Guest Post by Alex Berenson
The prosecution and defense have rested. Now the New York jury gets six days to listen to NPR, read the Times, and remember why bad Orange Man has to go jail-jail.
Testimony in the Manhattan criminal trial of Donald Trump has ended, with two witnesses telling two stories.
Both cannot be true.
Since last week, Robert Costello and Michael Cohen have told contradictory tales about Trump’s involvement in paying “hush money” to the porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
Last week, Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, said under oath Trump told him to pay Daniels $130,000 in October 2016 to buy her silence about her alleged affair with Trump. Cohen’s testimony is crucial to the legally dubious effort by Manhattan prosecutors to try Trump on felony charges for Trump’s supposed crime of misclassifying his own internal accounting entries – normally a misdemeanor offense.
But yesterday, Costello testified that Cohen was the one who was lying. Costello said that in 2018, Cohen had told him paying Daniels was Cohen’s own idea, done to win favor with Trump.
One man (at least) is not telling the truth.
Costello’s testimony came out of his efforts to cozy up to Cohen in April 2018 after federal investigators began chasing Cohen for evading $1.4 million in taxes – and breaking campaign finance laws by making hush-money payments to Daniels and another woman.
Costello wanted to represent Cohen in what would be a high-profile and lucrative case. He clearly also wanted Cohen not to “flip” – to work with prosecutors against Trump.
He failed.
In August 2018, Cohen pled guilty to federal tax and campaign finance charges. He later served a three-year sentence.
Now Cohen has become the key witness as Manhattan prosecutors try to convict Trump for the supposed crime of “falsifying business records” – that is, recording payments in 2017 to Cohen as legal services when the money was in part to reimburse Cohen for the $130,000 he paid Daniels.
Last week, Cohen testified Trump had told him before the election to make those payments, putting Trump at the head of the conspiracy to keep Daniels silent.
But yesterday, Costello said that Cohen had told Costello that he actually paid Daniels on his own, to curry favor with Trump.
As Politico reported in its trial coverage Monday:
According to Costello, Cohen repeatedly and unequivocally declared in a private meeting and phone calls that Trump knew nothing about the payment.
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(Low comedy)
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Let’s be clear. Neither Costello nor Cohen seem like particularly good witnesses.
Or lawyers.
Or human beings.
But it is not also clear why Cohen is inherently more credible than Costello.
That’s especially true because Cohen has no direct evidence to support his story about his 2016 instructions from Trump and openly admits wanting to see Trump in prison. Further, on cross-examination last week, defense lawyer Todd Blanche forced Cohen to admit he had not told the truth about a crucial phone call where Trump supposedly gave him the go-ahead to pay Daniels.
How, then, can a jury possibly find Trump is guilty “beyond a reasonable doubt”?
For civil trials, the standard is “preponderance of the evidence” – meaning more than 50 percent. But the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard is rightly far higher. And Cohen’s testimony, as I explained on Friday, is the key to the prosecution’s case.
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Remember, the alleged crime here is murky at best.
As Ross Douthat, a right-leaning New York Times columnist who is no fan of Trump’s (or mine) explained on Saturday:
Trump is not being tried for trying to conceal the affair, because no matter how much emphasis the prosecution lays on his personal shadiness, hush money payments are not in fact illegal. Instead, he’s being tried for a cover-up of the cover-up, a deception allegedly carried out inside his own accounting system…
I would defy anyone to summarize the underlying situation, in which a presidential candidate could be sent to prison for a misdemeanor offense elevated by a second crime for which he isn’t even being charged, without the description coming across as somewhat Kafkaesque.
Now acting New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, who appears – how do I put this politely? – unfavorably disposed to Trump and the defense, has given the jury the rest of the week off. Closing arguments for both sides are set to begin next Tuesday.
As I wrote following Blanche’s cross-examination of Cohen, an acquittal is very unlikely, given the jury’s likely political leanings. Over 86 percent of Manhattan voters voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 political election, and Trump is widely despised in New York.
But Costello’s testimony can only raise the odds that some jurors find Cohen and his testimony impossible to credit. If even one holds out, Trump will avoid conviction with a hung jury – and for him, a tie would be as good as a win.
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No one is above the law except for illegal immigrants.
And cops and judges and CONgressmen and pHARMa execs and Jamie Dimon and Bill Gates and . . .
And Democratic politicians.
And RINOs . . . or, as already stated, CONgressmen.
Cory says you must call him “Spartacus” from this day forward…
He said Spark Plug Ass cuz he doesn’t like being banged with the huge black caucus.
The low IQ, borderline retarded blacks and uptight left-wing whites and jews on this NYC jury will convict Trump, regardless.
This isn’t exercise of “justice,” it’s an exercise in giving the veneer of legitimacy to what they’ve wanted to do for almost 9 years: “convict” him of some “felony” to justify having him removed from the ballot or removed from office should he be re-elected.
I disagree. The entire point of appearing to persecute Trump is to rally his support, so that when Trump is installed, the majority will believe in elections again.
