zoux posted:

https://twitter.com/HowardMortman/status/1788562242457240041

Surely you can't just bring vampires with you to court, that's jury intimidation

quote:

Rick Scott, the Republican Florida senator who is seated in the front row of the courtroom today, appeared alongside Donald Trump as the former president addressed the media before court proceedings began.

Scott did not speak to reporters directly but Trump said:

quote:

We have Rick Scott here, we have other politicians here. We have people, many people in support.

It is unclear which other politicians Trump was referring to.

Kagrenak posted:

Wow you're not kidding he went to what seems to be literally the worst law school in the country.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooley_Law_School

bird food bathtub posted:

Does that gaggle have any actual legal function or are these just emotional support toadies?

The Question IRL posted:

I think the question is, what are you expecting out of this. The biggest, most likely consequence if convicted is Trump will just be referred to as a convicted criminal, and any future sentences he gets will be harder hitting?

CapnAndy posted:

so he can’t campaign

bird food bathtub posted:

Does that gaggle have any actual legal function or are these just emotional support toadies?

Zapp Brannigan posted:

Does the title "Convicted Felon" go away while the appeal plays out?

PainterofCrap posted:

Can someone clarify for me what the penalties are for this election funds-fraud case? There's 30+ counts to it. I've heard that each count brings a fine; also heard that each may have required jail/prison time.

Is any particular penalty mandatory, or is it entirely up to the judge at sentencing?

BigBallChunkyTime posted:

Noted brain genius Michael Cohen was on Tiktok live last night wearing a T-shirt with a caracature of Trump in jail on it. You know, as a smart witness does.

Dude was a loving lawyer. He should know better.

Caros posted:

You know, i never followed the Daniels stuff in any detail, but reading the discussion of what appears to have happened is... Ugh.

I am friends with a bunch of sex worked and always just (incorrectly) assumed that it was an escorting situation. But this is pretty clearly just sexual assault. It is Weinstein poo poo and I'm honestly baffled that there aren't more (by which I mean hundreds) of credible allegations. Because this screams 'I am comfortable intimidating women into sex'

Caros posted:

You know, i never followed the Daniels stuff in any detail, but reading the discussion of what appears to have happened is... Ugh.

I am friends with a bunch of sex worked and always just (incorrectly) assumed that it was an escorting situation. But this is pretty clearly just sexual assault. It is Weinstein poo poo and I'm honestly baffled that there aren't more (by which I mean hundreds) of credible allegations. Because this screams 'I am comfortable intimidating women into sex'

quote:

At least 26 women accused President Donald Trump of sexual misconduct, including assault, since the 1970s.

A deluge of women made their accusations public following the October 2016 publication of the "Access Hollywood" tape, in which Trump was heard boasting about grabbing women's genitals in 2005. Some of Trump's accusers made their stories public months before the tape's release, and still others came forward in the months following.

Oracle posted:

Yeah… about that.

Most are terrified to come forward or just don’t want to relive it in a public spectacle, but dozens came out after the Access Hollywood tape. It’s predictably gone nowhere, as the vast majority of these things do but after seeing Jean Carroll actually succeed some are taking another shot.

quote:

Donald Trump sexual misconduct allegations

During the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Bloom offered to represent four women who alleged sexual misconduct by then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. Two of these women came forward publicly with their allegations, including Jill Harth and Lisa Boyne,[21][22] and two who did not, including a woman from Virginia[23] and another woman who claimed Trump had raped her when she was thirteen years old.[24]

On November 2, 2016, Bloom canceled a press conference with the unnamed client, saying the client was scared because of death threats.[24]

Tenkaris posted:

Trump and other creeps love to follow the playbook of "they shouldn't hide if they have something so damning to say about me" as if we don't have hundreds of examples of accusers being disbelieved and massively harrased in the name of politics?

Gucci Loafers posted:

Is it just me, or what was the defenses goal with Stormy? Did they actually think she was going to break down crying with of the aggressive questioning?

As far as I can tell, she held her ground.

Gucci Loafers posted:

Is it just me, or what was the defenses goal with Stormy? Did they actually think she was going to break down crying with of the aggressive questioning?

As far as I can tell, she held her ground.

mdemone posted:

If they were looking for a weak woman, the porn industry is not where they would try to find one. She's been through all kinds of hell.

Gucci Loafers posted:

Is it just me, or what was the defenses goal with Stormy? Did they actually think she was going to break down crying with of the aggressive questioning?

As far as I can tell, she held her ground.

Deteriorata posted:

Trump is insisting that she's a liar and the encounter never happened, so the defense was trying to pick apart every little inconsistency in her story over time to imply that she'd made it up. The defense was dutifully following their client's orders.

Of course, whether or not she's lying is completely irrelevant to the case. It's about falsified business records, not Stormy Daniels.

mdemone posted:

If they were looking for a weak woman, the porn industry is not where they would try to find one. She's been through all kinds of hell.

