4 ms·

I just want to point out that the last time a similar case was brought was against Cohen for this exact same crime. Cohen was convicted and served time in feder

I just want to point out that the last time a similar case was brought was against Cohen for this exact same crime. Cohen was convicted and served time in federal prison. In his trial, Cohen testified that he broke the law at the direction of somebody only referred to in the public disclosures as “Individual 1”. The only plausible person this can be is Donald Trump. So, regardless of what you think of the case. Leaving out that somebody was already successfully convicted of this exact crime is a significant omission. We do not know the charges yet of course. The most significant are likely to be campaign finance related with details of falsified records and hush money payments providing supporting evidence of those crimes as much as they are crimes themselves.

Chris2048 4y ago
It's not clear to me that this is the "exact same crime". Also, is it significant that Cohen plead guilty? I'm not sure Trump will.
alistairSH 4y ago
Yeah, I was thinking of politicians who faced similar charges.
kelthan 4y ago
Just a clarification: Cohen plead guilty as part of a plea deal. So the case never went to trial with an adversarial argument of facts between Prosecution and Defense. Therefore, we don't really know how good the case was. The fact that Cohen is a lawyer would seem to indicate that the case was solid enough that he was concerned he would lose on merit. However, a friend of mine who is managing partner in a legal firm says that "Once a trial goes to a jury, it's approximately a coin flip as to who will win, and the odds only go down from there." That's mainly because if the case is black-and-white, then there will be some settlement/plea deal prior to a trial. However, Trump has put himself into a corner where he probably cannot accept any plea deal other than one that would drop the criminal charges but keep any misdemeanor charges. I'm not sure that the NY DA, Alvin Bragg, would be willing to do that unless the case starts falling apart. But in the case Trump will push for an aquial rather than a plea deal so that he can use it to rile up his base.
- sethd 4y ago
  > drop the criminal charges but keep any misdemeanor charges. Misdemeanor charges are criminal charges.

Chris2048 4y ago

It's not clear to me that this is the "exact same crime". Also, is it significant that Cohen plead guilty? I'm not sure Trump will.

alistairSH 4y ago

Yeah, I was thinking of politicians who faced similar charges.

kelthan 4y ago

Just a clarification: Cohen plead guilty as part of a plea deal. So the case never went to trial with an adversarial argument of facts between Prosecution and Defense. Therefore, we don't really know how good the case was. The fact that Cohen is a lawyer would seem to indicate that the case was solid enough that he was concerned he would lose on merit. However, a friend of mine who is managing partner in a legal firm says that "Once a trial goes to a jury, it's approximately a coin flip as to who will win, and the odds only go down from there." That's mainly because if the case is black-and-white, then there will be some settlement/plea deal prior to a trial. However, Trump has put himself into a corner where he probably cannot accept any plea deal other than one that would drop the criminal charges but keep any misdemeanor charges. I'm not sure that the NY DA, Alvin Bragg, would be willing to do that unless the case starts falling apart. But in the case Trump will push for an aquial rather than a plea deal so that he can use it to rile up his base.

sethd 4y ago
> drop the criminal charges but keep any misdemeanor charges. Misdemeanor charges are criminal charges.