What A Day - Florida Man Charged With Fraud

Episode Date: April 5, 2023

Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Leah Litman, co-host of Crooked’s Strict Scrutiny podcast, breaks down all the charges and where the case goes from here.And in headlines: Janet Protasiewicz won the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, Republican lawmakers in Tennessee moved to expel three Democrats for leading a demonstration for gun control, and Rupert Murdoch ended his engagement to his fifth fiancee.Show Notes:Crooked Media | Strict Scrutiny – https://crooked.com/podcast-series/strict-scrutiny/What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastCrooked Coffee is officially here. Our first blend, What A Morning, is available in medium and dark roasts. Wake up with your own bag at crooked.com/coffeeFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday 

it's wednesday april 5th i'm priyanka arabindi and i'm juanita toliver and this is what a day where before you ask yes we've already had our faces photoshopped onto the brand new barbie poster i'm quite pleased there is some new pep in our step after we got those pictures a little hair flip a little vibe a little fuchsia, you know. I think we're both ready to be in Barbie's world. On today's show, three Democrats could get expelled from Tennessee's House of Representatives for leading a protest on gun reform. Plus, media mogul Rupert Murdoch has called off his engagement to his fifth fiancée.

Yikes. Yeah. Feels like it probably was the right call. Might have been for, you know, any of the past four too, but it's fine. But first, in a Manhattan criminal court yesterday afternoon, former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records

related to hush money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. I mean, Priyanka, it was a long day of footage of motorcades and planes. Set the scene for us. Yeah. So on Tuesday afternoon, Trump turned himself in to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office and was placed under arrest. While in custody, he was fingerprinted and processed. Those special accommodations were made for the former president.

He only spent a short time in custody ahead of his 2015 arraignment, and he was not handcuffed and did not have his mugshot taken at the time, much to our chagrin. We all were looking forward to the mugshot photo, maybe a picture of him in handcuffs. We did not get it, sadly. Outside the courthouse, hundreds of protesters both in support of and against the former president gathered for hours awaiting Trump's arrival. That group included Marjorie Taylor Greene, who compared Trump's arrest to that of Nelson Mandela and Jesus Christ himself. And even embattled Representative George Santos showed up, though they both did not end up sticking around for too long. Two things here. I'm so grateful that Representative Jamal Bowman was there to tell Marjorie Taylor

the Green to get the fuck out. And two, I just want to point out that there were more cameras than protesters because this was not only domestic news, y'all. This was international news. This is the first time in our country's history that a president has been charged with a crime. So this is a huge deal with mostly cameras. Yeah, as there should be. There's a former president

rolling up to the court to get arrested. Like, yeah, it's crazy. It is crazy. Under the circumstances, there were some additional security arrangements made by the court. Access to the 15th floor of the courthouse where Trump was arraigned was restricted.

In addition to the entrance of the DA's office for some time, the Wi-Fi was even disabled for most of the afternoon at the request of a Secret Service. I don't really get that one, but it seems like they were really trying their best here. Very thorough. Very thorough. Yeah. Keep things secure. But all of those things did not stand in the way from us getting the news out of the courtroom. Prosecutors alleged that Trump was trying to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election through a scheme to pay hush money to women who claimed to have extramarital

affairs with him and that he, quote, repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public. Basically, he illegally paid people to conceal information that we all should have known. As I said earlier, Trump pleaded not guilty to all 34 felony counts against him, and he made no public remarks

going into or out of the courtroom. He apparently saved them all for truth social. And of course, his televised address from Mar-a-Lago later Tuesday evening, where he returned immediately after the arraignment.

I mean, it was basically a word salad of every catchphrase he has ever coined. If you did not tune in, you were not missing out. But he did have this to say once he eventually got around to addressing his arrest. The criminal is the district attorney because he illegally leaked massive amounts of grand jury information for which he should be prosecuted or at a minimum he should resign. I mean, okay, then way to attempt to deflect. But also like, I'm so grateful that almost every news station cut away in 10 minutes or less. Cause this was just a campaign rally. This was literally a campaign speech. It was a campaign speech that made very little sense. Minimally coherent. Belligerent. It's giving the meme of like, okay, grandma, time for bed. Like, gotta wheel you off this train. Okay, boomer. Yeah. But anyways, to break

