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Category: News
May 3, 2024
William Upton
Lawfare

Trump Trial Day 7: Hope Hicks Takes The Stand, Casts Doubt On Bragg’s Election Claims.

Hope Hicks, a former aide to and campaign press secretary for former President Donald J. Trump, took the stand on day seven of Trump’s Manhattan-based ‘hush money’ trial. Former Biden Department of Justice attorney Matthew Colangelo — who has a long history of engaging in partisan lawfare against conservatives — handled questioning for the prosecution.

Throughout the day, the prosecution probed Hicks on her relationship with various individuals in Trump‘s orbit, including business associates and campaign staff. Later, District Attorney Alvin Bragg‘s team moved on to the Trump campaign’s response to the Access Hollywood tape before then addressing the alleged Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal affairs.

HICKS AND THE 2016 CAMPAIGN.

The prosecution spent most of the morning establishing Hicks’s relationship with the former President, his family, and other members of his inner circle. Colangelo’s questioning focused heavily on the former press secretary’s role in the 2016 Trump presidential campaign. The prosecutor was especially interested in Hicks’s knowledge of and interactions with Michael Cohen, David Pecker, Rhona Graff, and ex-Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg.

Hicks told Colangelo that former President Trump was “very involved” in the day-to-day of his 2016 presidential campaign. Colangelo next pressed her on Michael Cohen and Allen Weisselberg’s roles in the campaign and the Trump Organization. Regarding Cohen, Hicks said she wasn’t sure. “I know he was involved in a couple of the licenses deals for some of the hotel projects and maybe some of the entertainment pieces as well, like Miss Universe pageant,” the former Trump aide responded.

Colangelo next asked Hicks about Allen Weisselberg and what campaign role he played. According to Hicks, the former Trump Organization CFO mainly just assisted with the personal financial disclosure that Trump had to file ahead of the election. When asked about Trump’s relationship with Weisselberg, Hicks acknowledged, “He was a trusted person there.”

Hicks went on to testify that David Pecker and Donald Trump were indeed friends. She noted that she joined the former President for his phone calls with the tabloid newsman. When asked if she was present for the 2015 meeting between Trump and Pecker at Trump Tower, she said, “I don’t have a recollection of that.” Pecker testified last week that Hicks had been in and out of that meeting.

THE ACCESS HOLLYWOOD TAPE.

Just before the lunch break, Colangelo moved on to Hicks’s role regarding the 2016 Trump campaign’s response to the Access Hollywood tape. The infamous video, in which the former President engages in “locker room talk,” appears to be part of the prosecution’s strategy to paint Trump as someone who participates in crude and lascivious behavior.

Hicks recalled the tape being very upsetting to Trump. “He said that didn’t sound like something he would say,” she testified, adding that the former President wanted to see the actual video. She continued, stating the campaign viewed the tape as “damaging” and a “crisis.”

Colangelo pressed Hicks further on Trump’s response after viewing the tape. She responded that the former President “didn’t want to offend anybody.” However, Hicks added, “I think he felt like it was pretty standard stuff for two guys chatting with each other.”

After the tape had become public, Hicks said there were rumors of another video “that would be problematic for the campaign.” Hicks told Colangelo that she asked Michael Cohen to look into the matter. “There was no such tape, regardless, but he chased that down for me,” she said.

THE STORMY DANIELS STORY.

Following lunch, Colangelo moved on to the Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal affair accusations. At this stage, the prosecution hoped to elicit testimony suggesting Trump was concerned about how accusations would impact his campaign just days before the 2016 election. However, that is not what happened.

Hicks said the November 4, 2016, Wall Street Journal story was the first time she became aware of Karen McDougal. She acknowledged that she had heard Story Daniels’s name once before, stating that several security guards on Trump’s plane mentioned her name in 2015 while discussing attendees at a celebrity gold tournament.

After the story broke, Hicks said she reached out to Michael Cohen. “Michael sort of feigned like he didn’t know what I was talking about,” she said.

