Trump's lawyers may have to admit he isn't a great businessman to beat criminal charges – Raw Story
Sarah Burris is a long-time veteran of political campaigns, having worked as a fundraiser and media director across the United States. She transitioned into reporting while working for Rock the Vote, Future Majority and Wiretap Magazine, covering the Millennial Generation's perspective during the presidential elections. As a political writer, Burris has had bylines at CNN, Salon.com, BNR, and AlterNet and serves as a senior digital editor for RawStory.com.
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One of the key pieces of Donald Trump's case could save him, but it would also force him to admit he isn't a savvy businessman monitoring the details of his company.
Trump will face closing arguments in the Manhattan trial where he stands accused of 34 felonies around the falsification of business records to conceal a hush-money scheme for an alleged affair.
Speaking to MSNBC on Friday, New York Times reporter Susanne Craig said that some of the checks came from Trump's trust while the rest came from Trump personally.
What the defense attempted to do, however, is imply that not all checks were signed by Trump himself. His sons Eric and Don Jr. are also signers on the trust account.
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"I think that, in introducing that, raising the possibility, you know, that maybe he didn't know about all of them," said Craig. "It seems hard to believe that if he knew about some, you know — he didn't know about all of them. They actually put that out there. But I think that the defense, at least, is going in that direction."
It made her think about a moment in the trial when Michael Cohen admitted that he stole money from Trump, calling it his "self-help" charge.
"There was evidence he took some money he shouldn't have. It was written about it in his book," Craig recalled. "I think another way that you could think about that from the …defense — the prosecution has made quite a case over Donald Trump; he counted every penny that went out of the place. He was always looking for a deal. He was very much aware of all of the money going out. He signed every check."
However, in the case of Cohen's payment, the fixer was able to pull the wool over Trump's eyes.
"In that instance it's another — it's a case where Michael Cohen apparently got one over on Donald Trump. I think they could use that also," said Craig. "Just to say, Donald Trump didn't necessarily have his eye on every penny that was leaving the place. You know, and kind of cast more doubt on, you know, did Donald Trump know or not? That's really what it's going to come down to."
Admitting that Trump didn't have an eye on the business, however, would mean he wasn't the prudent businessman he claimed to be.
See the comments in the video below or at the link here.
Lawyers may have to admit Trump isn't that great of a businessman to score innocenceyoutu.be
Independent White House hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr on Friday accused Joe Biden and Donald Trump of trampling on the US constitution as he launched a trenchant defense of Americans' civil liberties.
In a guest speech in front of a small crowd at the Libertarian Party's national convention in Washington, the anti-vaccine activist berated the president and his Republican predecessor over pandemic-era health curbs and threats to free speech.
"If you treasure freedom, you'd better elect leaders who are inspired by it and who will wield it to inspire others, leaders who believe in freedoms and hold the Bill of Rights in reverence," Kennedy said in a speech delivered to a hall with dozens of empty seats.
"I'm sorry to say that neither President Trump nor President Biden passed this critical examination. Neither of them upheld the Constitution when it really counted."
Kennedy, the scion of America's most famous political clan, considered joining the Libertarian Party after a failed primary bid as a Democrat but ultimately opted to run for president as an independent.
The environmental lawyer has no chance of winning in November, but Democrats and Republicans worry that so-called wildcard candidates could sway close contests in key swing states.
Kennedy attacked Trump over Covid lockdowns and enforced social distancing and faulted Biden for vaccine mandates and "colluding with the FBI" to coerce Big Tech companies to censor the speech of Americans.
In a speech unsurprisingly heavy on references to hard-fought American freedoms, he went after Trump for the "persecution" of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is fighting extradition to the United States over alleged national security breaches.
– 'Death, destruction, and incompetence' –
He said he would drop the case against Assange and pardon US whistleblower Edward Snowden on his first day in office.
The environmental lawyer is in third place and averaging just over 10 percent in polls including Trump, Biden and two minor candidates.
Kennedy challenged Trump to a debate at the convention, in an open letter published on X that pointed to data from polling firm Zogby showing him beating Trump and Biden in hypothetical two-way match-ups.
The independent is officially on the ballot in seven states so far — including the crucial battleground state of Michigan — and says it has collected enough signatures for access in eight more.
Trump, who is due to deliver the keynote speech at the four-day convention on Saturday, has been escalating attacks against Kennedy, underscoring the threat he believes the nephew of John F. Kennedy could pose to his campaign.
But Trump focused on Biden in a statement previewing his appearance at the event in a plush downtown Washington hotel, calling his rival "the worst president in the history of the United States by far."
"If Libertarians join me and the Republican Party, where we have many libertarian views, the election won't even be close," he said.
"We cannot have another four years of death, destruction, and incompetence."
Biden was also invited to speak at the convention, but officials say his team didn't respond.
Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has cast doubt on the fairness of the 2024 presidential election result significantly more than he had by this time in 2016 or 2020, according to an analysis published Friday in The New York Times.
The Times found more than 500 instances of Trump falsely accusing Democrats of trying to rig, cheat, or steal the 2024 election, or of having done so in 2020. This is a significant increase from the 2020 cycle, when Trump did so roughly 100 times, and 2016, when he did not begin regularly raising concerns about the election's legitimacy until the final weeks of his campaign against Hillary Clinton.
"Though the tactic is familiar—Mr. Trump raised the specter of a 'rigged' election in the 2016 and 2020 cycles, too—his attempts to undermine the 2024 contest are a significant escalation," the Times reported, based on its search of social media posts, interviews, and records of campaign events.
