Trump says he 'expects to be arrested on Tuesday'

The media must really love Trump seeing all the free publicity they're giving him

oliver clotheshoffe wrote:

Okay now I know Temple is dead because no way would he not be here gloating RIP liberal douchbag.

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https://idw.community/discussion/410119/so-what-are-your-reactions-donald-trump-has-been-charged-with-34-felony-counts-of-falsifying-bus

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Trump charged with 34 felony counts in alleged hush money cover-up case
Sarah D. Wire | LA Times
Tue, April 4, 2023 at 5:00 AM MDT

Former President Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsification of business records, according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday by a New York judge, charges stemming from the alleged cover-up of a hush money payment made in the days before the 2016 election.

Trump, who was arraigned Tuesday afternoon, became the first former U.S. president to face criminal charges when he was indicted last week by the Manhattan grand jury following an investigation into a $130,000 payment made by his former attorney, Michael D. Cohen, to adult film actor Stormy Daniels. The money was allegedly paid to prevent Daniels from publicly saying she had an affair with Trump during his campaign for president.

A somber-looking Trump ignored a handful of shouted questions as he walked past police before entering the courtroom for the arraignment. He sat with his hands folded on the defense table before him for most of the proceeding.

Falsification of business records is normally a misdemeanor under New York law, but the prosecutor elevated it to a felony on the grounds that the conduct was intended to conceal another underlying crime.

The former president has been accused of later hiding a reimbursement and further compensation to Cohen by funneling those payments through his business and recording them as legal services. Cohen did not perform legal work for Trump while he was in the White House.

Despite the heavy focus on Daniels, the charges could extend further into the Trump organization and possibly include a separate payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Cohen, who pleaded guilty in 2018 to felonies related to the alleged hush money payments to Daniels and spent three years in prison, is expected to be a key witness if the case goes to trial. His lawyer, Lanny Davis, told CNN on Sunday that Cohen provided Manhattan prosecutors with “substantial documentation” of the payments to Daniels and McDougal to support his testimony.

Trump was processed Tuesday — which included fingerprinting — directly before being arraigned around 2:30 p.m. Eastern time. No other judicial proceedings were allowed on the same floor where Trump appeared before Judge Juan Merchan. Trump is likely to be released without bail.

While he was being fingerprinted, Trump’s campaign sent an email advertising a "NOT GUILTY" T-shirt with a mocked-up mugshot of the president — he did not have one taken Tuesday — that is free with a $47 contribution.

Trump traveled from Florida to New York on Monday with his Secret Service detail and political and legal teams, including newly hired lead counsel Todd Blanche, a top white-collar criminal defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor. Also with Trump at his Tuesday arraignment were attorneys Susan R. Necheles, Boris Epshteyn and Joseph Tacopina.

On Tuesday morning, a large crowd of journalists, Trump supporters and critics filled the park across the street from the courthouse to watch Trump arrive for processing.

"Heading to Lower Manhattan, the Courthouse. Seems so SURREAL — WOW, they are going to ARREST ME. Can’t believe this is happening in America. MAGA!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform moments before he exited a black SUV and walked into the building accompanied by Secret Service. At 1:24 pm. Eastern he was formally under arrest.

Chants and celebrations, complete with drums and cowbells, from anti-Trump demonstrators erupted nearby following news of Trump’s surrender.

In the middle of the park, Trump critics laid out a banner with the words “Trump Lies All The Time,” in bold, capital letters. Nadine Seiler, 57, stood nearby wearing a "Trump indicted" T-shirt and holding a banner above her head that said, “Finally coming: Trump arrested.”

Seiler said she decided to travel from her home in Waldorf, Md., after hearing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) would be in New York. Seiler said she thinks Greene wants a “second insurrection” and was traveling to New York to incite Trump supporters into action.

“I had no plans to come here. But when she decided she was going to bring her thugs to NYC, I felt obligated to come,” Seiler said.

Dion Cini of Brooklyn held a red “Trump or Death Flag,” emblazoned with the years 1776 and 2024 and an image of Trump's face. He said the Manhattan district attorney should have used resources to investigate “real crime” happening in his neighborhood. There may be a crime in this indictment, he said, but added there’s currently no line Trump could cross that would make him turn on the former president.

“Like [Trump] said, he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, and I don’t really care, because what he does for America outweighs, you know, a crime even like that,” Cini said. “He said it, I didn’t, but I support him because he’s the only American president who ever said, ever, since George Washington, America first. No president has ever said that.”

Police in New York City and across the country were concerned that planned protests could turn violent, but aside from minor altercations, demonstrations have so far remained calm.

The former president has said he plans to return to Florida following the arraignment and is expected to give a speech at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach on Tuesday evening.

