88 Comments

Thank you for your clear voice on the legalities of the moment. When people ask me where do i get my “News,” i point to independent writers, and especially you, as to my trusted sources. Thank you for publishing on Substack. Happy to support your scholarship.

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Me too..

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Me three 🫶🏻

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Thanks, Joyce. I hope there will be cameras in the courtroom. We can be sure Trump will spin the proceedings inaccurately and I'd like to know there will be video evidence for us to see with our own eyes.

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'Judge Juan Merchan, who will handle the Trump prosecution, also heard the criminal tax fraud case against Trump’s company last year (Trump himself was not a defendant), in which Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg pled guilty and the company was convicted. In that case, Merchan refused to let the defendants argue that the prosecution was politically motivated and directed the attorneys to focus on the charges at hand. ' (Joyce)

Two key points in the above paragraph. Judge Juan Merchan REFUSHED TO LET THE DEFENDENTS ARGUE THAT THE PROSECUTION WAS POLITICALLY MOTIVATED. That is key; may the judge do the same in this case? That seems likely to me. Second key point, FOCUS ON THE CHARGES AT HAND. We need to thoroughly understand the charges. Joyce will be back to review those. How might charges in this case be helpful to other prosecutors readying cases against Trump?

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Fern McBride... (NYC)... Judge Merchan will control the Orange Faced Yellow Haired Loonie or put him where he will loose some weight... and might live a little longer... in good company of his peer....

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Excellent questions..

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Hi Fern, I remember you from the bad old Showtime days!

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Salud, Bayjh. Those days seem long ago and not of consequence to me.

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I hear that, lol!

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Joyce, surely you know: the common denominator of our culture, our history, our politics and our current societal dysfunction is racism, is prejudice, the dynamics of which are fear and ignorance. Education and tolerance are missing in America. Our schools are increasingly crippled. Whites are nervous. Blacks once trashed are slowly doing better. Tuesday’s reading will demonstrate the lows President Trump penetrated. Tuesday’s news will call for the GOP to grow up or perish. Dress rehearsal is over.

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You're missing one key factor about our culture (such as it is): an economic system that benefits from all of the above, especially when the wealthy and big businesses are free to do whatever they want.

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I really hope you’re right. The rule of law must prevail for the country’s sake.

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Thank you for this clear and helpful summary. It’s going to be a week, alright. I SO want Trump brought to justice. He is an evil and dangerous man and our national attention needs to be elsewhere. He has CONSUMED it.

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I'm glad they didn't unseal the indictment early. We will all find out Tuesday, when it is supposed to happen!

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As my sister said when I forwarded your last Civil Discourse “ She’s wonderful “ and that you are.

(She subscribed)

if they can’t put a gag order on Tfg could they maybe put one on the house GOP? Just a thought.

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Thank you, Joyce. I'm particularly impressed that, as you point out, there has not been any leaks as we head toward Tuesday. Good to know, also, that the judge is up to the challenge!

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I laugh at your, "it's going to be a week". Since 2008, when hasn't it been 'a week'?

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Love your week ahead blogs most of all Joyce! Thank you again for the concise explanation. I always breathe a sigh of relief when I read them.

I think TFG will relish the extended “perp walk” from PBC airport to NYC, then again to his hotel on 5th Ave(?) on Monday night. Another spectacle on Tuesday from his hotel to the DA’s office and back again. It’s just what his “brand” is all about. The more time in front of the cameras the better. The topping will

Be his news conference at the end of the day on Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago. Boo hiss.... Let the games begin and as they say in baseball. One, Two, Three strikes your out! 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

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Bragg wouldn't have indicted unless every 'I' was dotted, every 't' crossed. I'm feeling a bit of sympathy for TFG's lawyer if this goes to trial. This attorney is facing a buzzsaw of a career ender. His client is more than willing to sabotage his own defense with his verbal diarrhea and outrageous behavior. There is no amount of money that makes this case worth worth it.

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The media, even that media we might deem still mostly worthy of our trust and attention appear predisposed to the idiotic notion of “both-sides-isn”. There is no equivalence. There is right, and there is wrong. The vast majority of us support the rule of law. We support our democracy.

We will be tested in these coming weeks. We must hold tight and remember, no matter how much attention, and concomitant legitimacy the media lend to the fascist minority, it is a minority, and we still retain the ultimate legitimacy... because we are the majority. We are the VAST majority!

No matter how many hurdles they throw in front of us, we must VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! No more GD Republicans! Anywhere! Ever! And, we must help our sisters and brothers to do likewise.

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I would tend to qualify that there is value to a democracy in having a LOYAL opposition. That loyalty would be to foundation principles by which the society is organized and governed. In our case, that is with respect to the Constitution to which those of us who are serving or have served are publicly sworn to uphold; not a person or a party.

The republicant leadership betrays that trust on a daily basis.