Addressing the campaign response to the Daniels and McDougal stories, Hicks said former President Trump “wanted to know the context, and he wanted to make sure that there was a denial of any kind of relationship.” She added that Trump wanted to make it “absolutely, unequivocally” clear that he never had a relationship with Daniels.

‘TRUMP MORE CONCERNED ABOUT MELANIA.’

In the most damning moment of the day for District Attorney Bragg‘s prosecution, Hicks unequivocally stated that Trump was solely concerned about how the Stormy Daniels story would impact his family — especially his wife, Melania. “He was concerned about the story. He was concerned about how it would be viewed by his wife, and he wanted me to make sure that the newspapers weren’t delivered to his residence that morning,” Hicks said.

Hicks’s statement directly undermines the prosecution’s assertion that the financial payments to Daniels and McDougal were meant to prevent negative press that would impact his campaign. However, she acknowledged that the story concerned those within the presidential campaign’s inner circle. “Everything we talked about in the context of this time period and this time frame was about whether or not there was an impact on the campaign,” Hicks told Colangelo.

Next, Trump‘s defense attorney, Emil Bove, began his cross-examination. He asked Hicks about the former President’s relationship with his wife. “President Trump really values Mrs. Trump’s opinion, and she doesn’t weigh in all the time, but when she does, it’s really meaningful to him and, you know, he really really respects what she has to say,” she responded. At this point, Hicks became very emotional and began to cry on the stand. Following a break, Bove briefly continued his cross-examination before the court adjourned for the day.

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

 

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Hope Hicks, a former aide to and campaign press secretary for former President Donald J. Trump, took the stand on day seven of Trump's Manhattan-based 'hush money' trial. Former Biden Department of Justice attorney Matthew Colangelo — who has a long history of engaging in partisan lawfare against conservatives — handled questioning for the prosecution. show more
macron
May 3, 2024
Jack Montgomery
War
World

Macron Threatens to Drag NATO Into War With Russia.

French President Emmanuel Macron has declared Russia “must never be able to win in Ukraine,” and that he will consider deploying forces to the Eastern European country if Russian troops make a significant breakthrough.

“I’m not ruling anything out, because we are facing someone who is not ruling anything out,” Macron said, referring to Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

“We have undoubtedly been too hesitant by defining the limits of our action to someone who no longer has any and who is the aggressor,” he argued, suggesting that “if the Russians were to break through the front lines, if there were a Ukrainian request,” he would consider sending troops into the country.

“We mustn’t rule anything out, because our objective is that Russia must never be able to win in Ukraine,” he added.

ESCALATION. 

France is a NATO member, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has warned such an action by Macron would mean not “the probability” but “the inevitability” of conflict between the Western alliance and the Russian Federation.

French intervention in Ukraine might not immediately draw all NATO, as a conflict initiated by a NATO member does not necessarily trigger its mutual defense clause. Still, both Russia and France are nuclear powers, and direct conflict between the two states would be fraught with the risk of rapid escalation.

Macron reportedly told fellow politicians in France there are “no more limits” on the possible extent of French involvement in the Ukraine war in March. In February, he refused to rule out boots on the ground in Ukraine. Prime Minister Robert Fico of Slovakia, another NATO member, revealed “a number of NATO and [European Union] member states are considering that they will send their troops to Ukraine on a bilateral basis” the same month.

A Russian breakthrough in Ukraine appears increasingly likely. Russian forces are making significant gains along the eastern front, and enjoy a considerable artillery advantage on the battlefield.

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French President Emmanuel Macron has declared Russia "must never be able to win in Ukraine," and that he will consider deploying forces to the Eastern European country if Russian troops make a significant breakthrough. show more
Migrant Crime
May 3, 2024
Jack Montgomery
Crime
Immigration

MIGRANT CRIME ROUND-UP: Killers and a Cover-Up.

