOTUS will take a hard look at this "intent" law now that the Trump trial has exposed this discrepancy. Maybe people were OK with weaponizing the law to legally assassinate gang leaders, but it was wrong then as it is now.

If I am on house arrest and I leave my house, that’s bad. But if the reason I left my house was to mug someone....
Essentially, you are praising the weaponization of the law to include "thought-crimes"
Wasn't there a book written about this dystopia? nineteen-eighty-something?
ADreamOfLiberty
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@Double_R
The point of the law is that the reason you do something matters. If I am on house arrest and I leave my house, that’s bad. But if the reason I left my house was to mug someone, that is far worse than if I left my house because I saw someone being mugged and decided to come to their rescue.
Intent is different from an act, but if the act is not criminal then the intent to do that act is not criminal.

It's not just that Trump hasn't been charged with violating election laws. It's that he didn't violate election laws and that's the best explanation for why he wasn't charged.

If you leave your house to shake someone's hand, and they call that the intent to commit assault; that is insane cult-speak. The fact that you were not charged with assault is a fact that has to be explained.

There is no way out of this. If intent means "he thinks he's doing something wrong" then it would need to be proven that YOU thought shaking someone's hand was illegal assault, and that Trump thought he was legally barred from personal NDA agreements (which is an absurdity that no one believed and now only cultist believe and only in regards to Trump and other enemies of the cult).

If intent has nothing to do with whether he thought it was illegal but only the act he intended, then whether what he intended was illegal must be adjudicated.

It is a federal statue, you need a federal judge to decide, and IF you have the supreme court decides that personal NDAs are illegal for political candidates and office holders THEN you need to apply the law equally and retroactively go after everyone whose ever paid not only NDAs but anything that could conceivably effect an election.

Why? When a legal ruling is made on interpretation ex-post facto does not apply. The ruling is that it is illegal now, it was illegal when the appellate did it, and it was illegal since the law was passed.
Double_R
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@ADreamOfLiberty
By reporting it as a campaign contribution
And a campaign expenditure?
Sure

No charge of violating election law was brought against Donald Trump.
Because that wasn’t necessary. See my earlier comments explaining why.

it's clear they tacked that on to get Trump. Guilty pleas are not binding legal precedent. Cohen was not punished for this, they combined the other charges into a plea deal to confuse the issue.
Your baseless speculation of their motives is irrelevant.
Double_R
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@Greyparrot
intent is anything a judge or jurist can decide in the fantasyland of their own minds, which isn't based on anything logically consistent with an evidentiary trial that our justice system is based on. This is the precise mechanism that allows the law to be weaponized.
Intent and the necessity of proving it is one of the most basic concepts within law. In many laws, like shoplifting, money laundering, any kind of fraud, intent isn’t just an element, it is the central element needed to be guilty. Intent is the literal difference between murder and manslaughter. The reason why is obvious; purposeful wrongdoing is worse than happenstance wrongdoing.

This is such basic common sense it is just baffling that this needs to be explained at all. This is why we call MAGA a cult, even the simplest of ideas we all live by every single day of our lives suddenly becomes unacceptable when it works against Donald Trump.

If my two year old accidentally spills water on the floor, I’ll tell her it’s ok and clean it up. If she purposefully poors it on the floor, she will be in trouble. We all know how to assess people’s intentions and we all hold people accountable for them in every aspect of our lives. The law is no different.
ADreamOfLiberty
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@Double_R
By reporting it as a campaign contribution
And a campaign expenditure?
Sure
...and if it was a campaign expenditure then he could have used donation money correct?


Your baseless speculation of their motives is irrelevant.
Suddenly intent and context don't matter

l o l
ADreamOfLiberty
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Oh and here is a micro example of the context shifting (redherring, strawman) that Double_R is at all times engaged in:


[Double_R] Not reporting it as the campaign contribution it actually was… that’s where it became illegal.
[ADOL] Indictment unnecessary, guilty until proven... actually just guilty no proof will be accepted.
[Double_R] Apparently you missed the trial where they provided documents, played recordings and interviewed witnesses. You are free to use google you’d like to catch up.
[ADOL] No charge of violating election law was brought against Donald Trump.
[Double_R] Because that wasn’t necessary.
So it became illegal when it was not reported, that means without that element it was not illegal.

