jerrymahoney

Gee that sounds like the old line Contest First Prize 1 week in Philadelphia; Second prize 2 weeks in Philadelphia.

That was a verbatim quote from a trial attorney and adjunct law professor on CNN. If you feel the need to qualify his remarks, up to you. But I don't have to respond.

Fine Judge will be sure to say except.

Article III Judges Article III of the Constitution governs the appointment, tenure, and payment of Supreme Court justices, and federal circuit and district judges. These judges, often referred to as “Article III judges,” are nominated by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Article III states that these judges “hold their office during good behavior,” which means they have a lifetime appointment, except under very limited circumstances. Article III judges can be removed from office only through impeachment by the House of Representatives and conviction by the Senate. Article III judgeships are created by legislation enacted by Congress. https://www.uscourts.gov/judges-judgeships/about-federal-judges

Published 12:00 AM EDT, Mon May 20, 2024 But if jurors think Cohen lied about the content of the call with Schiller and about whether he spoke to Trump, they could begin to doubt other aspects of his testimony. “That is exactly what the judge will instruct the jury: ‘If you find anything that a witness said to be untrue, to be incredible, to be a lie, feel free to disregard the entirety of that witness’s testimony,’” Randy Zelin, a trial attorney and adjunct professor at Cornell Law School, said on “CNN News Central” on Friday. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/20/politics/michael-cohen-testimony-trump-trial/index.html

I was long gone from US and Orlando when the 2016 Pulse shooting occurred as referenced in the OP. But if you notice from the map the Pulse Club was situated right near the The Orlando Regional Medical Center (ORMC) where I numerous occasions and at all times of the day took my parents to ORMC for one malady or another. I get the State Department alert and, though I am most unlikely to be near any of those warned events, does no harm to be on one's guard.

Smith will not testify. Judge Merchan said -- and I will paraphrase -- that if Smith testified, then the Prosecution would call their expert witness. Merchan said his opinion would be the third opinion and it will thus be the only opinion. As to whether defense can get the FEC regs into their closing, or can reply if the Prosecutioin does, I don't know.

No there is a weighting factor as she is in the Ft. Pierce - West Palm Beach district.

Unless you know more than them.

It wasn't inexplicable. From the link above: There were 26 judges in the Southern District of Florida to whom the case might have been assigned. Actually, Smith’s odds were one in three of getting Cannon because of the peculiarity of local rules, which lumped Fort Pierce and Palm Beach together. Smith needed to draw an inside straight but was dealt the death card.

Jack Smith’s Original Sin It would have been harder, but instead of trying the Mar-a-Lago documents case in Florida, the special counsel could have sought to bring it to court in D.C. Had he, we might be close to a verdict. May 17, 2024 Ask any former prosecutor. Special Counsel Jack Smith’s decision to bring the purloined documents case against Donald Trump in the Southern District of Florida instead of the District of Columbia was a strategic, if not catastrophic, error. While the acclaimed prosecutor couldn’t have anticipated as hostile a jurist as District Judge Aileen Cannon, he should have expected that South Florida would be trouble regarding jurors sympathetic to the former president and conservative but less esteemed judges than one would find in the District of Columbia where many have a background in classified documents cases. https://washingtonmonthly.com/2024/05/17/jack-smiths-original-sin/

Thailand Gift tax came into effect on 1 February 2016. That the issue of foreign sourced Thai gifts as tax-exempt has not been resolved since then means nobody has thought it is worth the effort to resolve it. None of the big Thai CPA/tax advisors say on their website: Hey big spender -- want to bring in over a half million dollars into Thai tax free? Here's how you do it.

Cartoon in NY Times a few days ago with a not so happy with the Judge opinion piece:

I remember having this discussion in January and what I said was that, if you could make a Thai gift from a non-Thai source up to 20 million baht tax-free, it would be a sure-thing routine recommendation by the Tax CPA's to their high flyer clientele.

The indictment lists 34 charges of 175.10. 175.10 presumes 175.05 which states: § 175.05 Falsifying business records in the second degree. A person is guilty of falsifying business records in the second degree when, with intent to defraud, he: 1. Makes or causes a false entry in the business records of an enterprise; or ... This is from the May 16 conference Bove, Colangelo, and Judge Merchan Bove: Next, I mentioned " The Irrespective Rule," which is set out in the FEC's regulations and cited, I think, by both parties in their request to charge . And so, we seek to his have Mr. Smith discuss that (Irrespective) rule, and discuss the focus on whether an expense would exist irrespective of the candidate's campaign , which we think is an important issue for the jury to consider with respect to whether the payments at issue could be considered expenditures and /or contributions. (my italics)

There are plenty enough otherwise left-leaning legal scholars who say that this case should have never been brought in the first place.

I'll say it again: The timing has no bearing on the issue.

That has no bearing on determining that Irrespective condition.

Yes so you can't say the only reason Stormy came forward was because of the election because she already did. And the Judge is reviewing the FEC "Irrespective" notion this weekend and the extent that Brad Smith can address it or prosecution rebuttal can address it.

I said she first showed up in 2011 when Trump was not running for office.

She first showed up in 2011 but despite the timing, as Mr. Smith said in 2018, he was a billionaire real estate developer TV reality star so there would be lots of reasons for Ms. Stormy to try to sell her story of screwing him when his new wife was pregnant. And Keith Davidson had lots of marks that were not politicians.

That's when she showed up.

This may be the topic at issue: Irrespective test Commission regulations provide a test, called the "irrespective test," to differentiate legitimate campaign and officeholder expenses from personal expenses. Under the "irrespective test," personal use is any use of funds in a campaign account of a candidate (or former candidate) to fulfill a commitment, obligation or expense of any person that would exist irrespective of the candidate’s campaign or responsibilities as a federal officeholder. More simply, if the expense would exist even in the absence of the candidacy or even if the officeholder were not in office, then the personal use ban applies. https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/making-disbursements/personal-use/

The lawyers discuss calling dueling campaign finance experts as witnesses Updated 3:29 AM GMT+7, May 17, 2024 With the jury gone for the day, legal arguments are ongoing about the parameters of potential testimony from a campaign finance law expert the prosecution wants to call as a witness should the defense end up calling their expert to the witness stand. Trump’s lawyers have said they may call Bradley A. Smith, a former Bill Clinton-appointed Republican Federal Election Commission member, to refute the prosecution’s contention that the hush money payments at issue in the trial amounted to campaign finance violations. Trump is charged with felony counts of falsifying business records. In order to convict him, the jury must find that he improperly logged reimbursements to Cohen and did so with the intent to commit or hide another crime. Among those other alleged crimes, prosecutors say, were campaign finance violations. Judge Merchan said he would take time this weekend to “digest both sets of submission further.” https://apnews.com/live/trump-trial-updates-day-18-cohen From 2018: https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/14/politics/trump-cohen-legal-risk/index.html Bradley Smith, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, says it’s a stretch to say the payoffs were aimed solely at influencing the election. Writing in the National Review this week, Smith said Trump had valid, personal reasons to hide the alleged affairs from public view. Among them: protecting his family from scandal and preserving his viability as a TV personality had he lost the election. Just because an action might benefit a candidate, doesn’t mean its sole purpose is to influence an election, he said.

Not 'statutes'. Singular. From the link: Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree, a class E felony, 34 counts