Donald Trump described migrant crime as a dangerous “new category of crime” in February. The National Pulse has been tracking major incidents involving illegal aliens charged or convicted of serious crimes ever since. A review of the last week shows that such criminality continues to endanger the American public and eat into public resources and that Biden may be trying to make it harder for the public to hold him accountable.

MOTHER AND CHILD.

Bodycam footage of the arrest of Angel Gabriel Cuz-Choc, a Guatemalan illegal alien who has confessed to the murder of a 36-year-old woman and her four-year-old daughter, has been released.

Cuz-Choc, who told investigators he paid a “coyote” smuggler to get him into the country, committed the double murder in the victims’ mobile home in Dover, Florida.

“The nature and circumstances of these offenses are excessively violent and brutal… he stabbed an innocent and defenseless four-year-old child while she was in the bathtub,” read documents related to Cuz-Choc’s case.

“Not only did he commit an unimaginable crime which cruelly claimed the lives of two innocent victims, he then made the cowardly and ultimately futile attempt to evade capture,” commented Sheriff Chad Chronister. The illegal was tracked and detained by K9 dogs while fleeing through woodland.

ANOTHER MOTHER AND CHILD. 

Bylly Xilox Aquino, another Guatemalan illegal alien, was arrested for an attack on a mother and child, equally shocking but less deadly.

The 23-year-old is charged with raping and sodomizing an unnamed victim in Fairview, New Jersey, in the presence of a child and has been charged with sexual assault and two counts of child endangerment. The rape victim required medical treatment after the attack.

Aquino is subject to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer request and is scheduled to appear in court on May 8.

KILLER IN CONNECTICUT. 

Yet another Guatemalan illegal alien, an unnamed 35-year-old, was detained in Connecticut. He had previously been convicted of manslaughter but was let loose by state officials after serving only part of his sentence.

The killer entered the U.S. illegally in 2007 and was convicted and imprisoned for first-degree manslaughter in 2013. An immigration judge ordered his deportation in 2014. State officials released him instead of turning him over directly to ICE — a common theme in many of the cases recorded in The National Pulse’s migrant crime round-ups.

WANTED MAN.

ICE announced the detention of a Mexican wanted for homicide in his homeland on Wednesday. Juvenal Arroyo Hernandez, 48, had already been deported from the U.S. twice but slipped through its porous border for a third time.

He first crossed the border illegally in 1998, returning to Mexico voluntarily the same year after Border Patrol caught him. He next crossed the border in 2011 and was again detained by Border Patrol and removed after a few months.

It is not known when he crossed the border for the third time. Becoming a so-called “gotaway,” he was discovered by the authorities in Austin, Texas, in April and subsequently found to be wanted for homicide in Mexico.

PEDOPHILE WITH U.S. CITIZENSHIP.

Felix Aguilar-Matias, a now-former Mexican citizen, has been indicted for naturalization and passport fraud four years after his conviction for sexual battery and touching of a child for lustful purposes in Mississippi.

A U.S. passport-holder, Aguilar-Matias is accused of lying on his naturalization documents when asked whether he had “ever committed, assisted in committing, or attempted to commit, a crime or offense for which you were not arrested.”

The pedophile faces automatic loss of citizenship if he is convicted of naturalization fraud, but deporting him may prove difficult if he has renounced his Mexican citizenship.

He was netted as part of Operation False Haven, an expensive ICE operation examining fraudulently obtained naturalization and other benefits, which has gathered in migrants “convicted of serial rape, child sexual abuse, incest, sodomy, child sexual abuse material, kidnapping, sex trafficking, murder and narcotics trafficking.”

A COVER-UP UNDER BIDEN?

Many of the illegal aliens, including those in The National Pulse’s migrant crime round-ups, are identified only by their age and nationality because the authorities do not release their names.

This appears to be a matter of choice rather than legal necessity and has not gone unnoticed by the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI). The IRLI is suing ICE, noting that the agency named criminal aliens in 97 percent of its press releases during the Donald Trump administration.

