Elon Musk on trump: what the evidence says · JRE #2223
SUBJECT: TRUMP
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
this thing in New York where the 34 different felony counts, they were essentially misdemeanors that there are bookkeeping bookkeeping errors
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
On May 30, 2024, a 12-person Manhattan jury unanimously convicted Donald Trump on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, a Class E felony under New York Penal Law. Falsifying business records is ordinarily a misdemeanor in New York, but state law (Penal Law 175.10) elevates it to a felony when the false entries were made with intent to commit or conceal another crime; prosecutors argued Trump falsified records to conceal campaign-finance and tax-law violations tied to a 2016 hush-money payment, and the Manhattan DA's office noted it had filed the same charge thousands of times in prior years, undercutting claims the elevation was a novel or selective maneuver. The felony's five-year statute of limitations, not the misdemeanor's two-year period, applied once the charges were brought as felonies; Trump's defense separately argued the prosecution was time-barred, but that argument was litigated before trial and rejected because New York's COVID-19 executive orders tolled deadlines for roughly a year and Trump's out-of-state residency while in the White House further paused the clock under state law. Both the felony-classification theory and the statute-of-limitations ruling remain part of Trump's ongoing appeal, meaning they are contested legal arguments but have not been upheld by any court to date. Describing the counts as merely misdemeanor bookkeeping errors improperly time-barred omits that the elevation to felony status and the timeliness of the charges were explicit, litigated features of New York law that the trial court considered and rejected, and that a jury convicted unanimously on all 34 counts.