The 34 guilty verdicts in the New York state court trial of former President Donald Trump on felony charges of falsifying business records of alleged “hush money” payments to an adult film actress as part of a scheme to influence the 2016 election has opened the floodgates on a river of partisan political hyperbole from both sides of the aisle.
Republicans, even former prosecutors who spent their careers defending the American jury trial system, are now decrying the Trump verdict as the result of a “rigged” trial that evolved out of a “weaponization” of the judicial system by Democrats. GOP voices also say the verdict virtually guarantees Trump’s victory in November as voters reject felony convictions. Democrats, even some who defended former President Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky episode, defend the New York state judicial system, the narrow legal theory that raised Trump's crimes to felonies, and reject the notion that the convictions in any way enhance Trump’s electability in November. Partisans on both sides argue passionately that the Trump verdicts will sway the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. With the stark division of the country over the 2024 election between President Joe Biden and Trump, some in these increasingly hysterical rants are talking in terms of the possibility of public unrest rising to violence up to and including civil war. Those breathless reactions ignore some basic facts about the behavior of the American electorate. The most basic relevant point is that in the last presidential election in 2020 between Biden and Trump, one-third of eligible U.S. voters did not vote – yes, and that voter turnout was at a historic high. The Census reported that in 2020, 159,633,396 Americans voted in the presidential election, the largest vote total in U.S. history. It was the highest voter turnout as a percentage of the voting-eligible population in 120 years at 66.7%. The Stormy Daniels revelations broke in 2018 in The Wall Street Journal, a fact that tends to get lost in the partisan post-trial play-by-play. In the 2020 election, Biden won 81.2 million votes or 51.3 percent of the popular vote to Trump’s 74.2 million votes or 46.8%. The Electoral College vote ultimately was 306 for Biden and 232 for Trump. Trump and his supporters disputed both popular vote and electoral vote outcomes. Biden took office on Jan. 20, 2021. Trump did not attend Biden’s inauguration. So, what next? In 2024, the division in the country suggests that there will be another high voter turnout. But in March, the Pew Research Center reported that 26% of Americans have negative views of both Trump and Biden. The Pew numbers showed 37 percent with favorable views of Trump, 34 percent with favorable views of Biden, and 26 percent with unfavorable views of both Trump and Biden. The notion that Trump’s felony convictions and civil case loss coupled with his pending legal challenges are enough in and of themselves to sway the outcome of the 2024 election is ludicrous. Voter participation in presidential elections was below 50 percent in the 1920s then climbed to around 60 percent during the Korean Conflict and stayed in that range until Watergate in the 1970s when voting dropped precipitously. The percentages didn’t get back to above 60 percent until 2004. Since the 1920s, economic cataclysm, world wars, and profound episodes of government corruption made voting numbers rise and fall, yet victory in 2024 for both candidates lies at the incremental margins, the extremes and the fringes. Where we are is that a third of eligible U.S. voters don’t care whether Trump or Biden is president and a fourth of Americans don’t want either of them in the Oval Office. Politicians on both sides may not like those numbers, but they reflect our current national reality. The outcome of the 2024 election rides not on the actions in a Manhattan courtroom, but on which candidate, which party and which strategy can sway the apathetic, the disaffected and those who have lost all confidence in government to their cause.Sid Salter is a syndicated columnist. Contact him at sidsalter@sidsalter.com.
68 comments:
If Trump is forced to go to jail on these fake charges along with the rigged jury, let the "mostly peaceful" protests begin.
When charged with influencing an election, don't they have to put on proof that it was in fact influenced? Asking for a friend
our third branch has broken
Sid has been a pork lover for decades.
This rigged jury had a verdict in 11 hours for 34-COUNTS. That include breaks, meals, chit-chit, and foreman selection.
Years ago I was a jury foreman in a criminal trial with only 3-counts. We deliberated for a full week.
This jury was predisposed to find Trump guilty, just the opposite of "jury nullification."
Sidney tries so hard to describe Biden and Trump as equally undesirable. Only one is a demented, perverse, leftist radical who is actively attacking the Constitution and ruining the country. Conversely, the other is supportive of sovereignty, liberty, opportunity and the Constitution.
