Trump Prepares For Monday's 'Fake Biden Trial' With 'Highly Conflicted' Manhattan Judge
Former President Trump will take his 2024 campaign to New York on Monday, where he'll be sitting in a Manhattan courtroom for what he decried as a "Fake Biden Trial" to face 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with the Stormy Daniels 'hush money' embroglio. The trial comes after an unsuccessful bid to adjourn the case due to overwhelming pretrial publicity, which Judge Juan Merchan denied, calling adjournment "not tenable."
Trump has taken to Truth Social in recent days, suggesting on Sunday that Merchan is "perhaps the most highly conflicted Judge in New York State history," who gave Trump's legal team insufficient time to analyze "hundreds of thousands of pages of documents that D.A. Alvin Bragg illegally hid, disguised, and held back from us."
Trump's alleged crimes...
As the WSJ notes, "The 34 felony counts in the indictment are all tied to records that prosecutors said Trump falsified as he reimbursed Cohen for the Daniels deal. They include 11 invoices, 12 general ledger entries and 11 checks."
As Mike Shedlock of Mishtalk notes, expect a media circus.
A Recording Crime
District Attorney Alvin Bragg took each receipt, invoice, and ledger receipt and made a separate felony charge out of each of them.
Then Bragg twisted those charges into an intent to commit other crimes. Yet Trump is not charged with other crimes, only falsifying records. And it’s plausible that Trump had no direct knowledge of the mess.
Michael Cohen
This story goes back to Michael Cohen, a former attorney of Donald Trump, who landed in prison for by paying adult-film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in 2016 to keep quiet about an alleged sexual encounter she had with Trump a decade earlier.
The Journal notes that Falsifying business records is a misdemeanor under New York state law, but it can be elevated to a felony if records were falsified to conceal or commit another crime.
What other crime? Trump is charged with none.
Meanwhile as Politico reports, in addition to taking a "wrecking ball to Michael Cohen," with nearly half of the respondents in a recent Politico/Ipsos poll saying that Cohen is not honest...
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg's "Star Witness, Trump could try "asking the judge to give the jury the option of convicting him on lesser, misdemeanor offenses instead of the felony counts that have actually been brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his team of prosecutors."
Conflicted Juan
Journalist Laura Loomer, a Trump supporter, has posted several receipts over the past several weeks showing Merchan's various conflicts - including the fact that his daughter professionally brags about "doing ground-breaking, historical work for clients" including "Kamala Harris, Adam Schiff, and others."
Loomer also noted that Andrew Laufer, the lawyer for Michael Cohen (DA Alan Bragg's "Star witness"), is tight with NY Attorney General Letitia James - who Mercnah's wife worked for in what Loomer describes as a "major conflict of interest."
🚨🚨MORE ANTI-TRUMP BIAS EXPOSED AHEAD OF PRESIDENT TRUMP’S “HUSH MONEY” TRIAL🚨🚨
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) April 14, 2024
.@MichaelCohen212 is Manhattan DA @ManhattanDA Alvin Bragg’s “Star witness” in the upcoming Trump Trial set to begin April 15th!
Cohen’s lawyer is Andrew Laufer @lauferlaw. His banner pic on X is… https://t.co/soPrzWFRs8 pic.twitter.com/PviTd8QiRl
When asked by Laufer to explain the conflict, Loomer replied: "Don’t play stupid. You know what the conflict is," adding "The Trump Trial begins tomorrow. In New York. And the star witness’s lawyer is chummy with the NY AG."
You’re @MichaelCohen212’s lawyer and you are posing for pics with the New York Attorney General with captions about how she is going to “own Trump”.
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) April 14, 2024
Don’t play stupid. You know what the conflict is.
The Trump Trial begins tomorrow. In New York. And the star witness’s lawyer is… https://t.co/eWkw4l2BB1 pic.twitter.com/ozt4XlDnu1
Sununu Pledges Support
In an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) said he would support Trump even if he's convicted.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Will your support for Trump continue even if he's convicted?
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 14, 2024
CHRIS SUNUNU: Yeah. This has been going on for more than a year and his poll numbers never go down.
S: But you're going to politics. I'm asking about right and wrong.
CS: This is about politics. pic.twitter.com/HfRXDAC6dg
Meanwhile the MSM is creaming over the thought or Orange Man Convicted.
Ahead of former Pres. Trump’s first criminal trial in hush money case, AP's @JuliePace says, “We’ve literally never seen this before.”
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) April 14, 2024
“Trump is going to use this courtroom and other courtrooms to come as really the centerpiece of his campaign.” https://t.co/TsuTNZYMJa pic.twitter.com/7ey3UbL4Py
As Mike Shedlock notes in closing:
Can Trump Get a Fair Trial?
That’s actually the wrong question. The right question is: Should there be a trial?
Since there should not be a trial at all, by definition a trial cannot be fair.
The charges are remarkably shaky and so is the key witness. It only takes one holdout to reach the correct conclusion, that felony charges are a sham.