Trump has a history of leveling unfounded criticism of judges and district attorneys when he's in legal trouble. On Truth Social, he has called Manhattan Dist. Atty. Alvin Bragg, who is Black, an “animal” and “racist,” and has also attacked Merchan, who oversaw a separate case involving the Trump Organization. Merchan cited the criticism of the prosecutor during the arraignment and warned Trump to refrain from social media posts that could cause unrest.

It's unclear whether his legal team will be able to persuade Trump to avoid such rhetoric during his speech at Mar-a-Lago. On Monday evening, Trump unleashed another tirade against Bragg on Truth Social, accusing him of leaking information from the indictment, which has not been unsealed.

"This means that he MUST BE IMMEDIATELY INDICTED. Now, if he wants to really clean up his reputation, he will do the honorable thing and, as District Attorney, INDICT HIMSELF," Trump wrote.

Last month, Trump warned of “potential death and destruction” if he was indicted, and law enforcement agencies are on high alert in New York and around the country. President Biden told reporters Monday that he is confident police can handle any unrest.

Trump has announced a campaign for president in 2024, and his Republican allies have sought to portray Bragg’s investigation as a politically motivated effort to interfere in the election. The probe was initiated in 2018, but was repeatedly placed on the back burner by other prosecutors.

The former president is also facing separate federal investigations into his alleged involvement in 2020 election interference by his supporters and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, along with his handling of classified documents after leaving office. Special Counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed in November by U.S. Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland, has convened grand juries to hear from witnesses in both of the federal investigations, including most recently members of Trump's Secret Service detail.

Trump also faces possible state-level election interference charges in Georgia. Fulton County Dist. Atty. Fani Willis is weighing potential indictments related to Trump’s attempts to change Georgia voting results after the 2020 election.

Trump Gets Good News About Stormy Daniels Case While in Court
Story by Nick Reynolds • 58m ago • Newsweek

Facing 34 felony counts in the investigation of hush money payments to onetime adult-film star Stormy Daniels, former President Donald Trump's camp likely welcomed some positive news after spending Tuesday afternoon in a Manhattan courtroom.

He didn't have to wait long. At the same time Trump and his legal team prepared their defense, Trump's attorneys on the other side of the country in California learned Daniels—the star witness in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's case—might owe him some money. A lot of it.

Shortly after the allegations of hush money became public, Daniels filed a defamation suit against then-President Donald Trump after he posted a tweet questioning Daniels' story of being threatened to keep quiet about an alleged affair between them.

Daniels—then working with disgraced attorney Michael Avenatti—claimed an unknown man had threatened her in 2011 in a Las Vegas, Nevada, parking lot to keep quiet about the alleged intimate relationship she'd had with the former president. A hush money payment followed, by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who testified that he paid it on the ex-president's behalf.

After Avenatti released an artist's sketch depicting the man who Daniels said threatened her, Twitter user posted a side-by-side comparison of Daniels' ex-husband and the alleged attacker. Trump responded: "A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!"

Daniels then filed a lawsuit against Trump in California. The judge ultimately found Trump was merely expressing his opinion when he posted the tweet, and ordered Daniels to reimburse him $300,000 in legal fees.



Daniels announced her intention to fight back, tweeting: "I will go to jail before I pay a penny."

On Tuesday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Daniels would be required to compensate Trump roughly $122,000 in additional attorney fees, piling onto the hundreds of thousands she'd already owed him from previous proceedings.

The ruling was celebrated on social media by Harmeet Dhillon, Trump's attorney in the case and former Republican National Committee chairwoman candidate, who had defended him in a number of cases brought by Daniels.

"Congratulations to President Trump on this final attorney fee victory in his favor this morning," wrote Dhillon. "Collectively, our firm obtained over $600,000 in attorney fee awards in his favor in the meritless litigation initiated by Stormy Daniels."



Newsweek has contacted the offices of Daniels' attorney, Corey Brewster, for comment.

Trump still faces an array of litigation in the coming months. In addition to the hush money case in Manhattan, the Department of Justice is investigating the classified documents from his time as president that were found in his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, as well as a series of probes into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Trump also faces a series of investigations into his various corporate enterprises, led by Bragg and New York State Attorney General Letitia James.

oliver clotheshoffe wrote:

WTF is the big deal anyway, isn't the entire point of paying a hooker is so she shuts up and goes away afterwards?

