#Stephanie clifford

[hale-nathan]

Trump Weird News - Trump, The Disloyal

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Sara Boboltz and Ryan Grenoble at HuffPost:

Stormy Daniels, the porn actor who maintains she once had an affair with former President Donald Trump, took the stand Tuesday in his New York criminal trial.

Daniels’ testimony is expected to be key to the prosecution’s case against Trump, who is accused of falsifying New York state business records to conceal a hush money payment to her in the days before the 2016 presidential election. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his office have argued that this payment was made to influence the outcome of the election, meaning Trump could potentially be convicted of felonies and sentenced to prison. Trump looked away from the witness stand as she began speaking, staring instead at the monitor in front of him that showed her testifying. Asked if she could identify Trump in the courtroom Tuesday, Daniels extended her right arm and pointer finger in his direction. From the stand, Daniels recalled that she and other adult film stars met Trump at a celebrity golf tournament held near Lake Tahoe in 2006. She and Trump had two casual encounters in passing, she said; later, his security guard approached and asked if she’d like to have dinner with Trump.

Her initial response to the invite: “F no.” Then, clarifying for jurors: “No, but with an expletive in front.” After chatting with her publicist, she said, she reconsidered dinner with Trump. Plus, she said, it would be a “really good excuse” to skip a work-related function she didn’t want to attend. “What could go wrong?” she recalled telling a friend of the invite. Daniels said she “didn’t really have any expectations” about the dinner, except that she would meet Trump at his hotel room before going down to a restaurant. She recalled the foyer of Trump’s penthouse room having a black-and-white tile floor and a “beautiful wood table” with a “big flower arrangement” on top. “This hotel room was three times the size of my apartment,” she said. Trump answered the door in “silk or satin” pajamas, prompting her to make fun of him.

“Does Hugh Hefner know you stole his pajamas?” she asked. She said he “very politely” agreed to change his clothes. Later, seated at the dining room table, she told him about her childhood and career, she said. “He was very interested in a lot of the business aspects of [the adult film industry], which I thought was very cool,” Daniels testified. “These were very thought-out business questions,” she said, in stark contrast to what most people ask about, like “the sexy stuff, the dirty stuff, they want to know the salacious things.” Daniels, impatient for dinner, interrupted Trump while he talked endlessly about himself and showed off a copy of a new magazine that featured him. “Are you always this rude?” Daniels said she told Trump. “You don’t even know how to have a conversation,” she recalled telling him. Daniels said she told Trump that someone should “slap” him with the magazine, and he ended up allowing her to do so “right on the butt.” Trump’s demeanor relaxed afterward, she said. [...]

She said the two had sex and kept the recollection brief at the urging of Judge Juan Merchan. Upon mention of the “missionary position,” an attorney for the defense voiced an objection, which Merchan sustained. Daniels said Trump was not wearing a condom. She stared up at the ceiling during the encounter. Upon her departure, Trump called her “honeybunch,” she testified, adding that he suggested they meet up again soon. The two never ended up actually eating dinner. Daniels said Trump kept calling her afterward, however, and dangled an “Apprentice” opportunity that kept her interested.

A brief 2007 meeting at Trump Tower about a potential “Apprentice” appearance didn’t bear fruit. The two saw each other once more in person, she said, in Los Angeles that summer. He propositioned her for sex again and she declined, telling jurors she felt “ashamed” of the earlier encounter. In 2011, In Touch magazine expressed interest in a story about her relationship with Trump, she said. While the magazine didn’t publish anything, it did lead to a threatening encounter with a man in a Las Vegas parking lot who, she said, “threatened me not to continue to tell my story.” Earlier in the trial, jurors heard testimony from David Pecker, former head of National Enquirer publisher American Media Inc., about how he agreed to use his tabloid empire to help Trump’s campaign in 2015 and 2016. Part of that agreement meant keeping an eye on the “marketplace” of scandalous stories for anything that could damage Trump and his candidacy. While traditional media eschews so-called “checkbook journalism,” Pecker said, his outlets commonly paid cash for story rights.

Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, testified in the People of New York v. Trump business records falsification/election interference trial today.

Daniels’s testimony reveals what we know: Donald Trump is a perverted creep and a sexual assaulter.

[higherentity]

[thenewdemocratus]

Nicki Swift: 'Donald Trump Accidentally Confirmed He Doesn't Talk To Melania

Source:Nicki Swift talking about Donald J. Trump’s lack of communications with his gorgeous, baby-face wife, Melania. Source:The New Democrat “While Dr. Phil McGraw mostly let Donald Trump vent about his hush-money trial on “Dr. Phil Primetime,” another of the topics discussed was how Donald’s guilty verdict has impacted Melania Trump. But, from the sounds of it, all that the former president can…

[thegayhimbo]

Donald Trump NY hush money trial: What to know about the former president's criminal case | abc7ny.com

[filosofablogger]

Justice ... At Long Last

Today at approximately 5:08 p.m., it was announced that the jury has found Donald Trump guilty on all 34 charges related to election interference by paying hush money for having sex with Stephanie Clifford, aka ‘Stormy Daniels’.  ALL 34 CHARGES … every one of the 12 jurors agreed that he was guilty on ALL 34 CHARGES!  Score one, finally, for justice.  The sentencing is set for July 11th at 10:00…

[garudabluffs]

'If Donald Trump testifies, there will be a guilty verdict'

May 9, 2024 #DonaldTrump#StormyDaniels#hushmoney

Yasmin Vossoughian, NBC News Correspondent, Kristy Greenberg, former federal prosecutor and MSNBC Legal Analyst and Andrew Weissmann, former top prosecutor at the Justice Department join Nicolle Wallace on Deadline White House with live reaction as court adjourned in Day 14 of the Trump hush money trial, which included a stunning cross examination of Stormy Daniels from the defense, and Trump’s lawyers arguing that Trump should get a mistrial due to some of the details which the jury had to listen to. 

