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That's called an out of court settlement for a lawsuit. Two parties can settle a lawsuit on whatever arbitrary terms they wish.
by chrisco255 2y ago
That's called an out of court settlement for a lawsuit. Two parties can settle a lawsuit on whatever arbitrary terms they wish.
- foota 2y agoI'm not sure this is entirely true, see for example the Hunter Biden case. Maybe that's different because it's a criminal case?
- bombcar 2y agoCriminal settlements have to be approved by the judge after a point (I think).
- chrisco255 2y agoCrimes aren't settled. Sometimes cases are dropped and sometimes there are plea bargains with the prosecution, who works for the public and can only do so within the framework of laws that are set out. Civil law exists to settle disputes between two parties, not to punish for some crime. If the two parties reach an out-of-court agreement on why the lawsuit should be dropped, then its dropped.
- bombcar 2y agoTrue, I should have been precise. A plea bargain is somewhat of settlement but it does have to be approved by the judge (most of which is the judge independently making sure the person pleading knows what they're doing).
- jakelazaroff 2y agoIt's also called a protection racket.
- afavour 2y agoTechnically true but it's very clear what's going on. The court case was one pretty much everyone agreed Trump would lose. Trump literally told Zuckerberg the court case needed to be resolved if he wanted to get into the inner circle... ta-da, $25m later, it's all gone. Let's just call corruption corruption.
- bawolff 2y agoSettling cases even when its clear you are going to win is actually a thing that happens more often than you would think. Sometimes the settlement is cheaper than paying lawyers in a drawn out trial. Not to mention the PR cost.
- afavour 2y agoYes, and one side outright asking for a settlement as part of a corrupt deal also happens. Let’s be real.
- bawolff 2y agoI suppose, but i don't really see the advantage of doing it as part of the settlement. If zuck wanted to give trump a bribe why not just donate directly?
- lazide 2y agoPayments/Solicitation in the course of a court case don’t count as extortion, or bribery. Also, in some circumstances they can be tax free.
- StackRanker3000 2y agoIn addition to what lazide said, this suit was filed in 2021. Zuck didn’t know then that Trump would win the next election or which way public sentiments would change. But now here we are.
- sunshowers 2y agoYes, and the rest of us can apply basic logic as to what's happening.