A lawyer for former President Donald Trump asked Stormy Daniels to promise not to speak about her "interactions" with Trump or question "his suitability as a candidate for president," documents show.
  • ZeroCool@slrpnk.net
    56·
    2 days ago

    This just makes Judge Merchan’s cowardly decision last month to delay Trump’s sentencing for a second time until after the election all the more unconscionable. He never stopped committing the fucking crime.

    • chaogomu@lemmy.world
      411·
      2 days ago

      I can understand alJudge Merchan’s reasoning. I don’t like it, but I can understand.

      Sentencing Trump before the election risks the sentence being thrown out, even if Trump loses.

      Moving it to after the election means Trump has fewer options to get out of it, provided he loses.

      If Trump somehow wins, well, we’re all fucked so the sentence doesn’t matter.

      As a note, Trump will be in prison after November 26th, so cannot organize or lead another attack on our nation. His supporters might try shit, but he’ll be a two time loser. Very few of his supporters will stick with him. The sort of people who should likely be in prison themselves.

      • ZeroCool@slrpnk.net
        13·
        2 days ago

        Sentencing Trump before the election risks the sentence being thrown out, even if Trump loses.

        Gonna need a source on that. Because the only reason Merchan cited for delaying sentencing was to avoid the appearance of influencing the election.

        There’s no reason to suspect that sentencing him in September would’ve resulted in it being thrown out, and the claim doesn’t even make any sense. There’s no reason he couldn’t have just been ordered to report to prison (if that’s what he was sentenced to) after the election. Delaying sentencing was not part of some cunning legal maneuvering, it was just cowardice in the face of the possibility of appearing to influence an election by sentencing a felon on schedule.

        • chaogomu@lemmy.world
          12·
          2 days ago

          It would be instantly appealed to the Supreme Court, who are in Trump’s pocket. They would then have an excuse to just throw out the convictions.

          But a delayed sentencing… well. that keeps the ball in Judge Merchan’s court. Trump can’t really appeal until after the sentencing. So Trump is still a felon. And will be until November 26th.

          At that point it will be clear who has won the election, even if Trump still has some sort of game he wants to play, Trump is playing from a position of weakness, because he’s not the president.

          Anyway. Once Trump loses, because it’s becoming clear he will lose, Judge Merchan will have that felony conviction and every incentive to get Trump away from the microphone. Trump has broken the contempt order half a dozen times already. So there’s even a valid reason to lock Trump’s ass up for a few years.

            • chaogomu@lemmy.world
              1·
              2 days ago

              Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts. He disobeyed the Judge and was held in contempt multiple times.

              Trump is going to jail because he’s earned it.

              But also to get him away from a microphone. Trump needs that microphone to be effective. Better to lock him away than let him build support for more election denial.

      • TachyonTele
        7·
        2 days ago

        As a note, Trump will be in prison after November 26th,

        Doubt it. Why do you think this?

      • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        3·
        2 days ago

        I think you underestimate the martyr effect. I don’t think his supporters will stop.

        At the same time, I think we need to start seriously thinking about how to make inroads into deprogramming people. There are a lot of people who it won’t work for, sure, but at the same time, there’s got to be a nonzero fraction of the maga crowd that we can try to pull back towards rationality. The more the true hardliners are marginalized, the less effective they’ll become in the mainstream.

    • Peruvian_Skies@sh.itjust.works
      8·
      2 days ago

      Not “again”, “still”. This attempt to illegally silence everyone who has anything bad to say about him has been ongoing for years and years and is only ever going to stop once he runs out of money to pay his enforcers lawyers.