Biden, no matter how hard he tries, cannot gin up sufficient support to win by running from his record and mischaracterizing Trump.
Party of law and order, for thee not for me.
Not going to say he got a fair trial or not. What I will say is that all the people and newsmedia involved in telling me it was all above board are the same ones that lied about where covid came from, the treatments for covid, the Dossier, the laptop, Nick Sandman and the "Peacefull" protests. So color me skeptical.
Biden sux. Trump sux. The two-party system has failed to produce worthy candidates. Still better than anywhere else in the world.
Attributed to Joseph Stalin, it goes something like “It doesn’t matter who votes; what matters is who counts the votes.”
Also attributed to Stalin, “No man, no problem.” The big chunks floating at the top of the political cesspool don’t want Trump the man being Trump the problem.
But as usual here, more Sid with a bunch of cut-and-pasted numbers from wiki, signifying nothing
Middle of the road politically here, not a huge fan of Trump as a person and certainly not one of the lunatic MAGA's sharing the Christ-like memes of Donald but this embarrassment has made it much more palatable for me to vote for him again this time.
Anything is better than the current joke of leadership. The unabated divisiveness this administration has championed is the real criminal offense.
Our nation's future looks pretty bleak regardless, but I do look forward to the comedica factor of seeing some of these lunatics freak out when DJT wins. They truly deserve him.
After reading that utterly nonsensical, discombobulated headline, I'm not about to wade into the article itself.
It's like spin the pages of a dictionary and jab your finger onto ten random words, string them together and call them a headline.
8:58 and 8:55 plus one.
Calling a porn star an "adult film actress" is like calling a hooker a "sex worker."
The Democrat strategy all along has been to make sure they have what amounts to a "one-candidate" election this fall. What they really want is to force a no-name to replace Trump's name on the ballot. And after the election I doubt there will be much appetite for going after Trump anymore - there won't be an end game to it.
Great point and so true 8:55!!!
I see that all of the delusional MAGAts are out in full force today. Trump has been conning people his whole life and is still conning all of you. If the tables were turned and Biden was charged criminally for paying off a porn star you would all be saying he got what he deserved.
He’s going to prison, deal with it!
On the bright side, he finally won a popular vote 😂
@ 8:42 - and your experience with only one trial sets the standard? Maybe the facts were clearer in Trump’s trial… but ok, if you can only handle simple comparisons: at least the jurors in Trump’s trial needed more time that the jurors in Emmett Till’s 1955 murder trial! Y’all liked that one! Let’s be honest, even if they would have needed 3 months in Trump’s case you wouldn’t like the outcome.
Let’s see if KF publishes this…
10:34 can you give any good reasons why you'll be voting for Biden, other than it's "not Trump?" The man's been in public office his entire adult life, so fire away.
@9:25. My sentiments exactly! Couldn't have said it better myself.
As the November election approaches how many Hollywood "stars" will declare that they are moving to Canada if Trump wins? But of course they never move but the MSM doesn't report that.
10:34 AM, if paying off a porn star, or anyone else, was a crime then Clinton would still be in jail. There simply isn't a law against it. It happens everyday.
At least Trump has not ever sold out our country for drug money for his son and 10% for the big guy. Are you still sure about Hunter's laptop being a fake, the Russian thing still about Trump, and Joe not knowing where his son got the drug money?
11:23 - Trump was not in trial for paying hush money to a porn star, but for falsifying business documents. If he would have given her the money openly he wouldn’t be trialed now. But he didn’t want to pay her openly because it was right before the 2016 election and he didn’t want that to come out…
Sid decries the apathy among potential voters. I say, the fewer the better. Perhaps, we should return to the days of our Founding Fathers, when the right to vote was limited to "the natural aristocracy among men." Voting was available to men of property and men in the professional classes. That ignorant masses were not allowed to affect the nation's political discourse with their feeble minds.
