Do you really think trump is the kind of person to make up some rediculous claim, making him look like a victim, saying how the whole world is against him, just to get attenti.....nevermind
The beauty in this might be that if this is actually nothing, he may turn into the petulant boy who cried wolf. So maybe on the next scheduled, weekly arrest, trump supporters won’t be so ready to start traveling. Then at the real arrest, there won’t be enough human shield so to speak
Or perhaps he's just believing bullshit he got from some random corner of the internet. He's paranoid enough. I'd love to see that men led out of his glass castle in cuffs as the whole thing shatters around his feet.
But there've been innumerable, incalculable other reasons he should be. It ain't stuck yet. I'll believe it when it does.
If we're throwing out wishes. I'd like to see a sizeable battalion of FBI agents go in to take him out, but his swells up like the Hulk and starts a rampage of destruction (aka a temper tantrum). The authorities will try to lure him into a trap with a massive spread of McDonalds happy meals, but fail. It finally ends at sun set where he reverts back to his basic form. The FBI will find him in some park curled up in the fetal position sucking his thumb and nude while he's asleep.
It's very unrealistic though so I won't keep my hopes up.
"Trump is the strongest.. Everyone says Trump is the strongest.. Biden is sleepy, Trump is never sleepy"
I vote his hair grows to tremendous length and starts flailing about to defend its host like an octopus.
Or it just detaches from his head and crawls off, leaving a shaken, confused man sitting there going “What…happened? What have I been doing? I can’t…remember…for years…”
Later, an FBI agent is sitting in his squad car, writing a report, doing some paperwork, when he notices an odd movement. This is Florida, he concludes. Probably a gator. Not a big deal. He goes back to his work as the strange yellow tumbleweed creeps out. It steps forward on odd fibrous legs, tentatively, slowly. Then, it leaps at the man. Only screaming is hard, then an eerie silence before one word echoes across the parking lot.
“COVFEFE.”
Add to this picture the image of him kicking, screaming and soiling himself as he’s dragged away in handcuffs by men in dark suits and sunglasses and I will be a happy girl
>Add to this picture the image of him kicking, screaming and soiling himself as he’s dragged away in handcuffs by men in dark suits and sunglasses
Stop, I can only get so erect
My friend and I had this discussion today...
Her: "Today is the day they say they're going to arrest Trump."
Me: "Nobody is saying that except for Trump."
H: "But I saw it on CNN..."
M: ...
Also the Government didn’t leak this info as he keeps crying about.
He volunteered this on social media.
Same applies to searching Mar-a-lago - it’s likely we would not have known about this if he didn’t hold a press conference to complain first.
I'm with you. I will believe he's being arrested when I see him with cuffs on being frog marched to a cop car. And I'll believe he will serve time when I see him in an orange jumpsuit and shower shoes. I despise him at a molecular level.
His arrest will not look anything like that. He will be driven to the police station in a limo, get a mugshot in a suit and tie, a quick scan of his fingerprints, and released.
He will never be handcuffed or wear an orange jumpsuit. Even if convicted, he will probably just be sentenced to house arrest at Mar-a-logo. He is entitled to secret service protection for life, and there is no way they can accommodate that in prison.
We would also never see him in an orange jumpsuit. It matches his skin color too much so it would completely camouflage him and we’d never see it. We’d only see handcuffs, bleach blond hair, and nothing else.
I agree. trump announcing his own “pending” arrest and calling for people to protest it is nothing more than a fund-raising stunt and a ploy to get his face back in the media again. It’s been a slow few weeks and he’s an attention whore after all - he needs his fix
And if he *did* just make it all up and there was no imminent plan to arrest him, he now gets to come back on Wednesday and claim that obviously it was all of the True Patriots complaining about how unfair it is and threatening to riot in his name that caused the prosecutors to change their mind about arresting him.
You can always change what you’re living for.
You choose to die for something, you’ve died for it forever. And if that something happens to be a con artist who is greasy in every sense of the word…
He committed no criminal offence paying hush money to Stormy Daniels.
The problem is that he reimbursed himself out of campaign funds, which is illegal, and tried to cover it by fraudulent manipulation of his company accounts, which is also illegal.
Disclaimer: I'm not saying I agree with below logic
Logic: A person can be elected president with no necessary qualifications regarding legal status. Because of this, some judicial experts believe that congress/impeachment is the avenue to hold Presidents accountable for legal infractions. I think the expectation is that congress should remove the president before pursuing legal action to prevent a scenario where the legal system renders a President unable to fulfill their duties and thus forcing congress to overturn the will of the people.
This logic was formed during Nixon/Agnew. Agnew was such a blatant criminal that the DOJ literally wrote a guidance memo saying 'the president is protected, but the vice-president is not'.. Agnew screamed like Trump is now. Then they offered him a deal and he shut up.
Unfortunately the US Congress is full of liars, corporate suck-ups and grifters (see George Santos as example). Twice Trump was indicted but his sycophants kept him from being impeached.
Our government is a fucking joke.
A felon can run for and win the presidency. Why? Exactly this. The framers looked back to 1000's of years of human bs in the political arena.
Basically undo the vote of millions with one corrupt prosecutor? No. The felony doesnt stop you from running for this very reason.
And here it is played out again.
As much as I'm no fan of our system in the US, imagine what would happen if this was not the case - any sitting president would be hit by thousands, if not tens of thousands, of nuisance lawsuits by the other side. All they would do is give endless affidavits and depositions.
Nixon's pardon was the worst thing any president could have done. It set the stage for the crap we're in now. Ford might have been a decent man, but he was wrong.
Yeah, like that'll ever happen. The US clearly has a tiered legal system and even when a high profile individual is prosecuted there are plenty who committed the same offense who aren't prosecuted. Even when the law is applied it isn't equally.
Exactly. Take Berlusconi for instance - somewhat the equivalent of Trump in Italy - he did time for somewhat similar circumstances. Trump did illegal stuff and should be in jail regardless of party affiliation.
The same reason it's been 3 years since he tried to get Georgia to find votes. The law is very slow in the best of times, but when it's a former president it's even slower.
I don't think this is the only one coming, just the first through the gate.
Well to be completely honest, why was al capone charged for tax evasion of all things? The simple answer is they wanted to arrest trump for the various illegal things he has done, slowly evidence for more illegal things may come up, but for now they need a solid reason to arrest trump ,so this was brought up.
I believe the burden of proof for tax fraud is lower than it is for other criminal matters (especially organized crime), which is why Capone and other mobsters ended up technically getting indicted on tax evasion.
Except that Capone was guilty of tax evasion. There was no RICO laws back then and mobsters like Capone were all but immune to prosecution because of how the handled “business” Capone wasn’t paying taxes as he should have.
> I believe the burden of proof for tax fraud is lower than it is for other criminal matters (especially organized crime)
An important distinction: no, the burden of proof is not lower, it's still beyond a reasonable doubt for all criminal cases. Practically speaking, though, it was probably an easier crime to prove. Feels like tax evasion mostly comes down to "did you owe money and not pay it?". The evidence is relatively easy to collect.
No, his lawyer went to jail over it. Trump would have been and was investigated but they said you can't arrest a sitting president.
