Trump is making an 11th-hour bid to toss his hush-money case before Inauguration Day.
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg has now filed an 82-page motion opposing Trump's dismissal efforts.
Trump's "history of malicious conduct" is too serious to toss the case, Bragg wrote.
In an 82-page court filing made public Tuesday, Manhattan prosecutors say Donald Trump's "history of malicious conduct" is too serious for his hush-money case to be dismissed.
The filing, signed by DA Alvin Bragg, also fights Trump's claim that he enjoys something called presidential-elect immunity — above and beyond the presidential immunity bestowed on him by the US Supreme Court in June.
"There are no grounds for such relief now, prior to inauguration," Bragg wrote in opposing Trump's 11th-hour motion to dismiss, "because President-elect immunity does not exist."
With just six weeks left before his January 20 inauguration — and six months after a Manhattan jury convicted him — Trump is again demanding that New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan immediately dismiss his hush-money case.
It's his third time trying to void his indictment or his conviction. If successful, Trump would escape altogether his already thrice-delayed sentencing.
The president elect faces as little as no jail time and a potential maximum of four years prison for falsifying 34 business records throughout his first year of office to retroactively hide a hush-money payment to adult actress Stormy Daniels. (Legal experts have said that it's unlikely Trump would be sentenced to jail time as a 78-year-old first-time offender convicted of low-level felonies, and any jail sentence would be stayed as he appeals.)
Trump paid for Daniels' silence just eleven days before 2016 election, and jurors unanimously found that he thereby conspired to promote his own election by unlawful means, Bragg wrote.
The evidence presented against Trump was "overwhelming," reads the filing, which is also signed by a lead prosecutor on the case, Christopher Conroy.
"The crimes that the jury convicted defendant of committing are serious offenses that caused extensive harm to the sanctity of the electoral process and to the integrity of New York's financial marketplace," which relies on honest record-keeping, Bragg wrote.
Trump's conduct during his hush-money prosecution also weighs heavily against dismissal, as does his "long history of threatening, abusing, and attacking participants in other legal proceedings in which he is involved," Bragg wrote.
Trump's "contemptuous" conduct began even before his hush-money indictment was voted, the prosecutor wrote.
"He threatened 'death and destruction' if he was indicted and posted a photo of himself wielding a baseball bat at the back of the District Attorney's head," Bragg wrote of Trump's actions while the grand jury was still hearing evidence in early 2023.
Later, Trump launched online attacks on Merchan and members of his family.
Trump was found guilty of criminal contempt ten times for his "extrajudicial speech" — including social media attacks on witnesses — during his trial this spring, Bragg wrote.
Trump also repeatedly attacked the law clerk and was accused of lying under oath by the judge during last year's civil fraud trial, in which he's been ordered to pay a $454 million judgment.
That judgment remains on hold pending appeal.
Trump's history of abusing the legal process extends to his other cases, Bragg wrote, including his continued defamations of writer E. Jean Carroll, who last year won more than $80 million in damages after the president-elect repeatedly mocked her and called her a liar.
Bragg's filling asked Merchan to either sentence Trump before the inauguration, or put the case on hold until after he serves out his second term.
Choice-of-SteinsGate on December 11st, 2024 at 00:31 UTC »
Trump's criminal history is so extensive, that there aren't enough characters in a reddit post to sum it up.
Donald Trump has been exploiting his wealth, power, and privilege to game the justice system and evade accountability throughout his entire life. He also has a habit of threatening to sue anyone who hurts his precious feelings.
Trump has threatened, on several occasions, to abuse his power as president through executive actions and unitary executive privileges to seek swift retribution against his political adversaries. And this is while Trump and his supporters have the audacity to claim that it's his opponents who are "weaponizing the justice system" against him
Trump's M.O. has always been to seek legal vengeance against his perceived enemies. He has even threatened to jail or "go after" his political opponents, his naysayers in the media, journalists, congressmen, civil servants, judges, "radical leftists," anyone who he believes participated in stealing the 2020 election from him, and the list goes on.
Then there's this nugget:
More on Trump's legal history:
Trump has been involved in over 4,000 legal cases, many of which included financial crimes, multi-million dollar real estate and tax disputes, state law violations, corrupt business practices and defamation suits.
Trump has lied about his wealth for decades, and he threatens to sue anyone who dares to speculate about his actual net worth.
He is a serial fraud, con artist, adulterer and cheater. He cheats on his wives, on his taxes, he cheats at golf.