Heh.. another blonde enters Trump's life. The comments are hilarious:

DA Alvin Bragg Hit With Bad News After Trump Court Appearance
Martin Walsh, April 5, 2023

Former President Donald Trump appeared in lower Manhattan, New York, on Tuesday for his arraignment in the case brought against him by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 charges regarding allegations that he falsified business records related to adult film star Stormy Daniels’ hush-money case. Trump was indicted late last week by a Manhattan grand jury in a case involving his purported role in hush money payments to Daniels ahead of the 2016 election, allegedly to keep Daniels quiet about an affair the two of them had in 2006.

However, Bragg’s case against Trump is so weak that several liberal outlets are even pointing it out.

Ian Millhiser, a senior correspondent at Vox, wrote: “There is something painfully anticlimactic about Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s indictment of former President Trump. It concerns not Trump’s efforts to overthrow the duly elected government of the United States, but his alleged effort to cover up a possible extramarital affair with a porn star. And there’s a very real risk that this indictment will end in an even bigger anticlimax. It is unclear that the felony statute that Trump is accused of violating actually applies to him.”

Mark Stern, a writer for the liberal outlet Slate, published a story titled, “The Trump Indictment Is Not the Slam-Dunk Case Democrats Wanted.”

John Bolton — who served as a national security adviser in the Trump administration and has since come out against Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign — appeared on CNN and blasted the charges filed against his ex-boss, former President Trump, saying the indictment was “even weaker than I feared it would be.”

“Speaking as someone who very strongly does not want Donald Trump to get the Republican presidential nomination, I’m extraordinarily distressed by this document,” Bolton said on CNN. “I think this is even weaker than I feared it would be.”

Notorious anti-Trump GOP Sen. Mitt Romney issued a statement saying: “I believe President Trump’s character and conduct make him unfit for office. Even so, I believe the New York prosecutor has stretched to reach felony criminal charges in order to fit a political agenda. No one is above the law, not even former presidents, but everyone is entitled to equal treatment under the law. The prosecutor’s overreach sets a dangerous precedent for criminalizing political opponents and damages the public’s faith in our justice system.”

On Monday night, Trump’s attorney Alina Habba spoke on Fox News about Trump being indicted and what’s likely to happen next.

“You know, we have Letitia James, that’s probably the most prominent one that I want to discuss because that is, again, a corrupt system. They’re going after the Trump Organization, poor Allen Weisselberg is sitting in Rikers Island right now over what, valuations? This is a real estate company that has done extremely well, is successful, and they’re trying to take them and all of their individuals that lead that company down for nothing. You know, they got three years of special proceeding investigations. They interviewed almost 60 people. We have five weeks. We have a complaint filed many November, it’s going to trial in October,” Habba began.

“This shows exactly how corrupt New York’s judicial system has become. The D.A.s and the A.G.s, Jim Jordan, I hope he brings in each and every one of them and asks them where the funding came from and how they think it’s appropriate to take funding away from the city that is now falling apart, which I used to love. They are taking funding away while people are dying and there is crime rampant in the streets to go after the leading GOP Republican candidate. It is unacceptable,” she added.

“That is, for me, the most important case I have. Other than that, you know, a lot of them are cases where we have to defend against things like election fraud, things like — I have a case in Pennsylvania, you know, somebody tweeted something and they sue Donald Trump. You know, I have a case against Mary Trump and The New York Times. I’m defending the case against E. Jean Carroll In three weeks on trial in New York. Again, the same thing, rapid, rapid trials,” she concluded.

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan has also come out swinging in defense of Trump and is threatening to defund any government agencies that engage in election interference.

During an interview on Fox News, Jordan sounded off on government agencies politically targeting Trump ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

“The key is to get the facts on the table. We’re doing that with all kinds of issues where we think agencies have been turned against the very American people they’re supposed to serve. So you get the facts on the table, and then you look at legislation. Our job is we’re legislators. Our job is to pass legislation, write laws and pass legislation. So we’ll look at that. We control the power of the purse, and that’s — we’re going to have to look at the appropriations process and limit funds going to some of these agencies, particularly the ones engaged in the most egregious behavior,” Jordan declared.

“So the DOJ and the FBI?” host Maria Bartiromo asked.

“Yeah. And what I’d really like, frankly, I’d like for the government just to stay out of the election process. 2016, they spied on his campaign. 2018, the Mueller investigation. 2020 they suppressed the Hunter Biden story. 2022, they raid his home 91 days before an election, and now 2024 election, the leading candidate for the presidential nomination, they indict the former president and top candidate who’s leading in every poll,” Jordan pointed out.

“Just let ‘We, The People’ decide who we want to elect and stay out of the election process, for goodness sake,” Jordan urged.

Jordan emphasized that this is bigger than Trump, noting “This involves all of us. I don’t think it’s an accident that the same week we learned that the IRS knocked on Matt Taibbi’s door while he was testifying in Congress. That same week is when we learned a district attorney, a left-wing district attorney, a Soros-backed district attorney is going to go after the former President of the United States.”