“Recently, ICE began omitting the names of immigration violators it has arrested from agency press releases,” IRLI observed, noting that “[in the] 67 percent of cases where the alien was referred to by name, he/she had typically been named… by state or local law enforcement, or the media.”

ICE has not responded to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests asking it to hand over any internal policies and guidance on publicizing or not publicizing migrants’ names, and IRLI hopes to force them to do so through court action.

The current policy of seldom naming migrants causes transparency issues, as it makes it difficult or impossible for the press and public to examine the background of their cases.

Read The National Pulse’s previous migrant crime round-up here. 

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Donald Trump described migrant crime as a dangerous “new category of crime” in February. The National Pulse has been tracking major incidents involving illegal aliens charged or convicted of serious crimes ever since. A review of the last week shows that such criminality continues to endanger the American public and eat into public resources and that Biden may be trying to make it harder for the public to hold him accountable. show more
May 3, 2024
William Upton
Corruption

ANOTHER Democrat Indicted On Foreign Corruption Charges.

The Department of Justice announced a criminal indictment against Representative Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and his wife, Imelda, on Friday. The charges are related to foreign corruption. In January 2022, federal agents raided Cuellar’s home and campaign office in Texas as part of an investigation into a group of U.S. businessmen with ties to Azerbaijan. At the time, the Texas Democrat pledged to cooperate with the federal investigation.

Cueller and his wife are accused of accepting $600,000 in bribes as part of an Azerbaijani foreign influence operation. The indictment alleges the Texas Democrat agreed to “influence legislative activity” and lobby the Biden government on behalf of Azerbaijan in exchange for the bribes. This marks the second Congressional Democrat to be indicted on accusations of foreign corruption in the last year.

In September 2023, a federal grand jury indicted Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) on charges of corruption and acting as an unregistered foreign agent for Egypt and Qatar. According to the indictment, Menendez and his wife Nadine received payments in cash, gold bars, and a luxury vehicle for their efforts on behalf of the two foreign governments. Despite the indictment, Menendez continues to serve in the U.S. Senate and maintains access to classified intelligence briefings.

Rep. Cuellar has occasionally broken ranks with his fellow Democrats in Congress and has, at times, criticized Biden‘s open border policies. First elected to the House in 2004, Cuellar is a long-standing member of the centrist Blue Dog Democrats. In March, he launched a new caucus for Congressional Democrats focusing on border security.

The Texas Democrat is also the only remaining pro-life Democrat in Congress.

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The Department of Justice announced a criminal indictment against Representative Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and his wife, Imelda, on Friday. The charges are related to foreign corruption. In January 2022, federal agents raided Cuellar's home and campaign office in Texas as part of an investigation into a group of U.S. businessmen with ties to Azerbaijan. At the time, the Texas Democrat pledged to cooperate with the federal investigation. show more
May 3, 2024
Jack Montgomery
Election 2024
Immigration

Miami Mayor: Biden Parole Program ‘Pandering Attempt’ to Get Votes.

Joe Biden has flown almost 100,000 migrants to Miami under a controversial parole program because he hopes to strengthen his party’s support in electoral strongholds such as Miami-Dade, according to the city mayor. The Democrat won the county with only 53.31 percent of the vote in 2020, down from Hillary Clinton’s 63.22 percent in 2016.

Mayor Francis Suarez said Biden’s flights are a “pandering attempt” to win support “no different from giving free college education to students to try to buy the young vote.” He said Trump, in contrast, won support by taking on “the socialist and communist governments that are destroying the countries that a lot of these people are fleeing.”

It was known that the Joe Biden regime was flying hundreds of thousands of migrants directly to the U.S. in early March, but he refused to reveal where. In recent days, the House Homeland Security Committee has been able to discover that Florida accounts for four of the flights’ top ten destinations, with Miami topping the chart with 91,821 arrivals over an eight-month period.

“This is quite possibly the biggest failure of the Biden administration, beginning with the fact that I don’t think they ever anticipated that immigration and the border and their lack of control of the border would be such a big issue in the presidential race,” said Suarez, who is of Cuban heritage.

