Donald Trump a convicted felon

Possibly the first time ever that he has been held to account for his actions. Pity it's too late to moderate his character.

maddyone

How could anyone vote for him after this? Surely it’s the end?

He has his fans on here. Somethign about standing up for people and building a wall I believe.

Wyllow3

I think they will find that harder to prove than Georgia, although the insurrection is the really "big" one.

I think I read that if found guilty in the Georgia trial - it carries a long prison sentence.

zakouma66

maddyone

How could anyone vote for him after this? Surely it’s the end?

He has his fans on here. Somethign about standing up for people and building a wall I believe.

The racists support him.

He is now charged by a black person of calling her a n…….r

Ladyleftfieldlover

Apparently there’s nothing in their constitution which says a convicted criminal can’t stand for President and be elected, even if they’re in jail. I’m sure that’s not the case here.

It is about time the US sorted out their constitution, it is crazy that Trump could be elected President even if he is in prison!

Germanshepherdsmum

Urmstongran

As he often says, “if they can do this to me, think what they can do to you”. They’ve just guaranteed a Trump win. The bookies odds are 6/5 on they think so too. The next few weeks will be interesting. I’m not American but even I thought this won’t be a fair trial. The judge is a Democrat donor and NY is a Democrat stronghold.

Are you agreeing with him that the trial was rigged and the judge was biased?

Methinks the lady is somewhat enamoured!

Caleo

Let's not say "only in America could such a man retain and secure enough votes to make him head of state". It could happen in the UK if the electorate become stupified by some man's charisma plus paranoid fear of others.

Agree. Sadly social media helps this to happen. Too many people only take their information from a limited number of sources and so never have their views challenged, just get more of the same and in stronger doses.

Fortunately the UK deflated it's very own populist blond bladder of nonsense, but then we are more cynical than the USA, I feel.

Curtaintwitcher

It was a foregone conclusion. This wouldn't have happened if he didn't still have massive support and a strong chance of being elected again.
He is an unpleasant person but he is what America needs.

What?? How on earth do you work this out? “He’s what America needs” what does even mean! Have you ever been to America?

Both parties DID have other candidates put forward and nominated to stand, but it was Biden and Trump who “won” to go forward.

Tbh I don’t fully understand the entire USA voting system

From the Telegraph:

“Love or hate Trump, this rotten trial is an assault on justice
Trump’s conviction on all counts will tear America’s already fragile political fabric apart from the seams.”

Cossy

Both parties DID have other candidates put forward and nominated to stand, but it was Biden and Trump who “won” to go forward.

Tbh I don’t fully understand the entire USA voting system

From what my son tells me, it’s about the “college system” -which I don’t really understand either.

But, the Republican Party don’t need to nominate him.

Urmstongran

From the Telegraph:

“Love or hate Trump, this rotten trial is an assault on justice
Trump’s conviction on all counts will tear America’s already fragile political fabric apart from the seams.”

Who wrote that - context is all.

Evidence of rigged system is also helpful.

All nonsense of course.

The article in full for those who would like to read it:

“ Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts in a trial in Manhattan on May 30. Democrats are singing with joy, but it was a truly sad day for America.

This was a prosecution that never would have been brought had the defendant not been Donald Trump, and had Trump not run for reelection in 2024. Rather than prosecuting an obvious crime, prosecutors set out to prosecute a political opponent. And to do so, they invented a criminal theory to pursue.

For many years this case, involving alleged bookkeeping issues in recording payments to ‘Stormy Daniels’ to buy her silence, had lingered unprosecuted for so long that the charges, low-level misdemeanors, no longer could be brought because time had expired.

But then along came Alvin Bragg, a Left-wing prosecutor who ran for office on the promise that he would do what prior prosecutors had failed to do, to get Donald Trump. The case was politically motivated from the start. To get Trump at all costs to try to stop his presidential campaign.

Yet to get the case to court, Bragg had to turn the charges into felonies, with longer time limits. So he invented a novel and untested legal theory, maligned even by liberal legal commentators, that the bookkeeping issues were to illegally influence an election – his own 2016 winning election.

There is nothing illegal about paying money to buy silence. It happens every day in court cases and business deals, where money is paid for non-disclosure agreements. And there is nothing illegal about politicians hiding their dirty laundry, happens every campaign. The bookkeeping issue was the hook to turn lawful political activity into a crime.

This case born in politics then turned into a circus. The trial judge, whose family had strong political ties to Democrats, issued ruling after ruling hamstringing Trump’s defense. The prosecution was allowed to play hide and seek with its legal theory of criminality, so much so that Trump never really knew what he was defending until the very end.

