At this moment it all comes down to a matter of timing. As we speak, Trump’s scheduled trial start of March 4th for his DC federal trial has disappeared from Judge Chutkan’s calendar. Should ther DC Appellate Court come down tomorrow or Monday, siding with Judge Chutkan, and remanding the case back to her court for trial, and should Traitor Tot appeal to the SCOTUS and be declined for a hearing, then Chutkan could probably schedule the trial to start in mid March. Anything else, and she already has another January 6th defendant scheduled to start trial on April 2nd.
Which means that Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, the first one to publicly announce criminal indictments against Donald Trump will also be the first one to take a crack at his orange sh*tgibbon ass. But of all of the cases against Trump, it’s the Manhattan DA’s case that has been the least publicized, and quite possibly the most misunderstood.
The reason is totally understandable, especially considering the effect of the media. The two main stars of the Manhattan DA’s case are reputed to be former Trump fixer Michael Cohen, a virulent Trump opponent, and porn star Stormy Daniels, whom Trump paid off in the run up of the 2020 election to keep her quiet. And in fact, nothing could be further from the truth.
The media is and already has been portraying this as a payoff scheme to keep a porn star’s embarrassing revelations about Trump quiet. But if you actually read the indictment, you realize that it’s nothing like that. And I’m going to go out on a limb here, and predict that when the trial comes around, it isn’t going to be Michael Cohen or Stormy Daniels  who’s going to end up being the prosecution’s star witness. No, it’s going to be National Enquirer CEO David Pecker who is going to turn out to be the prosecution’s star witness.
Because Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg isn’t alleging a tax fraud, or an illegal payoff, Alvin Bragg is alleging a criminal election interference conspiracy. And that’s a whole ‘nother kettle of criminal fish.
Stick with me here. Bragg will call Cohen to the stand to confirm the fact that he made an illegal payoff to porn stat Stormy Daniels to shut her up on her affair with Trump, and was repaid with a profit. And then he’ll call Daniels to the stand to confirm that her attorney negotiated a deal for her to be paid off in return for her silence about her affair with Trump.
Now maybe that’s criminal, and maybe it’s not. It’s sure as sleazy as hell, but I don’t know that it’s against any state or federal law to bribe somebody to keep their big fat mouth shut about you. But that’s not what Bragg is alleging in his indictments, and it’s what nobody else seems to be getting, because nobody has gone into it in depth.
Trump was actively running for President, and after the release of the Access Hollywood video, another scandal could kill him. Daniels had contacted The National Enquirer offering an exclusive interview exposing her affair with Trump. And that’s where the election interference conspiracy comes in.
When Daniels contacted The National Enquirer with her offer, CEO David Pecker contacted Michael Cohen to advise him of the offer. Cohen told Trump, who went into action. He ordered Cohen to contact her lawyer and negotiate a settlement, and also contacted Enquirer CEO Pecker to launch a catch-and-kill on Daniels. Offer to buy her story, and then never actually publish it.
And that’s where the election conspiracy charges come from. Trump was running for President, and the Stormy Daniels revelations likely would have sunk his campaign like the Titanic. If Trump had been smart enough to just let Cohen pay Daniels off, he might well have gotten away with it. But instead, Trump contacted David Pecker and originated the catch-and-kill scam that would bury her story permanently. And if that can be proven, then that’s an election fraud conspiracy.
Trump is an imbecile. If he had just let Cohen buy off Daniels, then it would all be over. But Melania was as pissed as hell about the Access Hollywood video, and the last thing he needed was for a tabloid to run an article about His Lowness banging a porn star while Melania was at home, nursing their son. And so he conspired with National Enquirer CEO David Pecker to ensure that the story never saw the light of day. And that’s an election interference conspiracy. Conspiring to ensure that voters never got access to data they needed to know.
That’s it. My job is done. Now at least you all know what to look for when this case comes to trial, and it has nothing to do with paying off a porn star. And here’s why it’s critical. A recent poll of battleground states showed that 53% of Trump supporters would be willing to vote for him if he were convicted of one of the crimes against him. But does paying off a porn star to cover a personal dalliance really qualify as a crime? But conspiring with the CEO of a tabloiod who had the exclusive rights to post that story, in order to keep the voters from ever hearing it? That’s a whole different story.
I thank you for the privilege of your time.
I’ll admit I’d forgotten all about David Pecker. Pecker. My how the jokes wrote themselves before and will again. If as you say and my gut says you’ve hit the nail on the head – of the Pecker (sorry, couldn’t resist) then Stormy Daniels will be only the beginning. SHE only had the one “tryst” with Trump. What about former Playmate of the Year Karen McDougal who Pecker also did the catch and kill with? And others. There was talk about a whole big safe full of compromising stuff Pecker had and it wasn’t just with Trump material. But there was more he had of this stuff related to Trump. Suddenly talk about it stopped, with implications Pecker had gotten rid of it. I say bullshit. He might have burned a bunch of it but a guy like that would have squirreled away some INSURANCE in case he ever needed it.
Trump sure as hell at that point warranted secreting away a special file on. This could wind up going thermonuclear. I hope Pecker has good personal security, or the U.S. Marshall’s have him safely locked away because with what he knows (again, not just on Trump) he could be like that DC Madam, I think it was the Ashley Madison thing it became known as. A lot of very important people it seems were in her black book and while her death was officially ruled a suicide the whole thing stank to high heaven. I lived in the DC area at the time and remember all the stories. And of course we all know what happened with Jeffrey Epstein.
It makes sense that if Bragg intended to use Pecker as a witness he’d keep that fact under wraps for as long as possible. But we evidently will know soon enough. To say this could get interesting is quite the understatement.
Finally, when it comes to Bragg he was too chicken to go after Trump once in office. It was only public outcry and knowing he’d be voted out that got him to build a new case against Trump at all even though Vance handed him a perfectly solid one. And he made it clear he’d step aside for EVERYONE else. I’m sure he hoped Trump would be so screwed before his turn came up he wouldn’t have to bother.
However, developments in the past couple of weeks and the quite real prospect of no Trump criminal trials before the election have changes things. I had a flashback to being a kid. You know that little Christmas tune where we hear “Alvin? Alvin? ALVIN????” And the angry “OK!” but then little Alvin sings perfectly.
I have trouble believing that Melania actually nursed Barron. I would have thought that a wet nurse would have been brought in.
Aha…more projection from tRumpy. I was wondering when “election interference” would come in. Now we know. If tRump says someone else is doing it…
Thx, Murf, I dunno what took me so long to connect the dots!
Now that Chutkan has delayed the DC J6 trial all eyes will be on Bragg. This is going to be good!
Another enlightening article from the Murfster–thanks!