445 Comments

[rubyfire777]

Stephanie Clifford

2007

[xtruss]

An Autistic Man Was Surfing The Internet On His Dad’s Sofa. Then The FBI Turned Up

The Criminal-Justice System Isn’t Ready For Those Wired to See the World Differently

— Published: November 21st, 2022 | By Stephanie Clifford | Illustrations By Mark Smith

If You Read Brandon Fleury a story when he was three, he’d recite it back to you word for word. His father Patrick, then a professional tennis coach, was both bemused and impressed by his physically awkward son. He would tell people about Brandon’s capacity for mimicry – eventually he found himself explaining it to a jury.

Brandon had a tough childhood. One night when he was five and lying in bed with his mother, she had a pulmonary embolism and died. Fleury became a full-time single dad to Brandon and his younger brother. Brandon had always needed extra attention, but after his wife died Fleury began to pick up on more unusual elements of his son’s behaviour. A girl from the neighbourhood would pull him around in a wagon “like he was a puppy”; Brandon seemed uneasy with it yet unable to articulate his discomfort. At their home in Santa Ana, California, he would repeat phrases and questions over and over again, or open and shut doors repeatedly. Sometimes he would flush the toilet 30 times in a row, giggling.

Doctors diagnosed Brandon with attention-deficit disorder, then attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder. When he was seven, they added obsessive-compulsive disorder and Asperger’s syndrome to the list (Asperger’s is now classed as a form of autism).

Fleury tried to help Brandon regulate his behaviour but nothing the doctors suggested – therapy, medication, a teaching assistant – seemed to make a difference. He taught his son at home for a while, then sent him to high school, which turned out to be a disaster. Desperate to be accepted, Brandon became the plaything of a group of bullies he believed were his friends. They took his money and beat him up. “They would mess with him in every imaginable way; they’d make a fool of him,” Fleury says. “He didn’t know any better.” Brandon dropped out before his final year.

After that, the family seemed to find a rhythm. Brandon came across as several years younger than he was and would often lose himself in repetitive rituals, such as washing his hands. But he was self-reliant enough to walk to town and back, and cook himself meals in a microwave. At night, Fleury set the burglar alarm with a motion detector so that he’d know if his son started to wander off; Brandon seemed to like staying in his bedroom and didn’t mind being monitored.

“Please Don’t Hurt Him,” Fleury Shouted as His Son Was Led Away. “He’s Got Problems”

Brandon spent most of his days sitting on the couch at home, listening to music and surfing the internet. Fleury didn’t really know what his son was doing online but Brandon seemed to enjoy the escape from socialising in person and his father was happy for him to have that. Brandon never said thank you or hello, never told anyone that he loved them, but he appeared content. “Non-stop smiles,” Fleury recalls.

One morning in 2019, when Brandon was 21, Fleury woke up to flashing lights outside and loud banging on the front door. He ran to open it: fbi agents were on the other side. They immediately put him in handcuffs. Brandon wouldn’t come out of his room, so the fbi set off an explosive device and eventually extracted him. “Please don’t hurt him!” Fleury remembers shouting as they led him away. “He doesn’t understand.”

The fbi had been led to Brandon’s door by a trail of disturbing social-media messages. Brandon had created several Instagram accounts under different aliases. Most of these account names (“nikolas.the.murderer”) seemed to refer to Nikolas Cruz, a teenager who had shot dead 17 students and staff-members at a high school in Parkland, Florida, in early 2018. Later that year Brandon used these accounts to unleash a torrent of abuse at some of the friends and family members of those Cruz had murdered. “I killed your sister,” he wrote to the brother of one victim. “It was fun. She had her whole life ahead of her and I fucking stole it from her.” To Max Schachter, whose son Alex was killed, he wrote: “Little Alex Schachter will never play music again.” The messages poured out, sometimes several in a minute: “I killed your loved ones haha.” “Your grief is my joy.” “I gave them no mercy.” “I’m kidnapping you fool.”

Fleury had no knowledge of any of this when he opened the door to the fbi. He was shocked, nauseous, but assumed that whatever the problem was would be cleared up quickly. He knew Brandon would answer questions truthfully. He didn’t even contact a lawyer.

Autism-Spectrum Disorder, the clinical term for autism, is a complex brain condition affecting how people understand the world and interact with it. It can be detected from toddlerhood: one in 44 American eight-year-olds have a diagnosis, which means that in theory you’d find at least one autistic child in every two school classes.