Trump has cast doubt on the upcoming election's fairness about once per day since he announced his candidacy—engaging in a strategy the Times referred to as "heads, I win; tails, you cheated."
Dean Baker, an economist at Center for Economic and Policy Research, referred to the Times' findings as a "big deal" on social media, while Ian Bremmer, a political scientist at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, jokingly said, in response to the article, that 2024 was "off to a great start."
The Times analysis illustrates that in the 2024 cycle, Trump has broadened his argument about unfairness, suggesting not just that presidential elections are rigged against him but that the Democrats have a strategy of "election interference" that includes legal cases against him. After announcing his candidacy in November 2022, Trump began to argue that the legal cases against him "constituted a 'new way of cheating' in order to 'interfere' in the 2024 election," the Times reported. Trump called the appointment of a special counsel to investigate him a "rigged deal, just as the 2020 election was rigged."
In so doing, Trump has attempted to "undermine democracy" by conflating claims of a stolen election and claims of interference by means of legal action, argued Edward Foley, a constitutional law professor at Ohio State University, in Election Law Blog on Friday.
Turning to media criticism, Foley wrote that the Times repeated Trump's mistaken conflation in its new analysis. Though Trump collapses these arguments, the Times should not, he wrote, arguing that the analysis wrongly lumps together two distinct phenomena:
Trump is not alone in preemptively questioning the legitimacy of November's election results. Prominent Republicans are "already rushing to buy into Trump's 2024 election fraud narrative," CNN's Stephen Collinson wrote earlier Friday. Senators such as Ted Cruz (R-Texas), J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) have all failed to commit to honoring the election results despite the fact that "there is no indication that there will be irregularities in the election," Collinson wrote.
In fact, no leading contenders to be Trump's running mate—a list that includes Vance and Rubio—have committed to accepting the election results if Biden wins, according to NBC News.
Trump has hurt public confidence in elections, a pillar of democracy, in a way that will have long-term ramifications, Richard Hasen, a law professor at University of California, Los Angeles, wrote in Politico in January. "Without 'loser's consent'—when those on the losing end of an election accept the results as fairly determined—democracy falters. Trump has succeeded in undermining the foundation of that… pillar for everyone, whether or not he's victorious as a candidate in 2024," Hasen wrote.
The United Auto Workers on Friday formally challenged last week's election loss at a pair of Mercedes-Benz facilities in Alabama, accusing the company of engaging in "an unprecedented, illegal anti-union campaign" and requesting a new vote.
"All these workers ever wanted was a fair shot at having a voice on the job and a say in their working conditions," the UAW said in a statement. "And that's what we're asking for here. Let's get a vote at Mercedes in Alabama where the company isn't allowed to fire people, isn't allowed to intimidate people, and isn't allowed to break the law and their own corporate code, and let the workers decide."
Of the more than 5,000 employees at the two Mercedes-Benz United States International (MBUSI) plants, 2,045 (45%) voted to join the UAW and 2,642 (56%) voted against it. After the ballots were counted, union president Shawn Fain said that it was "obviously not the result we wanted" but "we'll be back."
The UAW complaint to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) accusing MBUSI of "wanton lawlessness" echoes the union and workers' previous allegations that the company engaged in illegal union-busting at the Vance and Woodstock facilities, which led to ongoing reviews from U.S. and German authorities.
"The employer engaged in a relentless anti-union campaign marked with unlawful discipline, unlawful captive audience meetings, and a general goal of coercing and intimidating employees."
"On January 11, 2024, employees of MBUSI publicly announced that they were exploring forming a union with the UAW at MBUSI's facilities," says the new complaint, according toAlabama Reflector. "Almost immediately thereafter, both prior to and during the election period, the employer engaged in a relentless anti-union campaign marked with unlawful discipline, unlawful captive audience meetings, and a general goal of coercing and intimidating employees who were attempting to exercise their Section 7 rights."
The Reflector reported that "the charges include disciplining employees for discussing unionization at work; not allowing union materials or paraphernalia to be distributed; surveilling employees; discharging supporters of the union; forcing employees to be in captive audience meetings, and making comments that union activities will not work."
MBUSI has denied any wrongdoing and a company spokesperson said Friday that "our goal throughout this process was to ensure every eligible team member had the opportunity to participate in a fair election."
"We sincerely hoped the UAW would respect our team members' decision," the MBUSI spokesperson added. "Throughout the election, we worked with the NLRB to adhere to its guidelines and we will continue to do so as we work through this process."
Lisa Henderson is the NLRB's regional director responsible for the complaint. The agency confirmed to CNBC that her office is still investigating the earlier accusations against MBUSI and received the new filing. As the outlet detailed: "If she finds that the objections raise substantial and material issues of fact that could be best resolved by a hearing, she will order a hearing. If after the hearing, she finds that the employer's conduct affected the election, she can order a new election."
Although leading public figures—from Republican Gov. Kay Ivey to retired University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban—battled the UAW push, organizers had high hopes going into last week's vote, which came after a victory at a Volkswagen facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee last month and union workers winning new contracts at the "Big Three" following a six-week strike last year.
Reflecting on the initial outcome in Alabama, Dave Kamper, senior state policy strategist at the Economic Policy Institute, wrote Wednesday that "while this result shows the power of corporations and state governments to smother worker efforts to unionize, even in defeat the UAW helped Mercedes workers win substantial improvements in pay and benefits."
"Workers organizing to improve their working conditions benefit from unions in many ways, but even when a union victory eludes them like in Alabama, the organizing can pay off," he stressed. "The more workers band together to fight for better jobs, the more likely they and other workers will see the benefits."
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