Joe Scarborough made an interesting point about the NY investigation with DA Bragg.

[kentuck]

Scarborough seemed to think it might be a distraction, a diversion, from more serious crimes on the burner? And that Trump wants people to "look over here" at this "misdemeanor", rather than focus on what is going on in the other investigations.

He may be right about that? Jack Smith seems to be closing quickly on the Mar-a-Lago documents investigation. He has gotten the crime-fraud exception for the testimony of two of Trump's attorneys - Evan Corcoran and Jennifer Little. (There seems to be some sort of Russian connection with Jennifer Little)

With the speed in which the appeals court acted after Judge Howell made her ruling, the Special Counsel seems to be on a hot trail?

[Scrivener7]

1. Jack Smith is moving very quickly. And the speed of the Howell ruling suggests one of two

possibilities. Either she is just sick to death of the nonsense delays, OR Smith has found something so sensitive and damaging that it needs to be dealt with immediately.

I truly hope it is not the second scenario, given that it is being dealt with two years after the fact.

But go Jack Smith.

[kentuck]

2. I think it may be the second option.

He has discovered some valuable information.

[Scrivener7]

3. I do too. And I hope it is "valuable" to the case rather than damaging to our country.

But an overnight turnaround? That's significant.

[True Blue American]

22. I agree

And think it has to do with national security. Thus the speed and holding off on the hush money.

I think Trump is making a horrible mistake going to Waco where we had a Jim Jones massacre with people burnt to death. I think he has completely lost it, imagines himself as a cult leader.
Pretending to use a bat on a Prosecutor.

New York Post this morning,” BAT HIT CRAZY!

[kentuck]

24. In his warped thinking...

I believe he knows the media will talk about the "cult" when they mention Waco and he wants his "cult" to react to the attacks upon them, as if they were a "cult". He wants them to re-swear allegiance to him.

[True Blue American]

25. Yes, Trump will say or do anything to stay in

The news. His brain has deteriorated so much he thinks it is all good ,Not rational.

[FakeNoose]

4. DA Bragg is doing his job, however the hush-money payments are less serious

... than Chump's crimes committed while in office.

I can't believe that Bragg or any other DA would participate in a diversion. He's got real evidence and testimonies from several witnesses and participants.

If anyone is diverting attention away from Chump's high crimes, it would be Chump himself who's doing it.

[Zilli]

14. I think that DA Bragg is demonstrating that he and his office

are running the timeline and 45 issuing statements about his impending indictment and perp walk is trying to force his narrative and that will not ever work. DA Bragg runs the timeline not 45. There is real evidence and 45's desperate attempts to cause chaos and waste taxpayers money and resources, just exactly like a proud boy will fail just like everything he does fails.

[True Blue American]

23. Bragg didn't!

Something has happened to make Jack Smith move so fast.

[gab13by13]

5. Bragg and Smith and Willis

appear to be close to indicting Trump, what year do you think a trial will happen?

Trump is going to trial next month in the E. Jean Carroll civil case that has been going on since 2019.
Trump is scheduled for trial in the Letitia James financial fraud civil case on Oct. 2nd that has been going on since 2019.

[Walleye]

6. Could the NY grand jury delays have been because of bomb threats?

[kentuck]

7. Possible.

I heard somewhere that the bomb calls were made by a Russian cell, friendly to Donald Trump.

[Walleye]

8. We may be in Occam's razor territory there

[Jarqui]

9. I think there is a diversion but for a different reason

Former Trump Executive, Already Jailed, Could Face More Fraud Charges
Manhattan prosecutors warned that they might charge Allen H. Weisselberg with insurance fraud to pressure him to cooperate in an investigation of the former president.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/02/nyregion/trump-weisselberg-fraud.html

That article appeared three days after the Grand Jury for this case reconvened.
Weisselberg was the money man on the Stormy deal.
They had two sex workers and a convicted liar & fraudster as witnesses.
They needed someone to shore up Cohen for this case.

This Stormy case is also sort of flimsy. Yes, they all admit it happened. But it is a misdemeanor. They need to tie it to a felony for it to have consequential sentencing teeth. The felony they seem to be trying for is FEC - federal election law. The requires them getting the court to accept a legal precedent to flip a state misdemeanor with a federal felony into a state felony. Doable but not a sure thing. That is part of what gave them pause on proceeding with this case. Pomerantz talked about this. Bragg's risking his health and career - he's not going to do that for a misdemeanor.

Letita James made criminal referrals for tax and fraud crimes when she filed her civil $250 mil (minimum) statement of claim.
Those crimes need a witness too.
Trump org is very small. Not many witnesses to chose from.
If they could flip Weisselberg, that would be major as many of the Trump crimes were very similar to Manaforts and they had the paper trail. They needed a Gates like witness to tie the paper evidence together. Weisselberg would handily fulfil that requirement.

Weisselberg is in Rikers. Unless you want him to wind up like Epstein, you better be careful because his testimony could effectively end Trump's life as he knows it.

