Captain Kirk, initiate the tractor beam – Dave Ball left reality again in his June 17 column. I don’t know if Ball doesn’t know how to properly research his columns, or perhaps he doesn’t care about the truth. Let’s start with this fact: In New York City, Donald Trump was found guilty of 34 criminal counts by a jury of his peers.
What was he guilty of? In Ball’s word salad, you might not find the answer. From Business Insider: “A Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 hush-money payment to adult film actor Stormy Daniels days before the 2016 election.” It was the coverup that was the crime.
Then Ball served up more gobbledygook about Judge Juan Merchan denying evidence from legal scholar Brad Smith. This is from the Associated Press: “Smith was permitted to testify. The defense decided not to call him after Merchan reaffirmed a pretrial ruling that limited what he could have spoken about.
” Finally, the gag order. What was Trump ordered not to speak about? From Reuters: “The March 26 order prevents Trump from making public statements about witnesses concerning their potential testimony, about jurors or prospective jurors, and about prosecutors, court staff and their family members if those statements are meant to interfere with the case.” Nothing in this order prevented Mr.
Trump from defending himself. In fact, he could’ve gotten right on the stand and defended himself. Despite Ba.