Most excellent observation
31, I hope you are wrong but think you are right.
You’re overthinking this. It’s not 14D chess. These aren’t brilliant people, they’re ham-handed oafs. It’s exactly what I said it is.
They’re also amoral, ambitious, incompetent narcissistic opportunists.
AND their moms dress ’em funny . . .
and cunning like sh!t house rats
Actually, you are both correct. The globalists who are actually orchestrating the entire Trump election psyop are indeed using/creating all of Trump’s show trials to, among other things, rally support for Trump to make his reelection in November more plausible. But nearly all of the prosecutors, judges, jurors, etc. involved in this trial and his other trials are just clueless useful idiots who hate Trump and think that they are actually going to put Trump in prison or at least keep him from being elected. They aren’t even smart enough to realize that these trials are actually helping Trump by increasing his poll numbers and donations.
Because Trump did everything the elites wanted and Joe Biden didn’t? If Trump is such a puppet why did they trade him out for Dementia Joe in 2020 and why do they want Trump back now? Expound on you theory or look like a fool.
I breathlessly await your answer.
Even though your comment isn’t directed at me, I will answer it anyway, because I answered that exact question here.
I understand all that snd agree with until about Trump. Trump was a greenhorn.politian that naively trusted the wrong people to his own detriment. Also Trump is never going to say he is wrong about anything because he is a narcissist, not because he is a puppet. I have not voted for Trump, didn’t vote in 2016 because I thought there was no good candidate, voted for Jo Jorgenson im 2020. Why? Trump spent much money and signed every domestic spying bill they put in front of him. I will vote for Trump this time only because I believe the Democrats.are that dangerous, and it doesn’t matter if the elections are fixed or not, we have to show resistance to anything the Democrats do.
Of course we can always just bitch
Stop. Just Stop. Just Fucking Stop. Warp Speed boy will just insert who he is told to insert. There is only one party. JHC wake the fuck up man. Orange man will hire who he is TOLD to hire. Full stop. Pompeo, Jared, and now Cotton fucker. Maybe even wall kisser and take all our jobs to India fucking Marco piece-o-shit Rubio (gang of eight by the way now less since John fucking Lucifer McStain is in hell). Look at who that prick is siding with. You’re vote means nothing, except in local elections, as of now. Deal with it however you must. I wish for your cog dis extraction. Really. I pray for you.
I think Cotton fucker will get the nod for Shabas over the new antisemitism correctional facilities.
You must change your mind, Jo for No Mo.
I’ll chip in, AnonoDouche…
2016-2020
Trump cut corporate taxes – Elites likey.
Trump divided the country as the libtards explode, while Magas rejoiced – Elites approve.
Trump locked down with his fake covid response – Elites likey.
Small businesses destroyed, Big Box’s thrive – Elites likey.
Stolen election, J6 BS charade = divided populace – Elites likey.
2020-2024
Biden does what he is told – Elites likey.
Inflation explodes with supply chain issues and new fiat created ex nihilo –
elites approve.
Ukraine-Russia / Israel-Hamas stance. populace more divided than ever.. Elites likey..
2025 onward
Trump will be selected to install martial law due to the “border, illegals crisis. elites approve.
Stupid flyover ‘Muricans cheer on “yer papers pleaZe” checkpoints that Trump initiates to check legal / illegal status of all. – Elites like
Trumps send gazillions to Israel, weakening the $ as inflation soars; half of America hates the other half over this stance. elites approve.
Then why did they get rid of him for Joe? Explain it logically. If he did so much they liked why get rid of him? Why persecute him? An honest explanation, not just reposts.
To keep moral up, lol!
It’s all about the movie, Victimhood. Trump will make a zillion off it so at least a band aid for all the hurt.
It’s in the tarot cards, a separate 21-card trump suit and a single card known as the fool.
The Inquisition, let’s begin
The Inquisition, look out Don
We have a mission
to convert the Trump (Trump ta Trump ta Trump ta Trump)
We’re gonna teach him wrong from right
We’re gonna keep him off the ballot
And make an offer that he can’t refuse (that the just can’t refuse)
speaking of trump,the doj authorized the fbi to use deadly force when they raided
mar a lago —
FBI Authorized Deadly Force in Mar-a-Lago Raid – Todd Starnes
The Mar-a-Lago raid was another psyop, just like all of his show trails, and for largely the same purpose as the show trails. There was exactly zero chance that deadly force would have been used against Trump (if he had even been there at the time), and almost zero chance that deadly force would have been used against anyone else there.
Everything is a psyop, we are living in the matrix, right?
It was just part of the movie.
Merchant promised a conviction and he better get one or his life will be at risk both from leftist political operatives and leftist woke crazies. Same for the jury, their anonymity is soon ending.
The fix was in long ago.
To hell with Trump, he is just another Zionist puppet. I am voting for Jill Stein. She is the ultimate fuck you candidate, and will ensure the US Government is tied up in knots and unable to do anything for the next 4 years, which is the best outcome we can hope for.