Embattled Manhattan District Attorney Bragg nearly set to indict Trump on charges that will never stick.
With crime in Manhattan on the rise since District Attorney Alvin Bragg's installation, it seems like keeping violent criminals off the streets isn't in the Woke Urban Prosecutor job description.
Instead, rumor has it Bragg is looking to distract people away from his terrible record by perp walking former President Trump for misdemeanor charges that will never stick.
Backstory
In 2016 since disgraced lawyer Michel Cohen paid $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels. Daniels was claiming she had an illicit affair with Trump, which Trump has denied. Cohen alleges Trump told him to pay her to keep her quiet.
Cohen paid his own money to Daniels through a shell company. Specifically, he secured the rights to her story and had her sign a non-disclosure agreement.
In 2018 the Feds used this to charge Cohen for violations of campaign finance laws. Not because the money came from the Trump campaign, but because the Feds interpreted the "hush money" as "unreported assistance to the Trump campaign."
(Cohen eventually plead guilty to those charges, and others. Then tried to backstab Trump and throw him under the bus, etc.)
After the 2016 election, Cohen billed the Trump Organization for reimbursement, plus $50,000. The Trump Organization then paid Cohen $420,000 over 12 months for legal expenses.
Trump's possible charges
So Trump's big indictment? A misdemeanor for "falsifying business records."
In other words, you can't claim "hush money reimbursement" as a legal expense. Apparently, there is some other accounting category it falls under.
Clearly, purchasing the legal rights to Daniel's story and procuring a signed Non-Disclosure Agreement required some lawyering. But apparently, when your lawyer goes out and does some lawyering it's not always a legal expense.
Likely Bragg will also try to get Trump on felony charges. To do so he would have to prove that Trump personally directed business records to be falsified in order to cover up another crime.
All of this is going to be practically impossible. Trump posted to his Truth Social account a document from Cohen's law firm essentially destroying the prosecution's entire timeline and case.
MAGA reacts
MAGA could not be more beside itself with joy over this revelation.
They believe a shoddy trumped-up indictment will supercharge Trump's 2024 bid and guarantee election.
Maybe it will! Trump has long positioned himself as an outsider entrenched against "the swamp" of government corruption. A Trump-in-handcuffs, full regalia perp-walk might just be perfect for his campaign.
If so, and if history repeats itself, Alvin Bragg will likely have to explain to Federal prosecutors why they shouldn't charge him with campaign finance violations for using taxpayer money to help Donald Trump win re-election.
And that is apparently a tough rap to beat.
