Piece of evidence likely has derailed Bragg’s Get-Trump Train
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Daily Bible Verse
24 The Lord bless you and keep you;
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Prayers today for the full and swift recovery of two Denver school administrators who were seriously wounded Wednesday in a shooting by a 17-year-old student. Matt Vespa at Townhall.com has more on the story, along with reasons why liberal media outlets are already censoring parts of the story instead of using it to promote gun control, and why it’s likely to vanish from their coverage as quickly as it appeared.
Piece of evidence likely has derailed Bragg’s Get-Trump Train
“They don’t seem to care that their case is based on the word of a former porn star and accused extortionist whose previous lawyer has been sentenced to over 20 years in prison for fraud (four of them for defrauding her) and former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who has been convicted on numerous counts of fraud and perjury, but honest, mister, he’s telling the truth now.”
That’s what I wrote last Saturday when the story broke about Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg “preparing” to indict Trump. Recall that in 2019, Cohen --- the witness Trump’s adversaries couldn’t wait to get on the stand --- testified before Congress that Trump “asked me to pay off an adult film star with whom he had an affair” and that “Mr. Trump directed me to use my own personal funds from a Home Equity Line of Credit to avoid any money being traced back to him that could negatively impact his campaign.” Bragg’s current case is built on that testimony from Cohen, specifically the phrases, “Trump ‘asked me’” and “Trump ‘directed me.’” The alleged tryst, which Trump still denies, is from practically 20 years ago, in 2006.
It doesn’t matter to the Soros-backed Bragg that he’s scraping the bottom of the barrel with Michael Cohen as his big-deal grand jury witness. When it comes to trying to make a case against Trump, Bragg’s sole operating principle seems to be, “Go with what you’ve got, no matter how pathetically inadequate it is.” That’s just what he did.
And even as this case is revealed for the blatant political prosecution it is, Bragg remains shameless. Recall that three Republican campaign chairs wrote Bragg a scathing letter about this case a few days ago. It made no impression on Bragg, who said in a statement to FOX NEWS Digital that “We will not be intimidated by attempts to undermine the justice process, nor will we let baseless accusations deter us from fairly applying the law.” (I’ll pause for laughter. When you’re ready, we’ll continue.)
The most withering assessment of Bragg’s Folly probably came from FOX NEWS legal analyst Gregg Jarrett, who said the Manhattan DA “has taken a page out of Stalin’s playbook.”
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/sudden-turn-events-could-derail-trump-indictment
“Driven by personal and political animus,” Jarrett wrote in this must-read piece, “the DA presumed the former President must be guilty of something. It was just a matter of devoting enough time and resources to hunt down the crime. Failing to find one, Bragg...simply dreamed one up.” Jarrett then reviews the flaws in his case.
By now you know that the grand jury in the Trump case didn’t meet as scheduled on Wednesday, with word going out that they might not meet at all for the rest of the week. It has since been reported that they’ll convene again at noon Eastern Time on Thursday. You also know that this week, Cohen legal advisor Robert Costello testified to the grand jury that Cohen had lied “hundreds of times” to try to avoid going to prison. He said that the $130,000 hush payment to Daniels was actually Cohen’s own idea, and that Cohen had told him it was to keep the alleged tryst secret from Melania and even from his own wife.
Perhaps Costello’s testimony --- the first that wasn’t just part of Bragg’s presentation --- has caused at least 12 of the 23 grand jury members to balk at voting to indict a former President.
Even so, Costello’s testimony was one man’s words against another’s until a new piece of evidence surfaced, a “HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL” February 2018 letter (obtained by the U.K. DAILY MAIL) from Cohen’s attorney Stephen M. Ryan to the Federal Election Commission with this key paragraph: “In a private transaction in 2016, before the U.S. presidential election, Mr. Cohen used his own personal funds to facilitate a payment of $130,000 to Ms. Stephanie Clifford. Neither the Trump organization nor the Trump campaign was party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed Mr. Cohen for the payment directly or indirectly.”
And later: “The payment in question does not constitute a campaign contribution or expenditure, and, therefore, the FEC lacks jurisdiction over this matter. The complainants have not and cannot present any evidence to the contrary. Accordingly, the complaint should be dismissed.”
