N.Y. prosecutor just got 'a heck of a lot' more leverage on Trump in criminal case: expert

N.Y. prosecutor just got 'a heck of a lot' more leverage on Trump in criminal case: expert
Donald Trump, Alvin Bragg (Trump photo by Mandel Ngan/AFP, Bragg photo by Alex Kemp/AFP)

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg just got a huge gift with the potential perjury guilty plea of former Trump Organization chief accountant Allen Weisselberg, former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti argued on MSNBC Thursday.

Bragg is prosecuting a criminal business fraud case against the former president, stemming from his alleged concealment of hush payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

"Your reaction to this news?" asked anchor Katie Phang, herself an attorney. "I guess timing is everything, right? We are waiting for Judge Arthur Engoron to issue his ruling on the remaining counts that were under trial the last few weeks. Do you think that's why we haven't received anything yet from Justice Engoron?"

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"That's a great question," said Mariotti. "I think he's probably taking his time on that opinion because it's an important one. It's very consequential."

"Really, I think, regarding this news, what I would just say is that you have to know that Allen Weisselberg is giving Alvin Bragg and his team a heck of a lot. Realistically, a prosecutor putting a witness up for the prosecution who's pleading guilty to perjury, you know, that's not going to be a very attractive witness."

The between-the-lines takeaway, Mariotti reminded Phang, is that "in order for that witness to be worth the time, they've got to be giving up something really important. That's what I think is really the news here."

Watch the video below or at the link here.

Renato Mariotti on Weisselberg perjury plea www.youtube.com

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One of Trump's own cabinet members compared him to his liberal nemesis, according to a new report.

In the book Regime Change, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is revealed to say that Trump is the same as billionaire liberal donor George Soros, according to reporting by The Guardian.

"Trump reminded him...of his old boss, the legendary investor and major Democratic donor George Soros," reads a passage of the book shared by The Guardian in which Bessent speaks to his associates. "'They are the same animal,' Bessent said."

Soros is a constant target of MAGA and Trump, who even threatened to investigate him for racketeering in Truth Social posts. Bessent worked as the chief investment officer at the Soros Fund Management and reportedly played a big role in building the fortune that has fueled Soros’ political and charitable donations, according to previous reporting.

Last year, Bessent reportedly told a room full of billionaires that both Trump and Soros are "impatient," according to reporting by Bloomberg.

The Regime Change passage highlighted in The Guardian reporting details how negotiations between Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy stalled because Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick fought over how a minerals deal should be worded.

Trump reportedly went around Bessent and Lutnick and "asked J.D. Vance's wife, Usha, also a Yale Law School graduate, to review the Ukrainian edits to the minerals deal," according to a passage from the book published by The Guardian. "She declared the document 'awful,' and [took] a heavy pencil to it."

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President Donald Trump’s coveted peace deal with Tehran was dealt a devastating blow Saturday after Iranian officials announced they would, again, be closing the Strait of Hormuz to all shipping vessels.

In a message from the Islamic Republic of Iran Armed Forces operational headquarters, Iranian military officials announced that the strait – a critical shipping waterway through which 20% of the world’s oil trade flows – would be closed due to the “flagrant bad faith and breach of covenant by America regarding the failure to implement the first clause of the end-of-war agreement,” according to the Iranian Fars News Agency.

The first clause of the 14-point memorandum of understanding agreed to by Washington and Tehran requires Israel to halt its bombardment of Lebanon, which Israel has refused to abide by since the signing of the tentative agreement.

“The brutal massacre and displacement of hundreds of thousands of the oppressed people of this land, and also in light of the occupying Zionist forces' refusal to withdraw from the lands of southern Lebanon, it declares that the Strait of Hormuz will be closed to the passage of vessels,” the Iranian military officials said, according to an English translation of Fars News Agency’s reporting.

Political strategist and commentator Keith Edwards claimed Friday that he was paid a visit by the FBI over comments he made online – more specifically, comments about President Donald Trump’s botched $14 million restoration of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which has been plagued with algae and peeling paint just days after completion.

On Friday morning, Edwards issued a plea on social media: he offered to pay anyone willing to send him a piece of the “‘American flag blue’ paint peeling off the reflecting pool,” insisting he “must have it and frame it.” He also offered to pay $86.47, a reference to the term the Justice Department cited in its criminal indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, which some conservatives have interpreted as a threat to Trump's life.

Just hours later, Edwards took to social media again to provide his more than 175,000 followers on X an update.

“The FBI just showed up at my door because I tweeted about people picking up paint debris and sending it to me,” Edwards wrote Friday evening. “I asked them where's Savannah Guthrie's mom.”

Trump’s FBI has been reported to have visited the homes of other critics of the administration, including participants in the No Kings protests. The FBI has also visited Americans’ homes over social media posts critical of Israel’s ongoing siege on Gaza, which countless human rights groups and a United Nations committee have labeled a genocide.

Edwards has amassed nearly 1.3 million subscribers on his political commentary YouTube channel and previously worked on Michael Bloomberg’s 2020 presidential campaign.

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