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The anti-Trump dream come true
Washington Examiner ^ | April 12, 2024 | Byron York

Posted on 04/12/2024 9:56:41 PM PDT by lasereye

Barring some last-second surprise, on Monday a dream will come true for the Democrats, resistance warriors, Never Trumpers, and lawfare specialists who have hoped for years to put former President Donald Trump on trial. It finally happens Monday in a courtroom in Manhattan.

Many legal experts, and not just those on the Right, have said the case against Trump is weak. But that doesn’t really matter. The fact is, Trump will be on trial, charged with 34 dubious felonies, and a jury in deep-blue Manhattan will likely find him guilty of something. That’s the point. After this trial, if things turn out like Trump’s enemies hope, every single Democratic reference to the former president, every single political ad, every party utterance will refer to Trump as convicted felon Donald Trump.

For the man behind the case, the elected Democratic district attorney of Manhattan, Alvin Bragg, the trial is more than a trial. It’s a campaign promise kept. The 2021 race for the Democratic nomination for district attorney of Manhattan was essentially a bidding contest in which candidates pledged to go after Trump more aggressively than their competitors. Bragg boasted that he had already sued Trump or Trump’s companies 100 times. Elect me and I’ll give him hell! It turned out the “100 times” claim wasn’t true — the real number was less than half that, even if you count generously — but Bragg won the Democratic nomination and then, of course, the election in Manhattan. “[Bragg] seemed to double down on Trump as the campaign went on,” the New York Times noted recently.

And then, almost exactly a year ago, Bragg filed the indictment of Trump. Earlier this week, this newsletter noted Bragg’s case is remarkably weak and that there have been many analyses of its various flaws. But it’s always useful to have a short version of the case’s problems, so this is from the earlier newsletter: 1) The core crime alleged, falsifying business records, is a misdemeanor. 2) To turn the misdemeanor into a felony, Bragg had to claim that Trump falsified records in the act of committing another crime — but Bragg has not charged Trump with any other crime. 3) Bragg “stacked” the charges to come up with 34 felony counts against Trump based on what was essentially one payoff. 4) Bragg’s effort to boost the case from misdemeanor to felony depends on a highly debatable reading of campaign finance law. 5) Bragg’s star witness Michael Cohen is, in the New York Times’s words, “a disbarred lawyer who served prison time after pleading guilty to violating campaign finance laws, evading taxes, making false statements to a bank, and lying to Congress.”

Together, those weaknesses should have kept Bragg from even bringing the case. But remember the point here: For the anti-Trump coalition, convicting Trump of something — anything — is the goal. Shortly after Bragg indicted Trump, the liberal columnist E.J. Dionne addressed the widely expressed opinion that the Bragg case was weak and was therefore not the best first case to bring against Trump. “My immediate reaction was not to wonder if this was the ‘best’ case to lead with or what the politics will be,” Dionne noted on March 30, 2023, “but simple relief that Trump was finally being held accountable by the law. He still faces a trial, but that’s the point. He has evaded responsibility for too long.”

Later, other Democrats would file new criminal charges against Trump — a sprawling indictment over the 2020 election from the elected Democratic district attorney of Fulton County, Georgia, Fani Willis, plus two indictments, one concerning the 2020 election and the other about classified documents, from Jack Smith, the special prosecutor chosen by the Biden Justice Department to pursue Trump. But each of those cases has become bogged down in disputes that are both substantive and procedural. What’s left was…Alvin Bragg.

So now the Manhattan trial is about to begin. When Trump’s defenders say the case is weak and politically motivated, they’re right. But for the anti-Trump coalition, it’s what it’s got. Remember the famous quote from Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense when the United States invaded Iraq: “You go to war with the army you have. They’re not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.” Right now, Bragg is the army the anti-Trump coalition has, and on Monday, they go to war.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; News/Current Events; Political Humor/Cartoons
KEYWORDS: alvinbragg; bragg; lawfare; michaelcohen; trump
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To: lasereye

If York is correct, Trump will be easily acquitted.