Donald Trump has literally been indicted for "defrauding The United States"
He's been indicted for conspiring to overturn the last election, for trying to install loyalists into positions of power within the DOJ, to help him steal the election, but him and his supporters still claim that Democrats stole the election in 2020
He's been indicted for attempting to intimidate state election officials into manipulating the vote for him, he's repeatedly refused to acknowledge how Russian election meddling helped him win his first election, but Trump and his supporters claim that it's his opponents who are interfering in elections.
What's more, he's abused his power and wealth to obstruct and delay legal efforts to hold him accountable for these crimes.
He also used his power as president to enrich himself.
Trump has not only ruined or bankrupted practically every business he's been involved in, but he's consistently profited off of screwing over anyone who has had the misfortune of trusting him with their money or labor.
He has also profited off of lying about his wealth and the value of his properties his entire life, he even lied to get on the Forbes list.
Over a period of time between the '80s and '90s, Donald Trump had lost more money than any other American taxpayer. His business decisions nearly led him to ruin. But he continued borrowing lots of money, particularly from his father and from banks, avoided paying income tax for many years, amassed unsustainable debts, then dumped them onto others.
As president, Trump directed taxpayer money towards his businesses. The secret service and other government parties spent exorbitant amounts of money at Trump properties and on accommodations.
Trump often made foreign and domestic business deals while president. Booking events for foreign governments at Trump owned locations in order to curry favor with his admin.
Trump promoted his properties while President, and hosted taxpayer funded events.
He's been indicted for obstructing the governments efforts to retrieve classified documents scattered all over his Mar-A-Lago residence, and on multiple occasions that we know of, showed those classified materials to people not authorized to view them, all while lying to the DOJ and National Archives for over a year in order to impede their efforts to retrieve those materials.
And yes, Donald Trump has been convicted of 34 felonies involving his efforts to falsify business records in order to conceal a crime.
On more than one occasion, Trump has evaded justice by power of executive privilege and through broad immunities granted to him by a Supreme Court he helped pack with kowtowing loyalists.
Evidence shows that Trump has obstructed justice on dozens of occasions. But proponents of the Unitary executive theory argue that you can't indict a sitting president. Which is exactly what Bill Barr did after Mueller found that Trump had obstructed justice ten times during the investigation.
And again, despite all of this, Trump and his supporters claim that it's Democrats who have "weaponized the justice system" against Trump. The gall...
Don't forget the time Trump was forced to pay more than $2 million in court-ordered damages to eight different charities for illegally misusing charitable funds at the Trump Foundation for political purposes
As part of the settlement, Trump was required to acknowledge his personal misuse of funds at the Trump Foundation and it was forced to shutter its doors and dissolve under court supervision.
Then there's Trump University...
In 2013, A lawsuit was filed by New York's AG, accusing Trump of defrauding thousands of people who attended Trump University. New York regulators forced Trump to stop using the term "university" to describe his grifting scheme, calling Trump's use of the word, "misleading and even illegal."
Former students recount being pressured to provide high approval ratings for the courses they were taking, or have their graduation certificates withheld. Thousands of students sought course refunds and claimed that they never received any benefits from the courses.
There was also a separate class action lawsuit against Trump U, Trump's counterclaims were dismissed and he even tried to file a defamation suit against one of the students who made her experiences at the "university" public. Trump was later ordered to pay this student's legal fees and extra costs and he was eventually found to have defrauded students and was forced to pay $25 million in restitution.
He conflates accountability with persecution because he's spent his entire life exploiting his own wealth and privilege to avoid being incriminated.
Mr. Law and Order everybody!
He's been held liable in civil court for sexual assault, and accused of sexual abuse, harassment or rape by dozens of women, including one of his own ex wives.
He's also indicated, on a number of occasions, that he will disregard the constitution to achieve his goals.
Mr. Law and Order has decided that he's entitled to broad immunities and unitary executive powers that he will use dismantle our system of checks and balances.
Don't forget how him, his father, and Trump management were sued by the Justice Department for violating the fair housing act and discriminating against black renters. And after he was forced to settle, he still declared a victory.
The party of "personal responsibility" can't seem to take responsibility for a goddamn thing.
puroloco22 on December 10th, 2024 at 22:59 UTC »
Plus these are state crimes. Not Federal. Fine his ass or confine to presidential duties only. No more golfing.
Silent-Resort-3076 on December 10th, 2024 at 22:37 UTC »
Snippet: