Andrew McCarthy helped me figure it out. This case is Alvin Bragg's version of 'stop the steal' . (isn't it ironic that Trump is being prosecuted by a guy named Bragg)

Quote:

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Yes, of course, Bragg has indicted Trump for a nonsensical business-records falsification offense — a mere misdemeanor that he has abusively tried to inflate into 34 felonies. But that’s not what he and Democrats are really alleging.

What they want to say, instead, is that Trump stole the 2016 election. Only they can’t do that. After all, that would make them election deniers — just like Trump.

---

‘Hush money’ is not a crime, and Bragg has no case against Trump (nypost.com)

So how would former Presidents fared with Smith's standards applied ?

Lincoln suspended habeas corpus . Chief Justice Roger Taney ruled only Congress had that power. Lincoln ignored his decision until the end of the war. Under Smith's standards Lincoln could've been prosecuted after he left office.

Truman seized steel mills during the Korea war. SCOTUS ruled that was in violation of the Constitution. No conspiracy charges were ever made against Truman.

Every President since WWII has taken military action without Congressional authorization. None have been charged .

There have been many cases that support immunity for official acts . The only question really on the table is if Trump's actions were "official acts ".
This is new territory .How the court decides is anyone's guess.

The hatred that exists out there for Trump is something to see. It's similar to what was there for Obama but a good deal more intense. No doubt that much of it is generated by his personality, but the remainder, which is a lot, is difficult to pinpoint. I'm sure some of it has to do with the fact that he derailed the Hillary machine. For that matter, he derailed the liberal/progressive political freight train which was thought to be ready to pull into the station as a permanent exhibit. He also made appointments to SCOTUS that did away (somewhat) with a woman's supposed right to have her unborn baby killed. But even with all of that, it is a little puzzling to me to explain this incredible hatred that exists.

Trump will likely go to jail . Havey Weintein will likely go free.

Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction overturned by New York appeals court: The latest (yahoo.com)

Bragg may regret having David Pecker (what a perfect name for a tabloid publisher ) as his opening witness . Pecker is in the process of destroying Bragg's case .He testified that Trump “had no idea what [he] was talking about” when he asked about reimbursing Michael Cohen for the Stormy payment. He said that the "catch and kill" stategery was concocted by him and Cohen ;not Trump.

Trump's lawyer should also point out that a rag like the 'National Enquirer' ;not fit for bird cage liner ,was the publication uses to 'catch and kill ' a Trump scandal while it was the Sllmes ;Compost , and the rest of the compliant press that was used to 'catch and kill ' the Hunter Biden laptop story .

Judge Merchan slapped Trump with 9 counts of contempt of court . Fines of $1000 each and he threatened Trump with jail time .
He ordered Trump to take down 7 Truth Social Posts and 2 campaign ads .

Meanwhile others in the case like Michael Cohen are under no such restraint .

Unless they can come up with something against Trump that really has some genuine legal traction, this could all very sell serve to enhance his chances of winning.

Time Mag has a hit piece on Trump . They interviewed him and their take is that he plans to be a dictator if elected
(going on sale May 17 but they had to get this out asap)

Quote:

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Every election is billed as a national turning point. This time that rings true. To supporters, the prospect of Trump 2.0, unconstrained and backed by a disciplined movement of true believers, offers revolutionary promise. To much of the rest of the nation and the world, it represents an alarming risk. A second Trump term could bring “the end of our democracy,” says presidential historian Douglas Brinkley, “and the birth of a new kind of authoritarian presidential order.”

---

Donald Trump on What His Second Term Would Look Like | TIME


Hate to break it to them . We have been living in a new kind of authoritarian presidential order since President 'I have a pen and a phone'. It has been rule by executive order since.

Great post, Tom. Thanks for sharing all of this.

Judge Merchan is a partisan hack and he is not afraid to let it be known. 2020 he made token donations to Clueless Joe's campaign; the 'Progressive Turn Out Project' ;and to 'Stop Republicans' just so he could be on record.

That alone should've been a disqualifier. But here he is ,hell bent to convict Trump for a crime that is not spelled out in the indictment.(conspiracy to violate the Federal Election Campaign Act spending limits).5th Amendment......
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury,


And Trump may face jail time for reacting to Michael Cohen's non-stop commentary of the trial on TikTok. Cohen is scheduled to be the star witness for the prosecution at the trial.

