by The Judicial Watch
The Trump prosecution rested its case Monday with a central question unanswered: where’s the crime?
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has been dancing around the question for months. The prosecution produced a cacophony of tawdry testimony from a porn star (Stormy Daniels) and a former Trump aide turned convicted felon turned cooperating witness (Michael Cohen) but their claims had little to do with the allegations at the center of the case. Trump is charged with thirty-four felony counts of falsifying business records, generally a low-level misdemeanor. But New York state law elevates the misdemeanor charge to a felony if the defendant’s “intent to defraud includes an intent to commit another crime,” and that’s where Bragg has placed his big bet.
That other crime? Bragg insists he doesn’t have to name it. The “law does not so require,” he said at a news conference announcing the indictment—and in a court filing he doubled down, citing a legal finding that there is “no requirement” to “establish what particular crime was intended.” Good luck putting that one past a jury of New Yorkers.
Bragg has offered several theories of “another crime.”
“The primary crime we have alleged is New York state election law section 17-152,” a Bragg prosecutor told the court in the opening days of the trial. “The entire case is predicated on the idea that there was a conspiracy to influence the election in 2016.”
But Trump is not charged with an election law violation, and Bragg is on shaky legal ground with a 17-152 prosecution. A Washington Post search revealed only three prosecutions in forty-five years for violation of the statute. In one case, the defendant was acquitted; in the two others, charges were dropped.
Bragg also has suggested Trump violated federal campaign finance laws. In a court filing, Bragg alleged that Trump violated the federal Election Campaign Act by purchasing and suppressing “damaging information” from porn star Stormy Daniels. Other prosecutors have looked at this attempt to stretch a state charge to include a federal crime with skepticism. Both Bragg’s predecessor as Manhattan DA, Cy Vance, and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York declined to charge Trump in the case.
Mark Pomerantz, a senior Vance prosecutor who resigned after differences with Bragg on Trump prosecutions, is dismissive of the state-federal gambit. In his book, “People vs. Donald Trump,” Pomerantz writes that the DA’s office spent a lot of time on the “gnarly legal question” of whether the “other crime” clause on the New York state books could be expanded to cover a federal crime. The issue has “never been litigated,” Pomerantz notes, and “no one could predict with certainty how an appellate court might eventually rule.”
Bragg’s third “another crime” gambit is perhaps the strangest: tax fraud. In a “Statement of Facts” accompanying the Trump indictment, Bragg suggests that Trump violated New York tax laws by conspiring with Michael Cohen to file a fraudulent tax return “that mischaracterized, for tax purposes, the true nature of the payments made in furtherance of the scheme” to buy the silence of Stormy Daniels. Cohen, according to Bragg, paid Stormy Daniels $130,000. But Trump repaid Cohen $420,000. Why? According to the DA, so Cohen could then “characterize the payment as income on his tax returns, instead of a reimbursement,” leaving Cohen with a tidy $180,000 profit.
Jacob Sullum notes in Reason: if “Cohen mischaracterized a reimbursement as income on state or city tax forms, that would be a peculiar sort of fraud, since the effect would be to increase his tax liability. This theory of ‘another crime’ requires jurors to accept the proposition that tax fraud can entail paying the government more than was actually owed.”
Again, I am currently reading The Implosion Conspiracy, which is an account of the Rosenberg trial. The subject is not related but the author goes into great detail of how that judge controlled the trial and paid special attention to making sure nothing occurred that would cause a mistrial or cause for appeal. Compared to how that trial was conducted, this one is an utter joke. Merchan and fat turd Bragg don’t care if this is thrown out on appeal, they just want to inflict as much damage on Trump as they possibly can.
He’ll definitely run as a Democrat. He exhibits all the traits they absolutely love.
Thursday Trump with hold a rally in the South Bronx. Should be interesting to see the turnout after Wildwood NJ.
A complete train wreck. How will the corrupt judge instruct the jury given a; the prosecution did not prove there was a crime and b; Trump has never been informed of the actual crime. This whacked out trial in nothing more than election interference.
05/20/24 – Trump Campaign Vows To Sue ‘The Apprentice’ Filmmakers Over Scene Of Ivanka Trump Rape By Then Real Estate Mogul
Biden says he was VP during covid.
https://thepostmillennial.com/cnn-legal-analyst-says-michael-cohen-stealing-from-trump-org-is-a-more-serious-crime-than-trumps-alleged-falsification-of-business-docs
05/20/24 – Donald Trump Origin Tale ‘The Apprentice’ Gets 11-Minute Ovation At Its Cannes World Premiere
If Trump wins his law suit, maybe he can have all copies of the film buried alongside Ivana on his golf course.
You really are scum, Comrade Greggie.
Only scum would criticize where children decide to bury their mother.
I’m sure they visit the weed patch regularly.
A family of billionaires can’t afford occasional upkeep? We apparently have different ideas about what is disgraceful.
Where did you bury your mother, Comrade Greggie?
Or did you just throw her in a bar ditch for the highway department to pick up?
You are what you are, and I, thankfully, am not.
Go jump into the Briar Pach you Dweeb
Another one of your comments that are totally lacking in meaning.
If you don’t like being insulted, don’t insult others.
Soros Gates and Schwabe they all want to control our life their the real life versions of the Terrible Three Vulture, Shark and Fox
Is this in response to Hunter making Robin Ware/Robert L. Peters/JRB Ware/Pedo Peter/idiot Biden a cuckold?
USA Today — Biden needs to drop out of race.
Loyyd Austin — We will continue sending weapons to Ukraine, even though they can not win.
Former DOJ Official Says Judge Merchan Being so Obviously Biased Against Trump Could “Backfire” on Alvin Bragg
Get a Life Rosebud
We have a BINGO.
A Trump Conviction Depends on Proving More Than a Hush-Money Coverup
https://polymarket.com/event/presidential-election-winner-2024/will-donald-trump-win-the-2024-us-presidential-election?tid=1713299201740
The actual support is understated. If it was known how abysmal bidens numbers actually are, the democrat vote would be less than 20 million.
You mean, just like 2020?
So, you bring a court case against the leading candidate in opposition to the party in power and there are, naturally, a crescendo of accusations of political lawfare and you won’t actually NAME the crime because you “don’t have to”? Yeah, that really reassures me that they definitely really believe Trump committed a crime. Sure.
In reading through the comments thus far, I can’t help but notice that no one, including Greg, comes forth and states, “Are you BLIND? The crime is…yada, yada, yada!” So, obviously, EVERYONE agrees this is nothing but leftist fascist lawfare political bullshit.
There was no Welcome mat for Biden in New Hamshire