Then the judge issued jury instructions that seemed to fly in the face of our jurisprudence, by allowing the jury convict on felony charges without unanimous agreement as to what were the specific illegal acts to influence the election.

If you insist on charging a former president and clear front-runner in a presidential election, then you better be sure those charges are clear, concise, and legitimate. This was certainly not the case here. The jury was drawn from one of the most heavily Democrat jurisdictions in the country. So the likelihood of Trump prevailing always was slim.

A politically motivated prosecution by Democrat prosecutors presided over by a politically connected Democrat judge in a politically Democrat jurisdiction against the likely Republican presidential nominee in an election year. It smells rotten because it was rotten. The whole thing stinks.

Whether you love or hate Trump, this conviction should appall you. This is not about Donald Trump. It’s about the weaponisation of the criminal justice system against a political opponent. It’s the type of prosecutorial and judicial conduct we expect in Putin’s Russia. Prior to this case, America was deeply divided. Now it’s tearing at the seams.

Lawfare very easily can become warfare when people lose trust in the institutions that are supposed to protect against political persecution. There were so many errors in the trial proceedings that the likelihood of the case being overturned on appeal is high, but that will come after the November election. The damage to the legitimacy of our system has been done regardless of how the appeal turns out.

This is not what America’s founders envisioned, it’s not what the framers of our constitution intended, and it’s anathema to everything that made America great. Faith in our systems has been broken for at least half the country. Things are about to go from bad to worse.”

DiamondLily

Cossy

Both parties DID have other candidates put forward and nominated to stand, but it was Biden and Trump who “won” to go forward.

Tbh I don’t fully understand the entire USA voting system

From what my son tells me, it’s about the “college system” -which I don’t really understand either.

But, the Republican Party don’t need to nominate him.

He hasn’t been nominated yet, but the republicans are a spineless lot of individuals.

Urmstongran

From the Telegraph:

“Love or hate Trump, this rotten trial is an assault on justice
Trump’s conviction on all counts will tear America’s already fragile political fabric apart from the seams.”

So you’re happy with the fact that an American president paid a porn star for sex after his wife had just given birth to their child? Is that an irrelevance? I thought Americans were all home and family and Christian values.

It's nothing but ludicrous that the most powerful country in the world, and with a population of approx. 330 million plus, could well end up with just 2 individuals to choose from for the Presidency.

One an elderly gent, apparently subject to occasional brain-fogs and the other candidate (also elderly in spite of his silly hair) a convicted criminal with an appalling track record for mysoginy, cooking the books, lying, loud-mouthed abuse and forever losing his volcanic temper.

That's it?

Furthermore, this whole circus trial is surely a gift to the creators of Spitting Image? Bring it on!

I thought Americans were all home and family and Christian values.

🤣🤣

JFK??

Actually I am surprised and delighted that the Telegraph has carried an opinion piece co-authored by William A. Jacobson, a professor at Cornell Law School (one of the few right-wing professors in American academia), and the leading light at the Legal Insurrection website. He is a man of great integrity.

Urmstongran

^I thought Americans were all home and family and Christian values.^

🤣🤣

JFK??

Does that make what Trump did right in your eyes?

Unlike Trump then. Is he the author of that biased piece you posted?

It was a minor accounting mis-statement. That's it. A fine and a slap on the wrist.

And please do not refer to the payment as "hush money" - how can it be when the recipient has been blabbing her mouth off for the last decade?

This akin to charging a company employee with the theft of paperclip to get rid of him. There probably isn't a company in the land that hasn't paid an invoice from it's accounts that wasn't exactly for the purpose specified!

Wyllow3

I do hope they proceed with the indictment of voter corruption in Georgia. Thats where Trump asked the Georgia secretary of state to "find 11,780 votes" in 2021.
Its hitting obstacles already however

"Jan. 2, 2021
In an hourlong phone call obtained by ABC News, Trump calls Raffensperger and falsely claims that it was "not possible" for him to have lost and asks the secretary to "find 11,780 votes" -- the exact number Trump needed to win Georgia.

"The people of Georgia are angry. The people of the country are angry, and there's nothing wrong with saying that, you know, that you've recalculated,"

Trump says on the call. " All I want to do is this: I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. ... Fellas, I need 11,000 votes, give me a break ."

Meadows was also heard speaking on the call."

another slap on the wrist?

Trump says on the call. " All I want to do is this: I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. ... Fellas, I need 11,000 votes, give me a break ."

How can anyone support Trump after that?