Bragg vs. Robustness: The Case of Donald Trump and the Last Days of His Life in Washington, D.C.
Bragg’s case rests on the simple and vital premise that no one – not even an ex-president with his sights on the White House again – should be above the law. But the district attorney’s critics are concerned that another equally and opposing principle is at play – whether someone who is famous, rich and powerful is being prosecuted while a less notorious person might be let go.
The other was that the fury of Trump would rip even deeper chasms in a nation estranged by his presidency and cause more unrest that would damage vital political and judicial institutions.
On the day that Trump described as real in a social media post, two worst-of-all-worlds scenarios came true. The result is that there is already another grim chapter that may lie ahead and that the country is still far from working through its effects from Trump’s single term.
One of the most portentous days in American legal history began with the ex-president leaving his skyscraper home in the city where he found fame as a real estate shark and tabloid-filling celebrity but that was now set to place him under arrest.
Trump walked through the door of the courthouse and was taken to be fingerprints. The photographs of the once-most-powerful man in the world with a face like thunder and sitting at a table with other lawyers reflected his moment of stunning indignity.
Trump kept silent in court, saying little other than “not guilty,” and he didn’t speak to reporters after the hearing. But by the time he swapped the spartan decor of the courtroom for friendly turf, under the crystal chandeliers in his gold-leafed resort in Florida, Trump was ready to erupt.
“Our country’s gone to Hell,” he declared, in a rambling tirade bursting with conspiracy theories that also expanded into an angry rant against prosecutors in other, potentially more serious investigations than the one in Manhattan.
To those who think the charges are a poor substitute for addressing the problems of the Trump family, we remind you that the investigations of all that are still ongoing. Charges are possible for the 2020 misconduct in Georgia and perhaps by special counsel Jack Smith federally.
There is a next hearing in the Manhattan case scheduled for December 4, and the other cases could address even more grave constitutional questions. The day a former president was charged with a crime will always be remembered, but it might come to be seen as the start of an ominous process for Trump more than a historic culmination.
Donald Trump was indicted for the first time. The 34 felony counts unsealed at his arraignment this week focus on the falsification of business records in the first degree, a low-level felony charge. This indictment may not prove to be the rock-solid legal case one might hope it to be. There are grave allegations against Trump, but it isn’t the most persuasive case against him under consideration. Legal analysts have to decide whether or not the evidence is strong enough to convict him.
New York law allows the elevation of the misdemeanor to a felony if the cover-up was to hide or advance another crime. Here, Bragg charges, the hush money was hidden to obscure violations of campaign finance laws that prohibit payments of this kind. Bragg also indicates that there was a plan to make false statements to tax authorities.
Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe told CNN Tuesday evening that there was “disappointment” among his fellow veteran law enforcement officers that the Bragg indictment and statement of facts had not been more specific on the leap required to charge Trump with a felony.
They were hoping that we could learn more about the direction that they intend to take the prosecution, what’s the legal theory behind the case and the intent to conceal another crime? McCabe said.
If all of our legal friends don’t read the indictment it’s very hard to convince a jury that they should get there.
“We cannot and will not normalize serious criminal conduct,” he said at a news conference after Trump appeared in court. His office’s work depends upon such cases and they are the bread and butter.
There will be a lot of complexity in the court case. This will have a political impact since Trump is hoping to get back the White House in several years.
The sense that the Bragg indictment could rebound against the district attorney and benefit Trump politically was captured by some Republicans who do not support the former president – like former Trump national security adviser John Bolton in an appearance on CNN. Romney was a critic of the case.
“I believe President Trump’s character and conduct make him unfit for office. Romney believed that the New York prosecutor was stretched to reach felony criminal charges in order to fit a political agenda.
Like any American in his position, Trump should have the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. Unlike many other defendants, he can have every legal resource at his disposal and try to mount an attempt to dismiss the case before it reaches a possible trial.
After Biden, Trump, Bragg: The First Real Chance to Face the Critique of the Mueller Indictment and Other Investigative Investigations
After getting a hero’s welcome at home in Mar-a-Lago, he unleashed a tirade that bristled with falsehoods about the investigations against him, Biden’s presidency and his term in office. He renewed the false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him and styled Bragg’s investigation and others as an attempt to fix another election.
Tuesday night was Mr. Trump’s first chance to address the criminal charges against him — his first real opportunity to counterpunch — since the New York indictment came down. Safely back in the gilded cocoon of Mar-a-Lago, surrounded by American flags and supporters sporting red hats and campaign signs, he delivered a half-hour battle cry that was painfully on brand: a greatest hits of his witch-hunt grievances interwoven with his dark take on how the country is “going to hell” without him. As he tells it, “all-out nuclear World War III” is just around the corner. It can happen! We’re not too far away from it. He also suggested that the investigation into his squirreling away sensitive documents at Mar-a-Lago could somehow lead to his being executed.
He is following in the footsteps of some of the world’s most notorious demagogues by trying to destroy trust in institutions that attempt to control his behavior and by making a claim of political persecution. Trump has made millions of his supporters believe that the last election was corrupt.