Researchers still can’t say exactly what autism is. There’s no biological test or scan for it. It is not a purely genetic disorder like fragile-X syndrome. The diagnostic criteria are broad and vague, clustering around difficulties in social communication and interaction and repetitive behaviours. Behind these generalities lie a range of complex symptoms that vary significantly from person to person. Some conflict with each other – lack of fear and excessive fear, for instance, are both associated with the condition. So is depression. Other potential signs include an inability to understand others’ emotions and trouble interpreting facial expressions. Some autistic people lead fully independent, professionally successful lives; others never learn to talk.

Autism wasn’t identified as a specific disorder until 1943. Even after that, children diagnosed with the condition tended to be shunted away into institutions rather than helped to live in the community. They were seen as a burden. In “Far from the Tree”, a book on how parents raise children who differ from the norm, Andrew Solomon cites a number of cases from as recently as the early 2000s in which parents who killed their autistic children were given light sentences or no prison time at all. “The habit of the courts”, Solomon writes, “has been to treat filicide as an understandable, if unfortunate, result of the strains of raising an autistic child.”

In recent years autism has lost some of its stigma, and is more frequently spotted and treated. The prevalence of diagnosed autism among American children has more than trebled since 2000, according to estimates from the Centres for Disease Control (in part because a wider range of disorders are now included in the definition). Many affected children still take years to be diagnosed, especially girls, but awareness of the condition has come a long way.

Increasingly, people who are at the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum demand that society accepts and embraces the ways in which they are differently wired. Rather than expect autistic people to endure the hubbub of office noise, autism campaigners say that employers should offer them greater privacy or headphones. The word “neurodiversity” has entered the lexicon, which refers in a literal sense to the range of ways in which people’s brains work, but which has also become a rallying cry for those who want society to be more inclusive of the outliers on this spectrum. Some companies, especially in Silicon Valley, have begun to actively recruit autistic people to improve their workplace neurodiversity. This may be virtue-signalling in some cases, but firms also recognise that autistic people often have exceptional skills and an unusual perspective that can benefit an organisation.

As Brandon’s family discovered, however, one institution that has struggled to embrace neurodiversity is the criminal-justice system. Neither Britain nor America routinely measures the rate of autism in prisons, but the limited evidence available suggests that it is slightly higher than among the general population. A small study of nearly 500 male prisoners in America in 2012 estimated that 4.4% of them met the criteria for a diagnosis of autism-spectrum disorder, compared with 3.6% in the wider male population. An even smaller survey of male prisoners in Scotland in 2018 found that 9% exhibited autistic traits.

A Psychiatrist Asked If the Messages Were Meant to Cause Anguish? “What’s Anguish? It’s Not Something I Know What It Is”

There is no evidence of a “criminal” tendency associated with autism – if anything, autistic people tend to be scrupulous about following rules. But a condition that makes it hard to read social cues puts people at risk of committing (or being accused of committing) some specific crimes, and makes it harder for them to navigate interactions with police and prosecutors when that happens. Some autism experts say they’re seeing a growing number of people with the condition caught up in online crimes (both as victims and accused). The social norms of the internet are hard to parse, even for those who are neurotypical.

The problem with trying to make the system fairer, says Elizabeth Nevins-Saunders, an expert in mental health and criminal law, is that autistic people “don’t always fit neatly into the categories that the law wants people to fit into”. Little about autism is clear-cut.

The concept of criminal justice rests on the fundamental principle that we are responsible for our own behaviour. Any exceptions to this are narrowly defined. In England and Wales, as well as in most American states, the threshold for a successful defence based on a defendant’s mental state – the insanity defence – is still largely shaped by a 19th-century English murder trial in which a judge told the jury that the defendant could be acquitted if he suffered from “a defect of reason”. That is not helpful to autistic defendants, who typically don’t lack basic intellectual capacity.

Even if a defence lawyer did convince a jury that their autistic client met this criterion, the outcome wouldn’t necessarily be desirable. Darius McCollum, an autistic man who was fascinated by New York City’s transit systems, was arrested on multiple occasions over a 30-year period for impersonating transit staff and driving their bus or subway routes (and doing the job fairly well, as it happened). In 2015 he was charged with stealing a Greyhound bus. The judge accepted his plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, based on his autism, but sent him indefinitely to a mental institution.

A diagnosis of autism may affect questions about criminal intent (mens rea, in legal jargon). If a lawyer can show that the defendant didn’t appreciate the consequences of what they were doing, it can contribute to an acquittal. This was a central issue in Brandon’s case. The charges he faced – cyber-stalking, with threats to injure or kidnap people – required proof that the messages he sent caused, attempted to cause or “would reasonably be expected to cause” a rational fear of death or injury as well as “substantial emotional distress”. Is this what Brandon intended when he sent the messages?

When Fleury first heard about the messages, he couldn’t square them with the “happy-go-lucky” son he knew. It made a bit more sense when he heard Brandon’s account of what happened – his son admitted to almost everything straight away. Brandon told a federal investigator that he’d been inspired by an internet troll who went by the name of Lynn Ann. “Lynn Ann” was obsessed with one of the Columbine High School shooters, and achieved a small amount of fame online by posting messages on social media about how “ugly” the shooter’s victims had been. Brandon’s messages to the Parkland victims’ families had been “pure bullshit trolling” like Lynn Ann’s, he told the investigator. Brandon said he had become interested in internet trolls because they were “popular”.