down this situation, get all the details, we brought in Leah Lippman. You know her, you love her. She's the co-host of Crooked's Strictsoutney podcast. Leah, welcome back to the show. Thank you for having me on a rainy day, as Alanis Morissette predicted. Right. Rainy day, historic day. And let's talk through these documents. So we've got dates and check numbers listed in the indictment. We've got catch and kill schemes, two women paid off, and a doorman spilling the tea about a secret baby in the statement of facts. So

break it all down for us, Leah. What are the charges and what makes them felony charges? So the base charge is falsification of business records and violation of New York law. And that's a state crime. That's why it's being prosecuted by the DA in New York. That is generally a misdemeanor, however. But it becomes a felony when the falsification of business records is done with the intent to conceal or promote a violation of some other law or to commit some other offense. And so the allegation is the business records were falsified to cover up or to pursue some other offense. And at the press conference, as well as in the accompanying statement of facts, there's some indication about what those other offenses might be.

Got it. So that's where all of these other salacious details are coming from. Well, I mean, the salacious details are definitely related to the, you know, other crimes that are alleged to have been violated here, but they are kind of core to the falsification of the business records charge as well. I mean, like this was money that was being shelled out to cover up a series of affairs, children that he may or may not have had. And that's why these business records were falsified. Right. There were no cuffs, no mugshot, at least not the fake mugshot that Trump has already put on a shirt and is out there selling. If I were to ever commit a crime, could my attorneys get these kind of terms for me?

Because this is not my understanding of what people experience. It is definitely not the usual course. And I think that's an important context for people to understand. Even while we are saying no one should be above the law, the reality is there are different criminal legal systems in the United States. And when you're a former president with this kind of legal representation, you can negotiate all kinds of things that, you know, the average person who doesn't have those kind of resources may not be able to. So here, for example, the prosecutor apparently just gave up the opportunity for a mugshot. And they're just like, we're not going to do that at all. This wasn't the usual course of proceedings, but I'd

say this is not kind of the status quo. And I don't know about y'all, but I really wanted a mugshot. Right? Am I alone in that? The cuffs, the mugshot, like, I don't know. We've been waiting. We've been waiting a long time. I think the reality is like, this is going to be a long wait. I mean, the next kind of court appearance in this case isn't until the end of the year. So it's going to be long and it might be messy along the way. We know the judge during the arraignment, according to reports, expressed that he's very concerned about Trump's online rhetoric. But there wasn't a gag order issued today. And I'm sure Trump and his family are only going to continue to escalate matters.

We know that Trump Jr. posted a picture of the judge's daughter during the arraignment. So do you think a gag order will eventually come or will Trump just keep trumping? I think it is really going to depend on what happens. You know, the prosecution did not ask for a gag order. And the judge also said, you know, I wouldn't have been inclined to grant one. And I think the showing required to obtain a gag order is pretty high, given that you are, you know, restricting someone's ability to speak and limiting, you know, their free speech rights. But if anyone, right, could make a really solid case for why they need to be subject to a gag order, right, it could very well be Donald Trump. You know, I mean, if you look at the accompanying

statement of facts, there are tweets, you know, that Donald Trump sent out that are now a part of this indictment that are basically, you know, part of an ongoing criminal violation. And so could he eventually do or say or truth enough to justify a gag order? Perhaps, but it's a little bit difficult to know how this might play out. And the other thing that was mentioned in the arraignment was a protective order, which is a little bit different because the DA talked about it in the context of preventing Trump from sharing materials disclosed during discovery. Can you describe a little bit more about what goes into a protective order and if that seems like a realistic expectation? Yeah. So during this kind of stage of the case, there's going to be discovery, which just means like sharing of evidence, you know, that

the government, the prosecution has with the defendant and some of the evidence that they have, they might not want publicly disclosed, perhaps because it was, say, testimony before a grand jury, you know, which is supposed to be confidential. That's just one example of where the government might want to ensure that Donald Trump isn't, say, like, just tweeting out pictures of pieces of evidence against him in the way that he used to do with, like, classified material, or, like, keeping boxes of it and, like, sharing it with his friends at Mar-a-Lago, you know, another kind of favorite pastime. But, you know, we don't know yet what the evidence is, but just based on

kind of general practices, including like confidentiality of grand jury proceedings, there's good reasons why the prosecution might not want all of the evidence just disclosed publicly. You know, we'll see again what is required to ensure that that actually happens. We know this arraignment brought a lot of randos who are not New Yorkers to New York, including one Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was unceremoniously removed from a protest. But she gave an interview today where she compared Trump's arrest to get this Nelson Mandela and Jesus himself. And of course, he's 100 percent delusional. It's well known that Jesus was also arrested for making hush payments to women that he was having extramarital affairs with.

