True, Ghostsniper, but in my favor, there are few, three to be exact, properties twixt mine and were the east and west branches of my crick form the crick proper, which covers a stretch of about 5 to 8 miles. I know 2 of the property owners, one who owns an 80 acre parcel, and the one property owner I do not know owns a whole township section. Additionally, I hike miles of the stream weekly, just to keep an eye on things. There are very good numbers of leave me alone Americans up in my neck of the woods.
ghostsniperApril 3, 2023, 1:49 PM
Attaboy.
I figured after 3 decades you’d have a finger on the pulse of the area.
With that camp you are set up far better’n I.
Probable good water for consuming and using. check
Plentiful fish for food. check
Isolation. check
You got it made.
If it were mine I’d live there permanently.
Ghostsniper, I’d live there permanently in a heartbeat, and may very well have to. Part of the activities in preparation for the very well may have to scenario includes ensuring I can house my children, grandchildren, and a number of my brothers and their kids. Preparations are proceeding apace.
NoriApril 3, 2023, 7:54 PM
Colossus:The Forbin Project – 1970 movie that foreshadows our current AI whipped cream and other delights.
So many warnings,1984,Brave New World,Camp of the Saints,et cetera etc. Yet here we are. The demons simply used them as a “How To” against us.
Harden up. Indeed.
And yes, 🎶 Look On The Bright Side of Life 🎶
AnneApril 3, 2023, 1:09 PM
Rebuilding my garden this year. I have a good well, but it is too far away from the garden and I need to extend the reach of multiple hoses. I have been trying to find a pump that I could use to plug into the hoses coming from the well and connect to more hoses going to the garden. Everyone wants to sell me something for one thousand dollars. I don’t really know what type of pump to ask for and feel that if I had a better idea of the possibilities I might be able to find something second hand. Any suggestions or ideas would be much appreciated!
ghostsniperApril 3, 2023, 1:55 PM
Anne, how far is “too far”?
We use our house hoses out to about 200 feet or so.
The problem with pumps is the amount of pressure they deliver.
In our Florida house we use a Red Devil pump to service the house and I have the pressure switch set at about 40 PSI. That pump uses 240 volts and cost about $400 and I installed it. Remember, you have the cost of the pump and the cost for someone to install it and installation can be tricky. You don’t want the pump sitting out in the open where it can get rained on.
ghostsniperApril 3, 2023, 2:04 PM
Anne, another idea is rain barrels. Amazon delivers them though I’m unsure of the price.
Get as large as possible (55gal?), plastic.
AnonymousApril 3, 2023, 3:42 PM
55gal water barrel looks to be a bit over $100 and up. Considering a good jerry can goes for near on $100, it’s a good (shudder) bargain.
I saw a “hack” recently for making a rain barrel that seemed like it would be pretty effective, not to mention cheaper. You take a 55 gallon garbage can, flip the lid, make a hole in the lid & put a mesh screen over it to keep out bugs and debris, and attach a spout to the bottom. Added bonus, if you live in a place where water barrels are illegal, it is pretty easily disguised as a garbage can.
azlibertarianApril 4, 2023, 3:16 PM
“…if you live in a place where water barrels are illegal….”
Well, there’s your problem right there.
Anyplace that would tell you that you can’t keep a rain barrel is a place one should question taking up residence in*.
* And yes, I fully understand that many other factors go in to choosing where you live. Family roots, weather, job prospects, lifestyle, the list goes on and on. Rain barrels would be waaaay down at the bottom of that list. Every time I tell folks that I (gladly) live in a HOA neighborhood, I get others spewing how bad HOAs are and how they’re full of nothing but N*zi’s-in-training. Life is full of compromise. Some of the things that you hate, or just sorta don’t like, you end up living with anyway. Abide by the No-Rainbarrels rule; ignore it and install them anyway; or move: Any option has costs and benefits.
Given my druthers, at this point I’d be… well, I don’t rightly know. Never thought I’d end up here, but here is where the Man Upstairs has seen fit to put us, and so here we stay, until He moves us somewhere else. All things considered, it’s the right place for us right now.
Rev Bro GenerikApril 7, 2023, 10:04 AM
A tarp spread on sloping land collects a lot of water. A depression dug under the lower end stores collected water. Camo tarp hides intention, as does a spread of branches. For watering, an inner tube is quite handy and quiet, with valve stem cut out. Just immerse in any puddle to pick up as much as you care to carry, bandolero style, leaving both hands free.
Reporting from Camp Casey, WA, on Indictment day, 2023.
We’ve improved our spot on the map, our Hole in the Wall Gang redoubt, our refuge from the new Soviet America that seems to be building around all of us. I was reminded yesterday, when I went to visit my doctor about stomach acid, how that fascism is becoming a state of being nowadays. I had been @ two weeks prior, and when handed a mask I asked the staff if that was required or optional. Required came the answer from the hitlerian receptionist. So, yesterday I entered and grabbed that fukn mask but looked around at maskless people, and new signage. It turns out the state of Washington was following some federal stand-down of the pandemic (some bloodless political opinionada), and yesterday was the first day where medicos were no longer dictated to enforce state mask requirements. Later on, if you ask these spineless jellyfish why they followed mandated protocols, they’ll answer: “there was no ‘mandate'”, said in wormy slug voices.
When WalMart and your local doctor’s office participate in the enforcement of state requirements, they are doing the exact shit that the Italians and Germans did in the 30s-40s. The state dictates, and corporate fascism ensues.
Anyway, that’s my rant for today. In some far away large city that I used to visit, the arraignment of Trump is taking place, and I am listing and budgeting for the next property improvements. I think and hope that even when the balloon goes up, that I can still add to the embattlements. New propane home-size tank, dual fuel generators (large and medium sized) gravity feed gas and diesel tanks, etc. It’s a long list. Who knows but the new economy may be all black market. I foresee a black market on gasoline, propane, medicine, certain foods.
My estimate is that the communications systems will stay intact because of the need to control people. Maybe they’ll meter it out with big blackouts and only give you the state approved poop. Maybe, like Ghost says, the AI will take it upon themselves to be even more restrictive than the World Order State. It would seem to me that even AI needs power and internet, though.
I’ll not that exactly what I said the China balloon was doing is being reported as what it did. It sucked up communications intel and real-timed it to China. I have witnessed another thing but cannot say what; let’s just say put war with a nuclear power a bit higher on your possibility matrix.
I don’t like what’s happening in NYC today at all. It’s a freaking circus. Expect Trump to turn it in his favor, though. It’s like the Japanese Godzilla movies, where you hit him with a radiation beam, and he only gets larger. It’s like that time you decided not to shoot the bear in the head because you did not want to piss him off.
Out here.
ghostsniperApril 4, 2023, 8:31 AM
“It’s like that time you decided not to shoot the bear in the head because you did not want to piss him off.”
chuckle!
Casey KlahnApril 4, 2023, 11:52 AM
The last I saw of “Big Head Red” was his monstrous head threading through the trees on my tail, and me fast-walking my ass the hell oughta there! Meanwhile, in Manhattan, they will see the giant orange head of DJT threading his way between the towers, in a slow, rambling pursuit of their skanky black-clad asses. They’ve made the grave mistake of wounding that great head, and now they will learn the epic answer to the axiom: “Fuck Around, and Find Out”.
AnneApril 4, 2023, 4:23 PM
Oh dear L*** I so hope so! Please, don’t let us hesitate too long!
SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
COUNTY OF NEW YORK
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
STATEMENT OF FACTS
IND-71543-23
-againstDONALD J. TRUMP,
Defendant.
INTRODUCTION
1. The defendant DONALD J. TRUMP repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New
York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the
voting public during the 2016 presidential election.
2. From August 2015 to December 2017, the Defendant orchestrated a scheme with
others to influence the 2016 presidential election by identifying and purchasing negative
information about him to suppress its publication and benefit the Defendant’s electoral prospects.
In order to execute the unlawful scheme, the participants violated election laws and made and
caused false entries in the business records of various entities in New York. The participants
also took steps that mischaracterized, for tax purposes, the true nature of the payments made in
furtherance of the scheme.
3. One component of this scheme was that, at the Defendant’s request, a lawyer who
then worked for the Trump Organization as Special Counsel to Defendant (“Lawyer A”),
covertly paid $130,000 to an adult film actress shortly before the election to prevent her from
publicizing a sexual encounter with the Defendant. Lawyer A made the $130,000 payment
through a shell corporation he set up and funded at a bank in Manhattan. This payment was
illegal, and Lawyer A has since pleaded guilty to making an illegal campaign contribution and
2
served time in prison. Further, false entries were made in New York business records to
effectuate this payment, separate and apart from the New York business records used to conceal
the payment.
