the *DON* JONES INDEX…
		GAINS POSTED in GREEN LOSSES POSTED in RED 4/3/23… 14,977.69 3/27/23… 14,973.21
	6/27/13… 15,000.00
(*THE DOW* JONES INDEX: 4/3/23... 33,274.15; 3/27/23... 32,237.53; 6/27/13… 15,000.00)**

LESSON for April 10, 2023 – “STORMY of the CENTURY (“Sizzle”)

We’ve been following the tribulations and, perhaps, trial of Donald Trump in our last few Lessons... including last week’s DJI, covering events up to announcement of the indictment, as re-reported...

Midnight having tolled and Wednesday the 22nd rolled round – finding Donald UnEncumbered still at liberty in Mar-a-Lago despite all predictions (especially his own) and, after the Grand Jury was sent home shortly before noon, muttering and puttering around with nothing to do but go back to his campaign for the Presidency

What a frackin’ drag! Well, there was at least the rally on Saturday to prepare for... his latest coming-home-party in Waco, home to the iconic David Koresh and, as the exile now determines, his dozens of patriotic martyrs, fighting for the cause of America, God and the Flag.

That cheers him up....

And ending (3/30 afternoon)...

“Trump himself concluded, without offering evidence, that there was only one reasonable explanation for the delays—they simply don't have a case.

"I have gained such respect for this grand jury, & perhaps even the grand jury system as a whole," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "The evidence is so overwhelming in my favor, & so ridiculously bad for the highly partisan & hateful district attorney, that the grand jury is saying, hold on, we are not a rubber stamp, which most grand juries are branded as being, we are not going to vote against a preponderance of evidence or against large numbers of legal scholars all saying there is no case here."

"Drop this sick witch hunt, now!" he added. (Newsweek, and Business Insider, above)

Unfortunately, he spoke... or tweeted... a smidgen too soon...”

And then, Manhattan District Attorney and Trump’s newest nemesis Alvin Bragg and his 23 member Grand Jury confounded the media, the country and the defendant by issuing their thirty four count indictement (Attachment Zero) which, according to some reports, could lock the 45^th President (and would-be 47^th) up for 136 years.

According to the law, however, he can campaign for President from within prison.

And, if elected, who knows?

For the weeks leading up to Donald Trump’s indictment, the former President was constantly throwing misdirection into the ether. He predicted an indictment and arrest in the coming hours, even as his advisers and lawyers conceded they had no evidence that was in the offing. He raised cash on the threat of the prospect of criminal prosecution and plotted with his team about a potential perp walk. Amid it all, the ex-President seemed to miss the severity of history’s judgment should he become the first of his cohort to face a criminal indictment.

For those who have watched Trump’s political career, none of this will seem new according to Time columnist Philip Elliott who has been on the trail and on the tail of Trump for a long, long time. (See Attachment Seventy One) “If anything, it may sound like rhyming rejoinder to the last couple of years, where a clang of chaos was the best harmony available in the political hymnal of D.C.”

To prove his point, Elliott walked round a circle backwards three times, threw a fistful of magickal ingredients onto a bonfire (the usual stuff... Eye of Newt, Hair of Rick Scott, Musk of Santos) and intoned “Tax Cuts for Billionaires” three times – whereupon was summoned up none other than Steve Bannon (and not just his ghost but the 2016-CEO of Trump’s presidential campaign, who was headed toward baggage claim at the Las Vegas airport, “when he boiled Trump’s strategy down to its essence while chatting with reporters who just happened to catch him. Trump was trailing in the polls and Hillary Clinton seemed destined to return to the White House—this time with the good office,” —and the nation seemed ready to send The Apprentice star back to the firing table. But Bannon, arriving in Nevada to watch the third and final debate , seemed upbeat, even excited. Trump, Bannon said, was "the master of the head fake," optimistic that such misdirection could help power him to the White House despite polling, structural, and political headwinds.

“Bannon, it turned out, was correct,” Elliott admitted, howsoever ruefully. And not just about how Trump would deploy such tactics to win the White House a few weeks later, “Trump used them to great effect once there. Few possess his inherent ability to turn narratives on a dime with little more than a seemingly accidental aside, an errant tweet, or a snarky insult laced with a threat.

“Put simply: the Head Fake Presidency seemed limitless. At least until it wasn’t.

As President, Elliott remembers, “Trump stuck with that instinct, employing misdirection at every turn. He launched and suddenly called off a strike on Iranian facilities as retaliation for a downed U.S. drone. On immigration, Puerto Rico , the Trans-Pacific Partnership, guns, immigration, and climate change, he balked at other moves as he took delight in shattering norms. It’s continued in his post-presidency... “Trump’s notorious indifference to honest-dealing will be a subtext of the trial; the jury’s identity will be concealed to protect them from threats and intimidation—an extraordinary step.”

Two Americans who have seen of the “head fake” to last seventy lifetimes... wife Melania and daughter Ivanka... weren’t joining the chorus of sycophants surroundin the Forty Fifth President of the United States as he frittered away the interval between leak and meek surrender on Tuesday. Without joining the chorus of indictment critics... and they were legion, and not only MAGAmob Republicans but a lot of skeptical liberals and professional head fakers of the opinion that,,, while Trump may have been a lousy President... complaining that he did not deserve the sort of frame-up that New York district attorney and Inquisitor-in-Chief, the former First Daughter posted a message to social media, saying she was "pained" by the news but thanked those who have contacted her in support.

The fairest and probably most accurate minute by minute, hour to hour timeline of the proceedings was offered up by none other than the alt-right Washington Tmes (with input from the AP) which reported that Donald Trump’s indictment, the first of a former U.S. president, was quietly brought to the clerk’s office at the Manhattan criminal courthouse just before closing time Thursday.

“A woman and two men in suits walked in past reporters who’ve been staking out the office for weeks, turned a corner and disappeared through a door to a non-public area known as the indictment room,” wrote WashTimes reporter Michael Sisak. (Attachment Seventy Two)

Moments later, just before 5 p.m., when a reporter asked if there were any filings involving “People v. Donald Trump” - her customary end-of-day question in recent days - a usually cheerful clerk sternly replied: “We have no information on that case. The office is closing. You have to leave.”

