Denying The Denials

"[You are acceding to pressure from] left-wing activists and former prosecutors in your office."

Moreover, you are apparently attempting to upgrade a misdemeanor charge to a felony using an untested legal theory."

Republican Jim Jordan James Comer, Bryan Steil letter to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg

 "It's a very sad time for America to go through what we're going through now. People are being divided, and they think that justice might be biased."

"We have to make sure that we wait to see what comes out next week, and I hope they do their job. And I’ve said this, no one's above the law, but no one should be targeted by the law, especially through the political process."

"So we'll just wait and see next week. I hope they are very thorough."

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va

New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg had been investigating former President Donald Trump for alleged hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. (Shane Bevel/NCAA Photos via Getty Images | Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The disintegration of non-partisan cooperation and mutual respect in the United States is continuing on its dysfunctional trajectory with the historic indictment proceeding apace of a former president, one who foresees no impediment in his fraught position as the Republican candidate challenging the Democratic incumbent for the presidency in 2024. The more he portrays himself as an innocent who is being relentlessly pursued in a partisan vendetta, the greater his public appeal to Republican voters in a polarized country.

Prosecutions await Donald Trump at both the State and Federal level. In New York -- politically and legally dominated by Democrats -- the former President, detested by as many as admire and support him, will face a weighted partisan divide where every state judge with the potential to hear his case was elected on a partisan vote. "It would take a lot of courage for a judge to apply the law fairly and potentially ignore the voters desire for vengeance", Henry Olson wrote in the Washington Post.

In some arcane cases prosecutors are known for a tendency to expose jurors to a plethora of charges to present an aura of suspicion that with anyone who might have criminally offended the law in so many ways, there must be fire to cause the smoke alerting justice to wrongs that require righting. In the subtle influencing of jurors this produces the belief that with so many criminal charges the defendant must surely be guilty -- of something. Making conviction on one or a few of the charges a likelihood waiting to happen.

The current prosecution is that of a $130,000 payoff to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to prevent a scandal prior to the 2016 presidential election; "hush money" to ensure the woman was silent about an affair with Trump. The money, according to Trump, was meant to put a halt to "false and extortionist accusations". The payment itself is not illegal but the breaking of campaign finance laws relating to the payout makes it a problem of criminal intent.

Falsifying business records is also a criminal event and the hush money had been recorded as "legal fees". Still not a felony in New York, unless it can be linked to a plan to shield discovery of a true crime; possible violation of campaign finance laws. The letter forwarded to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, responsible for prosecuting the charges, criticized him as well for pursuing a claimed federal campaign finance violation federal prosecutors had refused to prosecute.

The case rests solely on the evidence given by onetime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, the go-between who handed the hush money to Daniels and for which he was later reimbursed partially by the Trump organization. Brag is viewed as a crusading Democratic district attorney who has targeted Trump and who boasted of his success in going after Trump during his campaign for election to the district attorney position.

Depending on the testimony of Michael Cohen, once Trump's trusted personal lawyer. to now sink the man he worked for will be a tricky sleight-of-hand operation. How credible can a man be who has spent time in prison for admitting to breaking campaign finance laws, along with tax evasion and fraud. A man who first denied paying Daniels, then denied being reimbursed, denied Trump was involved with the payment, all of which denials were subsequently backtracked. Denying the denials.

Donald Trump addressing supporters during a rally in Waco, Texas, in March.   Credit...Christopher Lee for The New York Times

Vendetta, or Justice? A Nation Divided

"I believe this Witch-Hunt will backfire massively on Joe Biden,."

"The American people realize exactly what the Radical Left Democrats are doing here. Everyone can see it. So our Movement, and our Party – united and strong – will first defeat Alvin Bragg, and then we will defeat Joe Biden, and we are going to throw every last one of these Crooked Democrats out of office so we can MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

Former U.S. President Donald Trump

Donald Trump has been considered the man to beat for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024  Getty Images

"The Manhattan DA's crusade against President Donald J. Trump is nothing more than political persecution and, just like with every other hoax that President Trump has been targeted with, there is no crime whatsoever, except for election interference by radical Democrats through weaponization of our justice system against President Trump and his supporters."

Steven Cheung, Trump campaign spokesman

"We urge you to refrain from these inflammatory accusations, withdraw your demand for information, and let the criminal justice process proceed without unlawful political interference." 

Leslie Dubeck, general counsel in the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg

 

"Officers have been cautioned to remain vigilant and maintain situational awareness, both inside courthouses and while on perimeter patrols, as evidenced by the incident on Tuesday afternoon outside of Manhattan Supreme Court."

Manhattan Court

Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Waco Airport on March 25, 2023Waco, Texas. AP

"I am not afraid of what's to come", Trump said in a fundraising email. In fact, 24 hours after his NY indictment a whopping $4 million in donations reached his campaign coffers, and another million the following day. "It's politics, I think they're just dying to find a way to keep him from being eligible for running for re-election", one of his supporters, 58-year-old Mark Funk opined at a beer garden in Houston. 

Yet 44 percent of Republications feel that Donald Trump would do best to drop out of the race should he be indicted, a Reuters/Ipsos poll released last week indicated. "He's ready to fight. He's gearing up", stated one of Trumps lawyers, Joseph Tacopina who added that his client would not be expected to wear handcuffs at his Tuesday court appearance. Bail would not have to be posted on his release, he said.

But he is due to be fingerprinted and photographed in the New York courthouse, the first ex-president to ever face criminal charges, in a notorious case that involves hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, in 2016. Which brings to mind the Watergate scandal that caught then-President Richard Nixon in unsavoury criminal revelations. The only reason he escaped indictment in that case was because the prosecutor argued only when a president leaves office can he be indicted.

This is a country that has divided itself on either side of an agonizingly wide trench separating Republicans from Democrats, a polarization of venomous dissonance. Accusations passing back and forth between the two solitudes, each hissing the hot breath of a fire-breathing dragon of hatred and suspicion. The country itself is aflame with vehemence, one against the other. The nation's president just chided Israel for its disruptions and divisions caused by a move to modify its judicial system.

President Biden has chosen to leave Washington temporarily rather than embroil himself personally in the indictment against his ideological adversary.  As for Donald Trump, he has been busy drumming up support for his party's nomination to challenge President Joe Biden in the 2024 election. And even as he faces charges he will continue his campaigning.

The indictment brought against Mr. Trump lacks information on the specific charges which remain under seal. Reports from CNN reveal there are 34 counts related to business fraud -- to all of which the former president plans to plead not guilty. Trump holds he is "completely innocent", accusing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, of planning to damage his electoral opportunities.

Former vice=oresident Mike Pence spoke of the charges against his former boss as a "terrible message to the world surrounding U.S. justice. I'm very troubled by it", said Mr. Pence, himself a possible 2024 candidate. Similarly, senior Republicans in the House of Representatives plan to investigate Prosecutor Bragg, demanding he reveal the documents involved, along with other confidential material that led his investigation. 

"You and many of your colleagues have chosen to collaborate with Mr. Trump's efforts to vilify and denigrate the integrity of elected state prosecutors and trial judges", District Attorney Bragg wrote to Republican lawmakers, in response to their threats. Security has been stepped up around the courthouse, reflecting Trump's March 18 call to his supporters to protest any arrest. 

It will take at least over a year before any potential trial is scheduled, according to legal experts. The trial, in other words, could take place during or following the presidential campaign. The indictment against Trump does not necessarily preclude him from running for re-election. And he has appealed for nationwide protests, warning of "death & destruction" should he be charged.