M.L. Nestel joined Raw Story in 2023. An award-winning writer and editor, his work has been published in New York Magazine, Los Angeles Magazine and The Guardian, among other titles. He also produces and writes for true-crime genre TV shows. Prior to that, he served on the Newsweek masthead as a senior writer, wrote as a correspondent at ABC News and held the titles of West Coast bureau chief and senior writer at The Daily Beast. Priors also include working as senior national correspondent at The Daily Mail and investigative reporter at all three NYC tabloids: The New York Post,The New York Daily News and Newsday. He traveled around the country as a national correspondent at The Daily. M.L. published hundreds of stories about underground music and cinema — most notably as a critic for Box Office Magazine and the New York editor at Soma Magazine. He also headed development at Fountainhead Films. M.L. splits his time between Los Angeles and New York.
A fracas over whether or not Donald Trump will be punished with prison or spared got heated between a retired New York judge and a white shoe defense attorney.
Retired Queens County Supreme Court Judge George Grasso debated with attorney Arthur Aidala, who represents such clients as convicted Hollywood studio head Harvey Weinstein, over the appropriate punishment that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg should seek and ultimately New York Judge Juan Merchan impose on 77-year-old convicted Trump.
"If Alvin Bragg dares to ask for jail time after on the first day of him being in office, he put out a memo about how soft he was on crime," Aidala said.
Indeed, when Bragg took over the office he put out a 2022 memo harping on Manhattan sending too many people to prison or "over-incarcerated" despite having a "higher crime rate."
So he sought softer alternatives beyond prison such as instituting a "use of diversion and evidenced-based programs in lieu of incarceration."
"Alvin Bragg said 'I want you to find alternatives to incarcerations on robbery on this, on this and now on this you're gonna send an old man--"
He was cut off by Grasso.
"I got tears in my eyes," he told Aidala. "I got to collect my thoughts."
"I think stealing an election... 34 felony counts involving a crime constituting a conspiracy to use unlawful means to impact an election; 34 felonies."
He talked about how close the swing state voting tally was back in 2016 and how the moves to insulate him from the alleged philandering with porn star Stormy Daniels whom he had Michael Cohen pay off $130,000 to buy her silence — could have affected the outcome.
He also brought up Trump's longtime confidante and former senior aide Hope Hicks.
"We know the testimony of Hope Hicks, who felt so bad about her testimony, she spontaneously broke down crying," he said.