The reporters, from outlets including The Associated Press, The New York Times, New York Post and legal publication Law360, left the office and stood outside in the hallway, watching through glass doors as workers turned out the lights and the people who’d walked in a few minutes earlier worked in darkness inside filing the indictment.

“After visiting the clerk’s office for weeks, this was all very strange,” said Frank G. Runyeon, a reporter for Law360. “Very unusual and we knew something was up.”

As the people continued to work, and reporters peered in at what was going on, court officers came to the hallway and shooed the press away. That floor of the courthouse was now closed, they said.

Reporters... the WashTimes interviewed a journalist from Denmark and what remained of the mini-mob of MAGAmen and Never-Trumpers outside converged, police surrounded the courthouse into the evening, with flood lights illuminating the sidewalk and streets. But Trump escaped through a back exit and was shortly on his way back to Florida.

He may be returning to unhappy family relations... not quite so bad as at Buckingham Castle, but bad enough. Melania has been frosty. And daughter Ivanka has even hinted that she would not support another campaign.

"I love my father, and I love my country. Today, I am pained for both," she wrote. (Fox News, Attachment Seventy Three)

She does not, contended author Timothy H.J. Nerozzi, intend to play a role in her father's 2024 presidential campaign nor a possible second administration.

That administration... or, at least, the Republican nomination thereto... are looking nearer and nearer and nearer.

From supposed family allies of hearth and home to backstabbing traitors lurking in the woodpile, “Trump's Indictment Drama Showcased His Rivals' Weakness” was the title of Molly Ball’s Indictment afternoon TimePiece, updating an earlier article upon the effects of Stormy’s tempest on the 2024 election. (4:12 PM, Attachment Seventy Four)

“When the time came to actually stand up to him,” -. Nikki Haley, Trump’s major declared opponent and former U.N. Ambassador, dismissed the potential indictment on Fox News as “more about revenge than it is about justice.” Another active candidate, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, went further, blasting the “disastrously politicized prosecution” and calling on other Republicans to condemn it. Former Vice President Mike Pence, who is openly considering a run, told an interviewer the probe “reeks of the kind of political prosecution we endured in the days of the Russia hoax.”

And the gravest threat to Djonald’s exhumation and resurrection, Florida Guv’nor and gay basher Ron (I’m where woke goes to die) DeSantis, who has yet to declare his candidacy, “came closest to a swipe, taking care to excoriate the “Soros-funded prosecutor” overseeing the Manhattan case while also impishly referencing the underlying conduct. “I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair,” DeSantis said, at a March 20 news conference. “I just, I can’t speak to that.”

But Trump gleefully seized on this political straddle, “exultant at finally having baited his would-be rival into the ring after months of attacks. Trump issued a 327-word statement lambasting DeSantis as, among other things, “an average Governor” whose appeal to GOP voters was “HARDLY GREATNESS.”

For emphasis, Ball summoned up Denver Riggleman, a former Republican congressman from Virginia, who declared: “It is amazing to me that the party that talks about masculinity continues to belly-crawl for this man, a bully who hides behind the walls of a Florida mansion,” not specifying whether he was referring to the former President, the current Governor, or both until clarifying, sort of, the object of his disaffection...

“This seemingly inexhaustible grift, raising money based on fear, is really all Trump has. But the formula works.”

It would be the first indictment issued upon a former (or sitting) President according to Barbara Perry, a presidential historian at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia, who parsed President Ulysses S. Grant arrest (as opposed to indictment) —for speeding on a horse and buggy in 1872 and Richard Nixon’s resignation in the face of indictment one hundred and two years later, or the probable indictment of Warren Harding for his cabinet of curiosities and grafters had he not died in office before the investigation was completed. But the Trump case, Perry told Time (6:37 PM, Attachment Seventy Five) will go down in history as one of the biggest political scandals in American history—even if the charges relate to the seemingly mundane offense of bookkeeping fraud.

“Like all things with Trump, it’s unprecedented,” Perry exclaimed.

Timepiecer Anisha Kohli provided yet another latenight update – this on Indictment Leakin’ Eve, at 11PM... just in time for the late news and the comedians to draw their arrows (Attachment Seventy Six) attempted to explain what might, or will, happen next.

Yes, he might flee to Belarus. He also might decide to eat a bullet. But, Ol’ 45 will most likely just keep doing what he’s been doing... trolling enemies and raising cold, hard cash... and on Tuesday, as it turned out, he will do what all the busted criminals in New York do.

“He will be booked, finger-printed, and have a “mug shot” taken,” predicted reporter Anisha Kohli (incorrectly as it transpired). With Trump’s substantial ties to the community, especially his ongoing 2024 presidential campaign, “the judge likely wouldn’t deem him a flight risk,” former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti told TIME. Given the white-collar charges Trump would likely be confronting, he may not even face bond, just be released on his own recognizance per New York law.

“This is not just high profile. This was the President of the United States. There’s been nobody like him to walk those halls,” Jeremy Saland, defense attorney and former Manhattan Assistant District Attorney, told Time.

One of Trump’s lawyers, Susan R. Necheles, told TIME that former President Trump is expected to turn himself in on Tuesday, April fourth, to be arraigned in State Supreme Court in Manhattan (despite Gov. DeSantis’ offer of sanctualy in Florida).

Shanlon Wu, a white-collar defense attorney and former federal prosecutor, told TIME that it would be highly unlikely if a showdown standoff occurred. Defense counsels typically receive notice when their white-collar clients are being indicted, she said. “You would make an appointment basically, to bring your client in to be booked and fingerprinted,” Wu declared.

Another of Trump’s attorneys had previously said that if indicted, Trump would not resist arrest and that they would follow normal procedures. “There won’t be a standoff at Mar-a-Lago with Secret Service and the Manhattan DA’s office,” Joe Tacopina told the New York Daily News.no matter Trump’s status as the 45th president of the United States. He will be booked, finger-printed, and have a “mug shot” taken. With Trump’s substantial ties to the community, especially his ongoing 2024 presidential campaign, the judge likely wouldn’t deem him a flight risk, former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti tells TIME. Given the white-collar charges Trump would likely be confronting, he may not even face bond, just released on his own recognizance per New York law.