Some political pundits believe that Trump’s indictment might help him politically in the short term. His campaign claims that money has poured in since the grand jury voted to indict him. And Trump’s opponents and potential rivals for the GOP nomination have had little choice but to line up and criticize Bragg over his actions if they want to avoid alienating Trump’s base.
But months ahead of the GOP primary, it’s impossible to know how Tuesday’s events will play out. Past evidence suggests that the more extreme Trump gets, the more popular he becomes with base voters.
But the past also has less favorable political lessons for the ex-president. The extremism that he displayed on Tuesday night to a primetime television audience was exactly the brand of radicalism that contributed to disappointing Republican finishes in the 2020 election and the 2022 midterms.
This unpleasant reality is something that every member of the G.O.P. should think about. Again. If Mr. Trump thinks this is going to be a central theme of his third presidential run, then he will make everyone else in the party expendable.
More magic is on the way. As Mr. Trump’s legal troubles heat up, with possibly more indictments to come, these investigations are going to eat at him and distract him. A hefty chunk of his campaign is likely to be an extended whine about his ongoing martyrdom, constantly putting other Republicans in the awkward position of having to defend him. They will have no choice but to follow his orders as he pushes his supporters into a frenzy over his persecution.
That is certainly what we have seen happening. Republicans plan to rid the Manhattan district attorney of his good name. It was in no way surprising to see Representative Lauren Boebert comparing the indictment of Mr. Trump to the actions of Mussolini and, yes, Hitler. One could have expected more from the governor, who was seen as the biggest threat to Mr. Trump in his race for the White House. Weak, Ron. Very weak.
Norman Eisen was an impeachment counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, and he is a CNN legal analyst. John W. Dean was a White House counsel to Richard Nixon. The views expressed in this commentary are their own. CNN has more opinion.
Despite the salacious details, this is an important case for democracy. The election was close. The result of the contest was in danger after the “Access Hollywood” tape showed Trump talking about how he could sexually assault women if he wanted to.
It appears that the election misconduct may have been a gateway drug for Trump’s more extensive electoral tampering in 2020.
The indictment has been greeted with mixed reactions, including from people who are usually critical of the former president. They argue that the case should have been brought by federal authorities and that the case appears too political.
That is nonsense. There is no excuse not to prosecute Trump when his former lawyer Michael Cohen went to prison for his part in moving money to benefit the campaign.
Among the other criticisms of pursuing a felony charge is that the campaign finance theory failed in a similar criminal prosecution of 2008 Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards for alleged campaign-related payments to his mistress.
Cohen’s plea was in regards to making concealed payments to benefit a campaign. The judge would not allow the jury to consider the prosecution theory in the case if it wasn’t legal. The proof was not enough to win the case.
Bragg has a benefit of an inside cooperator in the form of Cohen, whose account is supported by corroboration and a tape of a conversation with Trump.
Why Doesn’t a President Have Time to Charge Me? A Tribute to Alvin Bragg in Trump’s Correspondence with Letitia James
Some complain that too much time has passed to bring charges now, about six years after the payments were made. Our answer is that it takes time to charge a president, or even a former one. The years that were lost were because of the Justice Department’s guidance not to charge a president under federal law.
Vance’s interview rebuts another of the critiques we’ve heard from Trump and others: that this case had been passed on by others. He said in his interview that he and his team had not finished their investigation, and that the decision to move forward was up to the district attorney.
Significantly, if others have minimized these charges, Trump has not. Since the beginning of January, he has treated them with a level of alarm that has not been seen before.
On Truth Social, Trump has urged his supporters to protest and take back their country. among other reckless declarations. He greeted the news by saying, “This is Political Persecution and Election interference at the highest level in history.”
The charges are not what they seem, but Trump understands their seriousness. Bragg did the right thing by saying that he wouldn’t be discouraged by intimidation, just as he was right to bring this case.
Trump said, of the case being led by Atlanta District Attorney Fani Willis, that she is “doing everything in her power to indict me over an absolutely perfect phone call, even more perfect than the one I made with the president of Ukraine.”
It was Jack Smith who oversaw the investigation, according to Trump, who wondered what it was before a change.
Finally, Trump went on to condemn New York Attorney General Letitia James’ investigation into the Trump Organization saying she, “campaigned on ‘I will get Trump.’ I’ll be the one to get him. This was her campaign. Didn’t ever run for office. I’m going to get him. He said that her name is Letitia James.
Toward the end of his remarks, Trump returned to criticizing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and the charges leveled against him Tuesday in New York.
The 2016 Russian Presidential Election: Why did the American public care about Trump? Why did we care? How did we learn about Trump and his antics?
We were told everything that we could have hoped for from a Trump presidency. Both should have stopped Trump from becoming president. Roughly half of American voters were willing to overlook Trump’s moral shortcomings in the service of politics, and this shows why the country is still so divisive. But neither side can claim it didn’t know exactly the kind of person who was elected in the first place.
We need to remember that Trump was a candidate in the 2016 election. He was a corrupt businessman, third-tier reality TV showman and object of tabloid ridicule so anyone who had been following his antics for decades thought nobody would take serious the prospect of him becoming president.