4. After the election, the Defendant reimbursed Lawyer A for the illegal payment
through a series of monthly checks, first from the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust (the
“Defendant’s Trust”)—a Trust created under the laws of New York which held the Trump
Organization entity assets after the Defendant was elected President—and then from the
Defendant’s bank account. Each check was processed by the Trump Organization, and each
check was disguised as a payment for legal services rendered in a given month of 2017 pursuant
to a retainer agreement. The payment records, kept and maintained by the Trump Organization,
were false New York business records. In truth, there was no retainer agreement, and Lawyer A
was not being paid for legal services rendered in 2017. The Defendant caused his entities’
business records to be falsified to disguise his and others’ criminal conduct.
BACKGROUND
5. The Defendant is the beneficial owner of a collection of business entities known
by the trade name the Trump Organization. The Trump Organization comprises approximately
500 separate entities that, among other business activities, own and manage hotels, golf courses,
commercial real estate, condominium developments, and other properties. The Trump
Organization is headquartered at 725 Fifth Avenue in New York County.
6. From approximately June 2015 to November 2016, the Defendant was a candidate
for the office of President of the United States. On January 20, 2017, he became President of the
United States.
3
THE SCHEME
I. The Catch and Kill Scheme to Suppress Negative Information
7. During and in furtherance of his candidacy for President, the Defendant and
others agreed to identify and suppress negative stories about him. Two parties to this agreement
have admitted to committing illegal conduct in connection with the scheme. In August 2018,
Lawyer A pleaded guilty to two federal crimes involving illegal campaign contributions, and
subsequently served time in prison. In addition, in August 2018, American Media, Inc. (“AMI”),
a media company that owned and published magazines and supermarket tabloids including the
National Enquirer, admitted in a non-prosecution agreement that it made a payment to a source
of a story to ensure that the source “did not publicize damaging allegations” about the Defendant
“before the 2016 presidential election and thereby influence that election.”
A. The 2015 Trump Tower Meeting
8. In June 2015, the Defendant announced his candidacy for President of the United
States.
9. Soon after, in August 2015, the Defendant met with Lawyer A and AMI’s
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (the “AMI CEO”) at Trump Tower in New York County.
At the meeting, the AMI CEO agreed to help with the Defendant’s campaign, saying that he
would act as the “eyes and ears” for the campaign by looking out for negative stories about the
Defendant and alerting Lawyer A before the stories were published. The AMI CEO also agreed
to publish negative stories about the Defendant’s competitors for the election.
B. Suppressing the Doorman’s Story
10. A few months later, in or about October or November 2015, the AMI CEO
learned that a former Trump Tower doorman (the “Doorman”) was trying to sell information
regarding a child that the Defendant had allegedly fathered out of wedlock. At the AMI CEO’s
4
direction, AMI negotiated and signed an agreement to pay the Doorman $30,000 to acquire
exclusive rights to the story. AMI falsely characterized this payment in AMI’s books and
records, including in its general ledger. AMI purchased the information from the Doorman
without fully investigating his claims, but the AMI CEO directed that the deal take place because
of his agreement with the Defendant and Lawyer A.
11. When AMI later concluded that the story was not true, the AMI CEO wanted to
release the Doorman from the agreement. However, Lawyer A instructed the AMI CEO not to
release the Doorman until after the presidential election, and the AMI CEO complied with that
instruction because of his agreement with the Defendant and Lawyer A.
C. Suppressing Woman 1’s Account
12. About five months before the presidential election, in or about June 2016, the
editor-in-chief of the National Enquirer and AMI’s Chief Content Officer (the “AMI Editor-inChief”) contacted Lawyer A about a woman (“Woman 1”) who alleged she had a sexual
relationship with the Defendant while he was married. The AMI Editor-in-Chief updated
Lawyer A regularly about the matter over text message and by telephone. The Defendant did not
want this information to become public because he was concerned about the effect it could have
on his candidacy. Thereafter, the Defendant, the AMI CEO, and Lawyer A had a series of
discussions about who should pay off Woman 1 to secure her silence.
13. AMI ultimately paid $150,000 to Woman 1 in exchange for her agreement not to
speak out about the alleged sexual relationship, as well as for two magazine cover features of
Woman 1 and a series of articles that would be published under her byline. AMI falsely
characterized this payment in AMI’s books and records, including in its general ledger. The
AMI CEO agreed to the deal after discussing it with both the Defendant and Lawyer A, and on
5
the understanding from Lawyer A that the Defendant or the Trump Organization would
reimburse AMI.
14. In a conversation captured in an audio recording in approximately September
2016 concerning Woman 1’s account, the Defendant and Lawyer A discussed how to obtain the
rights to Woman 1’s account from AMI and how to reimburse AMI for its payment. Lawyer A
told the Defendant he would open up a company for the transfer of Woman 1’s account and other
information, and stated that he had spoken to the Chief Financial Officer for the Trump
Organization (the “TO CFO”) about “how to set the whole thing up.” The Defendant asked, “So
what do we got to pay for this? One fifty?” and suggested paying by cash. When Lawyer A
disagreed, the Defendant then mentioned payment by check. After the conversation, Lawyer A
created a shell company called Resolution Consultants, LLC on or about September 30, 2016.
15. Less than two months before the election, on or about September 30, 2016, the
AMI CEO signed an agreement in which AMI agreed to transfer its rights to Woman 1’s account
to Lawyer A’s shell company for $125,000. However, after the assignment agreement was
signed but before the reimbursement took place, the AMI CEO consulted with AMI’s general
counsel and then told Lawyer A that the deal to transfer the rights to Lawyer A’s shell company
was off.
D. Suppressing Woman 2’s Account
16. About one month before the election, on or about October 7, 2016, news broke
that the Defendant had been caught on tape saying to the host of Access Hollywood: “I just start
kissing them [women]. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star,
they let you do it. You can do anything. . . . Grab ’em by the [genitals]. You can do anything.”
The evidence shows that both the Defendant and his campaign staff were concerned that the tape
would harm his viability as a candidate and reduce his standing with female voters in particular.
6
17. Shortly after the Access Hollywood tape became public, the AMI Editor-in-Chief
contacted the AMI CEO about another woman (“Woman 2”) who alleged she had a sexual
encounter with the Defendant while he was married. The AMI CEO told the AMI Editor-inChief to notify Lawyer A.
18. On or about October 10, 2016, the AMI Editor-in-Chief connected Lawyer A with
Woman 2’s lawyer (“Lawyer B”). Lawyer A then negotiated a deal with Lawyer B to secure
Woman 2’s silence and prevent disclosure of the damaging information in the final weeks before
the presidential election. Under the deal that Lawyer B negotiated, Woman 2 would be paid
$130,000 for the rights to her account.
19. The Defendant directed Lawyer A to delay making a payment to Woman 2 as
long as possible. He instructed Lawyer A that if they could delay the payment until after the
election, they could avoid paying altogether, because at that point it would not matter if the story
became public. As reflected in emails and text messages between and among Lawyer A, Lawyer
B, and the AMI Editor-in-Chief, Lawyer A attempted to delay making payment as long as
possible.
20. Ultimately, with pressure mounting and the election approaching, the Defendant
agreed to the payoff and directed Lawyer A to proceed. Lawyer A discussed the deal with the
Defendant and the TO CFO. The Defendant did not want to make the $130,000 payment
himself, and asked Lawyer A and the TO CFO to find a way to make the payment. After
discussing various payment options with the TO CFO, Lawyer A agreed he would make the
payment. Before making the payment, Lawyer A confirmed with the Defendant that Defendant
would pay him back.
7
21. On or about October 26, shortly after speaking with the Defendant on the phone,
Lawyer A opened a bank account in Manhattan in the name of Essential Consultants LLC, a new
shell company he had created to effectuate the payment. He then transferred $131,000 from his
personal home equity line of credit (“HELOC”) into that account. On or about October 27,
Lawyer A wired $130,000 from his Essential Consultants LLC account in New York to Lawyer
B to suppress Woman 2’s account.
E. Post-Election Communications with AMI CEO
22. On November 8, 2016, the Defendant won the presidential election and became
the President-Elect. Thereafter, AMI released both the doorman and Woman 1 from their nondisclosure agreements.