Fleury knew how much his son yearned to be popular, or at least socially accepted. He also knew about his tendency to repeat phrases from something he was immersed in. After seeing “Daredevil”, a superhero movie, he kept saying, “hey orphan, let’s play!”, a taunt used by one of the characters. It was the same with “Shark Tale”. It made sense to Fleury that Brandon would mimic the language and behaviour of internet trolls without really understanding them. An expert on autism hired by the defence gave a similar assessment to the court.

The prosecution pointed out that Brandon’s messages didn’t simply copy Lynn Ann’s phrases, but were crafted with specific information about the victims and made ongoing threats. Brandon maintained that he didn’t intend to hurt or scare people but to “annoy” them. When a psychiatrist hired by the prosecution asked if he was trying to cause the victims anguish, Brandon responded, “What’s anguish? It’s not something I know what it is.”

The law leaves plenty of scope for a jury to ignore a defendant’s understanding of their actions, and Brandon’s lawyers ultimately failed to convince them that his case should hinge on this. The trial took place just down the road from hearings about Nikolas Cruz, the Parkland shooter, and the trauma of the killings that Brandon’s messages celebrated was still fresh. Even the judge in Brandon’s case suggested that his cyber-stalking trial was an opportunity for the Parkland families to find “closure”.

Prosecutors painted Brandon as someone who might well have gone on to commit mass murder himself if he hadn’t been caught. They went over his messages in detail to demonstrate the distress he had caused. They brought people like Fred Guttenberg to the stand, a man whose daughter had been killed at Parkland and whose son had received messages from Brandon. Guttenberg spoke about the terror his family felt.

“Have you also contemplated that it could have been a punk teenager who just wanted to annoy you?” a defence lawyer asked.

“My ability to contemplate a punk teenager utilising social media in this way and not acting on it ended on February 14th,” Guttenberg said.

The judge gave short shrift to the idea that Brandon “didn’t understand” and sentenced him to five and a half years behind bars

Prosecutors emphasised Brandon’s apparent sexual interest in mass murderers, perhaps to make Brandon appear dangerous by association. He had told the fbi that he had fantasies about Cruz, the Parkland shooter. One of his Instagram aliases referred to Ted Bundy, a notorious serial killer from the 1970s. One prosecutor used the term “serial killer” six times in his closing argument, and “Ted Bundy” 12 times.

The jury found Brandon guilty on all counts.

For Autistic People, prison is a special kind of punishment. Bright lights, noise and the relentless presence of other people are overwhelming for many of them. Because they are often eager to be accepted and have difficulties with unspoken rules and codes, they are especially vulnerable to being bullied and taken advantage of.

A defendant’s autism is most likely to be brought up at sentencing. In America, judges aren’t obliged to offer a more lenient punishment to autistic people, but can use their own discretion to do so. In October a man who’d taken part in the January 6th Capitol riot was put on probation, rather than being sent to prison: the federal judge said that his autism significantly affected “the blameworthiness of your conduct”.

Not all judges understand autism well. In 2016 Colleen Berryessa, a criminology professor, asked 21 judges to assess a fictional case in which the defendant had autism. Nine said that knowing about the condition made them more sympathetic to the defendant. Three saw it the other way: the defendant’s autism meant that he probably couldn’t control himself, increasing his danger to the public.

Many autistic people are themselves wary of the condition being used to defend a crime, because they fear that such arguments fuel the misconception that autism makes people dangerous. Dylann Roof, who killed nine black church-goers in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015, invoked his autism when appealing against his death sentence last year: when he did so, two autism-campaign groups filed a brief opposing Roof’s claim. “Associating autism with violence harms our community,” they wrote.

When the sentencing hearing for Brandon began, Fleury brought in a new lawyer, Sabrina Puglisi, to replace his public defender. She argued that Brandon was a fundamentally law-abiding person, pointing out that when the court ordered him not to use social media as a condition of bail he took it so seriously he wouldn’t even touch a computer. She called Lynda Geller, a clinical psychologist and expert on autism, to assess Brandon’s suitability for going into a rehabilitation programme rather than prison. Geller recommended rehab. She, too, believed he was a compliant person who lacked the skills to interpret how he saw people behaving online.

A sincere statement of remorse from a defendant can sway a judge to give a lighter sentence, yet autistic people are at a disadvantage in this regard, too, as they often struggle to communicate emotions. Puglisi assured the judge that Brandon had expressed remorse after hearing the testimony of his victims. But when she played a video for the judge of him apologising to them, even Puglisi admitted that it was a little “flat”.

Set against this was the passion of Guttenberg, the Parkland father who had testified at Brandon’s trial. He also spoke at the sentencing. “It’s not because of autism disorder that he did what he did to my family and the other families,” said Guttenberg. “It’s because of sociopathic behaviour.”

The judge, Rodolfo Ruiz, gave short shrift to the idea that Brandon “didn’t understand”. He sentenced him to five and a half years behind bars, well below the maximum 20 but more than the median federal sentence for manslaughter or drug-trafficking.