If Trump is arraigned and officially charged, the case would eventually move on to jury selection, which could be a lengthy and exhausting process.

“The majority of people in the jury pool would have some opinions about Donald Trump,” former federal prosecutor Mariotti says. “Most defendants, even if they’re famous, are often not known by prospective jurors or they don’t have a certain opinion about that person. I think it’s safe to say that Donald Trump is different.”

During jury selection the prosecution and the defense use voir dire questioning, meaning they can ask each prospective juror questions about their qualifications and knowledge of the case, in an attempt to ensure fair and impartial jurors.

Wu thinks a judge could opt to issue a so-called “gag order,” restricting all parties from talking to the press. “This is gonna get so much publicity anyway if he’s charged,” Wu says. “It’d be very hard to find jurors who haven’t been exposed to the news.” Although rarely used, one method to combat this is for a judge to sequester jurors, limiting their exposure to outside influence or information.

In a Q&A explication originally published Indictment Night at 7:30 pm , then updated on Friday at 3:43 pm, Time... answering its own inquiry about whether the former President was treating Judge Juan Merchan in the same cavalier and conspiratorial manner as he derided Bragg|... stated that Trump had posted, without evidence, that Merchan “hates me,” in a post on his social media site TruthSocial. Trump, who misspelled the judge’s name, wrote that Merchan “was hand picked by Bragg & the Prosecutors, & is the same person who ‘railroaded’ my 75 year old former CFO, Allen Weisselberg, to take a ‘plea’ deal.” Along with handling the case against the Trump organization executive, Merchan also presided over a case in which he ordered the Trump Foundation to pay $1.6 million after a jury found the organization guilty of criminal tax fraud. Alvin Bragg, the current Manhattan District Attorney, was a prosecutor involved in that case according to Brian Bennett and unnamed Time Fillers (Attachment Seventy Seven).

Time also took note of President Joe and his SecPress Psaki declining to comment, while former Vice President Mike Pence defended his former running mate on Thursday night, describing the indictment against Trump as “an outrage” that will “only further serve to divide our country.”

Time also noted the right-wing response so far: ‘Now it’s GAME ON’

Some members of pro-Trump social media groups and forums that served as the staging grounds of the “Stop the Steal” rallies and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol celebrated the indictment.

“I almost wanted this. Now it’s GAME ON,” one person wrote on a popular pro-Trump forum. “I know all of you are smart enough to know and see all this, but we need to rally behind him and show the left just how much this reinforces his popularity and electability,” another person wrote. “Get active at your local level and get vocal. Teflon Don.”

But many of Trump’s most loyal supporters exhibited a swelling sense of apathy about largely agreed that it made no sense organize any mass rallies or events, in that so many are expressing anger at what they described as Trump’s “betrayal” of those who heeded his call on Jan. 6.

“Has he called for protests about these poor guys? No. But he’s calling for us to protest about his arrest,” a MAGA dropout wrote on a popular por-Trump forum. “It doesn’t sit right with me.” Another user agreed: “He’s right. Trump betrayed the J6 patriots.”

The particulars of the upcoming indictment would remain secret until Tursday, but another Q&A article, this by Politico and posted shortly after 8 PM on Thursday, delineated the most likely charges as follows...

While the precise charges are secret for now, prosecutors have concluded they can prove a criminal case against Trump because of the apparent subterfuge surrounding a $130,000 payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels to keep her from publicizing her claim about a sexual encounter with Trump. Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen funded that payment through a home equity line of credit.

Trump insisted in April 2018 he did not know about the hush money, but Cohen provided Congress a series of check images, signed by Trump, reflecting payments to Cohen that he said were reimbursements for the money he laid out, including at least two that came while Trump was in the White House. Cohen said that Trump and his company concealed the purpose of the payments by falsely labeling them as legal expenses.

Under New York law, disguising such payments in corporate records is a crime, but typically only a misdemeanor. It becomes a felony if the false business records were intended to obscure a second crime. In this case, that second crime appears to be the use of the funds to advance Trump’s presidential campaign allegedly in violation of campaign finance laws. (Attachment Seventy Eight)

Among other potential inquiries that Pollitico correspondents Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney attempted to answer were:

Risks to the prosecution: “Cohen is not the strongest possible witness for prosecutors. He’s provided a lot of the evidence and testimony needed to bring the case... (but) his credibility is open to challenge since he pleaded guilty in 2018 to nine felonies and was sentenced to three years in federal prison. He’s also repeatedly expressed extreme bitterness towards Trump, even running a podcast he titled “Mea Culpa,” an allusion to his regrets over his time as Trump’s ally.”

Will Trump remain free? Can he campaign while under indictment?

“(I)t seems unlikely that prosecutors would seek to detain the former president or restrict his travel in the U.S. while the case is pending. There is no legal impediment to him continuing his presidential campaign while facing criminal charges — or even if he were jailed.”

How long will it take Trump to be brought to trial?

“It will, by necessity, take many months to commence a trial of a former president of the United States. Even if both sides were eager to proceed to trial quickly, ironing out legal and constitutional questions would likely stretch out over the next year and into the 2024 primary season.”

Add to all the above “Trump’s penchant — in nearly every legal matter he’s embroiled in — to seek to delay and prolong proceedings whenever possible.”

Trump’s lawyers “could try to move the case to federal court, arguing that at least some of the payments to Cohen took place while Trump was president and therefore a state court should have no authority to resolve the matter. Trump also could seek to move the trial to a different courthouse elsewhere in New York state. And he could try to have the indictment dismissed or reduced.” All of these pre-trial motions, Politico noted, “will take time to resolve.”

Deep into the night, as the wonderers wondered, and the wonders of a New World... or, at least, Washington... Order began manifesting as dreams or nightmares, Trump tweeted a rambling cliché rucksack of old grievances after news of Tuesday’s indictment surfaced and also “went on a social media frenzy” overnight on Thursday on Truth Social. “WHERE’S HUNTER?” he posted at around 3am dredging up one of his longstanding obsessions and calling the indictment “Fake, Corrupt, and Disgraceful” as well as “an attack on our country” and “free and fair elections.”