21 posted on 04/12/2024 11:22:31 PM PDT by Bob Wills is still the king (Just a Texas Playboy at heart)
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To: HIDEK6
Rein.
Rein.
Aarggh


Yeah, yeah...The rein in Spain stays mainly in the plane.
22 posted on 04/12/2024 11:26:17 PM PDT by Dr. Franklin ("A republic, if you can keep it." )
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To: Bob Wills is still the king
I don’t disagree with you, but what “new rights of appeal” would you propose?

I would propose something closer to summary judgement in a civil case than the usual motion to dismiss. That could be appealable before a trial is held. Appellate courts tend to dislike that kind of right, but when an individual is confronted with the power of the state, it is needed.
23 posted on 04/12/2024 11:30:50 PM PDT by Dr. Franklin ("A republic, if you can keep it." )
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To: lasereye

Republican cowards say nothing.


24 posted on 04/13/2024 1:28:51 AM PDT by stinkerpot65 (Global warming is a Marxist lie. )
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To: kiryandil

If this goes the wrong way and the red states take no action and it devolves to the populace to intervene, the 50 million illegals in country now will be soooo f’n sorry they ever left their home country shitholes which will look like paradise compared to what will be happening in the streets of America. It can and will happen here despite naysayers who believe the false leftwing meme we are all sheeple led sleepily to slaughter. Let the left continue to believe their own fairy tales. History is replete with people caught en masse with their pants down.


25 posted on 04/13/2024 2:16:05 AM PDT by 4Runner
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To: stinkerpot65

Which only shows how useless they truly are.


26 posted on 04/13/2024 2:45:26 AM PDT by No name given (Anonymous is who you’ll know me as)
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To: lasereye
Right now, Bragg is the army the anti-Trump coalition has, and on Monday, they go to war.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Oh we are shaking in our bootz at these kangaroo courtz!!

Bragg does not know what war is.

Bragg's war will be a premature redaculation.

I bet the jurors will be characters........all Trump needs is one hold out for acquittal, and the odds are good.



27 posted on 04/13/2024 3:34:39 AM PDT by Candor7 (Trump Trolls,He trolls for thee!),<img src="" width=300</img><a href="">tag</a>)
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To: lasereye

It’s amazing to me the Republicans are such cowards. They stood by with their thumbs up their butts watching as these evil RATs destroyed Donald Trump and our country. At 77, this will be my last vote for President and it will be for Trump. I’m not voting for anyone else. To hell with them.


28 posted on 04/13/2024 3:40:26 AM PDT by abbastanza
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To: Candor7

Good morning I hope you’re right about the Trump acquittal. He’s become much more than just a candidate for president to me over the years. The contrast of Biden not even in debating but in what Biden has done as a criminal is day and night since he was elected or supposedly elected. I’ve been saying, hang him by the neck to the death in a public square he deserves no less. Including others, the rest of his cabal


29 posted on 04/13/2024 3:55:48 AM PDT by Uversabound (Might does not make right, but it does enforce the commonly recognized rights of each succeeding gen)
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To: lasereye

Like most analyses, this one leaves out a he two biggest weaknesses. First, the crime isn’t making false entries in a checkbook. It’s making those entries with the intent to defraud another or the government. Question: Who was defrauded? Bragg says that Trump’s books potentially could mislead state taxing authorities if they did an audit, but that argument fails bc regardless as to how the payments were characterized in the check ledgers, Trump gained no tax advantage. Bottom line: Would one really expect the ledger to read “payment for blackmail by porn star”. Trump’s motive was to hide the payment from his employees and the public, not to defraud.
Second, if you read the indictment, the crime of making a false entry did not occur until the year 2017. So how was Trump committing the crime with intent to commit a felony? Bragg argument is that he did it to conceal a campaign finance violation, but Trump had already won the election. And conceal it from who? His employees? State tax collectors?