Admittedly, like, you know, I am Jewish, so I didn't read the sequel. So, like, maybe that was covered there. But who knows? But can you also just tell all the people how he is absolutely nothing like Nelson Mandela? Like, there is no comparison here. Yeah. He is absolutely nothing like Nelson Mandela. Like there is no comparison here. Yeah, again, it's a little bit difficult to know like what things these people are like trying to say. I assume it's like some sort of like tortured extended analogy to saying this is like when Nelson Mandela engaged in civil disobedience in order to dismantle apartheid. I don't know exactly

like what they are saying is the analogy here. Like, are they conceding he did violate the law because that's what civil disobedience means? Are they saying he was making hush payments to a porn star not to influence the election, but in order to dismantle apartheid? Like, I don't know, right? Like these people are very imaginative, but yeah, those are some possibilities. Yeah, Leah, we're asking a lot of you to jump in their brains like that. So thank you for indulging us. But anyways, after the arraignment, DA Bragg told reporters, these are felony crimes in New York State. No matter who you are, we cannot and will not normalize serious criminal conduct. What do you make of that? You know, I think this is consistent with the theme that has been coming

out of this office, which is no one is above the law. And we can't decline to charge this case just because it involves, you know, someone who was the president who was ultimately elected and conduct that they engaged in in order to influence the election. You know, there's not kind of like a safe space to commit crimes, you know, in the lead up to an election just because you really want to get elected. And I take that to be kind of reflective of that approach to the case. Definitely. Is there anything else we didn't touch on in our questions that you think is important for people to understand about everything unfolding right now? Maybe just the timing and like, you know, it's basically going to be like four months before any next papers are filed and four months after that before the government responds. And like,

it's just like, this is going to be hanging over for a while. Buckle up, y'all. Years are, I think, are going to like, to the point where it's going to be a question about, will this be resolved before 2024? It sounds like absolutely not. Yeah, I think it's very unlikely, you know, if you're not even going to have the next hearing. And that's not a hearing at a trial. That is a pre-trial hearing until December 2023. It's a little bit hard to imagine how this all gets wrapped up, you know, before the 2024 election. Leah, thank you so much for breaking this down. I feel a little bit smarter and more prepared to wait the long haul that seems to be ahead of us. Of course, happy to join. That was our conversation with Leah Littman, co-host of Crooked's Strict Scrutiny podcast. And as we just mentioned, this saga is only getting started, so we will keep you updated as it all develops. In the meantime, we're going to take a quick break for some ads.

Let's get to some headlines. The polls have closed in Wisconsin where the future of the state Supreme Court was on the ballot. As we sat down to record the show at 9.30 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday night, progressive candidate Janet Protasewicz is projected to win that race. Victory! So exciting. It is sweet. It really is. We'll bring you another update on tomorrow's show,

but we want to emphasize that the stakes here were so high because this all boiled down to how the ideological balance of the court would tilt since the court will weigh in on everything from abortion, political maps, and voting rights in the Badger State. So hugely, hugely important victory. And staying with the Midwest, as of our recording time, Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson is also projected to defeat former school's executive Paul Vallis in the Chicago mayoral race. Both Johnson and Vallis are Democrats, though Vallis had called for putting more cops on Chicago's streets.

Johnson will take over for outgoing mayor Lori Lightfoot, who was eliminated from the race during the first round of voting in February. Some exciting news in Chicago and in Wisconsin. I'm a Midwest girl, so I'm happy. I'll just say it's been a hell of a day between the Trump arrest and arraignment, Protesee Woods win, Brandon Johnson win. Like, I'm feeling good. I'm feeling real good. All of this and the Barbie trailer. I mean, it's a day. When it rains, it pours. When it rains, it pours, but in a good way. Right.

