By Belen Avelar
NEW YORK, NY – A report released by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., Tuesday announced former U.S. President Donald J. Trump, 76, was being charged by the New York State Supreme Court in a 34-Count Felony Indictment for falsifying New York Business records and his involvement in the unlawful activity during the 2016 presidential election.
According to District Attorney Bragg, from August 2015 to December 2017, “Trump orchestrated a ‘catch and kill’ scheme through a series of payments that he then concealed through months of false business entries,” as stated in the court record documents and statements.
In addition, it was noted in the report Donald J. Trump did not act alone and received help to obtain false entries and boost his electoral election to the point where Trump had to take serious measures to conceal his criminal activity. As a result, Trump’s actions led to violations of both state and federal election laws, said the Manhattan DA.
The series of unlawful schemes noted, in one instance, included that “the American Media, Inc. (‘AMI’), paid $30,000 to a former Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have a story about a child Trump had out of wedlock.”
DA Bragg said American Media, Inc., was also involved in another instance where they paid a woman “$150,000 who alleged she had a sexual relationship with Trump.”
It was then noted in the report that Trump wanted to reimburse AMI in cash, but AMI declined to accept the reimbursement after discussing it with Trump’s Special Counsel.
Bragg’s report said AMI confessed later to their unlawful conduct with federal prosecutors, admitting it had made false entries in the business records involving the true reason behind the $150,000 payment.
Moreover, in the report, District Attorney Bragg said, “12 days before the presidential general election – the Special Counsel wired $130,000 to an attorney for an adult film actress.”
Bragg added that, as a result of the Special Counsel wiring of that amount of money, it was discovered it was sent through a shell corporation that was funded through a bank in Manhattan.
The report noted, “Special Counsel pleaded guilty and served time in prison for the involvement behind the illegal campaign contribution.”
In Trump’s presidential election, after the unlawful schemes, the report stated that the series of monthly checks made were from Trump’s Organization and were all signed by Trump and “were illegally disguised as a payment for legal services pursuant to a non-existent retainer agreement.
“In total, 34 false entries were made in New York Business records to conceal the initial covert of $130,000 payment,” stated by District Attorney Bragg.
According to Bragg, “the People of the State of New York allege that Donald J. Trump repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal crimes that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.”
Added Bragg, “Manhattan is home to the country’s most significant business market. We cannot allow New York businesses to manipulate their records to cover up criminal conduct.
“As the statement of facts described, the trail of money and lies exposes a pattern that, the People allege, violates one of New York’s basic and fundamental business laws. As this office has done time and time again, we today uphold our solemn responsibility to ensure that everyone stands equal before the law.”
This is fantastic news. Indict, prosecute, convict, sentence and imprison. No one is above the law! That’s the American criminal justice system. ?
Nothing but a politically driven witch hunt that are found in many banana republics. Democrats should hang their heads in shame over this.
Yeah I mean it should be perfectly lawful to pay a porn star hush money to keep her quiet over an affair, and then lie about it in business and other filings to conceal it.
Analysis: A Surprise Accusation Bolsters a Risky Case Against Trump
It turns out the pundits were wrong about the legal basis for the charges. And they also don’t know what evidence the DA’s office has either.
Personally I would be very careful with the “banana republic” stuff, the January 6 insurrection and attempts to hold onto power are right out of banana republic. Everyone is focused on this case, but what happens if he faces indictments based on January 6, Georgia and Mar Lago too?
This may all play well to the base of the Republican party, but I would certainly not defend any of it until all the cards are on the table. I don’t know how this plays out. I suggest you hold off on this line until we see what else drops.
The trial is set to begin at the start of the GOP primary season. Do you think that is by coincidence.? If you do I have some swamp land for sale.
Here’s and opinion by an NBC legal analyst, hardly a conservative news network:
Cevallos stated, “New York has a law, falsification of business records, it’s ordinarily a misdemeanor…New York law allows that to become a felony if the false entry was also in furtherance of or to conceal a crime. It doesn’t say what specific crime. And, in fact, it’s pretty vague what kinds of crimes qualify. For a while, a lot of us talked about, well, can they use a federal crime? Because states cannot enforce federal law. Well, what we learned today is that Alvin Bragg instead used a New York law, a New York election law, which is a misdemeanor. Very interesting, because Alvin Bragg used a misdemeanor, added a misdemeanor to it, and got a felony.”
