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Francisco 2.0

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by Francisco 2.0

  1. It’s really interesting to hear Schwarzenegger and Trump linked through Pecker: the two Republican politicians share a lot, including their place in the celebrity hierarchy and their successful campaigns. This also speaks to the media environment in which Trump thrived, one in which name-brand recognition and Hollywood charisma had become more and more important, no matter the industry.

     

    David Pecker just talked about Arnold Schwarzenegger for a long time, coming off as meandering as he described doing catch-and-kill deals for Schwarzenegger once he entered politics. But Joshua Steinglass, the prosecutor, then helped him link those deals to the matter at hand, asking: “Did you come to appreciate the legalities surrounding such an arrangement with a political candidate?” Pecker says he did.

     

    I remember when The Los Angeles Times published its story about Schwarzenegger. It was seismic, and very damaging to him

     

    David Pecker is now describing a 2002 conversation with Arnold Schwarzenegger where he asked Pecker not to run negative stories about him before his run for governor of California. He was ultimately elected and served from 2003-2011.

     

    Pecker says that women did come forward about relationships that they had with Schwarzenegger and he did not publish stories on them. One that Pecker passed on ended up in The Los Angeles Times, he says.

     

    For context, July 2016 was when Trump was becoming the presidential nominee after a hard-fought G.O.P. primary.

     

    This was one of the few memorable stumbles in Pecker’s testimony thus far. It may not end up mattering, but it’s not ideal for the prosecution that the former publisher didn’t go where they were expecting with that question.

     

     

    We are now looking at an exchange between Dylan Howard and David Pecker, The Enquirer's editor and publisher, from July 2016, right around the time the deal to buy Karen McDougal's story took place. A message from Howard says “spoke to MC” (Michael Cohen) “about that other issue.” If Pecker had said the exchange referred to McDougal, it could have helped his credibility here. But he says he doesn't recall what Howard was referring to. Joshua Steinglass, the prosecutor, is now seeking to clarify.

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  2. Programming note:  I have a directors meeting from 9-10 am, so I will be out of pocket.  But I'll catch things up.

    In the meantime, they have started in NYC:

     

    Michael Cohen, David Pecker and Dylan Howard, the National Enquirer editor who interviewed McDougal, had a phone conversation after the interview. Howard said that McDougal was claiming to have had an affair with Trump. Cohen denied the affair had taken place immediately, but then said that he would look into it. Eventually, he said that a member of the group should try to buy the story.


    Pecker, explaining why McDougal said she didn’t want her story told, said, “She said she didn’t want to be the next Monica Lewinsky.”

     

    David Pecker says that allegations about women and Trump were always met by this response from Michael Cohen, Trump’s then-fixer: “It’s not true.”

     

    Pecker resumes testifying about Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who said that she had a sexual relationship with Trump. Prosecutors had saved the specifics of McDougal’s story for today. It’s an attention-catching way to start and the jurors are listening closely in these opening moments.

     

    David Pecker enters, looking as calm and unfazed by the spotlight as ever. Today he is wearing a dark suit, a pink shirt and a dark orange tie. (note:  orange and pink?)  He will resume his testimony as soon as the jurors enter.


    The 12 jurors and six alternates are seated and Pecker’s testimony continues.

     

    They’re now describing Trump's comments at an event this morning as another violation. Trump was asked by reporters about David Pecker’s testimony, and Trump called Pecker “a nice guy.” Prosecutors say it was a message to Pecker and others: be “nice,” or get attacked.


    As the prosecutor, Christopher Conroy, lays out the violations, Trump whispers to his lawyer Todd Blanche and frowns. After they speak, Blanche rubs his face several times.

     

    Prosecutors are submitting what they say are an additional four times Trump has violated the gag order, including an attack on Michael Cohen while speaking to reporters gathered in the hallway outside the courtroom. Those reporters are there so that Trump, who claims he’s denied his constitutional right to speak to them, can do so. Another violation prosecutors mention is an interview in which Trump referred to the jury as "95 percent Democrats."


    “He’s doing what the order tells him not to do,” Christopher Conroy, a prosecutor, about Trump’s alleged additional violations of the gag order.

    Trump enters the courtroom, with an array of lawyers and aides.


    Juan M. Merchan, the judge in the case, has taken his seat, and we are beginning for the day.

