The decision to hear the appeal reopens the possibility that#FaniWillis, the Fulton County district attorney, could be disqualified from prosecuting Trump & 14 #CoConspirators over efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The decision to hear the appeal, handed down by a 3-judge panel, is likely to further #delay the #Georgia#criminal case against #Trump & 14 of his #CoConspirators, making it less likely that the case will go to #trial before the Nov #election.
The terse 3-sentence announcement reopens the possibility that DA #FaniWillis could be #disqualified from the biggest case of her career, & one of the most significant state criminal cases in the nation’s history.
At issue is a romantic relationship she had w/ #NathanWade, a lawyer she hired to handle the prosecution of #Trump. Defense lawyers argued that the relationship amounted to an untenable conflict of interest, & that DA #FaniWillis & her entire office should be removed from the case.
"Yesterday, witnesses established that the paper trail of payments to Trump fixer Michael Cohen, who forwarded the money to Daniels, had been falsified. … A number of observers have suggested that the evidence presented through documents yesterday was not riveting, but historians would disagree."
[NYTimes]: Susan Necheles, the defense lawyer, has lodged objection after objection. Objections are meant to either cut off testimony or have it stricken from the official record entirely. We can’t tell you exactly what her rate of success has been, but it’s way higher than normal. The judge is accepting her objections and disrupting Stormy Daniels’s testimony. By Jonah Bromwich
[NYTimes]: Stormy Daniels says that during her dinner with Trump, she asked about his wife. He told her, she says, not to worry because the two did not “even sleep in the same room.” Trump and Melania were married in 2005, the year before this encounter. By Jonah Bromwich
[NYTimes]: Stormy Daniels is now talking about meeting Trump for dinner. She says that when he first emerged from his hotel suite, he was wearing “silk or satin” pajamas, which Daniels compared to those often sported by Hugh Hefner. She asked him to change, and he returned in more standard dress clothes. By Jonah Bromwich
[NYTimes]: It was clear this morning before the courtroom opened that today would be different. Many reporters anticipated that Stormy Daniels was likely the next witness, and the lines formed earlier. By Maggie Haberman
[NYTimes]: Live Updates: Stormy Daniels Is Expected to Testify in Trump’s Trial
Ms. Daniels, who received $130,000 in hush money to keep silent about her story of having had sex with Donald J. Trump, is at the center of the case against him.
charges are falsifying business records to hide #HushMoney payments in lead up to 2016 election to #influence electorate
just one Trump supporter at the courthouse draped in a Trump flag.
#StormyDaniels's lawyer, #KeithDavidson, to return to stand. He negotiated the hush-money payment at the center of the case, & is expected to lay out details of the deal.
Today’s #TrumpTrial testimony 🧵
Friday, 3 May, 2024
Custodial witness, Doug Daus, a forensic analyst in the Manhattan DA’s office will continue to testify about obtaining audio from the phones of #MichaelCohen, #Trump’s former fixer.
Presidential immunity and the ‘Dark Age Ahead’
By Kurt Cobb, originally published by Resource Insights April 28, 2024
"...For those at the highest reaches of commerce, (corporatized) science, and major professions—as well as for politicians elected from hopelessly gerrymandered districts—accountability & transparency has all but disappeared. In this environment, the ethics-challenged Supreme Court is inviting presidents, past, current & future, to join a club that members of the court are already in, an elite club of leaders in American society who are almost entirely unaccountable. If the Supreme Court can be in the club, why shouldn’t the president? The fact that some members of the court cannot see that this is what is happening is a testament to how accustomed those members have become to being unaccountable. These self-styled philosopher-kings believe it was ever thus ordained to be this way..."
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked whether a woman’s story about an affair with a married candidate would do well.
“That would have been kind of like National Enquirer gold?”
Pecker said yes.
But, Steinglass continued: “At the time you had entered into that agreement [with McDougal], you had zero intention of publishing that story?”
Steinglass pressed: “Despite the fact that publishing it would help your bottom line, you killed it to help the candidate, Donald Trump?”
“Uh, yes,” Pecker said.
After court adjourns Friday, it is scheduled to resume Tuesday.