“These Thugs and Radical Left Monsters have just INDICATED [sic] the 45th President of the United States of America, and the leading Republican Candidate, by far, for the 2024 Nomination for President,” Trump wrote.

FRIDAY

While Midnight Don continued fulminating and Joneses... great and small... tried to catch up on sleep, it was morning in the Old World, and the Brits were feverishly finishing up their morning terrors for consumers to consume alongside their morning tea and Weetos.

Fox News has famously dumped Trump but, once the indictment date was announced, the polls polled and newly minted Trump-hater Rupert Murdoch started pivoting back into the embrace of a man who now appeared to be ready to capture the 2024 nomination, if not the general election. So, the Guardian U.K.’s correspondent Jonathan Yerushalmy posted at one minute past midnight (EST... a still-early five AM in London) that “...if the network’s initial reaction was one of shock, even uncertainty, what quickly followed was more akin to the bellicose confidence that its viewership has come to expect,” with Podhost Jesse Watters telling his prime-time audience (EST) that America was now in a “a revenge political climate”. (Attachment Seventy Nine)

“When Trump wins back the White House, he needs to start looking into Democrats,” chimed in Watters’ guest, Mike Davis of Article III.

“Potentially you could have a former president behind bars. The only way you can get a free Trump is to elect a free Trump,” Davis added.

“He’s acting like an insane person,” Sean Hannity, one of the network’s best-known personalities, allegedly said of Trump. Fox News’ owner, Rupert Murdoch, said several of the network’s top stars “endorsed” Trump’s false claims, and later added: “I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it in hindsight,” according to a deposition in the case.

“He is a bad-ass if he’s got a mug-shot … his poll numbers have gone up with this and I just think this is gonna make sure he’s going to be on the ticket,” one commentator said in the moments after the news broke.

By the time Tucker Carlson, one of the networks most popular personalities, came on air, the question had shifted: how to respond?

Carlson – who, in a previous GUK gobbet only a month ago, told an associate that he passionately hates Trump, according to evidence in the Dominion case – described the indictment as a turning point for America. “He offered up a potted history of Trump’s presidency, a history that he adorned throughout with conspiracy theories, calls for the FBI to be defunded and parallel narratives of the former president’s two impeachments. From the start, he said, “Washington elites” had been working to stop Trump becoming president again.

“The rule of law is suspended tonight,” Carlson announced gravely. “What you’re seeing now is lawlessness – the question is who can stop it?

At the ungodly hour of one AM (EST)... and a still early London morning, GUKster David Smith proclaimed that 30 March 2023 is now and forevermore “a day for the history books,” citing presidential historian Michael Beschloss, who said on the MSNBC network: “Tomorrow, in terms of American history, we will be waking up in a different country. Before tonight, presidents in this country were kings.”

And a sad, weeping melanchology sovereign is, or was, King Trump. Jesus had an easy time compared to the martyred and behectored Exile; the bigger the alleged crime, the louder he airs grievances and the more he plays the victim – and so far the Republican party has been mostly willing to indulge him.

That is the role he will play with an indictment hanging over him. At a campaign rally in Waco, Texas, last weekend, he claimed: “The Biden regime’s weaponization of law enforcement against their political opponents is something straight out of the Stalinist Russia horror show.” He suggested that it is the most serious problem facing America today.

Trump will now doubtless set about putting the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, on trial in the court of public opinion. He has already used dehumanising and racist language. A social media post, later removed, showed a photo of Trump holding a baseball bat and apparently looming over Bragg, raising fears of violence against him.

America’s tragedy, penned Mr. Smith, “is that the tactic will work with many Republicans. That Bragg is a Democrat from New York will trigger a Pavlovian response in Trump’s favor. That the case is seven years old, based on an untested legal theory and has Michael Cohen, a convicted criminal, as a key witness will provide further ammunition.”

Perhaps, even objective Independants and a few de-Bidened liberals may begin to think that Djonald UnLoved was right!

The horror!

Mister Smith, noting the tributes to the victim pouring in from Kevin Mac, Sen. J. D. Vance (R-Oh) and even Saint Ron; Vance, a Republican senator for Ohio, describing the indictment as “political persecution masquerading as law”, “blatant election interference” and “a direct assault on the tens of millions of Americans who support him”.

“But the most telling reaction came from DeSantis himself,” decided Smith (Attachment Eighty). “This could have been the moment for him to break from Trump and prove statesmanlike, calling for dignity and unity in a solemn moment for the nation. Instead he went full Maga.”

With his new best bud, DeSantis, who said: “The weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda turns the rule of law on its head. It is un-American.” Blowing an antisemitic dog whistle, DeSantis twice linked Bragg to philanthropist George Soros, adding that Florida would not assist in “an extradition request” to send Trump to New York – sending America into the political unknown, a twilight zone where precedents do not apply and everyone has to respond on the fly. Can the Manhattan court assemble an impartial jury, and will the timing of the trial collide with the Republican primary?

“Then, what about the other major legal perils threatening Trump: over the January 6 insurrection, over election interference in Georgia and over the mishandling of classified documents? These cases are arguably more clear-cut and consequential – but not necessarily in the eyes of Republicans. Will he recklessly incite unrest among his supporters?” Smith asked.

Another hour and another dispatch from abroad... Hugo Lowell reporting on the revels of the mob, and @. “But in private,” wrote @Lowell (Attachment Eighty One), “Trump was more subdued as he took in the significance of becoming the first sitting or former president to be charged and the changed reality of operating under the threat of an eventual criminal trial, several sources close to him said.”

The private response showed that for all his outward bravado – including claims that he wanted to be arrested and handcuffed for a “perp walk” because he wanted to project defiance if he was ever indicted – deep down, Trump has always feared the prospect of being criminally charged and its consequences.

The charges remain sealed, but are expected to touch on $130,000 that Trump made to Daniels through his then lawyer Michael Cohen in the final days of the 2016 elections campaign. Trump later reimbursed Cohen with $35,000 checks, and Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal charges over the money.

