The Stormy Daniels hush money trial is scheduled to begin in two weeks. Naturally this means that Donald Trump's legal team is just now getting around to asking for a delay while we wait for the Supreme Court to rule on whether Trump is automatically immune to prosecution for anything he did while president.
The timing of this is obviously suspect, but you may also be wondering what official presidential acts Trump is trying to protect. After all, this case is about alleged hush money paid to keep Stormy Daniels quiet during the 2016 campaign, months before Trump was inaugurated.
One possibility is that although Michael Cohen made the payments in 2016 on Trump's behalf, he was reimbursed in 2017, while Trump was in office. But it turns out that's not part of Trump's argument. Instead, he's arguing that part of the prosecution's case includes evidence of statements Trump made in 2018. That's it. The actual acts predated his presidency, but some of his incriminating public statements were made on Twitter two years later. And nothing he said while in office can be used in the case.
This seems mighty thin to me, but IANAL. Stay tuned.
“The actual acts predated his presidency, but some of his incriminating public statements were made on Twitter two years later. And nothing he said while in office can be used in the case.”
It’s too bad none of these presidential powers were discovered until just now in 2024. The Whitewater and Ken Starr circus were supposedly about “actual acts that predated his presidency” too - but Clinton still had to respond to all of it for years until Ken Starr discovered Monica. (Hell, sex with her and then lying about it happened during his presidency, which could’ve just been part of his presidential duties per the immunity case percolating through SCOTUS.)
But I assume any ruling in favor of Trump in any of these cases will come with IOKIYAR clauses.
I expect some version of “he had a reasonable expectation of immunity since the was no Supreme Court ruling on the subject and therefore can’t be prosecuted but today’s ruling that there is no immunity should only be applied henceforward and please Mr. Biden call off Seal Team 6.” In other word IOKIYADT.
There's definitely zero chance of Biden calling Seal Team 6 to do anything to his rivals. If Biden's left Merrick Garland in charge of the DOJ after everything he's done to ensure that Hunter Biden's taxes, drug problem, foreign income, gun, laptop and penis remain in the news forever, there's no way that Biden is going to order the assassination of anyone in the US... even if we assume that the SCOTUS ruling of "presidents are kings" doesn't have an IOKIYAR or IOKIYAT clause attached to it.
The state courts should just allow the case to move forward--and he's welcome to appeal after the trial...
Yeah, until SCOTUS gets itself an army to enforce its rulings, the state courts should simply be like "we're going to proceed unless we're physically stopped by someone." And Biden should let them proceed.
As I understand it, according to the provisions in the Presidential Records Act, Trump can declassify hush money payments that were kept in boxes flown to Bedminster, and also submit bogus electoral vote slates as long as they include a powerful disclaimer clause about a rape that did not happen.
Is it too much to hope for that before the election SCOTUS will have denied Trump's bogus immunity claim; that he'll be convicted of something and that he will have run out of bond money sources?
Yes. It's too much to hope for a conviction prior to the November election. That's been my thought for most of the past year: it's been obvious our system of justice is blindly, blandly legalistic to a fault, and has not from the getgo possessed the sense of urgency appropriate for the moment.
I very sincerely hope I'm proved wrong. But things don't look good. I think the documents matter is in the hands of a stone MAGA judge; I think the Georgia matter is rife with serious problems for the prosecution; and the Jack Smith, matter, I predict, will be delayed at some point until after the election, quite possibly per order of the Supreme Court, which will invent a reason a private citizen gets a maximum delay in order to fullfull his political ambitions.
You are far too kind. SCOTUS could have refused to hear Trump's ludicrous immunity claim. At least 4 justices, I'm guessing Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh, and Gorsuch, concluded that this nonsense merited a "fair hearing". Having concluded that, they could have committed to an expedited schedule as was done for Bush vs Gore where they literally ruled in 3 days after the petition was filed. At least 4 judges have put both fists on the scale for Trump and due to sacred SCOTUS norms, we aren't allowed to know who they are. Of course the esteemed justices would never resort to partisan hackery, that is unthinkable.
