Potentially dangerous situation : Bottom slaps and satin pajamas

dangerous situation

Stormy Daniels testimony,  former porn star, in the Donald Trump trial revealed a potentially dangerous situation

Former US President Donald Trump attends his trial in the Stormy Daniels case at the Criminal Court in Manhattan, New York on May 7, 2024.

Former adult film actress Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday that Donald Trump met her in her pajamas in his hotel room in 2006 and that she "slapped" him there at his request, telling jurors about their alleged sexual encounter, in the first criminal trial targeting a former American president, writes Reuters.

Dressed in a black outfit and wearing dark glasses, Stormy Daniels, now 45, described the potentially dangerous situation related to donald Trump. So, she said she became irritated by Trump's frequent interruptions and asked him: "Are you always so arrogant and cocky?"

The former starlet said Trump "challenged" her to slap him, and she accepted.

"This is bullshit," Trump appeared to say as he watched from the dock.

As of mid-morning, Daniels still had not testified about the sexual act she said took place at that meeting. Her testimony is expected to resume after a break.

Trump, 77, and the Republican presidential nominee in November's election, is accused of falsifying accounting records in order to hide a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels to buy her silence during the election in 2016. He pleaded not guilty and denies having sex with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

"You've got to be the smart one," Trump allegedly told Stormy Daniels

She said she met Trump at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, where Trump was competing. Stormy Daniels also claimed that Trump singled her out when an associate mentioned that she directed movies.

"He said, 'Oh, you're directing, so you have to be the smart one,'" Daniels testified.

Acoeding to Stormy Daniels testimony, jurors have found that later that day, Trump's bodyguard approached her and told her the mogul would like her to have dinner with him.

"Hell no," Daniels said when asked about her initial response.

She said she changed her mind after a publicist convinced her the dinner would make a great story.

When she arrived at his hotel suite, Trump greeted her wearing only satin pajamas.

"I said, 'Does Hugh Hefner know you stole his pajamas?'" Daniels recalled telling her, referring to the famous Playboy impresario Hugh Hefner.

Daniels told Trump to change his clothes, and he politely complied, she said.

Trump's reaction in the courtroom

sexual trial

The alleged meeting took place while Trump was married to his current wife, Melania. Trump vehemently denies any sexual encounter with Stormy Daniels.

As Trump reaction related to sexual trial, was "passed" a note to his lawyer on Tuesday and appeared to close his eyes at times as he listened to the former porn star's testimony.

After a short break, Judge Juan Merchan told prosecutors to drop details of the alleged encounter. "The level of detail we go into is simply unnecessary," reasoned the high magistrate.

Merchan had previously ruled that Stormy Daniels was allowed to tell jurors that she had sex with Trump, despite the objections of Trump's legal team.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger said the testimony was necessary to complete the story and establish Daniels' credibility during testimony in sexual trial.

What the prosecutors say

Trump reaction, who is running for another term in the White House in the Nov. 5 presidential election, has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying accounting documents.

Prosecutors have shown that the former president's signature was on the payments at the heart of the case. They say Trump falsely labeled payments to his lawyer Michael Cohen in 2017 as legal expenses when they were actually reimbursements for a $130,000 payment made to buy Stormy Daniels' silence that Cohen had transferred to her the actress.

Prosecutors say this amounts to an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 election by buying the silence of people with potentially damaging information.

Trump's lawyers suggested that Stormy Daniels was aiming to land a role on Trump's reality show, "The Apprentice." Trump reaction faces jail time if he continues to ignore the judge's restraining order

Daniels testimony has been the target of some of Trump's scathing attacks on social media.

Judge Merchan, who is hearing the case, said some of those posts violated a gag order that bars Trump from talking about witnesses, jurors and others involved in the case if those statements are intended to influence proceedings.

Trump has so far been fined $10,000 for violating the restraining order that prevents him from speaking about witnesses. Merchan warned that Trump could be jailed if he continued his attacks durind sexual trial.