“Trump’s mood towards the hush money investigation has fluctuated in recent weeks – from criticising the prospect of criminal charges, to growing impatient and insisting they should charge him already, and then going back to attacking the investigation with vehemence.”

And Moira Daniels, waiting for the dawn (EST) when it was already Morning in the United Kingdom, contributed this Infotorial to Team GUK – alleging “This isn’t the Trump indictment we wanted, but it might be the one we deserve.”

Stormy Daniels and the illegal, fraudulent machinations that the Trump campaign allegedly undertook to pay her off during the height of the presidential campaign in 2016, Donegan vented spleen and confetti, “have always struck me as the most quintessential of Trump’s many scandals.” (Attachment Eighty Two)

Daniels, for years a successful porn performer, had met Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in 2006. According to her, he invited her to his hotel room, offered her work on his TV show and then had sex with her. The two remained friendly afterwards; Trump invited Daniels to the launch of his Trump Vodka brand the following year. “It’s the kind of thing you suspect that these two people would have written off as a funny story,” Donegan wrote, were it not for the consequences. “Trump denies Daniels’ allegations, but in retrospect, with the hindsight of what we’ve come to learn of him, the scene she recounts is almost unbearably true to his character: the gathering of low-rent celebrities, the paltry quid pro quo, the golf, and the sad, adolescent fantasy of sex with a porn star. The whole story drips with Trump’s defining attribute: the desperate and insatiable need to have his ego gratified. Which is why to me, at least,” Donegan contends, “it seems obvious that Daniels is telling the truth.”

When Stormy approached the National Enquirer, which tipped off the Trump campaign. Michael Cohen, Trump’s “sweaty and exhausted lawyer and fixer, offered to pay her $130,000 to shut up and go away, which Daniels was happy to accept. Cohen fronted the money himself; initially, he seems to have taken out a line of credit on his own house. Why go through this labyrinthine route? Why have the lawyer pay personally – an unusual and inappropriate arrangement – especially in an amount that was large for Michael Cohen but should have been small for his alleged billionaire of a boss?”

Upgrading the indictment into a conviction... a felony conviction... will be more difficult to prove, but more than a few Fourth Estaters – not to mention bloggers and publications like the National Enquirer.have noted, for better or worse, the defense contention that Cohen, and not Trump, initially paid Daniels off “because if Trump had paid her, that payment would have been subject to scrutiny – from campaign finance regulators and from the public. And in the waning days of what was a chaotic and flailing election, this was scrutiny that the Trump campaign could not afford.”

Also, under the eyes of Prince... soon King Charles... another Brit tabloid, Reuters remarked that senior House of Representatives Republicans have vowed to investigate Bragg and demanded he hand over documents and other confidential material from the investigation. Bragg said Congress does not have authority to interfere with a New York legal proceeding and accused the lawmakers of escalating political tensions. Bragg's office has been the target of bomb threats in recent weeks.

"You and many of your colleagues have chosen to collaborate with Mr. Trump's efforts to vilify and denigrate the integrity of elected state prosecutors and trial judges," Bragg wrote in a letter to Republican lawmakers.

Meanwhile, back in the U.S.A., a lawyer for the former president said that he would not take a plea deal and was prepared to go to trial.

Here’s what else to know:

· Mr. Bragg has brought the case over Mr. Trump’s role, when he was running for president, in a hush-money payment to a porn star, Stormy Daniels, who then agreed to keep quiet about her story of an affair with him. Prosecutors are expected to argue that the payoff, which came in the final days of the 2016 presidential campaign, functioned as an illegal donation to Mr. Trump’s candidacy.

· In a statement on Thursday evening, Mr. Trump called Mr. Bragg, a Democrat, “a disgrace” and denounced the case as “political persecution and election interference at the highest level in history.” Mr. Trump described himself as “a completely innocent person.”

· Mr. Trump is expected to turn himself in on Tuesday for arraignment on the indictment in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, one of his lawyers said. The New York Police Department issued an order to all officers to be “prepared for deployment,” part of enhanced security measures being put in place all over the city.

· After months of cooler coverage of Mr. Trump, Fox News hosts rallied around him on Thursday, denouncing his indictment as an attempt to hinder his re-election chances — he remains a front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination — and suggesting it might lead to unrest.

Another UK tabloid, Reuters... a news service that would probably resent the tabloidal appellation (See Attachment Eighty Four) determined that “Senior House of Representatives Republicans have vowed to investigate Bragg and demanded he hand over documents and other confidential material from the investigation. Bragg said Congress does not have authority to interfere with a New York legal proceeding and accused the lawmakers of escalating political tensions. Bragg's office has been the target of bomb threats in recent weeks.

Hypocrisy? Conspiracy?

The prosecutor... and, by the following week, the judge... have refrained, so far, from calling the actions of the defendant and his followers a “witch hunt”, but the black cats are out of their bags, the broomsticks a-flying and the partisans asking “which witch is which?”

Congressdamsel Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) told the Washington Times that she would go to New York to distress the prosecution and protest former President Donald Trump’s indictment on charges tied to Stormy. (Attachment Eighty Five)

“I’m going to New York on Tuesday,” she wrote. “We MUST protest the unconstitutional WITCH HUNT!”

“I don’t think people should protest this, no,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had retorted last month at a GOP retreat in Orlando, Florida. “We want calmness out there.”

Well, there are magic potions that can gentle a body down, too.

That other Times, supposedly the real one, the one in New York City, that is, also prepared a sort of Weekend Update of its own, only without comedy. Also without names... reporting that “a lawyer” for the former president said that he would not take a plea deal and was prepared to go to trial.

Taco Joe? That other guy – one of those other, other guys from the other cases? Rudy?

No matter. Recapitulating the minutae of the charges as Djonald’s Lost Weekend began, the old gray lady of Gotham opined that: “while Mr. Trump has sought to capitalize on the criminal charges to energize his base, the ignominy of becoming a defendant — especially after decades of evading prosecution despite numerous repeated investigations — marks a profound change for a global celebrity who has a history of deriding others accused of wrongdoing.” (Attachment Eighty Six)

“Ignominy?” How... how ignominious!

