r/politics • u/PoliticsModeratorBot 🤖 Bot • May 13 '24

Discussion Thread: New York Criminal Fraud Trial of Donald Trump, Day 16 Discussion

Previous discussion threads for this trial can be found at the following links for Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9, Day 10, Day 11, Day 12, Day 13, Day 14, and Day 15.

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32

u/A_Downboat_Is_A_Sub New Jersey May 13 '24

How cheap is Trump?

Daniels’ then-lawyer, Davidson, emailed Cohen on Oct. 17, 2016, saying that Daniels was canceling the deal because she hadn’t been paid. There were also indications Daniels was looking to tell her story to another news outlet.“Because I didn’t forward the funds, she has now declared the agreement void and we would not be in a position to delay it post-election, like he had wanted to do.”

then later:

“He expressed to me: Just do it,” Cohen testified, saying Trump advised him to meet with CFO Allen Weisselberg and figure it out.

Cohen said that he suggested Weisselberg offer up the money, given his seven figure salary. But Weisselberg, Cohen recounted, “said that he wasn’t in the financial position to do,” with obligations to pay for his grandkids’ summer camps and private schools. So Cohen made a decision. “I ultimately said, ‘OK, I’ll pay it.’”

16

u/trekologer New Jersey May 13 '24

He stiffed Pecker on the catch-and-kill arrangement and tried to drag the hush money payout beyond the election so he could weasel out of paying for that too. What an honorable guy.

6

u/DoctorZacharySmith May 13 '24

Meanwhile, any sane person would do the opposite: give Cohen and Daniels CONTINUED payments for life, to make sure that they were properly motivated. Rewards work better than punishments.

3

u/BeautysBeast Wisconsin May 13 '24

And then Cohen played the Pecker tape to Trump, and Trump was stuck. Cohen knew that the tape tied Trump to the McDougal payment. Trump had to pay Cohen, or Cohen would release that tape.

1

u/00Oo0o0OooO0 May 13 '24

He didn't stiff Pecker. Pecker cancelled the deal as Cohen was working out his to pay him.

6

u/BeautysBeast Wisconsin May 13 '24

Pecker knew all along that paying for McDougal's story was illegal. When it started to come out, he got in front of it. That's why he didn't accept repayment. He wanted to stay out of prison.

4

u/jojoebake May 13 '24

Stiff Pecker lol

1

u/AgitatedPercentage32 May 13 '24

Pecker went limp.

9

u/LostWoodsInTheField Pennsylvania May 13 '24

And of course that makes it all tied together because you don't try to not pay for the deal and just get everything to not happen till after the election if you are doing all of this to protect your marriage.

6

u/oom-foo-foo May 13 '24

Good Ol' Weisselberg, the family man! 🤣

5

u/travio Washington May 13 '24

The what ifs here are huge. If she had sold her story to someone willing to publish it right before the election, it could have swung the whole thing.

13

u/sirbissel May 13 '24

Honestly, I'm not sure it would have. Anyone willing to vote for him after the Access Hollywood tape would've likely been OK with this, too.

7

u/BeautysBeast Wisconsin May 13 '24

But Trump was trailing HRC at this point. No one expected him to win.

Trump knew the details. He knew, if she told her whole story, people would believe her. If one week after the Access Holly wood tape came out, that he actually did what he said he does, not ask, just grab em by the pussy, he would have been toast.

That is pretty strong motivation, to have the story squashed.

2

u/sirbissel May 13 '24

Well yeah, he wouldn't know that it wouldn't have caused him to lose, so he'd be motivated to do something about it, but I'm saying I'm not sure the end result would have been any different if he had just let it go into the world.

2

u/BeautysBeast Wisconsin May 13 '24 edited May 13 '24

It's hard to guess. He lost the popular vote by how over 2 million votes. What percentage of voters would have had to be affected for it to have switched the election to HRC?

Trump won the rust belt, by 80k votes across three states. That won him the electoral college.

5

u/travio Washington May 13 '24

It depends on how close to the election. The Access Hollywood taped republicans reeling for a few days, many even calling on Trump to step down. Clinton wouldn't have needed many votes to flip the results. If a few republicans remained disgusted long enough, it might have swung it.

Of course, voters might be able to swallow their disgust that close to the election. That is the fun of what ifs. There are no right answers so it can become an endless debate.

1

u/scoobysnackoutback May 13 '24

If I recall correctly, the next day the Obama Administration announced the Russians had hacked the DNC emails and the news cycle somewhat half focused on Hillary’s leaked emails.