Oh good God, the indictment is the worst **** any prosecutor could possibly squeeze out while sitting on a porta-potty. A first year law student would get a failing grade for this ****. Specifically, the alleged wrong is agreeing to pay $30,000 to a doorman (whose claim was false, never paid), $130,000 to pornstar and $150,00 to another woman (never paid), all of which purportedly violated campaign finance laws. Well, the two non-payments didn't of course but for some reason Bragg's asinine indictment includes the allegation. Huh, wonder why? Maybe for political reasons?? Noooo ...
The indictment alleges that the non-payments were going to be made (but never were) through American Media, which runs the National Enquirer. For some reason, the indictment refers to these non-payments. Uhhh ... not doing something is not a crime, Alvin.
The indictment suggests - but does not actually allege - some sort of campaign misdeeds in the payment to pornstar. Why is the campaign finance violation so important? Because the underlying statute of limitations (SOL) for that wrong is five years. But that would be a Federal crime in a Presidential election and the Feds have already declined to prosecute. Anyhoo, why is the underlying Federal non-crime important? Because the SOL for misclassifying payments/bookkeeping fraud is two years. Two, as in the number before three.
Which leads me to the allegation of actual alleged wrongdoing. This is word-for-word from the indictment:
On or about October 26, shortly after speaking with the Defendant on the phone, Lawyer A opened a bank account in Manhattan in the name of Essential Consultants LLC, a new shell company he had created to effectuate the payment. He then transferred $131,000 from his personal home equity line of credit (“HELOC”) into that account. On or about October 27, Lawyer A wired $130,000 from his Essential Consultants LLC account in New York to Lawyer B to suppress Woman 2’s account.
E. Post-Election Communications with AMI CEO
22. On November 8, 2016, the Defendant won the presidential election and became the President-Elect. Thereafter, AMI released both the doorman and Woman 1 from their non-disclosure agreements.23.
The Defendant was inaugurated as President on January 20, 2017. Between Election Day and Inauguration Day, during the period of the Defendant’s transition to his role as President, the Defendant met with the AMI CEO privately in Trump Tower in Manhattan. The Defendant thanked the AMI CEO for handling the stories of the Doorman and Woman 1, and invited the AMI CEO to the Inauguration. In the summer of 2017, the Defendant invited the AMI CEO to the White House for a dinner to thank him for his help during the campaign.
II. The Defendant Falsified Business Records
24. Shortly after being elected President, the Defendant arranged to reimburse Lawyer A for the payoff he made on the Defendant’s behalf. In or around January 2017, the TO ["Trump Office"] CFO and Lawyer A met to discuss how Lawyer A would be reimbursed for the money he paid to ensure Woman 2’s silence. The TO CFO asked Lawyer A to bring a copy of a bank statement for the Essential Consultants account showing the $130,000 payment
******* blowhard lawyers. "To effectuate the payment." You mean to pay? Then say so, jack@ss.
So Trump agreed to reimburse Cohen for the $180,000 actually spent ($130,000 for pornstar and $50,000 for Cohen's "expenses"), plus an additional $180,000 so that Cohen would have enough to declare the payments and pay taxes, plus a $60,000 "bonus," for a total of $420,000 in payments. The payments were made in 12 equal $35,000 increments, with the last payment made - according to the indictment - in December of 2017.
So, fellow law students, do we see two major problems here? Yeah, we do. First, the reimbursement plan was made as of January of 2017 - uhhh, wasn't the election over by then? Pretty sure it was. So no possible "election finance" violations are possible since there is no ******* election!
And hey, assuming for the sake of Alvin Bragg's XXXL jeans that some supposed campaign finance violation occurred (after there was no more campaign), then the last such action occurred in December of 2017. I am pretty sure - let me check, yeah, it is - that is more than five years before the indictment in 2023. I mean, I did not take common core math so I am using old-time figgerin' here but five years from December, 2017 would seem to run out December, 2022.
Oh, and get this - the indictment does NOT actually identify the alleged felony Trump committed and then used false bookkeeping to "cover up." Huh? You charge a crime and do not identify the crime on which the indictment is really based? I thought there was some Constitutional amendment about prosecutors being required to set out the charges against a defendant. Guess that does not apply to Orange Man Bad.
Garbage. Absolute, complete, total garbage. A bullshit abuse of policing power for political reasons. Bragg is the one who should wind up in jail.