by Jonathan Turley
Before the start of the Manhattan prosecution of former president Donald Trump, I characterized the case of District Attorney Alvin Bragg as based on a type of obscenity standard.
In a 1984 pornography case, Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart wrote “I shall not today attempt further to define [obscenity]. . . . But I know it when I see it.”
Bragg has refused to clearly define the crime that Trump was seeking to conceal when payments for a non-disclosure agreement were listed as a legal expense.
We would just know it when we saw it at trial.
We are still waiting, but this week, Bragg seems to be prosecuting an actual obscenity case.
The prosecution fought with Trump’s defense counsel to not only call porn star Stormy Daniels to the stand, but to ask her for lurid details on her alleged tryst with Trump.
The only assurance that they would make to Judge Juan Merchan was that they would “not go into details of genitalia.”
For Merchan, who has largely ruled against Trump on such motions, that was enough.
He allowed the prosecutors to get into the details of the affair despite the immateriality of the evidence to any criminal theory.
Neither the NDA nor the payment to Daniels is being contested.
It is also uncontested that Trump wanted to pay to get the story (and other stories, including untrue allegations) from being published.
The value of the testimony was entirely sensational and gratuitous, yet Merchan was fine with humiliating Trump.
Daniels’ testimony was a dumpster fire in the courtroom.
The most maddening moment for the defense came at the lunch break when Merchan stated, “I agree that it would have been better if some of these things had been left unsaid.”
He then denied a motion for a mistrial based on the testimony and blamed the defense for not objecting more.
That, of course, ignores the standing objection of the defense to Daniels even appearing, and specific objections to the broad scope allowed by the court.
This is precisely what the defense said would happen when the prosecutors only agreed to avoid “genitalia.”
There was no reason for Daniels to appear at all in the trial.
Even if he was adamant in allowing her, Merchan could have imposed a much more limited scope for her testimony.
He could also have enforced the limits that he did place on the testimony when it was being ignored by both the prosecutors and the witness.
Merchan said that he is considering a limiting instruction for the jury to ignore aspects of the testimony.
But that is little comfort for the defendant.
The court was told that this would happen, it happened, and now the court wants to ask the jury to pretend that it did not happen.
Stormy turned out to be a dud. Not only was her testimony irrelevant to what the alleged trial is supposed to be about. This trial is a disgrace to the American Justice system.
Soros and his sinister Globalists and their plot against America
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2024/05/08/congress/greene-triggers-johnson-ouster-vote-00156907
Indeed, she is the only one that is openly and admittedly a whore. All the rest are trying to hide behind a cloak of legitimacy.
If only Trump had had the FBI in his back pocket like the DNC did in 2020, he could have had all of Stormy’s accusations declared “Russian disinformation” and intimidated all media outlets to suppress the story.
She would be hiding in Russia like Bidens accuser
Tara Reade defected to Russia. Her first appearance on Russian state media was hosted by Maria Butina, the convicted Russian spy who infiltrated the NRA during the runup to the 2016 election. Butina is now a member of the Russian parliament, representing Putin’s party.
She ran in fear of her life from the DNC. Sure Russia used her for propaganda what else would they do?
Thousands of election workers have left their jobs. It’s not out of fear of Democrats.
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They know Trump will win, they might run but they cant hide from 2020.
02/03/24 – Threats against election workers spiked after 2020, fueling concerns about recruiting, retaining key workers
Your lunatic cult leader is an existential threat to the American democratic process.
Democrats incite the violence. If there was no cheating, there would be no threats.
If there were no Trump there would be no threats. He incites threats and violence.
Really? And the pro-Hamas spoiled brats at our universities are acting on Trump’s orders? Why did our nation not have a problem with Jew hatred until Biden took office?
The article is about threats to election workers.
The article, dipshit, isn’t really specific about the difference except it quotes “officials”.
“So far, the (DOJ) task force has reviewed more than 2,000 incidents of hostility, harassment, abuse or threats to the election community, which includes elected officials, election staffers and volunteers, according to Joshua Stueve, a Justice Department spokesperson. But more than 90% of the incidents didn’t qualify for a federal criminal investigation for lack of a threat of unlawful violence because comments are often protected under the First Amendment.”
Ooops, there’s that cursed First Amendment again. You Commies just can’t seem to get rid of it.
Here is a fact your left wing propaganda outlets don’t talk about; a great percentage of election “workers” are retired seniors. Those with full time jobs can’t take off work for weeks to work the polls. But while seniors are more than willing to work elections, they don’t make a career out of it. So the turnover is high.
You have never ran an election, or even worked an election but I have so shut the hell up, dipshit.
Give it up. Just admit you’re stupid and move on.
Now does not arresting them because of the First Amendment. demonstrate disregard for the First Amendment?
Or was your point that the First Amendment gives people the right to threaten violence?
That makes no sense they get arrested for harassment not the first amendment.
What some people take as threats sometimes is infantile.
Apparently many election workers on the receiving end of such threats feel differently.
