Trump says he 'expects to be arrested on Tuesday'

New York waits... and waits... for expected Trump indictment
AFP | Mon, March 27, 2023 at 11:40 PM MDT

Nine days after Donald Trump announced he was about to be arrested over a hush-money payment to a porn star, the world still awaits what would be one of the most famous police mugshots in history.

The Republican former US president, who has never been shy about grabbing the limelight, sent newsrooms in the United States and beyond into a spin on March 18 when he announced he was three days away from being brought before a New York judge.

Trump, it turned out, had bad information or was simply guessing, and his equally baseless claim a week later that the case had been dropped altogether was greeted with due incredulity.

The prosecutors may not be marching to Trump's tune but legal analysts genuinely expect the 76-year-old -- who is running again for the White House -- to be read his Miranda rights any day now.

A grand jury -- a panel of citizens with broad investigative powers that works with prosecutors -- reconvened Monday in Manhattan, where they reportedly heard from the former publisher of the National Enquirer, a central player in the hush money payment scheme.

The probe centers on $130,000 paid weeks before the 2016 election to adult film star Stormy Daniels to stop her from going public about a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump a decade earlier.

Trump's ex-lawyer Michael Cohen, who has testified before the grand jury, told Congress in 2019 that he made the payment on Trump's behalf and was later reimbursed.

Prosecutors say the checks were not properly registered, which might normally result in a misdemeanor charge of falsifying business records.

But that could be upgraded to a felony if the district attorney can persuade the grand jury that the payment and the suspect accounting were part of a cover-up, intended to benefit Trump's election campaign by burying the scandal.

There are strict laws about how much candidates can contribute to their own election bid, and secretly funneling money toward campaign coffers can lead to jail terms of several years.

Criminal charges of any level would be uncharted territory in the United States, which has never indicted a sitting or former president.

If the jury votes to indict Trump, Manhattan's chief local prosecutor is obliged to comply with their decision and announce it to the public.

Accused by Trump and the former president's allies in the House of Representatives of a political "witch hunt," prosecutor Alvin Bragg, an elected Democrat, has hit back at Republican "interference" in the investigation.

In an interview that aired Monday night with Fox News, Trump said the proceedings against him amount to election interference as he makes another shot for the White House.

"In my opinion, it is a way of cheating," Trump said. "It's election interference."

"We are dealing with dishonest people and thugs and dealing with people, I believe, that hate our country," he added.

Trump staged his first official campaign rally in Texas on Saturday, brushing off his potential indictment -- denying the tryst with Daniels as he railed against multiple criminal probes threatening his 2024 bid for the White House.

"I think they've already dropped the case," Trump told reporters aboard his plane home to Florida, according to political website Axios.

"It's a fake case. Some fake cases, they have absolutely nothing."

BREAKING: Trump Grand Jury Falls Flat Again, No Indictment This Week
By Chris, March 28, 2023

The grand jury in Manhattan reviewing the hush money case involving former President Donald Trump will face another delay, for the remainder of this week. This means a potential indictment of Trump cannot be issued until at least next week. The reason for the delay is currently unclear.

The New York Post tells us:

The most recent person to testify before the panel was former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, who made his second appearance on Monday after being among the first witnesses in late January.

Pecker, a longtime pal of Trump who helped cover up his alleged affair with former Playboy model Karen McDougal, was recalled to the witness stand after sources said District Attorney Alvin Bragg wanted to rebut testimony last week from lawyer and Trump ally Robert Costello.

Following his appearance, Costello told reporters that former Trump lawyer and ex-con Michael Cohen masterminded a $130,000 payment to silence Daniels “on his own, that’s what he told us.”

The case involves allegations that Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, paid adult film actress Stephanie Clifford (who goes by the stage name Stormy Daniels) $130,000 in hush money to keep quiet about an alleged affair she had with then-candidate Trump in 2006.



Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to charges of campaign finance violations and lying to Congress in connection with the payment, and he implicated Trump in the scheme. Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels and has also denied any knowledge of the payment made by Cohen. The case has been the subject of ongoing legal proceedings and investigations.