Deteriorata posted:

Trump is insisting that she's a liar and the encounter never happened, so the defense was trying to pick apart every little inconsistency in her story over time to imply that she'd made it up. The defense was dutifully following their client's orders.

Of course, whether or not she's lying is completely irrelevant to the case. It's about falsified business records, not Stormy Daniels.

Gucci Loafers posted:

I can't imagine any of the jury felt that circus helped Trump's position, she looks way, way more credible than he does.

Deteriorata posted:

Of course, whether or not she's lying is completely irrelevant to the case. It's about falsified business records, not Stormy Daniels.

Caros posted:

Is there even any real value to lose at truth social? I thought most of the costs are just execs. Can't really see them missing debt payments when the majority of their costs are staffing.

Nissin Cup Nudist posted:

mdemone posted:

One of the greatest moments in sports history

quote:

Trump promised to 20 executives at Mar-a-Lago dinner to increase oil drilling and reverse pollution rules among other pitches

Donald Trump dangled a brazen “deal” in front of some of the top US oil bosses last month, proposing that they give him $1bn for his White House re-election campaign and vowing that once back in office he would instantly tear up Joe Biden’s environmental regulations and prevent any new ones, according to a bombshell new report.

According to the Washington Post, the former US president made his jaw-dropping pitch, which the paper described as “remarkably blunt and transactional”, at a dinner at his Mar-a-Lago home and club.

In front of more than 20 executives, including from Chevron, Exxon and Occidental Petroleum, he promised to increase oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, remove hurdles to drilling in the Alaskan Arctic, and reverse new rules designed to cut car pollution. He would also overturn the Biden administration’s decision in January to pause new natural gas export permits which have been denounced as “climate bombs”.

“You’ll get it on the first day,” Trump said, according to the Post, citing an unnamed dinner attendee.

Trump’s exhortation to the oil executives that they were wealthy enough to pour $1bn into his campaign war-chest, at the same time pledging a U-turn on Biden’s efforts to combat the climate crisis, was immediately denounced on Wednesday by environmental groups.

“$1bn for Trump, a devastating climate future for the rest of us,” said Pete Maysmith of the League of Conservation Voters (LCV).

Christina Polizzi of Climate Power told the Guardian that Trump was “putting the future of the planet up for sale”.

“He is in the pocket of big oil – he gave them $25bn in tax breaks in his first term – and now it’s clear he is willing to do whatever big oil wants in a potential second term.”

The former president’s exchange with fossil fuel giants also engaged the concern of groups monitoring the influence of money in politics. Jordan Libowitz of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (Crew), a non-partisan government watchdog, said the conversation, as reported by the Post, “certainly looks a lot like quid pro quo”.

Libowitz said the encounter was “about as blatant as I’ve ever seen. Politicians often give a nudge and a wink, they don’t say raise a billion dollars for me and I’ll get rid of the regulations that you want.”

He added that Crew’s legal team were looking into whether this rises to the high legal standard of bribery.

Trump’s close relations to the oil industry, and his hostility to federal regulations designed to reduce emissions that exacerbate the climate crisis, are well-known and longstanding. With six months to go until the presidential election, however, he is stepping up his efforts to attract campaign donations from the sector.

Trump is also performing strongly in the polls. Having all but certainly secured the Republican nomination, Trump is often narrowly ahead of Joe Biden in surveys of the presidential race, including performing strongly in the key swing states that are vital to any candidate’s chances of victory. Trump’s solid performance comes despite a swath of legal woes, including currently being on trial in New York over an alleged hush-money payment to the adult film star Stormy Daniels.

For their part, executives in big oil companies have been preparing for a possible Trump second term by drafting executive orders designed to be ready to sign as soon as he returns to office. Politico reported this week that the executives have clubbed together to produce off-the-shelf policies on increasing natural gas exports, supercharging drilling and extending offshore oil leases.

The interplay between Trump and the oil giants as the election approaches underlines the vast gulf between the former president and the current occupant of the White House. According to an analysis by a group of environmental groups including the Sierra Club and LCV, the Biden administration has taken more than 300 actions towards greater public health and clean energy, more than any other administration in US history.

Those measures included the first major climate legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, which has propelled record investment in clean energy including solar and wind and increased sales of electric vehicles. US energy emissions are slowly declining, by some 3% this year.

Even so, the US is extracting more oil and gas than ever, reaching almost 13m barrels of crude oil a day – more than double the production levels a decade ago.

fool of sound posted:

Nah they’re just fascists and don’t care. Evangelicals have been reactionaries playacting at religious revival for a century and a half

DTurtle posted:

It's so telling that this isn't bigger news:
Trump promised to scrap climate laws if US oil bosses donated $1bn

This is such an extremely blatant and explicit bribery/corruption/quid pro quo thing, and it isn't top news or anywhere near it, just another small unimportant news report among many others...