Donald 'Von zInPantz' Is Officially in the Hush-Money-Trial Record (businessinsider.com)

But his antics could backfire .


Michael Cohen is cashing in on the Trump trial with TikTok livestreams -- and it could be a problem - ABC News (go.com)


I am almost positive that the biased prosecutor ;judge and jury will find Trump guilty . I also believe Trump will eventually get the conviction overturned due to many due process violations .

How a conviction affects the election is unknown.

And what was Cohn's REAL beef with Trump ? From testimony we know that he was enraged that he was not offered a job in the Trump administration.

Quote:

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Davidson, who as the porn star's lawyer at the time helped arrange the payment, testified Cohen was "very despondent and saddened" during a long phone call after Trump won the election. "I thought he was going to kill himself," Davidson said.
Davidson said he recalled Cohen saying: "I can’t believe I’m not going to Washington. I’ve saved that guy’s so many times, you don’t even know."
He said Cohen, as Trump's personal lawyer, had hoped to be appointed attorney general or White House chief of staff.
In recorded phone calls played for the panel of 12 jurors and six alternates on Thursday, Cohen mused about his next steps after Trump’s victory, including whether he should “go rogue” or write a tell-all book.
He eventually did both and emerged as a fierce critic of Trump.

---

Trump trial hears Michael Cohen was 'despondent' he was denied a government post | Reuters

Quote:

---

How a conviction affects the election is unknown.

---

I think it will all come down to perceptions. If the general public gets the perception that Trump has been railroaded, then they could very well respond to that with sympathy votes. If they get the impression that he's a scumbag criminal, then it will work against him. I suspect the first option will be the prevailing one.

completely uncharted territory. He can run a campaign from jail .But can he serve from jail ? (“unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” 25th amendment ) But that would require cooperation from his VEEP and cabinet . Not likely

Trump elected if convicted leaves us with many issues that by themselves are constitutional crisis'

Keith Davidson lawyer for Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal ;both said they had sex with Trump; is apparently a serial extortionist.
During cross examination we learn that he represented women who made the same charges against Charlie Sheen ; and people selling sex tapes of Hulk Hogan and Tia Tequila. Trump attorney Emil Bove asked him if these deals and others required that Davidson understand "getting right up to the line without committing extortion."

Trump lawyer suggests hush money payment was extortion | Reuters

In the Hogan case ;Tampa Police investigated him for extortion but he ultimately was not charged.


As for Trump's reason for making a NDA with Stormy Daniels ;his former aide Hope Hicks testified that his concern was not the election. He just did not want Melania to find out about his philandering.

Quote:

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She said Trump did not want his wife Melania to see the story, which also included allegations that he had an affair with former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Trump has denied having sex with either woman.
"He was concerned about how it would be viewed by his wife, and he wanted me to make sure the newspapers weren’t delivered to the residence that morning,” Hicks said.

---

Former Trump aide Hope Hicks testifies he told her to deny Stormy Daniels affair | Reuters

In the document case ;the prosecution admitted to the judge that they tampered with the evidence . They first claimed that the boxes seized were kept exactly as they were when taken. But now they admit to rearranging the evidence.

“The Government acknowledges that this is inconsistent with what Government counsel previously understood and represented to the Court,”

(page 8 footnote)
Microsoft Word - Response to Woodward motion for extension (5.3.24).docx (justthenews.com)

Part of Trump's defense will be that the files were stored in chronological order as Trump received them and that WH personnel boxed them to ship to Trump without Trump reviewing the content . So he would not know if there were classified documents among them. His defense will also likely be that the boxes remained untouched since delivery . The prosecution rifling through them harms that argument and constitutes tampering .

Smith's team tries to downplay the significance. It is up to Judge Cannon to decide how critical evidence tampering is in this case. Normally it is a game changer . (except Evita's destruction of evidence ....she got a pass on that )


Prosecutors: Docs in boxes seized from Mar-a-Lago were inadvertently jumbled - POLITICO

Donald Trump Demands Jack Smith Be Arrested After Document Revelation (newsweek.com)

who am I kidding ?13of 18 jurors and alternates get their new from the Slimes .

