Donald Trump thinks an indictment would have huge political and national implications

The Weisselberg tax case: An investigation into a bungled tax-dealing scheme in the U.S. Sen. Jerome Weislberg

The tax case grew out of a broader investigation into the former president and whether he inflated the values of his properties to get favorable deals from banks and insurers. The district attorney decided on Mr. Weisselberg, a loyal lieutenant who had started with Mr. Trump, to testify against the former president. Mr. Weisselberg was indicted by the office for special perks when he resisted their pressure campaign.

“Weisselberg’s acts were done to benefit himself and not done to benefit the company and we expect to show that at trial and be acquitted,” said one of the company’s lawyers, Susan R. Necheles. While the prosecutors can argue that the scheme saved money for the company, the defense can argue that the company lost money as a result of the arrangement.

The lawyers might also argue that Mr. Weisselberg agreed to testify under duress, noting that he could have faced years in prison. The plea deal calls for him to serve five months in jail, but with good behavior, he is likely to spend only 100 days there.

If he lied on the witness stand, the judge could impose up to a 15-year prison sentence, according to his lawyer.

Mr. Trump, who was not accused of participating in the benefits scheme, has chalked up the case to a “witch hunt” against him, echoing the refrain he uses to leverage legal woes into a rallying cry for his political base.

Attorney General John Cohen Investigates the Hush Money Scheme in the Presence of Stormy Daniels, the Ex-Reality TV Star and Former Commander in Chief

Cohen stated that they want to be able to get from his cell phones voice recordings he made with Davidson and other people, and that they’ve asked for his cell phones.

According to federal prosecutors, President Donald Trump directed Cohen to execute the payments, while Cohen said in court that he did so at Trump’s direction.

Multiple sources familiar with the matter say that he replied to the release of a video of a deposition Donald Trump gave in August in which he invoked his Fifth Amendment right more than 400 times and refused to answer questions.

“Donald cannot keep track of the lies that he tells, and so, what better way to stop a fool from being deposed and hurting himself further than to tell him to plead the Fifth at least 400 times,” Cohen said.

Cohen’s disclosure on Wednesday is the latest sign that Manhattan prosecutors are interested in learning more about Daniels.

According to CNN, the former publisher of the National Enquirer was due to meet with prosecutors this week. The district attorney’s office has been in contact with Davidson, who is the attorney for Daniels.

After Cohen made the $130,000 payment to Daniels, he was reimbursed, federal prosecutors said in court filings, by the Trump Organization. The company’s executives authorized payments to him totaling $420,000 to cover his original payment and tax liabilities, and reward him with a bonus, according to federal prosecutors. The company was accused of wrongly recording those payments as legal expenses in their books.

Prosecutors working under the previous DA, Cy Vance, had explored bringing charges related to the hush money scheme but some attorneys on the team were not convinced that a charge involving a federal election law violation would survive legal challenges, people familiar with the investigation told CNN.

The prospect of an ex-president being indicted for perjury and a candidate for the office being indicted for obstruction of justice became much more realistic after Trump predicted he would be arrested this week. And it signaled America is headed for an even more politically divisive ordeal that will test his influence over the GOP.

The ex-reality TV star and former commander in chief faces several investigations after he was accused of illegally handling classified documents after leaving office. The case over the alleged hush money payment to Stormy Daniels is his most immediate exposure.

The federal prosecutors did not pursue such charges for reasons that were clear under the influence of William Barr. Barr is reported to have shut down any follow-up investigation of Mr. Trump, but it remains murky as to why a criminal investigation or indictment of Mr. Trump has not been pursued under the current administration (Attorney General Merrick Garland has not explained publicly any reason for not pursuing this investigation).

But the ex-president launched a characteristic effort to discredit attempts to call him to account, trying to intimidate prosecutors, mobilize his grassroots supporters and pressure top GOP officials to rally to his side. The ex-president’s call for his loyalists to demonstrate and take our nation back struck an ominous tone since he showed on January 6, 2021, that he was willing to inciting violence to further his interests.

According to Habba there would be serious consequences if Trump were to be indicted for a small offense. “It is going to cause mayhem, Paula. Habba said that it is just a very scary time in the country. But she also said that “no one wants anyone to get hurt” and Trump supporters should be “peaceful.”