Damn .. "The walls are closing in" again ..or still?
... I don't believe this week is just a delay, as if this DA has more pressing issues, and i don't believe Trump just dreamed up the "imminent indictment" on his own

I think Bragg realized the hornets nest he'd poke if he went ahead and indicted and is taking a step back to consider his options, or if he has any .. I'm just thinking out loud here
..Many people seem to think or hope there's still more testimony and evidence to come to the grand jury, but i thought the grand jury was dismissed since the fore person's media tour and others have made statements..but what do i know

...Anyway, besides the point .. Trump's residence is in Florida .. I don't understand why everyone would expect him to go to New York to be arrested .. I would think he would need to be arrested by Fla authorities and extradited to NY .. Why make it easier on NY by going there to be arrested? .. I don't think it matters much.. Just wondering
.... If i was Trump, which I'm not .. I wouldn't turn myself in at all.. I'd wait for a judge to issue an arrest warrant for this bullshit and allow it to create even more of an outrage. ..but that's me ..
... I haven't followed that closely because it's such a bumbling shit show .. IMO, this delay is a standby, waiting for a distraction to divert attention from the stupid antics of this ADA..

BREAKING: Trump Manhattan Grand Jury to Break for an Entire Month
By Chris, March 29, 2023

The Manhattan grand jury investigating Donald Trump’s alleged hush money case with Stormy Daniels is not expected to receive any evidence for the next month. The jury is also expected to take a scheduled break in the coming weeks. As a result, a potential indictment will not happen until late April, at the earliest.

There is a chance that the grand jury’s schedule may be subject to change. Lately, there have been days when the Manhattan district attorney’s office has not called the panel to meet. Nonetheless, it is at the discretion of District Attorney Alvin Bragg to request the grand jury’s reconvening if prosecutors deem it necessary during the planned breaks.

Politico reported:

The grand jury, which typically meets Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, is scheduled to consider another case next week on Monday and Wednesday, the person said, and isn’t expected to meet Thursday due to the Passover holiday.

The following two weeks are set to be a hiatus that was scheduled when the grand jury was first convened in January, the person said. A spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment.

There is no official deadline for bringing an indictment against Trump, although there were indications in recent weeks that the grand jury’s activity was nearing a vote, particularly when prosecutors offered Trump the chance to testify before the panel. That is typically one of the final steps of a criminal investigation. Trump declined the invitation.

Grand juries, like this one often operate on a part-time basis with scheduled breaks. These breaks can be used to accommodate juror schedules, holidays, or other logistical considerations. The jury process is typically a lengthy one, and there is no set timeline for when an indictment must be handed down.

Prosecutors will often take their time to ensure that they have a strong case, and will present evidence and testimony to the grand jury in a methodical and deliberate manner. This can often result in delays and breaks in the grand jury proceedings, as prosecutors work to build a solid case before presenting it to the panel.

So many twists...

____________________________________________

Donald Trump indicted; 1st ex-president charged with crime
Associated Press
MICHAEL R. SISAK
Originally published March 30, 2023, 2:44 PM

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, prosecutors and defense lawyers said Thursday, making him the first former U.S. president to face a criminal charge and jolting his bid to retake the White House next year.

The charges center on payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter. They mark an extraordinary development after years of investigations into Trump’s business, political and personal dealings.

The indictment injects a local district attorney’s office into the heart of a national presidential race and ushers in criminal proceedings in a city that the ex-president for decades called home. Arriving at a time of deep political divisions, the charges are likely to reinforce rather than reshape dueling perspectives of those who see accountability as long overdue and those who, like Trump, feel the Republican is being targeted for political purposes by a Democratic prosecutor.

Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing and has repeatedly assailed the investigation, called the indictment “political persecution” and predicted it would damage Democrats in 2024. In a statement confirming the charges, defense lawyers Susan Necheles and Joseph Tacopina said Trump "did not commit any crime. We will vigorously fight this political prosecution in court.”

A spokesman for the Manhattan district attorney's office confirmed the indictment and said prosecutors had reached out to Trump's defense team to arrange a surrender. A person familiar with the matter, who was not authorized to discuss sealed proceedings, said the surrender was expected to happen next week. District Attorney Alvin Bragg left his office Thursday evening without commenting.

The case centers on well-chronicled allegations from a period in 2016 when Trump’s celebrity past collided with his political ambitions. Prosecutors scrutinized money paid to porn actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, whom he feared would go public with claims that they had extramarital sexual encounters with him.

The timing of the indictment appeared to come as a surprise to Trump campaign officials following news reports that criminal charges was likely weeks away. The former president was at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate, on Thursday and had filmed an interview with a conservative commentator earlier in the day.

