New York’s hush money trial against former president Donald Trump has begun and the media suggests there’s a “mountain of evidence” against him. But Glenn and Stu reveal the truth: Trump may have 34 counts of falsifying business records against him. But they’re all for ONE payment. So, how can one payment turn into 34 charges? And why is the prosecution relying on known-liar Michael Cohen?! Glenn and Stu break it down and also play a clip of a Democratic congresswoman revealing the real reason why Trump is on trial.
TranscriptBelow is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: You know, here's -- here's what you need to say to yourself. When you start listening to, you know, politicians or newscasters. Say, hey. This is really important that you pay attention to this. Because this is what I think. And you'll know who you can trust. Especially in Washington, DC.
If they -- if they're not talking about the government spending, then they're not serious about inflation. Period.
If -- with the border. If they're talking about dangerous things are in America, and we've -- we've got to -- we've got to make sure that we are buttoned up. And things are bad.
And blah, blah, blah. And we have terror. All the red lights are flashing.
But they don't talk about stopping the hemorrhaging at the border. They're not serious.
You talk about FISA. Oh, we have to have extra. Extra super-duper, you know, warrantless searches on Americans. Because it's so dangerous, and you never know if Americans are involved.
But they are not saying anything about the Palestinian Nazis on our streets. That are organized and well-funded.
They're not serious about your security. Period. If the New York Times writes a story that says, yeah. You know what, this Trump trial, well, that's -- it's got a mountain of facts to it. Really? But they don't seem to care that the statute of limitations, is passed.
STU: No mountain of evidence could overwhelm that fact. We're past the statute of limitations.
GLENN: Yeah. Right.
The fact that the DOJ passed on -- I don't know if you know this.
DOJ doesn't like Donald Trump.
STU: What?
GLENN: Yeah. The fact that the federal elections committee also passed on this. And said, there's no crime here.
There's nothing.
He -- even Alvin brag, the prosecutor, passed on this originally.
There's nothing here.
There is no mountain of evidence, that could -- that is standing in the way, of -- of anything, other than a mistrial.
STU: I love how it's like presented as this uphill battle too. It's like, oh, is a mountain of evidence, even enough for this very difficult task they have to do of convicting Donald Trump in Manhattan? Yeah. That's --
GLENN: Did you hear what Jayapal said? What's her name?
STU: Jayapal.
GLENN: Yeah. Jayapal. She came out and said this weekend. Do we have it? Yeah, listen to this.
STU: Oh, good.
VOICE: You know, I go back to the responsibility of Congress here because had the Senate actually gone through with the impeachment of Donald Trump. We would not be in the situation.
STU: Oh.
GLENN: Wait. What?
STU: Wait a minute. What?
I don't understand.
GLENN: We wouldn't be in this situation. Now, she's telling the truth. She's telling the truth.
GLENN: Yes, she is.
Not even under oath. If she's under oath, she will lie. In this case, she's telling the truth.
STU: She is. If they had convicted Trump, and he is eligible to become president of the United States, they would be doing anything of this.
Because they don't actually care. These aren't real. They're just trying to win this election.
GLENN: Give me the New York Times mountain of evidence.
STU: Well, Glenn, as you know, they have 34 counts.
GLENN: Thirty-four counts.
STU: I've forgotten this. This is incredible, going over this stuff, as we're preparing this.
Thirty-four false records accusations here.
GLENN: Wow. So he's forged or put lies in 34 different places, 34 different times.
STU: That's a lot.
GLENN: That's a lot.
STU: Now, when you think about this case, we kind of know the basic structure of it, right? Like, Michael Cohen made payments to these women, to shut them up before the election. Again, this is the accusation. And Trump, now, that's not illegal, by the way.
They're not even saying. They're not even accusing him of being illegal.
GLENN: No. Hush money. It's just hush money. No. But it's not illegal.
STU: You might have problems with that. You might think that's not a good feature for the president of the United States to have.
