Conviction of Deposed Donald Trump (DDT):
On Thursday, May 30, 2024, the 23rd day of DDT’s criminal trial was a day for the history books: a jury of 12 found DDT, a former White House Occupant and a current leading GOP presidential candidate in 2024, guilty on all 34 charges presented to them in a New York criminal case. Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson (R-LA), a leading ally of DDT and second in line to the presidency, called the day a “shameful day in American history.” Although he meant the statement in a different way, he was accurate: DDT has led the nation into a “shameful … history.” Republicans’ candidate is a convicted felon. The Guardian has an excellent recap of the trial’s 20 days for those who have not followed it.
Judge Juan Merchan denied DDT’s motion for an acquittal and set a sentencing hearing for July 11, four days before the Republican National Convention. The Biden campaign said the verdict illustrates that “no one is above the law.” DDT can still go to the White House if he’s elected, but he can’t vote in Florida where he’s registered to vote. His appeal could take months or years, and the election is a only 158 days away. The conviction in the criminal trial may not require jail time, but his violating the gag order could.
DDT is the the first one of 46 presidents to be convicted of a crime since George Washington was inaugurated 235 years ago. All the charges were for falsifying business records stemming from DDT’s orchestration to suppress information about alleged extra-marital affairs before he went to the White House in a conspiracy with his former attorney/fixer Michael Cohen. Prosecutors succeeded in presenting evidence about DDT interfering in the 2016 by lying on various business records. His defense may have failed because attorneys allegedly followed DDT’s directions. Their attempts to prove DDT didn’t commit any crimes, that his payments were legal, failed.
The jury’s decision came after less than ten hours of deliberation on two different days. Guilt came from jurors’ agreement that DDT intentionally—with “conscious objective or purpose”—sought to defraud “any person or entity,” with the intent to “commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof.”
Thursday started with the judge complying with jurors requests to repeat his instructions and the reading of 34 transcript pages about David Pecker’s and Michael Cohen’s testimony. They asked about Pecker’s testimony explaining the reneging of selling Karen McDougal life rights about her affair with DDT to him through a third party. Other Pecker testimony requests were a telephone call with DDT and a Trump Tower meeting. Cohen’s testimony was also the meeting.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) misrepresented the judge’s directions to the jury when he Xed that jurors don’t have to unanimously agree “on which crime was committed as long as they all at least pick one [even] ones Trump WASN’T EVEN CHARGED WITH!!! This is exactly the kind of sham trial used.” Merchan told the jury that DDT didn’t have to be unanimous about what crime DDT was trying to cover up, just the unanimous agreement that he was trying to cover up a crime. As a lawyer, Rubio should have understood the directions, but Fox repeated his misrepresentation (aka falsehood?). Although the judge read the charges in great detail while DDT was in the courtroom, he complained about not being told about them.
On Wednesday, DDT’s campaign emailed a fundraising request that read, “I COULD BE IN JAIL TOMORROW!” and added that Democrats are “using every disgusting trick in the book to ELIMINATE MAGA.” He also posted that “Mother Theresa could not beat these charges,” claiming they are rigged. Mother Theresa never faced charges of fraudulent payment of hush money to a porn star.
On the same day, Fox announced its verdict for the trial, which turned out to be wrong: DDT is innocent of all wrongdoing, and President Joe Biden is guilty of weaponizing government to wage “lawfare” on his political opponent, resorting to illegal “election interference.” DDT uses this lie as the basis of his rants about his criminal cases, the one he values most. Fox host, Shannon Bream, corrected the lie in an interview with DDT’s attorney Alina Habba by telling her that Biden had nothing to do with the New York state trial. DDT called Bream “naïve” in a post and added, “HOW STUPID! Not only is [Biden] involved, he is virtually leading it, and all of the other Trials as well.” After the verdict, his audience can expect far more lies from him.
DDT’s campaign considers his conviction a goldmine for fundraising that it warned all GOP candidates not to use it for personal use. Chris LaCivita, the campaign co-manager, announced:
“Any Republican elected official, candidate or party committee siphoning money from President Trump’s donors are no better than Judge Merchan’s daughter. We’re keeping a list, we’ll be checking it twice and we aren’t in the spirit of Christmas.”
