Democrats, Not Trump, Are The Real Crooked Record-Keepers

The Federalist ^ | MAY 29, 2024 | JOSEPH LOBUE

[E. Pluribus Unum]

President Trump is on trial in New York for allegedly falsifying business records because the bookkeepers in his organization recorded certain legal expenses — specifically, a legal settlement — as “legal expenses.” According to Democrat prosecutors, the bookkeepers should have recorded these payments as campaign contributions and expenditures because, they say, the payments were “intended” to “influence” the 2016 election “unlawfully” by concealing a purported sexual encounter with a pornographer.

Convoluted and bizarre enough for you yet? It should be. Because there is absolutely nothing “unlawful” about concealing a purported sexual encounter with a pornographer.

There is, nevertheless, a good deal of crooked record-keeping going on these days. But Democrats are the ones doing it.  

False Characterization of Record-Keeping Requirements

Federal campaign finance law actually prohibits candidates from characterizing the payments at issue in the Trump case as campaign contributions and expenditures.

Brad Smith, a leading expert on campaign finance law and former member of the Federal Election Commission, was set to testify to that very thing in open court in the Trump case. Except Juan Merchan, the partisan Democrat Biden-donor judge presiding over the case, barred him from doing so. 

To accept the prosecution’s case, one must conclude that New York law requires candidates to make business records that violate federal law. The supremacy clause of the Constitution does not allow that. So it is Democrat prosecutors, not the Trump organization, that conspired to falsely characterize the record-keeping issues in the case.

Judge Merchan’s Manipulation of the Trial Record

Judge Merchan’s rationale for excluding Smith’s testimony is that judges traditionally instruct the jury on the law. The problem is that Merchan already allowed prosecution witnesses,...

[knarf]

Been sayin' this fer twenny YEARS . . . . .

[sauropod]

No excrement, Mt. Holmes.

[Robert357]

We know that there were a lot of Hillary Clinton payments “money laundered” through attorneys at the Perkins Coie law firm associated with trying to trash Trump's reputation in a certain election. She even agreed to pay a fine to the Federal Election Committee. She claims to be a NY resident, so why isn't she being charged with accounting crimes?

Sorry, I forgot she is a Democrat and Democrats are about the law in blue states.