Guest Post by Alex Berenson
New York v Trump is a joke – 34 felonies for what comes down to misclassifying spending in a payment ledger – but the elite media is keeping a straight face.
This morning, I reread New York state’s 34-count felony indictment of Donald Trump – and the indictment’s accompanying “statement of facts.” I wanted to be sure the case was as bizarre as I remembered.
It was worse.
Donald Trump’s first criminal trial officially began today with opening statements in a lower Manhattan courthouse. That dry statement is true, as far as it goes. But it does not begin to capture the miscarriage of justice unfolding before our eyes – or the profound consequences it will have, whatever its outcome.
Yet the elite media has gone along with the charade, just as it did in the insane New York state civil trial of Trump that ended two months ago. Reporters have covered both cases as if they were normal uses of prosecutorial power, rather than explaining what is really happening in them and how bleeding-edge aggressive are the legal theories underlying them.
In the civil case, this meant articles that referred endlessly to the “fraud” Trump had committed while rarely stating clearly that he fully repaid the loans made to him and that the banks that made them did not consider themselves defrauded.
But what is happening in the criminal case is worse, because Trump faces the real possibility of prison time if he is convicted.
The media frequently refers to the case as a “hush money” trial, because it involves $130,000 in payments that Michael Cohen, a one-time lawyer for Trump, made to the adult-film actress Stormy Daniels in 2016 after Daniels threatened to expose an affair she had with Trump.
In reality, though, the payments are not at issue.
Cohen pled guilty in 2018 to federal charges of making an illegal campaign contribution on the $130,000 in payments – as well as concealing $4 million in taxable income and avoiding $1.3 million in tax – and was sentenced to three years in prison. Trump was not charged in that case.
Instead, he is being charged with violating New York state’s “business records” law by misclassifying $420,000 in payments to Cohen in 2017 as legal services, when in fact they were reimbursement for Cohen’s payment to Daniels and another $50,000 payment Cohen had made. (Those two payments totaled $180,000, which Trump’s top financial officer then doubled to $360,000 to account for the roughly 50 percent state and local tax rate Cohen would face on the money; the additional $60,000 was a “bonus” to Cohen.)
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(Read it and weep… and there are 33 more counts just like this one)
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Again, all 34 state criminal charges Trump faces relate to whether he and his company properly classified those $420,000 in payments.
So Trump is being charged with 34 felonies for referring to a payment a lawyer made on his behalf – IN HIS OWN RECORDS – as legal services. That’s it. Everything else is noise. Whether Trump had sex with Stormy Daniels is irrelevant. Whether she threatened him with exposure is irrelevant.
But falsifying business records is a misdemeanor, not a felony, in New York state, except in cases where the defendant falsified the records to commit or conceal another crime. Bragg didn’t charge Trump with a second crime, or even specify in the indictment what it was.
In their opening statements Monday morning, prosecutors finally settled – sort of – on an underlying crime, accusing Trump of a “criminal conspiracy” to “promote” his election by hiding the payments. In other words, he was running for President and trying to win.
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To say the least, this theory has some holes legally.
But it has an even bigger hole factually. The heart of the underlying crime – the reason that the case is being charged as a felony – is that Trump supposedly engaged in a “conspiracy” to win election.
BUT TRUMP IS NOT BEING CHARGED FOR ANYTHING THAT HAPPENED IN 2016. He’s charged for misclassifying the repayments he made to Cohen in 2017.
And in 2017, at the time of the payments to Cohen, Donald Trump had already beaten Hillary Clinton. He was president of the United States. He didn’t need to engage in a conspiracy to win the 2016 election. He COULD NOT engage in a conspiracy to win the 2016 election, not without a time-travel machine, which is not mentioned in the indictment.
The prosecutors have worked feverishly to get around this little problem using two legal strategies known as finding a really favorable jury and throwing stuff against a wall in the hope it sticks. Lucky them, they have a judge who seems to see the case – and more importantly, the defendant – the same way they do.
The real tragedy here is that the other criminal cases against Trump are significantly stronger than this one. By which I mean that at the least they are not laughable.
But this case is likely to be the only one to be tried before Election Day.
And so the world – at least that part of the world that’s paid any attention to the charges underlying the case – will be confronted with the spectacle of the leading opposition candidate for President being hamstrung and hauled into court twice by prosecutors affiliated with the ruling party in cases that – at the least – stink of selective prosecution.
If this isn’t lawfare, I don’t know what is.
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Prosecute Trump for continuing to crow about Warp Speed:
(From https://www.globalresearch.ca/)
TDS goes both ways, eh, DVtard?
Doesn’t matter if you love Trump of hate him, this is just wrong. If you support the lawfare you are an idiot and deserve what is coming. If you support Biden you are an even greater idiot.
Biden’s $7.3 trillion budget for the 2025 fiscal year − a 4.7% increase over the current budget
That will be the death knell of the USA. 4 years of that is almost 30 trillion. Just about doubling the national debt. And that is a low estimate as you know it will still go up every year of his term if he somehow gets back in.
F Biden and supporting Trump is idiotic as well.
Absorb this:
https://manhattan.institute/article/trumps-fiscal-legacy-a-comprehensive-overview-of-spending-taxes-and-deficits
Donald Trump, leader of the fiscally responsible “party”. Donald Trump, in reality a big spender.
TEST
TSET
ETST
This is theater people, you know it.
DJT isn’t going anywhere that hasn’t been agreed to in advance in order to promote the narrative.
Watch the last minute save that keeps him out of jail, just like all those government shutdowns that go down to the wire.
Isn’t it exciting?
Oh the drama of living in merca !
They hate us because of our drama.
Whelp, the unhinged frothing-at-the-mouth actors sure are convincing.
Especially the Deep State negroes in starring roles.
They actually seem to be terrified of Orange Man Bad regaining power.
“This is theater people”
Poor Donnie. While many humans are concerned with “me”, Donnie brings the “me” concept to nauseating levels. Yes theater. Folks like Donnie thrive on it. And the American public is held captive by his nonsense.
Then again, mommy did say little Donnie can do no wrong. barf
If you are a White, Christian gun owning Constitutionalist…well, you too will get equal justice under lawfare…it’s either bankruptcy, prison or pleading to a crime you didn’t commit.
The Dept. of Just Us protects their friends and the Dept. of Justice persecutes their enemies.
An accurate article – thanks.
All I know is mommy said little Donnie can do no wrong.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-called-this-visa-very-bad-for-americans-truth-social-applied-for-one-a0f8ad54?mod=mw_latestnews
“First of all, I think and I know the H-1B very well. And it’s something that I frankly use and I shouldn’t be allowed to use it. We shouldn’t have it,” he said. “Second of all, I think it’s very important to say, well, I’m a businessman and I have to do what I have to do.”