by Craig Andresen
To hear Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg tell it, convening a grand jury to attempt to bring about an indictment for a crime that never occurred was all Donald Trump’s fault, and when that case crumbled like a house of cards in a Texas Tornado, well…that was all Donald Trump’s fault too.
According to a letter Bragg sent to members of congress last Thursday, March 23rd, “Your letter … is an unprecedented inquiry into a pending local prosecution. The letter only came after Donald Trump created a false expectation that he would be arrested the next day and his lawyers reportedly urged you to intervene.”
Let’s start with the simple stuff first.
Trump “created a false expectation that he would be arrested the next day” due to a leak from the office of Alvin Bragg indicating that an arrest was imminent, so there’s that, but what of the case itself? The grand jury was convened in January to examine whether or not Trump broke the law regarding a payoff to Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels, a porn star back in 2016 to keep her quiet regarding a supposed fling with Trump back in 2006.
There are so many problems with that case I hardly know where to start, but how about starting with the fact that the statute of limitations had long ago run out on a misdemeanor violation. While the statute of limitations would have been longer were the violation a felony…it wasn’t…but nonetheless, the statute of limitations regarding a felony violation had also run out. So, in order to try and extend the statute of limitations, Bragg contended that Trump left NY and couldn’t be found.
Did Trump leave NY? Yes, but between January 2017 and January 2021 he was pretty easy to find as he was living in the White House, so that argument just doest hold water.
Then there was Bragg’s attempt to turn the “crime” into a felony which took perhaps THE most convoluted thinking imaginable. Bragg claimed that Trump used campaign finances to reimburse Michael Cohen for paying off Stormy Daniels to the tune of $130,000 but even that gambit was fraught with idiocy. Doing so would have ONLY been a felony had Trump done the deed in order to cover up some OTHER crime…which according to Bragg was the use of campaign funds.
In other words, according to Alvin Bragg, Trump HAD to use campaign funds for the reimbursement in order to cover up the use of campaign funds for the reimbursement. That’s completely nuts.
After getting through that load of crap, we come to the fact that no previous NY DA was able to find a crime in either the payoff by Cohen OR the reimbursement by Trump, the Department of Justice couldn’t find such a crime and neither could the Federal Election Commission, and all of them right down the line declined to even try to prosecute Trump for a “crime” ALL of them said never happened.
Even after all of that, there sat Alvin Bragg trying to make a Manhattan case out of what would have been a federal case had any crime been committed…a case had he been successful in looping together all of the things necessary to turn a local misdemeanor into a federal felony he never would have had the jurisdiction to prosecute, nor would a Manhattan grand jury have had the jurisdiction to investigate.
So, let me now get into the case that Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg was essentially, illegally, trying to manufacture in the attempt to put handcuffs on a former President. In 2016, a porn star, Stormy Daniels asserted that she had a sexual fling with Donald Trump back in 2006. Michael Cohen, an attorney who was loosely, at best, working for Trump in small business dealings took it upon himself to negotiate a non-disclosure contract with the attorney for the porn star, and took out a personal loan in the amount of $130,000 to buy the porn star’s silence.
So far, no crime.
Then, sometime later, when Trump became aware of the situation, and after strongly denying that any such sexual encounter with the porn star ever took place to begin with, apparently, the Trump organization, not the Trump campaign, reimbursed Cohen for the $130,000.
No crime there either.
Somewhere around 2018, there was a falling out between Trump and Cohen as Cohen was caught up in his own scandals and was convicted of lying to a congressional committee about Trump, eventually ending with Cohen being sent to prison. As that case proceeded, it became well known that Cohen was a serial liar. Cohen did three years in federal prison and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine after pleading guilty to five counts of criminal tax evasion and campaign-finance violations. On February 26, 2019, he was disbarred from practicing law in the state of New York by the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division.
Wait a minute…COHEN committed campaign finance violations?
Yep, and while it would take way too long to go into the details, basically what happened was that Michael Cohen set up shell businesses to essentially launder payments to Stormy Daniels, and then the reimbursements back to himself and listed them for tax purposes as “campaign donations.” Here’s a link to the official FBI report concerning Michael Cohen that was used as evidence against Cohen at the trial that sent him to prison… https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/michael-cohen-pleads-guilty-manhattan-federal-court-eight-counts-including-criminal-tax
Well, there’s your crime right there.