     

    The line for members of the public to get into the trial this morning was the longest I have seen. There were easily several dozen people in it. It was a mixed bag of people, but heavy on retirees. A lot of people were talking about the details of the case, like sports fans waiting to get into a big game.

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  3. Casually reading this thread.  I upgraded the den, but I did it with the least amount of planning, fuss, whatnot.  We use an Apple TV and stream everything (Netflix, Youtube TV, Disney)

    Replaced the 70" Sharp we have had since 2012 with a 85" Sony X90L.  Room is 23 x 14 (my recliner, when leaned back, is about 13 from the set).   Put bias lighting behind the set, which improved things visually, especially at night.

    For audio, I had a Pioneer receiver and a modest 2.1 setup with a sub, but wife complained in the past about the size of the speakers, etc.  Plus, you had to do the remote juggling (yeah, I could have purchased a Harmony, but I digress). So....

    Out went the existing setup, and I replaced it all with Sonos.   Arc for the soundbar, a pair of Subs and a pair of Era 300's (with stands) for the rears.  Incredibly easy setup, and it just works.  Judging from Reddit and whatnot people have issues getting Sonos equipment to work properly, but all of that seems directed back at your existing home network and wifi setup.  If it's deficient, Sonos equipment will suffer.  

    I did add a Sony UPB-X700 Ultra HD blu ray player, because reasons.   Bought the Ultra HD version of Oppenheimer and it looks/sounds glorious.

    Wife happy, although it took her a bit to get used to the rear surrounds.  For a week or so, she would always think something was happening in the kitchen.  

     

     

     

     

     

  4. MAGA snowflake example #4612

     

    https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/24/devin-nunes-trump-media-stock-congress-00154054

     

    Quote

    Trump Media & Technology Group CEO Devin Nunes is escalating his fight against Wall Street traders dealing in the company’s stock, turning to his one-time colleagues on Capitol Hill for help.

    The former Republican congressman and current Trump Media CEO is pressing top House GOP lawmakers to open up investigations into what he called “anomalous trading” by professional market players betting on the stock to decline.

     

    Quote

    “There are strong indications of unlawful manipulation of DJT stock,” Nunes wrote in a letter to the lawmakers, which was disclosed Wednesday in a regulatory filing by the company — the parent of Donald Trump’s Truth Social media platform. The letter was addressed to House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Financial Services Chair Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) and Oversight and Reform Chair James Comer (R-Ky.).

     

    Quote

    Nunes’s letter marks a new salvo in Trump Media’s attacks on Wall Street over claims that the Trump-controlled company’s stock price is being swayed by professional traders wagering against it. Trump Media, whose stock is majority owned by the former president himself, has undergone severe price swings since debuting in the public markets late last month.

    The stock initially surged as individual investors bought shares, often as a means of showing support for the presumptive GOP presidential nominee. But Trump Media, which trades on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker DJT, has since plunged in value as the company has disclosed more information about its underlying financials and moved to permit some large investors to eventually cash out if they want.

     

    Spoiler

    Wall Street professionals, meanwhile, have raised concern about the prospects of the company’s money-losing business while traders have rushed to bet against the stock, a practice known as short selling.

    Nunes asked the lawmakers to investigate the trading in Trump Media’s stock and “whether any laws including RICO statutes and tax evasion laws were violated, so that the perpetrators of any illegal activity can be held to account.” He said “a thorough and expeditious investigation” should include collecting trading data from the SEC’s massive trading database known as the Consolidated Audit Trail, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and the clearinghouse for U.S. stock trades.

    Spokespeople for Jordan, McHenry, Smith and Comer did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

    Nunes is particularly worried about a specific and illegal type of short-selling activity known as “naked short selling.”

    Typical shorting involves traders borrowing shares that they then sell into the market before buying them back later — hopefully at a lower price to collect the difference. But naked short selling entails never borrowing the stock to start, a far riskier practice.

    Last week, Nunes alleged in a letter to Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman that there was “potential market manipulation” in the company’s stock from naked short selling. A Trump Media spokesperson did not immediately respond to a question on whether the company has reached out to the Securities and Exchange Commission on the issue.

    Fears of naked short selling ballooned among individual investors throughout the pandemic, as day trading became a favorite pastime for many. But there is “no way to ascertain” using public data whether naked short selling is occurring in a stock, S3 Managing Director Ihor Dusaniwsky told POLITICO last week.

