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Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Trump on Trial Day 2
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William Upton
Lawfare

Trump Trial Day 2 Summary: Pecker Pokes Holes In Prosecution’s Case.

Day two of the Manhattan-based hush money trial of former President Donald Trump saw abbreviated testimony from the former National Enquirer CEO, David Pecker. The National Pulse’s editor-in-chief, Raheem Kassam, noted on X (formerly Twitter) that the tabloid newsman’s recounting of events did not go well for District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s prosecution. After briefly taking the stand on Monday — before the court adjourned around 12:30 PM ET — Pecker continued his testimony on Tuesday, delving into the substantive nature of the accusations leveled by Bragg’s office.

PECKER SCHEMED WITH COHEN ALONE. 

While Bragg and his prosecution team have insisted that Michael Cohen‘s payments to smut star Stormy Daniels were at the direction of former President Donald Trump, David Pecker directly undermined this aspect of the case. Pecker testified that he was the one who told Trump that women might come forward with false accusations of affairs since the former President had been a sought-after bachelor connected with multiple beautiful women.

According to Pecker, it was he and Cohen who planned the strategy of paying off accusers and having them sign non-disclosure agreements. The newsman insinuated that Trump himself was unaware of their scheme. Pecker’s testimony appears to represent a significant blow to Bragg’s prosecution, which is largely contingent on Trump having directed the payment scheme.

DID TRUMP VIOLATE THE GAG ORDER?

The only other significant courtroom action happened before Pecker’s testimony. Prosecutors and attorneys for the former President argued before Judge Juan Merchan as to whether Trump had violated a court-issued gag order. Bragg’s team told the judge that Trump had “willfully,” “flagrantly,” and “repeatedly” violated the order with both social media posts and comments made to the press outside the Manhattan courthouse. Todd Blanche, the lead attorney for Trump, fired back that the former President is “allowed to respond to political attacks.”

Democrat-aligned Judge Juan Merchan appeared frustrated with Blanche’s line of defense and repeatedly asked him to point to specific posts or comments by Michael Cohen or Stormy Daniels that constituted “political attacks.” Blanche offered a few examples and insisted that Trump has complied with Merchan’s gag order, which caused Merchan to become irate.

“You’re losing all credibility, I have to tell you right now,” the judge told Blanche, adding angrily:  “You’re losing all credibility with the court.” Despite his outburst, Merchant said he would not rule today on whether former President Trump had willfully violated the gag order.

You can read The National Pulse’s Day One trial coverage here, and if you find our work worthwhile, consider joining up as a supporter.

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Day two of the Manhattan-based hush money trial of former President Donald Trump saw abbreviated testimony from the former National Enquirer CEO, David Pecker. The National Pulse's editor-in-chief, Raheem Kassam, noted on X (formerly Twitter) that the tabloid newsman's recounting of events did not go well for District Attorney Alvin Bragg's prosecution. After briefly taking the stand on Monday — before the court adjourned around 12:30 PM ET — Pecker continued his testimony on Tuesday, delving into the substantive nature of the accusations leveled by Bragg's office. show more
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34 minutes ago
Jack Montgomery
Politics
World

Another Massive Foreign Policy Own Goal For Biden & Team…

Russia is decisively outplaying the Joe Biden regime in Africa, senior U.S. officials are admitting, as Niger becomes the latest country to push out American troops in favor of Russian mercenaries. Having poured over a billion dollars into Niger, well over a thousand U.S. troops will now have to be withdrawn from the Sahel region state over the coming months, and critical new drone bases will be abandoned.

A senior U.S. military official with experience in Niger described the event as “a devastating blow, both for our regional counterterrorism efforts and to overall peace in the region going forward.” Russian military advisers and materiel are already arriving in the country.

Chad, the Central African Republic, Mali, and Libya, have already turned to Russia to enhance their security, POLITICO reports, with a senior U.S. official telling the news outlet: “Where the Russians have a real advantage over the United States is they have weapons, and they sell weapons, including helicopters.”

It is an embarrassing state of affairs for Biden and his NATO allies — France, the former colonial power, has already had its forces ejected from Niger — at a time when a diplomatic and sanctions blitz against Russia following the onset of the Ukraine war was supposed to curb its influence on the world stage. Instead, the U.S. is being further pushed back in a region where neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso had already undergone military coups, brought in Russian mercenaries, and realigned with Moscow.