Trump judge and his family receive threats after New York arrest
NBC News
Wed, April 5, 2023 at 6:18 PM EDT


In the 24 hours since former President Donald Trump’s arraignment, the presiding judge and his family have received multiple threats, two sources familiar with the matter said.

One official said “dozens” of threats have recently been directed at Judge Juan Merchan and his chambers but did not give an exact time frame for them.

The other source said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and other top officials in his office continue to receive threats. The threats have been in the form of calls, emails and letters.

The New York police detail assigned to the DA's office is providing extra security to all affected staff members. Court officers, meanwhile, are boosting security for the judge and the court as a whole as a precaution.

Other steps have been taken, as well. Online bios of employees at the Manhattan district attorney’s office were recently removed from the DA’s website, according to a source familiar with the matter, because of troubling posts on social media, including Trump’s Truth Social platform.

Trump and his allies have publicly criticized Merchan and his family, including his adult daughter.

Ahead of his court appearance Tuesday, Trump blasted Merchan on his Truth Social account as a "highly partisan judge" and said the judge and his family are "Trump haters." In the post, Trump said, "HIS DAUGHTER WORKED FOR ‘KAMALA’ & NOW THE BIDEN-HARRIS CAMPAIGN.”

The former president's adult sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, also posted links to stories from conservative outlets focusing on Merchan’s daughter’s employment.

Asked about remarks Donald Trump and others made about Merchan and his family, a spokesperson for the state court system said Merchan has no comment.

Merchan's daughter was listed during the 2020 election cycle as the president of Authentic Campaigns, a firm Vice President Kamala Harris used for digital fundraising and advertising during her presidential campaign. She was also listed as the president and a partner of Authentic Campaigns in a 2020 post on its website. Authentic Campaigns identifies itself as “a digital agency progressives can trust to get the job done right.”

Federal campaign finance reports show that Authentic has worked with a variety of Democratic groups, including Harris’ presidential campaign and Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign.

There’s no available evidence to suggest that Merchan's daughter has done any subsequent work for Biden and no evidence to suggest that she “now” works for a Biden political operation.

Authentic did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump was arraigned Tuesday on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments made in 2016.

Follow live updates on the aftermath of Trump’s arrest

Asked by NBC News whether Trump’s re-election campaign is concerned that his direct attacks on Bragg and Merchan hurt his legal efforts, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said Wednesday in a statement: “The Constitution guarantees impartial process and free speech. President Trump is laying out all the facts. Facts matter.”

Last month, Bragg received a letter containing a death threat and white powder. The FBI and New York police have said they were investigating.

The letter, addressed to Bragg, said, “ALVIN: I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!” the sources said. It contained a small amount of white powder.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

11,000 comments @ https://news.yahoo.com/trump-judge-family-receive-threats-233226748.html

Speaker McCarthy Says Congress Will Hold AG Alvin Bragg Accountable
Martin Walsh, April 5, 2023

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy declared that Congress will take action after former President Donald Trump appeared in Manhattan on Tuesday for his arraignment in the case brought against him by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 charges regarding allegations that he falsified business records related to adult film star Stormy Daniels’ hush-money case. Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury in a case involving his purported role in hush money payments to Daniels ahead of the 2016 election, allegedly to keep Daniels quiet about an affair the two of them had in 2006.

McCarthy voiced his frustration and vowed to hold Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg accountable.

“Alvin Bragg is attempting to interfere in our democratic process by invoking federal law to bring politicized charges against President Trump, admittedly using federal funds, while at the same time arguing that the peoples’ representatives in Congress lack jurisdiction to investigate this farce. Not so. Bragg’s weaponization of the federal justice process will be held accountable by Congress,” McCarthy tweeted.

The Manhattan judge presiding over the case against Trump warned the former president on Tuesday to not make statements that could possibly lead to violence. However, the judge did not issue a gag order, which would have limited Trump’s ability to speak about the case.

Judge Juan Merchan said that Trump and other witnesses that prosecutors intend to call should “refrain from making statements likely to incite violence or create civil unrest.”

“Prosecutor Christopher Conroy raised Trump’s recent use of incendiary language on his Truth Social media platform, highlighting a number of the posts during the proceeding and handing the judge several examples printed on paper. Because of the posts, Conroy said, prosecutors are working with Trump’s attorneys to draw up a protective order that would bar the ex-prez from posting sensitive information turned over to his legal team as part of the discovery process in the case,” the New York Post reported.