Where Jurors in Trump Hush-Money Trial Say They Get Their News - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

suppose I started a joke by saying a disbarred serial convicted perjurer was called to take an oath to testify truthfully at a trial .............


This week Michael Cohen will be called as the star witness in the Stormy Daniels trial .


Cohen : "this time I really mean it "

3 weeks into the trial and still trying to figure out what crime Trump did.

I still suspect this will all work in Trump's favor. The clown show aspect of the trial will make the dems look awkwardly desperate. Perhaps best of all, it will make Trump's public comments less frequent.

DOJ photo shoot .



https://ecp.yusercontent.com/mail?ur...xZFobBrxIQ--~D
the FBI tampered with evidence to create the infamous photo--and DOJ has lied about it for nearly two years.

Judge Merchan threatened Trump with jail time this morning . He boxed himself in a corner. If Trump violates the gag order again ;he has to jail Trump. If I were Trump I would let Trump Jr do all the talking . But Trump may want to spend some jail time to bolster his persecution strategy.

As previously noted ;former Acting Associate AG Mathew Colangelo quit his DOJ job to become Bragg's lead prosecutor in the Trump Stormy Daniels case. What we now know is that the DNC paid him $12 thousands in 2018 for consulting work. At the time he was employed by the NY AG .Eric Schneiderman as a deputy AG for social justice. He was involved in NYs suit against the Trump Foundation . He has spent the better part of the last decade to getting Trump. The suit came shortly after he got paid by the DNC.

Stormy Daniel's lawyer said that the $130,000 she got was not "hush money" ;that it should be defined as a 'consideration payment '.


Stormy Daniels' Lawyer Claims Donald Trump's $130k Payment Was 'Consideration' Not 'Hush Money' (yahoo.com)


A consideration payment is a legally negotiated agreement.

Quote:

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a vital element in the law of contracts, consideration is a benefit which must be bargained for between the parties, and is the essential reason for a party entering into a contract. Consideration must be of value (at least to the parties), and is exchanged for the performance or promise of performance by the other party (such performance itself is consideration).

---

Legal Dictionary | Law.com


Best moment of the trial was Hope Hicks' testimony. She knee capped Braggs whole case when she said the reason for the payment to Daniels was not about the election. It was about Trump trying to conceal his one -nighter from Melania.
“I think he was just concerned about what her perception of this would be.”

When asked about Michael Cohen she said "He used to like to call himself Mr. Fix-It, but it was only because he first broke it"

Judge Cannon has postponed indefinitely the document case that was scheduled for May 20 .

In the NY trial ;I can't wait for Michael Cohen to explain why Trump should go to jail for advice Cohen gave Trump.

Thanks for the updates. These trials are more likely to injure the credibility of the dems than anything else. It seems obvious that they are all being run by inept attorneys.

The NY trial is the very definition of a show trial . Judge Merchan allowed Stormy Daniels to testify in detail about her alleged one-nighter with Trump ;something that bottom line is irrelevant to the prosecution's case (if we could ever really find out what their case is ) . He then was shocked shocked that such details were presented in his court .

https://i1.sndcdn.com/artworks-00029...n-t500x500.jpg

He then sent the jury out of the room after listening to her . He first berated the prosecution for her testimony and then berated the defense for not objecting vigorously enough. He easily could've stopped her testimony at any time. He scolded the defense when he claimed Trump cursed during her salacious testimony .

Quote:

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After about a half-hour on the stand, she began to unspool intimate details about Mr. Trump, so much so that the judge balked at some of the testimony. He implied it was gratuitously vulgar, and the defense sought a mistrial.

---

Stormy Daniels Tells Story of Sex With Trump in Hush-Money Trial Testimony - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Today is the off day (your remember why the judge picked Wednesday instead of Friday as an off day) . Tomorrow cross examination continues. This trial has already wasted a month of time ;time that Trump could've used campaigning ....and we still have not heard from star witness Michael Cohen ;or any actual charges although Colangelo frequently states (with the judge allowing it ) that Trump violated Federal law (so much for presumed innocence) ...........which this court has no business adjudicating .