@11:23
I see you are using the same tired "what abouts" and conspiracy theories that have been debunked over and over again. You just proved my point that you all would be applauding the verdict if it was Biden instead of Trump. Trump was convicted of falsifying business records. It's not illegal to pay someone off.
9:25 - what "lunatic MAGA's sharing the Christ-like memes of Donald" are you talking about?? What depths of the dark web do you frequent??
10:53, I'm sure that will happen. You should make more predictions, you might get lucky and get one right
If he broke the law, and it appears that he did then so be it.
Most of us are just a bit unsure that this standard will be equally applied to liberals.
I for one, look forward to the many Democrat law breakers that will also face a trial in the near future now that we all finally admit that all broken laws deserve to be prosecuted.
Surely that will happen too, right?
June 5, 2024 at 10:53 AM, name the crime Trump will be jailed for?
June 5, 2024 at 12:47 PM, give the link where the judge, or prosecutor said falsifying business records is the charge.
1:44 and I agree. I don't know a single Christian who would want Donald Trump to be their pastor. But Trump isn't running for pastor. Trump is running for president.
Hillary paid for the Steele Dossier with campaign funds, and lied about it, but that's ok...
12:47 PMK, one of those tired "what abouts" is being used to prove Hunter was lying under oath. His own laptop with pictures of him smoking crack is being used in his trial.
The sad thing is, these 34 felonies he was convicted of were supposed to be the weakest case against him. The Georgia case and especially the classified docs case are slam dunks. I don’t see how Trump can avoid dying in prison. As soon as he was treated like every other American, the felonies piled up. His rap sheet is impressive as is, but that’s not even 1% of the crimes his bankrupt ass should have faced. LOCK HIM UP.
Wonder why Hillary was not charged with election interference when she paid for the whole Russian thing? Seems like that would be easy to prove.
It’s funny how every time Trump is forced to argue a case on facts in court, he loses. He’s the perpetual loser who always cries Rigged. He’s nothing but a dumb rigger boy, but 30% of the country is blinded by his phony facade.
The Democrat party of
Teddy “Chappaquiddick” Kennedy,
Bill “Monica Lewinski” & “lied under oath” Clinton,
“$1-2 billion in insured damages” and “at least 25 killed” during ten George Floyd riots – “including 8-year old Secoriea Turner” in Atlanta,
Ashley “diary now confirmed – to indeed be authentic” Biden,
Hunter “discharged from the Navy due to cocaine use” & “knowingly lied about drug use on government background check when he purchased a gun” Biden,
Defund the police,
Abolish the police,
Catch & Release! Squawk! Atkins shooter edition, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.,
Destroys every city they take over with out of control crime to keep Republicans that would vote them out of office from moving in,
pretends to care about law and order when they need to weaponize the government against a political opponent??? What a f___ing joke!
@6:06 PM Amen, brother.
Trump lost by 7 million the last time , the stain of conviction will surely cost him a few million more. Should he lose by 10-15 million votes will he graciously except defeat.
Who here is better off under the Biden administration than they were under the Trump administration? Thats the true litmus test. Personalities and thoughts aside, who ran the country better?
I have a buddy at Butler Snow. He said the jury was the most educated anyone had ever seen.
Would never happen in Mississippi - the educated try every which way to get off the jury and the judges allow it.
How does your 'buddy at Butler Snow' happen to have seen the background checks and resumes of the jurors?
Velly in-ter-esting.
Even if you or he were not lying, a jury you described would have been 12 liberal professors with Phds.
I have read the entire Trump transcript, available at PDFs.nycourts.gov, which I would commend to folks who want to express a view on the proceedings.
As a financial capital, NY made the policy decision many years ago that fraud in business records of NY businesses is a serious matter and there have been more than 10,000 criminal prosecutions under the same law for which Trump was convicted.
The prosecution had a mountain of evidence (including from Trump’s own accounting and secretarial employees) and clear proof of Trump’s involvement in the scheme, starting with a meeting at Trump Tower with Trump, David Pecker and Michael Cohen to hatch the “catch and kill” scheme, with Pecker’s publishing empire acting as the covert eyes and ears of the Trump campaign and Cohen as the authorized and delegated go-between for Pecker.
