It doesn’t matter if I believe every word he says. There is no crime. People selling stories, others buying stories that were sold for more money not to tell the stories. No crime. Strange business, but no crimes. And certainly recording a payment as “legal expense” is not a criminal offense of this magnitude if a crime at all.
The entire case is “Trump did weird things to cover them up. You shouldn’t like Trump for doing that, or anything else, so convict him of crimes that don’t exist” with an anti-Trump jury. This case should have never made it to trial.
We can all agree this case should have never made it to trial, but we do ourselves and our cause a disservice by repeatedly claiming “there’s no crime.” There apparently was enough evidence to make a DA, grand jury, and a court conclude there is enough probable cause to believe a crime has been committed.
Whether the payment to Stormy was a crime, or whether it somehow became a crime because of Trump’s intent, is still in contest right now. We shouldn’t pretend that the outcome will suddenly validate and remove our real concerns.