Trump now has 10 contempt fines against him and the judge threatened jail time . One of the things Merchan warned Trump about was him making statements about the judge's daughter Lauren .

Now why would Trump have anything to say about her ?
Trump called her a 'rabid Trump hater ' . Is she ?

She is the boss ;or has served as President at a company called 'Authentic Campaigns'. They do digital campaign work for mostly Dems and lefty causes ,including Clueless Joe;Kam the Sham ;and Adam Schiffhead (who oversaw Trump's impeachment ) Public records show that his Senate campaign is Authentic's top client this election cycle.

Vendor/Recipient Profile: Authentic Campaigns • OpenSecrets


and he fund raises off of the trial

Dem clients of daughter of judge in Trump trial raised $90M off case (nypost.com)


Authentic - Our Work

2020 Rising Stars - Campaigns & Elections (campaignsandelections.com)
(scroll to see her mini bio)

Last month Trump tried to have the judge disqualified due to this obvious conflict of interest. That motion was denied

2023-08-11-decision-on-motion-to-recuse.pdf (documentcloud.org)




When it was clear that the case would be done in Merchan's court ;the company scrubbed her from the site and removed from LinkedIn .So it is unclear if she is still the boss. But what is obvious is that the Merchan family profits from the trial (maybe 10% for the big guy ???? )

Trump is trying to get around the gag order by reading news accounts from the trial

Trump reads back to media their own trial reporting: 'No smoking gun' | Fox News

Quote:

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As porn star Stormy Daniels’s testimony unfolds, what has always been obvious becomes even more explicit: The point of this trial is to bruise Donald Trump politically — to humiliate him with a tawdry sexual episode from nearly 20 years ago that is utterly unnecessary to prove the charges in the indictment (even as those charges have been distorted by Alvin Bragg, Manhattan’s elected progressive Democratic district attorney); and to brand Trump a “convicted felon” so that his Democratic opponent, President Biden, can refer to him that way in the run-up to the 2024 election

---

Stormy Testimony Shows: Trump’s Humiliation Is the Point of Bragg’s Prosecution | National Review

He wants to go to jail But he's right


"It is a really bad feeling to have your Constitutional Right to Free Speech, such a big part of life in our Country, so unfairly taken from you, especially when all of the sleazebags, lowlifes, and grifters that you oppose are allowed to say absolutely anything that they want,"

We are in the age of "anything goes" now.

Back to Georgia . An Appeals court has agreed to hear Trump's disqualification of Fani Willis Judge Scott McAfee ;who made the original ruling will hear the appeal on March 15 .

The judge said either Wade or Willis had to go . Wade went .

Georgia Appeals Court to Hear Trump’s Bid to Disqualify Fani Willis in Election Case - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

This comes at the same time that the state Senate is investigating Willis for using taxpayer $$ to schtup Nathan Wade ;who had been hired to lead the case against Trump .

Willis ;as arrogant as ever ,has refused to testify saying she doesn't think the Senate has the power . Accountability doesn't appear to be one of her strengths .

Quote:

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“First of all, I don’t even think they have the authority to subpoena me, but they need to learn the law,” Willis said Monday. “I will not appear to anything that is unlawful, and I have not broken the law in any way. I’m sorry folks get pissed off that everybody gets treated evenly.”
After her remarks, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones - a likely candidate for governor in Georgia’s wide-open 2026 gubernatorial race - said on X (formerly known as Twitter), “If subpoenaed by the Committee, she will be required to appear or she will be in violation of Georgia law. This is what treating everybody evenly looks like, even if DA Willis doesn’t like being held accountable.”

---

Fani Willis calls Senate committee 'unlawful' | Lt. Gov. says she must comply with subpoena (atlantanewsfirst.com)

I believe the document case will end with Judge Cannon dismissing the charges with prejudice (Trump could not be charged again)

The prosecution tampered with evidence and perjured themselves in filing . That should make it a slam dunk .

Jack Smith has one hand left to play. He can ask the 11th Circus Court to review the judge's decisions and perhaps recuse her from the case. He could argue that she is delaying scheduling because she is biased .

That is a 'hail mary' move at this point that may have worked earlier in the process.

It would be difficult to prove she is biased and ridiculous to say it when compared to the obvious conflicts of interest that Judge Merchan has in the Stormy Daniels case.


