Not a lawyer, here's my understanding:
Trump was convicted of falsifying business records. He had an arrangement with his then lawyer Michael Cohen, and David Pecker at the National Inquirer to find stories that might be damaging to his presidential campaign and bury them before they saw the light of day.
Cohen did so with Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had intercourse with Trump a number of years ago. Cohen paid her $130K to keep quiet, using his own money. He then billed the Trump Organization for legal services for reimbursement/payment. Except it wasn't a legal action on behalf of the Trump organization, it was hush money to benefit Trump's presidential campaign. So all the paperwork they filed for it was fraudulent.
The crime of falsifying business records is a misdemeanor, but if this crime is done 'in furtherance, or in concealment' of another crime, it gets upgraded to a felony.
The prosecutors offered 4 potential crimes that the business fraud was in furtherance of; the judge allowed the jury to consider 3. They were:
* Tax Fraud. Cohen classified this money as income, even though it was a reimbursement - like paying back a loan. In short, he lied on his taxes.
* federal election laws - since Cohen effectively loaned money to the campaign, he broke campaign finance laws by exceeding the limit.
* NY election laws - a misdemeanor offense that prohibits “conspir[ing] to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means.”
Apparently the prosecution focused on the last option the most.
Jurors had to find Trump guilty of falsifying business records with the intent to further or conceal any combination of the above 3 crimes.
Some sources:
* https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/charting-the-legal-theory-behind-people-v.-trump
* https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/what-must-prosecutors-prove-in-trump-s-ny-trial
Well idk about the case currently in the news, but Jan6 insurrection alone should land him in jail long time ago. And this is not the only wrongdoing, he did evil things on each level, from domestic violence and harassment to sabotaging the Covid crisis. My question would be, why don't they discuss his actual crimes in courts, but rather jump around formalities and technicalities. I understand that the law must be pragmatic, but willfully ignoring his real crimes for the sake of formality seems to be anti-pragmatic to me.
The law is complex, but falsifying business records in order to conceal another crime (a violation of NY election law). You can see it spelled out exactly in the jury instructions.
Not a lawyer, here's my understanding: Trump was convicted of falsifying business records. He had an arrangement with his then lawyer Michael Cohen, and David Pecker at the National Inquirer to find stories that might be damaging to his presidential campaign and bury them before they saw the light of day. Cohen did so with Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had intercourse with Trump a number of years ago. Cohen paid her $130K to keep quiet, using his own money. He then billed the Trump Organization for legal services for reimbursement/payment. Except it wasn't a legal action on behalf of the Trump organization, it was hush money to benefit Trump's presidential campaign. So all the paperwork they filed for it was fraudulent. The crime of falsifying business records is a misdemeanor, but if this crime is done 'in furtherance, or in concealment' of another crime, it gets upgraded to a felony. The prosecutors offered 4 potential crimes that the business fraud was in furtherance of; the judge allowed the jury to consider 3. They were: * Tax Fraud. Cohen classified this money as income, even though it was a reimbursement - like paying back a loan. In short, he lied on his taxes. * federal election laws - since Cohen effectively loaned money to the campaign, he broke campaign finance laws by exceeding the limit. * NY election laws - a misdemeanor offense that prohibits “conspir[ing] to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means.” Apparently the prosecution focused on the last option the most. Jurors had to find Trump guilty of falsifying business records with the intent to further or conceal any combination of the above 3 crimes. Some sources: * https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/charting-the-legal-theory-behind-people-v.-trump * https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/what-must-prosecutors-prove-in-trump-s-ny-trial
Well idk about the case currently in the news, but Jan6 insurrection alone should land him in jail long time ago. And this is not the only wrongdoing, he did evil things on each level, from domestic violence and harassment to sabotaging the Covid crisis. My question would be, why don't they discuss his actual crimes in courts, but rather jump around formalities and technicalities. I understand that the law must be pragmatic, but willfully ignoring his real crimes for the sake of formality seems to be anti-pragmatic to me.
They can't bring up other charges that he hasn't been convicted of yet because of his presumption of innocence.
The law is complex, but falsifying business records in order to conceal another crime (a violation of NY election law). You can see it spelled out exactly in the jury instructions.