Tag Archives: hush money

crime news

Does ex-POTUS want prison time?

It is striking to listen to the bellicose blathering of the blowhard who once served as our commander in chief.

He’s been convicted by a jury of his peers of 34 felony counts. Donald Trump continues to insist he’s innocent of any wrongdoing. He says the jury was rigged. The trial was a sham. The judge is a crook.

Now … why is this important? Because in about a month, the same judge who presided in NYC over the hush money trial is going to hand down a sentence. It might include probation. It might include some time behind bars.

The judge is Juan Merchan, who’s thought to be a meticulous jurist. One of the things I’ve always heard about sentencing procedures is that judges look for contrition among criminal defendants. They look for some semblance of ownership that the defendant did something wrong.

Judge Merchan isn’t getting any of that from this defendant. He’s getting insults, invective, epithets and threats of violent reaction.

All of this makes me wonder if Donald John Trump actually is inviting some prison time.

Don’t you know that July 11 is going to be an extremely big day.

crime news

This dude’s life about to get seriously uncomfy

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POTUS 45’s life is about to enter a world in which no man should have to visit …. but he’s got it coming to him.

The former Liar in Chief is going on trial beginning Monday in a New York state court on charges that he spent campaign money illegally by paying $130,000 to an adult film actress to keep her quiet about a one-night stand she alleges occurred between her and the future POTUS.

The former Philanderer in Chief denies it happened, but he paid her the money anyway. Go figure that one, folks.

The tryst allegedly occurred just as the ex-POTUS’s wife was caring for the couple’s then-infant son.

How long will this circus last? Some legal experts say it could be over in three weeks to a month once they seat a jury of the former Moron in Chief’s “peers.”

My favorite aspect of this is that because it’s a criminal trial, the defendant will be forced to sit through it all. He’ll get to watch the former alleged paramour tell jurors of what occurred in the hotel room that night. He’ll have to listen to his former lawyer/fixer/right-hand man tell them how the ex-POTUS ordered him to write the check.

Hey, it’ll be fun to watch.

crime news, national news, political news

Let the trial begin … and end

Eight days from now a judge in New York City is going to bang a gavel and call for the beginning of a trial.

It won’t be an ordinary trial. The criminal defendant will be a former president of the United States. He will make history by being the first ex-POTUS ever to stand trial.

The ex-POTUS has three more trials awaiting him once this one concludes. The others are more consequential in terms of the charges leveled against him. First things first, though.

The NYC trial is going to take the former POTUS off the campaign trail for as long as it takes to reach a conclusion. He’ll be in court listening to testimony alleging how he misused campaign funds to pay off an adult film actress to keep quiet about a one-night stand the two of them had, but which the former POTUS said didn’t happen.

Go figure.

The defendant cut a check for the actress totaling 130 grand to shut her up.

This might not be the biggest legal deal facing the former POTUS. Still, it’s pretty damn big. District Attorney Alvin Bragg has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did what has been alleged. It’s a criminal case, after all, so the bar is set high.

I will not shy away from — or apologize for — my hope that DA Bragg delivers the goods to the jury that will decide this matter. I want the former POTUS to be convicted of the crime that has been alleged. I also want him locked up and kept out of public view. He is an existential menace to the nation he seeks to lead once more.

God help us if there are enough stupid Americans out there to put him back into the Oval Office.

In many crucial ways, this is the most important trial in U.S. history. It’s going to make for the highest political drama any of have ever witnessed.

crime news

Let’s have that speedy trial

Donald Trump has been characterized as the master of delay, of foot-dragging and one who would employ any tactic necessary to prolong the search for the truth where it involves his alleged criminality.

But wait! He also says the indictments handed down against him — one in New York and the other in Miami — are baseless. They are political witch hunts, he contends.

Here’s an idea. How about we proceed with all deliberate speed and knock these trials out in a “speedy” manner prescribed in the Constitution?

Special counsel Jack Smith, who delivered the south Florida indictment in the case involving those classified documents, said he would work toward a speedy trial.

If the former POTUS is innocent, he shouldn’t object to getting these matters adjudicated in a timely fashion. After all, he has a presidential campaign awaiting him, correct?

The first Republican primaries are just a few months away. Trump says he wants to return to the White House and has promised his supporters that he will be “your retribution.” That, in itself, is a frightening thought. He doesn’t need to say another word about whether he is fit for public office. He clearly is not!

If he is not guilty of the allegations leveled in the hush money case involving the adult film star or in the classified documents case, then let us proceed to a quick disposition of this matter.

You know and I know the same thing. It is that the evidence for a conviction has piled up all around Trump, particularly in the documents matter.  Oh, we still have the 1/6 insurrection probe that will conclude in due course and which likely will produce even more indictments.

Hey, an innocent man would have no reason to delay an outcome … correct?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail

crime news

First of many ‘shoes’ to drop

It looks for all the world as though the first of many so-called “shoes” is about to drop on the former president of the United States.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is set to indict the ex-POTUS on a felony charge of paying a porn star 130 grand in hush money illegally. The ex-POTUS denies having an affair, for which he shelled out the dough to keep her quiet. Which makes me ask: If he didn’t take a tumble with Stormy Daniels, why did he pay her a six-figure sum to keep her quiet?

Oh, well. My favorite aspect of this unprecedented event will be to see — presuming Bragg goes through with the indictment — how they’re going to treat the ex-president. Will they fingerprint him, take his mug shot, cuff him and throw him into the slammer until someone pays his bail to get him out?