The prosecution did an outstanding job of presenting a coherent and well-organized story, bolstering the testimony of Michael Cohen with corroboration from Pecker, Hope Hicks (RNC and Trump press secretary) and Trump employees. Trump’s legal team offered no alternate theory of the case and basically claimed that everyone was lying except Trump, who declined to take the stand after much puffery about how he would be eager to testify and clear his name.
The quick jury verdict after a multi-week trial shows just how overwhelming the evidence was and that there was no reasonable doubt by any of the 12 jurors of Trump’s guilt. Even the Republican toadies who have fallen in line to condemn the verdict and bash the NY judicial system have not tried to deny that Trump committed the sleazy predicate acts. This country was founded on the rule of law to which all are subject.
@11:23. Trump was convicted of the exact 34 counts upon which he was indicted, to-wit: FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE. Bill Clinton has never served time in jail because he has never been convicted of a crime because he has never been charged with a crime.
I can’t make those two statements any more clear. I have, however, jokingly mentioned that trump should serve time for stupidity and greed. If he had just paid the women out of his pocket, we wouldn’t have be talking about this.
@5:34
The weakest in terms of consequence or legal jeopardy. Probably the strongest in case of the evidence against him.
Yeah, I am better off my portfolio has outpaced inflation ! And I sleep better at night knowing that a reasonable intelligent man is running the country, not a lunatic and a convicted felon !
June 6, 2024 at 4:00 AM, you're as full of shit as a Christmas turkey. The first sign of a crooked trial was the fact the D.A. ran for office on the platform of going after Donald Trump. The combining of two separate laws, to form a felony, had never been done before. Check those 10 thousand prosecutions you mentioned.
June 6, 2024 at 6:47 AM, you won't be sleeping good after the next presidential election. Hehehehehe
Why 8:14 ? Biden will win and carry the House and Senate with him. They will make America Sane Again !
“I am better off my portfolio has outpaced inflation !”
Bwahahahahahahahaha…and don’t forget “F the middle class and the uneducated poor people” too dumb to know the 9 trillion that was printed “by the smart people up north” caused the rich’s net worth jumped 5 trillion while the “middle class and the uneducated poor people” deal with inflation i.e. a starter home is approaching 50% more than it did 4 years ago.
Those of you saying the trial was "rigged" are ignorant to believe that it would take longer than decide on 34 counts. Not all "counts" are the same. These were not 24 different counts. These were 34 counts of the same type of crime ie, 34 signed check payments were made and deducted as a business expense.
Bubbas overlook that there was two days of summary and that their "orange idol" didn't mount much of a defense and he's "main" witness" was massacred on cross examination.
Indeed, Trump's friends including Pecker and Hicks were witnesses for the prosecution. Cohen's testimony was only because the credible witness had already put him and/or Trump " in the room" or "on the phone".
Try reading the transcript of the trial. It's available
@8:59 AM (aka Trump hater) - You are so full of bs.
@8:41 AM - Exactly! Spot on! The truth hurts.
June 6, 2024 at 8:37 AM, the only place that will happen is in your mind. You need to get out of your bubble.
There are people voting in this election that have never voted. The, taken for granted, black vote is leaving the democrat plantation. The majority of the Hispanic vote is lining up for orange man bad.
You are, like the rest of your kind, too dumb to see your lawfare is only helping Trump. You have made him a martyr. No, I'm not a Trump supporter, but I don't live in a bubble.
The idiots leading the Democratic Party think it will be the same old song, and dance, but you're wrong this time. They are leaving Biden in droves.
June 6, 2024 at 4:00 AM - You've read the transcript and boast that "the prosecution did an outstanding job of presenting a coherent and well-organized story" and that "the quick jury verdict after a multi-week trial shows just how overwhelming the evidence was."
Since you seem to have it figured out, what would have been the proper accounting treatment of the payment? Surely, the transcript stated how the expense should have been treated.
Genuinely curious and open to hear from someone else because I cannot find anything.
Almost forgot, what about the statute of limitations?
