{"id":2254808,"date":"2024-05-29T07:42:02","date_gmt":"2024-05-29T11:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-not-trump-are-the-real-crooked-record-keepers\/"},"modified":"2024-05-29T07:47:23","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T11:47:23","slug":"democrats-not-trump-are-the-real-crooked-record-keepers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-not-trump-are-the-real-crooked-record-keepers\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats, the True Record-Keepers, Contrary to Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdemocrats-not-trump-are-the-real-crooked-record-keepers%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2254808&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The text discusses the trial of President Trump in\u200c New York \u2063for alleged falsification of business records. It highlights the debate on how payments were classified and the legal implications. Furthermore, \u2064it delves into the judge&#8217;s decisions and the \u200bbroader political implications of the case, drawing comparisons with White \u200dHouse\u2064 record issues. The article explores President Trump&#8217;s trial in\u2063 New York \u2063for \u2062suspected falsification of business records, focusing on payment classification and legal consequences. It also examines the judge&#8217;s rulings and the\u2063 wider political\u200b ramifications of the case, including parallels with record matters\u2064 at the White House.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>President Trump is on trial in New York for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/indicting-trump-will-usher-in-americas-banana-republic-stage\/\" title=\"Indicting Trump Will Usher In America\u2019s Banana-Republic Stage\">allegedly falsifying business records<\/a> because the bookkeepers in his organization recorded certain legal expenses \u2014 specifically, a legal settlement \u2014 as \u201clegal expenses.\u201d According to Democrat prosecutors, the bookkeepers should have recorded these payments as campaign contributions and expenditures because, they say, the payments were \u201cintended\u201d to \u201cinfluence\u201d the 2016 election \u201cunlawfully\u201d by concealing a purported sexual encounter with a pornographer.<\/p>\n<p>Convoluted and bizarre enough for you yet? It should be. Because there is absolutely nothing \u201cunlawful\u201d about concealing a purported sexual encounter with a pornographer.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1076761078\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-732c9e475fe471b1e846941071896245 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-732c9e475fe471b1e846941071896245\"><\/div>\n<p>There is, nevertheless, a good deal of crooked record-keeping going on these days. But Democrats are the ones doing it.  <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">False Characterization of Record-Keeping Requirements<\/h2>\n<p>Federal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/google-expands-security-efforts-ahead-of-2022-elections\/\" title=\"Google Expands Security Efforts Ahead of 2022 Elections\">campaign finance law<\/a> actually <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/04\/12\/alvin-bragg-kicks-off-another-frenzied-lawfare-trial-with-weakest-case-against-trump-yet\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>prohibits<\/em><\/a>  candidates from characterizing the payments at issue in the Trump case as campaign contributions and expenditures.<\/p>\n<p>Brad Smith, a leading expert on campaign finance law and former member of the Federal Election Commission, was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2024\/05\/20\/trump-hush-money-criminal-trial\/judge-limits-trumps-expert-00158857\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">set to testify<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/04\/15\/trumps-strongest-new-york-defense-has-nothing-to-do-with-alvin-bragg-or-judge-merchan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">that very thing<\/a> in open court in the Trump case. Except Juan Merchan, the partisan Democrat <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/article\/2024\/may\/18\/judge-juan-merchan-trump-trial-political-contributions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Biden-donor judge<\/a> presiding over the case, barred him from doing so. <\/p>\n<p>To accept the prosecution\u2019s case, one must conclude that New York law requires candidates to make business records that violate federal law. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/wex\/supremacy_clause#:~:text=Article%20VI%2C%20Paragraph%202%20of,laws%2C%20and%20even%20state%20constitutions.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">supremacy clause<\/a> of the Constitution does not allow that. So it is Democrat prosecutors, not the Trump organization, that conspired to falsely characterize the record-keeping issues in the case.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-0b8d0e1805e1f2783154c5e06e5f5d62 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-0b8d0e1805e1f2783154c5e06e5f5d62\"><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Judge Merchan\u2019s Manipulation of the Trial Record<\/h2>\n<p>Judge Merchan\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2024\/05\/20\/trump-hush-money-criminal-trial\/judge-limits-trumps-expert-00158857\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">rationale<\/a> for excluding Smith\u2019s testimony is that judges traditionally instruct the jury on the law. The problem is that Merchan already allowed prosecution witnesses, and prosecutors themselves, to opine on their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2024\/05\/27\/trump-hush-money-trial-00160021\">understanding<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/march-for-our-lives-issue-biden-1-billion-list-of-gun-control-policy-demands\/\" title=\"March For Our Lives Issue Biden  Billion List Of Gun Control Policy Demands\">campaign finance laws<\/a>. Once he allowed that, Merchan was constitutionally required to allow Trump to mount a defense on the same point.