If so, I want there to be plenty of pictures. It is, after all, a public event, using public money and using publicly funded facilities to carry out this act.

Just think: There could be more indictments to come as well. Wow!

Stand tall, Mr. Ex-POTUS. You’re likely to make history once again!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Go ahead … testify

The Manhattan, N.Y., district attorney has invited Donald J. Trump to testify before a grand jury examining a hush money payment he made to a porn star before he became president of the United States.

Trump has said all along he has “nothing to hide.” That he’s done “nothing wrong.” That it’s all a “witch hunt” aimed at sullying his reputation — if that’s even possible!

DA Alvin Bragg is examining whether the hush money was filed properly by the Trump Organization, which already has been indicted for tax fraud. The porn star, Stormy Daniels, received the money to keep her quiet about a tumble she took with Trump — which Trump denies ever happened.

OK. So … why wouldn’t he testify? Oh, wait! I know why not. He cannot tell the truth.

He would have to swear to tell the truth under threat of committing a perjury, which is a crime. Except that Trump cannot speak truthfully about anything.

Oh, well. Never mind. He won’t testify. I get it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

business news

POTUS, a lifelong New Yorker moves to Florida

What do you know about this? Donald Trump, a native of New York City, the guy who built his business there, who has called Trump Tower in Manhattan his official residence since 1983, now has changed his residence to Florida.

What gives? I wonder if it has something to do with Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.’s subpoena demanding eight years worth of Trump’s tax returns relating to the DA’s investigation into that $130,000 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, the porn queen with whom Trump (allegedly) had a one-night fling in 2006.

Do ya think? Well … I do.

I’m not sure if Trump’s declaring Florida as his official residence makes it more difficult to obtain those returns. Still, it sure looks to me as if the president is trying to keep something out of someone’s hands.

business news

Tax returns: Are they going to be released … finally?

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has invoked the legal power of his office to seek to obtain something that has been on the minds of millions of Americans since the moment Donald Trump announced his campaign for the presidency of the United States.

Vance has subpoenaed Trump’s tax returns. Yep, he’s on the hunt for information relating to that hush money payment Trump made to a porn star to keep her quiet about a fling that Trump says never happened.

Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels, is back in the news. 

Clifford said she and Trump had a one-night tumble in 2006 in a hotel room. Trump said it didn’t happen, but he paid her 130 grand to keep quiet about it anyway. Go figure.

Vance wants to see Trump’s tax returns over the past eight years to find out the details of how the payment was made and whether the president violated campaign finance laws to make it.

Well now. How do you think this will turn out?

I happen to one American who believes I have a right to know about the president’s finances. I want to know whether he’s as rich as he says he is. I want to know whether he has profited from his high office. I want to know how much he has given to charity. I want to know the kinds of things Americans have known about past presidents and presidential candidates dating back more than four decades.

You see, Trump once promised he would reveal his taxes. Then he changed his mind. Then he said he would do so again. Then he backtracked again. He contends the Internal Revenue Service is auditing his taxes; the audit bans him from releasing the returns, he said. The IRS said, um, no … the audit does no such thing.

Donald Trump has lied and dissembled over the tax returns.

Vance reportedly informed the president’s accounting firm(s) of his desire to see the returns. Trump no doubt will fight it like hell, which I guess is his right.

The liar in chief, though, promised full transparency regarding his tax returns. He has failed to deliver on that promise, just as he has failed to “make America great again.”

Count me as an American who wants DA Cyrus Vance to get his hands on the tax returns. While he’s at it, he can let the country know what they contain.

legal news

Is POTUS above the law?

Federal prosecutors are making some serious allegations against the president of the United States.

They are alleging that Donald Trump orchestrated the illegal payments to two women with whom he allegedly had sexual relations; the payments were made to keep them quiet about the encounters, which — quite naturally — Trump says never happened.

The allegations bring to mind a key question. Does the U.S. Constitution protect the president from indictment?

Trump in trouble?

I cannot pretend to be a presidential scholar, but I’ve read the document from beginning to end several times over many years. I am not at all aware of where it says in there that the president is immune from criminal prosecution if he commits an offense such as, oh, authorizing illegal payments to women with whom he took a tumble . . . allegedly!

Is it contained in Article II, the part of the U.S. Constitution that deals with presidential power and authority? Is it somewhere in any of the amendments that were added to the document? If it’s in there, someone will have to tell me where to look.

We keep hearing all the time that “no one is above the law” in this country. Does that include the president?

I believe that when we declare that the law excludes “no one,” that the president must be included in the masses of Americans who can, and do, face criminal prosecution if they mess up.

national news

Avenatti won’t run for White House . . . hooray!

I cannot let the day pass without acknowledging my joy at the news that Michael Avenatti, the loudmouth lawyer and cable talk show blowhard, won’t seek the Democratic Party’s nomination for president of the United States.

Avenatti was an unknown lawyer before he agreed to represent a woman named Stephanie Clifford, who’s better known as Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress who alleges she and Donald John Trump engaged in a one-night tumble in a hotel room in 2006.

She then took a $130,000 payment from Trump to stay quiet — about an event Trump said didn’t happen. Go figure, man.

Well, Avenatti thought he would parlay his instant celebrity status into a presidential candidacy. Now he says he won’t do it. He has talked to his family and decided he has better things to do. The allegation that he struck a woman also might have had something to do with his decision to pass on a presidential campaign.

Count me as delighted to know we won’t have to listen to Avenatti make political pledges he can’t — or won’t — honor. I just wish he would forgo all those cable news show appearances. I am weary of the sound of his voice and the sight of his face.