But there was a bluebird in the blueberry pie of despair and despondency beclouding Mar-a-Lago... assuming that Trump’s advisers and pollwatchers weren’t playing an April Fool’s prank on the defeated President.

According to a Yahoo news poll, Trump was now “beating DeSantis 57% to 31% in the one-to-one contest, and was attracting majority support at 52% when pitted against a wider, 10-candidate field including DeSantis at 21% and the UN ambassador in the Trump administration, Nikki Haley.

“Trump also improved his lead over DeSantis in polling done for his campaign by McLaughlin and Associates, which surveyed 1,000 likely 2024 general election voters and found Trump beating DeSantis 63% to 30%, improving his lead from January when Trump was at 52% and DeSantis at 40. (GUK, Sat 1 Apr 2023 23.26 EDT, Attachment Eighty Seven)

The sharp uptick in polling numbers – and a corresponding reversal by potential 2024 rivals trying to come to Trump’s defense over the indictment after previously trying to distance themselves – was so sudden and marked that it took some of Trump’s own advisers by surprise. Admittedly, McLaughlin skews Republican, but Yahoo is relatively honest and the conclusions... that the base is holding... mean that while a majority of the voters aren’t yet ready to send him back to the White House, nomination is looking more and more like a low-hanging plum on the tree of destiny.

But for now, a perp walk through the rotting orchard of wormy pipkins in the Big Apple loomed... full of pitfalls should things go North on Tuesday. Trump was protected from his potential cellies should Judge Merchan really take offense and lock him up without bail; indictments and criminal trials scheduled for Tuesday at the same courthouse included: “burglary for taking paintings from a West Village townhouse; a thwarted terrorist attack on a Jewish community; the illegal selling of firearms; murder for an East Harlem hammer attack; murder and attempted murder for attacking multiple homeless men; murder and criminal possession of a weapon for shooting into a car in East Harlem; and a grand larceny case involving sim-card swapping.”

GUK reported that discussions were still being held about whether his booking photo will be publicly circulated. Trump reportedly “wants the mugshot out” because it could harness (?) donations to his presidential campaign.

It also published an aliased Editorial by Observer just after midnight Sunday morning... Attachment Eighty Seven (A)... that, more in the progressive spirit of the progressive rag, called appealed to some spirit in the sky that, if there’s any justice, “Trump’s time in court will ultimately be followed by time served.”

The full Trump charge sheet “reads like a horror novel in which democracy is murdered,” Observer observed... “(t)he continuing mystery is why justice is so long in coming,” he, she or it declared. “It is hard to avoid the conclusion that reluctance to energetically pursue these and other crimes, such as Trump’s apparent theft of secret documents found at his Florida home, stems from political timidity at the top. The entire Trump saga, akin to tawdry, never-ending reality TV show, is a distraction from pressing issues such as post-pandemic economic revival, the climate emergency and war in Europe. The US should focus on these challenges rather than endlessly indulge the antic ravings of a narcissistic, foul-mouthed, misogynistic crook.

Later on Sunday, GUK took another swipe at the Colonials, with Hugo Lowell reporting that the former president “has vowed to people close to him that he wants to go on the offensive and – in a private moment over the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida,” (that was evidently not so private) remarked using more colorful language that it was time to politically “rough ’em up”. (Attachment Eighty Eight)

Since he had not yet faced the Indictment Indictors and Judge Merchan, “’em” presumably referred to DA Bragg and his minions, not Dorothy’s auntie.

Guk published another reverse timeline, dating back to a few minutes before the indictment. While the former President was being processed, they also noted that the clown show outside included MTG and the Lyin’ DKing (Attachment Ninety)

And NPR caught up with Stormy, sizzling at Trump’s moment of truth. Earlier she had called the case a sad day for America, but after a judge socked her for a portion of Djonald’s legal bills, she re-pivoted.

"I don't think that his crimes against me are worthy of incarceration," Daniels said, but later added: "The other things that he has done — if he is found guilty, then absolutely." (Attachment Ninety One)