Cohen’s testimony before Congress in 2019, months after his attorney’s letter to the FEC was written, was part of a plea deal; he was desperately trying to stay out of prison and faced the possibility of a long sentence. He also told Congress that Trump reimbursed him with personal funds, which appears to be in direct conflict with the letter from his attorney to the FEC. Cohen later pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign finance law over the hush money.
If this letter is true --- and it’s hard to imagine why Cohen’s attorney would have lied about this in 2018 --- Cohen has perjured himself over and over. Watch him stick to his story no matter how untenable it may be. And is the grand jury aware of this letter? Have they seen it?
If the grand jury does meet today (Thursday), prosecutors may produce “one more witness,” according to a court official who spoke with the DAILY MAIL.
Here’s the DAILY MAIL story, which contains an interesting side note. Did you know that the original complaint against Trump for supposed campaign finance violations was made by...Paul Ryan? We didn’t, either.
Bragg has said he’ll be “personally responsible” for any injuries caused by protests surrounding the possible indictment of President Trump. But we have a question for him: who’ll be responsible for any injuries caused to PRESIDENT TRUMP, should he be indicted? The prospect of bringing him in for an arraignment has got to be a nightmare for the Secret Service. And ex-Secret Service agent Dan Bongino pointed out something scary on Wednesday: that former Presidents are not given nearly the Secret Service protection that current Presidents are. It’s quite scaled-down.
But according to the POST MILLENNIAL, a source said Bragg is “having trouble convincing the jury to swallow the case.” This person called it a “weak case” and said it had “caused divisions in the DA’s office.” Apparently, there are at least a few disgruntled assistant district attorneys who see this case for what it is and are embarrassed to be associated with it. So one nice surprise here is that maybe the Manhattan DA’s office is not beyond all hope.
As you know, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York opted out of charging Trump over the Stormy Daniels payment in 2019. The Federal Election Commission also tossed the case, in 2021. This case is so off the rails that even (of all people) the Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer, is squeamish about expressing support, saying that “it’s premature to comment on what’s happening and we’ll have to wait to see what he [Bragg] does.”
Fellow Senate Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia was more blunt: “There’s many reasons why Donald Trump should not be President again of the United States, but you should not allow the court system to be viewed as a political pawn.” He thinks indicting the President would have “the reverse effect” --- and he’s right.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was harsher: “A Trump indictment would be a disgusting abuse of power. The DA should be put in jail.”
As for Trump himself, he has called this just what it is: “Prosecutorial Misconduct and Interference with an Election.”
Former Manhattan prosecutor Michael Bachner said, “Whenever you have a significant or star witness in your case --- an individual who has an enormous amount of baggage, including having made false statements in the past --- that is a very serious problem.” The POST says Bragg plans to call “an unidentified rebuttal witness” on Thursday. Attorney Harmeet Dhillon suggested Wednesday night that it might be Cohen again (really??), but she didn’t know for sure.
https://nypost.com/2023/03/22/2018-letter-shows-michael-cohen-lying-to-federal-officials/
If it is Cohen, maybe Bragg can reassure the grand jury that he truly, for real, pinky swear, is actually telling the truth…THIS time.
Interest rate increase
Despite the recent bank collapses as financial institutions struggle to survive inflation, rising interest rates and their own stupid “woke” financial decisions, the Fed announced yet another interest rate increase Wednesday of one quarter point.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/federal-reserve-interest-rate-hike-march
The news sent a shock through financial markets and caused the Dow to plummet by over 500 points.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/21/stock-market-today-live-updates.html
All this sparked Sen. Elizabeth Warren to accuse Fed Chairman Jerome Powell of trying to drive the US into a recession and demanding his removal.
FYI: blaming one man at the Fed for this fiscal tar pit that took years of incompetence and irresponsibility to create shows either dishonesty or ignorance. Democrats, with the eager collusion of too many Republicans, became addicted to spending trillions of dollars borrowed from future generations and running up a national debt well in excess of the entire US GDP. That kind of money printing causes inflation. Raising interest rates curbs inflation (with plenty of pain along with it), but the federal government now has to service so much debt that it can’t afford to let interest rates go up sharply enough to curb the inflation that its own debt is causing.