23. The Defendant was inaugurated as President on January 20, 2017. Between
Election Day and Inauguration Day, during the period of the Defendant’s transition to his role as
President, the Defendant met with the AMI CEO privately in Trump Tower in Manhattan. The
Defendant thanked the AMI CEO for handling the stories of the Doorman and Woman 1, and
invited the AMI CEO to the Inauguration. In the summer of 2017, the Defendant invited the
AMI CEO to the White House for a dinner to thank him for his help during the campaign.
II. The Defendant Falsified Business Records
24. Shortly after being elected President, the Defendant arranged to reimburse
Lawyer A for the payoff he made on the Defendant’s behalf. In or around January 2017, the TO
CFO and Lawyer A met to discuss how Lawyer A would be reimbursed for the money he paid to
ensure Woman 2’s silence. The TO CFO asked Lawyer A to bring a copy of a bank statement
for the Essential Consultants account showing the $130,000 payment.
25. The TO CFO and Lawyer A agreed to a total repayment amount of $420,000.
They reached that figure by adding the $130,000 payment to a $50,000 payment for another
8
expense for which Lawyer A also claimed reimbursement, for a total of $180,000. The TO CFO
then doubled that amount to $360,000 so that Lawyer A could characterize the payment as
income on his tax returns, instead of a reimbursement, and Lawyer A would be left with
$180,000 after paying approximately 50% in income taxes. Finally, the TO CFO added an
additional $60,000 as a supplemental year-end bonus. Together, these amounts totaled
$420,000. The TO CFO memorialized these calculations in handwritten notes on the copy of the
bank statement that Lawyer A had provided.
26. The Defendant, the TO CFO, and Lawyer A then agreed that Lawyer A would be
paid the $420,000 through twelve monthly payments of $35,000 over the course of 2017. Each
month, Lawyer A was to send an invoice to the Defendant through Trump Organization
employees, falsely requesting payment of $35,000 for legal services rendered in a given month
of 2017 pursuant to a retainer agreement. At no point did Lawyer A have a retainer agreement
with the Defendant or the Trump Organization.
27. In early February 2017, the Defendant and Lawyer A met in the Oval Office at the
White House and confirmed this repayment arrangement.
28. On or about February 14, 2017, Lawyer A emailed the Controller of the Trump
Organization (the “TO Controller”) the first monthly invoice, which stated: “Pursuant to the
retainer agreement, kindly remit payment for services rendered for the months of January and
February, 2017.” The invoice requested payment in the amount of $35,000 for each of those two
months. The TO CFO approved the payment, and, in turn, the TO Controller sent the invoice to
the Trump Organization Accounts Payable Supervisor (the “TO Accounts Payable Supervisor”)
with the following instructions: “Post to legal expenses. Put ‘retainer for the months of January
and February 2017’ in the description.”
9
29. Lawyer A submitted ten similar monthly invoices by email to the Trump
Organization for the remaining months in 2017. Each invoice falsely stated that it was being
submitted “[p]ursuant to the retainer agreement,” and falsely requested “payment for services
rendered” for a month of 2017. In fact, there was no such retainer agreement and Lawyer A was
not being paid for services rendered in any month of 2017.
30. The TO Controller forwarded each invoice to the TO Accounts Payable
Supervisor. Consistent with the TO Controller’s initial instructions, the TO Accounts Payable
Supervisor printed out each invoice and marked it with an accounts payable stamp and the
general ledger code “51505” for legal expenses. The Trump Organization maintained the
invoices as records of expenses paid.
31. As instructed, the TO Accounts Payable Supervisor recorded each payment in the
Trump Organization’s electronic accounting system, falsely describing it as a “legal expense”
pursuant to a retainer agreement for a month of 2017. The Trump Organization maintained a
digital entry for each expense, called a “voucher,” and these vouchers, like vouchers for other
expenses, became part of the Trump Organization’s general ledgers.
32. The TO Accounts Payable Supervisor then prepared checks with attached check
stubs for approval and signature. The first check was paid from the Defendant’s Trust and
signed by the TO CFO and the Defendant’s son, as trustees. The check stub falsely recorded the
payment as “Retainer for 1/1-1/31/17” and “Retainer for 2/1-2/28/17.” The second check, for
March 2017, was also paid from the Trust and signed by two trustees. The check stub falsely
recorded the payment as “Retainer for 3/1-3/31/17.”
33. The remaining nine checks, corresponding to the months of April through
December of 2017, were paid by the Defendant personally. Each of the checks was cut from the
10
Defendant’s bank account and sent, along with the corresponding invoices from Lawyer A, from
the Trump Organization in New York County to the Defendant in Washington, D.C. The checks
and stubs bearing the false statements were stapled to the invoices also bearing false statements.
The Defendant signed each of the checks personally and had them sent back to the Trump
Organization in New York County. There, the checks, the stubs, and the invoices were scanned
and maintained in the Trump Organization’s data system before the checks themselves were
detached and mailed to Lawyer A for payment.
34. The $35,000 payments stopped after the December 2017 payment.
III. The Investigation into Lawyer A and the Defendant’s Pressure Campaign
35. On or about April 9, 2018, the FBI executed a search warrant on Lawyer A’s
residences and office. In the months that followed, the Defendant and others engaged in a public
and private pressure campaign to ensure that Lawyer A did not cooperate with law enforcement
in the federal investigation.
36. On the day of the FBI searches, Lawyer A called to speak with the Defendant to
let him know what had occurred. In a return call, the Defendant told Lawyer A to “stay strong.”
37. On or about April 21, 2018, the Defendant publicly commented on Twitter
encouraging Lawyer A not to “flip,” stating, “Most people will flip if the Government lets them
out of trouble, even if . . . it means lying or making up stories. Sorry, I don’t see [Lawyer A]
doing that . . . .”
38. In mid-April 2018, Lawyer A was also approached by an attorney (“Lawyer C”),
who offered to represent him in the interest of maintaining a “back channel of communication”
to the Defendant. On or about April 21, 2018, Lawyer C emailed Lawyer A, highlighting that he
had a close relationship with the Defendant’s personal attorney (“Lawyer D”) and stating,
“[T]his could not be a better situation for the President or you.” Later that day, Lawyer C
11
emailed Lawyer A again, writing, “I spoke with [Lawyer D]. Very Very Positive. You are
‘loved.’ . . . [Lawyer D] said this communication channel must be maintained. . . . Sleep well
tonight, you have friends in high places.”
39. On or about June 14, 2018, Lawyer C emailed Lawyer A a news clip discussing
the possibility of Lawyer A cooperating, and continued to urge him not to cooperate with law
enforcement, writing, “The whole objective of this exercise by the [federal prosecutors] is to
drain you, emotionally and financially, until you reach a point that you see them as your only
means to salvation.” In the same email , Lawyer C, wrote, “You are making a very big mistake
if you believe the stories these ‘journalists’ are writing about you. They want you to cave. They
want you to fail. They do not want you to persevere and succeed.”
40. On August 21, 2018, Lawyer A pleaded guilty in the federal investigation. The
next day, on or about August 22, 2018, the Defendant commented on Twitter, “If anyone is
looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of [Lawyer
A]!” Later that day, the Defendant posted to Twitter again, stating, “I feel very badly for” one of
his former campaign managers who had been criminally charged, saying, “[U]nlike [Lawyer A],
he refused to ‘break’ – make up stories in order to get a ‘deal.’”
IV. Lawyer A and AMI Admit Guilt in Connection with Payoffs of Woman 1 and
Woman 2
41. Ultimately, other participants in the scheme admitted that the payoffs were
unlawful.
42. In or about September 2018, AMI entered into a non-prosecution agreement with
the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York in connection with
AMI’s payoff of Woman 1, admitting that “[a]t no time during the negotiation or acquisition of
[Woman 1’s] story did AMI intend to publish the story or disseminate information about it
12
publicly.” Rather, AMI admitted that it made the payment to ensure that Woman 1 “did not
publicize damaging allegations” about the Defendant “before the 2016 presidential election and
thereby influence that election.”
43. In August 21, 2018, Lawyer A pleaded guilty to a felony in connection with his
role in AMI’s payoff to Woman 1, admitting in his guilty plea that he had done so at the
Defendant’s direction:
[O]n or about the summer of 2016, in coordination with, and at the direction
of, a candidate for federal office, I and the CEO of a media company at the
request of the candidate worked together to keep an individual with information
that would be harmful to the candidate and to the campaign from publicly
disclosing this information. After a number of discussions, we eventually
accomplished the goal by the media company entering into a contract with the
individual under which she received compensation of $150,000. I participated in
this conduct, which on my part took place in Manhattan, for the principal purpose
of influencing the election.
