In law, as in everything else, when something happens, it’s easy to get so far down in the weeds that you can’t see the forest forest for the trees. And when something like a former President being indicted and arraigned, you can get so far down you can’t even see the moon overhead.
But, if you have the entire documents available, both the unsealed indictments as well as the arraignment transcript, there’s nothing that a couple of sharp lawyers can’t find and highlight.
And that’s what just happened on The Beat with Ari Melber on MSNBC. One of the reasons I like The Beat is that Melber is clearly a talented lawyer who likes to report on legal stories when they come up, and he has a flair for making what sound at first blush like complicated issues easy to digest. And with him on the segment was former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti. And they each had a noteworthy plot twist.
Melber went first. He pointed out that Manhattan DA Bragg had actually pulled rather a neat one. One of the big problems in bringing this case against Trump, and a main reason why the SDNY didn’t bring it was the unfortunate reliance on Michael Cohen as your star witness. Cohen is a convicted tax cheat, and an admitted liar on the stand. It would take a ton of effort to rehabilitate Cohen before a jury with reputable corroborating testimony and evidence.
Hocus Pocus. With a wave of his magic wand, Bragg conjures up Someone, AKA Karen McDougal. And she changes the entire witness lineup, because McDougal came first!
Remember the timeline? In 2018 Keith Davidson, McDougal’s lawyer contacted David Pecker at the National Enquirer, wanting to sell McDougal’s story rights, including a two year affair with Trump. It was Pecker who engineered the payoff, after consulting with Cohen to get Trump’s OK. He also negotiated what he thought was a repayment plan with Cohen, which fell apart when Trump tried to do it on the cheap. And when Stormy Daniels came sniffing around, once again Davidson reached out to Pecker first, who referred him directly to Cohen.
Which takes Michael Cohen out of the white hot spotlight. Since McDougal came first, so will David Pecker in the witness lineup. And Pecker isn’t a convicted felon, and neither is he an admitted perjurer. He got immunity in return for his testimony. It will be Pecker who will testify to the genesis of both payoff schemes. And then Cohen will bat cleanup, confirming Pecker’s testimony, and bringing his own audio tapes and records to buttress his story, which is not no longer the main story. I gotta admit, that’s slick lawyering. I’m impressed.
And then it was Renato’s turn. And he didn’t disappoint either. He told Ari that the most important thing he picked up, which nobody is talking about, is the fact that Bragg already has what he needs to demolish Trump’s lame ass main excuse. And it’s good.
Trump’s pathetic excuse was that even though he never frolicked wither one of these women, he was willing to pay them both off to save dear, sweet Melania and Barron the public embarrassment and humiliation. What a prince among men. Until you remember that Trump used to call the networks and tabloids in New York, claiming to be his own publicist, John Baron, while he boasted about his mattress aerobics with Marla Maples when he was still married to Ivanna.
But apparently Braggs has the stoppers to that one. According to Mariotti, Bragg has evidence that Trump actually tried to get Michael Cohen to delay the Stormy Daniels payoff until after election day. Fortunately for her, Daniels proved that a female porn star has more smarts and a higher IQ than a GOP presidential nominee. Because if she didn’t, she’d be $130,000 poorer today.
It’s simple. If Trump had gotten the delay and lost, who cares if the Daniels story broke? As the Access Hollywood video showed, his branding operation had been highly successful. Why waste $130,000 on a porn star he was long done with. And if he won? Then who cares if the story comes out? He’s the President, and the congress, especially a GOP congress isn’t going to impeach him for doing the horizontal Mambo with a porn star more than a decade ago. And as for Melania’s special snowflake fee-fees? Fuck her, she’ll get over it.
See what I mean? Everybody was so wrapped up in the historic nature of what was happening that nobody looked below the surface. And that’s why while I report on the news as it happens, I also like to go back a day or so later, and look for some of the naughty bits that got lost in the deluge. And this time it was well worth it.