Trump has called the ban a violation of his free speech rights and says the lawsuit is an attempt to hinder his bid to win back the White House.

The former president faces three other criminal charges, but the Stormy Daniels case is the only one that is certain to go to sexual trial before the November election. In the other cases, in which he has also pleaded not guilty, Trump is accused of trying to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election and of improperly handling classified documents after he left office.

Trump's Classified Documents Trial - Dangerous Situation Postponed Indefinitely

dangerous situation

According to a Decision Made by Judge Appointed by Former President,  Dangerous Situation Related to Trump's Classified Documents Trial Was Indefinitely Postponed.

A federal court in Florida postponed on Tuesday for an indefinite period the start of the criminal trial of the former US president Donald Trump in the event that he is accused of negligently using classified documents, informs AFP.

In this criminal trial case, one of the four dangerous situation in which he is concerned, a trial was to be opened on May 20. But the federal judge considered this date to be unsustainable due to the number of preliminary deal requests presented to the court.

Aileen Cannon, magistrate appointed by the former president, did not set a new date. This decision is a setback for Special Prosecutor Jack Smith and makes it highly unlikely that a trial will take place in the case before the November presidential election.

The Republican presidential candidate is currently on criminal trial in New York in another case involving suspicious payments before the 2016 presidential election.

In the Florida case, Donald Trump is being prosecuted along with two of his personal assistants for keeping classified documents at his private residence in Mar-a-Lago after he left the White House in January 2021. He is accused of compromising national security by keeping these classified documents, which included military plans or information and dangerous situation on nuclear weapons, instead of handing them over to the National Archives, as required by law.

Donald Trump is also accused of trying to destroy evidence in this case. The most serious deal charges are punishable by up to ten years in prison.

His lawyers have multiplied their appeals to postpone a trial in this case.

Targeted by four separate criminal proceedings, including the one for which he is appearing at the trial on April 15 in New York, Donald Trump repeatedly denounces a "witch hunt"deal organized by the Democratic administration to remove him from the presidential election race.

If he had been elected again, Donald Trump could, after the inauguration ceremony in January 2025, order the abandonment of the two federal proceedings against him: the case investigated in Florida, as well as the one dirty deal carried out in the capital Washington for accusations of illegal attempts to alter the results of the presidential election won by Joe Biden in 2020.

Clashes between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian demonstrators at UCLA University

 pro-Palestinian demonstrators

A Jewish student was notably injured in the head by a pro-Palestinian protester

Clashes broke out on Sunday between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators on the campus of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), reports CNN. Protesters broke through a security barrier intended to separate the two groups, coming face to face, shouting and shoving each other. The incident involved pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered in support of an encampment protesting Israel's military campaign in Gaza, and a group of counter-protesters draped in Israeli flags who had set up a video screen and speakers. A Jewish student was notably injured in the head by a pro-Palestinian demonstrator.

Both rallies were authorized by the university, which hired a private security company to separate the two camps. Police in riot gear stood at a distance from the crowd, according to CNN, but university officials said police would only intervene if they believed students were in danger. Mary Osako, vice-chancellor of strategic communications at the university, confirmed in a statement that the demonstrators had "forced" a barrier between the groups and that there had been "physical altercations" between the protesters. “UCLA has a long history of peaceful protests, and we are saddened by the violence that has erupted,” the statement said.

The UCLA campus has become an epicenter of the wave of pro-Palestinian demonstrations sweeping American universities. Los Angeles police arrested 93 protesters who refused to dismantle an encampment set up on campus. Students are demanding that the university completely divest from Israel and the companies supporting its operations in Gaza, something UCLA denies.

The incident is the latest in a series of anti-Israel protests that have swept college campuses across the United States. Last week, at least 45 pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested at Yale University after riot police stormed the campus during a demonstration. Two days earlier, a Jewish student journalist at Yale was stabbed in the eye with a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) flag.

