In a recent series of unprecedented events, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg announced the indictment of former President Donald Trump on March 30. It came after days of Trump stating via his social media platform Truth Social that he would be arrested due to what he called “politically motivated prosecutions” by Bragg. This historic indictment marks the first time a former U.S. president may be criminally prosecuted. The charges against Trump stem from an alleged “hush money” payment prior to the 2016 election to an adult film actress, with whom he allegedly had an affair. The alleged payment, however, didn’t come directly from Trump; rather, it came from his former lawyer, Michael Cohen.
Trump has denied the accusations relating to the affair, but in 2018 via a tweet, he admitted to having reimbursed Cohen for a nondisclosure agreement payment Cohen made to the actress, Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. Cohen later admitted to Trump having no knowledge of the payment he had made to Clifford. Nevertheless, if Cohen’s payment to Clifford was made to influence the 2016 election, groups argue that it opens a door to the prosecution of Trump to a felony for "knowingly and willfully" causing his campaign to file an incomplete or false report.
It is also critical to note that Cohen, who is one of the primary witnesses for this case, pled guilty in 2018 to “one count of making false statements to the U.S. Congress” and “five counts of willful tax evasion” according to the Department of Justice’s website.
Manhattan’s DA’s office has indicted Trump under Article 175 of the New York Penal Law.
According to the district attorney’s website, “Trump is charged in a New York State Supreme Court indictment with 34 counts of Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree.” In other words, Bragg is prosecuting Trump for falsifying business records in order to conceal a second crime, in this case violating state and federal election laws.
Legal experts argue this has made it more difficult for prosecutors to prove Trump’s guilt since they must now show clear-cut evidence that Trump knew the arrangement was illegal and that he intended to conceal a second crime through it. However, Dallas College Richland Campus Government Professor Patrick Moore suggested that “There are pretty damning statements of fact that there is a good chance of conviction.” Additionally, he noted “The implications to prove intent in the second crime would be hard, so we will have to wait and see.”
To many, this appears to be a flimsy case. What makes it more flimsy is that Bragg is notorious for lowering charges from felonies to misdemeanors, and that is if he even decided to prosecute in the first place. Critics from the left say that this case only lowers the credibility of other cases against Trump, such as the one in Fulton County, Georgia.
MSNBC reported that “This could have a cascade effect, not only emboldening Trump’s false claims that he has done nothing wrong but also making other prosecutors skittish about charging Trump in other cases.” Critics from the right, on the other hand, state that this is purely politically motivated and will only raise Trump’s popularity ahead of the 2024 election.
This case is far from over or unwinnable on Bragg’s end, but it surely is not the smooth ride many expected it to be.
Former President Donald Trump answered questions for nearly seven hours Thursday during his second deposition in a legal battle with New York’s attorney general over his company’s business practices, reversing an earlier decision to invoke his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination and remain silent.
The Republican met all day with lawyers for Attorney General Letitia James, who sued Trump last year. Her lawsuit claims Trump and his family misled banks and business associates by giving them false information about his net worth and the value of assets such as hotels and golf courses.
Shortly after Trump entered the Manhattan skyscraper that houses James’ offices, his attorney, Alina Habba, said he was “not only willing but also eager to testify.”
After the deposition was finished, a lawyer for Trump’s businesses, Christopher Kise, said the former president had spent nearly seven
hours “describing in detail his extraordinary business success.”
“The transactions at the center of this case were wildly profitable for the banks and for the Trump entities,” Kise said. “When the facts of this success, and not politically engineered soundbites, are out in the open, everyone will scoff at the notion any fraud took place.”
The lawsuit is unrelated to the felony criminal charges filed against Trump by the Manhattan district attorney, which led last week to his historic arraignment, the first for a former president.
James declined to answer a question about the deposition at a news conference on an unrelated matter Wednesday.
Trump previously met with James’ lawyers Aug. 10, but refused to answer all but a few procedural questions, invoking his Fifth Amendment rights more than 400 times. At the time, James had not yet brought her lawsuit and it was unclear whether questions about the
way Trump valued his company would become the basis of a criminal case.
“Anyone in my position not taking the Fifth Amendment would be a fool, an absolute fool,” he said in that deposition, which was recorded on video and later released publicly. Trump predicted a “renegade” prosecutor would try to make a criminal case out of his answers, if he gave them.