	April 3 – April 6, 2023 (and Easter Holiday)
Monday, April 3, 2023 Dow: 33,601.15	After an April Foolish weekend of wiseguys and fools telling Don Jones what they know to be true, Former President Donald Trump, himself, flies north with the geese and the goblins; spending the night in a now-forbidding Trump Tower, dialing up another lawyer and denouncing tomorrow’s judge Juan Merchan “a Trump-hater.” Protesters cavort outside, but far fewer than expected. Stormy Daniels is in seclusion, calculating ways to make money off her notoriety. Stormy storms continue their Spring Breaking, 59 tornadoes ravage eleven states and kill 32. Bad foreigners continue doing bad things. After arresting a Wall Street Journalist on trumped-up (pun noted) espionage charges, they announce capture of a suspect in the bombing of a St. Petersburg pro-Putin blogger and blame America and the Ukraine; maybe she did it, maybe not. OPEC cuts production, likely to lead to a summer of higher gas prices. Riots continue in France (pensions) and the Middle East (religion). Fifteen million Americans lose their Medicaid plague coverage, forcing the poorest to choose between pills and food. Politicians (with assured govt. bennies) shrug.
Tuesday, April 4, 2023 Dow: 33,562.38	Gov. DeSantis (R-Fl.) doubles down on his anti-gay, anti-Disney campaign by signing a bill to greenlight concealed carry guns without precautions. Time to shoot Mickey! Ford develops and tests its AI app for self-repossessing cars that drive back to the dealer on their own if the deadbeat can’t pay. If the cars are too old, they drive themselves to the junkyard. A weekend in sports finds Uconn (men) and LSU (women) capturing NCAA hoops titles, with the Masters beginning on Thursday. In song, the Country Music Awards honor “Jellyroll” (named after the delicacy that creates his jellyroll physique) with three trophies. And then 2:15 arrives with NYC mayor Eric Adams warning the rabble outside not to be roused by the rabble rousers, further warning the outsiders to “control yourself.” Beyond a few weird costumes, the tiny gatherings do. Trump himself is further outraged... first he was not allowed to be handcuffed for his perp walk, now the authorities decide that, since everybody would know him if he ran away, there is no need for a mugshot. Merchandisers are crushed... then recover... fake mugshot t-shirts are on sale by the end of the day.
Wednesday, April 5, 2023 Dow: 33,482.72	It’s National Walking Day. Djonald UnConvicted (yet) flies back to Florida, leaving lawyer Joe Taco to walk back history – which he does by saying that, although Trump paid off Cohen to pay off Stormy, the money and the matter was personal, not campaign finance related (the master key to uplifting misdemeanors to felonies). He also asks why a State prosecuting is bringing Federal charges. Even the usually-liberal Dan Abrams calls the case “a souped-up misdemeanor”... will The Donald end up picking up trash by the roadside... (which is what got him into trouble in the first place)? Stormy weather continues to plague not only America but Stormy Daniels herself, as one of the many defamation lawsuits against Trump fails, and she is ordered to pay his lawyers $122,000. The leaves her with an $8,000 profit – still not bad for fifteen minutes’ work. In the other three cases, VP Pence agrees to testify as to the One Six itself (Trump is predictably outraged and calls for defunding the FBI but, after all, he did urge the mob to hang him) while Atlanta voting and Mar-a-Lago documents await their light of day. Be it through Trumpish reaction or local issues, liberals enjoy electoral success as another “progressive” wins the Mayoralty of Chicago, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court is flipped, auguring loosening of harsh anti-abortion laws.
Thursday, April 6, 2023 Dow: 33,485.29	It’s Holy Thursday. Unholy pedophile priests are outed in Baltimore and a New Jersey cheerleading coach is accused of sexual assault on his girls. Pope Francis, on the other hand, staggers from his sickbed to wash the feet of prisoners locked up in Italy, where a new Plague Variant is rising up and reaping souls. Unholy violence also flares up in the Mideast as three religious holidays... Easter, Passover and Ramadan... turn out the faithful to murder the infidels. Whisperers whisper that some Ukrainians will support Russia’s annexation of Crimea as the price for peace. Crime takes an ee-yah turn before the holiday as Yue Yu (aka Doctor Drano) is accused of trying to poison her lying husband with lye (which, she defends herself) was only intended to kill ants. A dirty Daddy is charged with murder after an alligator eats his two year old, and there are the usual incidents of gun violence nationwide,
Friday, April 7, 2023 Dow: 33,274.15	Closed for Easter Weekend. The Index will be updated this week.
Saturday, April 3, 2023 Dow: (Closed)
Sunday, April 3, 2023 Dow: (Closed)
The Dow experienced a Trump (indictment) Bump and rose by a thousands points, pushing the Don back into the black.

THE DON JONES INDEX

CHART of CATEGORIES w/VALUE ADDED to EQUAL BASELINE of 15,000

(REFLECTING… approximately… DOW JONES INDEX of June 27, 2013)

See a further explanation of categories here…

ECONOMIC INDICES (60%)

CATEGORY

VALUE

BASE

RESULTS

SCORE

OUR SOURCES and COMMENTS

INCOME

(24%)

6/17/13 & 1/1/22

LAST

CHANGE

NEXT

SOURCE

Wages (hrly. Per cap)

1350 points

3/6/23

+1.24%

4/23

1,434.03

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/wages 28.61

Median Inc. (yearly)

600

4/3/23

+0.28%

4/24/23

603.05

http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 35,761 771 789

Unempl. (BLS – in mi)

600

3/6/23

+5.56%

4/23

633.65

http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000/ 3.6 3.5

Official (DC – in mi)

300

4/3/23

+1.27%

4/24/23

275.12

http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 5,522 511 820 817

Unofficl. (DC – in mi)

300

4/3/23

-0.91%

4/24/23

265.93

http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 11,930 908 12,027 024

Workforce Particip.

Number

Percent

300

4/3/23

+0.23% +0.23%

4/24/23

302.00

In 161,036 094 462 485 Out 100,297 308 029 032 Total: 261,333 402

http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 61.61

WP % (ycharts)*

150

2/27/23

+0.16%

4/23

150.95

https://ycharts.com/indicators/labor_force_participation_rate 62.50 .60

OUTGO

15%

Total Inflation

1050

4/3/23

+0.4%

4/23

996.88

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +0.4

Food

300

4/3/23

+0.4%

4/23

278.78

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +0.4

Gasoline

300

4/3/23

+1.0%

4/23

243.21

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +1.0

Medical Costs

300

4/3/23

-0.7%

4/23

294.90

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm -0.7

Shelter

300

4/3/23

+0.7%

4/23

281.06

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +0.8

WEALTH

Dow Jones Index

300

4/3/23

+3.22%

4/24/23

269.51

https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/index/ 33,274.15

Home (Sales)

(Valuation)

150

3/6/23

-0.50% -2.15%

4/23

125.77

267.55

125.77

267.55

https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics

Sales (M): 4.00 4.58 Valuations (K): 359.0 363

Debt (Personal)

300

4/3/23

+0.085%

4/24/23

277.88

http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 72,972 73,034 246 3,273

NATIONAL

(10%)

Revenue (trilns.)

300

4/3/23

+0.011%

4/24/23

384.49

debtclock.org/ 4,610.6 0.918 611.3 611.68 612.2 612.4

Expenditures (tr.)

300

4/3/23

+0.033%

4/24/23

340.95

debtclock.org/ 6,019 021 023 025 027 029

National Debt tr.)

450

4/3/23

+0.065%

4/24/23

426.57

http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 31,596 609 624 639 661 667

(The debt ceiling was 31.4)

Aggregate Debt (tr.)

450

4/3/23

+0.11%

4/24/23

421.79

http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 94,466 556 660 764 913 958

GLOBAL

(5%)

Foreign Debt (tr.)

300

4/3/23

+1.35%

4/24/23

342.73

http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 7,224 216 315 313

Exports (in billions)

150

4/3/23

+2.92%

4/23

163.94

https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/current/index.html 257.5 251.2

Imports (bl.)

