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The case for prosecuting Donald Trump

ideologyhunter said:
Donald Trump, President and head of the executive branch, in August 2018:
"The whole thing about 'flipping', they call it. I know all about flipping. For 30, 40 years I've been watching flippers. It almost to ought to be outlawed... It's called flipping, and it ought to be illegal."
That's how Donald discussed people who cooperate with prosecutors and his own justice department.
Future generations will marvel that this man ever sat in the Oval Office.
Correction: I hope future generations will marvel that this man ever sat in the Oval Office.
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I think that it's very dangerous to go after a former president with criminal charges. There hasn't been a politician who has left office in the last 50 years that the opposition couldn't find charges against. However, Trump is dangerous. He and his followers want to disrupt our democracy. If he gets elected, we might not have another election after. I say, go get him!
 
Jimmy Higgins said:
Trump Org CFO has surrendered.
article said:
Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg surrendered to the Manhattan district attorney’s office Thursday morning ahead of expected criminal charges against him and the company in connection with alleged tax crimes, his attorney tells CNN.

Weisselberg is set to be arraigned later Thursday at a lower Manhattan courthouse.
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A statement from Trump Org said this is nothing but political. And they'd likely be right, because once people turned over a few rocks when he became a national political figure, they found stuff. Paul Manafort must really hate that Trump decided to go into politics, because he would have survived too... with his ostrich coat.
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I don't know about Manafort. He owed a Russian oligarch (read mafia capo) a shit ton of money. Manafort offered his services on the Trump campaign and communications to the Russian in exchange for the money owed. No Trump, no Manafort on the campaign to pay his debt. Not paying your debts to Russian Mafia types is not related to good health.
 
15 felony counts. Fraud, collusion, grand larceny, tax fraud, and more.
 
article said:
Allen Weisselberg himself, an intensely private man who lived for years in a modest home on Long Island, continued to claim residency there despite living in a company-paid Manhattan apartment, prosecutors said. By doing so, Weisselberg concealed that he was a New York City resident and avoided paying more than $900,000 in federal, state and city income taxes and collected about $133,000 in refunds to which he was not entitled, prosecutors said.

According to the indictment, Weisselberg paid for rent on his Manhattan apartment with company checks and directed the company to pay for his utility bills and parking. The company also paid for private school tuition for Weisselberg’s grandchildren with checks bearing Donald Trump’s signature, for Mercedes-Benz cars driven by Weisselberg and his wife, and gave him cash to hand out tips around Christmas.

Such perks were listed on internal Trump company documents as part of Weisselberg’s employee compensation, but were not included on his W-2 forms or otherwise reported and the company did not withhold taxes on their value, prosecutors said.
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Well, looks like they have lots of documentation to back all this up. $1.7 million in undisclosed compensation and over $1 million in underpaid taxes based on a mailing address.
 
Trumpo says this is all standard business stuff and that all business do exactly the same thing. So Chief MAGAtard isn't denying it happened.
 
T.G.G. Moogly said:
Trumpo says this is all standard business stuff and that all business do exactly the same thing. So Chief MAGAtard isn't denying it happened.
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In other words "yeah, I'm crooked...so what?" I mean, this is a guy who claimed he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose any support.
 
Whether Trump henchmen go to prison or not is less important than how America reacts to these trials going forward. Will there be an Awakening, with Americans deciding that electing criminals to high office is a bad idea? Or will these trials just exacerbate the political divide that is destroying America?
ZiprHead said:
15 felony counts. Fraud, collusion, grand larceny, tax fraud, and more.
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Yes. But it's all basically a single crime, albeit repeated for decades, which is being charged in various ways.

Don't misunderstand me. I think defrauding governments of many hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes is a serious crime. (I think paying a 17 year-old for sex is a serious crime.) But I think that millions of "centrist" Americans will look at such crimes and wonder what the fuss is all about!

Tax fraud? All the cool kids and smart businessmen are doing it and getting away with it. The Trump Organization would have gotten away with it too if not for the Democrats' vendetta against Dear Leader. (And if a youngish Congressman and a girl who's almost 18 — both unmarried — enjoy sex why must government get involved? This isn't Swammi speaking: I'm trying to reflect what millions of Americans will think.)

These MSNBC commentators agree with me.

Did Donald Jr. and other top soldiers in the Trump crime family also benefit from such tax frauds? Probably; I hope more indictments are coming. The goal was to get Weisselberg to flip; indictments increase the pressure.

Again, I regard Trump as a despicable criminal, but his "worst" crimes may be hard to prosecute and may carry little penalty even if convicted.

For example, in the crimes of the Trump Foundation, what caught my eye was a $7 "donation" to the Boy Scouts. This coincided with Don Jr.'s becoming a Scout, for which the fee was ... $7. The pettiness of this astounded me! Trump couldn't fork over $7 for his son's Scouthood; he had to let the "charity" pay. And this "fabulously wealthy billionaire" couldn't write a check for $107 to help out the den a little; they "donated" just the $7 membership fee.

