On May 30th, 2024, former President and presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald J Trump, was convicted of 34 felonies by a jury in the Manhattan District of New York.[1]
The entire case was politically motivated and would likely not have been brought against anyone other than Donald Trump. We will walk you through the facts, so that you can understand exactly how the legal system was misused to convict Trump before the 2024 presidential election.
Background
The case stems from hush money payments made to Stormy Daniels back in 2016. Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels – a porn actress, is alleged to have had an affair with Trump after they met at a celebrity golf tournament in 2006.
In 2018, The Wall Street Journal broke the story that Michael Cohen, a lawyer for President Donald Trump, "arranged a $130,000 payment to a former adult-film star a month before the 2016 election as part of an agreement that precluded her from publicly discussing an alleged sexual encounter with Mr. Trump."[2]
In other words, Trump's lawyer had Stormy Daniels sign an NDA to keep quiet about the alleged affair in the run up to the 2016 presidential election. She was paid a 6-figure sum as part of the agreement.
Is this unseemly stuff? Sure. Is it illegal? No.
Michael Cohen fronted the payment to Stormy Daniels and was then reimbursed by the Trump Organization via monthly payments billed as legal fees. Trump is accused of covering up the hush money payments, which were accounted as standard legal services.
In April of 2023, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced the indictment of Trump, "for falsifying New York business records in order to conceal damaging information and unlawful activity from American voters before and after the 2016 election."[3]
The indictment includes 34 counts of falsifying business records, relating to Trump's payments to Cohen.[4] The basic premise of the charges is that Trump knowingly violated campaign finance regulations by directing Michael Cohen to pay Stormy Daniels $130,000, which is far beyond the $2,700 campaign contribution limit. The allegation relies on the idea that the payment to Stormy Daniels was made exclusively to benefit the campaign, in order to cover up damaging information that could have hurt Trump's election chances.
However, in this context, it is difficult to distinguish between personal expenditures and campaign expenditures. Quite simply, if an expense can be justified for any reason outside of a political campaign, then it is in fact not, by definition, a campaign expense.
While news of the affair could have certainly done damage to Trump's campaign, it is also likely that Trump would have made such payments for any number personal reasons, including to protect his wife, Melania Trump. This helps explain why the Justice Department investigated this very issue but decided not to pursue charges against Trump.[5]
So if the feds didn't pursue this case against Trump, then why would Alvin Bragg bring forward charges in the state of New York without introducing any new evidence?
A Partisan District Attorney
Alvin Bragg, the DA who brought the indictment against Trump, ran his own 2021 election campaign on the promise to hold Trump "accountable". Bragg frequently boasted about how he had sued Trump, his family, and his administration "more than 100 times."[6]
In fact, Bragg's rhetoric around Trump during the campaign was so heavy-handed that his Democratic primary opponent, Tali Farhadian Weinstein, called him out. As reported by the New York Times, “A spokeswoman for Ms. Farhadian Weinstein, Jennifer Blatus, accused Mr. Bragg of attacking Mr. Trump ’for political advantage every chance he gets.’”[7]
One would assume that a candidate for Manhattan district attorney would be campaigning on much bigger issues, such as rising violent crime in the city, rather than putting Trump in his crosshairs.
Even CNN host Fareed Zakaria, a fierce critic of Trump, stated, “I doubt the New York indictment would have been brought against a defendant whose name was not Donald Trump.”[8]
Once elected, Alvin Bragg built his reputation as a progressive, soft-on-crime DA. He issued a "day one" memo[9], which instructed prosecutors not to seek prison sentences for many criminals and to downgrade felony charges, including cases of armed robbery and drug dealing. In 2023, Bragg downgraded 60% of felony cases to lesser charges.[10]
District Attorney Alvin Bragg: soft on real crime, hard on Trump.
