Erick-Woods Erickson
There are many problems with the Trump trial, but let me focus on the basics.
Trump is, essentially, charged with documentation fraud — claiming payment for a past debt was a legal fee.
However, the statute of limitations is well past the time to charge Trump with that.
So, the New York District Attorney has decided to elevate the issue to a felony and get it within the statute of limitations.
To do this, Alvin Bragg has to accuse Trump of engaging in documentation fraud to hide an underlying crime. The underlying crime is a federal campaign finance violation. That violation is Trump paying off the porn star through his lawyer and failing to disclose it on his campaign finance forms because it was a campaign-related expense.
It was a campaign expense because if Trump had not paid off Stormy Daniels, she could have gone public and cost Trump the election. Yes, the left argues that the man who, on video, said he could grab women by their you-know-what would have been undone by this revelation.
The rule for a campaign expense is this: Would the transaction have still happened even if the candidate were not running for office? Trump’s wife had a prenuptial agreement. Trump would have had to pay her millions for adultery. So, even if Trump were not running for office, it is still very likely he would have had to pay Stormy Daniels.
Therefore, this was not a campaign finance violation. Therefore, there is no underlying felony. Therefore, there is no New York felony. Therefore, the case falls apart.
But, even if it were a campaign finance violation, federal law states that only the federal government can prosecute campaign finance violations. Neither the Federal Elections Commission nor the Department of Justice have chosen to prosecute or charge Trump, so Trump has not been found guilty of a federal campaign finance violation.
To repeat myself: therefore, this was not a campaign finance violation. Therefore, there is no underlying felony. Therefore, there is no New York felony. Therefore, the case falls apart.
This case concerns the Democrats getting their pound of flesh out of Donald Trump. Frankly, these are Donald Trump’s chickens coming home to roost. This case is flimsy, but Trump’s personal, professional, and political conduct have all collided with the Democrats and many ordinary non-political Americans, assured he’s done something bad. So prosecutors will find something with which to prosecute him.
The problem is that this is not how American justice is supposed to work. Just because Trump might have brought it on himself, the charges must fit. This case is a legal stretch by an overaggressive prosecutor who lets non-white murderers go free, but will stretch the law outside the bounds of justice to get an old white guy whose politics he hates.
Donald Trump’s superpower remains this: He causes others to act in the very ways they claim he acts. They claim Trump is a banana republic autocrat. They behave exactly as they claim he does.
