RogerC39 wrote:
sosayusall wrote:
Quote:
The payment is confirmed. The story was there whether they had sex or not. He wanted to bury the story not the sex.completely agree. And this is why the doormans story is important - they wanted to bury the story, which turned out not to be true.
"The story" - is more so "her story" - whether true or not, is what important.
Trump didnt want her story coming out - when it was going to come out. The prosecution needed to show that her story was going to come out BUT for the payout - which could have been done legally by the campaign.
I do have a question. If the payout came right before the election, and was done by the campaign, and trump disclosed the campaign finances AFTER the election - wouldn't this have all gone away? It seems like campaign can just backend payments like this and not have to disclosures reported on before the election.
I disagree. Whether the story is true has some importance. Someone is more likely to bury a story, and to hide any efforts to bury the story, if the story has legs as opposed to being a mere allegation. What would the price be to buy off a an allegation you know isn't true and that cannot be corroborated as opposed to one that you know is? You make up shit about me in an effort to extort money -- I probably laugh in your face, or threaten legal action. But if you're not making it up, I'm at least willing to listen to your offer. So I think whether they had sex is relevant to how we interpret his subsequent response.
As I understand his in limine ruling, Judge Merchan split the difference -- allowing testimony about the facts underlying Stormy's story, but not allowing it as to McDougal or Sajudin. That seems sensible. As for Stormy, if Trump was willing to stipulate that he paid off Stormy, then maybe the details can be excluded. But, if he refuses to stipulate to that, then it seems relevant to prove his motive to pay her off. Toward that end, as you say, the details are relevant for two purposes: (1) to show what the story would have been and (2) to show that Stormy's story would have had the sort of details needed to make it credible.