    Trump Media’s complaints have not been well-received by the financial community. In both letters over the last week, Nunes has named four trading firms as being particularly active in the stock — including GOP megadonor Ken Griffin’s Citadel Securities. Each of the firms usually handles a substantial amount of individual investors’ trades on a given day.

    A spokesperson for Citadel Securities fired back at the Nasdaq letter last week saying, “Devin Nunes is the proverbial loser who tries to blame ‘naked short selling’ for his falling price.”

    Trump Media spokesperson Shannon Devine responded with a statement saying Citadel Securities is “a corporate behemoth that has been fined and censured for an incredibly wide range of offenses including issues related to naked short selling, and is world famous for screwing over everyday retail investors at the behest of other corporations.”

    Citadel Securities did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the latest letter.

     

    And here's the link to the letter (PDF)

    • Haha 1
  5. 22 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

    How would locking him up delay or stop the trail? Wouldn't they just go the lock up and bring him to trial when it started?

     

    17 minutes ago, DigglerontheHoof said:

    Absolutely.  Which is why he'll never do the "crazy don" routine, either.  He's a malignant narcissist who thinks he's perfect.  

     

    11 minutes ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

    No shit.  Last I checked, most murderers are in custody while their trials are ongoing.  

     

    Maybe they go with the Hannibal Lecter move. 

     

    silence-of-the-lambs.jpg?quality=75&stri

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  6. Eric and Jr choosing cabinet members.  What could possibly go wrong.

     

    https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-am-64eb8987-dd6e-4502-ac08-dc955e4eb992.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top

     

    Quote

    Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have become key players in early planning for a second Trump administration's transition team, Axios' Alex Thompson reports.

    The brothers will focus on vetting potential officials and staffers for ideology and loyalty, campaign aides and close allies to their father tell Axios.
    Why it matters: Neither brother would officially run Donald Trump's transition team. They'll take a lead in making sure government jobs are filled by highly vetted Republicans who promise fealty to Trump.

    Don Jr.'s goal "is to keep the John Boltons of the world outside a second Trump administration," a person close to him told Axios — referring to Donald Trump's hawkish former national security adviser who wrote a bestselling book lambasting the former president.

     

    Quote

    The brothers are stepping into the roles as their father is frustrated by other Republican groups such as the Heritage Foundation claiming they are leading the charge on scrutinizing the backgrounds of possible appointees.

    The groups' aim has been to pre-vet potential contenders for Cabinet-level and lower staff positions to aid Donald Trump's desire to remake the government in his image — without the resistance he faced from career civil servants and some Republicans during his presidency.


    Those efforts have included former Trump aides who could be in a future administration. Trump campaign advisers believe the groups can be helpful but have been infuriated as the Biden campaign has used the groups' policy papers to attack the campaign.


    Last November, top Trump aides Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita said in a statement that "any personnel lists, policy agendas, or government plans published anywhere are merely suggestions. Policy recommendations from external allies are just that—recommendations."

     

    Spoiler

    Even if they're annoyed, it will be hard for the Trump brothers or the campaign to be broadly effective without drafting off the outside groups' work.

    Zoom in: This isn't the first time that Trump has deployed family members to key positions to ensure loyalty throughout the GOP.

    After Trump took control of the Republican National Committee recently, Eric Trump's wife, Lara, became co-chair of the RNC.


    Don Jr. asked his father to let him take on a more significant role in planning a transition team this year than in 2016, the last time Donald Trump built such a team.

    Eight years ago, Don Jr. largely focused on the Interior Department, given his focus on the outdoors and hunting.


    As they've become more involved, Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, have maintained a distance from the Trump campaign after serving Donald Trump in the White House.


    Don Jr. recently told the New York Post that he plans to be "very active" in the transition, and said he hopes people such as former director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe and former White House aide Cliff Sims are involved.

    He said he wanted to make sure "we stop some of the D.C. swamp rats and the swamp creatures from getting in there and doing their thing."


    He has said he's not looking to join a second Trump administration, but has been lobbying his father on a variety of issues — including who should be the GOP's vice presidential nominee. Don Jr. has said he wants a "fighter" and has mentioned Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as a contender.


    Zoom out: The campaign is still in the early stages of a transition team, with Wiles taking the lead.

    Presidential transition teams are critical to determining the top personnel in every new White House.


