Bragg’s office began presenting evidence to a grand jury at the end of January, signaling that a charging decision was imminent. Among the witnesses who testified were former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, longtime Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway, and former Trump attorney Michael Cohen. Cohen’s testimony was presumably of significant interest to prosecutors, given that he was the actual person who paid Daniels the $130,000 in October 2016 to keep her quiet, and pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal charges related to the hush money deal.
Cohen has previously said he arranged the hush money payoff at Trump’s direction; he told Congress that he was reimbursed for the $130,000 while Trump was in office, with the then president personally signing checks each month. Asked why the reimbursement was spread out over approximately a year’s time instead of being taken care of in one fell swoop, Cohen said it was “in order to hide what the payment was,” and that it was meant to “look like a retainer.” And Trump, he testified under oath, “knew about everything.” Speaking to reporters after he testified before the grand jury in mid-March, Cohen said: “My position is that, at the end of the day, Donald Trump needs to be held accountable for his dirty deeds, if in fact that’s the way that the facts play out.” Daniels herself met with prosecutors on March 15.
While a conviction is in no way a sure thing, should he be found guilty, Trump could go to prison for up to four years. Asked earlier this month if he would drop out of the 2024 presidential race if he were to be indicted, the ex-president and current presidential candidate responded: “I wouldn’t even think about leaving,” adding that criminal charges would “probably…enhance my numbers.”
Of course, today’s news is far from the only legal issue Trump is facing. The Justice Department is currently running a pair of criminal investigations into both his handling of classified documents and his attempt to overturn the 2020 election. In January, Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis, who has been investigating Trump and his allies’ attempt to overturn the election in Georgia, said charging decisions in that case would be coming soon.
Ron DeSantis f—ked with Disney, and Disney f—ked back
Ron DeSantis loves to declare that Florida is the freest state in the nation, a deeply ironic claim given that Floridians are literally punished for disagreeing with him. One of the best examples of this was his response to Disney speaking out against his bigoted “Don’t Say Gay” law, which was to dissolve the company’s self-governing status and force it to, among other things, pay more taxes. Soon thereafter, the Florida governor installed five handpicked individuals to Disney’s oversight board, including the “founder of a right-wing parent group, a Christian nationalist, and a deep-pocketed Republican Party donor,” according to The Guardian. But unfortunately for DeSantis, he appears to have been outfoxed by Mouse-town.
Per the Associated Press:
Board members picked by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to oversee the governance of Walt Disney World said Wednesday that their Disney-controlled predecessors pulled a fast one on them by passing restrictive covenants that strip the new board of many of its powers. The current supervisors of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District said at a meeting that their predecessors last month signed a development agreement with the company that gave Disney maximum developmental power over the theme park resort’s 27,000 acres in central Florida.
The new supervisors replaced a board that had been controlled by Disney during the previous 55 years that the government operated as the Reedy Creek Improvement District. The new board members held their first meeting earlier this month and said they found out about the agreement after their appointments. “We’re going to have to deal with it and correct it,” board member Brian Aungst said Wednesday. “It’s a subversion of the will of the voters and the Legislature and the governor. It completely circumvents the authority of this board to govern.”
DeSantis does not appear to have commented on the news yet, but there is presumably fiery rhetoric and retribution headed Disney’s way.
Barry Black, whose job is to literally lead the Senate in prayer: Screw your “thoughts and prayers”