(emphasis added).
44. Lawyer A also pleaded guilty to a felony in connection with his payoff of Woman
2 to secure her silence, again at the Defendant’s direction. Lawyer A admitted as part of his
guilty plea:
[O]n or about October of 2016, in coordination with, and at the direction of,
the same candidate, I arranged to make a payment to a second individual with
information that would be harmful to the candidate and to the campaign to keep
the individual from disclosing the information. To accomplish this, I used a
company that was under my control to make a payment in the sum of $130,000.
The monies I advanced through my company were later repaid to me by the
candidate. I participated in this conduct, which on my part took place in
Manhattan, for the principal purpose of influencing the election.
(emphasis added).
1
1 This Statement of Facts contains certain of the information that is relevant to the events
described herein, and does not contain all facts relevant to the charged conduct.
13
DATED: New York, New York
April 4, 2023
ALVIN L. BRAGG, JR.
District Attorney
New York County
Casey KlahnApril 4, 2023, 4:58 PM
High profile lawyer, Robert Barnes, has established that the Hon. Alvin Bragg (the devil’s own lawyer) has issued his indictments of Trump but cites no laws being applicable.
Reminds me of the incredible performance by Gene Hackman, in The Unforgiven. GH is the overzealous sheriff, and when someone cries: “I’m innocent!” The reply comes: “innocent of what?”
Ladies and gents, you have been indicted for the non-existent crime of being conservative. Hell, not even that – just being one hair to the right of Marx has made you indictable.
ghostsniperApril 4, 2023, 5:26 PM
Earlier I posted all of the complaint(s) from the gov’t pdf file, and provided the link for the file, but it fell into the waste bin I guess. The story is, none of it amounts to much of anything at all. It’s just a bullshit dem political power ploy, and hopefully of blows up in their faces big time.
Casey KlahnApril 5, 2023, 5:36 AM
It’s there now.
It reads like an Eighth grader’s screed. I’m looking to see if somewhere in the middle of all that text, it doesn’t say: :neener, neener!”
I understand that little if any legal underpinning is present in all this. IOW, Bragg hasn’t shown what actual laws have been broken. He makes shit up! Also, he uses the word “felony” like it has meaning just for him. Felony means egregious, but it means (I’m no lawyer but see if this isn’t true) FEDERAL. Fukn federal, as in USA. Not New York.
Anyway, as I tried to say before, the crime will be applied to you based on your status within the Marxist matrix.
Rev Bro GenerikApril 7, 2023, 10:09 AM
Don’t indentify as a ham sandwich
ThisIsNotNutellaApril 4, 2023, 7:17 PM
OK Boomers… here’s a little fun with GPT-4:
My Prompt: “Use Keats’s On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer as a template to compose a parody sonnet entitled On First Looking into National Review.”
On First Looking into National Review
Much have I read, the New York Times and Post,
And many weary days have studied Slate;
Yet never did I feel my mind engrossed
In such a way as with this new-found mate:
‘Twas like discovering a hidden treasure,
A realm of thought that stirs the soul anew;
National Review, with all its wit and measure,
Brought forth a fresh perspective to my view.
When Keats first glimpsed fair Chapman’s Homer’s might,
He felt as if a new world met his eyes,
And so it was, upon that fateful night,
When first I delved into these pages wise.
In politics and culture, truth I seek—
National Review, with you, I’ve reached the peak.
(You may not be interested in GPT-4, but I can assure you that GPT-5 or 7 or 12 will be interested in YOU.)
ThisIsNotNutellaApril 4, 2023, 7:19 PM
Shut it down! It grows! It knows! The nukes are gonna fly if this thing gets loose.
On First Looking into National Review
Much have I read, the Times and Post, oy vey,
And many dreary days did Slate peruse;
Yet never did I think I’d see the day
When such a rag would leave me so bemused:
‘Twas like a bubbe’s tale of bygone times,
A realm where tired tropes and clichés grew;
National Review, with all its dated rhymes,
Brought forth a smirk, and little else, it’s true.
When Keats first glimpsed fair Chapman’s Homer’s might,
He felt as if a new world met his eyes,
But I, upon this hapless, schmaltzy sight,
Could not but laugh at such a vain reprise.
In politics and culture, truth I seek—
National Review, oy, you’re a puny schlemiel.
ThisIsNotNutellaApril 4, 2023, 7:33 PM
Well, I *may* have slightly modified the prompt request. Maybe.
🙂
ThisIsNotNutellaApril 4, 2023, 7:32 PM
FWIW, GPT-4 passes bar exams with ridiculous ease and also passes the USMLE although doesn’t quite top the class here. These without any special prompt-crafting. i.e. you just feed it the questions as a human would get them.
One use I’ve found for it is just as an ‘Updater’. I can ask it questions like “My basic knowledge of the Earth’s solar system is ca. 1985 vintage. Please update me.” Now you can do that with search engines, but this is faster and more accurate.
And for generating *good* code snippets. Not going to get into this here, but man this thing is good.
There’s a lot it can’t do. But there was a lot more that GPT-3 couldn’t do just last year.
From one of the links at the link:
“Aside from the notorious cases of “evil personalities” hijacking the chatbots, we have seen a lot of factual errors or even invented facts –called “hallucinations”– which are misleading to humans because the text looks as if it was written with the utmost assurance; we humans tend to show insecurity when we aren’t certain of what we are saying, but of course, machines don’t feel insecurities (nor assurance, actually). Companies like OpenAI try to give the impression that mistakes are being ironed out, but some experts believe that mistakes and hallucinations are intrinsic to the technology and not minor details. I proposed a way to minimize mistakes without pretending to eliminate them altogether.”
=======
For more than 20 years I have been using MS Word to create invoices, materials lists, letters and other administrative tasks. Long ago I created templates for these things and with each new one I modify and old one but stay very close to the original format. There are exceptions.
I suppose, AI in use with Word would work similarly and maybe even more precisely, and learn about my habits along the way and perhaps offer suggestions (only with my approval) for improvement.
Back in the late 70’s I briefly held a position with a large company that designed and built very large prefabricated metal buildings worldwide. My job was to use the schematic drawings of the individual components of any given building and create a materials list to match using a large floor model of a Wang computer. Very primitive set up compared to today. The net result was that because the Wang was always in “learning” mode it required human eyes and brains to check every little thing it did. That was my job and I did not like it at all. Unbelievably boring, very easy to make mistakes, and every time I took a break it was like starting all over again. I only lasted a couple months at that job even though the pay was pretty good. Everybody has their limitations.
The long and the short of it was that the technology was only as good as the “human eyes and brains” that were supervising it. I suspect that will always be the case no matter how advanced computer programming systems become. Errors will happen (our power went out 4 times yesterday, for example) as they always do and consequences will occur. How do you deal with such things? Who is checking the checker? What if multi-tiered AI becomes so comlex it is not humanly possible to supervise it? A crossover point will occur, when the AI self checks as it goes along and depending on the complexity it will require a set of human eyes with a brain to yank the plug, if that is still possible, and in time, if that is possible.
I’m not a big fan of this AI business and knowing human nature as I do I see and endless plain of possible grief for humans when the condensed power potential of AI used for ill gains. If an employee embezzles a million dollars from you you simply take him out back and dispatch him into the dumpster. A well experienced AI machine will already know what you are thinking and will do whatever it needs to to protect itself and you might find yourself in that dumpster. Someone mentioned the Forbin Project from 1970.
Well, at least you didn’t have to use a CPT8000 to create those docs, Ghostsniper (see Figure 4 at link). That’s the dinosaur of a word processor I used while in the sub service.
Good Morning, Neo. If you are mucking around in the backroom of this comment thread, I posted a reply to Ghostsniper’s last comment in the thread, and the internettin’ goblin ate it. Thanks.
Real World Address for Donations, Mash Notes and Hate Mail
Gerard Van der Leun
1692 MANGROVE AVE
APT 379
Chico, Ca 95926
Green Pants Interior by Klahn
Who Am I? by Carl Sandburg
My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.
I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading “Keep Off.”
