March 31, 2023
The Trump Indictment: Making History in the Worst Possible Way
There is a report of34 countsagainst former President Donald Trump, which may becount stackingbased on individual payments or documents.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has finally made history. He has indicted former President Donald Trump as part of an investigation, possibly for hush money payments.
The only crime that has been discussed in this case is an unprecedented attempt to revive a misdemeanor for falsifying business documents that expired years ago. If that is still the basis of Thursday’s indictment, Bragg could not have raised a weaker basis to prosecute a former president. If reports are accurate, he may attempt to “bootstrap” the misdemeanor into a felony by alleging an effort to evade federal election charges.
While Trump will be thefirst former president indicted, he will not be the lastif that is the standard for prosecution. BOOM!
It is still hard to believe that Bragg would primarily proceed on such a basis.What we do know is the checkered history leading to this moment.
The Justice Department went down this road before and it did not go well. They tried to prosecute former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards on stronger grounds and failed. The prosecution still collapsed. The reason is that you need to show thesole purposefor paying hush money in such a scandal.
Various presidents from Warren Harding to Bill Clinton have been involved in efforts to hush up affairs. Showing that Trump only acted with the future election in mind — rather than his current marriage or television contracts — is implausible.
That is also why the use of the “bootstrapping” theory as the primary charge would be an indictment of the prosecution and its own conduct.
When Bragg initially balked at this theory and stopped the investigation, two prosecutors, Carey R. Dunne and Mark F. Pomerantz, resigned from the Manhattan DA’s office.Pomerantzthen did something that some of us view as a highly unprofessional and improper act. Hepublished a bookon the case against Trump — a person who was still under investigation and not charged, let alone convicted, of any crime.
It worked. Bragg ran on his pledge to bag Trump and Pomerantz ramped up the political base to demand an indictment for a crime. It really did not matter what that crime might be.
Finally, Bragg couldstackmultiple falsification claims to ramp up the indictment. There are reports of 34 counts of business record falsification. Serial repetition is no substitute for viable criminal charges. If Bragg moves primarily on that bootstrapping theory, the Democrats are invitinga race to the bottom in political prosecutions. That is something that we have been able to largely avoid in this country.
Bragg had a choice to make. He cannot be the defender of the rule of law if he is using the legal process for political purposes. That is what would be involved in a formal accusation based largely on the bootstrap theory. The underlying misdemeanor could pale in comparison to the means being used to prosecute it.
What is clear is that whatever comes out of that gate next week,it will not just be Trump who will face the judgment of history.BOOM Again!
(Bragg, even bringing this case, but if he wins, he has opened the door of prior presidents and all democrats misdeeds, and they can, or will be targeted, and potentially prosecuted!)
https://jonathanturley.org/2023/03/31/the-trump-indictment-making-history-in-the-worst-possible-way/