Is Trump getting arrested on Tuesday?

[Ken]

I stand a bit corrected. Trump isn't being investigated and potentially charged with the hush money to Daniels, it's all about the way the payment was covered up, which may violate campaign finance law. It may feel like a minor thing, but it's still corruption.

The $130,000 hush money payment was made by Michael Cohen and was found to be an illegal unreported campaign contribution for which Michael Cohen pled guilty and served time. He paid a $50,000 fine and served 3 years in prison for this and other tax-evasion related offenses. So yes, it is a big deal, not a minor thing.

Trump is involved because he personally reimbursed Michael Cohen for that hush money payment and actually reimbursed him double to the tune of $300,000+ dollars. There are two illegalities involved on the part of Trump. First, he reimbursed Cohen using a business account and illegally wrote it off as "legal expenses" which constitutes tax evasion. Hush money payments to a porn star cannot legally be written off on your taxes and are not a legitimate business expense.

But second, by involving himself in Cohen's scheme (or involving Cohen in his scheme as the case may be) he implicated himself in the campaign finance crime for which Cohen was convicted and served time. This is a fundamental principal of law. If you pay someone to break a law on your behalf, you are as culpable as they are. If I pay someone to go rob a bank and bring me the money I am every bit as guilty of bank robbery as they are.

Of course we are a LONG ways from seeing Trump convicted and serving time. But the legal issues involved are not trivial. Cohen was sentenced to 3 years in prison for this exact crime. Here are some other politicians and powerful people who have been convicted of the very same crime that Trump is accused of:

• Congressman Jessie Jackson Jr. (D) Sentenced to 30 months in prison for campaign finance violations
• Congressman Duncan Hunter (R): Sentenced to 11 months in prison for campaign finance violations (got off because he was pardoned by Trump)
• Congressman Carroll Hubbard (D): Sentenced to 2 years in prison for campaign finance violations.
• CT Governor and Congressman John G. Rowland (D): Sentenced and served 10 months in prison for campaign finance violations.
• MA State Legislator David Nangle (D): Sentenced to 15 months for various campaign finance and wire fraud violations.
• NC Governor Mike Easley (D): Convicted of various campaign finance and financial violations. Despite his felony conviction he only paid fines and had his law license suspended but served no time.

Look any of them up if you don't believe me. And this is by no means a complete list. There are many others.

[Bootstrap]

This is about relentlessly pursuing someone after they’re no longer in office.

He hasn't even testified once on any of these things. He managed to delay this legally for years.

Pursuing this once is reasonable.

Is it? The left has made it clear they will dredge up endless amounts of stuff on their political opponents.

So your position is that Trump never has to testify about anything even once, no matter how clear the evidence, and every charge can be dismissed by shouting that everybody is picking on him? Your position is that every criminal matter can be settled by blaming Democrats?

If that's not your position, what exactly is your position? I'm not hearing anything that sounds like a legal framework that involves the rule of law.

[Ken]

No. That’s under God’s moral system, not mine.

You have repeatedly advocated for Biblical law to be incorporated and enforced by statute in the US. Even when doing so would violate the Constitution. Why are you stopping here?

I have never said any such thing. I have simply said that natural law and God’s law are indeed just, right, and the standard by which we should judge.

I could really care less about America’s statutes, courts, “Constitution”, or the other pretending that goes on, particularly at the federal level. This particular prosecution is entirely about political payback and does not portend well for our shared future as a country.

Sure you have. You have taken positions on abortion, gay marriage, corporal punishment in schools, the death penalty, and other areas of US law based on your interpretation of Biblical law.

[Szdfan]

You have repeatedly advocated for Biblical law to be incorporated and enforced by statute in the US. Even when doing so would violate the Constitution. Why are you stopping here?

I have never said any such thing. I have simply said that natural law and God’s law are indeed just, right, and the standard by which we should judge.

I could really care less about America’s statutes, courts, “Constitution”, or the other pretending that goes on, particularly at the federal level. This particular prosecution is entirely about political payback and does not portend well for our shared future as a country.

