Alvin Bragg, the newly elected district attorney in Manhattan. No sooner had he taken office than he issued a “
day one” memorandum. In the memo, he instructed his prosecutors to stop prosecuting low-level crimes and ask judges for jail or prison time only for the most serious offenses – including murder, sexual assault and economic crimes involving vast sums of money – unless the law required them to do otherwise.
The Bragg memo, until it was quickly withdrawn, evoked a firestorm of criticism from the already demoralized New York City Police Department (NYPD), the mayor and the governor seeking reelection. It appeared that the document had lacked internal vetting and had disregarded the political realities of
rising crime in New York.
Bragg did
indict the Trump Organization (but not Trump) for financial and tax fraud from which Trump benefited, and that trial is in its final stages. The star witness in the case is Trump’s numbers guy,
Allen Weisselberg, who
pleaded guilty to 15 counts of tax fraud. Weisselberg may hold the key to the safe. His plea deal fixed his term of imprisonment at five lousy months, but he has exposure to new charges, such as insurance fraud. If charged anew, Weisselberg could again accomplish a plea deal, and turn state’s evidence against Trump in a new case.
The potential new criminal charges against Trump in New York County are straightforward. Remember porn actress Stormy Daniels? Trump’s fixer lawyer Michael Cohen went to jail for a secret
$130,000 hush money payment he made to Daniels in 2016. The payment was papered up as a legal fee and not reported on filed federal election forms as a campaign contribution.
The payment was to buy her silence about an affair she claimed had taken place in 2006. Is an under-the-table payment to a candidate’s mistress in 2016 over an alleged sexual liaison in 2006 too old? Not a problem.
Periods not included are any period following the commission of an offense during which the defendant was continuously outside the state of New York. Last I checked, Trump was largely in Washington and Mara Lago for the period 2017 to 2021, and no one is above the law.