June 6, 2024 at 8:59 AM - I am on a roll today.
What are your thoughts on the judge saying that he would release the jurors at 4:30 PM (EST) for the day and then announcing they had reached a verdict less than ten minutes later?
Something happened in that time frame. No way the jurors told the judge that they were done for the day and then just changed their minds that quick. Something shady happened or was mentioned.
@ June 6, 2024 at 1:21 PM
Since you seem to have it figured out, what would have been the proper accounting treatment of the payment? Surely, the transcript stated how the expense should have been treated.
Welp, first of all he should have been at home with his pregnant wife - that's for starters
second, he shouldn't have tried to cover up he slept with a porn star prior to running for President
and then cook the books to hide he paid her to stay quiet
but long as there's an (R) behind his name, there's no crime - right?
"but long as there's a (D) behind his name, there's no crime - right?"
There I fixed it for you.
"Try reading the transcript of the trial. It's available"
No, thank you. I don't read that kind of fiction.
June 6, 2024 at 5:19 PM - It's me, again. I'm a Certified Public Accountant.
How did he cook the books? How should he have handled the payment that was not illegal?
I would imagine that evidence should include something along the lines of, "this is how the payment should have been recorded in order to absolve fault..."
Tell me if I'm wrong, but Trump was not convicted for the "crime" of not being home with his pregnant wife because he was sleeping with a porn star. I do not need an unnecessary "story" about a private citizen's personal affairs - just answer the questions.
Like I mentioned earlier, I'm genuinely curious.
9:04 AM you are wasting your time. Leftist Democrats are the party of crime….the party of destroyed cities…..the party of white elitist Democrats allowing the cities their party controls to be destroyed while themselves living behind gates and/or in the Republican burbs and/or while sending their white privileged children to private schools…..all while innocent black children die from stray bullets.
Say Trump is 100% guilty…..WHOOOOO CAAAAARES???
Banging some porn star then lying about it pales in comparison to what Democrat Teddy Kennedy did to Mary Jo Kopechne…..pales in comparison to Bill Clinton destroying the life of 21 year old Monica Lewinski then lying under oath about it…..and completely 1 million percent pales in comparison to the crime Democrats use to destroy cities with innocent children dying.
If you are smart enough to be a CPA….be smart enough to stop taking then bait.
All of this has got me thinking. How did Clinton pay all of the women he wanted to not say anything about spending time with him or under his desk? There has to be a legal way of paying off people as it is a very common thing when it comes to politics.
Blah blah it’s against the law in NY to falsely report expenses. That’s the law he broke 34 times. It may be okay anywhere else, but in the state of New York it’s a crime. He is now a convicted felon . Most people aren’t happy about it, dancing in the streets or anything . But the fact remains he is a Convicted Felon, he will get his number soon!!
Blah, blah, blah, there's a little more to it than that. There's a Trump hating, dis-honest, democrat prosecutor that conflated two separate laws to form a felony. That's why he's a convicted felon. Blah, blah, blah.
June 7, 2024 at 11:39 AM, not so fast, my friend. That verdict may have to be vacated.
https://thenationalpulse.com/2024/06/07/breaking-ny-judge-merchan-informs-lawyers-of-my-cousin-is-a-juror-trump-is-getting-convicted-facebook-post-left-on-ny-court-page-pre-verdict/
There is a letter that the judge has sent to the prosecution, and the defense, concerning the above link. This letter has been authenticated.
https://x.com/BreannaMShow/status/1799231572572549583
@10:42 AM - More proof that the jury was rigged from the start. How many jurors received significant book advances?
Just read where there is a man, republican, who robbed a convivence store of $359. He will be charged with 359 felonies. Democrats are on a roll.
Regardless of which party you support, or who you will vote for in Nov.,if you believe that Joe Biden is calling any shots/making any decisions, you must be living in a cave/totally delusional. He can't read over a few words, less a sentence from a card or teleprompter, his mental capacity is deteriorating daily in front of everyone's eyes. He's like the cardboard policeman in the 7-11. So I ask you, who is running the office, because it's not him at this time.
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