So, what did the legal ignoramus and mental midget, Alvin Bragg do next? He made Michael Cohen his KEY WITNESS against Donald Trump. That’s right, Bragg, the Manhattan DA made Michael Cohen, the very guy who admitted and pled guilty to committing the very crime of finance law violations he’s trying to frame Trump with his KEY WITNESS against Trump.
But it didn’t stop there.
Bragg also hid more than 600 pages of exculpatory evidence from the grand jury INCLUDING the FBI document which can be read at the link I provided above. Along with hiding that evidence, Bragg ALSO hid from the grand jury HUNDREDS of emails between Cohen and his former legal advisor, Robert Costello, a former NY DA and attorney above reproach who, last week went to the grand jury and testified as to Bragg’s lack of character, his criminal history and the fact that Cohen is, in Costello’s words, a “serial liar.”
To be clear, that while attorneys for the defense are not allowed to present a case on behalf of a defendant, in this case, Donald Trump, by law, exculpatory evidence MUST be made available TO the grand jury, and Alvin Bragg intentionally HID the exculpatory evidence, evidence that would not only prove beyond a reasonable doubt, but beyond a SHADOW of a doubt that Donald Trump did NOT commit the crime that Bragg was attempting to indict him for.
Also hidden from the grand jury was a 2018 letter to the Federal Election Commission attempting to shield Cohen from being prosecuted for a federal campaign finance violation, the one he eventually pled guilty to, from none other than Alvin Bragg’s key witness against Trump, Michael Cohen’s lawyer Stephen Ryan stating that Cohen “used his own personal funds to facilitate a payment of $130,000” to porn star Stormy Daniels, and further stating, “Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed Mr. Cohen for the payment directly or indirectly.”
But the reality of it was, “As part of his guilty plea, Cohen admitted that he used a newly incorporated shell company to pay Daniels, then sought reimbursement from the Trump Organization for the full amount, plus a $35 wire fee and another $50,000 for tech work related to Trump’s campaign.”
“The total was doubled for tax purposes, and Cohen also received a $60,000 bonus, with the full amount of $420,000 paid to him in monthly installments for which he submitted invoices.”
That’s Bragg’s whole manufactured sham of a case against Donald Trump gone up in smoke right there.
By the way, intentionally hiding from or not producing to the grand jury such exculpatory evidence is in and of itself a crime.
If Bragg’s case against Donald Trump was the Titanic, Robert Costello was the iceberg.
Bragg needs to get the boot and Biden as w ell this is a clear witch hunt against Trump and all hose who oppose the Globalists plans of the United Nations
Bragg and his staff should absolutely be forced to appear before the House committee, under oath and with the expressed threat of prosecution for perjury, in order to determine whether this was coordinated with the White House to attack Trump’s candidacy.
Expect Bragg, though, to keep this phony case open so he can hide behind the lie that it is an “ongoing case” and he can’t discuss it. But, just as Herr Obergruppenfuhrer Garland was caught lying about declaring concerned parents “domestic terrorists”, not targeting conservatives as political enemies, that they aren’t giving abortion terrorists a pass while persecuting abortion opponents, the FBI didn’t suppress the Hunter laptop story or ordering US Marshals to stand down and arrest no leftists terrorizing Supreme Court Justices, it would be completely in fascist character to coordinate with and let useful big, fat idiot Bragg do the dirty work for the DNC. Yeah, this needs to be investigated.
Trump’s most serious problem isn’t paying hush money to a porn star; it’s election meddling, racketeering, and conspiracy charges in Georgia.
The is no credited evidence of any of your assertions. None of the cases under way have a snowballs chance in hell of convicting President Trump.
Those charges have as much substance as Bragg’s.
His biggest problem is whiny, crybabies that keep wasting his time and taxpayer’s money trying to prove their dominance. In the end, they prove they are morons, as if more proof is needed.
And Trump is supposed to just assume he’ll get fair treatment, justice and due process from unhinged, vindictive people like this.