He added that the law doesn’t “ordinarily” work like this and the language of the statute is critical. Cevallos continued, “Now, a lot of folks see criminal statutes and they think, oh, well, whoever made that, whoever enacted that knew what they were doing. It’s not always the case. … And sometimes statutes are struck down because they’re not well written. I think this is one of those laws, because I don’t think the legislators thought ahead as to how or what crimes would be appropriate and whether or not you even need to prove that second crime in order to bump it up to a felony.”
https://yournews.com/2023/04/05/2548378/nbcs-cevallos-bragg-is-using-a-poorly-written-statute-to/
The only things that really matter in criminal trials are the judges and juries directly involved, not any legal pundits no matter who they be. End of story.
How many millions have been spent by DA Bragg and NY going after Trump for paying off hush money and what amounts to misdemeanors even if they are truly crimes? Some estimates are coming in the hundred$ of million$ when you count Bragg’s dept. and the safety and lockdown of NY cost$. It’s ridiculous, millions on millions going after Trump in an attempt to try and stack misdemeanors in order try to make it a felony which most legal experts say is a huge stretch. So you think that’s not political from a DA that campaigned and ran for office promising to go after Trump.
How about the untold millions being spent as we speak in the U.S. House of Representatives by you guessed it, Republicans!
So I ask you David, do you feel the tens if not hundreds of millions spent going after misdemeanors while questionably trying to upgrade them to a felony over hush money is money well spent? Would DA Bragg have spent all this time and money going after any other citizen over this case? I think you know the answer to that and that’s why it’s a total political witch hunt and nothing more.
I guess you could if you view this case as an isolated incident rather than a pattern of abuse.
That’s not how the justice systems works.
If it did work that way, past criminal history would be allowed as “evidence” in all trials.
I believe it can be a factor in sentencing (post-conviction), if a defendant has engaged in proven criminal conduct in the past.
Or in this case, political motivations seemingly-used to “trump up” charges in the first place (pun intended).
Regarding a “pattern”, any other allegations (which may be more serious than this) have to be tried separately.
The current allegations stem from the time prior to Trump’s election, and have not been pursued by any other prosecutorial entity – including the former or current attorney general.
“That’s not how the justice systems works.”
The arguments made by Keith were extra legal. He argued that the crime was not worth the amount of money to prosecute the crime – hence my response about the pattern of abuse and potential for future patterns of abuse as a justification for the expenditure of resources in this case as opposed to what would be spent in a typical misdemeanor case that warrants a plea agreement.
Moreover, you are not correct on how the system works. A prosecutor is in fact more likely to charge crimes for people who show a pattern of behavior than for people who don’t and they are more likely to charge more serious crimes for that.
Actually, what you’re pointing out (below) is that the prosecutor is pursuing these charges due to “extra legal” perceptions. Trump hasn’t been convicted of any crimes in the first place.
So, the perceived “pattern of behavior” in this case is “outside” of the legal system.
It’s (supposedly) based upon a “belief” regarding other crimes which haven’t even been presented in a court of law, much less resulted in any type of prior conviction.
There’s another word for this: “bias” – most likely political in nature. Or, based upon some other perceived “pattern of behavior” which isn’t based upon any conviction, under any law.
Or maybe he just doesn’t like the guy – again, a bias. Or didn’t like his TV show, his wealth, etc.
Now, if you want to say that bias exists (regarding bringing charges, in general) – of that, I have no doubt. Especially in regard to famous, or infamous people.
Ron, what this comes down to is the left doesn’t like Trump so whatever trumped up charges can be brought against him are okay in the eyes of the left. In other words, a biased political witch hunt.
This is exactly the type of case that I feel David would normally be railing against as an abuse of power in the DA’s office. IMO he would also be arguing that this case is a complete waste of taxpayer funds.
Though, I guess the argument can be put forth that the current allegations consist of a “pattern of behavior”.
