Trump's opening gambit is pure Trumpism
Opening statements in trials need to only do two things: tell a story and show a victim.
Sometimes, it is nuanced. Insurance companies often paint bad actors, whom they’ve insured, as scapegoats, fall-guys, or stooges with deadpan sincerity.
In criminal cases, it is very direct. The prosecution says here is the crime, here is the criminal, and they always show two victims — the direct victim (e.g. the person who was mugged) and society at large (e.g. “our streets are not safe with this criminal on the loose”).
On the criminal defense side, there are four basic defenses: my client is innocent, my client had just cause, my client is crazy, and there’s no crime here. Todd Blanche chose the latter — a brilliant ploy, if you are vying for the lesser included offense jury instruction.
The 34 counts of business record fraud are graded as felonies when coupled with another crime. Without another crime, business record fraud is a rather innocuous misdemeanor, i.e. it makes you a bad businessman not a bad person.
If Todd Blanche can convince the jury that no other crime was committed other than paying off a porn star Donald Trump had sex with once, he’ll win. But in conceding the fraud as a misdemeanor, it opens the question as to “why the charade?”.
Donald Trump’s employees, his children, his friends, and his wife all know he regularly commits adultery. I guarantee that Donald’s pre-nup agreement with Melania only precludes her infidelity not his. I can also guarantee you that Melania and her lawyers get an unfettered view at the business books on a regular basis.
Wanting to write off the payment to Stormy Daniels as a legal expense is tax fraud and it’s also sort of reckless. Fourteen years of tax returns were under audit in 2016. One would think by then, Donald Trump would have had a fool-proof system for covering up his affairs and have had a means of hiding the cost of his cheating down to a SOP.1
Instead, as this “porn star payoff” case grinds forward, we'll see this had nothing to to with Melania, taxes, or having the narcissistic belief of one’s irresistibly to women — it was getting elected president.
BTW: There’s a fifth defense, but it’s a high hurdle — the state cannot prove my client committed the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. The reason Donald Trump has fought at every step in each of his four criminal indictments to get dismissals and adjournments is that he knows the cases are eminently provable.
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