1. I don’t know anymore than you do about the legal strength or weakness of the criminal indictment against the criminal former president. What I know is what I read in the serious press. Some say it’s strong. Some say it’s weak.
09:02 AM - Apr 07, 2023
In response to John Stoehr.
2. I also know this: Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his team of prosecutors are leaning into the accusation, long familiar to Donald Trump’s critics, that he cheated to win the 2016 presidential election.
09:02 AM - Apr 07, 2023
In response to John Stoehr.
3. This puts the defense on its heels. I don’t mean legally. Like I said, I don’t know anymore than you do about the legal strength or weakness of the indictment. I mean politically. In the face of the accusation that he cheated to win, the defense has to say no, that’s wrong. He didn’t.
09:03 AM - Apr 07, 2023
In response to John Stoehr.
4. But we know he did.
We know he cheated separate and apart from this week’s indictment. His campaign worked in correlation with a Kremlin operation overseen by Vladimir Putin to sabotage the candidacy of Hillary Clinton.
We know he cheated separate and apart from this week’s indictment. His campaign worked in correlation with a Kremlin operation overseen by Vladimir Putin to sabotage the candidacy of Hillary Clinton.
09:03 AM - Apr 07, 2023
In response to John Stoehr.
5. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into foreign interference confirmed that Russian saboteurs poisoned the public square on Trump’s behalf. And we know that Trump knew the Russians were helping him.
09:03 AM - Apr 07, 2023
In response to John Stoehr.
6. We know Trump repeated the crime after entering the White House. He extorted Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s valiant president, into a conspiracy to sabotage the nascent campaign of former Vice President Joe Biden.
09:04 AM - Apr 07, 2023
(Edited)
In response to John Stoehr.
7. He threatened to withhold critical funds, already appropriated by the Congress, in exchange for an official announcement of an investigation into corruption by Biden.
For that act of cheating, Trump was impeached.
For that act of cheating, Trump was impeached.
09:06 AM - Apr 07, 2023
In response to John Stoehr.
8. We know he cheated in one final way. After losing in 2020, he broke the rules, as it were. To tighten his grip on presidential power, Trump mobilized an army of armed paramilitaries, with intimations of clemency, to sack and loot the Capitol in a violent but failed takeover of the government.
09:07 AM - Apr 07, 2023
In response to John Stoehr.
9. For that act of cheating, he was impeached again.
His party saved him from expulsion both times.
His party saved him from expulsion both times.
09:07 AM - Apr 07, 2023
In response to John Stoehr.
10. So even before we get to the 34 felony counts, we know allegations of cheating are eminently credible. He welcomed aid from a foreign leader. He straw-bossed another foreign leader. He attacked the seat of our government.
09:08 AM - Apr 07, 2023
In response to John Stoehr.
11. Is this man the sort who’d fudge tax documents so payments to a sex worker looked like business expenses?
You know the answer.
You know the answer.
09:08 AM - Apr 07, 2023
In response to John Stoehr.
12. The allegation is that he illegally suppressed information he believed would be damaging to his election prospects.
09:08 AM - Apr 07, 2023
In response to John Stoehr.
13. Citing Bragg, the Post said: “What Trump wanted to keep quiet included allegations he had engaged in a sexual dalliance with an adult-film actress and an affair with a Playboy model ... ”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/04/04/trump-indictment-what-it-means/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/04/04/trump-indictment-what-it-means/
09:09 AM - Apr 07, 2023
In response to John Stoehr.
14. But the charges are narrower.
According to the Post, the criminal counts accuse “the former president of falsifying business records 34 times, as he wrote checks to his lawyer Michael Cohen to reimburse Cohen for $130,000 paid to actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.”
According to the Post, the criminal counts accuse “the former president of falsifying business records 34 times, as he wrote checks to his lawyer Michael Cohen to reimburse Cohen for $130,000 paid to actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.”
09:10 AM - Apr 07, 2023
In response to John Stoehr.
15. The timing is politically important.
He reimbursed Cohen in 2017 – after he won the presidency.
Between the allegations and the specifics is a “gulf,” the Post said, that constitutes “the crux and challenge of the criminal case against Trump.”
He reimbursed Cohen in 2017 – after he won the presidency.
Between the allegations and the specifics is a “gulf,” the Post said, that constitutes “the crux and challenge of the criminal case against Trump.”
09:10 AM - Apr 07, 2023
In response to John Stoehr.
16. Some legal analysts told the Post that there’s more narrative here than fact and law. Some said Bragg’s legal theory is in search of a case.
I don’t doubt the legal experts. I’m no attorney.
But neither are jurors.
I don’t doubt the legal experts. I’m no attorney.
But neither are jurors.
09:10 AM - Apr 07, 2023
In response to John Stoehr.
17. For normal people, the story of a presidential candidate who cheated to win, and then, on the strength of that initial crime, went on to cheat in even more profoundly criminal ways, well, that might feel right.
09:11 AM - Apr 07, 2023
In response to John Stoehr.
18. The indictment brings little news to light. The Post: “much of the detail outlined by Bragg emerged in years of news stories about Trump’s behavior and in Cohen’s own 2018 guilty plea for various crimes, including federal campaign finance violations.”
09:11 AM - Apr 07, 2023
In response to John Stoehr.
19. But it’s the familiarity that makes the story of a candidate who cheated so believable. In a sense, the prosecution doesn’t have to prove it, because so many people already believe it.
09:11 AM - Apr 07, 2023
In response to John Stoehr.
20. That he cheated this time, by bribing Stormy Daniels and then passing off the bribe as a legal expense, might seem like a distinction without a difference.
09:12 AM - Apr 07, 2023
21. I don’t doubt the legal experts. What do I know?
I’m sure Trump’s defense is going to wear down the prosecution’s 34 allegations, as well as the legal theory behind them.
I’m sure Trump’s defense is going to wear down the prosecution’s 34 allegations, as well as the legal theory behind them.
In response to John Stoehr.
09:12 AM - Apr 07, 2023
In response to John Stoehr.
22. They are paid beaucoup bucks, after all. We can trust that they will find every exploitable hole of the case. Maybe he’ll get off. But it will cost him.
09:12 AM - Apr 07, 2023
In response to John Stoehr.
23. This is a former president we’re talking about. Trump is not a normal person. This is not a court of law so much as a court of public opinion.
In a sense, Bragg’s got him.
https://www.editorialboard.com/trumps-biggest-problem-people-already-know-hes-a-cheater/
In a sense, Bragg’s got him.
https://www.editorialboard.com/trumps-biggest-problem-people-already-know-hes-a-cheater/
09:13 AM - Apr 07, 2023