“The order currently being hashed out would bar Trump from providing the discovery material to any third party and from posting it on social media. Trump would also be required to review any shared sensitive material in the presence of his attorneys, and would not be allowed to take physical copies of such documents with him,” the outlet added.

Trump’s attorney, Todd Blanche, responded in court by arguing that the grand jury process has already been riddled with leaks and that the prosecution’s star witness, Michael Cohen, addressed reporters about his testimony in front of the building where the grand jury met.

Judge Merchan requested that Trump’s team and the prosecutors’ office work together and send him an agreed-upon order detailing how Trump can interact with sensitive material in the case as it pertains to what he can post on social media.

Many other Republicans issued strong statements in support of Trump.

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Thursday night that the state will not cooperate with any request to extradite Trump.

“The weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda turns the rule of law on its head. It is un-American. The Soros-backed Manhattan District Attorney has consistently bent the law to downgrade felonies and to excuse criminal misconduct. Yet, now he is stretching the law to target a political opponent. Florida will not assist in an extradition request given the questionable circumstances at issue with this Soros-backed Manhattan prosecutor and his political agenda,” DeSantis said.

Extradition would only be required if Trump refused to leave his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida to attend an arraignment hearing in New York.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise tweeted: “The sham New York indictment of President Donald Trump is one of the clearest examples of extremist Democrats weaponizing government to attack their political opponents. Outrageous.”

Missouri GOP Sen. Josh Hawley said: “Tonight’s indictment of Donald Trump isn’t about the law. It’s about power. Raw power. It’s the Democrat Party telling the nation they will stop at nothing to control the outcome of the next presidential election. It is an assault on our democracy, pure and simple.”

Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and 2024 GOP presidential candidate, tweeted: “From everything I have seen from this New York district attorney is that this would be something he’d be doing for political points. I think what we know is, when you get into political prosecutions like this, it’s more about revenge than it is about justice.”

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz responded: “The Democrat Party’s hatred for Donald Trump knows no bounds. The ‘substance’ of this political persecution is utter garbage. This is completely unprecedented and is a catastrophic escalation in the weaponization of the justice system.”

Alvin Bragg Facing Likelihood Of Getting Slapped with Subpoena: Report
April 7, 2023

Alvin Bragg, the far-left Manhattan district attorney who has landed himself in the middle of a political whirlwind, could be facing even more heat soon.

An unidentified source told Fox News that the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee is “seriously weighing” the possibility of subpoenaing Bragg.

“Bragg, when he took over as district attorney in January 2022, stopped pursuing charges against Trump and suspended the investigation ‘indefinitely,’ according to a letter written last year by Pomerantz. Pomerantz and Dunne, who had been leading the investigation under Bragg’s predecessor – former Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance – submitted their resignations in February 2022 after Bragg began raising doubts about pursuing a case against Trump,” Fox News reported.

“After Pomerantz resigned, he wrote a tell-all book based on the investigation, which was still ongoing. The book seemingly made the case to charge Trump,” the outlet added.

Late on Thursday night, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office accused House Republicans of launching a “campaign of harassment and intimidation” after they subpoenaed former Manhattan prosecutor Mark Pomerantz to testify on April 20.

“The House GOP continues to attempt to undermine an active investigation and ongoing New York criminal case with an unprecedented campaign of harassment and intimidation,” a spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said. “Repeated efforts to weaken state and local law enforcement actions are an abuse of power and will not deter us from our duty to uphold the law.”

The latest developments come after former President Donald Trump appeared in Manhattan on Tuesday for his arraignment in the case brought against him by Bragg.

Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 charges regarding allegations that he falsified business records related to adult film star Stormy Daniels’ hush-money case.

Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury in a case involving his purported role in hush money payments to Daniels ahead of the 2016 election, allegedly to keep Daniels quiet about an affair the two of them had in 2006.

“It was already extremely tough to effectively attack Trump from the right, and now I think it just became basically impossible,” this person added. “How can you effectively land a shot in a way that the base will accept as Democrats are literally trying to put this guy in jail over BS charges?”

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul took Bragg to task after Trump was indicted, saying Bragg could be forced out of office and into court himself.

“Wonder if DA Bragg remembers Durham DA Mike Nifong who withheld exculpatory DNA tests on the Duke lacrosse players. He was subsequently forced out of office, disbarred, and convicted of contempt of court,” Paul said, referring to Nifong, the district attorney in the 2006 case accusing Duke University lacrosse players of rape. The three players were exonerated and Nifong even spent one day in jail.

“A Trump indictment would be a disgusting abuse of power. The DA should be put in jail,” Paul said in a separate statement just before news late last week about the indictment.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy declared that Congress will take action after Trump appeared in Manhattan on Tuesday for his arraignment in the case brought against him by Bragg.