    Beyond the cabinet and White House teams, new administrations also appoint thousands of political appointees throughout the executive branch.


    Governed by the Presidential Transition Act, transitions often grow to hundreds of people and cost millions (Biden's team raised more than $20 million for his in 2020).


    Trump's team is looking to avoid the turmoil of the 2016 transition.

    Trump appointed former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to lead the effort, only to abruptly fire him soon after the election, leading to chaos that bled into the administration.


    What they're saying: The Trump campaign declined to comment.

     

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  7. https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-absolute-looniest-trump-trial-takes-on-fox-news-so-far?ref=home

     

    Quote

    After a nearly weeklong jury selection process, the criminal hush-money trial of former President Donald Trump kicked off Monday with opening statements and the prosecution’s first witness—former National Enquirer chief David Pecker.

    Monday’s proceedings produced several headlines, such as Pecker discussing his habit of “checkbook journalism” that resulted in him helping arrange a $130,000 payment in 2016 to adult film star Stormy Daniels to kill a story about her alleged one-night stand with Trump.

     

    Quote

    Over on Fox News, however, much of its trial coverage instead revolved around parroting the ex-president’s grievances about the case and how it is akin to “election interference” since he’s required to appear in court.

    While the rest of the cable news landscape has devoted round-the-clock coverage to the trial, the conservative cable giant has mostly dipped in and out. Spending the bulk of its time on the pro-Palestinian protests at Ivy League schools, Fox News has centered a large portion of its Trump trial coverage on criticizing the case and the court’s treatment of the former president.

     

    Quote

    This has resulted in the right-wing network’s pro-Trump personalities and guests taking increasingly goofy and zany positions to defend the twice-impeached ex-president. For instance, amid reports that Trump has repeatedly dozed off in the courtroom, several Fox Newsers have applauded him for this—even as they simultaneously mock President Joe Biden as “Sleepy Joe.”

     

    Spoiler

    But praising the MAGA king for catching some shuteye during his criminal trial isn’t even among the looniest reactions that have made its way to the network’s airwaves this week. Instead, we’ve had a former Speaker of the House compare Trump’s plight to slain Civil Rights-era freedom fighters, a primetime host insist the ex-president is being treated worse than terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, and a morning anchor bring up middle-school indiscretions for some reason.

    Let’s take a look at the goofiest takes aired by Fox News:

    IT’S “CRUEL” TO KEEP TRUMP OFF THE GOLF COURSE

    Primetime host Jesse Watters, a former Bill O’Reilly lackey whose stock in trade is delighting Fox News grandpas with his performatively outrageous antics, was beside himself on Monday that golf-loving ex-president was stuck in the courtroom and not getting enough time on the links.

    “The guy needs exercise. He’s usually golfing. And so, you’re going to put a man who’s almost 80, sitting in a room like this on his butt for all that time? It's not healthy,” Watters exclaimed on Monday’s broadcast of The Five. “You know how big of a health nut I am. He needs sunlight and he needs activity. He needs to be walking around, he needs action. It’s really cruel and unusual punishment to make a man do that. And any time he moves, they threaten to throw him in prison!”

    Hours later on his solo primetime show, Watters doubled down.

    “Trump has been on the move his whole life,” he fumed. “Golf, rallies, movement, action, sunlight, fresh air, freedom. This isn’t lawfare. This is torture. They’re making a 77-year-old man sit in a room for eight hours straight, four days a week.”

    GITMO PRISONERS HAVE IT BETTER THAN TRUMP!

    Watters’ MAGA propaganda didn’t just stop with demanding that Trump get more rounds of golf. He also asserted that detainees in the infamous Guantanamo Bay prison receive more preferential treatment than the ex-president has been afforded throughout his trial. This included Watters namechecking a notorious al-Qaeda terrorist who has been called the “principal architect of the 9/11 attacks.”

    “He has to sit there all week for six weeks. If he says anything, they’ll throw him in jail. If he leaves, they throw him in jail. That’s crazy,” he grumbled on The Five. “They had more allowances for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. I think they bought a million-dollar soccer field for the people in Gitmo. I don’t know if [Mohammed] was able to visit his son for his high school graduation, but it’s similar.”

    Despite this claim being repeated ad nauseam on Fox, Judge Juan Merchan has not actually ruled yet that the former president cannot attend his son Barron’s high school graduation.

    IT’S JUST LIKE THE END OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC!

