Trump’s alleged crimes against the Trump Organization and the state of the art: A bigoted playbook that Donald Trump ripped from Tuesday night

Faced with criminal charges for the first time for any former president, Donald Trump ripped from a well-worn page in his playbook Tuesday night — lashing out with a, at times, bigoted speech full of lies and conspiracies.

“I didn’t think anything like this could happen in America,” Trump said after returning from New York, where he pleaded not guilty to felony charges. “The only crime I have committed is to defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it.”

A grim-faced Trump quietly walked into the New York courthouse. The usually bombastic former president let his lawyers do the talking except for saying those two words — “not guilty.”

On his social media platform, Donald Trump criticized the New York Supreme Court Justice who presided over the criminal tax fraud cases against the Trump Organization. In a plea deal, Trump’s former chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, pleaded guilty.

Less than 24 hours after leaving the courtroom, Trump went back on the attack against both Bragg and the judge who was hearing his case.

While warning witnesses and the defendants not to make statements that could endanger the safety or well-being of anyone, he didn’t say what would cause any action.

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But once Trump was able to jet away from his native New York and back to the friendly confines of Florida, the former president reverted back to victimized campaigner.

He called two other prosecutors, who are or have investigated him and who are Black, “racist.” Bragg was also called an ” animal” by Trump. Bragg is also Black.

The Justice Department investigation, overseen by Special Counsel Jack Smith, was overseen by someone else, Trump said, who others of his type think is worse than he is.

It is difficult to see how in that environment Trump would be able to convince his base that he did nothing wrong, but they should be okay with what he did.

An investigation in Georgia into election interference was one of the legal threats that Trump went to attack.

That means one could be taking place right in the middle of the Republican presidential primary. And right now Trump is the clear front-runner for the GOP nomination once again. But that would mean a strong possibility of Republicans backing someone with pending criminal charges to advance to a general election.

Republicans seem okay with that right now. In the same NPR poll, 8 out of 10 Republicans think Trump is a great president, and 75% think he should be president again.

Republican pollster Sarah Longwell, who is no fan of President Donald Trump, discovered during one of her focus groups last week that there was no vote for him in Florida.

Since Trump rang the alarm of a potential Arrest, his numbers have improved with the GOP. He’s boxed out GOP presidential opponents, who are scared of offending the base, especially since even more anti-Trump Republicans, like Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, are criticizing the New York case. And, according to his campaign, Trump has raised more than $7 million in the days since the indictment.

“There is a F-35 missile-armed weapon being piloted by Jack Smith with [Attorney General] Merrick Garland as his wingman in D.C. that’s going to get off the ground soon in the Mar-a-Lago obstruction case that will make this look like a water pistol,” former Trump White House lawyer Ty Cobb told CNN Tuesday of the New York case — and the potential danger ahead for Trump.

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He needs to get his brand back on track because over the last three election cycles it has proved toxic in some places, which is the perfect place for the Republicans to win back the White House.

Trump said during his speech that he has a judge who hates him and the wife and family of a woman who worked for Harris.

The judge in the case received a packet of Trump’s social media postings, which raised concerns about some of the threats he made.

“He’s almost daring the judge,” Honig said. “Ultimately though, as much as the threats and other rhetoric in my view are far over the line, I think that the judge is unlikely to impose a gag order, given the normal First Amendment concerns multiplied by Donald Trump’s ongoing candidacy.”

Elie Honig, a former prosecutor and CNN senior legal analyst, said Trump’s comments Tuesday evening indicated he was openly defying the judge with his rhetoric.

Trump is upset with Merchan and his family, including his daughter who worked for the campaigns of Biden and Harris. Trump has also complained about Merchan for presiding over the case against the Trump Organization, which was convicted on tax fraud charges late last year.

They have criticized Merchan for her work for the campaigns of both Biden and Harris.

The Authentic Campaigns website lists the Biden-Harris 2020 campaign and Harris’s own unsuccessful presidential primary campaign, which began and ended in 2019, among its clients. Federal campaign finance records show payments to the firm in 2020 from the Biden campaign and 2019 from the Harris primary campaign.

A screenshot purporting to be from Loren Merchan’s LinkedIn page, which was captured by right-wing media outlets before her LinkedIn page was made unavailable, lists her as having worked for Harris’ primary campaign in 2019 as Director of Digital Persuasion.

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“That’s a relevant fact here,” Tacopina said. This isn’t an attack on the judge or his family. No one is suggesting that anything should happen to the judge or his family, and President Trump’s comments did not in any way, shape or form.”

Karen Friedman of CNN said that the political affiliations of the judge in the case do not disqualify him from being a judge.

What does Biden have to do with this? And it’s his daughter. “You cannot control your family members,” he said. It isn’t close to a conflict.

Prosecutors specifically said they want to prohibit Trump from posting any discovery materials to social media or sharing them with third parties, such as journalists. They also said they plan to allow Trump review certain sensitive materials only with his lawyers.

Trump’s attorneys suggested that the spring might be a bit more realistic, given that they had yet to receive any documents in the case.

“I understand what you are saying,” Merchan said. “I think that is reasonable. You haven’t gotten discovery. It’s hard to see if you will be ready for trial on January of 2024. The message I would like to deliver is we would like to move ahead as expeditiously as possible, without undue delay.”

Trump went on to group the indictment — stemming from a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign — with various other legal and political threats he’s faced, dismissing them all.

Trump said, of the case being led by Atlanta District Attorney Fani Willis, that she is “doing everything in her power to indict me over an absolutely perfect phone call, even more perfect than the one I made with the president of Ukraine.”

The Trump Organization’s investigation into the New York Attorney General was condemned by Trump. I will get him. This was her campaign. Never ran for office. I will be there to get him. He said her name was Letitia James.

Toward the end of his remarks, Trump criticized the Manhattan District Attorney for the charges against him.

Judge Merchan Trump was not a candidate to challenge the American Bar Association and its Commission on Judicial Conduct, as criticized by former president Joe Biden

While the political donations are small, they still raise questions about his impartiality because he has been attacked by a former president as a Trump-hating judge.

He donated to Joe Biden. He should get off this case. And this judge has a history, with President Trump, in prior cases,” Mike Davis, a former Republican chief counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee and founder of a conservative judicial advocacy group, told CNN’s Pamela Brown. “He finds out that this judge actually donated to Biden’s campaign. So, that at least raises the appearance of impartiality – the appearance that this judge could not be impartial against President Trump.”

The American Bar Association model code of judicial conduct prohibits judges from soliciting funds for, paying an assessment to, or making a contribution, according to Professor Gillers at New York University.

“The contribution to Biden and possibly the one to ‘Stop Republicans’ would be forbidden unless there is some other explanation that would allow them,” Gillers said.

But Gillers said that the donation “would be viewed as trivial, especially given the small sums.” He said if a complaint was made, the state’s Commission on Judicial Conduct would remind the judge of the rules.

Asked if this could be grounds for a legal challenge or recusal, Gillers said, “Absolutely not. This doesn’t meet the requirements for proof for recalibrating.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/06/politics/judge-merchan-trump-biden-contribution/index.html

The New York Police Department has not seen a single Merchan-Jacobi forensic investigation after his investigation into the Bengin-Merchan case

CNN’s John Miller reports that the New York Police Department is tracking numerous threats against Merchan but has not seen specific, credible threats.

Trump lawyer Susan Necheles declined to comment on the donations. The former president’s political allies are suggesting that the judge should not be involved in the case.