A PROSECUTION IN SEARCH OF A CRIME: JOHN HINDERAKER
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/04/a-prosecution-in-search-of-a-crime.php
Donald Trump is undergoing a criminal trial in Manhattan. He is charged with filing corporate records that included a false statement; namely, that payments to Michael Cohen that were described as being for legal services were, in fact, to reimburse Cohen for making one or more payments to Stormy Daniels in exchange for a non-disclosure agreement. But those payments to Daniels were perfectly legal, and filing a false corporate document is a misdemeanor on which the statute of limitation has passed.
So in order to charge Trump, District Attorney Alvin Bragg had to allege that the false documents were filed in order to cover up another crime. That would make it a felony. But what is that other crime? Bragg has been coy about it. In truth, there was no other crime, and Bragg’s prosecution is election interference on behalf of the Democratic Party, plain and simple.
One would think that this case could not have gone to trial without a clear specification of that other crime and evidence in support of it. But that appears to be what has happened, courtesy of trial judge Juan Merchan, who is in on the scam.
Byron York points out this classic of obfuscation from the prosecutor’s opening statement:
Which means what, exactly? I suppose the translation is that Trump didn’t want voters to know about his fling with Daniels. But an “illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of a presidential election” does not define a crime. The “hush money” payment was legal, not illegal. And Trump’s desire that voters not know about his relationship with Daniels was no different from Biden’s desire, in the 2020 election, to prevent voters from learning that he was senile. Both candidates wanted to conceal something from voters, but neither candidate committed a felony to do it.
This is not actually hard to grasp, but reporters are commenting breathlessly on the trial as though there were something of substance to it. There isn’t. But if you want to talk about a “conspiracy to undermine the integrity of a presidential election,” one is unfolding before our eyes in a Manhattan courtroom.
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