“There have been over seven million illegal entries into the United States since he took office, which is more than the population of 37 states,” he added. In fact, the illegal alien influx under Biden is already 9.4 million, not including “gotaways.” Illegal immigration under Biden will likely equal total legal immigration to the U.S. from 1892 to 1954 by the end of his term.

Linked to Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum (WEF), Suarez made the comments despite having refused to vote for Trump in 2020 and opposing him in the Republican primary race.

His views on Biden using immigration as an electoral weapon are increasingly common among the public. Fifty-four percent of likely voters believe the Democrat is “encouraging” illegal immigration to “create a permanent majority” for the Democrats. Among Hispanic voters, the share of voters who think this is even higher, at 68 percent.

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Joe Biden has flown almost 100,000 migrants to Miami under a controversial parole program because he hopes to strengthen his party's support in electoral strongholds such as Miami-Dade, according to the city mayor. The Democrat won the county with only 53.31 percent of the vote in 2020, down from Hillary Clinton's 63.22 percent in 2016. show more
May 3, 2024
Jack Montgomery
Election 2024
War

Bernie Sanders: Gaza Becoming Biden’s ‘Vietnam.’

Senator Bernie Sanders has offered support to students protesting across United States college campuses in opposition to Israel’s offensive against Hamas and is warning that Joe Biden’s support for the Israelis could cost him the election in November.

“I worry very much that President Biden is putting himself in a position where he has alienated not just young people, but a lot of the Democratic base in terms of his views on Israel and this war,” Sanders said. Younger voters and Muslim voters, particularly important in the swing state of Michigan, are both trending away from Biden in recent polling.

“In terms of his [reelection] campaign, I am thinking back…  this may be Biden’s Vietnam,” Sanders suggested, noting how opposition to Lyndon B. Johnson’s foreign policy killed his presidency.

Our Revolution, a progressive political action organization kickstarted by Sanders’s 2016 presidential campaign, previously led efforts to have Democrats decline to commit to Biden as their 2024 candidate. Intended to send a message to Biden that many leftists are unhappy with his position on Gaza, the initiative could not stop Biden from being declared the Democratic nominee, but it reeled in over 13 percent of the vote in Michigan.

The campaign to vote for “uncommitted” instead of Biden in Michigan reportedly caused his campaign to “freak out,” as a relatively small number of leftists staying home in November could cost him Michigan and other key states.

Biden has attempted to chart a middle path through the campus crisis, suggesting there are fine people on both sides. However, he may simply be alienating both sides, with protestors and counter-protestors having united in chants of “F*** Joe Biden” at a recent demonstration in Alabama.

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Senator Bernie Sanders has offered support to students protesting across United States college campuses in opposition to Israel's offensive against Hamas and is warning that Joe Biden's support for the Israelis could cost him the election in November. show more
May 3, 2024
William Upton
Lawfare
News

Trump Asks Judge To Dismiss ‘Vindictive’ Documents Case.

Former President Donald J. Trump is asking U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon to dismiss charges brought by Biden Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith alleging he illegally retained classified documents. In an unsealed motion filed late Thursday, the former President argued that Smith has engaged in a “selective and vindictive prosecution.”

“With one exception there is no record of the Department of Justice prosecuting a former president or vice president for mishandling classified documents from his own administration,” the motion states, before adding: “The exception is President Trump.”

The filing alleges the special counsel‘s investigation and indictment of former President Trump is politically motivated and meant to sideline Democrat incumbent Joe Biden‘s presidential election opponent. “The basis is his politics and status as President Biden’s chief political rival,” Trump’s attorneys argue in the motion. They continue: “Thus, this case reflects the type of selective and vindictive prosecution that cannot be tolerated.”

Bolstering their argument, the former President‘s defense team notes that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton faced no repercussions for retaining and destroying sensitive documents that she stored on a private server. “Hillary Clinton and her colleagues deleted 31,830 emails and destroyed data on numerous electronic devices, including after a congressional protective order,” note Trump’s attorneys.