A Partisan Judge
The judge presiding over the case, Justice Juan Merchan, donated to Democrats during the 2020 election, including a $15 donation to Joe Biden's campaign, as well as $10 donations to groups called the "Progressive Turnout Project" and "Stop Republicans".[11]
New York state, following recommendations by the American Bar Association, prohibits judges from making contributions to political organizations or candidates. Even though the donations are forbidden by state law and show clear evidence of bias, Justice Merchan did not recuse himself from this case.
CNN's own legal analyst, Elie Honig, rightly points out that, not only should Merchan have recused himself, but that people "would be going nuts" if the converse were true and it had been revealed that the judge donated to Trump's campaign.[11]
To make matters worse, the Judge's adult daughter, Loren Merchan, is President and Partner at Authentic Campaigns, which is a Chicago-based progressive political consulting firm for Democrats. Top clients include President Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and the Senate Majority PAC.[12]
In other words, the Judge's own daughter literally works with the opposition party.
In light of these facts, Trump's defense team filed a motion for Judge Merchan to recuse himself due to the conflict of interest.[13] The motion was denied.
A Novel Legal Theory
Trump was charged by the state of New York with 34 counts of falsifying business records, which are misdemeanors and fall outside the statute of limitations (2 years).[14] However, the misdemeanor rises to a felony when it is done as part of an effort to commit a secondary, underlying crime. This is what the state alleged and so it pursued the case as a felony, extending the statute of limitations.
What's unprecedented, is that the alleged underlying crime was never actually specified in the indictment and wasn't even specified during the trial until the prosecution's closing arguments.
Judge Merchan allowed the state to get away with not putting the secondary crime in the indictment, and rejected the defense's attempts to force him to provide explicit disclosure before the trial began.
To say this is outrageous would be an understatement. Acclaimed journalist and former lawyer, Megyn Kelly, highlights the fact that Donald Trump was not afforded due process as guaranteed by the US Constitution:
The Megyn Kelly Show
So what was the secondary underlying crime that Trump was allegedly trying to hide? We still don't know, even after the verdict.
The prosecution proposed three theories during their closing arguments:
Theory 1: The falsification of other business records. That's right, misdemeanor charges were inflated to felony charges by the circular reasoning of falsifying business records in order to falsify more business records.
Theory 2: Tax violations. Ironically, the "tax violations" in question would have been an overpayment of taxes. From the court transcript:[15]
Now, it’s true that the result of this improper accounting is that the taxes would have to be paid that weren’t owed; right? You don’t have to pay taxes on a reimbursement… So the result of reporting them as income is more taxes are getting paid than are owed. But, as the Judge will tell you, it’s a crime to prepare false tax documents, regardless, even when doing so does not result in the underpayment of taxes.
It's quite possible that a jury just convicted Donald Trump for falsifying business records in order to cover up the fact that he overpaid his taxes. And this is the criminal behavior that we're supposed to believe is a threat to democracy?
Theory 3: Violation of federal campaign finance laws. A state AG has no jurisdiction over federal campaign finance law. Further, the Justice Department already looked at this issue and decided not to bring charges against Trump because there likely were no campaign finance violations due to the nature of the payment.
Further twisting legal norms, the jury was instructed that they didn't have to unanimously agree on which underlying crime Trump allegedly committed in order to render a guilty verdict. The jury instructions also stated that the prosecution "need not prove that the other crime was in fact committed, aided, or concealed."[16]
In other words, the underlying crime that theoretically caused the misdemeanor charges to rise to felony charges, didn't need to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. The jury just had to be convinced that Trump intended to commit such a crime, without unanimity on which crime it was.
A Partisan Media Frenzy
Although Trump's conviction will likely get overturned on appeal for any number of the reasons above, the political damage has been done. Democrats got what they wanted: to label Trump a "convicted felon" leading up to the 2024 election.
