BAGGADOCIOUS INDEED.

Thirty-four felonies, times four years each. My math tells me Trump faces one hundred and thirty-four years in jail if he is convicted. Now that obviously is not going to happen. My guess is whether he is convicted or not, he is likely to avoid incarceration on the hush money charge. Indeed, I think there is a fair chance the prosecution will not be able to squeeze out a unanimous jury vote for conviction. That would be a terrible result because it would enhance Trump’s bullshit claim that he is not a criminal and all the charges against him in all the cases, brought and to be brought, are just efforts by the Democrats to "get" him.

First, there are a number of things about this indictment that are notable aside from the fact that it was, I suggest, brought by Bragg in an effort to diffuse the hail-storm of criticism he encountered after he rejected the Pomerantz indictment that had been approved by Bragg's predecessor, Cyrus Vance. 

This exercise of prosecutorial discretion makes a mockery of the phrase. There is no doubt in my mind that Trump paid off Stormy Daniels. And there is no doubt in my mind that he did it to enhance the likelihood of his being elected. (His lawyer’s suggestion that he was paying the hush money in order to keep the information from his wife is Trumpian--.
that defense is obliterated by the telephone call with Cohen wherein Trump urges him to try to delay the hush payment until after the election because then it won't make any difference). But to bring this earlier rejected questionable claim now is the total absence of discretion.

Second,  the hush money claim is an irrelevant diversion from the real criminality.

There is overwhelming evidence that Trump is guilty of very serious crimes against the United States, that he is guilty of obstruction of justice, that he tried to steal an election he lost, and that, by various means he encouraged and plotted the destruction of our democracy. To spend all this time and publicity over a questionable hush money case, is simply contrary to the best interests of our nation. Bragg should have swallowed his pride and gone on to other business.

Third, Bragg's bare-bones hush money indictment is simply unfair. It is something that you would expect from a Kevin McCarthy or Jim Jordan. In order to make the misdemeanor hush money payment into a felony, Bragg had to tie it to another felony crime. He did this simply by alleging that the hush money payment was tied to an unidentified felony and when asked about that in a press conference, he said the law does not require him to identify the felony in the indictment and so he didn't do it. That may be the law, but it is outrageous. The whole purpose of an indictment is to give the defendant notice of what he is charged with so that he can prepare his defense. Instead, Bragg is playing Three Card Monte with the defense and not revealing what the felony crime is. It supports the notion that the indictment is weak, it is crap, and Bragg is a coward.

Fourth, I need to point out something bizarre about the arraignment. The judge and his family, had been the victims of an oral attack by Trump before the arraignment and I sensed his honor was very careful about getting into a verbal conflict that might result in the temperature being raised high enough so that he would be obliged to recuse himself. As a result, at the end of the proceeding, he asked both sides to cool the rhetoric and avoid potential harm to individuals. (Trump, of course, went home to Mar-a-Largo and before his maggot fans,repeated his attacks on the judge and his family.)

But then the judge did something that insiders regard as remarkable. He gave the defense four months to make motions addressed to the indictment and then gave the prosecution four months to respond to those motions. The next hearing date, therefore (and the next time Trump must appear in New York Supreme) is December. An eight-month delay for filing and responding to motions is extraordinary. I checked with an experienced former ADA in New York County who told me that never before in memory has any judge stretched out the process that far. 

Why the extraordinary delay? I can only guess that the judge

 a) wants to give both sides lots of time to address legal concerns

b) wants to give the parties time cool the rhetoric

c) knows the indictment is outrageous bullcrap and wants to put off dealing with it, expecting that in the interim real indictments coming out of Georgia and the United States Department of Justice will be filed, and then the Bragg prosecution can be trashed—.

or at least will for the time being, be totally ignored 

because

When Trump is indicted for i) obstructing justice in the stolen document case, ii) trying, by various means to violate the basic tenets of our democracy that call for the peaceful transition of power upon the decision of the electorate, and iii) encouraging an outrageous attack on the Capitol, who is going to pay attention to the squeaks of mouse Bragg? 

One way or another, we are going to put Trump into an orange jumpsuit, but it ain't gonna be because he got laid and lied about it.

 

A bientot.

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