Earlier, more than 100 people were arrested by the New York Police Department for unlawful trespassing as law enforcement entered Columbia University to disperse a pro-Palestinian protest that had begun the day before.

Trump Attacks: He Compares Current Administration to Gestapo

Biden Gestapo Administation

Donald Trump has accused the White House leader of being incompetent and corrupt and has compared President Joe Biden's administration to the secret police of Nazi Germany - Gestapo, NBC News reports.

The former president made these comments while discussing his legal troubles, attacking the prosecutors in these cases and lamenting the recent indictments in Arizona of several of his top advisers, along with 11 so-called fake electors from the 2020 election.

"These people are running a Gestapo administration," Trump said, according to the audio recording of the event. "And that's all they have. And that's the only way they think they're going to win, in their opinion."

"Once I was indicted, I said, 'Well, now we have to take the gloves off,'" added Trump, saying Biden is "the worst president in the country's history." "He's extremely incompetent. He's corrupt as hell. He's the Manchurian candidate."

The former president added that he is not too bothered by his legal issues.

"If you care too much, you tend to suffocate. And, in a way, I don't care. It's just that, you know, that's life," he said.

However, he admitted that he was surprised when he was indicted. "Once I was indicted, I said, 'I've just been indicted.' Me. I've been indicted," Trump said.

He also called Jack Smith, the special counsel handling two federal cases against him, a "scumbag" and "nutcase."

Trump made the remarks at his Mar-a-Lago club during a private event attended by hundreds of donors.

Campus protest: Tensions and Violence against pro-Palestinian students protesting ai UCLA(II)

campus protest

(Continuation of the post from here)

This Thursday morning, the police began to dismantle the barricades of pro-Palestinian students on campus protest, according to images broadcast by the American channel CNN. Before daybreak, the police, in riot gear, positioned themselves in front of the students carrying umbrellas or white helmets and forming a line, clinging to each other's arms. The demonstrators, one by one, were then arrested and handcuffed. The police also methodically dismantled the wooden pallets and plywood panels from a barricade surrounding the campus protest and dismantled the tents.

Officers warned protesters that they would be subject to arrest and possible harm if they remained in the encampment, but many of them refused to leave, CNN reported. “Hold the line, hold the line!” “, some shouted from inside the camp. Several people also gathered on the Janss steps, emblematic of UCLA, appearing to try to prevent the police from advancing.

Around fifty UCLA professors denounced the management's responsibility on Wednesday. “The university has created a dangerous situation which reached a crescendo last night,” said Graeme Blair, a political science professor. “They allow counter-protesters to be within 20 feet (6 meters) of this encampment,” he lamented, estimating that counter-demonstrations could be authorized elsewhere on campus.

Are the anti-protesters pro-Israeli?

According to several witnesses, some of the counter-protesters carried Israeli flags, but did not appear to be students. They add that many of them have visited campus several times.

“From the first evening, (those present at the camp) were harassed by increasingly large groups of counter-protesters,” Dylan Winward, a journalist with the Daily Bruin, the campus newspaper, told the BBC.

The hooded and masked attackers appeared to be “between 20 and 35 years old and did not look like students or people with the slightest connection to the university,” Daniel Harris, a 23-year-old jazz student, told AFP. , adding that he did not recognize any of the “Jewish students who support Israel” that he knows.

According to Professor Elizabeth O’Brien, “provocateurs from outside” chanting slogans such as “USA!” USA! » or “Fake News” are at the origin of the violence. The clashes appear to have lasted several hours. According to paramedics, a man in his twenties was taken to hospital with head trauma.

The day after a restless night, relative calm reigned on campus on Wednesday, with a strong police presence. Inside the camp, around a hundred tents, pro-Palestinian students are still gathered. Classes were canceled and management issued a statement saying it had opened “a thorough investigation that could lead to arrests, expulsions and dismissals.” »

Famous Figures: The tears of Hope Hicks, the faithful communicator in Trump trial in New York

trial testimony

The youngest communications director at the White House, who was also the former president's confidante, gave trial  testimony that was sometimes damning, sometimes useful for her ex-boss.