DDT called a press conference on Friday morning at 11:00 am at Trump Tower.
Alito Lies:
In satirist Andy Borowitz’s column about DDT’s conviction, “Mrs. Alito Raises New Flag,” he wrote
“The wife of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito raised a new flag in front of the couple’s home late Thursday afternoon. Justice Alito said that he played ‘no role’ in the latest flag-related incident involving his wife. ‘I have recused myself from all decisions made on my flagpole,’ he said. The Alito’s neighbors were not available for comment because they were too busy dancing in the street.”
For decades, most people didn’t know the names of Supreme Court Justices. Clarence Thomas changed this a few years ago when he took huge bribes for his decisions. Attention to Thomas migrated to Samuel Alito when he flew political flags at both his residence and vacation house supporting insurrectionists attempt to illegally keep DDT in the White House after the 2020 election.
Alito has been asked to recuse himself from participating in cases about DDT’s immunity and whether the insurrectionists can be convicted of obstruction of justice. Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee also asked Chief Justice John Roberts to meet with them, but he refused. In response to the letter sent to Roberts, Alito wrote he is “required” to not recuse himself because of the non-mandatory Code of Ethics. Some people insist the Code doesn’t impose “any” requirements on the justices, yet expert authority declares he should or must recuse himself.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) argues that the DOJ can force Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito to recuse themselves in case about the January 6 insurrection. He said that the DOJ can petition the other seven justices to require the recusal of the two connected to the insurrection “as a matter of law.” The constitutional authority cited “the due process clause and the federal statute mandating judicial disqualification for questionable impartiality, 28 U.S.C. Section 455.”
Alito initially claimed that his wife was completely responsible for flying the U.S. flag upside down, but neighbors’ narratives prove he lied because of a fight about their anti-DDT signs. After days of silence about the insurrectionist flag at his vacation rental, Alito now also blames his wife, saying both flags—in clear sight—were flown without his knowledge and that she refused to take them down. He added that neither one of them knew the flags’ connection to insurrectionist. He said:
“My wife is fond of flying flags. I am not. My wife was solely responsible for having flagpoles put up at our residence and our vacation home and has flown a wide variety of flags over the years.”
Because of ongoing controversies, the Supreme Court adopted a code of conduct specifically for the nine justices for the first time last fall. It states a justice should disqualify from cases in which the justice’s “impartiality might reasonably be questioned,” in which an unbiased person familiar with all the facts and circumstances “would doubt that the justice could fairly discharge his or her duties.”
Alito attributed the upside-down flag at his home came from his wife being called a derogatory name, but according to interviews with Alito’s neighbors, the spats with neighbors over their anti-DDT signs came almost a month after the flag was flown during the time of President Joe Biden’s inauguration. Martha-Ann Alito called a neighbor couple “fascists” while the justice and his wife were walking by the neighbors’ home and harassed the couple so much that they called the police on February 15.
Alito also claimed that his wife flew the flag because the neighbors’ offensive sign was within 50 feet of where children waited to board the school. At that time, however, the pandemic permitted only virtual school sessions—no buses. Even after the sign was removed, Ms. Alito continued her hostility, even appearing to spit at the couple.
The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols, sarcastically wrote:
“I’m starting to think Justice and Mrs. Alito are not entirely trustworthy in their explanations.”
The Nation’s justice correspondent, Elie Mystal, wrote that “the Alitos are also liars.”
Knowing how Alito will vote on cases protecting him, DDT congratulated Alito on Truth Social, applauding him “for showing the INTELLIGENCE, COURAGE, AND ‘GUTS.”
Politico’s lengthy analysis shows Alito’s contempt for critics because he believes he can do anything he wants with no repercussions and the new ethics rules are a sham. Alito’s fabrication in the flag situation seem similar to the fabrication in some of his Supreme Court opinions.
Nel's New Day 