Writing legal services when the vendor is an attorney is not falsifying records. I write Staples, Blick, etc etc (vendor)...the receipts are in the shoe box.
Even campaigns have legal expenses. What are THEY supposed to write on the checks?
It seems to me that the issue is not what was written in the memo of the check or how it was booked. Bragg is trying to say that the "crime" was paying for it with campaign money, not that it was a "legal expense" that was booked as a legal expense that was paid for with personal money.
The problem with Bragg's argument is two-fold:
- There is prior precedent in many cases that cash is fungible and it can't be determined which dollar bill is a campaign dollar versus a personal dollar.
- Bragg can't bring the charge that it should have been paid for with campaign money, because the FEC and DoJ have jurisdiction over federal elections and the New York State Public Campaign Finance Board has sole jurisdiction over state campaign finance abuses. That leaves Bragg with fraudulent records in furtherance of another crime as the only charge he can make.
-PJ