But my gut tells me all of this is more politically-motivated, based upon other factors surrounding it.
Regardless of how one views it, the “entertainment factor” is definitely there. Even better than inviting conservative speakers onto campus, and watching both sides fight (without convincing anyone of anything). And in that light, I so hope that Trump wins the Republican nomination.
I don’t take much of any of this very seriously, as you can tell. First, I’d have to care, I guess.
You mean like the singularly Republican witch hunts currently going on in almost every red state in America! [edited]
So David, a question, with all the time and money spent do you think this will ever actually go to trial?
Or does it all end up being a colossal waste of money?
97 percent of all cases settle out before going to trial. The question is whether there will be a resolution. Waste of money is an eye of beholder issue.
Ha, I’ll remember you said this when you complain about DA Reisig wasting money and time on many of his cases.
Do you believe that the determination of “waste of money” should be outcome based?
Really so you believe that a President allegedly paying hush money to a porn star to conceal an affair and then falsifying his business records is somehow comparable to a DA charging a man with 70 counts of allowing his goats to wander off his property?
Since you asked me both cases are a joke. But I must ask, where did the goats go?
I will gladly take up the banner of harshly criticizing Reisig every time he wastes taxpayer funds.
Well then you should really be harshly criticizing DA Bragg for wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayer funds over this nothing political witch hunt case about Trump.
You believe that Trump broke no laws here?
If he did it’s only misdemeanors as most legal analysts agree.
Is that worth spending hundreds of millions of dollars to litigate?
It’s interesting to note that according to the Washington Post, Trump’s election fraud claims cost the taxpayers $500 million. Link
How do you get to hundreds of millions for this prosecution? But more importantly, how do you determine what it’s worth? The totality of the threat to the system in my view is immense and this is one of piece of that.
All 34 charges state: “with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof.”
The ‘other’ crime is not identified but the complaint states that the purpose was “to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.”
In the press release, the DA stated that these were “attempts to violate state and federal election laws.” This is what makes this unlike any other “business records” violations a DA would typically prosecute.
There is no evidence about the cost of these investigations and prosecutions anywhere. Any specific number or range of dollar costs is just being made up.
We’re talking about this case that is being charged by DA Bragg. So what’s all this “totality of the threat to the system in my view is immense”? This is a case about NDA hush money paid to a stripper and the possible misdemeanors to hide the payments. So that’s a threat to the system? As a justice blogger you should know that other cases don’t matter or count, it’s about DA Bragg’s case being brought to court here. You are really spinning and twisting to try and make this case sound worse than it actually is.
“We’re talking about this case that is being charged by DA Bragg.”
We are indeed. But guess what, charging decisions are discretionary by the prosecutor. They decide whether to charge and what to charge people with. One of the factors on whether to charge is the severity of the charges. On the other hand, another factor is a totality of the circumstances. The Treasury Department couldn’t charge Capone with murder, so they charged him with tax evasion. The FBI/ Justice Department couldn’t charge the Mississippi Burning defendants with murder, so they charged them with civil rights violations.
But you are also playing a bit fast loose with this notion of political charges. Basically he committed a form of election fraud here. Just as he is accused of insurrection in attempting to over turn the results of the election in DC and attempting to overturn or interfere with the election in Georgia. It seems like a pattern of behavior that is very dangerous to the Republic. And yes, that is political by definition.
Finally there is evidence that you and other Republicans are ignoring a potential crime because it’s Trump even as you attempt to argue the inverse to be the case.
A poll a few weeks ago found… (as reported by the Washington Post)
The Rolling Stone? Seriously?
The author of the op-ed is in addition to a free lance writer, also a Rabbi. That’s kind of interesting.
I was always a fan of Hunter S. Thompson and some of the journalism that Rolling Stone has done over the years.
The Rolling Stone is a far left publication. So I’m not too surprised that you are a fan.
https://www.allsides.com/news-source/rolling-stone
Too bad you don’t like Rolling Stone’s political coverage. I don’t really care what you like or don’t like Mr. Olsen.
Rolling Stone’s political coverage is just as valid as NewsMax’s and Fox News’ coverage.