Cameron Hudson, a former intelligence officer for Africa at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), described how the U.S. had tried to fill the vacuum in “all of these countries” when French influence waned following decolonization.

“All of that is clearly not working. We are now out. Russia is now in,” he lamented.

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Russia is decisively outplaying the Joe Biden regime in Africa, senior U.S. officials are admitting, as Niger becomes the latest country to push out American troops in favor of Russian mercenaries. Having poured over a billion dollars into Niger, well over a thousand U.S. troops will now have to be withdrawn from the Sahel region state over the coming months, and critical new drone bases will be abandoned. show more
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1 hour ago
Politics

Jamie Raskin Is Getting Sued!

Tony Bobulinski, a former associate of Hunter Biden, filed a $20 million defamation lawsuit against Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) yesterday. Bobulinski, the witness for the Republican impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, has filed several lawsuits against Democrats over their commentary about him. According to Bobulinski, Rep. Raskin has refused to comply with multiple requests to retract and delete allegedly defamatory remarks, necessitating the lawsuit.

Raskin, the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, often criticizes the Republican impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden‘s son, Hunter. The Democrat lawmaker has repeatedly questioned Bobulinksi’s credibility. The lawsuit alleges Raskin published “false statements” online to undermine Bobulinski after his testimony before the impeachment inquiry.

The legal filing also accuses Raskin, in an MSNBC interview, of insinuating that Bobulinski engaged in spying and other criminal activity, thus damaging his integrity. In the same interview, Raskin ridiculed the GOP impeachment witnesses, accusing Bobulinski of maintaining ties to sanctioned Russia-based energy magnate Viktor Vekselberg. Several corporate news outlets subsequently picked up these accusations, further damaging the witness’s reputation.

Bobulinski’s lawsuit alleges that Raskin defamed the witness by suggesting he may have lied to Congress to gain favor with former President Donald Trump. The filing states that he possesses no affiliation with Trump’s presidential campaign. These comments by Raskin, the suit claims, have contributed to a “defamatory social media blitz.”

In addition to Raskin, Bobulinski has also filed lawsuits against former Trump aide-turned-Democrat ally Cassidy Hutchinson and Fox News‘s Democrat commentator Jessica Tarlov.

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Tony Bobulinski, a former associate of Hunter Biden, filed a $20 million defamation lawsuit against Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) yesterday. Bobulinski, the witness for the Republican impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, has filed several lawsuits against Democrats over their commentary about him. According to Bobulinski, Rep. Raskin has refused to comply with multiple requests to retract and delete allegedly defamatory remarks, necessitating the lawsuit. show more
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2 hours ago
William Upton
Election 2024
Lawfare

The New and Cringe ‘NeverTrump’ Ad May Actually Break Employment Law.

The NeverTrump group Republican Voters Against Trump is set to release a new ad that will air on Fox News in several swing states, including Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. It features an unidentified man asking various employees at an unknown mall location about being hired. The man will then off-handedly mention that he’s either facing 88 felony charges, that he’s been found liable for sexual assault, or that he’s been charged with falsifying business records. Each one of the store employees demurs or outright tells him he won’t be hired.

Republican Voters Against Trump’s intended message is that the charges — with no convictions at this point — against former President Donald Trump are disqualifying. However, the ad’s premise is flawed, based on the use of charges brought by the Biden government’s lawfare campaign against the former President.

On the whole, the four separate prosecutions that comprise the charges have repeatedly been labeled by legal experts as dubious. The NeverTrump group appears to believe voters can be fooled by oversimplifying the legal persecution brought by Biden and his Democrat political allies.

In all likelihood, the whole ad is staged, and the reported mall store employees are simply actors — despite the ad using a black bar to hide their faces, giving the impression that it is an undercover video. Otherwise, Republican Voters Against Trump may have unintentionally exposed several businesses engaging in employment discrimination.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) states that while employers can consider criminal convictions in hiring, the denial of hiring based solely on an arrest and not a conviction is discrimination. If these are real people, each of whom responded negatively to the 88 charges line, they likely violated EEOC rules.

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The NeverTrump group Republican Voters Against Trump is set to release a new ad that will air on Fox News in several swing states, including Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. It features an unidentified man asking various employees at an unknown mall location about being hired. The man will then off-handedly mention that he's either facing 88 felony charges, that he's been found liable for sexual assault, or that he's been charged with falsifying business records. Each one of the store employees demurs or outright tells him he won't be hired. show more
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