Trump's Hush Money Case: Gag Order Reinstated! #campaignfinancelaws #GagOrder #KarenMcDougal #StormyDaniels #Trumphushmoneycase
Donald Trump Failed Our All Real Up
MSNBC host Ari Melber hammered Donald Trump's lawyer Joe Tacopina on Tuesday about the hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Melber showed a video of Trump being asked about the payments and if he knew about them. Trump answered, "no." Yet, his lawyer argued that it wasn't a lie because it wasn't under oath.
The two began with Melber asking if Daniels was a lawyer. Tacopina thought Melber asked if she was a "liar" and answered "yes." He never clarified what he thought she lied about, however.
He went on to then blame Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen for handling everything and plotting everything for him. "You seem to be putting forward a defense that's the kind we heard from Trump before — other people are doing these things," said Melber.
For those watching the New York grand jury dealing with the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, the revelations that more hush money payments are being explored in the case isn't new information.
During the 2016 campaign, Trump allegedly got his close friend David Pecker at the National Enquirer to run a scheme to buy Playboy model Karen McDougal's story and hire her to write fitness articles. Neither that story nor any fitness articles were ever published, and the payment was supposedly a "catch and kill" agreement to bury the matter.
Former FBI general counsel and NYU law professor Andrew Weissmann claims Pecker was being brought in to the grand jury to reveal the second piece of the Daniels story.
NBC's Vaughn Hillyard explained that the Southern District of New York had already laid out the details in the Pecker case. In fact, they laid out the argument not only in the 2018 sentencing memo for Michael Cohen, but also in describing what Pecker and his company already admitted to.
"There is a litany of statements that are important," said Hillyard. "One of those here: 'In or about Aug. 2015, David Pecker, the chairman is CEO of AMI, met with Michael Cohen, an attorney for a presidential candidate and at least one other member of the campaign that is Donald Trump's campaign. At the meeting, Pecker offered to help deal with negative stories about that presidential candidate's relationships with women, assisting the campaign in identifying such stories so they could be purchased and their publication avoided.'"
The Manhattan DA has brought in two former Trump campaign staffers, Kellyanne Conway and Hope Hicks.
Former President Donald Trump said Saturday he expects to be arrested in connection with the investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney next week and called for protests as a result.
In a social media post on Saturday, Trump, referring to himself, said the “leading Republican candidate and former president of the United States will be arrested on Tuesday of next week.”
“Protest, take our nation back,” he wrote.
While Trump offered no details on why he expects to be indicted, his legal team has been anticipating that it will happen soon and has been preparing behind the scenes for the next steps. The former president is expected to present himself in Manhattan following the formal charges and has expressed interest in making a speech after, though whether he ultimately does remains to be seen.
Trump has complained privately that he believes he is only going to being indicted because he thinks Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg “hates him,” according to a source familiar with what Trump has said.
Some of Trump’s advisers had urged him privately not to call for protests, concerned about the optics of a mass protest in the streets of Manhattan growing out of control or resembling the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
CNN previously reported that meetings have been going on throughout the week between city, state and federal law enforcement agencies in New York City about how to prepare for a possible indictment of Trump.
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