— The first Republican nominating contests are nearly a year away, so it’s impossible to judge how GOP primary voters and a national electorate might react to any indictment of the ex-president. In a way that coulddrastically change the election paradigm, Sununu accused Democrats of building sympathy for Trump with probes like Bragg’s. There has already been a sense among some voters that it is time to move on from the drama, chaos and legal thickets thrown up by Trump. The ex-president made a plan to get his supporters into power and it cost the Republicans in swing states. The debate over whether Trump could win a general election if he didn’t portray himself nicely would be further strengthened by an indictment.

Trump’s effort to politicize the case and to distract from the allegations against him has already worked as his top allies in Republican House leadership attack Bragg.

Kevin McCarthy referred to it as the strongest case out there. The California Republican, who has instructed GOP-led committees to investigate whether the Manhattan DA used federal funds to probe the hush money payment, said at a news conference that he had already spoken to Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan – who is investigating “the weaponization” of the government against political opponents – about looking into that question.

Defending Trump at the 2020 Election: A Politically Charged Charge for the Republican Democrat Candidate in the DC/CFT Correspondence

But the speaker also said people should not protest over what may or not happen and insisted that Trump didn’t want that either. “If this is to happen we want calmness out there … no violence or harm to anyone else,” McCarthy said.

The GOP base was further underscored by a social media post by Trump in which several of his Republican critics lined up beside him. It feels like a politically charged prosecution here, according to the former Vice President who is weighing a campaign to challenge Trump for the nomination. I feel like the American people do not want to see that.

New Hampshire Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, who has said it is time for Republicans to move on from Trump, told Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union” the Bragg investigation was “building a lot of sympathy for the former president.” He added: “I (had) coffee this morning with some folks, and none of them were big Trump supporters, but they all said they felt like he was being attacked.”

If the Daniels case goes to trial, it would be the most serious legal issue for Trump. Justice Department probes into his role in the January 6 mob attack on the US Capitol and Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election are still expanding. A separate special grand jury investigated Trump’s pressuring of local officials to overturn Biden’s 2020 win in Georgia. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said at the end of January that decisions in the inquiry were “imminent.” While an indictment in New York might be seen as politically invigorating for Trump’s campaign, it’s hard to see how a crush of charges or trials in multiple cases would allow him to concentrate fully on a credible presidential bid.

While the January 6 investigations may hold less lasting constitutional implications than a trial of Trump, there is an issue of whether the trauma of putting Trump on trial will be in the broader national interest. History may not look kindly on any failed prosecution.

Since the Daniels case is six years old, and since the nation faces a second White House campaign, questions will be raised for the public, particularly given the uncertainty surrounding the case for anyone other than Daniels. Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” on Sunday that “nobody in our nation is or should be above the law.” I would hope they have a strong case, because this is unprecedented. And there are certainly risks involved here.”

The convention about the role of presidents and ex-presidents in national life has been broken by Trump, eight years after he burst onto the scene with an upstart presidential campaign. He could be about to jump to the center of the political debate.

Selective prosecution in the Manhattan criminal case: a case study of misdemeanor-sciprocal actions of a former lawyer Michael Cohen

But does that mean the Manhattan criminal case is an example of selective prosecution — in other words, going after a political enemy for a crime that no one else would be charged with? Not by a very long shot. To begin with, Mr. Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, who was instrumental in the scheme, has already pleaded guilty to a federal crime emanating from this conduct and served time for it and other crimes. Federal prosecutors told the court that Mr. Cohen “acted in coordination with and at the direction of” Mr. Trump (identified as “Individual 1”). It would be anathema to the rule of law not to prosecute the principal for the crime when a lower-level conspirator has been prosecuted.

The district attorney’s office has frequently charged people with making false business filings, often as felonies but also as misdemeanors. A charge such as this can be used if a person commits fraud and in the course of that scheme creates a false business record to cover it up and avoid detection. A new study co-authored by a member of the team shows precedents including charging a teacher and an auto repair store owner for failing to file proper tax forms, and for faking a Covid-19 vaccination card.