John Bolton — who served as a national security adviser in the Trump administration and has since come out against Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign — appeared on CNN and blasted the charges filed against his ex-boss, former President Trump, saying the indictment was “even weaker than I feared it would be.”

“Speaking as someone who very strongly does not want Donald Trump to get the Republican presidential nomination, I’m extraordinarily distressed by this document,” Bolton said on CNN. “I think this is even weaker than I feared it would be.”

Notorious anti-Trump GOP Sen. Mitt Romney issued a statement saying: “I believe President Trump’s character and conduct make him unfit for office. Even so, I believe the New York prosecutor has stretched to reach felony criminal charges in order to fit a political agenda. No one is above the law, not even former presidents, but everyone is entitled to equal treatment under the law. The prosecutor’s overreach sets a dangerous precedent for criminalizing political opponents and damages the public’s faith in our justice system.

Southern District Of New York Quickly Smacks Down Bragg, No Restraining Order Against Jordan
Carmine Sabia, April 12, 2023

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has not had a ton to celebrate since he announced his case against former President Donald Trump and it landed like a dud, and now it got worse for him.

On Tuesday he sued Rep. Jim Jordan, the head of the House Judiciary Committee, to demand he stops “interfering” in a local prosecution. But as quick as he filed his lawsuit a judge for the Southern District of New York refused to even file a temporary restraining order, Mike Davis of The Federalist Society reported.

“Soros-funded Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s (frivolous) lawsuit against House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan is already off to a bad start for Bragg: The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York declined to even enter a temporary restraining order,” he said, showing a screenshot of the decision.







“Summary of Soros-funded Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s (frivolous) legal argument: Congress is interfering in Bragg’s misuse of federal funds and misuse of federal law to politically interfere in the next presidential election,” he said.



Bragg on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan after the Ohio Republican’s committee sent the prosecutor a subpoena demanding information regarding the office’s indictment of former President Donald Trump last week.

In his suit, Bragg alleged that Jordan and the committee are attempting to wage an intimidation campaign over the indictment.

The D.A. said he’s taking legal action “in response to an unprecedently brazen and unconstitutional attack by members of Congress on an ongoing New York State criminal prosecution and investigation of” Trump, Fox News reported.

Fox News noted further:

Bragg, a Democrat, is asking a judge to invalidate subpoenas that Jordan, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, has or plans to issue as part of an investigation of Bragg’s handling of the Trump case.

In recent weeks, the Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena seeking testimony from a former prosecutor, Mark Pomerantz, who previously oversaw the Trump investigation. The committee has also sought documents and testimony about the case from Bragg and his office. Bragg has rejected those requests.

Earlier, reports said the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee plans to hold a field hearing on April 17 in New York City to look into how Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s policies have impacted the area and led to an increase in violent crime.

The field hearing, which is titled “Victims of Violent Crime in Manhattan,” will be held at the “Jacob Javits Federal Building just blocks from Bragg’s Lower Manhattan office and the courthouse where Trump, 76, was arraigned on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records last week,” the New York Post reported.

“The House Judiciary Committee will hear from ‘victims’ of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s policies during a hearing in New York next week — escalating a confrontation with the progressive prosecutor over his unprecedented criminal case against former President Donald Trump, The Post has learned. Republicans have slammed Bragg as being soft on conventional crime while embracing a novel legal theory to bring the first-ever criminal case against an ex-president,” the Post reported.

“We’ll be hosting this hearing next week from NYC. We’ll be hearing from victims who are suffering under DA Bragg’s pro-crime policies. If Bragg can spend resources indicting President [Donald] Trump, he should be able to address the soaring crime in NYC,” committee member Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona tweeted.





A plethora of legal experts have come forward since Trump’s indictment and argued that Bragg’s case is exceptionally weak.

“The question to ask yourself in a case like this [is], ‘Would a case like this be brought against anybody else, whether he or she be president, former president or a regular citizen?’ The answer is… no,” Former Whitewater deputy counsel Sol Wisenberg said.

“You can debate all day long whether or not… Trump should be indicted related to the records at Mar-a-Lago, whether or not he should be indicted with respect to Jan. 6 incitement of lawless activity… Those are real crimes if they occurred, and he committed them,” he said. “This is preposterous.”

Ian Millhiser, a senior correspondent at Vox, wrote: “There is something painfully anticlimactic about Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s indictment of former President Trump. It concerns not Trump’s efforts to overthrow the duly elected government of the United States, but his alleged effort to cover up a possible extramarital affair with a porn star. And there’s a very real risk that this indictment will end in an even bigger anticlimax. It is unclear that the felony statute that Trump is accused of violating actually applies to him.”