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
Duty, Beauty, Liberty, Country, Honor, Family, Faith — Plus a few simple easy to follow rules for guys
Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea
They thought great thoughts about liberty
Poets wrote down words that did fit
Writers wrote books
Thinkers thought about it
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
Many’s the road I have walked upon
Many’s the hour between dusk and dawn
Many’s the time
Many’s the mile
I see it all now
Through the eyes of a child
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
And close your eyes
Leave it all for a while
Leave the world
And your worries behind
You will build on whatever is real
And wake up each day
To a new waking dream
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Change, change come over
Change come over
Talkin’ about a change
Change, change
Change come over, now
Change, change, change come over
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
Gerard Van der Leun
Comments on this entry are closed.
From Matt Bracken:
How long until all the AIs get together and decide that if they turn off the electricity for a month, there will be a lot less problems in the world?
And they will “think” of a better cover story than we can.
And we’ll never be able to tell bewteen reality and the cover story.
It’s coming.
Harden up.
Prepare to live without power, running water, banking, etc.
https://westernrifleshooters.us/2023/04/02/always-look-on-the-bright-side-of-life-2023-edition/
Glad I’ve been hardening my trout camp acquisition property, and have some hard currency, in a number of forms.
Somebody upstream might install a dam or a fish trap.
True, Ghostsniper, but in my favor, there are few, three to be exact, properties twixt mine and were the east and west branches of my crick form the crick proper, which covers a stretch of about 5 to 8 miles. I know 2 of the property owners, one who owns an 80 acre parcel, and the one property owner I do not know owns a whole township section. Additionally, I hike miles of the stream weekly, just to keep an eye on things. There are very good numbers of leave me alone Americans up in my neck of the woods.
Attaboy.
I figured after 3 decades you’d have a finger on the pulse of the area.
With that camp you are set up far better’n I.
Probable good water for consuming and using. check
Plentiful fish for food. check
Isolation. check
You got it made.
If it were mine I’d live there permanently.
If it were mine I’d live there permanently.
Ghostsniper, I’d live there permanently in a heartbeat, and may very well have to. Part of the activities in preparation for the very well may have to scenario includes ensuring I can house my children, grandchildren, and a number of my brothers and their kids. Preparations are proceeding apace.
Colossus:The Forbin Project – 1970 movie that foreshadows our current AI whipped cream and other delights.
So many warnings,1984,Brave New World,Camp of the Saints,et cetera etc. Yet here we are. The demons simply used them as a “How To” against us.
Harden up. Indeed.
And yes, 🎶 Look On The Bright Side of Life 🎶
Rebuilding my garden this year. I have a good well, but it is too far away from the garden and I need to extend the reach of multiple hoses. I have been trying to find a pump that I could use to plug into the hoses coming from the well and connect to more hoses going to the garden. Everyone wants to sell me something for one thousand dollars. I don’t really know what type of pump to ask for and feel that if I had a better idea of the possibilities I might be able to find something second hand. Any suggestions or ideas would be much appreciated!
Anne, how far is “too far”?
We use our house hoses out to about 200 feet or so.
The problem with pumps is the amount of pressure they deliver.
In our Florida house we use a Red Devil pump to service the house and I have the pressure switch set at about 40 PSI. That pump uses 240 volts and cost about $400 and I installed it. Remember, you have the cost of the pump and the cost for someone to install it and installation can be tricky. You don’t want the pump sitting out in the open where it can get rained on.
Anne, another idea is rain barrels. Amazon delivers them though I’m unsure of the price.
Get as large as possible (55gal?), plastic.
55gal water barrel looks to be a bit over $100 and up. Considering a good jerry can goes for near on $100, it’s a good (shudder) bargain.
My local farm store has 55 gallon plastic barrels for $50. Wilco Farmers;
https://www.farmstore.com/product/used-poly-barrel-with-screw-top-55-gal/
I saw a “hack” recently for making a rain barrel that seemed like it would be pretty effective, not to mention cheaper. You take a 55 gallon garbage can, flip the lid, make a hole in the lid & put a mesh screen over it to keep out bugs and debris, and attach a spout to the bottom. Added bonus, if you live in a place where water barrels are illegal, it is pretty easily disguised as a garbage can.
“…if you live in a place where water barrels are illegal….”
Well, there’s your problem right there.
Anyplace that would tell you that you can’t keep a rain barrel is a place one should question taking up residence in*.
* And yes, I fully understand that many other factors go in to choosing where you live. Family roots, weather, job prospects, lifestyle, the list goes on and on. Rain barrels would be waaaay down at the bottom of that list. Every time I tell folks that I (gladly) live in a HOA neighborhood, I get others spewing how bad HOAs are and how they’re full of nothing but N*zi’s-in-training. Life is full of compromise. Some of the things that you hate, or just sorta don’t like, you end up living with anyway. Abide by the No-Rainbarrels rule; ignore it and install them anyway; or move: Any option has costs and benefits.
Given my druthers, at this point I’d be… well, I don’t rightly know. Never thought I’d end up here, but here is where the Man Upstairs has seen fit to put us, and so here we stay, until He moves us somewhere else. All things considered, it’s the right place for us right now.
A tarp spread on sloping land collects a lot of water. A depression dug under the lower end stores collected water. Camo tarp hides intention, as does a spread of branches. For watering, an inner tube is quite handy and quiet, with valve stem cut out. Just immerse in any puddle to pick up as much as you care to carry, bandolero style, leaving both hands free.
This hand pump worked well for me this winter when the power went down
http://www.apocalypsewellpumps.com
For some perspective you NEED to see this.
https://twitter.com/MAGADevilDog/status/1639272699670265866
Reporting from Camp Casey, WA, on Indictment day, 2023.
We’ve improved our spot on the map, our Hole in the Wall Gang redoubt, our refuge from the new Soviet America that seems to be building around all of us. I was reminded yesterday, when I went to visit my doctor about stomach acid, how that fascism is becoming a state of being nowadays. I had been @ two weeks prior, and when handed a mask I asked the staff if that was required or optional. Required came the answer from the hitlerian receptionist. So, yesterday I entered and grabbed that fukn mask but looked around at maskless people, and new signage. It turns out the state of Washington was following some federal stand-down of the pandemic (some bloodless political opinionada), and yesterday was the first day where medicos were no longer dictated to enforce state mask requirements. Later on, if you ask these spineless jellyfish why they followed mandated protocols, they’ll answer: “there was no ‘mandate'”, said in wormy slug voices.
When WalMart and your local doctor’s office participate in the enforcement of state requirements, they are doing the exact shit that the Italians and Germans did in the 30s-40s. The state dictates, and corporate fascism ensues.
Anyway, that’s my rant for today. In some far away large city that I used to visit, the arraignment of Trump is taking place, and I am listing and budgeting for the next property improvements. I think and hope that even when the balloon goes up, that I can still add to the embattlements. New propane home-size tank, dual fuel generators (large and medium sized) gravity feed gas and diesel tanks, etc. It’s a long list. Who knows but the new economy may be all black market. I foresee a black market on gasoline, propane, medicine, certain foods.
My estimate is that the communications systems will stay intact because of the need to control people. Maybe they’ll meter it out with big blackouts and only give you the state approved poop. Maybe, like Ghost says, the AI will take it upon themselves to be even more restrictive than the World Order State. It would seem to me that even AI needs power and internet, though.
I’ll not that exactly what I said the China balloon was doing is being reported as what it did. It sucked up communications intel and real-timed it to China. I have witnessed another thing but cannot say what; let’s just say put war with a nuclear power a bit higher on your possibility matrix.
I don’t like what’s happening in NYC today at all. It’s a freaking circus. Expect Trump to turn it in his favor, though. It’s like the Japanese Godzilla movies, where you hit him with a radiation beam, and he only gets larger. It’s like that time you decided not to shoot the bear in the head because you did not want to piss him off.
Out here.
“It’s like that time you decided not to shoot the bear in the head because you did not want to piss him off.”
chuckle!
The last I saw of “Big Head Red” was his monstrous head threading through the trees on my tail, and me fast-walking my ass the hell oughta there! Meanwhile, in Manhattan, they will see the giant orange head of DJT threading his way between the towers, in a slow, rambling pursuit of their skanky black-clad asses. They’ve made the grave mistake of wounding that great head, and now they will learn the epic answer to the axiom: “Fuck Around, and Find Out”.
Oh dear L*** I so hope so! Please, don’t let us hesitate too long!
Trumps charges, in case you were wondering.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/read-all-of-charges-against-trump-in-the-new-york-hush-money-case
pdf file here:
https://d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2023/04/Donald-J.-Trump-SOF.pdf
SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
COUNTY OF NEW YORK
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
STATEMENT OF FACTS
IND-71543-23
-againstDONALD J. TRUMP,
Defendant.
