WSJ: Donald Trump Played Central Role in Hush Payoffs to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal

[Julian Englis]

Guess who was lying and broke campaign finance laws? I bet Stormy Daniels will have fun with this.

Donald Trump Played Central Role in Hush Payoffs to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal

As a presidential candidate in August 2015, Donald Trump huddled with a longtime friend, media executive David Pecker, in his cluttered 26th floor Trump Tower office and made a request.

What can you do to help my campaign? he asked, according to people familiar with the meeting.

Mr. Pecker, chief executive of American Media Inc., offered to use his National Enquirer tabloid to buy the silence of women if they tried to publicize alleged sexual encounters with Mr. Trump.

Less than a year later, Mr. Trump asked Mr. Pecker to quash the story of a former Playboy model who said they’d had an affair. Mr. Pecker’s company soon paid $150,000 to the model, Karen McDougal, to keep her from speaking publicly about it. Mr. Trump later thanked Mr. Pecker for the assistance.

The Trump Tower meeting and its aftermath are among several previously unreported instances in which Mr. Trump intervened directly to suppress stories about his alleged sexual encounters with women, according to interviews with three dozen people who have direct knowledge of the events or who have been briefed on them, as well as court papers, corporate records and other documents.

[Julian Englis]

1. Avenatti already is calling for tRump's indictment

Link to tweet

In light of the sworn testimony and evidence relating to the payment to my client and Trump’s involvement (confirming our allegations), we are calling for the immediate indictment of the president. No one is above the law in the United States.

His NYT OpEd piece: Michael Avenatti: The Case for Indicting the President

Sol Wachtler, a former chief judge of the New York State Court of Appeals, once famously remarked that grand juries were so easily swayed that they would “indict a ham sandwich” if a prosecutor requested it. Many times, there is truth to this. But an indictment does not end the process of determining guilt or innocence. It begins it.

Following indictment, criminal defendants can question the validity of the charges, the methods used to acquire the evidence and the evidence itself. They can seek to dismiss a criminal indictment and, if unsatisfied with the ruling, appeal it all the way to the Supreme Court.

The grand jury system has been employed in hundreds of thousands of cases involving all manner of crimes committed by all manner of people. All, that is, except one: the president.

No grand jury has ever indicted a president, and consequently no court, let alone the Supreme Court, has ruled on the critical question of whether the Constitution allows a president to be indicted while in office. Legal scholars have opined on both sides of the issue, and Department of Justice attorneys have drafted memorandums arguing against indicting a sitting president. But none of these analyses establish definitive rules of law. It is time to clarify the issue.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

2. Now's a good time as any to remind everyone that Donald Trump is currently....

....an unindicted co-conspirator in an active criminal action.

Yep.

He is.

Right at this very moment.

That's our guy!