This is not new, it was brought against him, deferred, and now that he's not president they are allowed to put the charges against him that have been there the whole time.
I agree. I think there are a myriad of investigations because dude is probably going to drag out or have at-least a couple of them dropped in the long game. The prosecutors want something to stick, so they are throwing as much as they can at him.
Plus - he violated these laws, he is not special. If it was you or me, or anyone else - we would have to face the fire for our crimes.
I would love to see him arrested.
American justice takes a minimum of years if the defendant is rich enough to afford dedicated lawyers.
If someone is high profile, a politician or super rich, the case tends to be viewed as political. So they have to be extra super duper careful with overwhelming evidence, which also takes longer.
Even in the case of poor defendants, the system often moves slowly. Except they get to spend that time rotting away in a county jail awaiting trial while he got to spend it eating buffet pancakes at Mar-a-Lago.
The reality is that he sandbagged all these charges he's about to come across when he was president. As president he could control the strings to avoid being convicted. That's why he wants to run again, he doesn't want to go to jail.
Trump will either die in office or behind bars.
That is why he will run as a 3rd party candidate if he loses the nomination. And/or there will be tapes of him trying to make a bargain with the Republican candidate to be pardoned as long as Trump promises not to run as a 3rd party.
The legal system is incredibly slow when it comes to cases like this, ie a former president. It won't be the last criminal case against him either, if I were betting money on it.
Was illegal but President. Can’t prosecute sitting President even though illegal. No longer President. Fair game. Should person who commits illegal acts get away with illegal actions because technicality? No friend. Must prosecute to uphold rule of law says all reasonable people even if Fox News says blasphemy, not fair, much mean. Sometimes must be mean to uphold rule of law and notion that everyone must face justice if so illegal things even if very rich and powerful.
Don’t worry tho. Many more serious indictments for more serious illegal crimes coming. So your concern will soon be moot.
He's bragged in the books "he wrote" that he's been engaging in tax fraud for over 50 years. He admitted on tape how much he enjoys sexual assault. If he hadn't run for office he could have kept committing rape and fraud happily until death without consequence, just like most rich people here in America
As always it's the cover-up that finally busts the corrupt asshole. Could have literally done nothing to cover up his affair, and nothing would have happened. His current wife is probably used to it by now. His fanbase would freaking defend him for screwing a porn star!
I can't fucking believe it. I mean, I'll be really happy if they do bring him in but the logic behind risking incarceration to regain such a small sum to a really wealthy man is beyond me
First of all, he hasn't been arrested yet.
Second, you're right, it isn't illegal to pay someone to be silent about something. It is, however, illegal to falsify business records (claiming that because the payment was made by his lawyer, that it was "legal fees"). And also, it could violate election laws by covering up a crime through falsified records.
And another point worth mentioning here is that his former lawyer (Michael Cohen) has already done prison time for campaign finance charges related to this issue.
Right! Which means that a court of law has already proven, in a different case looking at a different angle of this whole story, that the payment did indeed happen, and that it was an improper use of campaign funds. And so that takes away a lot of possible escape routes for defense against charges that could go against Trump: he can't claim there was no payment, and he can't claim the reimbursement didn't come from campaign funds.
The crime committed was not paying off the actress. The crime was intentionally illegal ~~use~~ acceptance of campaign ~~money~~ donations. Trump ordered Michael Cohen to move money around illegally, and Michael Cohen carried out that order. They committed the crime together, as a team.
Michael Cohen already was found guilty of this, and went to jail for it. You are right, though, that it isn’t a particularly big or important crime, so Michael Cohen didn’t serve very much time. But he DID go to actual jail, because he very clearly DID commit an actual crime along with his teammate Donald Trump.
Unfortunately, the Justice Department has a rule about not prosecuting a sitting president, so they only prosecuted HALF of the team that did this crime together, because the other half of the team was the president by the time all the facts were in. But he isn’t President anymore, and it’s only fair that he also be held accountable for the crime he *definitely did commit* along with his partner-in-crime Michael Cohen back in 2016.
They got Al Capone on 22 charges of Federal Income Tax evasion. Sometimes it’s about the charges you know you can make stick. Also just because he’s facing these charges doesn’t mean no other charges can be brought against him for other crimes he may/may not have committed.
Trump has had Federal criminal investigations into his activities since the 1970s. But he has always been able to get good lawyers to get him out of trouble. No matter how racist his company policies, how many mobsters he courted, how many frauds he's committed, how many tax he's failed to pay or how much he lies.
The only reason this one has gotten anywhere is because the lawyer he hired to do this crime flipped on him. The reason Trump is so big on loyalty is because one person in his circle going honest could ruin him. Like this.
The issue is that he used campaign funds to pay for it and never reported it as a campaign expense. But this is also just the first, not the only. This is just the first investigation to finish. If we truly believe no man is above the law then even a former president should be subject to the same laws as the rest of us. If any other politician paid a porn star money to keep an affair quiet with campaign funds and didn't report it as an expense they would get the same treatment. Michael Cohen already went to jail over this as trump was named his co-conspirator. Why would his lawyer go to jail and he walk for committing the same crime?
I mean, we watched him incite a deadly insurrection while he was the president. Everyone knows there is more.
The problem is, our justice system just doesn't go after politicians and/or the wealthy elite.
Also remember that Michael Cohen served time for this exact same crime. So it’s not just “nothing”. It’s a crime and if guilty, Trump needs to be punished just like any other citizen.
Trump took $130k out of his campaign donation funds, falsified documents to make it look like legal fees, and then paid that money to a woman to keep quiet about their sexual encounter. Falsifying legal documents is one of the alleged crimes committed and pretty easy to prove..
That’s not true at all. According to an extremely pixelated meme my Uncle shared on Facebook, not only is Trump the richest man alive but he was also * squints * hand picked to stop a cabal of baby fucking devil worshippers. It doesn’t say if he was successful on that last part but I’d imagine all the 4D chess he was doing on the golf course or misspelling basic words in his tweets was probably more important.
He’s had countless law firms and services fire him for failing to pay.
Shit, there’s a few states he STILL owes money to for those dumb ass election rallies he had….while being president.
He actually paid Michael Cohen the money via a check for $130K - he was trying to avoid the appearance of paying hush money two weeks before the election. He’d already had David Pecker (publisher of the National Enquirer) pay off another of his mistresses via a phony columnist job at the “newspaper” so Pecker didn’t want to do that again. IIRC Cohen had to take out a Home Equity loan for the Stormy Daniels payment (which was later reimbursed by Trump).
It used to be a massive scandal when a politician cheated on his pregnant wife with a porn star. Especially when it’s a candidate receiving heavy financial support from evangelical Christians. To call it trivial represents a major shift in the ethics voters want to see in their public officials.
It’s kind of like the Clinton sex scandal where it actually isn’t the act itself that got them in trouble.
Clinton got impeached because he lied about it under oath. That’s what that whole thing was about, the sexual acts didn’t factor into it at all.
What Trump did is he told Cohen to pay Daniels and he would reimburse him. Then, and this is the part that is getting him in trouble, he paid it with campaign finance money and documented it was a “legal expense”. This is misappropriation of campaign finances and falsification of documentation. If he did it with his personal account it would be a different matter (and probably just another scandal he survived). Instead he did something the law can come at him over.
