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This article is not for those who get upset reading what good, well informed journalists, lawyers, and historians like Marcy Wheeler, Teri Kanefield, and Heather Cox Richardson have to say about what‘s happening in our country today.
Teri gives us a good update and timeline on what has been and is going on in the NY investigation into Trump’s possible criminal business and tax dealings.
She explains many of the difficulties involved in prosecuting cases like Trump's and explains how mob bosses and racketeers are able to ensure that they can’t be successfully prosecuted and gives an example:
”I interrupt this timeline to bring you lessons from The Godfather
This is from The Godfather, pages 41-42:
That Sunday morning, Don Corleone [the Godfather] gave explicit instructions on what should be done to the two young men who had beaten the daughter of Amerigo Bonasera. But he had given these orders in private to Tom Hagen [the Consigliere.] Later in the day Hagen had, also in private without witnesses, instructed Clemenza. In turn Clemenza had told Paulie Gatto to execute the commission.”
The advantage of giving orders in private without witnesses is explained:
Each link of the chain would have to turn traitor for the Don to be involved and though it had never yet happened, there was always the possibility. The cure for that possibility was also known. Only one link in the chain had to disappear.
Prosecuting Trump becomes difficult if people just under him, the top-level Trump Organization executives who spent a lifetime getting rich while helping Trump cheat, are willing to take the fall for him. Imagine the Chief Financial Officer telling the jury, “Most of this stuff Trump didn’t even know about, and the stuff he did know about, I had assured him that it was legal, and because I am an accountant, he believed me.” (This is of course exactly what we have been seeing and hearing)
A jury might convict despite such testimony, but given the extraordinarily high standards in a criminal trial—to convict, the jury must find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt—it seems just as likely that a jury would acquit Trump and convict Weisselberg.
When stories came out that Allen Weisselberg was refusing to flip on Trump, my guess was that Weisselberg figured that he and his family had lived a life of luxury so he owed it to Trump to go to prison for him.”
Click the link to read the rest of Teri’s blog, it’s far more informative and interesting that the sensationalized entertainment based news we get so much of from the most popular mainstream media, however, one warning for those used to entertainment news Teri's blog can seem boring.