Mark Stern, a writer for the liberal outlet Slate, published a story titled, “The Trump Indictment Is Not the Slam-Dunk Case Democrats Wanted.”

House GOP Unveils Bill To Defund Manhattan DA’s Office, Make Them Repay Federal Funds
Walsh Martin Walsh, April 13, 2023

House Republicans introduced two pieces of legislation on Thursday that directly go after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg after he brought the case that led to former President Donald Trump’s indictment earlier this month.

The Daily Caller obtained both of the bills, titled the “Accountability for Lawless Violence In Our Neighborhoods Act,” or the “ALVIN Act,” and the “No Federal Funds for Political Prosecutions Act.”

The “ALVIN Act” would ban federal funds from being given to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and force the DA’s office to repay federal funds granted after January 1, 2022.

“The ‘No Federal Funds for Political Prosecutions Act,’ prohibits state or local law enforcement agencies from using funds or property attainted pursuant to section 511(e) of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 811(e)), section 981 of title 18, United States Code, or section 524 of title 28, United States Code, to investigate or prosecute the President, Vice President, or a candidate for the office of President in a criminal case while lawlessness permeates major American cities,” The Daily Caller’s Henry reported.

“District Attorney Alvin Bragg ran on a campaign pledge to indict President Trump. Bragg took the unprecedented action of converting alleged minor business misdemeanors to 34 individual felonies in an attempt to put President Trump behind bars and humiliate him and his supporters,” Biggs told the Daily Caller.

“This weaponized prosecutor’s office has spent thousands of federal taxpayer dollars to subsidize this political indictment and is demanding millions more in federal grants. It’s disturbing to see District Attorney Bragg waste federal resources for political purposes rather than addressing the serious crime in his city. As a member of the House Judiciary and Oversight & Accountability Committees, and with an almost insurmountable national debt that exceeds $ 1 trillion, the nation simply cannot afford to support Mr. Bragg’s politicization of the criminal justice system,” Biggs added.



House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan informed Bragg that his lawsuit would not slow down Republicans investigating him.

During an interview on Fox News, the Ohio Republican slammed Bragg for his “pro-crime, anti-victim policies” in New York. Jordan also hit back at Bragg for filing a lawsuit against him, accusing the DA of abusing his power to indict former President Donald Trump for “no crime!”

Alan Dershowitz: This Alvin Bragg Move Should Be Made ‘Disbarrable’
Martin Walsh, April 14, 2023

Famed attorney Alan Dershowitz is challenging Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to find “a single case” in which a person was indicted for what former President Donald Trump was indicted for earlier this month.

During an interview on “Forbes Newsroom,” Dershowitz said Bragg’s pledge to prosecute Trump while running for office should be “disbarrable.”

“I don’t think an indictment can actually come forward now after the comments made by [Robert] Costello,” the attorney said. Dershowitz added that Bragg “has proved that the main witness is going to be a perjuring liar on the witness stand, and that puts the district attorney in a terrible position.”

“If he uses Cohen as a witness, he could actually lose his bar license. It’s unethical to put a witness on the stand who you know is lying, and he has to know that Cohen will be lying. Or he tries the case without Cohen, which would be very difficult, or he does the right thing: he drops the case,” he said.

Dershowitz also argued that Bragg could face up to five years in prison if he is found guilty of leaking details of Trump’s indictment to the media. Leaking grand jury testimony to the public is a Class E felony in New York and carries a prison sentence between one and five years.

WATCH:



Dershowitz also wrote in an op-ed that whoever leaked the sealed indictment is the person guilty of the only felony, in his opinion, in this case.

“It is likely that a serious felony has been committed right under District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s nose and he is not investigating it. Under New York law, it is a felony to leak confidential grand jury information, such as whether the jurors voted to indict. The protection of secrecy is as applicable to President Trump as it is to anyone else,” Dershowitz said in an op-ed for The New York Sun.

“We know that the information was disclosed while the indictment itself remains sealed and before any official announcement was made or charges brought. It is unlikely that the leak came from the Trump team, which seemed genuinely surprised,” Dershowitz said.

“The most likely, though uncertain, scenario is that a person in Mr. Bragg’s office or a grand juror unlawfully leaked the sealed information. That would be a class E felony, subject to imprisonment. It is possible of course that an investigation is underway, but it seems more likely that Mr. Bragg is too busy making up a crime against the man he promised in his campaign to get than investigating a real crime that took place on his watch,” Dershowitz added.

Dershowitz said that it appears Bragg’s theory is that Trump should have disclosed why he paid for a non-disclosure agreement to adult film star Stormy Daniels, which would defeat the purpose of the non-disclosure agreement.