A Few Weeks Before Brandon was sentenced, another federal case involving an autistic defendant was wrapping up in Chicago. This too had begun with a raid by the fbi: agents were after a man they thought was behind a huge market-manipulation scheme that briefly wiped about $1trn off American stockmarkets in 2010. What they found in the London suburb of Hounslow was a hoodie-wearing video-game addict who lived with his parents, had a bedroom full of stuffed animals and paid for his meals at McDonald’s with coupons. When Navinder Sarao was extradited to America, on the plane journey he excitedly questioned the fbi agent accompanying him about his cool job.

The charges against Sarao were serious: he was accused of a giant fraud. There was no lack of evidence – he had even recorded some of his own trading activity, providing an ample record for prosecutors. Yet his story had a drastically different outcome to Brandon’s.

Roger Burlingame, Sarao’s lawyer, said it was obvious on their first meeting in jail that Sarao was “different”. “Clients all want to know the same thing: what’s going to happen? How will you fix this?” he recalled. Prosecutors were talking about a 200-year prison sentence and Sarao was asking his lawyer “things like what New York is like and how many hours a week I work”. Burlingame called in Simon Baron-Cohen, one of Britain’s foremost psychologists, who assessed Sarao and spoke to those closest to him.

To Sarao’s family he was just Nav, a quirky, solitary maths whiz who had aced his degree. So what if he played video games for so long that he became one of the highest scorers on fifa Football, or forgot to take off his bike helmet before he sat down at his desk to work? They’d never thought that might be part of a medical condition.

When Sarao was Extradited, on the Plane Journey He Excitedly Questioned the FBI Agent Accompanying Him About His Cool Job

It was clear to Baron-Cohen, however, that Sarao’s behaviour went beyond quirkiness. He was sensitive to light to the point that he hung blankets over his bedroom window. He still loved his stuffed-toy tiger. He could be astonishingly blunt, telling his sister-in-law that her baby looked like a Garbage Pail Kid then pulling out his collection of Garbage Pail Kid cards to reinforce the point. Baron-Cohen diagnosed Sarao with autism, and said this was central to understanding his actions.

Sarao had an unusual eye for numbers and patterns. When he started the scheme that led to his arrest he was working in one of London’s trading arcades – shared facilities used by self-employed traders for a fee. As competitive about stocks as he was about video games, Sarao became obsessed with the markets; sometimes he’d work for two days straight without sleep.

As he traded, Sarao became increasingly frustrated by high-speed algorithms, tools that could crunch data and execute trades in milliseconds. Sometimes these algorithms seemed aimed purely at moving the value of a stock or commodity up or down so that someone could profit from advance knowledge of the movement. One way algorithms can move prices is through a dubious practice known as “spoofing”: placing lots of orders to mimic a surge in buying or selling, and then cancelling them at the last minute. In 2009 Sarao began complaining about spoofing to officials at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, on which he did most of his trades. Staff there weren’t interested in his allegations of fraud, and eventually started to hang up on him when he called.

Sarao decided to commission someone to write a computer program that could beat the spoofing algorithms at their own game. It was a wild success: between 2009 and 2014 he made $70m. He didn’t seem to know what to do with the money – he rarely spent any of it, apart from losing tens of millions to unsophisticated fraud schemes. And he lacked the finesse of other traders operating at the boundaries of legality. When someone from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange contacted him in 2010 and warned him against placing bogus orders, he told them: “Kiss my ass.”

Finance experts remain divided on whether Sarao caused the “flash crash” of May 2010, which saw the Dow Jones index lose almost 9% of its value. Sarao had been extraordinarily active that day, making almost $900,000. But though the indictment accused him of contributing to the crash, a federal judge later said that she didn’t hold him responsible.

Sarao was defended by some of the most sought-after lawyers in the business. Burlingame was an expert in white-collar crime and convinced that if prosecutors could get to know his client, they would see him as someone who was confused about rules and boundaries rather than a greedy fraudster. He secured an agreement in which Sarao would help prosecutors with their inquiries in exchange for the possibility of a reduced sentence. Federal lawyers and agents came to spend a lot of time with Sarao as a result.

By the time Sarao was sentenced in 2020, he’d met prosecutors ten times to explain spoofing and served as a witness in another case involving it. Prosecutors had noticed Sarao’s inability to maintain eye contact and his tendency to “obsess” over certain issues. They’d also benefited from his extraordinarily detailed presentations on spoofing. In a highly unusual move, they requested that the judge give him no prison time.

Sarao was lucky. The judge in the case, Virginia Kendall, said she was “very, very familiar with autism”, and referred to it when she sentenced him: “Someone with Asperger’s or autism does not have the same judgment level that someone who has the mens rea to manipulate would.” Noting how hard autistic people find living in prison, she sentenced Sarao to one year of home confinement.

The lenient sentence aroused no public outcry. Many commentators felt that Sarao had exposed an unacknowledged truth about the financial system: it treats rules as a game to be worked around. There was something refreshing about the guilelessness with which he did what others were trying to do with greater cunning. “He’s not some kind of exception to the standard operating procedure in finance,” wrote Michael Lewis, author of several books on Wall Street culture. “He’s a parody of it.”

At the Moment it’s pure luck whether or not an autistic person is tried and sentenced by people who understand the condition. Revising the concept of legal responsibility to accommodate autistic people is a philosophically daunting task, but educating officials about their condition is an immediate practical step that could help create fairer outcomes.