Maybe I'm silly, but it is the $7 tax evasion that disgusts me and sums up the Trump family character. Weisselberg's millions in undeclared income is doubtless duplicated, though more intelligently, by many thounsands of other businessmen.
 
So what’s left for Trump? Tax evasion, insurance fraud, bank fraud, RICO charges. RICO charges. I just wanted to say it again. There’s a lot of ass time grand left for the grand jury. We’re basically one month in to a grand jury expected to convene for six months.
 
T.G.G. Moogly said:
Trumpo says this is all standard business stuff and that all business do exactly the same thing. So Chief MAGAtard isn't denying it happened.
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We get a stipend to pay for cell phone service at work now, because the paperwork to the IRS to show that phones are required costs more than the pay. That stipend is taxable. I pay taxes on it... the money the company gives me for having a cell phone.

This guy was driving expensive cars tax free.

But they all be doing it.
 
From NBC News:
Also damning is that the indictment said the company kept two sets of books — a private one that counted Weisselberg's apartment and cars as part of his $940,000-a-year compensation, and another that didn't, allowing him to pay taxes on less income.
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I suspect there may be more discrepancies in the dual sets of books that we will eventually learn about...
 
Artemus said:
From NBC News:
Also damning is that the indictment said the company kept two sets of books — a private one that counted Weisselberg's apartment and cars as part of his $940,000-a-year compensation, and another that didn't, allowing him to pay taxes on less income.
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I suspect there may be more discrepancies in the dual sets of books that we will eventually learn about...
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I think the frightening thing for those at Trump Org is that the prosecutors apparently know of... and have both books somehow.
 
TV and credit cards said:
So what’s left for Trump? Tax evasion, insurance fraud, bank fraud, RICO charges. RICO charges. I just wanted to say it again. There’s a lot of ass time grand left for the grand jury. We’re basically one month in to a grand jury expected to convene for six months.
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Treason, insurrection, inciting murder, obstruction, witness tampering, possible aggravated jaywalking... nothing serious really.
 
The one he can't be arraigned for is, ironically, his worst offense of all: failing to safeguard the country in a time of pandemic, through wilful disinformation, failure to implement common-sense preventive measures, and worst of all, a depraved and premeditated series of mass gatherings of (mostly) unprotected cult members. Upwards of half a million Americans perished, and clearly, most of them didn't have to. For months, we led the world in death totals. We finally exceeded in a little over a year what the Civil War cost us in lives. The name Trump should be a curse word.
 
It might come to that. I've seen quite a few people bring themselves up short as they were about to say trump in its traditional manner. I'm guilty of that myself.
 
ideologyhunter said:
The one he can't be arraigned for is, ironically, his worst offense of all: failing to safeguard the country in a time of pandemic, through wilful disinformation, failure to implement common-sense preventive measures, and worst of all, a depraved and premeditated series of mass gatherings of (mostly) unprotected cult members. Upwards of half a million Americans perished, and clearly, most of them didn't have to. For months, we led the world in death totals. We finally exceeded in a little over a year what the Civil War cost us in lives. The name Trump should be a curse word.
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I kinda like trumphole. It's got a ring. "Stupid fucking trumphole." See? It gets the message across.
 
Patooka said:
It might come to that. I've seen quite a few people bring themselves up short as they were about to say trump in its traditional manner. I'm guilty of that myself.
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In the game of Mafia/Werewolf, 'Lynch' was the term used when a possible Werewolf was voted out. But that word is considered politically incorrect; the made-up word 'Yeet' is now substituted.

What about Contract Bridge? 'Trump' is a very important word in that game, used as both a noun and a verb.

It might be easier just to change the surname of the 45th President. Do we need a Wikipedia bot to change all instances to 'Donald J. Moron'? Perhaps 'Donald J. Felon' or 'Donald J. Traitor' would be a better choice.
 
Swammerdami said:
Patooka said:
It might come to that. I've seen quite a few people bring themselves up short as they were about to say trump in its traditional manner. I'm guilty of that myself.
Click to expand...

In the game of Mafia/Werewolf, 'Lynch' was the term used when a possible Werewolf was voted out. But that word is considered politically incorrect; the made-up word 'Yeet' is now substituted.

What about Contract Bridge? 'Trump' is a very important word in that game, used as both a noun and a verb.

It might be easier just to change the surname of the 45th President. Do we need a Wikipedia bot to change all instances to 'Donald J. Moron'? Perhaps 'Donald J. Felon' or 'Donald J. Traitor' would be a better choice.
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I’m fine with just callng him by his actual family name before his grandaddy changed it. Drumpf.
 
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