Double_R is trying to gaslight people into believing that even if an element is necessary for illegality it does not need to be charged.
ADreamOfLiberty
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Oh and here is a micro example of the context shifting (redherring, strawman) that Double_R is at all times engaged in:


[Double_R] Not reporting it as the campaign contribution it actually was… that’s where it became illegal.
[ADOL] Indictment unnecessary, guilty until proven... actually just guilty no proof will be accepted.
[Double_R] Apparently you missed the trial where they provided documents, played recordings and interviewed witnesses. You are free to use google you’d like to catch up.
[ADOL] No charge of violating election law was brought against Donald Trump.
[Double_R] Because that wasn’t necessary.
So it became illegal when it was not reported, that means without that element it was not illegal.

Double_R is trying to gaslight people into believing that even if an element is necessary for illegality it does not need to be charged.
Double_R
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@ADreamOfLiberty
Sure
...and if it was a campaign expenditure then he could have used donation money correct?
If the money was donated to the campaign? Sure.

Your baseless speculation of their motives is irrelevant.
Suddenly intent and context don't matter
Suddenly English doesn’t matter. Read my words again. Note the bold.

So it became illegal when it was not reported, that means without that element it was not illegal.
Uh, yeah. If it was reported as a campaign donation then it would have been accurate, which is the opposite of falsification.

Double_R is trying to gaslight people into believing that even if an element is necessary for illegality it does not need to be charged.
Uh, yeah genius. That’s how prosecution of laws normally works.

In almost any crime there are numerous elements that have to be proven. I’ve never heard of a crime where each of the elements required their own charge and definitely not their own trial and conviction.

In NY, 1st degree murder occurs when the defendant causes the death of their victim during the coarse of a robbery. The fact that the element of a robbery has to be proven does not require the defendant to first be charged and tried for robbery. In fact, it doesn’t even require that the defendant did in fact rob their victim, only that the murder occurred during the course of the robbery. In other words, the prosecution only needs to show their intent to rob, not the actual commission of the underlying crime.

This is the exact same thing.
ADreamOfLiberty
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@Double_R
Sure
...and if it was a campaign expenditure then he could have used donation money correct?
If the money was donated to the campaign? Sure.

Let me know if anything stands out.


In fact, it doesn’t even require that the defendant did in fact rob their victim, only that the murder occurred during the course of the robbery. In other words, the prosecution only needs to show their intent to rob, not the actual commission of the underlying crime.

This is the exact same thing.
Except for the fact that there was no murder and no robbery.

There was no falsification and NDAs aren't campaign spending unless you want it to be campaign spending so you can spend donated dollars.
Greyparrot
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@ADreamOfLiberty
Double_R is trying to gaslight people into believing that even if an element is necessary for illegality it does not need to be charged.

6th Amendment exists.
ADreamOfLiberty
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@Greyparrot
The actual meaning of the text for the 6th amendment and every other amendment and every law does not exist to Double_R when they are inconvenient to the destruction of the orange Hitler.
Double_R
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@ADreamOfLiberty
Let me know if anything stands out.
Nope. But I only skimmed through it because it’s a very long page, got halfway through before I decided to stop wasting my time. If you have a point feel free to make it.

There was no falsification and NDAs aren't campaign spending
Paying $130k to a porn star to stay quiet is not a legal expense, it’s a campaign contribution.

So there.
Double_R
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@Greyparrot
6th Amendment exists.
Yes it does. So are you going to make an argument as to how it’s relevant or just keep implying it?
ADreamOfLiberty
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@Double_R
Let me know if anything stands out.
Nope.
How unsurprising.

