Trump has been indicted by a Grand Jury in New York City.
Bear in mind, the Grand Jury doesn’t determine that he is guilty of a crime, only that there is enough evidence to justify a prosecution.
Now comes the screaming.
The indictment of Trump stems from the 2018 federal conviction of his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations for facilitating the payment to Daniels. That payment came during the heart of the 2016 presidential campaign. And both Cohen and federal prosecutors have said that he acted “in coordination with and at the direction of” the former president.
The Trump Organization later reimbursed Cohen for the payment to Daniels, prosecutors said in court filings. The company’s executives authorized $420,000 in payments to Cohen in an effort to cover his original payment and tax liabilities, and to reward him with a bonus, according to prosecutors. The Trump Organization falsely recorded those payments in their books as legal expenses, prosecutors said.
Now that I’m reading up on the case, I do think it may be a little shaky, though I don’t know New York law. Cohen actually was reimbursed, so it would seem that the hush money could not be construed as an unreported campaign donation even if the money is mislabeled and dressed up to disguise it. And if his attorneys did it without Trump’s knowledge, it might be hard to tie it to him. But I assume they have the goods to tie him to the misrepresentations. Now the question is whether there was criminal intent.
I look forward to more analysis as the evidence is released to the public.
Update: Scratch my doubts! 34 counts and it’s way more involved than I thought.
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