The motion also details the unprosecuted mishandling of classified documents by James Comey, the former director of the FBI. “Comey hid from the FBI that he had used a private scanner and his personal email account to transmit at least two classified documents to his personal attorney,” the motion reads. Trump’s attorneys go on to note that former Vice President Mike Pence, former Clinton government national security adviser Sandy Berger, and even Joe Biden avoided prosecution for similar crimes of which Trump is accused.

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Former President Donald J. Trump is asking U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon to dismiss charges brought by Biden Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith alleging he illegally retained classified documents. In an unsealed motion filed late Thursday, the former President argued that Smith has engaged in a "selective and vindictive prosecution." show more
May 3, 2024
Media

MSNBC Says Trump Will Control Media, Turn Military Against Americans, and Put Women ‘On a Registry.’

Manhattan advertising mogul Donny Deutsch claimed on MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe‘ on Thursday that Donald Trump aims to exploit the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to manipulate news coverage and will also unleash the military upon the American people, among other outlandish claims.

Deutsch, a regular show participant, suggested that if Trump wins the election, he will have the FCC report directly to him to manage news programs’ coverage. “He says what he’s going to do. What he’s going to do to your point, Joe, is have the FCC report to him so he will be able to control shows like this. He wants the FCC to report to him,” Deutsch said.

Pointing to a recent interview Trump gave to TIME magazine’s Eric Cortellesa, Deutsch also claimed, “He wants to bring the Insurrection Act back so he can turn military troops on his own people. He wants to weaponize, as you said, the Justice Department to go after his enemies,” Deutsch continued. He then bizarrely claimed that Trump “wants to put women on a registry in red states for abortion.”

WHAT TRUMP ACTUALLY SAID. 

In January, Trump lashed out at CNN and NBC for refusing to cover his victory speech after the Iowa caucuses. However, he never suggested using the FCC to control the media. “NBC and CNN refused to air my victory speech. I think of it because they are crooked. They’re dishonest, and frankly, they should have their licenses or whatever they have. Take it away,” Trump said.

Deutsch’s allegations regarding Trump’s recent TIME interview are simply not true either. In the interview, Trump expressed his intention to use the military, mainly the National Guard, if possible, to go after and detain illegal aliens — not American citizens.

Writes Cortellessa: “For an operation of that scale, Trump says he would rely mostly on the National Guard to round up and remove undocumented migrants throughout the country. ‘If they weren’t able to, then I’d use [other parts of] the military,’ he says. When I ask if that means he would override the Posse Comitatus Act—an 1878 law that prohibits the use of military force on civilians—Trump seems unmoved by the weight of the statute. ‘Well, these aren’t civilians,’ he says. ‘These are people that aren’t legally in our country.'”

Furthermore, while he expressed his belief that it would be acceptable for states with anti-abortion laws to prosecute women who violate them, he never once made mention of a registry, let alone wanting to put women on one.

“More than 20 states now have full or partial abortion bans, and Trump says those policies should be left to the states to do what they want, including monitoring women’s pregnancies,” Cortellessa writes. “’I think they might do that,’ he says. When I ask whether he would be comfortable with states prosecuting women for having abortions beyond the point the laws permit, he says, ‘It’s irrelevant whether I’m comfortable or not. It’s totally irrelevant, because the states are going to make those decisions.'”

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Manhattan advertising mogul Donny Deutsch claimed on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' on Thursday that Donald Trump aims to exploit the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to manipulate news coverage and will also unleash the military upon the American people, among other outlandish claims. show more
May 3, 2024
Jack Montgomery
Lawfare

Lawyers To Grill Forensic Expert on Disgraced Lawyer Michael Cohen’s Electronics, Secret Recordings in Trump Trial.

Donald Trump’s New York election interference trial continues on Friday with evidence from Douglas Daus, the forensic analyst who found more than 39,000 contacts on the phone of Trump’s disgraced ex-lawyer, Michael Cohen. Among the findings were texts with Trump allies, including Hope Hicks, former White House communications director, and secret recordings from the time of Trump’s 2016 campaign.