But you can make that decision at the ballot box. Because they're not even saying that. What they're saying it's false records. What they did was Cohen made these payments to shut up Stormy Daniels and the group.
And then to pay Cohen back, they basically make a -- a BS line in the records, which says, it's additional legal expenses. Or something like that. They market as like a retainer for legal services. Which it was.
It was paying him back for these payments.
Okay. So this is how they get to 34 counts.
Remember, that was paid back over a year. So how do you get to 34 counts when it's basically one payment? Well, first of all, you bring that up. They made 12 payments. So that's 12 counts. Okay?
This is legitimately how they're doing it. Obviously, they're paying him back for one thing. But he separated it into monthly payments, so 12 counts.
GLENN: Wait a minute.
So I would like to hear the jury argument.
You know, I don't think he meant it in June and July.
But the other ten counts, they'll stand, so you have 12 counts. That already sounds horrible.
STU: Right. But it's all it is.
GLENN: Because you wouldn't pick one month, he didn't really mean it. You would have to pick all 12.
He's convicted just there.
12 counts.
STU: Now, technically it was 11.
If I remember right, one of his payments were skipped.
11. So 11 checks. Eleven of the 34 counts.
GLENN: Okay. 11.
STU: You might say, wait a minute. That's totally stretching. Right? It's one payment, broken into 11 times. Okay. That's BS. Secondarily, it's 11 monthly voices Mr. Cohen submitted.
GLENN: So now we're up to 22.
STU: Twenty-two counts. So the 22 counts are eleven times he paid him a check, and the 11 times he invoiced him for those same payments.
So, again, it's still just one payment. They've now worked it into 22 different charges. Okay? You might say. Well, that's completely ridiculous.
They couldn't get more ridiculous than that. Well, when the payments went through in the general ledger for Mr. Trump's trust, they used 12 entries to signify this. So that's the other 12. So it's 11 checks, eleven invoices, and 12 entries into the general ledger. Those are the 34 charges. Come on!
Yeah. Thirty-four. Come on. I mean, anyone could recognize, they're trying to blow this number up to make it look more like it was a real series of criminal activity, rather than just one thing.
This is one payment.
Now, you can absolutely have a problem with that one payment. That is totally fine.
GLENN: But that's not 32.
STU: It is not -- 34.
And that's not how the legal system is supposed to work. There are very clear warnings against prosecutors, throughout our legal history, that say, hey.
Don't inflate cases like this.
Don't try to get the number up there, just so it looks overwhelming to the general public.
Of course, that's what they're doing here.
This is all about the general public. It has nothing to do with him, and his business records.
Come on!
There is no way you can justify this.
Especially after the statute of limitations has already expired.
GLENN: That's unbelievable. Unbelievable.
32 counts.
STU: Thirty-four.
GLENN: No. Thirty-two counts.
I don't count -- I don't count one of the checks. And one of the entries on a different month.
STU: So the April -- July payment.
GLENN: Yes. I thought the entry was -- I thought he meant it, at that point.
STU: That particular one.
GLENN: Yeah. That particular one. So I'm convicting on 32 counts.
I mean --
STU: And then you have Michael Cohen. The guy who will come in here.
And they say, this is an interesting one. That they also frame it, in the New York Times story.
So they say, that aids and friends who lied on Mr. Trump's behalf, will take the withstand to testify against him.
They include David Pecker, the tabloid publisher, who bought and buried damaging stories about Mr. Trump.
Now, Pecker, I don't think he is -- I will say, maybe he will testify against Donald Trump.
Or he will just tell the truth, that they probably did catch and kill these stories. Like it seems like --
GLENN: That's what he did.
STU: There's an incredible amount of evidence. That, again, is not what he's being charged with.
Right? Like, the payments and the ledger entries are what he's being charged with. Not the fact that he wanted to minimize publicity about negative instances right before an election, which, of course, he was trying to do.
GLENN: Stu. Stu.
