Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced he will travel to Washington D.C. tomorrow to meet with President Trump on the devastating impact of the elimination of full state and local tax deductibility. Earlier this month, Governor Cuomo and State Comptroller DiNapoli delivered an update on State revenues, after the Division of the Budget observed a decline by $2.3 billion in estimated payments of Personal Income Tax receipts in December and January. The Governor and Comptroller attributed the decline to the federal tax legislation’s elimination of full state and local tax deductibility, which disproportionately impacted New York and other predominantly Democratic states.
Amendments to the 2020 Executive Budget will include revisions to reflect updated impacts to the State financial plan. While other states have experienced the detrimental impacts of SALT, as the number one donor state in the country sending Washington $35.6 billion each year, New York continues to feel the disproportionate effect.
Details never before made public are expected to be admissible in Donald Trump's latest New York trial — and onlookers are expecting them to be revealing.
New York Times investigative reporter Sue Craig said she was "struck" by the "new information" revealed in Monday's opening statements, which includes a series of text messages from National Enquirer reporters involved in investigating the stories of adult movie actress Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claimed to have had affairs with Trump.
One of the text messages, Craig said, read: "What have we done?"
"We've heard about text messages that went back and forth with the National Enquirer when they went out to see Karen McDougal, one of the women who had a relationship with Donald Trump," Craig said.
"They were trying to confirm if the story was true."
Craig noted that one of the lawyers representing McDougal was involved in election night texting with somebody at the tabloid, which was previously unknown.
"We'll see a lot of that come through. And David Pecker was not on the stand for very long, but just hearing the details that we got, the idea that ... reporters were given about $10,000 to get that story," recalled Craig.
"And I wasn't clear if that included payment to somebody or expenses and payment, but anything above that, he would have to sign off on it. What that told me was the payments that went to Karen McDougal, that went to Stormy Daniels, were unusual. They were high."
She referenced a Trump doorman who was paid $30,000 to stay quiet about a possible Trump love child. McDougal was given $150,000, while Daniels was given $130,000.
During the second half of the show, Lawfare's Anna Bower agreed with the assessment that there was new information that dropped and there will likely be even more. There is some conversation about what will ultimately be admissible out of that information that is new.
"We heard a lot about phone records the prosecution intends to introduce," Bower said. "So, I think that we certainly will see new evidence. But the question is — there were these questions about whether it would be admissible for hearsay reasons."
Tommy Robinson was cleared of failing to leave an antisemitism march in Westminster last November after a Metropolitan Police blunder was revealed during court proceedings. The case was dropped by the judge after it was revealed by a senior police officer that the dispersal order, meant to maintain public order during the protest and under […]