George Soros-backed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg asserts that Trump conspired with Michael Cohen and David Pecker to suppress damaging stories that could impact Trump’s campaign. This alleged conspiracy led to Stormy Daniels being paid $130,000 not to go public with claims of a sexual encounter she supposedly had with Trump. Daniels publicly denied having an affair with the former president before reversing her position.

Douglas Daus, a forensic analyst for Bragg’s office, will be cross-examined on over 39,000 contacts, messages, and secret recordings extracted from a phone belonging to Cohen, a convicted perjurer. However, the recordings are not necessarily helpful to the prosecution. They suggest Cohen, the star witness against Trump, was the driving force behind the settlement, with Trump unclear on the details and unhappy that a deal was being made.

‘THE RIGHT THING TO DO.’

One of the recordings shows Cohen discussing the settlement with Hollywood entertainment lawyer Keith Davidson, who represented Daniels. Cohens tells the lawyer that Trump has complained many times about the settlement. “I can’t even tell you how many times he said to me, you know, ‘I hate the fact that we did it,’” and “my comment to him was ‘but every person you spoke to said it was the right thing to do,’” Cohen says.

Davidson, who has testified the settlement to Daniels was not “hush money,” was questioned on whether he was concerned his efforts to secure a settlement for Daniels ahead of the 2016 election could be regarded as an attempt at “extortion.”

Davidson denied the extortion accusation, though one of Cohen’s recordings shows him complaining that if Trump “loses this election… we all lose all f**king leverage.”

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Donald Trump's New York election interference trial continues on Friday with evidence from Douglas Daus, the forensic analyst who found more than 39,000 contacts on the phone of Trump's disgraced ex-lawyer, Michael Cohen. Among the findings were texts with Trump allies, including Hope Hicks, former White House communications director, and secret recordings from the time of Trump's 2016 campaign. show more
May 3, 2024
Lawfare

A Question of Jurisdiction Could Sink Fani Willis’s RICO Case Against Trump and Others.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis possibly indicted former President Donald J. Trump and over a dozen other co-defendants without proper jurisdiction. An attorney for one of Trump‘s co-defendants, Harrison Floyd, contends violations of the law related to state elections are under the purview of the state board of elections and not the Fulton County D.A.’s office.

According to Floyd‘s attorney, Chris Kachouroff, Willis’s overall RICO prosecution is predicated on election violations, which means its proper jurisdiction should originate with the state’s board of elections. Kachouroff, in a motion filed with Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, argues that Willis has overstepped her legal jurisdiction in prosecuting the election-related crimes without a referral from Georgia‘s State Election Board. By resting original jurisdiction with the State Election Board, Kachouroff says “fragmentation of investigative activities” is avoided — meaning the state’s election authority would decide whether charges would be referred to Georgia’s Attorney General or one of 54 district attorneys.

Kachouroff’s initial motion questioning Willis‘s jurisdiction was denied by Judge McAfee, with the judge contending that the D.A. has “shared jurisdiction.” However, McAfee later granted a motion for immediate review of his decision by the Georgia Court of Appeals. If the appellate court — or the Georgia State Supreme Court — agrees with Kachouroff’s legal theory on the jurisdiction, most-if-not-all of the charges against Trump and his co-defendants could be thrown out.

Floyd is accused of soliciting false statements from witnesses, alleging election and ballot fraud. This charge stems from his interactions with Fulton County election worker Ruby Freeman. In a separate civil case, former federal prosecutor and New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was ordered to pay $148 million for defaming Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss. Giuliani claimed the two committed ballot fraud during the 2020 election.

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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis possibly indicted former President Donald J. Trump and over a dozen other co-defendants without proper jurisdiction. An attorney for one of Trump's co-defendants, Harrison Floyd, contends violations of the law related to state elections are under the purview of the state board of elections and not the Fulton County D.A.'s office. show more