Erick Erickson, who began his career as an elections lawyer, gives the best explainer of the case Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg is bringing against Donald Trump.
Trump is, essentially, charged with documentation fraud — claiming payment for a past debt was a legal fee.
However, the statute of limitations is well past the time to charge Trump with that.
So, the New York District Attorney has decided to elevate the issue to a felony and get it within the statute of limitations.
To do this, Alvin Bragg has to accuse Trump of engaging in documentation fraud to hide an underlying crime. The underlying crime is a federal campaign finance violation. That violation is Trump paying off the porn star through his lawyer and failing to disclose it on his campaign finance forms because it was a campaign-related expense.
It was a campaign expense because if Trump had not paid off Stormy Daniels, she could have gone public and cost Trump the election. Yes, the left argues that the man who, on video, said he could grab women by their you-know-what would have been undone by this revelation.
The rule for a campaign expense is this: Would the transaction have still happened even if the candidate were not running for office? Trump’s wife had a prenuptial agreement. Trump would have had to pay her millions for adultery. So, even if Trump were not running for office, it is still very likely he would have had to pay Stormy Daniels.
Therefore, this was not a campaign finance violation. Therefore, there is no underlying felony. Therefore, there is no New York felony. Therefore, the case falls apart.
But, even if it were a campaign finance violation, federal law states that only the federal government can prosecute campaign finance violations. Neither the Federal Elections Commission nor the Department of Justice have chosen to prosecute or charge Trump, so Trump has not been found guilty of a federal campaign finance violation.
To repeat myself: therefore, this was not a campaign finance violation. Therefore, there is no underlying felony. Therefore, there is no New York felony. Therefore, the case falls apart.
You know what entity would be invaluable in bringing to light this kind of banana republic stuff? An impartial media. Instead, today's collection of "journalists" (the vast majority of whom despise Trump) would prefer to indulge in such shenanigans as opposed to shining the light on them and explaining why it flies in the face of a free society. Democracy, darkness, etc.
- Bad news for basketball hall of famer Charles Barkley: the CNN show he co-hosted with Oprah's buddy Gayle King is being put out to pasture.
The good news: Chuck's program still outlasted the CNN+ trash that was fellow NBA alum Rex Chapman's show.
- In their 35 years as an NBA franchise, the Minnesota Timberwolves have won exactly two playoff series - both in 2004 when they made the Western Conference finals. They also set a personal best in regular season victories that 2003-04 campaign with 58.
This season, the Wolves won the second most games in their history with 56. And they're entering this postseason as the #3 seed. They're opening round opponent is the Phoenix Suns, against whom they went 0-3 in the regular season....and none of those three games were particularly competitive. So if the Wolves are going to have another deep playoff run similar to 20 years ago, beating this season's version of their kryptonite will go a long way.
In fact, I'll make a call right here: if indeed the Wolves get past the Suns in round one, they will be in the NBA Finals.
Yep, I said it.
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