[FEC] In specific situations the Commission has concluded that campaign funds may be used to pay for up to 50 percent of legal expenses that do not relate directly to allegations arising from campaign or officeholder activity (for example, activity prior to becoming a candidate or officeholder or activity of a business owned by the candidate/officeholder) if the candidate or officeholder is required to provide substantive responses to the press regarding the allegations of wrongdoing.
Try that.


I decided to stop wasting my time.
No you haven't, you're still trying to gaslight people who will never fall for it.


There was no falsification and NDAs aren't campaign spending
Paying $130k to a porn star to stay quiet is not a legal expense, it’s a campaign contribution.
As if there is a dichotomy?

I bought some milk, it was neither payment to a porn star nor a campaign contribution; but I'm sure if I was a threat to the deep state and I labeled it as a "food expense" you ilk would be confidently assuring everyone that "milk is a drink, not food; it's always been this way, no one is above the law"


6th Amendment exists.
Yes it does. So are you going to make an argument as to how it’s relevant or just keep implying it?
Well you god damn cultist, in order to defend yourself from the accusation of a crime or the accusation of the intent to commit a crime; that crime has to be specified.

Only one theory of the elements of the crime are permitted in law and order, but I know that's not how you operate.
Sidewalker
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@Double_R
6th Amendment exists.
Yes it does. So are you going to make an argument as to how it’s relevant or just keep implying it?
The cult tells them what to say, it does not tell them why they are told to say it,
Greyparrot
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@Sidewalker
Lol, the cult of the Constitution?
Double_R
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@ADreamOfLiberty
[FEC] In specific situations the Commission has concluded that campaign funds may be used to pay for up to 50 percent of legal expenses that do not relate directly to allegations arising from campaign or officeholder activity (for example, activity prior to becoming a candidate or officeholder or activity of a business owned by the candidate/officeholder) if the candidate or officeholder is required to provide substantive responses to the press regarding the allegations of wrongdoing.
Try that.
I think you pasted the wrong section.

Again, the $130k paid *TO* Stormy Daniels is not a legal expense, so the entire section is void at the outset.

Trump concealed the payment, again making it void.

It allows for 50%, Trump paid it all himself.

It requires him to provide “substantive responses to the press” regarding the allegations. That’s the complete opposite of everything this was about.

Well you god damn cultist, in order to defend yourself from the accusation of a crime or the accusation of the intent to commit a crime; that crime has to be specified.
It was genius. NY Election law Chapter 17, Article 17, Title 1, Section 17-152 “Conspiracy to promote or prevent election”. And the underlying crime to that law was the Federal Campaign Act of 1971.

And since you really want to know, Title 52 Chapter 301, Subchapter 1, 30101 defines a campaign contribution:

The term “contribution” includes— (i) any gift, subscription, loan, advance, or deposit of money or anything of value made by any person for the purpose of influencing any election for Federal office;

While 30102, section C subsection 5 explains what is required  regarding campaign contributions:

(c) Recordkeeping. The treasurer of a political committee shall keep an account of— (5) the name and address of every person to whom any disbursement is made, the date, amount, and purpose of the disbursement, and the name of the candidate and the office sought by the candidate, if any, for whom the disbursement was made, including a receipt, invoice, or cancelled check for each disbursement in excess of $200.
cristo71
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@Greyparrot
Because there exists a law where you do not have to be charged for an underlying crime to be found guilty.