“One statement or answer that is ever so slightly off, just ever so slightly, by accident, by mistake, such as it was a sunny, beautiful day, when actually it was slightly overcast, would be met by law enforcement at a level seldom seen in this country, because I’ve experienced it,” he said.
Circumstances since then have changed. The criminal charges brought by the Manhattan district attorney focused on how the company accounted internally for payments to a lawyer, Michael Cohen, for his work paying off people not to go public with stories about extramarital sexual encounters Trump said never happened.
James’ lawsuit focused on allegations that Trump lied repeatedly about his own wealth and exaggerated the value of his assets on financial statements.
In a social media post Thursday morning, Trump called the suit “ridiculous, just like all of the other Election Interference cases being brought against me.”
He raised a fist as he left his apartment at Trump Tower in the morning, arriving by motorcade at the attorney general’s office around 9:40. The two sides took a break for lunch. Trump departed in the motorcade just before 6:15 p.m. and did not stop to speak to reporters.
The lawsuit James brought is scheduled to go to trial in October. Video recordings of Trump’s depositions could potentially be played at the trial, if the lawsuit is not settled. Thursday’s deposition was conducted in private.
Kathy Windrow is the curator of “selfunfixed: picturing identity,” the new exhibition at the Bath House Cultural Center. Windrow is an art and art history professor at Dallas College Eastfield Campus and an adjunct professor in art history and theater at Southern Methodist University.
The main purpose for Windrow with this exhibition is to highlight local talent, according to Enrique Fernández Cervantes, visual art coordinator and curator at the Bath House.
“This show is about how the artist sees herself or himself from different points of view, not only [the] color of their skin, their cultural identity, their gender identity. The different types of identity are being explored with this exhibition eloquently,” said Fernández.
To show the process of self-identity is important, according to Windrow. For that reason, some of the artists have more than one piece in the exhibition, which includes with 38 artists and 60 pieces of art, according to Fernández.
“Katy is great at identifying where an artist is, perhaps, in the middle of having, of creating a series of multiple pieces that are part of a longer process,” Fernández said.
However, Dallas College is represented not only for Windrow at this exhibition. Chong
Chu, one of the 38 artists at the exhibition, teaches at Brookhaven Campus. He is a painting professor in the Art Department at that campus, according to Fernández .
Other artists from Dallas College includes David Wilburn and Tina Medina. Wilburn is
years and her work in this exhibition has a strong influence on that concept.
“A vital concept that she wants to understand better and maybe through repetitionand through re-exploration of concepts that she has been attracted to. . . . Her work becomes stronger and stronger as a collection or as one or two pieces. Even though they’re quite strong and as important, and as serious as a larger body of work, they become even more powerful,” Fernández said.
The exhibition has artists from different cultural backgrounds like African American artists, Native American artists, Latino/ Chicano artists and Asian American artists. The “self-unfixed: picturing identity” exhibition opened on March 25 and will run to April 29 and coincides with the Dallas Art Month. In 2013, the Dallas Art Month was launched by former Dallas mayor Mike Rawlings because he thought it was a great necessity for exposure of local talent, according to Fernández
a professor at Eastfield Campus Art Department, and Medina is an art professor at Mountain View Campus.
“Many of these artists are faculty members from the Dallas College,” Fernández said.
The process for this evolution of the selfidentity might last months or even years for some of the artists. One of these artists is Tina Medina, who according to Hernandez, has been exploring the immigration topic for
April is the month when awareness and appreciation for local artists, organizations and fostering learning is celebrated.
“So every year, we host art programs that are meant to be a part of that big celebration that we do every year,” Fernández said.
For more information about the exhibition, go to bathhouse.dallascultur.org and for more information about fine art classes visit www.dallascollege.edu.
“This show is about how the artist sees herself or himself from different points of view, not only [the] color of their skin, their cultural identity, their gender identity.”
– Enrique Fernández
Richland Campus hosted the Dallas Cup soccer tournament again this year. The event, which is held during Easter week, was founded by the Texas Longhorns Soccer Club in 1980. The club launched the tournament because they wanted to return the fellowship that European teams showed to their teams that had traveled throughout that part of the world, according to dallascup.org.
The invitation-only event lasted nine days, with several games played every day at various
locations. Richland hosted the games five of those nine days.
