Beyond the Headlines in the leaked Trump Indictment - Summary
Shorter summary
A related and somewhat easier to read version of Part I here:
What is not being reported:
"Hush Money" (an NDA agreement) is not illegal.
Neither is sex (yes even between a man & a woman believe it or not).
Prosecutors first hoped Trump had paid with campaign money, to accuse him of paying a personal expense with camping funds.
When it turned out not to be the case, the campaign did not pay, they tried to inverse the accusation. A (now) "campaign expense" paid by personal money is technically a campaign contribution, to be declared (though it would be an absurd & unprecedented indictment. Who gets charged for paying something with their own money?)
When they then found out that the expense was neither paid by the campaign nor personally, derailing their nimble "either way" prosecution, as it was paid by attorney Cohen, they pivoted again, stretching the law beyond reason.
If Trump attorney Cohen paid for it himself, we can assume he was reimbursed in his legal fees. These were recorded as "Legal Fees" obviously by the Trump Organization. The NY DA will contend that this is mislabeled as $130k should read an absurd "hush money payment to porn star" instead.
Such an error in business records is a misdemeanor in New York. But before political inquisitor Alvin Bragg can bootstrap this into 34 felonies, there are wide & tall walls to breach. The misdemeanor is passed the statute of limitations (2 years). Then even the second degree class A misdemeanor requires an intent to defraud.
(BTW how dare the NY legislature assume the culprit is a man, and assume his pronoun "he"). A simple (& very arguable) error or false entry is not itself even a misdemeanor.
So to successfully charge Trump with this misdemeanor, they would need a time machine (for the statute of limitations), and to prove beyond the reasonable doubt that calling the legal expense, a "legal expense" was somehow with the intent to defraud someone which it wasn't, and then finally after all that prove that it was Trump himself who did so (or order so) as opposed to any one of his many employees, consultants, accountants or attorneys. Laughable.
But instead, if leaked sources are correct (itself a felony on the part of the DA’s office), we will be seeing this turn into dozens (reportedly up to 34) felony counts.
All from a non-existent crime based on a state statute whose criminal requirements are not remotely met, and which is well passed its statute of limitations.
People saying that "no one should be above the law" should be realizing that no one's rights ought to be under it either.
Trump does not need need any of this. A billionaire in his 70s with a beautiful wife and loving family. But if the left can do this to him... imagine what the entrenched state and leftist interests can do to the average US citizen. Any American patriot should be very concerned.
Suggest now reading “Part II” here:
Have started to hear some folks, including Dershowitz and here Byron York, quoting the WSJ, mention some of the same points as I found:
Update After Reading Indictment:
(Originally posted here: https://x.com/ZimermanErik/status/1643362007809138690)
I cannot believe how little there really is there. At first glance, 34 repeated counts due to 34 pieces of paper (mostly invoices by & checks to attorney Cohen).
Cohen obviously wrote his own invoices, rather than Trump. He (or his organization) just paid them. A check doesn’t say much, just a payment order.
Still a count per invoice and a count per check, haha! Incredible.
In my previous analysis I imagined they might have something else up their sleeve or add conspiracy & obstruction, at least some tax issues. Nothing. As little as I wrote it would be, even less.
It would be literally comical if it wasn’t so sad.
The indictment makes no attempt to explain how the misdemeanor (passed the 2 year statute of limitations) is being pushed up to a felony.
This requires that the “false” business record be made in order to defraud (no explanation of how nor who is being defrauded), and to aid in the execution of another crime.
We guessed that this second made up crime would be based on campaign finance law (though the Feds earlier declined to prosecute in this case) but there is again no attempt to explain it nor even name the other crime (thus keeping it flexible for them I suppose).
Amazing stuff.
Where are the GOP state DAs? Have at it.
At least let’s see a daring NY upstate DA prosecute the actual felony of leaking the number of counts by DA Bragg’s office.
This weaponization of the prosecuting arms of government which Democrats have started, obviously will get worse, and backfire even harder on the Democrats (who tend to actually commit crimes, habituated to a certain level of immunity due to their control of the media, Fed & State bureaucracy, and academia); at least before it gets any better.