For a man whose presidency was defined by one obliterated norm after another, the indictment presents yet another never-before-seen spectacle. It will require a former president, and current hopeful, to simultaneously fight for his freedom and his political future while also fending off potentially more perilous legal threats, including investigations into attempts by him and his allies to undo the 2020 election as well into as the hoarding of hundreds of classified documents.

In fact, New York until recently had been seen as an unlikely contender to be the first place to prosecute Trump, who continues to face long-running investigations in Atlanta and Washington that could also result in charges. Unlike those inquiries, the Manhattan case concerns conduct by Trump that occurred before he became president and is unrelated to much-publicized efforts to overturn a presidential election.

As he seeks to reassert control of the Republican Party and stave off a slew of one-time allies who are seeking or are likely to oppose him for the presidential nomination, the indictment sets the stage for an unprecedented scene — a former president having his fingerprints and mug shot taken, and then facing arraignment and possibly a criminal trial. For security reasons, his booking is expected to be carefully choreographed to avoid crowds inside or outside the courthouse.

In bringing the charges, Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, is embracing an unusual case that had been investigated by two previous sets of prosecutors, both of which declined to take the politically explosive step of seeking Trump’s indictment.

In the weeks leading up to the indictment, Trump, who is seeks to reassert control of the Republican Party and . railed about the investigation on social media and urged supporters to protest on his behalf, prompting tighter security around the Manhattan criminal courthouse.

The fate of the hush-money investigation seemed uncertain until word got out in early March that Bragg had invited Trump to testify before a grand jury, a signal that prosecutors were close to bringing charges.

Trump’s attorneys declined the invitation, but a lawyer closely allied with the former president briefly testified in an effort to undercut the credibility of Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen.

Late in the 2016 presidential campaign, Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 to keep her silent about what she says was a sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier after they met at a celebrity golf tournament.

Cohen was then reimbursed by Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, which also rewarded the lawyer with bonuses and extra payments logged internally as legal expenses. Over several months, Cohen said, the company paid him $420,000.

Earlier in 2016, Cohen had also arranged for the publisher of the supermarket tabloid the National Enquirer to pay Playboy model Karen McDougal $150,000 to squelch her story of a Trump affair in a journalistically dubious practice known as “catch-and-kill.”

The payments to the women were intended to buy secrecy, but they backfired almost immediately as details of the arrangements leaked to the news media.

Federal prosecutors in New York ultimately charged Cohen in 2018 with violating federal campaign finance laws, arguing that the payments amounted to impermissible help to Trump’s presidential campaign. Cohen pleaded guilty to those charges and unrelated tax evasion counts and served time in federal prison.

Trump was implicated in court filings as having knowledge of the arrangements, but U.S. prosecutors at the time balked at bringing charges against him. The Justice Department has a longtime policy that it is likely unconstitutional to prosecute a sitting president in federal court.

Bragg’s predecessor as district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., then took up the investigation in 2019. While that probe initially focused on the hush money payments, Vance’s prosecutors moved on to other matters, including an examination of Trump’s business dealings and tax strategies.

Vance ultimately charged the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer with tax fraud related to fringe benefits paid to some of the company’s top executives.

The hush money matter became known around the D.A.’s office as the “zombie case,” with prosecutors revisiting it periodically but never opting to bring charges.

Bragg saw it differently. After the Trump Organization was convicted on the tax fraud charges in December, he brought fresh eyes to the well-worn case, hiring longtime white-collar prosecutor Matthew Colangelo to oversee the probe and convening a new grand jury.

Cohen became a key witness, meeting with prosecutors nearly two-dozen times, turning over emails, recordings and other evidence and testifying before the grand jury.

Trump has long decried the Manhattan investigation as “the greatest witch hunt in history.” He has also lashed out at Bragg, calling the prosecutor, who is Black, racist against white people.

The criminal charges in New York are the latest salvo in a profound schism between Trump and his hometown — a reckoning for a one-time favorite son who grew rich and famous building skyscrapers, hobnobbing with celebrities and gracing the pages of the city’s gossip press.

Trump, who famously riffed in 2016 that he “could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody” and “wouldn’t lose voters,” now faces a threat to his liberty or at least his reputation in a borough where more than 75% of voters — many of them potential jurors — went against him in the last election.