30 posted on 04/13/2024 4:08:02 AM PDT by bort
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To: stanne
Would you kindly state just one example of DeSantis defending Trump on anything

DeSantis comes to Trump’s defense after FBI search

DeSantis Goes on CNN to . . . Defend Trump

DeSantis Can’t Stop Defending His Biggest 2024 Rival"

DeSantis Defends Trump From Possible Jan. 6 Indictment

Now, why don't you just sit in the corner and let the real conservatives have a conversation?

31 posted on 04/13/2024 4:24:30 AM PDT by Erik Latranyi (This is the end of the Republic....because we could not keep it.)
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To: Uversabound

Alvin Bragg u s unkikely to survve thiis trial. It willbe delayed or appealed, and when Trump achoeves the presidency, Bragg will be cut off from ny federa funding and wiuol be firced tio resign..Same with the rest of these kangaroo court idjits.

The People are all feeling like you do. I also have had enough of these fascist ass hats.They need a good tarring and feathering.


32 posted on 04/13/2024 4:31:54 AM PDT by Candor7 (Trump Trolls,He trolls for thee!),<img src="" width=300</img><a href="">tag</a>)
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To: lasereye

Alan Dershowitz said last night on Newsmax in his 60 years of practicing law, he has never seen a weaker, more politically charged case than this one. The whole thing is a mockery of American jurisprudence.


33 posted on 04/13/2024 4:52:24 AM PDT by Dan in Wichita
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To: Erik Latranyi

Two of those are the same example from before DeSantis turned on Trump running against him at the behest of billionaire thugs

The other is behind a paywall and seems to be the same story and this one is DeSantis insulting Trump:

“The DeSantis campaign, courtesy of their online DeSantis War Room account, tweeted that the Trump team is “lying once again and purposely taking @RonDeSantis out of context.”

It does not paint DeSantis as the repentant Trump supporter. Definitely not a conservative as claimed

DeSantis supporters are invariably snarky though with their false claims.


34 posted on 04/13/2024 5:39:28 AM PDT by stanne
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To: lasereye

“For the man behind the case, the elected Democratic district attorney of Manhattan, Alvin Bragg, the trial is more than a trial. It’s a campaign promise kept.”

This is ultimately angry blacks “getting whitey”. There is no other scenario that remotely works. You elect these people thinking it’s “the right thing” and this sh!t starts. Every. Damn. Time.


35 posted on 04/13/2024 5:40:19 AM PDT by bk1000 (Banned from Breitbart)
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To: lasereye

You mean desantis say things in support of Trump, like he does the J6 people?

And are you going to be celebrating that Trump’s going to trial, and that it could expose Trump in such a bad light that he’ll lose the general election?


36 posted on 04/13/2024 6:09:35 AM PDT by backpacker_c
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To: lasereye

Democratic district attorney of Manhattan, Alvin Bragg, the trial is more than a trial. It’s a campaign promise kept.

No matter how illegal it has to be it’s a democrat operation so it’s all okay.

Media approved


37 posted on 04/13/2024 7:05:56 AM PDT by Vaduz
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To: lasereye

Manhattan?

Guilty verdict has already been decided.


38 posted on 04/13/2024 7:43:32 AM PDT by Bon of Babble (You Say You Want a Revolution?)
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To: stanne
After Bragg indicted Trump DeSantis tweeted

“The weaponization of federal law enforcement represents a mortal threat to a free society. We have for years witnessed an uneven application of the law depending upon political affiliation,” DeSantis tweeted.

“Why so zealous in pursuing Trump yet so passive about Hillary or Hunter? The DeSantis administration will bring accountability to the DOJ, excise political bias and end weaponization once and for all,”

39 posted on 04/13/2024 3:31:30 PM PDT by lasereye
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To: backpacker_c
And are you going to be celebrating that Trump’s going to trial, and that it could expose Trump in such a bad light that he’ll lose the general election?

Hallucinating?

40 posted on 04/13/2024 3:32:45 PM PDT by lasereye
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