    During Tuesday’s broadcast of midday roundtable show Outnumbered, Ian Prior—a GOP operative and regular Fox News guest who the network once tried to pass off as just a “concerned parent”—warned that the hush-money trial could result in the end of America.

    Reacting to the possibility that Trump could be held in contemptfor repeatedly violating the judge’s gag order, Prior likened the ex-president being restricted from attacking trial witnesses and court staff to the fall of Rome.

    “The very problem that we have here is we are weaponizing the justice system to go after former presidents. You back up 2,000 years and this is the kind of thing they would do in the Roman Republic that led to the end of the Roman Republic,” he dramatically proclaimed. “Caesar is out there and says if you do not come back to Rome… and face prosecution, what did he do? He crossed the Rubicon and there’s the end of the Republic.”

    MIDDLE SCHOOLERS SHOULD BE SCARED!

    Just ahead of opening statements on Monday, pro-Trump Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt said that the ex-president facing criminal charges for paying off a porn star to help his election chances could result in—actually, we’re not really sure what she was trying to say.

    We’re just going to report and let you decide.

    “Does this set a precedent for other people who want to run for president?” Earhardt sighed. “What if they've done something like this in the past and they can say, 'Oh, well, they told me in the 8th grade they want to run for president, so since they paid off a girl when they were 30 years old, then that was election interference!'”

    “LITERALLY LIKE” CIVIL RIGHTS WORKERS IN THE ’60S

    The award for zaniest take, however, goes to former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who claimed that the possibility of serving jail time made Trump akin to slain freedom fighters during the civil rights movement or Marlon Brando’s character in a 1950s classic film.

    “I am deeply worried that tomorrow, a totally corrupt judge and a totally corrupt district attorney are going to try to put a former president of the United States, candidate of his party, and front-runner in the polls in jail. Now, I think this is so horrendous that there has to be some way to reach out to the Supreme Court,” the Fox News pundit said on Monday night’s Hannity. “This is literally like some of the civil rights workers in Mississippi in the 1960s. The New York system is now so deeply corrupted and it's so bitterly, deeply anti-Trump.”

    Raging about the Biden family’s business dealings and Judge Merchan’s daughter, Gingrich then analogized the trial to an Oscar-winning movie about corrupt unions—while getting the director wrong.

    “I mean the whole thing frankly resembles On the Waterfront, Stanley Kubrick's brilliant film. This is about corruption. It has nothing to do with honesty, and what worries me is it's a genuine threat to Donald Trump,” Gingrich huffed. “I mean, I think any step that would put him close to a New York prison is an extraordinarily dangerous step and I would hope that there's some legal way to block it and make sure that it never happens, because the thugs he's dealing with are totally out of control, have total contempt for the rule of law, and frankly are unworthy of being in the offices they hold.”

    MY DAD IS LOVED BY “HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS”

    Appearing on Trump confidant Sean Hannity’s primetime show on Monday, the ex-president’s son Eric Trump bemoaned that his dad was facing 34 criminal charges over allegedly falsifying business records to cover up the hush-money payment made to Daniels before the 2016 election.

    According to the younger Trump, however, his father was too busy running the country to keep track of these records, though he added “not that anything was done wrong in the bookkeeping.” Of course, Trump wasn’t actually president when he allegedly arranged to pay Daniels off to keep her quiet in an effort to keep the story from impacting an upcoming election.

    Eric Trump also complained to Hannity that it seemed unfair that his dad was facing criminal charges over such a relatively small amount of money since the vast majority of the American public supposedly loves him. “They’re going after the former president of the United States, a person beloved by hundreds of millions of people in this country, over $130,000,” he groused.

     

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  8. 4 minutes ago, WBT said:

    I finally figured out how to turn it off and go to dumb cruise on my new 4Runner.  Gotdamn cars need to do what they're told.

     

    Back in 2021, we took a 3 week road trip to the Pacific NW.  Rented a small SUV from Avis, and they gave me a Hyundai Santa Fe.  Aside:  I hammered the shit out of the thing over the 3 weeks/5200 miles and it averaged 31 to a gallon.  

    We left the house on a Sunday morning, and within 20 miles, I was so annoyed that I pulled over and figured out how to turn off the lane assist, adaptive cruse, driver "alert" settings (it suggested I pull over and rest after 10 miles for coffee) and other stuff.  Gradually, as the trip progressed, I'd add back one feature at a time.  By the end of the trip, I I had an appreciation for most everything the vehicle was wanting to do.  