6th Amendment strictly prohibits this.
Looks like plenty of grounds for appeal. This, from a WSJ column:

All nine justices in Schad, then, believed unanimity is required to convict when the means by which a crime can be committed are so broad that the accused doesn’t receive fair notice of the basis of the charge. New York’s election law requires that the violation occur “by unlawful means,” so any “unlawful” act—including, in Scalia’s example, either robbery of failure to file a tax return—can qualify. That’s clearly overbroad. Thus, Judge Merchan’s instruction that the jury “need not be unanimous as to what those unlawful means were” was unconstitutional.
So, either the underlying crimes required unanimity among the jurors, OR the defense was entitled to prior full disclosure of what those underlying crimes were in order to mount a defense. Neither occurred.
ADreamOfLiberty
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@Greyparrot
You know that thing was written by a bunch if insurrectionists?
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@cristo71
I think people forget that the jurist's responsibility is to question the charges, not agree with twisted and convoluted interpretations. It's definitely going to appeal with all the unanswered questions about campaign finance law, what constitutes an expenditure, and when exactly is a legal expense not a legal expense.
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@Double_R

[FEC] In specific situations the Commission has concluded that campaign funds may be used to pay for up to 50 percent of legal expenses that do not relate directly to allegations arising from campaign or officeholder activity (for example, activity prior to becoming a candidate or officeholder or activity of a business owned by the candidate/officeholder) if the candidate or officeholder is required to provide substantive responses to the press regarding the allegations of wrongdoing.
Try that.
It allows for 50%, Trump paid it all himself.

It requires him to provide “substantive responses to the press” regarding the allegations. That’s the complete opposite of everything this was about.
Ah, so he wasn't required to provide "substantive responses to the press" regarding the allegations and what does that imply in the context of that publication?

Hint: Trump wouldn't be allowed to do something, he would not be allowed to pay 50% of the expense with X funds. What is X?
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@ADreamOfLiberty
I wonder if in some convoluted court, judge Merchan could be charged with the crime of "concealing information helpful or detrimental to an election" when he gagged Trump.
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@Greyparrot
I wonder if in some convoluted court, judge Merchan could be charged with the crime of "concealing information helpful or detrimental to an election" when he gagged Trump.
What an excellent point!

Now in a previous era of law and order somebody might say something like "immunity while executing duties of office", but that was then. Now we know there is no such thing. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW hahhahaaaa!
Double_R
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@ADreamOfLiberty
Ah, so he wasn't required to provide "substantive responses to the press" regarding the allegations and what does that imply in the context of that publication?

Hint: Trump wouldn't be allowed to do something, he would not be allowed to pay 50% of the expense with X funds. What is X?
What are you talking about?

The section you quoted says that the campaign can pay *up to* 50% of his personal legal expenses under certain conditions.

So if the payment to Stormy Daniels was a legal expense (it’s not) then the campaign can pay half of it provided it meets the proceeding requirements (it didn’t).

But even granting you all of that…

If he never reported the money as a contribution to the campaign in the first place then he cannot claim the money as a campaign expenditure. It has to be the campaigns’s money in order for the campaign to spend it, so this entire section is irrelevant.

So what is your point?
Double_R
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@Greyparrot
I wonder if in some convoluted court, judge Merchan could be charged with the crime of "concealing information helpful or detrimental to an election" when he gagged Trump.
It’s always amusing watching MAGA cultists purposefully strawman the legal arguments applied as a means to make them sound as stupid as possible, to then use their own made up stupid interpretations as an excuse to impose their own stupid arguments.

Stupidity on top of stupidity.


ADreamOfLiberty
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@Double_R
So what is your point?
Oh, my patience will be infinite I promise you. No matter how dumb you act, I will spoon feed it until you have nothing left but denial.


So if the payment to Stormy Daniels was a legal expense (it’s not) then the campaign can pay half of it provided it meets the proceeding requirements (it didn’t).
You claim it didn't meet those requirements, so therefore how much can be covered by campaign money?
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@Greyparrot
I wonder if in some convoluted court, judge Merchan could be charged with the crime of "concealing information helpful or detrimental to an election" when he gagged Trump.
[Double_R] It’s always amusing watching MAGA cultists purposefully strawman the legal arguments applied as a means to make them sound as stupid as possible, to then use their own made up stupid interpretations as an excuse to impose their own stupid arguments.

Stupidity on top of stupidity.
The cultist is a bit triggered...
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@ADreamOfLiberty
I did say "convoluted court"

Maybe the truth hurts?