150

4/3/23

+2.52%

4/23

165.54

https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/current/index.html 325.8 321.7

Trade Deficit (bl.)

150

4/3/23

+1.32%

4/23

269.51

300.76

https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/current/index.html 68.3 70.5

SOCIAL INDICES (40%)

ACTS of MAN

12%

World Affairs

450

4/3/23

-0.1%

4/24/23

447.23

Arab-Israeli conflict extends to Lebanon as battles rage at AlAqba Mosquei in Jerusalem. U.K. sanctions Tik Tok for spying on kids: Us next? Jacinda Arden gives an inspiration retirement speech in New Zealand.

Terrorism

300

4/3/23

-0.1%

4/24/23

288.15

Russia arrests suspect in assassination of Putinista. Report on Afghan evacuation has President Joe and Trump blaming each other. Riots in France (labor) and Israel (religion) continue on into adjoining Passover, Easter, Ramadan.

Politics

450

4/3/23

4/24/23

471.14

Trump indictment sets off posturing and scrambling. Speaker Kevin Mac and Taiwan PM discuss more arms sales, angering China. Robert F. Kenney Jr. challenges Biden as an anti-vaxxer. Tennessee legislature expels two for overenthusiastic advocacy of gun control after Nashville school murders.

Economics

450

4/3/23

-0.4%

4/24/23

429.19

Post-bankrupt banks cut 56K jobs, McD cuts more, WalMart cuts 2,000. But there are still jobs out there. Shortage of air traffic controllers expected to cause delays.

Crime

150

4/3/23

-0.4%

4/24/23

265.71

Nashville cops say school shooter bought 7 guns legally, but State legislators expel two who call for gun control. Weird alligator and Drano crimes (above); 4 Americans killed in Cancun. Tech mogul Bob Lee stabbed to death in S.F.

ACTS of GOD

(6%)

Environment/Weather

450

4/3/23

-0.2%

4/24/23

421.09

Another week of West Coast cold, East Coast heat and in between come Tornadoes; Missouri hardest hit with 5 killed.

Disasters

450

4/3/23

+0.6%

4/24/23

441.35

LIFESTYLE/JUSTICE INDEX

(15%)

Science, Tech, Educ.

600

4/3/23

+0.3%

4/24/23

626.61

Virgin Orbit goes broke after failures to launch. NASA names four moon astronauts... and

Equality (econ/social)

600

4/3/23

+0.3%

4/24/23

611.18

Cites diversity: a black, a woman, a... Canadian! Pope Francis washes the feet of prisoners on Holy Thursday,

Health

600

4/3/23

4/24/23

472.52

CDC warns of deadly Marburg epidemic breaking out in Africa. Docs say much risk, no benefit in alcohol: bring back Prohibition? Bad week for Axis cars: VW recalls 143K for bad airbags, Honda 500K.

Freedom and Justice

450

4/3/23

+0.2%

4/24/23

463.15

SCOTUS Justice Thomas accused of taking graft from billionaire Harlan Crow. J&J settles talcum poweder lawsuit for $9B. Rupert Murdoch called to testify in Fox/Dominion lawsuit. More corporate legal warfare between Chipotle and Sweetgreen

MISCELLANEOUS and TRANSIENT INDEX

(7%)

Cultural incidents

450

4/3/23

+0.3%

4/24/23

487.53

Masters tees off Thursday. Uconn and LSU win NCAA titles. Jelly Roll wins CMA awards.

RIP Madonna producer Seymour Stein,

Misc. incidents

450

4/3/23

+0.1%

4/24/23

476.40

Osama killer Gen. McRaven writes “Wisdom of the Bullfrog” and says: “When you’re in command, command!” Heavy California rains enhance spring flower blooming.

The Don Jones Index for the week of April 3^rd through April 9^th, 2023 was UP 4.48 points

The Don Jones Index is sponsored by the Coalition for a New Consensus: retired Congressman and Independent Presidential candidate Jack “Catfish” Parnell, Chairman; Brian Doohan, Administrator. The CNC denies, emphatically, allegations that the organization, as well as any of its officers (including former Congressman Parnell, environmentalist/America-Firster Austin Tillerman and cosmetics CEO Rayna Finch) and references to Parnell’s works, “Entropy and Renaissance” and “The Coming Kill-Off” are fictitious or, at best, mere pawns in the web-serial “Black Helicopters” – and promise swift, effective legal action against parties promulgating this and/or other such slanders.

Comments, complaints, donations (especially SUPERPAC donations) always welcome at feedme@generisis.com or: speak@donjonesindex.com.

ATTACHMENTS

See Attachments One through Eighteen appended to our Lesson of March 27^th... “Drizzle”. Our April 3^rd lesson, “Sizzle, covered events from the Indictment Announcement late Thursday, March 30^th to the Indictment on April 2^nd (Attachments Nineteen through Seventy)

Below is Attachment Zero: The Indictment. Thereafter, we resume with Attachment Seventy One

ATTACHMENT ZERO – From The Hill

Read the full Trump indictment charging him with 34 felony counts

BY CAITLIN YILEK UPDATED ON: APRIL 4, 2023 / 4:18 PM / CBS NEWS

Former President Donald Trump has been charged by a New York grand jury with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in an indictment that was unsealed Tuesday after Trump was arraigned in a Manhattan courtroom. Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office alleges Trump orchestrated a “catch and kill” scheme to suppress damaging information before the 2016 election. Prosecutors say the scheme involved falsifying business records to conceal three payments, including $130,000 that Trump attorney Michael Cohen paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

“The defendant DONALD J. TRUMP repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election,” according to a statement of facts released alongside the indictment.

Read the indictment and the statement of facts below:

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORKCOUNTY OF NEW YORKTHE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK-against-DONALD J. TRUMP,Defendant.THE GRAND JURY OF THE COUNTY OF NEW YORK, by this indictment, accusesthe defendant of the crime of

FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRSTDEGREE

, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about February 14, 2017,with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commissionthereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an invoicefrom Michael Cohen dated February 14, 2017, marked as a record of the Donald J. TrumpRevocable Trust, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.SECOND COUNT:AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses thedefendant of the crime of