Sure you have. You have taken positions on abortion, gay marriage, corporal punishment in schools, the death penalty, and other areas of US law based on your interpretation of Biblical law.

And you have repeatedly complained about being persecuted when you didn't agree with the law.

[appleman2006]

Its a distraction necause of yhe heat on the Bidens illegal problems coming to more & more light. And the fact the 2024 potential candidates are lining up.

The left are banking on the hopes that the American people are too stupid to not see why this focus on Trump right now. You can bet if they didn't feel threatened by his voter base they would not bother with this stunt.

Or it’s possible that Trump is actually guilty of illegal activity and that he’s calling on his supporters because he’s freaking out and knows that they will see any attempt to hold Trump accountable as “political persecution.”

If Trump is guilty of trying to bribe Stormy Daniels (which is illegal) shouldn’t he be held accountable?
Only if in fact any ordinary person would be charged for the same offence. Which is unlikly at least by this prosecutor who would not even prosecute a person for the alleged crime that Trump was offering bribes about.
For the record I think your former president while relatively effective in his former office is a sleaze bag. But I am not sure why so many are interested in a former president that has possibly committed some relatively minor crimes when it is becoming quite evident that you have a present president that is just as much a sleaze bag and has crimes hanging over his head of considerably bigger significance right now.
In summary I do not understand anyone that would think Trump should have another run but if you think President Biden is any better you really have no credibility whatsoever. And before you use the argument that the reason you spend so much time knocking President Trump is because so many professing Christians support him…… Nope not buying it as the same could be said about the many professing Christians that support Biden.

I am guessing you agree that your country is really, really messed up right now. God help us all.

[Ken]

If Trump is guilty of trying to bribe Stormy Daniels (which is illegal) shouldn’t he be held accountable?
Only if in fact any ordinary person would be charged for the same offence. Which is unlikly at least by this prosecutor who would not even prosecute a person for the alleged crime that Trump was offering bribes about.

You are wrong in your description of the case on several counts.

The crime isn't bribery. It is that the payment constituted an illegal unreported campaign contribution. Since the Trump campaign directly benefitted from the cover-up and its only purpose was to further the Trump campaign. Trump's involvement is that he illegally reimbursed Michael Cohen for making the Stormy Daniel hush money payment by using business accounts and illegally writing it off as a business expense. And he also implicated himself by reimbursing Cohen in the first place. A universal principal of criminal law is that if you pay someone to break the law you are just as culpable of the crime as they are.

And ordinary people do get convicted of this crime. Trump's attorney and "handler" Michael Cohen was, in fact, convicted of this actual offense in this very same case and served a 3-year sentence. Well, he served the last part under house arrest rather than prison due to COVID.

And many other US politicians and prominent people have also been convicted and served time for the same exact thing. I provided a partial list upstream. Poor people tend not to get convicted for campaign finance violations for the obvious reason that poor people generally do not make big illegal campaign contributions.

[GaryK]

If Trump is guilty of trying to bribe Stormy Daniels (which is illegal) shouldn’t he be held accountable?
Only if in fact any ordinary person would be charged for the same offence. Which is unlikly at least by this prosecutor who would not even prosecute a person for the alleged crime that Trump was offering bribes about.

You are wrong on several counts.

The crime isn't bribery. It is that the payment constituted an illegal unreported campaign contribution. Trump's involvement is that he illegally reimbursed Michael Cohen for making the Stormy Daniel hush money payment by using business accounts and illegally writing it off as a business expense. And he also implicated himself by reimbursing Cohen in the first place. A universal principal of criminal law is that if you pay someone to break the law you are just as culpable of the crime as they are.

And ordinary people do get convicted of this crime. Trump's attorney and "handler" Michael Cohen was, in fact, convicted of this actual offense in this very same case and served a 3-year sentence. Well, he served the last part under house arrest rather than prison due to COVID.

And many other US politicians and prominent people have also been convicted and served time for the same exact thing. I provided a partial list upstream. Poor people tend not to get convicted for campaign finance violations for the obvious reason that poor people generally do not make big illegal campaign contributions.