One of the teams that participated in the Dallas Cup 2023 was the Olympiakos FC from Hunting Beach, California. Assistant coach Aurelio Lozano said the expectation for his team was to win the tournament. The Olympiakos FC took the victory in his first game played during the tournament, 3-2, against the JB Marine Academy.
The Olympiacos FC got into the quarterfinals, but were eliminated by the FC Dallas Youth 4-0. FC Dallas played the finals in its category but lost to ODP National Select US Youth Soccer 2-1.
• 19U Boys: Gordon Jago
Super Group: FC Midtjylland (DEN)
• 18U Boys: Louisville City Academy 05/04 Purple (KY) USYS
• 17U Boys: 2005 ODP National Select (USA) Tigres
UANL
The Dallas Cup is one of the most prestigious youth tournaments among the country, and in the world. This event was founded in 1980 by the Texas Longhorns Soccer Club when they returned the friendship received when the team traveled to Europe previously.
Nine age groups participate from U-12 through U-19, including male and female categories. This tournament is made up of approximately 40% international teams, 40% state-side teams and 20% from Dallas.
This year teams from 20 different countries and six different continents took part in the event.
The Tigres de Nuevo León U-17 team was crowned champion of the Dallas Cup 2023 after defeating U.S Youth Soccer 1-0 in the Toyota Stadium, Frisco on April 8. Diego Porras scored the goal in the 65th minute. The team coached by Luís Ramírez dominated the tournament from beginning to end and only received one goal in the seven games they played. That game was against the English academy Steven Gerrard. The win for Tigres was 3-1.
This is the eighth time coach Luís Ramírez brought a team to the tournament. He felt excited about the championship.
“It was a challenging tournament, with competitive teams and the games were physically demanding,” he said. Ramírez won the U-20 championship in the Dallas Cup in 2021.
About the final match in Frisco, Ramírez said they could control all the phases of the game. “We were the team that proposed the most during the game, such as the previous matches we had a lot of chances to score, but we could score only one thanks to a shot of medium distance.” The leading scorer of the tournament was the Tigres player Diego Ramírez with seven goals.
One of the most outstanding players was Jonathan López. The midfielder mentioned that concentration was the key to getting the title. “We were very organized and smart on the defensive system in our 4-2-3-1. We were 11 players attacking and 11 players defending.”
• 16U-15UBoys: (MEX)
USYS - 2007 ODP National Select (USA)
• 14U Boys: Crossfire
Premier B08 ECNL (WA)
• 13U Boys: Academia
Atlas FC (MEX) FC Dallas
• 12U Boys: FC Dallas
2011 North Academy (TX)
About the number of goals, López complimented striker Ramírez. “He always is running around the box waiting for a pass to shoot. We trained that every day and he had good luck.”
The Tigres players were not alone. The families of the players traveled from Monterrey to Dallas to support them. Miguelangel Sánchez is the parent of the left-back Miguel Sánchez Jr. He congratulated all the event organizers.
“The Dallas Cup is very famous and probably is the best tournament in level academies in the United States, and Tigres has played very well,”. Sánchez said. Many Tigres fans came by car from Monterrey, and they had a happy ending raising the trophy.
The global pandemic of 2020 made streaming even more popular than it already was for large numbers of people and organizations. While many people were stuck at home, YouTube and Twitch channels blew up. Here’s a basic guide to streaming.
What is TikTok and how does it work?
TikTok, is a Chinese, short form, video app people can use to watch and upload or stream content related to their interests. It’s used for proffesional and entertaiment purposes This website got popular with short-form videos of less than 3 minutes in length.
Can you make a living off of streaming and content creation?
Yes, you can. It takes a long time and dedication, though. Don’t quit your degree, but keep uploading while in college. Videos are enabled to make ad revenue on Twitch and YouTube once a channel reaches one thusand subscribers.
What is IRL streaming? How does it work? What are the dangers related to this to be aware of?
IRL streaming simply means streaming in real life. Content creators will take a video and hit the record button on their device, and they can go live to the video’s chatroom. This is a great way to interact with chat, but it poses
dangers such as stream sniping as well as stream stalking.
What is stream sniping and stream stalking? They sound dangerous.