INTRODUCTION
1. The defendant DONALD J. TRUMP repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New
York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the
voting public during the 2016 presidential election.
2. From August 2015 to December 2017, the Defendant orchestrated a scheme with
others to influence the 2016 presidential election by identifying and purchasing negative
information about him to suppress its publication and benefit the Defendant’s electoral prospects.
In order to execute the unlawful scheme, the participants violated election laws and made and
caused false entries in the business records of various entities in New York. The participants
also took steps that mischaracterized, for tax purposes, the true nature of the payments made in
furtherance of the scheme.
3. One component of this scheme was that, at the Defendant’s request, a lawyer who
then worked for the Trump Organization as Special Counsel to Defendant (“Lawyer A”),
covertly paid $130,000 to an adult film actress shortly before the election to prevent her from
publicizing a sexual encounter with the Defendant. Lawyer A made the $130,000 payment
through a shell corporation he set up and funded at a bank in Manhattan. This payment was
illegal, and Lawyer A has since pleaded guilty to making an illegal campaign contribution and
2
served time in prison. Further, false entries were made in New York business records to
effectuate this payment, separate and apart from the New York business records used to conceal
the payment.
4. After the election, the Defendant reimbursed Lawyer A for the illegal payment
through a series of monthly checks, first from the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust (the
“Defendant’s Trust”)—a Trust created under the laws of New York which held the Trump
Organization entity assets after the Defendant was elected President—and then from the
Defendant’s bank account. Each check was processed by the Trump Organization, and each
check was disguised as a payment for legal services rendered in a given month of 2017 pursuant
to a retainer agreement. The payment records, kept and maintained by the Trump Organization,
were false New York business records. In truth, there was no retainer agreement, and Lawyer A
was not being paid for legal services rendered in 2017. The Defendant caused his entities’
business records to be falsified to disguise his and others’ criminal conduct.
BACKGROUND
5. The Defendant is the beneficial owner of a collection of business entities known
by the trade name the Trump Organization. The Trump Organization comprises approximately
500 separate entities that, among other business activities, own and manage hotels, golf courses,
commercial real estate, condominium developments, and other properties. The Trump
Organization is headquartered at 725 Fifth Avenue in New York County.
6. From approximately June 2015 to November 2016, the Defendant was a candidate
for the office of President of the United States. On January 20, 2017, he became President of the
United States.
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THE SCHEME
I. The Catch and Kill Scheme to Suppress Negative Information
7. During and in furtherance of his candidacy for President, the Defendant and
others agreed to identify and suppress negative stories about him. Two parties to this agreement
have admitted to committing illegal conduct in connection with the scheme. In August 2018,
Lawyer A pleaded guilty to two federal crimes involving illegal campaign contributions, and
subsequently served time in prison. In addition, in August 2018, American Media, Inc. (“AMI”),
a media company that owned and published magazines and supermarket tabloids including the
National Enquirer, admitted in a non-prosecution agreement that it made a payment to a source
of a story to ensure that the source “did not publicize damaging allegations” about the Defendant
“before the 2016 presidential election and thereby influence that election.”
A. The 2015 Trump Tower Meeting
8. In June 2015, the Defendant announced his candidacy for President of the United
States.
9. Soon after, in August 2015, the Defendant met with Lawyer A and AMI’s
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (the “AMI CEO”) at Trump Tower in New York County.
At the meeting, the AMI CEO agreed to help with the Defendant’s campaign, saying that he
would act as the “eyes and ears” for the campaign by looking out for negative stories about the
Defendant and alerting Lawyer A before the stories were published. The AMI CEO also agreed
to publish negative stories about the Defendant’s competitors for the election.
B. Suppressing the Doorman’s Story
10. A few months later, in or about October or November 2015, the AMI CEO
learned that a former Trump Tower doorman (the “Doorman”) was trying to sell information
regarding a child that the Defendant had allegedly fathered out of wedlock. At the AMI CEO’s
4
direction, AMI negotiated and signed an agreement to pay the Doorman $30,000 to acquire
exclusive rights to the story. AMI falsely characterized this payment in AMI’s books and
records, including in its general ledger. AMI purchased the information from the Doorman
without fully investigating his claims, but the AMI CEO directed that the deal take place because
of his agreement with the Defendant and Lawyer A.
11. When AMI later concluded that the story was not true, the AMI CEO wanted to
release the Doorman from the agreement. However, Lawyer A instructed the AMI CEO not to
release the Doorman until after the presidential election, and the AMI CEO complied with that
instruction because of his agreement with the Defendant and Lawyer A.
C. Suppressing Woman 1’s Account
12. About five months before the presidential election, in or about June 2016, the
editor-in-chief of the National Enquirer and AMI’s Chief Content Officer (the “AMI Editor-inChief”) contacted Lawyer A about a woman (“Woman 1”) who alleged she had a sexual
relationship with the Defendant while he was married. The AMI Editor-in-Chief updated
Lawyer A regularly about the matter over text message and by telephone. The Defendant did not
want this information to become public because he was concerned about the effect it could have
on his candidacy. Thereafter, the Defendant, the AMI CEO, and Lawyer A had a series of
discussions about who should pay off Woman 1 to secure her silence.
13. AMI ultimately paid $150,000 to Woman 1 in exchange for her agreement not to
speak out about the alleged sexual relationship, as well as for two magazine cover features of
Woman 1 and a series of articles that would be published under her byline. AMI falsely
characterized this payment in AMI’s books and records, including in its general ledger. The
AMI CEO agreed to the deal after discussing it with both the Defendant and Lawyer A, and on
5
the understanding from Lawyer A that the Defendant or the Trump Organization would
reimburse AMI.
14. In a conversation captured in an audio recording in approximately September
2016 concerning Woman 1’s account, the Defendant and Lawyer A discussed how to obtain the
rights to Woman 1’s account from AMI and how to reimburse AMI for its payment. Lawyer A
told the Defendant he would open up a company for the transfer of Woman 1’s account and other
information, and stated that he had spoken to the Chief Financial Officer for the Trump
Organization (the “TO CFO”) about “how to set the whole thing up.” The Defendant asked, “So
what do we got to pay for this? One fifty?” and suggested paying by cash. When Lawyer A
disagreed, the Defendant then mentioned payment by check. After the conversation, Lawyer A
created a shell company called Resolution Consultants, LLC on or about September 30, 2016.
15. Less than two months before the election, on or about September 30, 2016, the
AMI CEO signed an agreement in which AMI agreed to transfer its rights to Woman 1’s account
to Lawyer A’s shell company for $125,000. However, after the assignment agreement was
signed but before the reimbursement took place, the AMI CEO consulted with AMI’s general
counsel and then told Lawyer A that the deal to transfer the rights to Lawyer A’s shell company
was off.
D. Suppressing Woman 2’s Account
16. About one month before the election, on or about October 7, 2016, news broke
that the Defendant had been caught on tape saying to the host of Access Hollywood: “I just start
kissing them [women]. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star,
they let you do it. You can do anything. . . . Grab ’em by the [genitals]. You can do anything.”
The evidence shows that both the Defendant and his campaign staff were concerned that the tape
would harm his viability as a candidate and reduce his standing with female voters in particular.
6
17. Shortly after the Access Hollywood tape became public, the AMI Editor-in-Chief
contacted the AMI CEO about another woman (“Woman 2”) who alleged she had a sexual
encounter with the Defendant while he was married. The AMI CEO told the AMI Editor-inChief to notify Lawyer A.
18. On or about October 10, 2016, the AMI Editor-in-Chief connected Lawyer A with
Woman 2’s lawyer (“Lawyer B”). Lawyer A then negotiated a deal with Lawyer B to secure
Woman 2’s silence and prevent disclosure of the damaging information in the final weeks before
the presidential election. Under the deal that Lawyer B negotiated, Woman 2 would be paid
$130,000 for the rights to her account.
19. The Defendant directed Lawyer A to delay making a payment to Woman 2 as
long as possible. He instructed Lawyer A that if they could delay the payment until after the
election, they could avoid paying altogether, because at that point it would not matter if the story
became public. As reflected in emails and text messages between and among Lawyer A, Lawyer
B, and the AMI Editor-in-Chief, Lawyer A attempted to delay making payment as long as
possible.