As i thought, New York has to extradite Trump from Florida
... Desantis says he "wont cooperate" with the extradition...I'm not sure what that means... I think he could *intervene* and prevent NY from the extradition, but i think he just wants to steer clear of it all ... Can't blame him

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3926943-desantis-florida-wont-cooperate-with-trump-extradition/?segment=1*17754x9*s_amp_id*aFRHWUR6TTBNek92MFhaNTB6UFQ4TU9xQXJzSjR0S1VMZGt4RU9Sd3VvNllSVVNDN25SOXV2eGRORW5GMTJNYg..

‘Unlawful political interference’: Bragg defends Trump indictment against GOP attacks
Kyle Cheney, Jordain Carney and Erica Orden | Politico
Fri, March 31, 2023 at 8:22 AM MDT

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg defended his office’s decision to indict Donald Trump in a letter to Republican lawmakers Friday, rejecting GOP accusations of political persecution as “baseless and inflammatory.”

“That conclusion is misleading and meritless,” wrote Leslie Dubeck, Bragg’s general counsel, in a six-page letter to three House Republican committee chairs who have sought internal details of the criminal probe.

The letter was sent a day after Bragg’s office acknowledged it had issued the first-ever indictment of a former president. Officials have also indicated they are working with Trump’s lawyers to negotiate his surrender. Though the timing of both his surrender and arraignment hasn’t been finalized, they are tentatively planned for Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the matter.

It’s uncharted territory for the legal system, the federal government and the country, which has never seen the indictment and prosecution of a former president. Though the precise evidence against Trump remains unknown, the case appears centered on hush money payments to a porn actress, Stormy Daniels, in 2016 to silence her allegations of a sexual relationship during Trump’s first presidential bid.

The indictment, which remains under seal, prompted a torrent of attacks from Trump’s allies, many of whom denounced it as a political witch hunt. While Trump himself has called for protests in the streets, House Republicans have instead vowed to train a microscope on the Democratic district attorney, requesting information and documents about the probe.

Bragg’s office used the letter to the lawmakers, a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO, as his first public response to those allegations of political bias.

“Like any other defendant, Mr. Trump is entitled to challenge these charges in court and avail himself of all processes and protections that New York State’s robust criminal procedure affords. What neither Mr. Trump nor Congress may do is interfere with the ordinary course of proceedings in New York State,” the letter reads.

State judge Juan Merchan is expected to preside over the arraignment and may ultimately be called upon to preside over the criminal proceedings, according to a person familiar with the process.

Bragg’s office also used the letter to plead with Capitol Hill Republicans to encourage calm, accusing them of engaging in “unlawful political interference” in the same breath.

“We urge you to refrain from these inflammatory accusations, withdraw your demand for information, and let the criminal justice process proceed without unlawful political interference,” Dubeck wrote in the letter to Judiciary, Oversight and Administration Chairs Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), James Comer (R-Ky.) and Bryan Steil (R-Wis.).

“As Committee Chairmen, you could use the stature of your office to denounce these attacks and urge respect for the fairness of our justice system and for the work of the impartial grand jury,” she continued. “Instead, you and many of your colleagues have chosen to collaborate with Mr. Trump’s efforts to vilify and denigrate the integrity of elected state prosecutors and trial judges and made unfounded allegations that the Office’s investigation, conducted via an independent grand jury of average citizens serving New York State, is politically motivated.”

Bragg’s office suggested that the House GOP inquiries appeared to be functioning more as interference for Trump than as legitimate congressional oversight, a concern Dubeck said was “heightened” by some of the committee members’ own statements about their goals.

She cited Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) statement that “Republicans in Congress MUST subpoena these communists and END this!” as well as Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s (R-Fla.) call to scrutinize lawmakers who are “being silent on what is currently happening to Trump.”

From a legal standpoint, individual lawmakers’ comments and motives aren’t typically given weight when a congressional committee takes actions. Trump routinely pointed to the comments of individual committee members’ plans to make use of his tax returns in his failed efforts to block Congress’ effort to obtain them.

Dubeck also provided some details about the federal funding Bragg’s office has used in connection with Trump-related matters — money that House Republicans have suggested could now be under threat because of the indictment. Additionally, House Republicans received a second document on Friday detailing federal grant money the office has obtained.

None of that federal grant funding, she noted, has been used in the current investigation. She said the office has spent approximately $5,000 of federal funds — funds that the district attorney’s office helped recover during forfeiture actions — on expenses related to the investigation of Trump or the Trump organization.

“These expenses were incurred between October 2019 and August 2021,” Dubeck noted, adding that most were used to support Bragg’s predecessor’s successful defense of its probe of the Trump organization before the Supreme Court.

