Trump NY Trial: UNREPORTED Cash and In-Kind Contributions

We are well into actual testimony in Trump’s New York criminal trial. I’d written a piece sometime back saying David Pecker of National Enquirer fame might be the most devastating witness against Trump. The prosecution wrapped up its direct examination today and while it’s too soon to say (who knows what’s to come) I’m thinking there’s a damned good chance I was correct. You can find plenty of articles about how things went in court today. This one from ABC News for example. However I want to discuss the broader theme which I think the prosecution is starting to really shine the spotlight on.

It’s what I wrote in the headline. Team Trump and his fluffers in RWNJ “news” and MAGA Land keep screaming “where’s the crime?” Ok, there’s some concession from a handful of conservative talking heads that yes, falsifying records isn’t kosher. But, they argue that’s misdemeanor stuff. Chickensh*t and hardly worth all this fuss. The complain, if not howl about Manhattan DA turning this into a felony level case, asking where’s the crime?  Frankly, so did plenty of people on more mainstream networks and in mainstream publications. There were Susan Collins level furrowed brows about how much of a “stretch” it might be to make this a felony case.

I kept wondering why? Whether this was all to influence the election is I (I’m not a lawyer) a question for a jury after hearing the judge’s instructions on the law. But even as a non-lawyer I saw a couple of felonies in those falsifications of business records. Avoidance of state and federal taxes for one thing. Yes, those are sometimes treated as civil matters. People pay their fines and that’s that. But sometimes they are prosecuted as felonies. Trump, who’s a big Al Capone fan sure as hell knows that’s why that particular mobster did time in prison! And don’t get me started on Hunter Biden and what’s going on with him these days.

The point is that it seems obvious there’s at least one crime that can be charged as a felony attached to why Trump falsified those records. Come to think of it his CFO Alan Weisselberg is doing a second stint in Rikers for his role in this scheme. Michael Cohen did time as a result of it as well although it was perjury I believe that was the actual charge they used on him. Anyway, while a conviction on TAXES isn’t sexy it’s an area of law that has teeth. Teeth which can, and I think will bite Trump.

However, both at the state and federal level their are campaign finance laws. People make donations to candidates, and candidates are required to keep track of them and report them. In a large campaign, for federal office say and especially for President there are going to be glitches. Honest mistakes. Usually they are forgiven with little more than an admonition to do better, and paying a fine. If that. Sometimes however what goes down is serious enough that people get charged and convicted, especially when enough money is involved.

It’s also worth noting that contributions (in the law) are defined as more than cash. Goods and services, what are known as “In-Kind” contributions are covered by the law. And from where I sit by the time the prosecution is done presenting its case they will have established Trump got HUGE contributions, repeated ones and over time from David Pecker and AMI/The National Enquirer. Pecker has been around the block and already made a deal with the feds. He wants no part of prison and he might not want to do it but he will throw Trump under the bus as quickly and easily as Trump would do to him.

In fact he’s already done so in court this week. In cold, hard cash alone Pecker “gave” Trump $180k. Two payoffs. $150k to former Playmate of the Year Karen McDougal and another $30k to a doorman at Trump Tower. It seems Pecker expected to get that money back, and didn’t. That’s why when Michael Cohen called up in a panic about Stormy Daniels wanting Pecker to cough up over $100k again he balked. Pecker told Cohen he’d never gotten paid back for other “catch and kill” payoffs and that he “wasn’t a bank.”

That’s what led to the mad scramble that led to the whole Stormy Daniels mess. And falsifying business records. To dodge a few bucks in taxes!  And hide the whole thing. In other words although Pecker wasn’t part of that one it was still yet another UNREPORTED campaign contribution and expense.  Add it all up and it sure looks like more than enough hiding of campaign money to get felony level treatment by both the state and federal governments.

Not for nothing, but I DO want to emphasize that we have intent and on the record. Pecker freely admitted he knew he was breaking campaign finance law, as what he did for Trump (and in other respects which I’ll get to) was purely for the campaign. No Trump protecting his family from embarrassment or any such nonsense. Trump was terrified of how bad the kind of “bad boy” reputation he once promoted and reveled in would play in his Presidential campaign! That’s what led to an August 2015 meeting which Trump was part of where a bargain was struck. A two part bargain. Pecker would “catch and kill” negative stories about Trump. But here’s the kicker. He also agreed to put out stories attacking Trump’s rivals!

All those tabloid stories about Ted Cruz, especially his dad being part of killing JFK, all those stories about Hillary including stuff about her being sick and dying, ALL of that was part of the plan. Trump would call up with a story theme and Pecker would turn it into a front page story with a screaming headline.  And that my friends was a MASSIVE amount of FREE advertising for Trump. AMI controlled the space at supermarkets, convenience stores, airports, hell you name it where tabloid stuff would be. They owned the racks so to speak. You didn’t have to buy anything, but tens of millions of people going about their daily business, especially in a checkout line could glance over and see those headlines and pictures.

Sensible, normal people would just ruefully shake their heads BUT there are tens of millions out there who have faithfully bought that trash for as long as I can remember. And plenty more who didn’t buy it but even if they didn’t swallow it whole on the spot would listen to RWNJ radio, turn on Fox News and hear the same talking points and decide it was true.  I’m sure some actuary could put a dollar figure on how much that advertising would cost of one had to pay for it (Pecker might well have done so, if only for AMI’s records to track what “stories” sell best) but it would be north of a hundred million dollars. Maybe far, far more.

Pecker never got dollar one in payment from Trump directly or the Trump campaign. That makes all of those stories Pecker ran at Trump’s request an IN-KIND contribution and a massive one. Again, ALL as Pecker testified to benefit his old pal Donald Trump and his Presidential campaign.  And NONE of it was reported, either by Pecker/AMI or the Trump campaign. Seems like more than enough to trigger felony level violations of campaign finance law.

Alvin Bragg said there was more to all this than falsifying records. He said it was part of a larger and illegal scheme to influence the election. Now he seems to be proving that in court, and with his first witness and a hostile one at that proven everyone knew what they were doing was illegal!  The defense was counting on Michael Cohen being the prosecution’s “star” witness, and as for McDougal and Daniels this is Trump so we could could always count on major “slut-shaming.”

I might be wrong, but I’m betting Trump and Blanche too are in panic mode by now. Trump I’ll bet assured Blanche over and over again that Pecker would hedge some, to provide some cover because they went back so far together. Instead, for once Trump got confronted with someone as self-centered as himself who was going to look out for #1 – and #1 turned out to be David Pecker instead of Donald Trump.

I just wish the media would be making a bigger deal out of just how massive the UNREPORTED campaign contribution from Pecker/AMI/The Enquirer to Trump actually was.  Then again, who knows what kind of dirt Pecker has on the top executives and board members of major media outlets? (Now that’s something to think about!)