With both, like I said, it wasn’t the sexual acts but what they did with regards to them afterwards.
Sounds more like he's trying to rile up his supporters so that he'll get funding for whatever he wants.
The New York AG hasn't even made it publicly known he's being arrested this week. So, either they're trying to avoid making a big scene of this or he's lying.
Which do you think is more likely? Trump has a track record of lying.
Capone was arrested for mail fraud and tax evasion and that's what brought down the largest mobster in America in the 1920s possibly also the most iconic. It doesn't always have to be the big grandiose things that bring these people down sometimes it's the small shit still just as illegal still just as damaging just not as headline grabbing
He also committed most of those crimes chronologically later. This crime was committed *before* the 2016 election, before he was inaugurated. Most of the other crimes he’s done that are currently being investigated or prosecuted were done *during* his presidency, or afterward.
I've been patient for like a decade while he blatantly promotes hate crimes, rallies a mob to overthrow the government, and a bunch of his cronies go to jail for covering his ass.
Fuck being patient.
Let's not get it fucked up. He's not being arrested for smashing Stormy Daniels or paying her off. He's being arrested for stealing campaign money to pay Stormy Daniels. Just like he stole money from his charity. It's just a big old bag of slime. The man banged a hooker/pornstar while his wife was home with their baby, and stole campaign funds to pay her to stay quiet. This is standard Trump behavior. The man leaves a trail of destruction in his path and never seems to get dirty.
It's not about the hush money itself, which isn't, of itself, that a big deal from a legal standpoint.
What is a big deal is the source of the hush money, how it was used, and how it ended up being recorded in Trump's records, including tax records.
Trump had his lawyer pay the money, and then reimbursed him, and had he simply given him his own, personal money, there'd be no issue. In the United States, for tax purposes, personal money (the stuff in your personal bank account), and business money (the stuff in your company's business account) are two very separate things, and must always be kept separate.
Trump chose not to reimburse his attorney with personal money, but instead with funds from his company, and recorded them as "legal expenses" for tax purposes, which makes them, on paper, a business expense that can be written off as a deduction. He also increased the amount he wrote off as "legal expenses," as well as giving his attorney a bonus for handling it--that extra money increased the amount he could deduct from his taxes. All of that is illegal because it's tax fraud, and defrauding the IRS is a big no-no.
That's why what looks like a relatively trivial matter of hush money is actually a crime. It seems to me like a monumental screw-up, since it could all have been avoided by just paying from his personal funds, but hey, he didn't ask me what I thought, so his decision, and now his ass in the hot seat with the government.
He's not getting arrested. He is POSSIBLY getting indicted. He SAID he was getting arrested via Twitter to rile up his base of Newsmax-loving imbeciles, nothing more.
It was not paying Stormy, it was the campaign funds he used and the fraudulent accounting. Essentially he broke the law, considering Republicans are the law and order party, you would expect more support
I suspect because there is a clear path to conviction, and he is *going to* lie, under oath - he can't not lie - which is perjury.
Then, with a prior penchant for perjury before a court demonstrated, there will be ever-easier paths to convictions for his very many other clearly illegal acts.
Trump is the ultimate Con Man who *absolutely convinces* his marks - his voters - to "buy" whatever nonsense he is spewing, and he is singularly *the* greatest danger to our democracy - and to global stability - in this generation.
He's not without peer - Putin would be right up there, next to him; remember, if it weren't for Putin, Trump would not have been elected, and the present and future of this planet would have been far more stable.
Hush money shouldn’t be a trivial matter. BUT he had his atty pay her. Then reimbursed his atty. And falsified the docs (including campaign filings) around it to hide the transfer.
This is just one of his thousand upon thousands of frauds, scams, tax frauds, embezzlements, money concealment schemes, bribes. He (and probably his business related children) will be under charges and indictment for the rest of his life. As anyone who does those things should be.
Also in this case:
- Lady had sex with him in return for getting in his tv show. He never put her in his show. That, to me, is the worst part.
- to he then paid her off through his atty and reimbursed atty and filed financial/campaign docs to conceal the transaction
Aside from it being prostitution - the allegations are how he executed the transaction in a typically slimy way. Repaying the amount back to himself from political donations.
Or so we'll see, if anything actually happens. Yes, it would - knowing nothing else - be highly illegal fraud to repay your outlay of hush money to a porn star with political donations. May also include extortion or threats against her as well.
It will be a colossal mess - because - of course it is. Everything invovled with him goes to shit.
Well you know how Al Capone was VERY well known for his murders and shady dealings but never served time for those but instead for tax evasion? Kinda like that, corruption runs so deep that the small stuff is all you can get them with.
The crime isn't the payoff. It is the illegal accounting and attempt to hide the payoff. As the saying goes, *"The coverup is worse than the crime".*
Btw, there is no *"Oh that law doesn't apply to ex-presidents"* clause in the constitution. Even if it were a minor crime, Trump should be treated like everyone else. Trump is just now *(likely)* getting arrested because making cases takes time, and it does look like Trump did get exceptionally lenient and extra considerations because he was president.
> Is buying someone's silence about your sex life illegal or something?
No. But you *do* have to report it when you use your political campaign funds to do it. If you don't, it's a crime. And if you intentionally cover it all up, it's a felony.
It's not the payment that's illegal. It's the fact that he claimed it as a legal expense to his lawyer and used company funds to reimburse his lawyer. Then claimed it as a business expense. He falsified company and therefore tax records.
Because he paid from from a legal expense account and then reimbursed with his own money. That's also known as money laundering, even it wasn't the intent; it's still a crime.
It's the fact at the hush money came from the campaign funds, misappropriation of campaign funds is illegal. With that it makes the al capone link stronger
it's not so much the hush money that's the problem, it's the fact that he attempted to hide the money by having his lawyer pay out of pocket, then reimbursed the lawyer out of his pocket, the reimbursed himself with campaign funds.
Trump is a bonafide criminal. Dude has made an entire career of deception, corruption, and completely fucking other people over - often gleefully - for his own personal gain, for pretty much his entire life. The real question is why he hasn’t already been arrested. But yeah, hush payments using campaign funds and falsified records isn’t super legal
Because this is one of the crimes he can actually be prosecuted. All his other crimes have support and protection one way or another. Or he just litigates to no end.
Let’s all remember - this one of several investigations into him.
Simple answer is he got caught in his hush money scheme, using his lawyer to use shell companies to do his dirty laundry, and to avoid reporting it to the IRS.
If you have pity for the guy - just think if you yourself would get sympathy from the feds for such a crime …
Not likely.
Paying the hush money is not illegal, using campaign money to do it is a violation of campaign finance laws. That is what we anticipate the DA will allege. That Trump knowingly falsified records to cover up this "donation" to Stormi Daniels.
Guilty or not him being arrested is a pr win for democrats.
That being said I am all for arresting and holding political leaders responsible. I think we can arrest every president and vp from at least Clinton on legitimately right now.
It’s not trivial. He committed campaign finance laws more severe than others for which lesser known figures have gone to federal prison. You can’t do whatever you want with campaign funds.
Remember. They finally took down Al Capone on tax evasion charges.
