The charges centered on a $130,000 payment to adult film performer Stormy Daniels

A New York appeals court will be asked on Thursday to throw out Donald Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The case made history in May 2024, when the verdict turned Trump into the first former, and now current, US president with a criminal conviction. The historic ruling did not stop him from returning to the White House, and it brought no punishment.

The charges centered on a $130,000 payment to adult film performer Stormy Daniels, made to obscure the money’s true purpose.

Trump denies any wrongdoing, and has turned to state and federal courts in hopes of unwinding the verdict. He is not expected to attend Thursday’s court session. The appeal turns on complex legal disputes, but the political overtones are hard to miss.

  • nothrone@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    8 hours ago

    I think we should keep pressure up, we as a society, should be pressuring the new democrats to not let their voters down. And also, keep the anti-AI feeling going. I want the AI-related stock market to fucking crash and bring us some sense of normalcy. We all have a game to play and I think these midterms showed that we can make a difference, though constant pressure is needed.

  • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    Donnie’s priorities: enriching himself and his shitty family to the tune of billions. Ballrooms, reflecting pools, arches and stapling tacky gold shit to the walls of the WH.

    Also: making sure to cover up his own crimes.

  • NovaVeles@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    I was starting to think ole Donny T was going to get away with it via the grave while everyone below him that propped up his nonsense got the brunt of it. Maybe I should have been a little more optimistic for once.

    He has been especially down trodden and looking a little scared the last few days.

  • Asafum@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    34 felony counts

    The historic ruling did not stop him from returning to the White House, and it brought no punishment.

    The absolute joke that is “rule of law.”

    • aramis87@fedia.io
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      1 day ago

      The lack of punishment is ridiculous.

      The ability to be elected to office even with felony convictions is a safeguard. If you were barred from office if you had a felony, then this government would just keep charging everyone it hated with felonies, hoping either for a conviction, the person to go bankrupt and give up, or create enough smoke that the potential constituents don’t vote for them.

      I mean, you know Ken Paxton would’ve had Talarico and O’Rourke up on charges, and enough Texans are Fox addicts that they’d have either eventually gotten a conviction for something or at least discouraged people from voting from them. And you know Trump would be relentlessly going after AOC, Omar, Sanders, Mamdani, etc.

    • slothrop @lemmy.ca
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      1 day ago

      Rape, pedophilia, genital obsession, treason, insurrection, pathological lying, cowardice…

      “Right On”
      – maga

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      18 hours ago

      Founding Fathers- “do we add some clarity? Naahh that would never happen”

      One semiquincentennial later “Well now see here there ain’t nothin on these books sayin we can’t elect a rapist felon to the highest office”

      • Asafum@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        I get the whole being elected thing being ok, it’s the no punishment thing that really pisses me off. Any one of us would have the book thrown at us…

        There is something to be said about a tyrannical government charging people with felonies to prevent them from being eligible to be president, so as long as the people still vote for them I guess it’s ok. But as far as the law goes, wtf is the point of a felony if there are no repercussions? I go to jail or face fines but Donnie two diapers doesn’t because he’s rich, famous, and has a cult?

      • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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        23 hours ago

        The rapist part was civil, not criminal. Granted he’s definitely criminally a rapist as well, it just hasn’t been proven in court.

        So its more a felon and a rapist, but not a felon rapist which implies felony rape conviction.

  • danc4498@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    I wouldn’t be surprised if he leaves the White House and gets a full massive pardon from Vance. For any and all crimes he might have done.

      • danc4498@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        I hope it isn’t democrats impeaching him, though. Let him rot for 2 years, let the GOP force him out, or let him leave on his own. Either way, democrats should not be the reason.

        • SippyCup@lemmy.world
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          2 hours ago

          Republicans will never allow impeachment to go through. The only way he’s removed is on their terms

          • danc4498@lemmy.world
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            1 hour ago

            Sure, but I could see a scenario where democrats impeach him and he resigns as a result. And the GOP blames Dems for it and in turn, energizes them for 2028. Also, a blanket pardon by Vance wouldn’t be as big of a deal.

