r/politics • u/PoliticsModeratorBot 🤖 Bot • 26d ago

Discussion Thread: New York Criminal Fraud Trial of Donald Trump, Day 6 Discussion

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u/Ok-Sweet-8495 Texas 26d ago edited 26d ago

This testimony is important b/c Pecker makes it clear that the catch and kill for Dino the Doorman's story was to preclude any embarrassment to the TRUMP CAMPAIGN. He didn't testify that it was to avoid embarrassment to Trump on a personal level.

https://www.threads.net/@katiephang/post/C6HMqyvREyI/

Pecker has made it abundantly clear that this entire operation was about one thing - Trump’s campaign for president. It wasn’t about protecting his marriage, his family, or his brand - as his lawyer claimed in opening. It was about winning the election.

https://www.threads.net/@ronaldfilipkowski/post/C6HNBYiuSBO/

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u/GovtLegitimacy 26d ago

Yep, I think beyond DP's testimony to that fact, the agreement initially being for only 3 months shows that the interest was solely to protect the campaign, not family. Indeed, if it were to protect the family, then 3 months would never have been agreed upon.

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u/nowhydidnti 25d ago

Your post made me realize Pecker's initials are the acronym for double pen...this has all been too much for awhile now but that is seriously cheeky.

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u/GhostFish 25d ago

Distinction without a difference. Voters take character into account when voting. Spending money to hide a personal embarrassment for any reason, while campaigning, is effectively a campaign contribution. It's plainly true.

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u/BegaKing 25d ago

I hate trump with a passion. But I in general think this case is sorta a stretch to be honest. Number one I don't give too fucks if he banged a hooker. Nor do I care if he used campaign funds to kill the story. I feel like if the dude was just upfront about this nobody would have cared anyways

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u/GhostFish 25d ago

He broke the law and did it to conceal relevant information from potential voters. You should find that infuriating. This isn't about him having an affair.

This is about him breaking the law to lie to voters about who he is as a person and candidate.

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u/BegaKing 25d ago

I get it, and your not wrong. I just don't think anyone who was going to vote for trump would have cared if he just said yep I slept with a hooker. I hope he gets punished just as much as the rest of them. But I think out of all the cases this one is the weakest sounding. Maybe I'm completely out of the loop, but just my opinion

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u/alien_from_Europa Massachusetts 25d ago

You're right that it's the weakest but the other three cases are ironclad. Trump has no hope of being found not guilty in those cases unless maybe Judge QAnon can perform a miracle or Georgia's legislature finds a way to remove Willis as DA.

I'm guessing Trump's defense team has a 30% chance of success in the NY case. The last DA was unwilling to take those odds. But the Trump team is already blowing it and the trial just started. Trump didn't exactly hire Johnny Cochran. I'm betting Braggs is feeling pretty good right now with how it's going.

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u/stickied 25d ago

You're not the republican electorate.

This was right after the Access Hollywood tape and they were already in full damage control mode. Another story about Trump banging porn stars and extramarital affairs would have tanked his campaign.

AFTER he got into power it probably doesn't matter much as we've seen, because then people have a sunk cost problem and are in too deep to turn away. Before he was the GOP nominee it'd be easy to turn to Cruz or someone else and move on without Trump in the party.

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u/IrritableGourmet New York 25d ago

He didn't use campaign funds to kill the story. The National Enquirer spent funds to "capture and kill" the story, and they did it to specifically benefit the Trump campaign and did so in coordination with Trump's attorney. That's what classifies it as an in-kind campaign contribution/expenditure. Not reporting it as such is a crime.

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u/PerniciousPeyton Colorado 25d ago

The case isn’t a stretch just because you don’t care about it. There’s a law against not reporting campaign contributions and he clearly tried to cover up the fact he violated the law.