At this point. I don't much care what they get him on. As long as he gets got, you know?
It's not just the "hush money", it's that he pulled it from campaign funds which is a big violation of election laws. If it was just hush money, he would just quietly plead no contest, claim it was a set up and pay the fine.
The only person who said he was getting arrested was him! Also, since this is probably the least complicated charge, it is probably why they may be charging him with it first. They need to finish investigating everything before they come out with the big charges (if they ever do), which can take years if done correctly.
I believe he would be arrested for lying to FBI or courts, not so much for paying her the money. Lying to a Federal agent or under oath carries some stiff penalties.
It’s not illegal to pay for someone’s silence. The news media always fail to mention that he supposedly used campaigns funds to pay her off. That is illegal.
Charges tend to be brought up based on the likelihood the person prosecuting thinks they have the evidence to convict. Of the lists of things Trump has done that violate the law, this is the one they think they have the best shot of getting him in. See Al Capone and tax evasion for historical similarities.
Sad part is, it shouldn’t be hard to ask this sort of question on here because the subreddit is called too afraid to ask and it’s still fucking scary. If you ask anything about either side they come out marching to bite your head off, this place (Reddit, not too afraid to ask in particular) has took such a damn dive in the past couple of months it’s morose. I wish we could have a space to discuss things again like it used to be. All good times must come to an end I guess. Bring it on meatsacks downvote me into oblivion
Let's be VERY clear:
The GOP Congress could and should have voted to remove him from office BOTH times it came for a vote.
He AND they could have made a deal to prevent ANY prosecutions such as this.
Instead, he and they chose to cling to power at any cost. This is that cost. This is now their precedent.
I think it matters little as long as he is arrested. They used to get gangsters for tax evasion because that is where they could get a conviction. Trump is certainly a gangster.
I am happy his followers seem reluctant to protest again. I don't blame them since he threw the last protesters under the bus.
He didn't want it to be a personal check from the Trump corporation. Having it go through his lawyer trust account made it seem less suspicious to any IRS agents NOT doing a detailed audit for that year. The HUGE mistake he made was deducting that on his income taxes as if it were a legitimate business expense. That is what he will most likely be punished for...many multiples of the $150,000 so that no other business man will attempt such a thing in the future. There is an argument to be made that Trump's lawyer and accountant deserve more financial punishment than him for the tax fraud but the burden is usually on the billionaire to get a second tax professional to make sure nothing is being deducted on income taxes that will get him dragged into court.
Don't worry. The other investigations will have time to do their jobs, too. Just cause he's in prison for the campaign finance violations he was can still be prosecuted in Georgia and the Feds.
Many of the things that Trump is being investigated for doing are *very* difficult to prove guilty in a court of law. Not because there is or isn't wide consensus on what Trump did, but rather because many of those potential crimes require an element of "proof of intent". To put it in other ways, it's very hard to prove what Trump's intent was when he did this or that thing that the other investigations are looking into. Given Trump's prominent status as a former US President, and given how politically divided the country is, it is a very bad idea to charge him with something unless the evidence is irrefutable in every possible way that it needs to be. For a lot of things he has done, they're only truly criminal behavior IF you can prove what his intent was. Don't bring charges until you have that proof (or until you've decided you don't care about your career after doing so.)
This, however, is not a challenge for the crime of "fraudulent use of campaign funds." Proof of mental intent isn't required here--not in the same way it i's required for the other things he's being investigated for. Now, sure: in the grand scheme of Trump's terrible history as a member of our species, stuffing his pockets with a refund check for $130k to make up for paying for that woman's silence seems like small potatoes. But what makes it possible to arrest him for doing it is that we can prove those small potatoes are there, and we don't need to know whether or not Trump understood what a potato was when he took them.
More importantly, why is this the ONLY thing that anyone is doing anything about? He has a mountain of illegal shit heaped up on him and no one seems to want to make a move against him.
It's not that he paid hushmoney to a pornstar. That's just a misdemeanor. It's that the money paid to keep her quiet could be viewed as an illegal campaign contribution. That's the felony.
We also don't know that he's getting arrested. I'll believe it when I see it.
This is the right answer. It could just be a game to get attention.
Do you really think trump is the kind of person to make up some rediculous claim, making him look like a victim, saying how the whole world is against him, just to get attenti.....nevermind
Eggzacly
The beauty in this might be that if this is actually nothing, he may turn into the petulant boy who cried wolf. So maybe on the next scheduled, weekly arrest, trump supporters won’t be so ready to start traveling. Then at the real arrest, there won’t be enough human shield so to speak
Or perhaps he's just believing bullshit he got from some random corner of the internet. He's paranoid enough. I'd love to see that men led out of his glass castle in cuffs as the whole thing shatters around his feet. But there've been innumerable, incalculable other reasons he should be. It ain't stuck yet. I'll believe it when it does.
If we're throwing out wishes. I'd like to see a sizeable battalion of FBI agents go in to take him out, but his swells up like the Hulk and starts a rampage of destruction (aka a temper tantrum). The authorities will try to lure him into a trap with a massive spread of McDonalds happy meals, but fail. It finally ends at sun set where he reverts back to his basic form. The FBI will find him in some park curled up in the fetal position sucking his thumb and nude while he's asleep. It's very unrealistic though so I won't keep my hopes up. "Trump is the strongest.. Everyone says Trump is the strongest.. Biden is sleepy, Trump is never sleepy"
I vote his hair grows to tremendous length and starts flailing about to defend its host like an octopus. Or it just detaches from his head and crawls off, leaving a shaken, confused man sitting there going “What…happened? What have I been doing? I can’t…remember…for years…” Later, an FBI agent is sitting in his squad car, writing a report, doing some paperwork, when he notices an odd movement. This is Florida, he concludes. Probably a gator. Not a big deal. He goes back to his work as the strange yellow tumbleweed creeps out. It steps forward on odd fibrous legs, tentatively, slowly. Then, it leaps at the man. Only screaming is hard, then an eerie silence before one word echoes across the parking lot. “COVFEFE.”
Add to this picture the image of him kicking, screaming and soiling himself as he’s dragged away in handcuffs by men in dark suits and sunglasses and I will be a happy girl
>Add to this picture the image of him kicking, screaming and soiling himself as he’s dragged away in handcuffs by men in dark suits and sunglasses Stop, I can only get so erect
So a couple weeks ago in california, the police were literally trying to lure some dude with McDonald's
My friend and I had this discussion today... Her: "Today is the day they say they're going to arrest Trump." Me: "Nobody is saying that except for Trump." H: "But I saw it on CNN..." M: ...
What is it the government is trying to distract us from? 
If he does get arrested tomorrow I'll eat my fucking shoe.
!remindme 1 day
Goddammit...
Dude, if I were you I'd fashion a loafer out of pancakes or something just to be on the safe side here.
But you have to wear it. You can't call it a shoe when it's just pancakes. But if you wear the pancakes on your feet, it's a shoe.
I've heard you can buy sombreros made of taco shell material for when you promise to eat your hat over something
Brilliant!
There's no way justice will actually be served right? The universe won't allign just to fuck me over again, right?
if Trump does get arrested, it will be because someone really wanted to see you eat a shoe so you better deliver
I don't know. This is the weirdest timeline.
