The NY county persecutor alleges that the “other crime” in the Trump case (which elevates the aleged faslifyng business records from a misdemeanor to a felony) was his alleged conspiracy to remote the election of himself via unlawful means. NY State Elec. Law § 17-152. It’s a misdemeanor.
Any two or more persons who conspire to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means and which conspiracy is acted upon by one or more of the parties thereto, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
So, among other things, the DA Bragg legal “theory” of the case is that the commission of a misdemeanor in this matter elevates the alleged commission of some other misdemeanor to a felony. Hey. It’s evidently what the law was intended to allow. But it’s very counterintuitive.
Now, to dig in a little.
For the election law “crime” the effort must include the breaded use of unlawful means.
What unlawful means? An NDA? It’s legal. So that can’t be it.
Ah. A little bootstrapping perhaps? The “unlawful means” has to refer instead to the alleged “falsification” of the entry in the Trump books reflecting the payment to Cohen of one of his submitted bills for legal services.
It almost looks like Bragg believes that paying your lawyer is not legal?
No? An alleged effort to conceal a legal payment becomes a misdemeanor when the objective is to avoid negative publicity regarding one’s candidacy? That can’t be right. It’s also not an “unlawful means” to trying to win an election by avoiding negative publicity.
Hm. No? So no what’s the Bragg theory?
Maybe: the supposed effort to “hide” the
purpose of a legally permissible NDA payment was to
conceal something which
wasn’t an “unlawful purpose?”
Ya know. That sounds legally absurd, too.
The real question here is why the fuck Judge Merchan hasn’t excoriated the persecution and outright dismissed this nonsensical indictment.