The young woman stops, leans over, grabs a handkerchief, bursts into tears while dabbing her eyes. "Miss Hicks, do you want to take a break?" » asks Judge Merchan. “Yes,” she whispers, and the jury is escorted out of the courtroom while she regains her senses.

Hope Hicks was a key witness in Donald Trump's trial over cover-ups to hide payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels. She said she had a sexual relationship with him in 2006 and, ten years later, when Trump was running for presidential election, she threatened to write about it in the newspapers.

At the Trump trial, account of a political “crisis” linked to his vulgar comments about women

The first ex-member of his bodyguard to testify at Donald Trump's criminal trial, his former adviser Hope Hicks recounted on Friday how the revelations about his vulgar and outrageous remarks towards women had plunged his presidential campaign into "crisis " in 2016.

“Very nervous” in her own words, even bursting into tears during her trial testimony, Hope Hicks, who was White House communications director from 2017 to 2018, described a candidate “very involved” in all aspects of his presidential election campaign , to whom she reported directly.

In this trial with enormous political stakes, the former President of the United States, who dreams of returning to the White House, is being prosecuted for 34 falsifications of accounting documents linked to a payment to avoid a sex scandal a few days before the won election on the wire against Hillary Clinton, in November 2016.

“It was going to hurt.”

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo questions him especially about an episode which precedes the payment to Stormy Daniels. A month before the election in 2016, the Washington Post broadcast a video where we hear Donald Trump bragging in crude terms about having offensive behavior with women, such as "grabbing them by the pussy".

“I was worried, very worried,” she remembers, when the prosecution produces the email sent to her, on October 7, 2016, by the Washington Post journalist. And when she heard the extracts for the first time, "I was a little stunned (...) there was a consensus on the fact that it was going to hurt and that we were facing a crisis", adds -She.

For the prosecution, this episode encouraged Donald Trump to do everything to avoid a new scandal before the November 2016 election, even if it meant buying the silence of Stormy Daniels.

On October 28, 2016, a confidentiality contract was signed with the former pornographic film star.

The $130,000 was paid by Michael Cohen, via a shell company. He was reimbursed in 2017 by the billionaire's holding company, the Trump Organization, for expenses disguised as "legal fees", hence the prosecution for falsification of accounting documents.

“Break to repair”

Former US President Donald Trump (c) attends his trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 3, 2024 in New York

Hope Hicks trial testimony painted an unflattering portrait of Michael Cohen, the prosecution's key witness, who has yet to take the stand to say that he acted at the candidate's request.

“He liked to call himself a ‘repairer’”, but first “he broke things in order to be able to repair”, she says. “I didn't know Michael to be a charitable or selfless person,” she adds, of the idea that he could have made the payment to Stormy Daniels out of his own pocket.

As for Donald Trump, she describes him as worrying about the reaction of his wife, Melania, when the Wall Street Journal reported a first payment to buy the silence of a Playboy model, Karen McDougal.

In this case, the whole issue will be to determine what Donald Trump knew about the behind-the-scenes dealings with Stormy Daniels and the concealment of the payment.

Three years after leaving the White House in chaos, the Republican enters the presidential election campaign being indicted in four cases, including that before federal justice in Washington for accusations of illegal attempts to reverse the results of the presidential election won by Joe Biden in 2020.

But due to appeals and procedural questions, the trial in New York, of a smaller scale, could be the only one tried before the November 5 presidential election.

If he were elected again, Donald Trump could, once inaugurated in January 2025, order the abandonment of the two federal proceedings against him, in Washington but also in Florida (southeast), where he is being prosecuted for allegedly managing casual access to classified documents after leaving the White House.

The debates in New York will resume on Monday.