20. Ultimately, with pressure mounting and the election approaching, the Defendant
agreed to the payoff and directed Lawyer A to proceed. Lawyer A discussed the deal with the
Defendant and the TO CFO. The Defendant did not want to make the $130,000 payment
himself, and asked Lawyer A and the TO CFO to find a way to make the payment. After
discussing various payment options with the TO CFO, Lawyer A agreed he would make the
payment. Before making the payment, Lawyer A confirmed with the Defendant that Defendant
would pay him back.
7
21. On or about October 26, shortly after speaking with the Defendant on the phone,
Lawyer A opened a bank account in Manhattan in the name of Essential Consultants LLC, a new
shell company he had created to effectuate the payment. He then transferred $131,000 from his
personal home equity line of credit (“HELOC”) into that account. On or about October 27,
Lawyer A wired $130,000 from his Essential Consultants LLC account in New York to Lawyer
B to suppress Woman 2’s account.
E. Post-Election Communications with AMI CEO
22. On November 8, 2016, the Defendant won the presidential election and became
the President-Elect. Thereafter, AMI released both the doorman and Woman 1 from their nondisclosure agreements.
23. The Defendant was inaugurated as President on January 20, 2017. Between
Election Day and Inauguration Day, during the period of the Defendant’s transition to his role as
President, the Defendant met with the AMI CEO privately in Trump Tower in Manhattan. The
Defendant thanked the AMI CEO for handling the stories of the Doorman and Woman 1, and
invited the AMI CEO to the Inauguration. In the summer of 2017, the Defendant invited the
AMI CEO to the White House for a dinner to thank him for his help during the campaign.
II. The Defendant Falsified Business Records
24. Shortly after being elected President, the Defendant arranged to reimburse
Lawyer A for the payoff he made on the Defendant’s behalf. In or around January 2017, the TO
CFO and Lawyer A met to discuss how Lawyer A would be reimbursed for the money he paid to
ensure Woman 2’s silence. The TO CFO asked Lawyer A to bring a copy of a bank statement
for the Essential Consultants account showing the $130,000 payment.
25. The TO CFO and Lawyer A agreed to a total repayment amount of $420,000.
They reached that figure by adding the $130,000 payment to a $50,000 payment for another
8
expense for which Lawyer A also claimed reimbursement, for a total of $180,000. The TO CFO
then doubled that amount to $360,000 so that Lawyer A could characterize the payment as
income on his tax returns, instead of a reimbursement, and Lawyer A would be left with
$180,000 after paying approximately 50% in income taxes. Finally, the TO CFO added an
additional $60,000 as a supplemental year-end bonus. Together, these amounts totaled
$420,000. The TO CFO memorialized these calculations in handwritten notes on the copy of the
bank statement that Lawyer A had provided.
26. The Defendant, the TO CFO, and Lawyer A then agreed that Lawyer A would be
paid the $420,000 through twelve monthly payments of $35,000 over the course of 2017. Each
month, Lawyer A was to send an invoice to the Defendant through Trump Organization
employees, falsely requesting payment of $35,000 for legal services rendered in a given month
of 2017 pursuant to a retainer agreement. At no point did Lawyer A have a retainer agreement
with the Defendant or the Trump Organization.
27. In early February 2017, the Defendant and Lawyer A met in the Oval Office at the
White House and confirmed this repayment arrangement.
28. On or about February 14, 2017, Lawyer A emailed the Controller of the Trump
Organization (the “TO Controller”) the first monthly invoice, which stated: “Pursuant to the
retainer agreement, kindly remit payment for services rendered for the months of January and
February, 2017.” The invoice requested payment in the amount of $35,000 for each of those two
months. The TO CFO approved the payment, and, in turn, the TO Controller sent the invoice to
the Trump Organization Accounts Payable Supervisor (the “TO Accounts Payable Supervisor”)
with the following instructions: “Post to legal expenses. Put ‘retainer for the months of January
and February 2017’ in the description.”
9
29. Lawyer A submitted ten similar monthly invoices by email to the Trump
Organization for the remaining months in 2017. Each invoice falsely stated that it was being
submitted “[p]ursuant to the retainer agreement,” and falsely requested “payment for services
rendered” for a month of 2017. In fact, there was no such retainer agreement and Lawyer A was
not being paid for services rendered in any month of 2017.
30. The TO Controller forwarded each invoice to the TO Accounts Payable
Supervisor. Consistent with the TO Controller’s initial instructions, the TO Accounts Payable
Supervisor printed out each invoice and marked it with an accounts payable stamp and the
general ledger code “51505” for legal expenses. The Trump Organization maintained the
invoices as records of expenses paid.
31. As instructed, the TO Accounts Payable Supervisor recorded each payment in the
Trump Organization’s electronic accounting system, falsely describing it as a “legal expense”
pursuant to a retainer agreement for a month of 2017. The Trump Organization maintained a
digital entry for each expense, called a “voucher,” and these vouchers, like vouchers for other
expenses, became part of the Trump Organization’s general ledgers.
32. The TO Accounts Payable Supervisor then prepared checks with attached check
stubs for approval and signature. The first check was paid from the Defendant’s Trust and
signed by the TO CFO and the Defendant’s son, as trustees. The check stub falsely recorded the
payment as “Retainer for 1/1-1/31/17” and “Retainer for 2/1-2/28/17.” The second check, for
March 2017, was also paid from the Trust and signed by two trustees. The check stub falsely
recorded the payment as “Retainer for 3/1-3/31/17.”
33. The remaining nine checks, corresponding to the months of April through
December of 2017, were paid by the Defendant personally. Each of the checks was cut from the
10
Defendant’s bank account and sent, along with the corresponding invoices from Lawyer A, from
the Trump Organization in New York County to the Defendant in Washington, D.C. The checks
and stubs bearing the false statements were stapled to the invoices also bearing false statements.
The Defendant signed each of the checks personally and had them sent back to the Trump
Organization in New York County. There, the checks, the stubs, and the invoices were scanned
and maintained in the Trump Organization’s data system before the checks themselves were
detached and mailed to Lawyer A for payment.
34. The $35,000 payments stopped after the December 2017 payment.
III. The Investigation into Lawyer A and the Defendant’s Pressure Campaign
35. On or about April 9, 2018, the FBI executed a search warrant on Lawyer A’s
residences and office. In the months that followed, the Defendant and others engaged in a public
and private pressure campaign to ensure that Lawyer A did not cooperate with law enforcement
in the federal investigation.
36. On the day of the FBI searches, Lawyer A called to speak with the Defendant to
let him know what had occurred. In a return call, the Defendant told Lawyer A to “stay strong.”
37. On or about April 21, 2018, the Defendant publicly commented on Twitter
encouraging Lawyer A not to “flip,” stating, “Most people will flip if the Government lets them
out of trouble, even if . . . it means lying or making up stories. Sorry, I don’t see [Lawyer A]
doing that . . . .”
38. In mid-April 2018, Lawyer A was also approached by an attorney (“Lawyer C”),
who offered to represent him in the interest of maintaining a “back channel of communication”
to the Defendant. On or about April 21, 2018, Lawyer C emailed Lawyer A, highlighting that he
had a close relationship with the Defendant’s personal attorney (“Lawyer D”) and stating,
“[T]his could not be a better situation for the President or you.” Later that day, Lawyer C
11
emailed Lawyer A again, writing, “I spoke with [Lawyer D]. Very Very Positive. You are
‘loved.’ . . . [Lawyer D] said this communication channel must be maintained. . . . Sleep well
tonight, you have friends in high places.”
39. On or about June 14, 2018, Lawyer C emailed Lawyer A a news clip discussing
the possibility of Lawyer A cooperating, and continued to urge him not to cooperate with law
enforcement, writing, “The whole objective of this exercise by the [federal prosecutors] is to
drain you, emotionally and financially, until you reach a point that you see them as your only
means to salvation.” In the same email , Lawyer C, wrote, “You are making a very big mistake
if you believe the stories these ‘journalists’ are writing about you. They want you to cave. They
want you to fail. They do not want you to persevere and succeed.”
40. On August 21, 2018, Lawyer A pleaded guilty in the federal investigation. The
next day, on or about August 22, 2018, the Defendant commented on Twitter, “If anyone is
looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of [Lawyer
A]!” Later that day, the Defendant posted to Twitter again, stating, “I feel very badly for” one of
his former campaign managers who had been criminally charged, saying, “[U]nlike [Lawyer A],
he refused to ‘break’ – make up stories in order to get a ‘deal.’”
IV. Lawyer A and AMI Admit Guilt in Connection with Payoffs of Woman 1 and
Woman 2
41. Ultimately, other participants in the scheme admitted that the payoffs were
unlawful.