Advocacy groups say that both judges and juries should undergo mandatory training so that they can understand, for example, that an autistic person may not show emotion, which can have a real bearing on the course of a trial. “Sometimes…our tone of voice might not seem to be empathetic or remorseful enough,” says Haley Moss, a lawyer based in Florida who is autistic. “The system we have definitely is not very understanding.”

For Autistic People, the Bright Lights, Noise and Relentless Presence of Other People in Prison are Often Overwhelming

Campaign groups also suggest that autistic defendants should be given help communicating in court, via computer programs that convert typed text to speech, for example. Courts could also insist that a supporter is present at proceedings, to flag when they think an autistic person isn’t understanding something.

The prison system could be more accommodating, too. A recent report commissioned by Robert Buckland, then head of Britain’s ministry of justice (who happens to have an autistic daughter), recommended instituting proper screening in courts and jails so that autism and other conditions are reliably picked up. He also suggested prison officials should be trained to better respond to these inmates’ needs.

Until these kinds of reforms are instituted, autistic people accused of crimes face a cruel lottery. Since his sentencing, Sarao has faded back into happy isolation, returning to a quiet life with his parents in Hounslow. Barred from trading, he spends much of his time gaming and playing with his nephews.

Brandon Fleury is in prison in Connecticut, thousands of miles from his family. He’s small, around 120 pounds (54kg), and wears braces. He has been assaulted in jail, both verbally and physically. He has been conned out of money and sent to fetch other inmates’ food or clean up their mess. His lawyer, Ashley Litwin, filed an appeal last year, based in large part on how Brandon’s autism informed his intent. The appeal was denied.

His father says Brandon is a changed person. When Fleury suggests doing push-ups so he can defend himself better, or pursuing a high-school diploma to make something productive from these years, Brandon gives little response. “He’s regressed in that respect. He just doesn’t understand why he’s still in prison,” Fleury says.

Brandon recently started writing letters to the prison warden and to Judge Ruiz, asking to be let out. “Brandon, that’s just not going to work,” Fleury tells him. But he has to keep explaining it. These days they have the same conversations, over and over, round and round, and get nowhere: Brandon just doesn’t understand. ■

— Stephanie Clifford is a Journalist and Novelist in New York. Her new novel, “The Farewell Tour”, is out in March 2023 | 1943 Magazine | September 10, 2023

[masterofd1saster]

CJ court watch - Stormy Daniels's testimony on 7may24

First, of all, why does she testify her name is Stormy Daniels? Her name is Stephanie Clifford. What I'll bring you here is excerpts of the transcript of her testimony. I want to get right to the salacious details and skip all the nonsense about relevance or admissibility. Relevance is for chumps!

Starts at https://pdfs.nycourts.gov/PeopleVs.DTrump-71543/transcripts/5-7-2024/00054.html

The good stuff starts at https://pdfs.nycourts.gov/PeopleVs.DTrump-71543/transcripts/5-7-2024/00108.html and includes

Pretty boring, aint it?

11may24 BB-

[thenewdemocratus]

Early Start With Kasie Hunt: 'You're Lying': George Conway Clashes With Republican Commentator Over Donald Trump Guilty Verdict'

Source:CNN with a George Conway vs Scott Jennings live TV debate. Source:The New Democrat “Lawyer George Conway and CNN Senior Political Commentator Scott Jennings joined “CNN This Morning” to discuss Donald Trump’s guilty verdict in his criminal hush money case.” From CNN I’m not going top try to play mindreader and argue that Scott Jennings is lying here. He just might be complete idiot when it…

[gilliatt83]

Stormy Daniels Says She’ll Always Be Known As the Girl Who F***** Trump

Donald Trump could be the first American President ever to be criminally indicted. That's thanks to the porn star Stormy Daniels, who was paid to keep quiet about having sex with Trump. While making plans to seek the Republican nomination for the White House, Trump predicts he will be arrested on Tuesday and has called for protests. So who is the woman at the center of it all? In 2021, VICE News' Isobel Yeung met with Stormy to discuss that fateful night, how she's handled the fallout, and how she'll always be known as "the girl who f***** Trump". She takes us inside her world -- which in a bizarre twist, now largely revolves around the supernatural.  

[colinodonoghue]

222aghoststory & colinodonoghue1: 🚨 MEET YOUR DUBLIN CAST 🚨 @shonabmx @birdspotting @colinodonoghue1 @thewhitmore will be taking #222AGhostStory to Dublin’s @3olympiatheatre this Summer, 21 June - 11 Aug. For a strictly limited run 🚨Do you dare to join us? Book your tickets now! Link in bio 👻📸 @seamusphoto

Colinodonoghue1: Woohoo!! So excited to be a part of this show!!

[Get your tickets here!!!]

Runaway Entertainment in association with 3Olympia Theatre presents

2:22 - A GHOST STORY

Shona McGarty, Jay McGuiness, Colin O’Donoghue, Laura Whitmore, Announced for The Very Special, Standalone Irish Production

The smash hit play by Danny Robins Makes Irish Debut At 3Olympia Theatre This Summer For a Strictly Limited Run

Directed by Matthew Dunster & Isabel Marr

“A slick, chilling, romp of a play” The Guardian

‘A modern classic’ Sunday Times

Producer Runaway Entertainment is delighted to announce the stellar cast for the critically acclaimed, smash hit, supernatural thriller 2:22 - A Ghost Story opening at Dublin’s 3Olympia Theatre this summer for its debut Irish performances.