<\/p>\n<p>Merchan also overlooked the fact that how people align their behavior with the law is based as much on the policies of the administrators who enforce the law as on the words of the statute itself. Smith, a former member of the regulatory body that enforces federal campaign law, was prepared to testify that the agency\u2019s policy <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/04\/15\/trumps-strongest-new-york-defense-has-nothing-to-do-with-alvin-bragg-or-judge-merchan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">precludes<\/a> candidates from treating payments like these as campaign contributions and expenditures.<\/p>\n<p>This leads to the obvious conclusion that the Trump organization booked the payments in the manner that they did, not to \u201cunlawfully\u201d influence the 2016 election, but because they were (or at least thought they were) required to do so in that manner by federal law, completely negating the factual element of unlawful intent.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, had Trump \u201cintended\u201d to \u201cinfluence\u201d the 2016 election by covering up the Stormy Daniels\u2019 NDA payments, the easiest way to do so would have been to characterize the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2024\/05\/13\/politics\/takeaways-michael-cohen-testimony-donald-trump-day-16\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">late October 2016<\/a> payments as campaign contributions and expenditures. This is because, under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/registered-foreign-agent-gave-200k-to-mcauliffe-campaign\/\" title=\"Registered Foreign Agent Gave 0K to McAuliffe Campaign\">federal campaign finance law<\/a>, contributions and expenditures made in late October of an election year do not need to be reported until <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fec.gov\/help-candidates-and-committees\/filing-reports\/quarterly-reports\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">after the election<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-19fd02ad90a33c9f2ecf44185b916013 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-19fd02ad90a33c9f2ecf44185b916013\"><\/div>\n<p>Unfortunately (and unjustly), the jurors in the New York case will not hear any of this exculpatory information because the partisan Democrat judge has excluded it from the record. Like I said, it\u2019s the Democrats who have the record-keeping problem. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Talk About Falsifying Business Records to Influence an Election<\/h2>\n<p>Joe Biden is old. As Bill Maher puts it, Joe Biden is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/bill-maher-biden-appearance-cadaver-like-1903205\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201ccadaver-like\u201d<\/a> old. Polls show that nearly two-thirds of Americans believe Biden does not possess the <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/campaign\/4481379-most-in-new-poll-say-biden-doesnt-have-physical-mental-fitness-for-another-term\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">mental fitness<\/a> to serve another term as president. Do you think that might incentivize the White House to alter records to mitigate the political effects of Biden\u2019s mental deterioration?<\/p>\n<p>The White House is doing just that. It recently released the official transcript of Biden\u2019s May 19 speech to the NAACP in Detroit. It was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/speeches-remarks\/2024\/05\/19\/remarks-by-president-biden-at-a-campaign-event-detroit-mi-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">official<\/a>. Except it wasn\u2019t a transcript. It was a <em>political<\/em> <em>circular<\/em> designed to <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/05\/21\/us-news\/white-house-makes-nine-brutal-corrections-to-biden-naacp-detroit-speech\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">clean up the incoherent mess<\/a> left by a mentally diminished man selfishly trying to hold onto the most difficult, demanding, and consequential job in the world.<\/p>\n<p>The so-called \u201ctranscript\u201d substantively corrected numerous significant instances of mental lapses or gibberish uttered by Biden, including the claim that he was vice president during the Covid \u201cpandemic,\u201d and that President Obama told him to go to Detroit and \u201cfix it.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Records? We Don\u2019t Have to Show You Any Stinking Records!<\/h2>\n<p>There\u2019s no need to falsify records if you improperly refuse to let the public see them at all. That\u2019s what the White House did last week by claiming \u201cexecutive privilege\u201d over the audio recordings of Biden\u2019s interviews with the special counsel investigating Biden\u2019s mishandling of classified documents.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the case where Biden took <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/storage\/report-from-special-counsel-robert-k-hur-february-2024.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">highly classified documents<\/a> from the government while he was a senator and vice president, \u201cwillfully\u201d retained them openly in dilapidated boxes in his garage, and then \u201cwillfully\u201d disclosed the classified information to his ghostwriter as part of a lucrative <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2024\/mar\/12\/robert-hur-bidens-lucrative-book-deal-was-motive-f\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">$8 million book deal<\/a>. Biden\u2019s Justice Department declined to prosecute Biden, concluding that he would present himself to a jury like he did in his interviews \u2014 \u201cas a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hur-report-portrays-biden-as-elderly-man-with-poor-memory\/\" title=\"Report depicts Biden as 'aging individual' with 'impaired recollection\">sympathetic elderly man<\/a> with a poor memory\u201d \u2014 making it difficult to prove a felony \u201cthat requires a mental state of willfulness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In an effort to control the damage from the special counsel\u2019s report, the White House and its allies released redacted <a href=\"https:\/\/democrats-judiciary.house.gov\/news\/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=5273\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">transcripts<\/a> of Biden\u2019s interviews with investigators, apparently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/white-house\/biden-robert-hur-transcript-rcna142855\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">hoping<\/a> that presenting the cold, written version of Biden\u2019s testimony might minimize public fears about his declining mental state. It did not. Yet, it did open the door for Congress to subpoena the audio tapes of the interviews.