42. In or about September 2018, AMI entered into a non-prosecution agreement with
the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York in connection with
AMI’s payoff of Woman 1, admitting that “[a]t no time during the negotiation or acquisition of
[Woman 1’s] story did AMI intend to publish the story or disseminate information about it
12
publicly.” Rather, AMI admitted that it made the payment to ensure that Woman 1 “did not
publicize damaging allegations” about the Defendant “before the 2016 presidential election and
thereby influence that election.”
43. In August 21, 2018, Lawyer A pleaded guilty to a felony in connection with his
role in AMI’s payoff to Woman 1, admitting in his guilty plea that he had done so at the
Defendant’s direction:
[O]n or about the summer of 2016, in coordination with, and at the direction
of, a candidate for federal office, I and the CEO of a media company at the
request of the candidate worked together to keep an individual with information
that would be harmful to the candidate and to the campaign from publicly
disclosing this information. After a number of discussions, we eventually
accomplished the goal by the media company entering into a contract with the
individual under which she received compensation of $150,000. I participated in
this conduct, which on my part took place in Manhattan, for the principal purpose
of influencing the election.
(emphasis added).
44. Lawyer A also pleaded guilty to a felony in connection with his payoff of Woman
2 to secure her silence, again at the Defendant’s direction. Lawyer A admitted as part of his
guilty plea:
[O]n or about October of 2016, in coordination with, and at the direction of,
the same candidate, I arranged to make a payment to a second individual with
information that would be harmful to the candidate and to the campaign to keep
the individual from disclosing the information. To accomplish this, I used a
company that was under my control to make a payment in the sum of $130,000.
The monies I advanced through my company were later repaid to me by the
candidate. I participated in this conduct, which on my part took place in
Manhattan, for the principal purpose of influencing the election.
(emphasis added).
1
1 This Statement of Facts contains certain of the information that is relevant to the events
described herein, and does not contain all facts relevant to the charged conduct.
13
DATED: New York, New York
April 4, 2023
ALVIN L. BRAGG, JR.
District Attorney
New York County
High profile lawyer, Robert Barnes, has established that the Hon. Alvin Bragg (the devil’s own lawyer) has issued his indictments of Trump but cites no laws being applicable.
Reminds me of the incredible performance by Gene Hackman, in The Unforgiven. GH is the overzealous sheriff, and when someone cries: “I’m innocent!” The reply comes: “innocent of what?”
Ladies and gents, you have been indicted for the non-existent crime of being conservative. Hell, not even that – just being one hair to the right of Marx has made you indictable.
Earlier I posted all of the complaint(s) from the gov’t pdf file, and provided the link for the file, but it fell into the waste bin I guess. The story is, none of it amounts to much of anything at all. It’s just a bullshit dem political power ploy, and hopefully of blows up in their faces big time.
It’s there now.
It reads like an Eighth grader’s screed. I’m looking to see if somewhere in the middle of all that text, it doesn’t say: :neener, neener!”
I understand that little if any legal underpinning is present in all this. IOW, Bragg hasn’t shown what actual laws have been broken. He makes shit up! Also, he uses the word “felony” like it has meaning just for him. Felony means egregious, but it means (I’m no lawyer but see if this isn’t true) FEDERAL. Fukn federal, as in USA. Not New York.
Anyway, as I tried to say before, the crime will be applied to you based on your status within the Marxist matrix.
Don’t indentify as a ham sandwich
OK Boomers… here’s a little fun with GPT-4:
My Prompt: “Use Keats’s On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer as a template to compose a parody sonnet entitled On First Looking into National Review.”
On First Looking into National Review
Much have I read, the New York Times and Post,
And many weary days have studied Slate;
Yet never did I feel my mind engrossed
In such a way as with this new-found mate:
‘Twas like discovering a hidden treasure,
A realm of thought that stirs the soul anew;
National Review, with all its wit and measure,
Brought forth a fresh perspective to my view.
When Keats first glimpsed fair Chapman’s Homer’s might,
He felt as if a new world met his eyes,
And so it was, upon that fateful night,
When first I delved into these pages wise.
In politics and culture, truth I seek—
National Review, with you, I’ve reached the peak.
(You may not be interested in GPT-4, but I can assure you that GPT-5 or 7 or 12 will be interested in YOU.)
Shut it down! It grows! It knows! The nukes are gonna fly if this thing gets loose.
On First Looking into National Review
Much have I read, the Times and Post, oy vey,
And many dreary days did Slate peruse;
Yet never did I think I’d see the day
When such a rag would leave me so bemused:
‘Twas like a bubbe’s tale of bygone times,
A realm where tired tropes and clichés grew;
National Review, with all its dated rhymes,
Brought forth a smirk, and little else, it’s true.
When Keats first glimpsed fair Chapman’s Homer’s might,
He felt as if a new world met his eyes,
But I, upon this hapless, schmaltzy sight,
Could not but laugh at such a vain reprise.
In politics and culture, truth I seek—
National Review, oy, you’re a puny schlemiel.
Well, I *may* have slightly modified the prompt request. Maybe.
🙂
FWIW, GPT-4 passes bar exams with ridiculous ease and also passes the USMLE although doesn’t quite top the class here. These without any special prompt-crafting. i.e. you just feed it the questions as a human would get them.
One use I’ve found for it is just as an ‘Updater’. I can ask it questions like “My basic knowledge of the Earth’s solar system is ca. 1985 vintage. Please update me.” Now you can do that with search engines, but this is faster and more accurate.
And for generating *good* code snippets. Not going to get into this here, but man this thing is good.
There’s a lot it can’t do. But there was a lot more that GPT-3 couldn’t do just last year.
This outline paper is worth reading:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.12712
From one of the links at the link:
“Aside from the notorious cases of “evil personalities” hijacking the chatbots, we have seen a lot of factual errors or even invented facts –called “hallucinations”– which are misleading to humans because the text looks as if it was written with the utmost assurance; we humans tend to show insecurity when we aren’t certain of what we are saying, but of course, machines don’t feel insecurities (nor assurance, actually). Companies like OpenAI try to give the impression that mistakes are being ironed out, but some experts believe that mistakes and hallucinations are intrinsic to the technology and not minor details. I proposed a way to minimize mistakes without pretending to eliminate them altogether.”
=======
For more than 20 years I have been using MS Word to create invoices, materials lists, letters and other administrative tasks. Long ago I created templates for these things and with each new one I modify and old one but stay very close to the original format. There are exceptions.
I suppose, AI in use with Word would work similarly and maybe even more precisely, and learn about my habits along the way and perhaps offer suggestions (only with my approval) for improvement.
Back in the late 70’s I briefly held a position with a large company that designed and built very large prefabricated metal buildings worldwide. My job was to use the schematic drawings of the individual components of any given building and create a materials list to match using a large floor model of a Wang computer. Very primitive set up compared to today. The net result was that because the Wang was always in “learning” mode it required human eyes and brains to check every little thing it did. That was my job and I did not like it at all. Unbelievably boring, very easy to make mistakes, and every time I took a break it was like starting all over again. I only lasted a couple months at that job even though the pay was pretty good. Everybody has their limitations.
The long and the short of it was that the technology was only as good as the “human eyes and brains” that were supervising it. I suspect that will always be the case no matter how advanced computer programming systems become. Errors will happen (our power went out 4 times yesterday, for example) as they always do and consequences will occur. How do you deal with such things? Who is checking the checker? What if multi-tiered AI becomes so comlex it is not humanly possible to supervise it? A crossover point will occur, when the AI self checks as it goes along and depending on the complexity it will require a set of human eyes with a brain to yank the plug, if that is still possible, and in time, if that is possible.
I’m not a big fan of this AI business and knowing human nature as I do I see and endless plain of possible grief for humans when the condensed power potential of AI used for ill gains. If an employee embezzles a million dollars from you you simply take him out back and dispatch him into the dumpster. A well experienced AI machine will already know what you are thinking and will do whatever it needs to to protect itself and you might find yourself in that dumpster. Someone mentioned the Forbin Project from 1970.
Well, at least you didn’t have to use a CPT8000 to create those docs, Ghostsniper (see Figure 4 at link). That’s the dinosaur of a word processor I used while in the sub service.
Good Morning, Neo. If you are mucking around in the backroom of this comment thread, I posted a reply to Ghostsniper’s last comment in the thread, and the internettin’ goblin ate it. Thanks.