The FBI will send a swat team to arrest a minister that has already been cleared of charges of threatening a pro-human sacrifice death cult advocate. If any of these “threats” were legitimate, do you think they would not make just as big a production of arresting them as they did here or with January 6th protesters? If only you had the capacity for rational thought you wouldn’t post such desperate, stupid bullshit.
The article is about your fetid imagination.
Still a fool
No, if there were no leftist operatives conducting election fraud, there would be no threats. Your time of “there’s no evidence of election fraud” has long expired. More is revealed every day. IT HAPPENED. IT TURNED THE 2020 ELECTION. IT RESULTED IN DISASTER FOR AMERICA.
Your still a total idiot
I see this unacceptable behavior was prosecuted that is good.
I hope they can find workers that will allow proper oversight and not block windows or break election laws.
“I can tell you that they are experiencing as much abuse and harassment fueled by lies as ever, and sometimes those are threats,” said David Becker, a former Justice Department lawyer who is now executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research,”
Let’s see; how much smoke is Comrade Greggie trying to blow up our arses?
This much:
“CEIR was founded in August 2016 by David Becker “in response to the historic decline in voter turnout and the impending threat of foreign interference that seeks to further divide our nation and depress citizen engagement.” Before founding the nonprofit, Becker worked as director for (far left wing) Pew Charitable Trust’s elections program and as a trial attorney for the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. As of August 2020, Becker worked as executive director at CEIR.”
And this:
“Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan announced on September 1 that they were providing $300 million in funding to support nonprofits to provide assistance to city and county election offices, with $50 million going to CEIR”
Ooops, Ballotpedia strikes again.
The only thing Comrade Greggie knows how to do is misrepresent the truth. You see, his side won by election fraud and cheating in 2020 but states have gotten wise and it will be harder for his Commie friends to do it again in 2024. And remember, Comrade believes Biden actually got 81 million legitimate votes.
biden can only win if democrats cheat again. This time he will need 100 million votes. BTW, where are those 81 million votes from 2020?
They fear getting caught carrying out the massive wave of election fraud the Democrats will need to utilize in 2024 to even be competitive. All the accusations have now been confirmed in Georgia.
Comrade Greggie, you’re absolutely pathetic.
““I still love elections to this day,” said Teresa DeGraaf, the former clerk of Port Sheldon Township, Michigan. “But it changed. I’ve never had a job where I had so many sleepless nights. I would wake up at 3 in the morning, and you feel like you’re under the microscope, and you feel like everything you’re doing is being watched. We had folks that sat in our parking lot at 2 in the morning to watch our ballot box before the election.”
Election worker turnover has reached historic highs ahead of the 2024 vote, new data shows (nbcnews.com)
Well, Ms. DeGraaf, perhaps you should have advised those that employee you that it is unwise to put ballot boxes in a f*cking parking lot.
No one can whine like those that are employed by the taxpayers. They feel they are so superior to us lowly peons. Yeah, it’s a busy job when elections are going on. But Comrade Greggie, and his pig Madcow, will never mention that in the off seasons, election workers/officials have damn little to do. And let’s make this very clear; election “workers” are not the same as election “officials.”
Of course, this is the same bullshit that the left wing media was smearing all over the internet in 2020 and 2021. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Your a total idiot is you think A-Mess NBC the Lying Peacock News is Real news
More from your pals at msdnc.
https://modernity.news/2024/05/09/msnbc-mouths-cant-believe-more-americans-think-biden-is-a-threat-to-democracy-than-trump/
Gee, people that watch a network that promotes censorship, propaganda and lies for the DNC on an ongoing and relentless basis can’t believe Robin Ware/Robert L. Peters/JRB Ware/Pedo Peter/idiot Biden is the threat to our constitutional republic?
So does greg
They, like Greg, are desperate to find something that is going to lay Trump out. It just never magically appears because magic isn’t real and neither are their accusations.
Kind of a sad commentary that she feels safer in Russia than in her own country just because she revealed Robin Ware/Robert L. Peters/JRB Ware/Pedo Peter/idiot Biden raped her. But, that’s fascism for you.
I hadn’t realized the going rate was $130K a night…
Because you suck for free.
And he takes it up the ass.
Usually it’s called “extortion”.
I wonder if you think the cases against Trump collapsing like the bullshit they have always been is as funny as I do?
Odd, don’t you think.
If Trump wanted Stormy why did he ask his dinner companion, an NFL quarterback, to walk her to her room, instead of taking her himself?
The only assurance that they would make to Judge Juan Merchan was that they would “not go into details of genitalia.”
Damn the only part Greg cared about.
The omission of such a small detail is totally irrelevant.
Dry your tears you just wanted the information under oath, lol
Go lay a egg Greg
It is reported Stormy says she had sex with Trump because she was “insecure”. So, let me get this straight; a woman that f**ks for a living, f**ks for money, f**ks on camera, has done so HUNDREDS of times.. is insecure? OK….
Maybe Raging Madcow can explain it.