     

     

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  9. Just now, RDCanecutter said:

    Confiscated it from an alleged drug-dealing owner? Can't always be a Camaro.

     

    Or maybe they confiscated it from a mob-controlled earth moving company.  Shrugs.

    NYPD has all sorts of shit; years ago, I was in Times Square and there was a NYPD School Truancy van.  I just mentally pictured them running down some skipping jr high kids and throwing them in the back.

    https://www.policecarwebsite.net/fc/ny/nypd/nypddiv.html

     

    nypd2377.jpg

     

     

    • Haha 2
  10. A day after Trump issued a call for more supporters to gather outside the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, the number reached its nadir. The number of identifiable Trump fans across the street in Collect Pond Park on Tuesday sank to the mid-single digits, after hovering at about a dozen for a week.

     

    Trump continues to receive favorable treatment from the New York City Police Department. For a week, a large N.Y.P.D. dump truck has parked in the intersection of Hogan Place and Centre Street, with a uniformed driver sitting inside. Minutes before Trump's arrival each morning, the dump truck has pulled a half-car length forward, blocking news photographers’ views of him entering the side door of the courthouse. And this afternoon, like those before it, the driver did the same maneuver for Trump’s 2:37 p.m. departure.

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  11. Followup from the Times reporting of the trial:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/23/nyregion/national-enquirer-trump-trial-david-pecker.html?smid=url-share

     

    The National Enquirer’s help for Trump broke norms, even for a tabloid.

     

    The National Enquirer was more than a friendly media outlet for Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016. It was a powerful, national political weapon that was thrust into the service of a single candidate, in violation of campaign finance law.

    The tabloid’s former publisher, David Pecker, testified nonchalantly on Tuesday about how the tabloid operated in tandem with the Trump campaign, “catching and killing” potentially damaging stories and running elaborate and false hit pieces on Mr. Trump’s opponents. But its practices were unusual even in the wild supermarket tabloid news game.

    By the admission of The Enquirer’s own publisher — first made to federal prosecutors years ago during the prosecution of Mr. Trump’s fixer, Michael Cohen — the tabloid was operating with the full intention of helping Mr. Trump’s campaign.

    Under the First Amendment, newspapers are permitted to support candidates. But The Enquirer’s support went beyond journalism: The publication paid $150,000 for a story a Playboy model, Karen McDougal, was preparing to tell about an affair she said she had with the candidate. Then, it published nothing.

    That sort of deal is not unusual in the tabloid news trade, even if it violates journalistic standards followed by mainstream American outlets like this one, which have rules against paying sources.

    But before 2016, there had never been a known catch-and-kill deal to aid a presidential campaign. In that context, The Enquirer’s payment violated federal campaign laws prohibiting corporations from donating to presidential candidates — who are limited to receiving direct donations of $4,400 per person — and forbidding them to coordinate election-related spending with campaigns.

    As The Enquirer’s parent company at the time, American Media, admitted in a “non-prosecution” deal with the federal government in 2018: “AMI knew that corporations such as AMI are subject to federal campaign finance laws, and that expenditures by corporations, made for purposes of influencing an election and in coordination with or at the request of a candidate or campaign, are unlawful.”

    The deal helped secure Tuesday’s testimony.

    (The Federal Election Commission later hit The Enquirer’s parent company with fines of $187,000; Mr. Trump’s campaign escaped sanction.)

    The Enquirer was also providing a hidden value to Mr. Trump: By giving over its cover to his political needs, Mr. Pecker gave him the equivalent of free advertising space at most major supermarket checkout lines in the country, where the tabloid had long ago secured prime placement.

    One expert said at the time that such exposure could be worth as much $3 million a month.

    Worth potentially even more: The Enquirer’s agreement to keep from the checkout line not only Ms. McDougal’s story but the cache of Trump dirt it had in its own files — “tabloid gold” that would never see the light of day.

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  12. Honestly, who knows.  This is Trump.  Every one of the choices listed are normal possibilities as in they would be possible for you or I or anyone else. 

     

    But again, this is Trump.  These are uncharted waters and behavior not only of him, an entire political party and 1/3 to 1/2 of the electorate.  Those three factors, together, makes nearly anything a possiblity.

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