The Notorious “catch and kill" campaign: Turning the National Enquirer into an arm of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign

[Billiejeens]

Denial.

You can't even articulate the crimes and the evidence.

You do a lot of copy and paste, but -

 

[Billiejeens]

Lick my balls.

An expression of defeat.

Don't take it too hard - you never had a chance.

 

[Clipper]

You know some of us actually watched the press conference and know there was no ranting and raving

What would you call it?

 

[Nostra]

Listen to his testimony. He admitted guilt.

Guilt of what?

 

[Nostra]

On any appeal, dupe.
In any case.

Lies.

 

[Nostra]

Felonies, actually. 34 of them.

What is the statute he violated to resurrect expired misdemeanors?

 

[Nostra]

LOLOL

By "concession," that means you were shown the crimes you said weren't in the indictment.

Nope. No such thing happened.

 

[Clipper]

Lies.

 

[Nostra]

Retard, Trump didn't have to commit the underlying crime.

So if someone else commits a crime they can resurrect misdemeanors that have expired that Trump supposedly comm?

 

[Nostra]

Old news. He falsified the business records regarding his reimbursement checks to Cohen.

No, he didn’t. He has accountants to do that, Moron. You think Trump does his own books?

 

[Clipper]

So if someone else commits a crime they can resurrect misdemeanors that have expired that Trump supposedly comm?

If the charges expired how come Spanky Dotard's lawyers didn't get them tossed, Skip?

 

[Nostra]

Michael Cohen is now laying out the first catch-and-kill story that he worked on with The National Enquirer. We heard about this in previous testimony. It was about an allegation by a doorman at a Trump building that Trump had fathered a child out of wedlock. Cohen is describing telling Trump about it.


May 13, 2024, 10:40 a.m. ET4 hours ago
4 hours ago
Jonah Bromwich
Reporting from inside the courthouse

With very little wind-up, about an hour in, we are already hearing Michael Cohen describe the first of the three hush-money deals that jurors have heard about. The last of them is Cohen’s own $130,000 hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels.


May 13, 2024, 10:41 a.m. ET4 hours ago
4 hours ago
Kate Christobek
Reporting from inside the courthouse

This story has previously gotten a rise out of Trump when discussed at the trial, but today, he opens his eyes briefly and looks in Cohen’s direction before closing them again with a slight smirk.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/05/13/nyregion/trump-trial-michael-cohen

Not illegal.

Next?

 

[Nostra]

If the charges expired how come Spanky Dotard's lawyers didn't get them tossed, Skip?

Because the judge is a hack, Moron. No way this sham holds up on appeal.

 

[Nostra]

Interesting fact you keep ignoring: The court has Cohen's tapes too:


Michael Cohen has now begun speaking about having recorded Trump directing him to pay David Pecker back in cash. As a reminder, the jury has heard this recording. It fits in nicely with Cohen’s narrative that he was often updating Trump on the progress of the Karen McDougal hush-money deal — on the recording, Cohen only has to mention Pecker’s name and it seems as if Trump knows that he’s referring to that deal.

Cohen claims that this was the only conversation with Trump that he ever taped, and that he did it so that Pecker could hear that Trump planned to pay him back, thus retaining Pecker’s loyalty.

Now, Cohen addresses the payment to Pecker, referring to the publisher as “our friend David.” We again hear Trump ask about financing and then advising Cohen to “pay in cash.”

We are going to get an annotated version of the recording, as Susan Hoffinger, the prosecutor, slows it down and asks Cohen specific questions about it. This would appear to be difficult evidence for the defense to contend with, slotting as it does so neatly into Cohen’s story. I don’t know how they’ll explain it.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/05/13/nyregion/trump-trial-michael-cohen

Maybe a Stable Genius like you can help Trump's defense team explain it, eh???
Michael Cohen has almost finished describing the recording, beat by beat. He says that when he insisted that David Pecker be paid, he made reference to Pecker's dossier on Trump. And he says that while he said “financing,” he meant “funding,” meaning he was asking how Pecker would be repaid for silencing Karen McDougal's story. Cohen says that Trump suggested cash, as we’ve seen, but that Cohen rejected that suggestion.

So? Not illegal.

 

[Nostra]

Pay attention to the trial:


Michael Cohen’s description of Trump expressing fear that the Stormy Daniels story could poison him with female voters is a potentially important piece of testimony that echoes something similar we heard from Hope Hicks. (An earlier version of this update said it was the first time we heard testimony that Trump himself was concerned about the story upending his campaign.)

Cohen now says that Trump was “trying to push it past the election, which was upcoming.” Others have testified that they suspected this was the reason the payment was delayed. Cohen is trying to convince the jury that the delay came directly from Trump.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/05/13/nyregion/trump-trial-michael-cohen

So? Not illegal, Gomer.

 

[Faun]

What is the statute he violated to resurrect expired misdemeanors?

What expired misdemeanors? How'd they expire?

 

[Faun]

Nope. No such thing happened.

Liar.

 

[Clipper]

Because the judge is a hack, Moron. No way this sham holds up on appeal.

If the statute of limitations expired the judge would have no choice but to dismiss them, peckerhead.

Please try again so you can look like a fool.

 

[Nostra]

Right now:

in the courtroom:

Michael Cohen is explaining why he was owed $180,000, instead of simply $130,000 for the hush money. He says that he was owed $50,000 — an amount he admits was exaggerated — to pay a firm called RedFinch for “tech services.” He tells this story in his book “Disloyal.” At least in part, the services were Cohen getting a computer programmer to buy IP addresses in order to rig an online CNBC poll to make sure Trump ranked among the most influential business leaders alive.

Allen Weisselberg then doubled the $180,000 to $360,000. Weisselberg, Cohen says, expected that he would lose half of that money because it would be taxed as income, and was making him whole, even after taxes.

The irony of the “grossed up” description, which Cohen says was Weisselberg’s idea so Cohen could take the money as income instead of reimbursement, is it cost Trump double what it would have otherwise. Legitimate legal expenses aren't "grossed up."


This testimony right now is absolutely crucial to the prosecutors’ case. They allege that the repayments to Michael Cohen were not, in fact, legal expenses as indicated on the records and instead they were the hush money payment “grossed up” (plus that they include another payment that Cohen previously made). I imagine the jury will spend a fair amount of time examining this particular portion of Cohen’s testimony.

Finally, to add to this confusing sum, Cohen was offered a $60,000 bonus, bringing the total he was to be paid to $420,000. That amount was split — as shown in Weisselberg’s notes — into 12 months' worth of payments.

And to cap off this extremely important testimony, Cohen says that Weisselberg said in front of Trump that Cohen would be reimbursed completely. Cohen testifies that Trump approved the repayments and then said, “this is going to be one heck of a ride in D.C.”

So? Not illegal, Goober.

 

[Faun]

So if someone else commits a crime they can resurrect misdemeanors that have expired that Trump supposedly comm?

LOL

You're such a dumbfuck, you literally make me laugh out loud.