Oh great. Ari Melber commenting on the Trump case possibly being weak

[Marius25]

Lawyers chiming in about how the theory of the business fraud charges have holes in them, which may allow Trump to get away with no conviction.

If he's not convicted, I don't even want to think about how bad 2024 will be.

[Lovie777]

1. Prelude.........

[JoanofArgh]

2. I'm waiting for the Georgia case. Don't know if its true but some

people are saying it should be coming soon.

[BlueTsunami2018]

3. This is why I haven't celebrated or acted like any kind of justice was done.

If he ever gets convicted of something, I’ll celebrate. Chances are, he’s walking away Scott free on this.

[C_U_L8R]

4. Has he seen the evidence?

[former9thward]

20. The evidence is not the problem.

The problem is an untested legal theory that these charges can be made into felonies by claiming they are related to an underlying crime. The problem with that is that no underlying crime has been charged. In fact the DOJ (both Barr and Garland) passed on charging the underlying crime.

[choie]

5. Has he (or you) read the statement of facts

that was the addendum to the indictment? It's more damning that you think (conspiracy and obstruction of justice/witness tampering)

https://thehill.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Donald-J.-Trump-SOF.pdf

[underpants]

6. He had two lawyers on. They'd read it. I didn't the same take as the OP

They were very measured but they said it will go to trial and then talked about possibilities for both sides.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

10. You accurately describe what I saw.

I did switch away when Melbur began quoting Biggie Smalls' lyrics.

[Zeitghost]

7. Has he been charged with witness tampering or conspiricy?

I thought all 34 charges were for fraudulent business documents?

[Sgent]

19. They are

but to get to the felony level they have to prove the underlying crime (which was at most outlined in the indictment).

[former9thward]

21. Any jury member is going to ask why those crimes were not charged.

[W_HAMILTON]

23. And the prosecution can point to...

...Michael Cohen's prison sentence for the underlying crime and Trump's DOJ's stance that a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime.

[former9thward]

25. Trump has not been president since Jan 20, 2021.

So that won't work. And you can't use someone else's conviction for the underlying crime for a different person.

[W_HAMILTON]

26. It will.

And you can use someone else's conviction for the underlying crime when all that is referenced in this so-called """problematic""" statute is that a crime have been committed, which it was, when that person was part of the conspiracy to commit that crime, the other main party pleaded guilty and served jail time for that crime, and you have multiple pieces of evidence pointing to the fact that Trump's DOJ not only refused to charge him with a similar crime based on department policy of not charging a sitting president, they also told the previous prosecutor in New York to stand down from their investigation, which now looks as though it was just Trump's DOJ providing cover for him yet again.

You sure seem very interested in letting Trump get off. Why is that? You speak very definitively on subjects related to this case that you have already been proven wrong on (see: https://democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=17789932 for one such example, you never replied to me pointing out how you were wrong in your claims).

[Baked Potato]

8. T***p is maybe thinking....

If a DA had the courage to indict me for *just* this, then I’m screwed.

[Bev54]

9. Then he puts on Sam Nunberg, holy shit talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel

I had to turn it off.

[zappaman]

11. I guess the grand jury disagrees.

How has Ari seen the evidence?

[Marius25]

12. To be fair, it's usually not hard to get an indictment at a grand jury

Much easier than conviction.

[Cha]

24. Hey now.. I haven't seen

you in awhile..

[zappaman]

27. Hey There!

Yeah, I got tired of the Clinton/Sanders battles on here, so concentrated on local politics.

[Cha]

28. Good on you, zappaman!

I missed you, though.

[Raftergirl]

13. I just watched and that is not what was said at all.

The bottom line was that it’s possible some of the charges may get dismissed but not most and it will be going to trial.

In fact, they laid out exactly how these charges are very typical for the type of crime Trump is accused of in this case. Cases with these charges are tried every day in NY.

The case against Trump will be presented in court at the time of trial and then it is up to the jury, as it is in every case.

[rso]

14. Trump

The tax part of the charges is solid and very unlikely to be dismissed.

[Kingofalldems]

15. Nope.

[Demsrule86]

16. I don't think it will be bad at all...and I tire of the media supporting Trump.

[Goodheart]

17. In what universe is this a weak case?

Through Michael Cohen trump paid hush money to Stormy Daniels, then accounted for that on his books as a legal expense.

It's a slam dunk.

[Marius25]

18. Well, here's a lawyer from Vox (typically a left-wing outlet)

explaining the issues.

https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/4/4/23648390/trump-indictment-supreme-court-stormy-daniels-manhattan-alvin-bragg

[Sgent]

22. It is an open question

under NY law if concealing a Federal Crime would trigger the Felony status.