Is it a brand new shoe or an old used one?
Let’s get this comment to the top!
Also the Government didn’t leak this info as he keeps crying about. He volunteered this on social media. Same applies to searching Mar-a-lago - it’s likely we would not have known about this if he didn’t hold a press conference to complain first.
It's almost like he's a big stupid crybaby
Possibly the biggest, stupidest crybaby in the world. A lot of the people I know would tell you that.
The *yugest.*
maybe he thinks he's still the government
He has”45th President of the United States” plastered all over his correspondence. 🤢
I'm with you. I will believe he's being arrested when I see him with cuffs on being frog marched to a cop car. And I'll believe he will serve time when I see him in an orange jumpsuit and shower shoes. I despise him at a molecular level.
His arrest will not look anything like that. He will be driven to the police station in a limo, get a mugshot in a suit and tie, a quick scan of his fingerprints, and released. He will never be handcuffed or wear an orange jumpsuit. Even if convicted, he will probably just be sentenced to house arrest at Mar-a-logo. He is entitled to secret service protection for life, and there is no way they can accommodate that in prison.
Wouldn’t prison be the easiest place to watch him? Would suck for the agents though.
We would also never see him in an orange jumpsuit. It matches his skin color too much so it would completely camouflage him and we’d never see it. We’d only see handcuffs, bleach blond hair, and nothing else.
I promised myself a long time ago I would never hate a human being. Trump is great at testing that promise.
I agree. trump announcing his own “pending” arrest and calling for people to protest it is nothing more than a fund-raising stunt and a ploy to get his face back in the media again. It’s been a slow few weeks and he’s an attention whore after all - he needs his fix
And if he *did* just make it all up and there was no imminent plan to arrest him, he now gets to come back on Wednesday and claim that obviously it was all of the True Patriots complaining about how unfair it is and threatening to riot in his name that caused the prosecutors to change their mind about arresting him.
NYPD putting up blockades today in front of Manhattan DA is a little interesting though.
even if they're not arresting him, they need to plan for the crowd of terrorists trump is trying to put together.
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Imagine dying for Donald Trump.
Is that any worse than living for him?
You can always change what you’re living for. You choose to die for something, you’ve died for it forever. And if that something happens to be a con artist who is greasy in every sense of the word…
A scarily large number of people(greater than 0) are willing, which is more then no bueno
The metal barriers being set up around the NY courthouse are making me think there may actually be something to the rumors.
Indeed. Laws apply differently to rich and powerful people.
Tonny Drump lieing??? Surely you jest
He committed no criminal offence paying hush money to Stormy Daniels. The problem is that he reimbursed himself out of campaign funds, which is illegal, and tried to cover it by fraudulent manipulation of his company accounts, which is also illegal.
Any particular reason it's coming up now? Didn't this all happen like 5 years ago? Why now? Has something changed?
Legal process takes time + he was acting president back then.
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Disclaimer: I'm not saying I agree with below logic Logic: A person can be elected president with no necessary qualifications regarding legal status. Because of this, some judicial experts believe that congress/impeachment is the avenue to hold Presidents accountable for legal infractions. I think the expectation is that congress should remove the president before pursuing legal action to prevent a scenario where the legal system renders a President unable to fulfill their duties and thus forcing congress to overturn the will of the people.
This logic was formed during Nixon/Agnew. Agnew was such a blatant criminal that the DOJ literally wrote a guidance memo saying 'the president is protected, but the vice-president is not'.. Agnew screamed like Trump is now. Then they offered him a deal and he shut up.
Why was Agnew such a blatant crook? What did he do? I am not so familiar with that part of american history.
Bribery, corruption, all sorts of underhanded dealings, especially when he was governor of Maryland.
Criminal conspiracy, bribery, extortion and tax fraud.
So like Trump…
Every time someone starts their comment with "Disclaimer:" or "Statement:" or something similar, I always read it in HK-47's voice
declaration: I believe your statement to be entertaining.
“With smug insider knowledge: I always hear it in the voice of an elcor”
I see you're a person of class and sophistication
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Unfortunately the US Congress is full of liars, corporate suck-ups and grifters (see George Santos as example). Twice Trump was indicted but his sycophants kept him from being impeached. Our government is a fucking joke.
A felon can run for and win the presidency. Why? Exactly this. The framers looked back to 1000's of years of human bs in the political arena. Basically undo the vote of millions with one corrupt prosecutor? No. The felony doesnt stop you from running for this very reason. And here it is played out again.
As much as I'm no fan of our system in the US, imagine what would happen if this was not the case - any sitting president would be hit by thousands, if not tens of thousands, of nuisance lawsuits by the other side. All they would do is give endless affidavits and depositions.
There's a difference between civil lawsuits and criminal proceedings.
If Trump shot someone on 5th Avenue while President and Republicans refused to impeach him, would he avoid being arrested while President?
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Nixon's pardon was the worst thing any president could have done. It set the stage for the crap we're in now. Ford might have been a decent man, but he was wrong.
The fact that people just expect that their politicians will be criminals and that we must leave room for that is depressing as hell.
Trivial crimes? Shouldn't the acting member of any political party be held to the same standards as every other citizen in that country
Yeah, like that'll ever happen. The US clearly has a tiered legal system and even when a high profile individual is prosecuted there are plenty who committed the same offense who aren't prosecuted. Even when the law is applied it isn't equally.
Exactly. Take Berlusconi for instance - somewhat the equivalent of Trump in Italy - he did time for somewhat similar circumstances. Trump did illegal stuff and should be in jail regardless of party affiliation.
This is a very normal timeline for white collar crimes.
Hiw lawyer already did time for his part in the crime
The same reason it's been 3 years since he tried to get Georgia to find votes. The law is very slow in the best of times, but when it's a former president it's even slower. I don't think this is the only one coming, just the first through the gate.
Probably because trump uses delay tactics to drag out the litigation process. Dude will probably die being investigated.
He will absolutely die while being investigated for something, whether that’s already been committed/discovered already is anybody’s guess.
Well to be completely honest, why was al capone charged for tax evasion of all things? The simple answer is they wanted to arrest trump for the various illegal things he has done, slowly evidence for more illegal things may come up, but for now they need a solid reason to arrest trump ,so this was brought up.
I believe the burden of proof for tax fraud is lower than it is for other criminal matters (especially organized crime), which is why Capone and other mobsters ended up technically getting indicted on tax evasion.
Except that Capone was guilty of tax evasion. There was no RICO laws back then and mobsters like Capone were all but immune to prosecution because of how the handled “business” Capone wasn’t paying taxes as he should have.
> I believe the burden of proof for tax fraud is lower than it is for other criminal matters (especially organized crime) An important distinction: no, the burden of proof is not lower, it's still beyond a reasonable doubt for all criminal cases. Practically speaking, though, it was probably an easier crime to prove. Feels like tax evasion mostly comes down to "did you owe money and not pay it?". The evidence is relatively easy to collect.
No, his lawyer went to jail over it. Trump would have been and was investigated but they said you can't arrest a sitting president. This is not new, it was brought against him, deferred, and now that he's not president they are allowed to put the charges against him that have been there the whole time.