To be honest I hadn’t put all the pieces together, even today But stuff in the back of my mind went “Click” reading your article. For starters, when all the flap was about Stormy Daniels there was enough reporting about McDougal and her actual long-running affair with Trump during the same general time frame as that one quickie Trump had with Daniels got reported. Including the “catch and kill” aspect of it but the lion’s share of the attention went to the “Trump screwed a pornstar” angle. McDougal was the very image of the sweet girl next door Hefner tried to make all of the Playboy Playmates out to be. Sure, one could look up her Playboy pics but if she even did some T&A movies like some Playmates did I don’t remember it. And she didn’t have a Michael Avenatti out there hawking her story either.
But the catch and kill stuff Pecker did for Trump stayed in the back of my mind, especially when the subject of the contents of that safe of his came up. Contest that never got revealed and there’s even a suggestion that when Pecker saw the spotlight moving his way he destroyed it. His being given immunity for testimony seems to bolster that theory. What I’d forgotten about was that he’d had a bit of a falling out with Trump due to Trump stiffing him on 25k of the reimbursement. Typical cheap ass stuff that’s been the way Trump’s always done things. And boy did it ever come back to bite him in the ass!
As you note, it was BECAUSE of this that when Daniels’ original lawyer came a calling to Pecker again with the Daniels story Pecker, knowing it was Cohen who’d do the “fixer” stuff on Trump’s end simply put Davidson directly in touch with Cohen. We all learned how that worked out (or didn’t – depends on how you want to look at it) and now it’s ALL going to come out in a criminal trial. Prior to the indictment I knew Pecker had appeared before the grand jury back in January. I didn’t pay attention the way I should have, but Pecker being called back for a second round with the grand jury and it seems McDougal now ready to testify against Trump I STILL didn’t put it all together.
Oh, part of me thought we were going to hear from them and even thought they might be one of the means of turning a misdemeanor into a felony (intent, conspiracy, pattern of conducts and who knows what else?) but only now after reading your article has everything crystalized in my mind. I for one haven’t wrung my hands over Cohen being a star witness. The whole credibility thing will be easier to address (I believe) than people including pundits are making out. Cohen was convicted for lying about things he did at Trump’s request for one thing. The other is that Cohen has literal receipts. And leaving aside Pecker & McDougal Bragg has other stuff corroborating Cohen’s testimony.
But the prospect of David Pecker and McDougal being the headline witnesses and Cohen being relegated to “supporting actor” never occurred to me. However, if that’s how Bragg tries the case Trump is well and truly fucked. And Trump as of this week has at least one skilled lawyer who having digested the indictment and Braggs statement of facts realizes that the entire approach to the case his colleagues had planned and already started to execute isn’t going to cut it in front of a Manhattan jury. My prediction is that in the months ahead he’ll try to explore some kind of deal for a conviction with probation only BUT even if Bragg were to agree (possible because if other cases get filed as we expect being a convicted felon in NY will factor into those other case, especially if Trump is convicted when the sentencing part comes around) Trump will go through the fucking roof when it’s suggested to him. If he doesn’t fire this guy on the spot, he’ll still wind up doing so because I’m certain the dude got himself a hefty retainer and having made sure he’s well paid no matter what won’t drop the matter. So he’ll get fired. You read it here first!
Same thing HERE, Denis…I’ve lived shit shit for 7 longs now, so I had all the pieces, just never had them all lined up, and the quiet time to puzzle it out…There was always NEW news…
First off, all lawyers are liars. That’s what they get paid to do. A lot of them are also forgers and extortionists. Don’t forget, most judges are “lawyers”.
As for this case, I am only interested in how those “3 strikes and you are out” policies that they use with us regular folks are going to be applied to this serial criminal that cheated his way into public office with the help of putin.
Just parenthetical, but interesting: Because Stormy has gotten the lion’s share of media attention, I would recognize her anywhere, but I didn’t know what Karen McDougal looked like. When I checked, I was struck by how very similar they look.
Didn’t AMI pay a $1.6 million dollar fine for violating election finance laws for this?