Many people want 15 minutes of fame with online video content. It’s the process of getting the streamers real life location to go into the video. It can be harmless at times. Stream stalking takes this to the next level by allowing fans to stalk their streamer based on their real-life location.
What are ‘Let’s Plays’? I hear that a lot.
It’s a video series based around video games to which the streamer and chat play through a video game live or the streamer uploads a prerecorded and edited video of them playing.
What are super chats and Patreon? I hear that term a lot.
Super chats is a donation system that YouTube has. Twitch has a bits system and Twitch Prime. These allow you to fund your favorite streamer through donations, which they read out on screen. Patreon is a backer system for them to put out content. Their fans help pay for it long term, since monetization don’t always happen.
Do the FCC’s radio and television rules apply to streaming??
Kind of. YouTube is leaning toward the no provocative route for more ad friendly content. That means no adult content or swearing. Swearing can someitmes be allowed but it’s all situational.
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Former President Donald Trump during arraignment proceedings in New York.
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April 19
Noon - 12:30 p.m.
“I haven’t looked much into or decided what career that I want to go into after everything, but fashion is a huge interest of mine for right now,” Grimes said.
Amatullah Janine Scott has been interested in fashion since she was a child. That interest let to the launch of the Richland Fashion Club. Scott said was inspired to start the club after researching similar clubs that originated at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM).
One of the members of the Richland club is Je’Qwell Grimes, who has been a member for four months and is pursuing a science degree. Grimes decided to join the club because of his interest in fashion and his desire to participate as a way be more active and meet people.
Although Grimes is largely undecided about his future, he said the club provides a hand-on outlet for one of his current passions.
Nazik Yamout is another member of the group. She said that the club started slowly, but once the idea grew stronger, it took off to become what it is now.
As the organization grew, the members started fundraising activities. Selling bracelets is an activity used to raise money for events like the fashion show that occurred on April 6. During the show, members of the club and their guests modeled their upscaled creations. There were about 15 outfits that night, according to Yamout.
Grimes said his contribution to the show was a study in opposites. The first outfit consisted of black jeans, t-shirt and an embellished cropped jacket, which he said is “a lot
more true to my vision.” Grimes said that he visited the second-hand closet located in the campus food pantry, where he founded the items to complete the outfit.
“I [wanted] for one of my outfits to be like the exact opposite of that, and that’s why I had like the bright purple blazer and the orange pants,” Grimes said.
The Fashion Club holds meetings every other Thursday, and there are only two meetings remaining this semester. For the last meeting, members of the club will be decorating their own graduation caps. Most of the members are graduating this semester including Scott, but she is already looking to recruit and train more members to take over her project.
For more information about the club, email fashionclubrc@gmail.com.
i
Walk N’ Talk
E-082
April 20
11:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.
i Intramural Max Out Day
Guadalupe Hall
April 21
10 a.m. - noon
i Financial Aid Session
Tunderduck Hall T225
11:15 p.m. - 12:15 p.m.
i Intramural Basketball
Guadalupe Hall
April 26
11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
i APIDAHM & MENAW Cultural Celebration
El Paso Hall E070
“The Wizard” (1989) — Fred Savage of TV’s “Wonder Years” treks to Las Vegas for a big Nintendo convention. Talk about a dated movie. The selling point is an all-new power glove, which was the big promotion here. This one’s pretentious beyond belief.
“Super Mario Bros.” (1993) — John Leguizamo and the late Bob Hoskins are the plumbers who can fix anything in this dud of a flick that features the oncegreat, late Dennis Hopper chewing up scenes like he has an appetite beyond belief. With Samantha Mathis as the princess.
“Street Fighter” (1994) — Jean-Claude Van Damme had his star on the rise in this major letdown from “Die Hard” scribe Steven E. de Souza. The highlight for me was seeing Ming-Na Wen as Chun-Li.
“Pixels” (2015) — Here’s the start of Adam Sandler’s decline before he became a staple of the Netflix industry. This one has all the characters the audience know with Donkey Kong, Duck Hunt, Centipede and Joust.
“Ready Player One” (2018) — This one serves as a crossover in that this Steven Spielberg-directed tale incorporates a plethora of situations and charters in the denizens that are present throughout. This one has the first instance of an easter egg early on, for the 1979 game “Adventure” for the Atari 2600.
-Ricky Miller7:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
i ‘All in the Timing’
Fannin Hall F108