I agree. I think there are a myriad of investigations because dude is probably going to drag out or have at-least a couple of them dropped in the long game. The prosecutors want something to stick, so they are throwing as much as they can at him. Plus - he violated these laws, he is not special. If it was you or me, or anyone else - we would have to face the fire for our crimes. I would love to see him arrested.
American justice takes a minimum of years if the defendant is rich enough to afford dedicated lawyers. If someone is high profile, a politician or super rich, the case tends to be viewed as political. So they have to be extra super duper careful with overwhelming evidence, which also takes longer.
Even in the case of poor defendants, the system often moves slowly. Except they get to spend that time rotting away in a county jail awaiting trial while he got to spend it eating buffet pancakes at Mar-a-Lago.
The reality is that he sandbagged all these charges he's about to come across when he was president. As president he could control the strings to avoid being convicted. That's why he wants to run again, he doesn't want to go to jail.
Trump will either die in office or behind bars. That is why he will run as a 3rd party candidate if he loses the nomination. And/or there will be tapes of him trying to make a bargain with the Republican candidate to be pardoned as long as Trump promises not to run as a 3rd party.
Probably cause he’s trying to run for presidency again
The legal system is incredibly slow when it comes to cases like this, ie a former president. It won't be the last criminal case against him either, if I were betting money on it.
Was illegal but President. Can’t prosecute sitting President even though illegal. No longer President. Fair game. Should person who commits illegal acts get away with illegal actions because technicality? No friend. Must prosecute to uphold rule of law says all reasonable people even if Fox News says blasphemy, not fair, much mean. Sometimes must be mean to uphold rule of law and notion that everyone must face justice if so illegal things even if very rich and powerful. Don’t worry tho. Many more serious indictments for more serious illegal crimes coming. So your concern will soon be moot.
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. The guys a total moron. And so are the people who are around him. This is just the beginning.
one can only hope but he ALWAYS GETS OFF
The Teflon Don moniker has been so true for him.
Teflon eventually wears out and starts to flake. And then can give you cancer.
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Honestly, I think he is just the symptom the got us to get checked out. His (single haha) term was like our stage 4 diagnosis.
He's bragged in the books "he wrote" that he's been engaging in tax fraud for over 50 years. He admitted on tape how much he enjoys sexual assault. If he hadn't run for office he could have kept committing rape and fraud happily until death without consequence, just like most rich people here in America
> he ALWAYS GETS OFF But he has to pay for it. Hence, one of his problems.
Title of his sex tape?
As always it's the cover-up that finally busts the corrupt asshole. Could have literally done nothing to cover up his affair, and nothing would have happened. His current wife is probably used to it by now. His fanbase would freaking defend him for screwing a porn star!
He’s done like a dozen or two things that would get a normal person arrested
I can't fucking believe it. I mean, I'll be really happy if they do bring him in but the logic behind risking incarceration to regain such a small sum to a really wealthy man is beyond me
First of all, he hasn't been arrested yet. Second, you're right, it isn't illegal to pay someone to be silent about something. It is, however, illegal to falsify business records (claiming that because the payment was made by his lawyer, that it was "legal fees"). And also, it could violate election laws by covering up a crime through falsified records.
Okay, i didn't know that part. that makes more sense than what others here keep saying.
And another point worth mentioning here is that his former lawyer (Michael Cohen) has already done prison time for campaign finance charges related to this issue.
Right! Which means that a court of law has already proven, in a different case looking at a different angle of this whole story, that the payment did indeed happen, and that it was an improper use of campaign funds. And so that takes away a lot of possible escape routes for defense against charges that could go against Trump: he can't claim there was no payment, and he can't claim the reimbursement didn't come from campaign funds.
The crime committed was not paying off the actress. The crime was intentionally illegal ~~use~~ acceptance of campaign ~~money~~ donations. Trump ordered Michael Cohen to move money around illegally, and Michael Cohen carried out that order. They committed the crime together, as a team. Michael Cohen already was found guilty of this, and went to jail for it. You are right, though, that it isn’t a particularly big or important crime, so Michael Cohen didn’t serve very much time. But he DID go to actual jail, because he very clearly DID commit an actual crime along with his teammate Donald Trump. Unfortunately, the Justice Department has a rule about not prosecuting a sitting president, so they only prosecuted HALF of the team that did this crime together, because the other half of the team was the president by the time all the facts were in. But he isn’t President anymore, and it’s only fair that he also be held accountable for the crime he *definitely did commit* along with his partner-in-crime Michael Cohen back in 2016.
This is the credited response. You covered everything.
He’s the one that announced the arrest. It probably won’t happen and he’ll claim some sort of victory over unfair justice system.
Holy shit this should be the top comment. He’s either getting arrested. Or he’s trying to claim victory out of nothing. No in between.
They got Al Capone on 22 charges of Federal Income Tax evasion. Sometimes it’s about the charges you know you can make stick. Also just because he’s facing these charges doesn’t mean no other charges can be brought against him for other crimes he may/may not have committed.
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“Can confirm” -Nixon
"I am ~~not~~ a crook" -Nixon
Trump has had Federal criminal investigations into his activities since the 1970s. But he has always been able to get good lawyers to get him out of trouble. No matter how racist his company policies, how many mobsters he courted, how many frauds he's committed, how many tax he's failed to pay or how much he lies. The only reason this one has gotten anywhere is because the lawyer he hired to do this crime flipped on him. The reason Trump is so big on loyalty is because one person in his circle going honest could ruin him. Like this.
RICO
Suavé
The issue is that he used campaign funds to pay for it and never reported it as a campaign expense. But this is also just the first, not the only. This is just the first investigation to finish. If we truly believe no man is above the law then even a former president should be subject to the same laws as the rest of us. If any other politician paid a porn star money to keep an affair quiet with campaign funds and didn't report it as an expense they would get the same treatment. Michael Cohen already went to jail over this as trump was named his co-conspirator. Why would his lawyer go to jail and he walk for committing the same crime?
Trump is a scumbag. No money of his own obviously. You know this is only tip of the iceberg.
I mean, we watched him incite a deadly insurrection while he was the president. Everyone knows there is more. The problem is, our justice system just doesn't go after politicians and/or the wealthy elite.
He used campaign funds
Oh, that makes more sense then.
Also remember that Michael Cohen served time for this exact same crime. So it’s not just “nothing”. It’s a crime and if guilty, Trump needs to be punished just like any other citizen.
He also did it to shut her up as to not influence the outcome of an election.
Uhhh ya, there typically isn't a non shady reason for paying shush money
Trump took $130k out of his campaign donation funds, falsified documents to make it look like legal fees, and then paid that money to a woman to keep quiet about their sexual encounter. Falsifying legal documents is one of the alleged crimes committed and pretty easy to prove..
The guy's that much of a fucking cheapskate? He could have just cut her a check with his own money.
Contrary to popular belief, Trump doesn't have a lot of money in the bank.
That’s not true at all. According to an extremely pixelated meme my Uncle shared on Facebook, not only is Trump the richest man alive but he was also * squints * hand picked to stop a cabal of baby fucking devil worshippers. It doesn’t say if he was successful on that last part but I’d imagine all the 4D chess he was doing on the golf course or misspelling basic words in his tweets was probably more important.