The left complains about Judge Cannon delaying the case. I would like to remind them that she wanted to appoint a "special master " to review the evidence. The 11th Circus shut that down .

Special master: Appeals court halts review of Trump documents seized at Mar-a-Lago | CNN Politics

A review of the evidence is the very thing that is causing a delay .

and that brings us to the DC trial related to January 6

That trial is unlikely to be heard before the election due to SCOTUS considering the immunity question.

SCOTUS may dismiss the trial or send it back to the Circus court for reconsideration.

What the left REALLY wants is for this case to impact the general election. They would not need a verdict as much as the airing of the evidence that Smith gathered and presented to the grand jury ,so the public could hear it.

But what new evidence could that be that the public did not hear during the Kangaroo court impeachment ? Could Judge Chutkan hold a hearing without a defense cross exam like the impeachment show trial ? And what would it serve ? The public is well aware of the issues surrounding the Jan 6 riot.

Yet another case being run in a completely inept fashion by a prosecutor who is not up to the challenge. But he has a ways to go to catch up to Fani Willis.

NY State Commission on Judicial Conduct is investigating the conduct of the goofy Judge Engoron (rhymes with moron) who fined Trump $454 million in a civil case where there were no victims .

Attorney Adam Leitman Bailey ;a NY real estate lawyer; met the judge and had an ex parte conversation with the judge about the case. ( this violates basic rules of court procedures that both parties must be present at any argument before a judge) .

This conversation may have violated NY ruled governing judge's conduct. A judge can “obtain the advice of a disinterested expert,” as long as the parties are told ahead of time and are given the chance to respond

PART 100. Judicial Conduct | NYCOURTS.GOV

Quote:

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"I actually had the ability to speak to him three weeks ago," Bailey said, during an on-camera interview with NBC New York on Feb. 16, the day the judge's decision was due. "I saw him in the corner [at the courthouse] and I told my client, 'I need to go.' And I walked over and we started talking … I wanted him to know what I think and why…I really want him to get it right."

---

Attorney says he gave Trump trial judge unsolicited advice during civil fraud case – NBC New York

Quote:

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Bailey has admitted he doesn’t support Trump and said he’s sued the real estate mogul in the past.
He is not connected to any of the cases currently surrounding the ex-president, but has given multiple interviews offering legal commentary to various media outlets in the wake of Engoron’s decision.
As for Bailey’s connection to the judge, he has been on cases before Engoron “hundreds of times,” he told NBC.
In a second interview with NBC, Bailey doubled down on his story about chatting with Engoron — but seemed to hedge by claiming the two didn’t specifically mention the Trump case and were merely talking generally about the law.
“We didn’t even mention the word Donald Trump,” Bailey claimed to the outlet, according to an article published Wednesday.
“Well, obviously we weren’t talking about the Mets,” he added, seemingly implying he believed Engoron knew what they were referring to.
Bailey maintained neither of them broke any rules.

---

NYC lawyer sparks probe into Trump judge over unsolicited advice on trial (nypost.com)

A brilliant op-ed by Kimberly Strassel at WSJ summarizes the cases against Trump and where they stand . Here are the last 3 paragraphs.

Quote:

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Little, in short, is going as planned. The lawfare strategy from the start: pile on Mr. Trump in a way that ensured Republicans would rally for his nomination, then use legal proceedings to crush his ability to campaign, drain his resources, and make him too toxic (or isolated in prison) to win a general election. He won the nomination, but the effort against him is flailing, courtesy of an echo chamber of anti-Trump prosecutors and journalists who continue to indulge the fantasy that every court, judge, jury and timeline exists to dance to their partisan fervor.

These own goals are striking. Mr. Smith wouldn’t be facing delays if he’d acknowledged up front the important constitutional question of presidential immunity, or if he’d sought an indictment for obstruction of justice and forgone charging Mr. Trump with improperly handling classified documents, which gets into legally complicated territory. The federal charges might carry more weight with the public had Mr. Bragg refrained from bringing a flimsy case that makes the whole effort look wildly partisan. And Ms. Willis’s romantic escapades have turned her legal overreach into a reality-TV joke.