Wouldn't this be considered a federal crime since it had to do with a federal election? Why aren't the feds pursuing this?

[Ken]

If Trump is guilty of trying to bribe Stormy Daniels (which is illegal) shouldn’t he be held accountable?
Only if in fact any ordinary person would be charged for the same offence. Which is unlikly at least by this prosecutor who would not even prosecute a person for the alleged crime that Trump was offering bribes about.

You are wrong on several counts.

The crime isn't bribery. It is that the payment constituted an illegal unreported campaign contribution. Trump's involvement is that he illegally reimbursed Michael Cohen for making the Stormy Daniel hush money payment by using business accounts and illegally writing it off as a business expense. And he also implicated himself by reimbursing Cohen in the first place. A universal principal of criminal law is that if you pay someone to break the law you are just as culpable of the crime as they are.

And ordinary people do get convicted of this crime. Trump's attorney and "handler" Michael Cohen was, in fact, convicted of this actual offense in this very same case and served a 3-year sentence. Well, he served the last part under house arrest rather than prison due to COVID.

And many other US politicians and prominent people have also been convicted and served time for the same exact thing. I provided a partial list upstream. Poor people tend not to get convicted for campaign finance violations for the obvious reason that poor people generally do not make big illegal campaign contributions.

Wouldn't this be considered a federal crime since it had to do with a federal election? Why aren't the feds pursuing this?

Potentially they could. There are parallel campaign finance laws at both the state and federal level. But remember, presidential elections are really 50 state-level elections administered by 50 different states. The federal part doesn't really come in until the electoral college meets in DC. Most campaign finance related law is state law. Most of the lawsuits Trump filed after the 2020 election were in state courts.

So states play a very big role in presidential elections. That is how we do elections. And it is entirely appropriate for state prosecutors to get involved.

[GaryK]

You are wrong on several counts.

The crime isn't bribery. It is that the payment constituted an illegal unreported campaign contribution. Trump's involvement is that he illegally reimbursed Michael Cohen for making the Stormy Daniel hush money payment by using business accounts and illegally writing it off as a business expense. And he also implicated himself by reimbursing Cohen in the first place. A universal principal of criminal law is that if you pay someone to break the law you are just as culpable of the crime as they are.

And ordinary people do get convicted of this crime. Trump's attorney and "handler" Michael Cohen was, in fact, convicted of this actual offense in this very same case and served a 3-year sentence. Well, he served the last part under house arrest rather than prison due to COVID.

And many other US politicians and prominent people have also been convicted and served time for the same exact thing. I provided a partial list upstream. Poor people tend not to get convicted for campaign finance violations for the obvious reason that poor people generally do not make big illegal campaign contributions.

Wouldn't this be considered a federal crime since it had to do with a federal election? Why aren't the feds pursuing this?

Potentially they could. There are parallel campaign finance laws at both the state and federal level. But remember, presidential elections are really 50 state-level elections administered by 50 different states. The federal part doesn't really come in until the electoral college meets in DC. Most campaign finance related law is state law. Most of the lawsuits Trump filed after the 2020 election were in state courts.

So states play a very big role in presidential elections. That is how we do elections. And it is entirely appropriate for state prosecutors to get involved.

This is what puzzles me...

The Federal Elections Commission (FEC) has closed its investigation into whether former President Trump illegally made hush money payments to women prior to the 2016 election.

The FEC voted 4-1 to close the inquiry after failing to find that Trump or his campaign “knowingly and willfully” violated campaign finance law when his former attorney Michael Cohen paid $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep her from disclosing an alleged affair.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5 ... -payments/

Has something changed?

[Bootstrap]

Arresting your political foes is what third world banana republics do.

So therefore Trump is never guilty of anything and must never be held responsible. Like a banana republic.

Or perhaps ... if he is arrested, there will be a trial, and we will see how good the evidence is. Like a first world country. We can keep repeating this forever, but you don't ever seem to answer the question: how can a leader be held accountable for anything under your proposed rules? What rules do you propose?