Shona McGarty (Eastenders) will play Jenny, Jay McGuiness (The Wanted, BIG! The Musical, Rip It Up), who is currently on the UK tour in 2:22 - A Ghost Story, will play Ben, Colin O'Donoghue (Once Upon A Time, The Tudors, The Right Stuff, The Gray House) will play Sam with Laura Whitmore (Love Island, Finding Joy, Queenie, and Jenny in 2.22: A Ghost Story in her West End debut) stepping into the role of Lauren.

The very special, standalone Irish production, produced for Dublin’s 3Olympia Theatre, will open on Thursday 20th June 2024 with performances until Sunday 11th August 2024 - for a strictly limited run only.

Full list of performances below. Age Suitability: 12+ 

Tickets priced from €26.50 including booking fee and €1.50 restoration levy on sale now with Ticketmaster Ireland

2:22 - A Ghost Story began in summer 2021 at the Noël Coward Theatre, starring Lily Allen, Julia Chan, Hadley Fraser and Jake Wood, and where it won the WhatsOnStage award for Best Play. It then transferred to the Gielgud Theatre for 10 weeks from 4 December 2021. The production there starring Stephanie Beatriz, James Buckley, Elliot Cowan and Giovanna Fletcher completed its run on 12 February 2022. For the first season at the Criterion (May - September 2022) the cast was Tom Felton, Mandip GIll, Sam Swainsbury and Beatriz Romilly. In late September Laura Whitmore, Matt Willis, Felix Scott and Tamsin Carroll took over. 

The box office record-breaking run at the Lyric starring Cheryl, Jake Wood, Scott Karim, and Louise Ford, concluded its run on 23 April. The West End season at the Apollo Theatre starred Sophia Bush, Frankie Bridge, Ricky Champ, Clifford Samuel and Jaime Winstone, and set off on its UK tour in Autumn 2023 with Joe Absolom, Charlene Boyd, Nathaniel Curtis and Louisa Lytton in the cast. Current cast on the UK tour: Vera Chok (Lauren); Jay McGuiness (Ben); George Rainsford (Sam); Fiona Wade (Jenny).

2:22 is written by award-winning writer Danny Robins, creator of the hit BBC podcast The Battersea Poltergeist, and is directed by Matthew Dunster and Isabel Marr; it’s an adrenaline-filled night where secrets emerge and ghosts may or may not appear…

Danny Robins said: ‘I'm really looking forward to seeing how Dublin audiences respond to 2:22 this summer. The tour continues to be a great success and I can't think of a better place to round off the journey in 2024 than here with a brand new cast to be announced soon!'

What do you believe? And do you dare discover the truth?

“THERE’S SOMETHING IN OUR HOUSE. I HEAR IT EVERY NIGHT, AT THE SAME TIME"

Jenny believes her new home is haunted, but her husband Sam isn’t having any of it. They argue with their first dinner guests, old friend Lauren and new partner Ben. Can the dead really walk again? Belief and scepticism clash, but something feels strange and frightening, and that something is getting closer, so they’re going to stay up... until 2:22... and then they’ll know.

2:22 - A Ghost Story features set design by Anna Fleischle, costume design by Cindy Lin, lighting design by Lucy Carter, sound by Ian Dickinson for Autograph Sound and illusions by Chris Fisher. Casting by Matilda James.

2:22 - A Ghost Story is produced by Tristan Baker and Charlie Parsons for Runaway Entertainment, Isobel David and Kater Gordon.  [source]      

[bikinibottomdayz]

OCTOBER 10, 2024 RELEASE

All my videos can be found here, full release under the read more! If interested, please contact me at bikinibottomtrading@gmail.com!

I'm also using this release to say if you want to get email notifications for my releases, you can sign up for my mailing list here. Additionally, I have a Discord server you can join by dming me and asking me for the link!

This release includes: Cabaret (new cast), Sunset Boulevard, Nine, The Hills of California, N/A

CABARET September 16, 2024 | Broadway | 4K MP4 (11.64GB) | bikinibottomday’s master Cast: Adam Lambert (Emcee), Auli’i Cravalho (Sally Bowles), Bebe Neuwirth (Fraulein Schneider), Calvin Leon Smith (Clifford Bradshaw), Steven Skybell (Herr Schultz), Henry Gottfried (Ernst Ludwig), Michelle Aravena (Fritzie/Fraulein Kost), Gabi Campo (Frenchie), Ayla Ciccone-Burton (Helga), Colin Cunliffe (Hans), Marty Lauter (Victor), Loren Lester (Herman/Max), David Merino (Lulu), Julian Ramos (Bobby), MiMi Scardulla (Texas), Kayla Jenerson (s/w Rosie) Notes: Excellent 4K capture of the new cast (debuts for Adam, Auli’i, Calvin and Michelle)! Some wandering / readjustment and unfocusing throughout. A bit of occasional obstruction from people walking the aisles. Includes curtain call, audio is fed from external source. https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBHS99 | ASKING $20 USD NOT FOR SHARING EXCEPT THROUGH ME UNTIL APRIL 2, 2025