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Agreed. But I’m not sure I remember a time when - since at least the 1950s, Republicans steadfastly embraced our democracy. The serious erosion to any dedication they may have had to it began with Reagan, then Newt, then Rush and the subsequent ascension of hateful, “those people, other” divisive politics. Republicans, calling the rest of us, “the enemy”, do not appear now to be loyal to anything but winning power.

Thanks for engaging!

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GJ. That has been my mantra for a long time. Thank you for stating it so concisely. We were all much younger when all the news concerning our sitting President’s criminal activity and intent was not delivered by social media because it did not exist. Our children and for many of us, our grandchildren need to be exposed to and understand these “current events”. These proceedings will impact everyone of us whether we care to understand or not, because it impacts our Democracy our governance and our very freedom as a country existing with the rule of law as our moral compass.

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The circus begins. I don’t love that he didn’t surrender Friday and everyone got to spin. This may be the first time we get to see live… Justice delayed, Justice served!!!

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I don't know how many of us have seen the Secret Service do a safety sweep ahead of an official presidential (even ex) appearance. Even for a relatively confined space it takes some time, and they cannot afford to miss anything. That is one BIG building, with many spaces to inspect, traffic patterns to monitor, potential weaknesses to identify, I am not sorry that there was enough time for a thorough job. Could they have been faster - if it was essential, sure. In this case, given threats against the court as well as the criminal - if they didn't have to rush, there was no need to.

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Quite frankly, I'm more concerned about the safety of the court employees - custodians, clerks, jurors, judges, and everyone else who works there.

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I worry about them as well. And the judge, the NYPD, everyone in this mess. I'm sure that if the SS says they could have been done, they could. I'm not sorry they had the time, no matter whose idea.

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The Secret Service spokesperson stated: “we could have had him there on Friday”. It was his lawyers who told the D.A.’s office that the Secret Service needed a few days.

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All in all except for the last section about new voter suppression tactics, the rest is excellent analysis of the overall situation and major players in this legal process of holding the orange 🍊 behemoth accountable.

Trump's been able to squirm his way out of everything the last 50 years, thanks to the legal tricks his lawyer buddy Cohn taught him. Hopefully he's going to find out that dog 🐕 don't hunt anymore!!

Like the old Beatles song 🎵 says "it's getting better all the time ".

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Notwithstanding Professor Vance’s justified caveats, I write mostly to test my understanding of what we might learn when Bragg’s indictment is unsealed on Tuesday. While I contend it’s a given that Trump’s office violated New York State law by falsifying business records, I also understand that the statute of limitations for that misdemeanor has expired. Accordingly, we can expect Bragg’s office to argue that the misdemeanor is tied to a felony. Were that felony to be a violation of federal election laws, two questions come to mind: 1) Can a local prosecutor issue an indictment for a federal crime? and 2) Why didn’t Biden’s Justice Department determine back in 2021 that there was sufficient factual predication to indict?

Though I imagine all of us are eager for whatever amount of clarification is unveiled this Tuesday, I wish, at this moment, to close with an immeasurably timely statement advanced by journalist Fareed Zakaria, who asserted, “The rule of law is not pursued simply to punish people, but to create a system of self-government that is widely viewed as legitimate and fair.” While, admittedly, the law should not care about the political affect of an indictment, in my view, Zakaria’s statement induces us to consider whether we should care if indictment and prosecution create more or less faith in our judicial and democratic system.

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As to the question of the statute of limitations: I have heard experts explain that according to New York state law, the statute is paused for those periods of time that the defendant lives out of state. The prosecutors would have taken this into account when considering charges and will be able to prove the defendant/crime falls within the prescribed time frame. Given the defendant’s time in the WH, and his changing his permanent residence to Florida, I don’t see this being an issue. Although, I do expect his lawyer to raise this issue, it will be easily dismissed. I hope this helps.

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Cathy, I appreciate you writing, and I hope you’re right. Still, I also hope said misdemeanor is tied to a felony for which Trump can be held criminally accountable.

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Thanks Cathy(W. Michigan). I had heard the same thing yesterday. Had TFG stayed in NY, the Statute would have run out but since he slithered(sorry snakes everywhere)down to DeInsanity Land, there was the yuge pause. The BEST pause!

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Gosh, I read somewhere that Cohen’s exposure as a Federal witness would encompass “all known crimes”, to which he wouldn’t agree, versus being a State witness which would limit his exposure to the charges at hand. I’ll have to search for it, I follow too many substacks! Maybe Joyce can chime in on this.

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Gail, I expect once the indictment is unsealed we’ll all know more. Further, whatever we might miss, I can’t imagine a better Explainer-in-Chief than Joyce.

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This week in Christianity is “Passion Week” and this may be the most “passionate” week in memory. We not only have “Good Friday” but now we will have “Good Tuesday”. Thanks Joyce!

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