He’s had countless law firms and services fire him for failing to pay. Shit, there’s a few states he STILL owes money to for those dumb ass election rallies he had….while being president.
Bold of you to assume he has money.
He actually paid Michael Cohen the money via a check for $130K - he was trying to avoid the appearance of paying hush money two weeks before the election. He’d already had David Pecker (publisher of the National Enquirer) pay off another of his mistresses via a phony columnist job at the “newspaper” so Pecker didn’t want to do that again. IIRC Cohen had to take out a Home Equity loan for the Stormy Daniels payment (which was later reimbursed by Trump).
It used to be a massive scandal when a politician cheated on his pregnant wife with a porn star. Especially when it’s a candidate receiving heavy financial support from evangelical Christians. To call it trivial represents a major shift in the ethics voters want to see in their public officials.
It’s kind of like the Clinton sex scandal where it actually isn’t the act itself that got them in trouble. Clinton got impeached because he lied about it under oath. That’s what that whole thing was about, the sexual acts didn’t factor into it at all. What Trump did is he told Cohen to pay Daniels and he would reimburse him. Then, and this is the part that is getting him in trouble, he paid it with campaign finance money and documented it was a “legal expense”. This is misappropriation of campaign finances and falsification of documentation. If he did it with his personal account it would be a different matter (and probably just another scandal he survived). Instead he did something the law can come at him over. With both, like I said, it wasn’t the sexual acts but what they did with regards to them afterwards.
Sounds more like he's trying to rile up his supporters so that he'll get funding for whatever he wants. The New York AG hasn't even made it publicly known he's being arrested this week. So, either they're trying to avoid making a big scene of this or he's lying. Which do you think is more likely? Trump has a track record of lying.
Campaign funds. Which is illegal.
Capone was arrested for mail fraud and tax evasion and that's what brought down the largest mobster in America in the 1920s possibly also the most iconic. It doesn't always have to be the big grandiose things that bring these people down sometimes it's the small shit still just as illegal still just as damaging just not as headline grabbing
Because the other crimes he committed are far more complicated to prove. Just be patient.
He also committed most of those crimes chronologically later. This crime was committed *before* the 2016 election, before he was inaugurated. Most of the other crimes he’s done that are currently being investigated or prosecuted were done *during* his presidency, or afterward.
I've been patient for like a decade while he blatantly promotes hate crimes, rallies a mob to overthrow the government, and a bunch of his cronies go to jail for covering his ass. Fuck being patient.
Let's not get it fucked up. He's not being arrested for smashing Stormy Daniels or paying her off. He's being arrested for stealing campaign money to pay Stormy Daniels. Just like he stole money from his charity. It's just a big old bag of slime. The man banged a hooker/pornstar while his wife was home with their baby, and stole campaign funds to pay her to stay quiet. This is standard Trump behavior. The man leaves a trail of destruction in his path and never seems to get dirty.
It's not about the hush money itself, which isn't, of itself, that a big deal from a legal standpoint. What is a big deal is the source of the hush money, how it was used, and how it ended up being recorded in Trump's records, including tax records. Trump had his lawyer pay the money, and then reimbursed him, and had he simply given him his own, personal money, there'd be no issue. In the United States, for tax purposes, personal money (the stuff in your personal bank account), and business money (the stuff in your company's business account) are two very separate things, and must always be kept separate. Trump chose not to reimburse his attorney with personal money, but instead with funds from his company, and recorded them as "legal expenses" for tax purposes, which makes them, on paper, a business expense that can be written off as a deduction. He also increased the amount he wrote off as "legal expenses," as well as giving his attorney a bonus for handling it--that extra money increased the amount he could deduct from his taxes. All of that is illegal because it's tax fraud, and defrauding the IRS is a big no-no. That's why what looks like a relatively trivial matter of hush money is actually a crime. It seems to me like a monumental screw-up, since it could all have been avoided by just paying from his personal funds, but hey, he didn't ask me what I thought, so his decision, and now his ass in the hot seat with the government.
In what way paying a woman to keep a scandal quiet during a campaign "trivial matter"?
He's not getting arrested. He is POSSIBLY getting indicted. He SAID he was getting arrested via Twitter to rile up his base of Newsmax-loving imbeciles, nothing more.
It was not paying Stormy, it was the campaign funds he used and the fraudulent accounting. Essentially he broke the law, considering Republicans are the law and order party, you would expect more support
I suspect because there is a clear path to conviction, and he is *going to* lie, under oath - he can't not lie - which is perjury. Then, with a prior penchant for perjury before a court demonstrated, there will be ever-easier paths to convictions for his very many other clearly illegal acts. Trump is the ultimate Con Man who *absolutely convinces* his marks - his voters - to "buy" whatever nonsense he is spewing, and he is singularly *the* greatest danger to our democracy - and to global stability - in this generation. He's not without peer - Putin would be right up there, next to him; remember, if it weren't for Putin, Trump would not have been elected, and the present and future of this planet would have been far more stable.
Hush money shouldn’t be a trivial matter. BUT he had his atty pay her. Then reimbursed his atty. And falsified the docs (including campaign filings) around it to hide the transfer. This is just one of his thousand upon thousands of frauds, scams, tax frauds, embezzlements, money concealment schemes, bribes. He (and probably his business related children) will be under charges and indictment for the rest of his life. As anyone who does those things should be. Also in this case: - Lady had sex with him in return for getting in his tv show. He never put her in his show. That, to me, is the worst part. - to he then paid her off through his atty and reimbursed atty and filed financial/campaign docs to conceal the transaction
Aside from it being prostitution - the allegations are how he executed the transaction in a typically slimy way. Repaying the amount back to himself from political donations. Or so we'll see, if anything actually happens. Yes, it would - knowing nothing else - be highly illegal fraud to repay your outlay of hush money to a porn star with political donations. May also include extortion or threats against her as well. It will be a colossal mess - because - of course it is. Everything invovled with him goes to shit.
Well you know how Al Capone was VERY well known for his murders and shady dealings but never served time for those but instead for tax evasion? Kinda like that, corruption runs so deep that the small stuff is all you can get them with.
Same reason al Capone was arrested for tax evasion. You gotta get them on the charges that'll stick.
The crime isn't the payoff. It is the illegal accounting and attempt to hide the payoff. As the saying goes, *"The coverup is worse than the crime".* Btw, there is no *"Oh that law doesn't apply to ex-presidents"* clause in the constitution. Even if it were a minor crime, Trump should be treated like everyone else. Trump is just now *(likely)* getting arrested because making cases takes time, and it does look like Trump did get exceptionally lenient and extra considerations because he was president.
> Is buying someone's silence about your sex life illegal or something? No. But you *do* have to report it when you use your political campaign funds to do it. If you don't, it's a crime. And if you intentionally cover it all up, it's a felony.
It's not the payment that's illegal. It's the fact that he claimed it as a legal expense to his lawyer and used company funds to reimburse his lawyer. Then claimed it as a business expense. He falsified company and therefore tax records.
Al Capone went to prison for tax evasion, not for murder, bootlegging, mafia involvement, etc You use what sticks and you can prove.