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, the White House <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2024\/05\/16\/biden-moves-to-block-house-from-getting-his-classified-docs-interview-tapes-00158323\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">barred<\/a> the Justice Department from releasing those audio tapes to Congress on the grounds of \u201cexecutive privilege.\u201d However, the White House has already voluntarily released the transcripts of the interviews, so any privilege that may have existed has been waived. It is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/rules\/fre\/rule_502\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">basic principle of law<\/a> that a party waives confidentiality privileges once the party voluntarily discloses any significant portion of the information. In fact, in these circumstances, the White House\u2019s claim of executive privilege is not merely wrong, it is ludicrous.    <\/p>\n<p>The White House\u2019s assertion of \u201cexecutive privilege\u201d is not really a legal one \u2014 it knows it has no chance of prevailing in court. Rather, the assertion of privilege is purely <em>political<\/em>. The White House believes it can conceal the audio tapes <em>until after the election<\/em> while the issue is litigated.<\/p>\n<p>The audio tapes must be really, really bad for Biden. How do we know this?\u00a0 Because not releasing the tapes is really bad for Biden. The special counsel essentially reported that Biden appeared mentally diminished in his interviews. By refusing to release the audio tapes, Biden just confirms that perception. <\/p>\n<p>There were no good options for the White House on the audio tape issue. Because the White House chose a bad option (withholding the tapes), one can only assume that the other option (releasing the tapes) was substantially worse. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why Withhold Records if You Can Just Hide or Destroy Them Instead?<\/h2>\n<p>That, apparently, was the credo of one of Dr. Anthony Fauci\u2019s top advisers \u2014 and possibly Fauci <a href=\"https:\/\/oversight.house.gov\/release\/new-covid-select-memo-details-allegations-of-wrongdoing-and-illegal-activity-by-dr-faucis-senior-scientific-advisor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">as well<\/a> \u2014 during the Covid panic in relation to their dealings with EcoHealth Alliance and the now-admitted use of federal funding to perform <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/05\/16\/us-news\/nih-director-admits-taxpayers-funded-gain-of-function-research-in-wuhan-four-years-after-covid-pandemic-began\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">gain-of-function research at the infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This month, the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released shocking emails sent from the private Gmail account of David Morens, an adviser to Fauci, detailing an apparent effort by administrators to evade public open records laws \u2014 commonly referred to as \u201cFOIA\u201d \u2014 by improperly performing government work through private Gmail accounts or by deleting records altogether.<\/p>\n<p>In one such email, Morens tells Peter Daszak, president of EchoHealth Alliance, that \u201cthere is no worry about FOIAs. I can either send stuff to Tony on his private gmail, or hand it to him at work or at his home. He is too smart to let colleagues send him stuff that could cause trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In another email, Morens confesses, \u201cI learned from our foia lady here how to make emails disappear after I am foia\u2019d, but before the search starts, so i think we\u2019re all safe. Plus, i deleted most of those earlier emails after sending them to gmail.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p>Wow, that\u2019s bad. But you have to understand, to Democrats, booking legal expenses as \u201clegal expenses\u201d is the real threat to democracy.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-fb7d95885da77bf0e8cf7bb298b16f57 fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-fb7d95885da77bf0e8cf7bb298b16f57\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">    \t\t\t\t\t   \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Trump faces trial in New York for allegedly manipulating business records. His organization&#8217;s bookkeepers listed legal expenses, including a settlement, as such. Democrat prosecutors argue these payments should have been classified as campaign contributions and expenses, alleging an intended misuse of funds<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2785,"featured_media":2254809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-28-at-4.07.56%E2%80%AFPM.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2254808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-28-at-4.07.56%E2%80%AFPM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2254808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2785"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2254808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2254808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2254809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2254808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2254808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2254808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}