“Why would Mr. Trump pay the money in the first place if he had to publicly disclose the embarrassing reason? Furthermore, no one in history has ever been indicted for listing ‘legal expenses’ for setting a potentially embarrassing payment of hush money,” he said.

“Thus, even the misdemeanor allegation involving false entries is unprecedented and represents selective prosecution. It is also almost certainly barred by the two-year statute of limitations. In order to elevate this bookkeeping case into a felony, Mr. Bragg must also prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the reason Trump made the false entry — if he himself did it — was solely as a campaign contribution to help him win his election,” he said.

“If somebody on the grand jury, prosecutor or grand juror, leaked the fact that there was a vote to indict, that is a one – five-year class E felony under New York,” Dershowitz said. “Bragg now has a prima facia case that a crime has been committed right in his building, but as far as I know he’s not investigating it.”

oliver clotheshoffe wrote:

Hey the guy can't be add bad, after all they named a fort after him!

uhh...

oliver clotheshoffe wrote:

He knew his tactics, knew his weapons, couldn't get along with people...


I wonder if he was Lokmar's grandpa.

Lokmar is his own grandpa.

Federal Judge Rejects Bragg’s Bid To Stop Rep. Jim Jordan’s Subpoena
Martin Walsh, April 19, 2023

A federal judge has rejected Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s request to block a former prosecutor in his office from testifying before the House Judiciary Committee about the criminal case against former President Donald Trump.

“The committee and its chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), had subpoenaed ex-assistant district attorney Mark Pomerantz to give testimony about the DA’s investigation into Trump, 76, that culminated in the former president’s indictment in March. Bragg filed suit against Jordan and the Judiciary Committee, claiming the subpoena was an overreach by the GOP-led House and an attempt to influence a state criminal proceeding,” the New York Post reported. “But Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil found the subpoena was issued with a valid legislative purpose and that it was not the role of the federal judiciary to dictate how Congress operates.”

“Mr. Pomerantz must appear for the congressional deposition. No one is above the law,” Judge Vyskocil wrote in an opinion issued after a Manhattan federal court hearing.

Pomerantz is scheduled to appear for the deposition Thursday morning — unless Bragg’s office secures a delay from a federal appeals court.



Earlier this month, Bragg sued Jordan to demand he stops “interfering” in a local prosecution.

But as quick as he filed his lawsuit a judge for the Southern District of New York refused to even file a temporary restraining order, Mike Davis of The Federalist Society reported.

“Soros-funded Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s (frivolous) lawsuit against House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan is already off to a bad start for Bragg: The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York declined to even enter a temporary restraining order,” he said, showing a screenshot of the decision.




“Summary of Soros-funded Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s (frivolous) legal argument: Congress is interfering in Bragg’s misuse of federal funds and misuse of federal law to politically interfere in the next presidential election,” he said.



In his suit, Bragg alleged that Jordan and the committee are attempting to wage an intimidation campaign over the indictment.

The D.A. said he’s taking legal action “in response to an unprecedently brazen and unconstitutional attack by members of Congress on an ongoing New York State criminal prosecution and investigation of” Trump, Fox News reported.

Fox News noted further:

Bragg, a Democrat, is asking a judge to invalidate subpoenas that Jordan, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, has or plans to issue as part of an investigation of Bragg’s handling of the Trump case.

In recent weeks, the Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena seeking testimony from a former prosecutor, Mark Pomerantz, who previously oversaw the Trump investigation. The committee has also sought documents and testimony about the case from Bragg and his office. Bragg has rejected those requests.

A plethora of legal experts have come forward since Trump’s indictment and argued that Bragg’s case is exceptionally weak.

“The question to ask yourself in a case like this [is], ‘Would a case like this be brought against anybody else, whether he or she be president, former president or a regular citizen?’ The answer is… no,” Former Whitewater deputy counsel Sol Wisenberg said.

“You can debate all day long whether or not… Trump should be indicted related to the records at Mar-a-Lago, whether or not he should be indicted with respect to Jan. 6 incitement of lawless activity… Those are real crimes if they occurred, and he committed them,” he said. “This is preposterous.”

Ian Millhiser, a senior correspondent at Vox, wrote: “There is something painfully anticlimactic about Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s indictment of former President Trump. It concerns not Trump’s efforts to overthrow the duly elected government of the United States, but his alleged effort to cover up a possible extramarital affair with a porn star. And there’s a very real risk that this indictment will end in an even bigger anticlimax. It is unclear that the felony statute that Trump is accused of violating actually applies to him.”

Mark Stern, a writer for the liberal outlet Slate, published a story titled, “The Trump Indictment Is Not the Slam-Dunk Case Democrats Wanted.”