N/A July 27, 2024 (E) | Off-Broadway | 4K MP4 (6.05GB) | bikinibottomday’s master Cast: Holland Taylor (N), Ana Villafañe (A) Notes: Excellent 4K capture of this new political play! Head visible on the bottom right but doesn’t block anything. Some wandering / readjustment and unfocusing throughout. Includes curtain call, audio is fed from external source. https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBBC1r | ASKING $20 USD NOT FOR SHARING EXCEPT THROUGH ME UNTIL APRIL 2, 2025

NINE August 10, 2024 (E) | Kennedy Center | 4K MP4 (8.76GB) | bikinibottomday’s master Cast: Steven Pasquale (Guido Contini), Shereen Ahmed (Claudia), Carolee Carmello (Liliane La Fleur), Michelle Veintimilla (Carla), Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (Guido's Mother), Jen Sese (Stephanie Necrophorus), Lesli Margherita (Saraghina), Elizabeth Stanley (Luisa Contini), Georgina Pazcoguin (Annabella), Paloma Garcia-Lee (Maria), Haley Fish (Diana), Allison Blackwell (Mama Maddelena), Charlie Firlik (Young Guido), Sasha Hutchings (Asa Nisi Masa), Marina Pires (Sister Vincenza), Lucia Giannetta (Giorgia), Yani Marin (Camila), Morgan Marcell (Norma), Kamille Upshaw (Leonor), Dylis Croman (Dr. Ernst) Notes: Great 4K capture of this wonderful production! Act One is pretty messy, with a minute worth of blackout at the beginning then again a few minutes in due to late seating. Alongside that, a lot of it is wideshot and generally not as well filmed as usual. Gets better as the show goes on, and Act Two is much better. Minor obstruction on the far left blocks some action but is generally worked around. Some washout throughout. Increased moments of wandering and unfocusing. Includes curtain call, audio is fed from external source. https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBD5eV | ASKING $18 USD NOT FOR SHARING EXCEPT THROUGH ME UNTIL APRIL 2, 2025

SUNSET BOULEVARD September 28, 2024 | Broadway (Previews) | 4K MP4 (10.24GB) | bikinibottomday’s master Cast: Nicole Scherzinger (Norma Desmond), Tom Francis (Joe Gillies), David Thaxton (Max Von Mayerling), Grace Hodgett-Young (Betty Schaefer), Ensemble: Olivia Lacie Andrews (Nancy), Brandon Mel Borowsky (John), Shavey Brown (DeMille/Stan/Finance Man), Hannah Yun Chamberlain (Young Norma/Patsy), Cydney Clark (Joanna/Guard), Raúl Contreras (Finance Man/Frank), Tyler Davis (Sheldrake), E.J. Hamilton (Lisa), Sydney Jones (Dorothy), Emma Lloyd (Mary/Heather), Pierre Marais (Sammy), Shayna McPherson (Camera Operator/Katherine), Jimin Moon (Morino/Hog Eye), Justice Moore (Jean), Drew Redington (Myron/Jones/Camera Operator), Diego Andrea Rodriguez (Artie) Notes: Excellent 4K capture of this anticipated revival’s first preview! Some head / railing obstruction at the front of the stage that occasionally blocks off characters sitting / laying down. 30 second blackout in the New Year Eve scene. There was a glitch with the camera that led to some zooming out without input, which sometimes affects the video (primarily in the first ten minutes). Increased moments of wandering / readjustment and unfocusing throughout. One scene is very dark, therefore very difficult to see and takes a little bit to focus on the main action. Includes curtain call, audio is fed from external source. https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBKv1R | ASKING $20 USD NOT FOR SHARING EXCEPT THROUGH ME UNTIL APRIL 2, 2025

THE HILLS OF CALIFORNIA September 24, 2024 | Broadway (Previews) | 4K MP4 (11.28GB) | bikinibottomday’s master Cast: Laura Donnelly (Joan/Veronica), Leanne Best (Gloria), Helena Wilson (Jill), Ophelia Lovibond (Ruby), David Wilson Bares (Luther St John), Ta’rea Campbell (Biddy/Penny), Bryan Dick (Jack Larkin/Dennis), Richard Lumsden (Joe Fogg/Mr Potts), Richard Short (Bill/Mr Halliwell), Lara McDonnell (Young Joan), Nancy Allsop (Young Gloria), Nicola Turner (Young Jill), Sophie Ally (Young Ruby), Liam Bixby (Tony), Ellyn Heald (Mrs Smith), Max Roll (Mr Smith), Cameron Scoggins (Dr Rose) Notes: Excellent 4K capture of this stunning new transfer! Very mild obstruction on the bottom that blocks off little to nothing. Some moments of wandering / readjustment and unfocusing throughout. Includes curtain call, audio fed from external source. https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBJRq8 | ASKING $20 USD NOT FOR SHARING EXCEPT THROUGH ME UNTIL APRIL 2, 2025

[mosertone]

Annie Leibowitz, Stephanie Gregory Clifford aka Stormy Daniels, New York, 2018

[porterdavis]

I'm waiting to hear her definitive statement about whether Trump stinks or not.

She knows the truth of the matter.