The thing is, paying off people to keep them from saying things you want to keep private isn’t a crime. It’s more of a crime to be the one getting paid, if you’re extorting them (as opposed to just deciding to keep quiet in appreciation of their “generous donation”). What makes this a crime is that he paid her off to keep her from interfering in the election, which is an election finance crime (usually a misdemeanor), and that he tried to hide it by paying Michael Cohen back under the false pretense of “legal fees”. But how to prove that he didn’t just want to keep her quiet so Melania wouldn’t find out, which is legal? How to prove that it wasn’t Michael Cohen’s idea to pay her (after all, he went to jail for it) and Trump just paid him back for it because he’s a nice guy (ha!!)? How to prove he used campaign funds instead of his own personal money?
The other cases against him have much, much more evidence of specific crimes, no need to convince anyone of motive or state of mind.
DavidNRockies posted a really good explanation above.
Everyone is entitled to be considered innocent until proven guilty, and in that sense, I like your post.
Alvin Bragg is at least as much an expert here as the lawyers who think that the likely coming Trump indictment will be a weak one. So I don’t rule out the case against DJT being weak, just as I don’t rule out it being strong.
What I don’t like is the idea that it’s important to punish DJT. I’m fine with justice being pursued here, but I don’t see any predicable political impact or benefit.
The situations are very different, but the Netanyahu prosecution does not seem to have done Israeli politics anything good.
So at the moment, Trump is calling for “PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!”
What happens if he goes totally off the deep end, and starts calling publicly for violence, overthrow of government institutions and attacking the police?
He’d never say that explicitly, and he had no need to. His disciples know the score. He has given them permission and encouragement to “protest”. They’ll take it from there. Stand back and stand by.
Since we don’t know what the specific evidence is, we’re allowed to speculate, right?
Assuming Alvin Bragg does have what he considers sufficient evidence, why not speculate he has testimony from Melania (perhaps from the tax evasion cases) where she admits that she was well aware of the affair with Stormy? Would that provide evidence “beyond a reasonable doubt” that the cover-up money was paid to protect his election campaign, and not to keep her from finding out since she already knew? (Of course, to believe that Trump wanted to keep Melania from finding out, you would have to assume that Trump actually cared if Melania found out, which I would find hard to believe)
Melania’s parents lived in the White House. This suggests to me that she has a good deal of power in the relationship, and that DJT wouldn’t want the brief affair to come out for family reasons, in addition to political ones.
But if your point is that there’s a good chance Alvin Bragg knows his business here, I agree.
As already noted, he does that a lot, frequently referring to himself as “Trump”. It’s basically like the royal “we”, except taken up another notch. In Trump’s world, it’s not ridiculous at all. Because he’s not mere royalty, he’s a demi-god.
And I see that the demi-god is calling for violence again. Even my dog learns quickly from past experience; idiots apparently learn nothing.
I’ve always believed that sending out the National Guard to start a civil war on behalf of a criminal is exactly the kind of credential that every aspiring presidential candidate should have! .
There are some interesting political dilemmas here for DeSantis: would support of Trump of whatever kind burnish his image with the MAGAites should he be nominated, or would it hurt him in the general, either from his image to independents or simply by helping a political rival? Would a Trump arrest/conviction make him look like a saner choice, or would it hurt the Republican brand generally more? Would helping Trump actually hurt him with current establishment backers who are trying to run away from 45? I’m guessing that DeSantis wants to stay out of this as much as possible, so seeing the demands on him are delighting.
Speculating here, but is it possible that the reason Trump announced a Tuesday arrest is because his lawyers tried quietly arranging for him to get processed on that day.
Meaning, maybe the prosecutors reached out to his lawyers and basically said “look, we expect that an indictment is getting issued Monday, so if Trump wants to come down on Tuesday to get photographed and fingerprinted we don’t need to make any fuss or cause a scene” and, upon hearing about this arrangement, Trump decided to engender a big fuss and scene.
I’d also remind everybody that John Edwards (John Kerry’s former running mate) went to trial on very similar issues (I.e. using campaign money to pay off a mistress), but was acquitted after the jury deadlocked on most issues. If Trump goes a similar route, can you imagine the chaotic political landscape that will result?
Of course, nobody should be run over by a car; however, there is a bit of irony that the “patriot moat” protestors could be legally run over much easier thanks to DeSantis.