Team Trump is made up solely of lawyers willing to win in the short run, and lose it all in the long run for their client. Everything they win on has a side of irony attached to it.
They have no actual legal arguments, just the ability to delay things. As Trump has found throughout much of his career, however, that's often all you need.
Justice delayed is justice denied. Perfect for a man who doesn't want justice to be ever served.
In related news, WAPO reports that Lara Trump is purging the RNC just before the election. The family business is doing so well, of course, that it makes sense to run the Republican Party using the same sure-to-assure loyalty-to-the-Donald methods. Donald Trump's fines? Millions of dollars! Watching the GOP come apart at the seams? Priceless.
Was Clinton immune from "lying" to Congress?
Clinton didn't lie to Congress.
No. He lied during a deposition and was later fined $90,000 by the judge because of it.
Granted, his lies are minuscule compared to Trump's. While both men are substantially crooked, they are *not* in the same league.
IMHO, only one thing matters. What matters is the Democrats holding on to the Senate, winning back the House, and a massive win by President Biden. That is the only signal Republicans are capable of hearing, and everything else is noise, but that is the signal I believe they're going to get.
Is it possible that enough parts will fall off the "Walking Dead" Republican House before November so they can't even think about cheating?
I think what will keep the Republicans from cheating is the lack of money, now that Lara Trump is in charge and can funnel it all to Trump's legal defense and penalties. That doesn't leave much behind for the ratfckers or election "watchers" or anybody else on the actual front lines of election manipulation. The people who would do it for free - e.g. the suckers who stormed the Capitol - are generally incompetents... you need some people who know what they're doing to steal an election effectively, and those people expect to be paid.
IMHO, only one thing matters. What matters is the Democrats holding on to the Senate, winning back the House, and a massive win by President Biden.
Almost no chance of a Senate hold. Also, haven't seen the specifics, but I'm seeing headlines about an inflation bump. I've long been of the opinion that Joe Biden is fairly likely to win a second term (despite the grimness of polls right now) because of the likely trajectory of the economy.
But if inflation really hasn't been killed off, then Trump becomes an increasingly strong favorite to win this thing.
I do believe Democrats would win the House majority back, mind you, in the event Joe prevails.
I really hope you're wrong about the Senate thing. But the magic eight-ball says otherwise.
You can tell me that I was wrong in November. Till then, I stand by my prediction that we'll be looking down at the MAGA movement's grave by year's end.
Interesting that he is showing he cares about this case just as much as he cares about the J6 and documents cases. The whole Stormy thing has arguably always been easier to understand for the lumpenproletariat than the other stuff. Plus it highlights that he didn't marry the All American girl. He just abused her.
State courts in NY should say "Laches" and proceed. That's lawyer-code for "You waited too long to raise the issue, denied with prejudice but you can try to appeal it after the trial."
When will the "supremes" realise that t-Rump is playing them like a toothless saw. They have certainly lost respect and credibility.
I hope that soon, there will be laws passed to have retirement age and term limits. There is nothing wrong with wishful thinking.
I don't know about wishful thinking - Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz wrote about " hope, malignant hope..."
"When will the 'supremes' realise that t-Rump is playing them like a toothless saw."
At least half of them are closet royalists who do think that if the president is not a king, he is at least king-like and/or believe that they must, from their august heights, weigh in on the weighty issues of the day, and that the country is and should be grateful for their wisdom.
And at least one Justice (and probably more like two or three) likely actually believes that Biden is a crook who stole an election from poor, poor Donnie (I mean, do you think that whenever Ginny Thomas goes off on a rant about election fraud that her husband just sighs and says "well, darling, we'll just have to agree to disagree"?)
Unlike in the recent civil cases, Trump is actually required to be in court every day for the criminal trial. This is not going to go well, because his spoiled toddler routine in the two earlier trials probably had a lot to do with the massive penalties he received. The judges and juries weren't having any of it. Had he just sat there and behaved like a normal human being, even showing some mild contrition, those awards might have been a lot lower. But no, in addition to having a moron for a lawyer, he really had to let the asshole flag fly. FAFO, as they say.