Democrats faced a critical choice last year: Try to win an election by confronting the real problem of a weak and old president presiding over unpopular far-left policies, or try to rig an outcome by embracing a lawfare stratagem. They chose the latter. Perhaps a court will still convict Mr. Trump of something, although that could play either way with the electorate. Lawfare as politics is a very risky business.

---

Trump and the Lawfare Implosion of 2024 - WSJ

This was quite an observation and one that I had not considered. It does seem to be falling apart. I wonder what we'll see next when the thoroughly dishonest dems start to panic.

"Little, in short, is going as planned. The lawfare strategy from the start: pile on Mr. Trump in a way that ensured Republicans would rally for his nomination, then use legal proceedings to crush his ability to campaign, drain his resources, and make him too toxic (or isolated in prison) to win a general election."

It might very well be that the great tragedy in all of this is the idea that we can reverse course as a nation by putting someone else in the White House. That is likely to be somewhat true, but it will not reverse the moral rot which is consuming us. That would take a general turning back to God.

This would be comical if not so pathetic . After allowing Michael Cohen to comment and fund raise on social media for a month ;and finding Trump in contempt for responding ; Judge Merchan warned Cohen to pipe down on the eve of his testimony at the trial.

Quote:

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Judge Juan Merchan on Friday issued a warning to Michael Cohen ahead of his planned testimony next week in former President Trump's criminal hush money trial, telling prosecutors to ask him to stop talking about the case after Trump's team brought up his continued out-of-court statements following ABC News' exclusive reporting."I would direct the people to communicate to Mr. Cohen that the judge is asking him to refrain from making any more statements about this case," Merchan said. "That comes from the bench and you are communicating that on behalf of the bench."......

On Wednesday night, days before he is slated to take the stand, Cohen went live on TikTok wearing a shirt that depicted Donald Trump wearing an orange jumpsuit, in handcuffs, and behind bars, according to video of the stream reviewed by ABC News. The shirt is merchandise for Cohen's show called the "Mea Culpa Podcast," and are sold for $32, which he has been selling since 2022.

---

Judge warns Michael Cohen to stop talking about Trump hush money case (msn.com)

Great commentary summary of the Trump trials in Newsweek

Quote:

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It is a presidential election year and a leading candidate for president of the United States, who also happens to be a former president of the United States, is currently a criminal defendant chained to a dingy courtroom four days of the week -- time that he should be spending interacting with voters out on the campaign trail.

That's terrible. But it's only the beginning.

The daughter of the presiding judge is a professional political operative for the presidential candidate's opposition party, and the candidate himself is subject to an over-inclusive and unconstitutional gag order. The George Soros-funded district attorney, who campaigned on a platform of prosecuting that candidate, only pressed charges after his own left-wing predecessor opted not to do so due to the frivolous nature of the charges. One of the Soros-funded DA's subordinates curiously joined his team, just in time to prosecute the candidate, from a high-ranking perch in the Department of Justice that is headed by the candidate's chief political rival.

And this week, the candidate was subjected to tawdry and salacious testimony from a discredited former porn star, who spoke openly in court about how she "blacked out" during their alleged 2006 sexual encounter. Due to the sprawling gag order, the candidate was not -- and is not -- legally permitted to defend his honor and contest her lurid, legally irrelevant claims.

Welcome to our American banana republic.

---

The Making of a Banana Republic | Opinion (newsweek.com)

How's that plan working out Dems ? Here was Trump's rally in bluest of blue state NJ yesterday

Nearly 100,000 people pack Wildwood beach for Donald Trump rally - YouTube

Meanwhile Clueless Joe was met by protesters as he barnstormed the left coast fund raising with elites with money.

Pres. Biden met by protesters outside Bay Area fundraising events (youtube.com)

While Trump was holding a massive campaign event at the beach ,that was attended by no less than 80,000 supporters; after being forced to sit through a show trial all week; Clueless Joe ;after being chased out of the west coast ,went to Rehoboth Beach for more rest and relaxation . Those 3 day work weeks are grueling for Joe .

Trump rally Wildwood 2024: Campaign stop comes to Jersey shore, drawing nearly 100,000 people to the beaches - ABC7 New York (abc7ny.com)

President Biden traveling to Rehoboth Beach Mother's Day weekend | News | wrde.com