Left-leaning corporate media outlets including the New York Times, CNN, Politico, and ABC, all ran headlines with the words "convicted felon".[17][18][19][20]
Certainly, the Democratic Party will attempt to leverage Trump's conviction to its political advantage. CBS reports that the DNC already has plans to roll out a new billboard calling Trump a "convicted felon".[21]
For the Democrat party base, that simple headline will be enough to justify their hatred of Trump. Many Democrat voters will parrot these words to their friends and family, ad nauseam, from now until the election (and likely after, especially if Trump ends up winning.)
Their ignorance can largely be blamed on the mainstream media, which lost its journalistic integrity many years ago. Very few media outlets reported accurately on this case, which is a disservice to the American people. The propaganda messaging from corporate media is that "justice was served" and that "nobody is above the law", while the facts show that the justice system was perverted in order to prosecute the leading presidential candidate during an election year.
Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) eradicates all logic and reason in the afflicted. But for many reasonable Americans, they see this case for what it is: an unfair political attack. And it may end up rallying more support for Trump in November, not less.
Summary
• Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA's) are perfectly legal and commonplace in politics and celebrity culture.
• The Justice Department (under both Trump and Biden) chose not to prosecute Trump, but a state district attorney – who has no authority over federal election law – decided to prosecute Trump anyway.
• The judge overseeing the case demonstrated clear political bias against Trump and should have recused himself from the case.
• The falsification of business records charge is a misdemeanor and falls outside the two-year statute of limitations in New York.
• The prosecution did not disclose the felony charge in the indictment or in the trial until closing arguments, trampling the defendant's due process rights.
• The jury was instructed by the judge that they did not have to agree unanimously on the alleged "underlying crime" in order to render a guilty verdict.
• Trump's conviction will likely get overturned on appeal, but the political damage is done.
>>> Further Reading
Former NY Governor Andrew Cuomo says, “If his name was not Donald Trump and if he wasn’t running for president … I’m the former AG of in New York, [and] I’m telling you that case would’ve never been brought.”
Gregory Germain, Professor of Law at Syracuse University says, "The case requires peeling an onion containing multiple layers of legal doctrine leading nowhere."
Elie Honig, CNN Senior Legal Analyst and former federal and state prosecutor says, "This case was an ill-conceived, unjustified mess."
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-was-convicted-but-prosecutors-contorted-the-law.html
References
1. Donald Trump convicted on 34 felony counts for falsifying business records in historic Manhattan hush money case. New York Post.
2. Trump Lawyer Arranged $130,000 Payment for Adult-Film Star’s Silence. The Wall Street Journal.
3. District Attorney Bragg Announces 34-Count Felony Indictment of Former President Donald J. Trump. Manhattan District Attorney's Office.
4. Donald J Trump Indictment. Manhattan District Attorney's Office.
5. Why Did Federal Prosecutors Drop Trump's Hush Money Case? Lawfare Media.
7. 2 Leading Manhattan D.A. Candidates Face the Trump Question. New York Times.
8. CNN’s Fareed Zakaria admits prosecutors would never have filed hush money charges against anyone ‘whose name was not Trump’. New York Post.
9. Day One Letter. Alvin Bragg, District Attorney. Manhattan District Attorney's Office
11. Judge Merchan Should Have Recused Himself Over Biden Donation: Analyst. Newsweek.
12. Our Team. Authentic Digital Marketing Agency.
13. President Donald J Trump's Recusal Motion. Courthouse News Service.
14. Statute of Limitations. New York State Unified Court System.
15. People v. Donald J Trump Jury Trial Transcript. New York Times.
16. People v. Donald J Trump Jury Instructions and Charges. New York State Unified Court System.
17. Trump Convicted on All Counts to Become America’s First Felon President. New York Times.
18. Trump is now a convicted felon. He can still run for president. CNN.
19. Now that Trump’s a convicted felon, here’s what happens next. Politico.
20. Trump is now a convicted felon. Here's what that could mean for his rights. ABC News.
21. DNC to unveil new billboard calling Trump a "convicted felon". CBS News.