And in Tennessee... Fascist! Fascist! Fascist! Fascist! They had a good beat to it. You just heard the sound of protesters yelling fascist from the galleries of Tennessee's House of Representatives Monday night as Republican lawmakers moved

to expel three of their Democratic colleagues for, quote, disorderly behavior. Last week, Representatives Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, who represent more than 200,000 constituents, led a group of demonstrators through the Tennessee Capitol to call for stronger gun control laws in the wake of the Covenant School shooting in Nashville. The resolutions to expel all three passed along party lines with a final vote expected to come down tomorrow. A spokesperson for Tennessee's House Speaker who called the protest an insurrection confirmed to a local newspaper that building access has already been restricted for the three Democrats. Representative Gloria Johnson, who represents the Knoxville area, said she's considering a lawsuit. Those protesters were not wrong.

At all. This should be upsetting. This should be alarming. This is absolutely wild. Just because these people have a dissenting view from them and let a protest, a peaceful protest,

if that's not American, I don't know what is. That's so crazy. A state representative in North Carolina is expected to announce today that she will be switching her party affiliation, giving Republicans a veto-proof supermajority in the democratically governed swing state. Even without the addition of Representative Tricia Cotham, who ran as a Democrat to represent her overwhelmingly blue district in Charlotte,

Republicans have held a majority in the state House and Senate for over a decade, but they have been kept in check in recent years by Democratic Governor Roy Cooper. With a supermajority, GOP lawmakers will have enough votes to override any veto from the governor. And Cotham, along with two other Democrats, have already handed them a victory on that front. Just last week, they held out on a vote that allowed Republicans to override Cooper's veto on a bill to relax background checks on handgun permits. If that was her soft launch of embracing the Republican Party's backwards-ass platform, which, by the way, includes a near-total abortion ban,

consider today's announcement the hard launch. This is wild. Talk about imploding your career in a district that went 23 points for President Biden. Like, what is this woman thinking? Like, OK, this might help you in the short term, but no one's going to claim you after this. No one. All the people who voted for you in this district that are going to be like, excuse me, what happened? This is absolutely not what I put you in office to do. I must be feeling so cheated right now. But in a huge loss for the romantics out there,

yesterday news broke that 92-year-old news baron Rupert Murdoch had ended his engagement to 66-year-old Ann Leslie Smith after a mere two weeks of betrothed bliss. The real-life Logan Roy proposed last month on St. Patrick's Day, giving the details of his proposal to gossip columnist Cindy Adams, a writer at his very own New York Post. As far as why things went south, it's largely unclear, though a source told Vanity Fair the billionaire had become increasingly uncomfortable

with Smith's outspoken evangelical views. Tough loss, Rupert, but here's hoping you can take this time now to really focus on you. Specifically, your defense for the $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit trial against Fox. You know, your little cable TV network, which is set to start April 17th. Like, this is bonkers. One, a whirlwind romance. Like, okay. But two, I'm also like, did this go up in flames because the judge called him out last week about he's able to travel for his upcoming nuptials? Like, really? Really, sir?

If you're 92 years old and you're proposing, you probably want to be 100% sure. Like, why are you going to flip up on this? Like, how are you going to make that decision at age 92? You've done this four other times. That's all I got to say. I mean, at age 92, he's's probably like i better get this right this time you know times of the essence if you mess it up that many times like is it just fine just date like it's okay it's fine not everybody has to be married just chill out and those are the headlines

one more thing before we go searching for a podcast that caters to both horror buffs and scaredy cats? Look no further than Ruined, the newest addition to the Crooked Media lineup. Horror aficionado and love-it-or-leave-it head writer Hallie Kiefer unpacks a different horror movie every week alongside her squeamish friend and co-host, Alison Leiby. If you're too scared to sit through bone-chilling slashers or spine-tingling supernatural flicks, don't worry, because Hallie will ruin the movie for you. Tune in to Ruined every Tuesday, wherever you get your podcasts. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review,

shoot your shot with a newly single Rupert Murdoch, and tell all your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just ballot drops for incredibly important regional elections like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Juanita Tolliver. I'm Priyanka Arabindi. And Barbie forever!

Oh my God. Honestly, at my big age, I just want the Corvette. Just give me the Corvette. We need the Corvette. Raven on our staff made us great Barbie headshots. Yes! But I need to watch this trailer. I need to sit here.

A lot's been going on today. I haven't had the time to dig into it. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Bill Lance. Raven Yamamoto is our associate producer. Our head writer is Jossie Kaufman. And our executive producer is Lita Martinez. Our theme music is by Colin Gillyard and Kashaka.