Prosecutors Signal Criminal Charges for Trump Are Likely

[Tiny]

That's the headline from the New York Times this evening. Here are a couple of excerpts from the article,

The Manhattan district attorney’s office recently signaled to Donald J. Trump’s lawyers that he could face criminal charges for his role in the payment of hush money to a porn star, the strongest indication yet that prosecutors are nearing an indictment of the former president, according to four people with knowledge of the matter.

The prosecutors offered Mr. Trump the chance to testify next week before the grand jury that has been hearing evidence in the potential case, the people said. Such offers almost always indicate an indictment is close; it would be unusual for the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, to notify a potential defendant without ultimately seeking charges against him.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/09/n...ges-bragg.html

Personally I believe a criminal charge for the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels is chicken shit. The argument in Michael Cohen's case was that the payment to Daniels represented a campaign contribution. That borders on the absurd. Recall that Cohen was Trump's attorney and "fixer."

Now should Trump go to jail for threatening and cajoling Brad Raffensperger and others to try to get them to fix the 2020 presidential election? That's an entirely different question. If he hadn't been president I'd say yes. But I hope it doesn't happen because of the effect it would have on the country.

[1blackman1]

Nothing will come of this.

[Salty Again]

... A criminal count for - as you state - a chicken shit charge -
seems rather silly... Me political "insiders" haven't commented
yet, but I'd surely imagine that they'd feel the NY prosecutours
are looking for some-sort of settlement deal.

They keep running to the media with every development.

And Trump didn't "threaten or cajole" Raffensperger to
fix ANYTHING... As you'll soon find out.

### Salty

[Salty Again]

Originally Posted by 1blackman1

Nothing will come of this.

... You're surely onto the "legal knowledge" better than
Tiny and me-self.

Can you explain WHY you believe this?
I do hope you're correct.

#### Salty

[1blackman1]

The charge is for false financial reporting related to his payoff of Daniels along with violations of the election finance code. He’s got to be convicted of both in order for there to be a felony. His smart lawyer, if he has one, would just plead one to a misdemeanor and then the felony for the other would drop to a misdemeanor. Then he”lol just pay a fine. He’ll only face jail from the felony charge if he messes up and 1) talks too much or 2) decides he’ll fight both charges without going the misdemeanor route.

As for Georgia, there’s more danger there and he could face real charges which could be tough for him. But the Georgia legislature is trying to take power away from the Atlanta DA to bring the charges. Unless she hurries her filing, she’ll be fighting with the legislature through the courts to preserve her powers rather than charging Trump.

Nonetheless, Trump is likely guilty of both allegations. Rarely do we have the proof out in the public of exactly what a person did and said, without need for some circumstantial evidence. He paid off Daniels through intermediaries illegally to hide what he did from scrutiny during his campaign. No doubt. He called Georgia officials and asked them to change election results so he would win. Then made veiled threats when he said he wouldn’t do it. That’s obvious from his call which was recorded and will be played. His attorney at his direction tried to circumvent the election law by getting fake electors lined up and planned to insert the fake electors into the process to stop the transfer of power to his successor.