He was -- he made a mistake. And he was only trying to save his marriage. A man can't lie to save his marriage.
STU: Look.
GLENN: I can --
STU: They're going to -- to try to push all of these angles. Hope Hicks is another one.
Now, hope Hicks is a spokesperson who tried to spin reporters, is her description here.
Now, Hope Hicks. Again, I don't think is going to come out and testify against Donald Trump. In air quotes.
I think she's going to tell the truth about what happened, right?
I don't think anyone is saying that he she has this vendetta against Trump.
Now, Cohen does. Cohen clearly does. Cohen will go farther.
My guess is either than those two by a lot.
He will say anything.
This is what he was known for. When he worked for Trump.
GLENN: This is how he gets a job at MSNBC.
STU: Yeah. And how he got a job with Donald Trump.
Like, he wasn't qualified for that job. He was a nobody. And he was constantly lying about everything when he worked for Donald Trump.
Now he's constantly lying about everything that will please MSNBC. He's been a constant liar, every day he's been alive, since I've been aware of it.
That's been who he has been. He's always done this. In my opinion.
And so he's one of those people, of course that is -- I mean, they're saying, Trump is basically saying, this guy has no credibility.
And it's try. You can name 500 things. From when he worked for Donald Trump. When he had no credibility. A lot of the lies, they know are lies, are because he was lying on behalf of Donald Trump for so many years. And now he's coming out, no. Now I totally change my mind, and all of the things I said before, I can admit are lies.
And, suddenly, the media embraces him for that. It's so transparent.
Like, he should be the type of person that you don't even allow in the courtroom, unless you're convicting him of something.
GLENN: And here's the real problem: Again, all of this is past the statute of limitations.
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: The reason why you can't go after Hunter Biden on some of the drug charges. Was it the drug charges?
No, no. Tax charges. Is because it's past the statute of limitations. Which they intentionally have the Justice Department drag it out, so they couldn't charge him with that.
There's corruption. This one, they just didn't file charges. Because the government said there was problem. Even Alvin Bragg the prosecutor, said there was no problem.
So they just waited and waited. They had nothing else. I don't know. Try it.
So they concoct all of this.
STU: Yes.
GLENN: To get past the statute of limitations. There's a mountain, I would like to see them climb.
STU: Yeah, and they will try it. This is, again, to your point. The zombie case side of Bragg's office.
Because they were just waiting and hoping something would come up to make it real. But they knew it wasn't.
So now, how do they make it real?
Well, they say, if it's connected to another crime. If the business record falsification was connected to another crime, that was not past the statute of limitations, then we can turn it into a felony. And then we can --
GLENN: So what was the other --
STU: He wasn't charged with it. So Bragg is assuming a crime, that the DOJ didn't go after Trump for. He's saying, they should have gone after him for it.
Therefore, I can pass through the statute of limitations. Even though -- to bring the crime he's talking about.
GLENN: Let me bring this to simple terms.
Let's say, I want to get you on the same thing, Donald Trump is doing. Okay?
And I say, well, it's past the statute of limitations. But you murdered that woman.
You know, all those years ago.
STU: Right. The payments were connected to my murder. Right?
GLENN: Right. But you were never charged with murder. You were never convicted of murder.
I will not bring up the murder.
STU: No. Right. No.
GLENN: But that's how --
STU: It's connected to the murder.
GLENN: I can get you.
STU: Yeah. Huh. It's a great way. That's exactly what the people in the jury should --
GLENN: This is going to be. This is amazing.
What a magic trick, this will be. To pull off.
But not in New York. Because everyone there, for some strange reason, loved Donald Trump.
And now, that he was president, they hate him. This is the O.J. Simpson trial, in reverse. In reverse.
This guy didn't cut somebody's head off, but because they're so mad at him, they're going to convict him.
Where O.J. he did cut off somebody's head. But the jury was so pissed off at the system, they let him off. There's no difference.