            Ideally, Trump needs to leave on his own, or as a result of the GOP.

            Best thing for Dems is Trump still in office in 2028 or GOP in disarray

      • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        Qatar. It’s where he’s keeping the stolen Venezuelan oil money in a private account and received a jet as an official government gift.

        • kestrel7_7@lemmy.world
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          4 hours ago

          To be fair, the Qataris mostly gave him that jet bc it’s a giant money pit. They’d been trying to get rid of it for years and no one would take it until Trump.

        • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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          15 hours ago

          Saudi Arabia. They have a history of being a retirement home for corrupt and morally depraved former national leaders (e.g. Idi Amin), and they already own whatever part of trump Putin doesn’t own.

      • Soup@lemmy.world
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        19 hours ago

        MAGA people: “Wait but I thought he’d stay and fight with us…?” or, more likely “Yes he has to get away from the evil leftists!”

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      “Heee wuz sent har by gawwwwd to save this cuntry”

      …is literally the kind of crazy shit they say about this pampered failson Manhattanite social climber that hung out with Epstein.

      Meanwhile, someone like Obama is denigrated as a “community organizer”.

      • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        My aunt was a hardcore Christian who thought trump was literally the antichrist. But she loved him for that and voted for him every time. The antichrist is supposed to bring about the end times and she wanted that to happen. These people shouldn’t be allowed out of their houses, let alone allowed to vote.

      • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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        18 hours ago

        I like to show those people that article pointing to all the parallels between trump and the biblical antichrist.

        To be fair though, Obama was a great community organizer. I don’t think that’s a pejorative. Have the repugnicans started saying it?

        • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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          16 hours ago

          Yes, he was, but the right acted (and still act) like that was a pejorative. You and I don’t think that’s a pejorative, but the cons were trying to paint it like it was some kind of shameful or scary thing to be engaged in.

          I’d ask these people if they were scared of the Rotary Club, or the local Elks, or people organizing church basement bingo, etc…no answer.

          But these are the same people that use “activist” as if it’s a pejorative, even if right wing activism is not only very much a thing, but very well-funded. I guess right-wing activism doesn’t have to really bother with getting people out on the streets…

          • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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            4 hours ago

            I see. So that’s why people rolled their eyes at me when I said Obama was a great community organizer…

            That was in college, but it kinda caught me off guard. I was just trying to point to a potential role model to inspire people to follow his example. Particularly Chicago-era Obama, which maybe younger folks don’t really remember…

            At the time I really felt like young adults needed to be more involved in politics, and in the civil sector. I still feel that way, and reality finally seems to be catching up. Not that I had anything to do with that, but it’s nice to see. I feel vindicated, in a way…

    • jumjummy@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      They use the most ridiculous excuse of “god works through flawed people” or something equally dumb.

  • Mulligrubs@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    In my opinion these charges are an international embarrassment (not as embarrassing as Trump, but still)

    Felonies for paying a prostitute and not writing “Prostitute” in the memo section of the check? Oh no.

    Release the Epstein files

    ETA if a politician wants to use their election funds to pay prostitutes, the last thing that we should do is put a stop to it. GO AHEAD waste all of your donor money. Good.

  • DrPop@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    He can’t argue this was an official act of the president because he wasn’t fucking president then. He seems to be trying.

  • GreenBean@lemmy.today
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    18 hours ago

    Johnson runs. trump endeavors even more strenuously to avoid paying the piper. What a gang of Recreants, Reprobants and Deviants. They should change the color to represent their party from red to yellow.

    • fritobugger2017@lemmy.world
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      16 hours ago

      Recreants

      Thank you for introducing me to this word! I am fairly sure that in my nearly 60 years I’ve not seen this before.

  • OneOfManyPerfectCats@sh.itjust.works
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    1 day ago

    The problem is a system that rewrites past actions as “that never happened, and if it did, it doesn’t mean anything”. The narcissist’s prayer is written into how the law works.