Monday, April 22, 2024

Dictator radical right thinking about the law, money and free speech

Hush money isn't illegal, it's 'democracy,' Trump lawyer 
says in defiant trial opening statements

Opening arguments in Donald Trump's historic criminal trial got underway on Monday with a prosecutor describing the case as being about a "criminal conspiracy," while a defense attorney for the former president likened hush-money payments to "democracy."

Trump's lead attorney, Todd Blanche, declared, "President Trump is innocent" at the start of his opening statements.

"You'll learn President Trump had nothing to do with any of those 34 pieces of paper except he signed the checks," Blanche told the jurors, adding, "In the White House. While he was running the country. That's not a crime."

There was a non-disclosure agreement, Blanche conceded. But there's nothing wrong with Cohen paying Daniels to protect Trump's brand and keep Daniels from embarrassing Trump's family, the defense lawyer said.

"I have a spoiler alert for you. It's called democracy," Blanche said of the hush-money payment.

"Michael Cohen paying Stormy Daniels — or Stephanie Clifford — in return for her agreeing not to publicly spread false claims, false claims against President Trump, is not illegal," Blanche said.  
Blanche added that Daniels "has made a livelihood out of these allegations."

"She's made hundreds of thousands of dollars," Blanche said without mentioning the "Make America Horny Again" strip club tour that the porn star embarked on after news of the hush-money scandal broke.

Meanwhile, Blanche said, Daniels owes Trump "somewhere around $600,000" due to her legal losses to Trump.
By now it is clear that the Trump/Republican Party/radical right vision of "democracy" is probably at serious variance with yours. The battle lines here are crystal clear. We are in a fight to the death of corrupt, anti-democracy Trump-style authoritarianism and lies vs hopefully somewhat less corrupt, more or less who knows what style of pro-democracy democracy and truth.

Methinks we're in deep trouble. Probably.

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