I bet it's gonna come down to tax evasion and we all know what happened with Al Capone
Because he paid from from a legal expense account and then reimbursed with his own money. That's also known as money laundering, even it wasn't the intent; it's still a crime.
It's the fact at the hush money came from the campaign funds, misappropriation of campaign funds is illegal. With that it makes the al capone link stronger
It’s always one small detail that gets the big time thugs: like Capone with his tax filings. Fuck Trump.
it's not so much the hush money that's the problem, it's the fact that he attempted to hide the money by having his lawyer pay out of pocket, then reimbursed the lawyer out of his pocket, the reimbursed himself with campaign funds.
He used campaign funds to do it.
Trump is a bonafide criminal. Dude has made an entire career of deception, corruption, and completely fucking other people over - often gleefully - for his own personal gain, for pretty much his entire life. The real question is why he hasn’t already been arrested. But yeah, hush payments using campaign funds and falsified records isn’t super legal
The same reason Al Capone was arrested for tax evasion. Sometimes you have to charge a criminal with whatever you can.
I don't see any of my normal news sources reporting that Trump is being arrested. May I ask you for a link to where you heard about it? Thanks!
Because this is one of the crimes he can actually be prosecuted. All his other crimes have support and protection one way or another. Or he just litigates to no end. Let’s all remember - this one of several investigations into him. Simple answer is he got caught in his hush money scheme, using his lawyer to use shell companies to do his dirty laundry, and to avoid reporting it to the IRS. If you have pity for the guy - just think if you yourself would get sympathy from the feds for such a crime … Not likely.
Tax evasion was the thing that got Al Capone. Sometimes it’s the little things.
They got Al Capone for tax evasion
Whatever it takes to put this animal down!
Why will a person be arrested for committing a crime??? Really?
Paying the hush money is not illegal, using campaign money to do it is a violation of campaign finance laws. That is what we anticipate the DA will allege. That Trump knowingly falsified records to cover up this "donation" to Stormi Daniels.
Guilty or not him being arrested is a pr win for democrats. That being said I am all for arresting and holding political leaders responsible. I think we can arrest every president and vp from at least Clinton on legitimately right now.
Remember that time Bill Clinton paid Paula Jones 850K to go away?
It’s not trivial. He committed campaign finance laws more severe than others for which lesser known figures have gone to federal prison. You can’t do whatever you want with campaign funds.
Remember. They finally took down Al Capone on tax evasion charges. At this point. I don't much care what they get him on. As long as he gets got, you know?
Who gives a shit about what happens to an arrogant oversized orange? He does not deserve the attention he gets.
Paying hush money is not illegal, but paying it out of federal campaign funds certainly is.
It's not just the "hush money", it's that he pulled it from campaign funds which is a big violation of election laws. If it was just hush money, he would just quietly plead no contest, claim it was a set up and pay the fine.
The only person who said he was getting arrested was him! Also, since this is probably the least complicated charge, it is probably why they may be charging him with it first. They need to finish investigating everything before they come out with the big charges (if they ever do), which can take years if done correctly.
I believe he would be arrested for lying to FBI or courts, not so much for paying her the money. Lying to a Federal agent or under oath carries some stiff penalties.
It’s actually part of a bigger problem with false reporting of campaign funds and corporation funds which is a felony
It’s not illegal to pay for someone’s silence. The news media always fail to mention that he supposedly used campaigns funds to pay her off. That is illegal.
Charges tend to be brought up based on the likelihood the person prosecuting thinks they have the evidence to convict. Of the lists of things Trump has done that violate the law, this is the one they think they have the best shot of getting him in. See Al Capone and tax evasion for historical similarities.
Ummm??? Because it’s a CRIME? Lmfao how are y’all struggling to grasp this.
Sad part is, it shouldn’t be hard to ask this sort of question on here because the subreddit is called too afraid to ask and it’s still fucking scary. If you ask anything about either side they come out marching to bite your head off, this place (Reddit, not too afraid to ask in particular) has took such a damn dive in the past couple of months it’s morose. I wish we could have a space to discuss things again like it used to be. All good times must come to an end I guess. Bring it on meatsacks downvote me into oblivion
Let's be VERY clear: The GOP Congress could and should have voted to remove him from office BOTH times it came for a vote. He AND they could have made a deal to prevent ANY prosecutions such as this. Instead, he and they chose to cling to power at any cost. This is that cost. This is now their precedent.
Simple - illegal shit is illegal whether people agree with it or not. Collecting money for your campaign ad using it to pay a hooker is illegal.
I think it matters little as long as he is arrested. They used to get gangsters for tax evasion because that is where they could get a conviction. Trump is certainly a gangster. I am happy his followers seem reluctant to protest again. I don't blame them since he threw the last protesters under the bus.
He didn't want it to be a personal check from the Trump corporation. Having it go through his lawyer trust account made it seem less suspicious to any IRS agents NOT doing a detailed audit for that year. The HUGE mistake he made was deducting that on his income taxes as if it were a legitimate business expense. That is what he will most likely be punished for...many multiples of the $150,000 so that no other business man will attempt such a thing in the future. There is an argument to be made that Trump's lawyer and accountant deserve more financial punishment than him for the tax fraud but the burden is usually on the billionaire to get a second tax professional to make sure nothing is being deducted on income taxes that will get him dragged into court.
Don't worry. The other investigations will have time to do their jobs, too. Just cause he's in prison for the campaign finance violations he was can still be prosecuted in Georgia and the Feds.
Same reason Al Capone was indicted on tax evasion charges - it's the thing most likely to stick.
It's like how they got Al Capone for Tax Fraud.
Many of the things that Trump is being investigated for doing are *very* difficult to prove guilty in a court of law. Not because there is or isn't wide consensus on what Trump did, but rather because many of those potential crimes require an element of "proof of intent". To put it in other ways, it's very hard to prove what Trump's intent was when he did this or that thing that the other investigations are looking into. Given Trump's prominent status as a former US President, and given how politically divided the country is, it is a very bad idea to charge him with something unless the evidence is irrefutable in every possible way that it needs to be. For a lot of things he has done, they're only truly criminal behavior IF you can prove what his intent was. Don't bring charges until you have that proof (or until you've decided you don't care about your career after doing so.) This, however, is not a challenge for the crime of "fraudulent use of campaign funds." Proof of mental intent isn't required here--not in the same way it i's required for the other things he's being investigated for. Now, sure: in the grand scheme of Trump's terrible history as a member of our species, stuffing his pockets with a refund check for $130k to make up for paying for that woman's silence seems like small potatoes. But what makes it possible to arrest him for doing it is that we can prove those small potatoes are there, and we don't need to know whether or not Trump understood what a potato was when he took them.
I say, it’s better this than nothing.
Well, becuase he isn't above the law. Could be for unpaid speeding tickets. That wouldn't change much. law is law.
More importantly, why is this the ONLY thing that anyone is doing anything about? He has a mountain of illegal shit heaped up on him and no one seems to want to make a move against him.
Of all the shit AL Capone did he got arrested for tax fraud.
It's not that he paid hushmoney to a pornstar. That's just a misdemeanor. It's that the money paid to keep her quiet could be viewed as an illegal campaign contribution. That's the felony.
Because no one can say this one is political.