If I'm Bragg and I flipped Weisselberg, I'm calling the Marines to get him somewhere safe. And I am implementing deception to fake out Trump. You think Trump is nasty now. If the above is true, he'll go out of his mind because the game is over. They got all the paper evidence. They just needed a quality witness. Like Al Capone, this smells like they got the bookkeeper.

Conjecture on my part. But founded in facts ...

[dclarston13]

15. You may be on to something

It has puzzled me why Weisselberg was taking the fall seemingly by choice. If they put that guy in Rikers then I would imagine he may be ready to talk. The conditions will probably be better in a federal prison for white collar crimes than Rikers Island.

[Jarqui]

17. Because they caught him in a lie or not declaring something he should have for his

immunity deal, they can put him away for years. He's 75 years old. He probably has no choice but to talk

And your point is something else that this case raises.
Trump tampered or obstructed by going after people like Stormy, Cohen and I strongly suspect Weisselberg.
His reaction over the last few days is not going to help him defend that claim.

Weisselberg probably would have loved a total immunity deal to be done with it. But Weisselberg would also know better than anyone how vindictive Trump is. Trump probably was a big factor in muzzling Weisselberg.

I can't imagine the Stormy case without tampering or obstruction claims. Remember Cohen couldn't appear before the House because of threats.

What Trump did with the baseball bat and Bragg's photo is against the law. He just made it worse for himself.

[Jarqui]

28. There was one other potential tell in the news nobody said anything about

Commenting on last Thursday's Grand Jury meeting:

Trump live updates: Grand jury to resume work at noon, but it may not be on the indictment
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/23/trump-grand-jury-live-updates-jurors-resume-work-on-potential-indictment.html

The New York City grand jury that is weighing whether to criminally charge former President Donald Trump is set to resume work at noon on Thursday after an unexpected day off.

But those proceedings might not be related to the investigation of a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 presidential election from Michael Cohen, who was Trump’s personal lawyer at that time.

Instead, the grand jury is expected to handle another case, unrelated to the payoff.

You mean the criminal case for Trump bank fraud, insurance fraud and tax evasion referred by AG James civil action that nobody recalls with Allen Weisselberg now joining as the star witness?

Trump wasn't happy they were doubling back to pressure Weisselberg.
It would explain the degree of nasty coming from Trump. This isn't just a misdemeanor being ramped up to a felony. This is for the whole game, set & match - to determine whether Trump lives out his life rooming with a Secret Service agent in a cell.

[Stinky The Clown]

10. For quite a while now I've been thinking some tax crime is in the mix but gets little attention

[PatSeg]

21. And Trump certainly knows

far more than we do, so he knows what crimes could be discovered during all these investigations. They may be far worse than we've imaged.

[Hortensis]

11. Agree with FakeNoose. tRump/Repubs trying to USE it to distract, and denigrate.

And no doubt since the NYC case is THERE, like a rocky hill on a large battlefield, they're trying to integrate it into their larger strategy -- ultimate victory through manipulation of the court of public opinion.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

12. Short-lived distraction at best. . magats have different distraction theory

They claim Biden has ruined the US economy (of course they do) and they claim Bragg started making moves now on orders from Biden to distract the public's attention away from the economy.

[doc03]

13. I think all the prosicutors should get their heads together and

decide which case they have the best chance of winning and go from there. The worst thing could happen is he gets
indicted and gets off free.

[dlk]

16. I think it's a given the prosecutors are coordinating with their cases

Too much is at stake not to. I think it's also likely, with the NY case, there may be charges relating to insurance fraud, bank fraud, money laundering and tax evasion. Trump has been a serial felon his entire life. There's a plethora of serious crimes to choose from. He has deserved to be behind bars for decades. Now that it appears the end is near, the waiting is excruciating.

[sarcasmo]

18. The stolen classified document case is a slam dunk.

I also thought the recorded, election tampering call was a slam dunk.

[calimary]

19. I don't know much about Evan Corcoran but I can't help noticing

how gravely serious his facial expressions look during video clips of him in the midst of a bunch of reporters and paparazzi. He does NOT look happy, or confident. Now, maybe that’s his game face. Maybe that’s just how he clams up when confronted by the press. But he does NOT look happy, and he does NOT look comfortable about being in that situation.

[kentuck]

20. He has no plans to go to jail for Donald Trump...

..in my opinion.

[calimary]

26. Frankly, I'd be surprised if there was ANYBODY willing to go to jail for donald trump.

Unless they're insiders who are betting on his getting reelected in 2024 so they can expect to be pardoned, maybe?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

27. TFG wants to divert attention from the Mar-a-Lago document case

Link to tweet

[gulliver]

29. Yep, I actually hope Bragg doesn't prosecute.

That would make Trump look like a fool. It would also keep him from conflating and equivocating the hush money crime and the document-related crimes. If the two indictments and trials happen at the same time, Trump will just call them one "witch hunt."

Trump looks like a bug on a skillet when it comes to the document crimes. Of course he doesn't want to talk about them.