A spokesperson for Jordan didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter from Bragg’s office. House Republicans have already started laying some groundwork for a potential subpoena of the Manhattan district attorney, a move they haven’t publicly ruled out.

Dubeck, in her letter, urged them to reach a “negotiated resolution … before taking the unprecedented and unconstitutional step of serving a subpoena on a district attorney for information related to an ongoing state criminal prosecution.”

WATCH: Tucker Carlson Responds To Trump Indictment; “There’s No Coming Back From This”
By Paul Aubert, March 30, 2023

Fox News host Tucker Carlson ridiculed the Manhattan grand jury over the reported indictment of former President Donald Trump.

Carlson noted how we “don’t know specifically what the charges are” but “the net result is Donald Trump is the first former president of the United States ever to be indicted.”

“So no matter what happens next, we can be certain there is no coming back from this moment. There could be retaliation from red states,” Carlson continued.

“The governor of Florida has already said, Ron DeSantis has already issued a statement The governor of Florida has already said, Ron DeSantis has already issued a statement saying that he will not participate in any extradition of Donald Trump to New York. That’s apparently scheduled for next week.”

The Fox News host concluded that, regardless of the outcome, this trail of events is significant. “As you can probably tell, we’re not certain of the full outlines of the story, but we know this moment is a historic one,” Carlson stated.

WATCH:



The New York Times first reported on the Trump indictment. They wrote:

A Manhattan grand jury voted to indict Donald J. Trump on Thursday for his role in paying hush money to a porn star, according to four people with knowledge of the matter, a historic development that will shake up the 2024 presidential race and forever mark him as the nation’s first former president to face criminal charges.

The felony indictment, filed under seal by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, will likely be announced in the coming days. By then, prosecutors working for the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, will have asked Mr. Trump to surrender and to face arraignment on charges that remain unknown for now. Mr. Trump has for decades avoided criminal charges despite persistent scrutiny and repeated investigations, creating an aura of legal invincibility that the vote to indict now threatens to puncture.

But unlike the investigations that arose from his time in the White House, this case is built around a tawdry episode that predates Mr. Trump’s presidency. The reality star turned presidential candidate who shocked the political establishment by winning the White House now faces a reckoning for a hush money payment that buried a sex scandal in the final days of the 2016 campaign.

Mr. Trump has consistently denied all wrongdoing and attacked Mr. Bragg, a Democrat, accusing him of leading a politically motivated prosecution. He has also denied any affair with the porn star, Stormy Daniels, who had been looking to sell her story of a tryst with Mr. Trump during the campaign.

Mr. Bragg and his lawyers will likely attempt to negotiate Mr. Trump’s surrender. If he agrees, it will raise the prospect of a former president, with the Secret Service in tow, being photographed and fingerprinted in the bowels of a New York State courthouse.

The prosecution’s star witness is Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former fixer who paid the $130,000 to keep Ms. Daniels quiet. Mr. Cohen has said that Mr. Trump directed him to buy Ms. Daniels’s silence, and that Mr. Trump and his family business, the Trump Organization, helped cover the whole thing up. The company’s internal records falsely identified the reimbursements as legal expenses, which helped conceal the purpose of the payments.

Although the specific charges remain unknown, Mr. Bragg’s prosecutors have zeroed in on that hush money payment and the false records created by Mr. Trump’s company. A conviction is not a sure thing: An attempt to combine a charge relating to the false records with an election violation relating to the payment to Ms. Daniels would be based on a legal theory that has yet to be evaluated by judges, raising the possibility that a court could throw out or limit the charges.

Mr. Bragg is the first prosecutor to lead an indictment of Mr. Trump. He is now likely to become a national figure enduring a harsh political spotlight.

REPORT: Trump Lawyers Strike Deal With Prosecutors Over Terms Of Trump’s Surrender
By Chris, March 31, 2023

An agreement has been reached between prosecutors in Manhattan and Trump’s legal team over the terms of the former Presidents surrender. The news comes less than a day after the Manhattan Grand Jury announced their vote to indict the former president for his hush money case with Stormy Daniels.

According to the report, Trump will not be handcuffed when he surrenders. The unusual event will mark the first instance of a former US commander-in-chief being arrested and brought to court.

A court representative has confirmed that Donald Trump’s court appearance is scheduled for Tuesday, April 4th, at 2:15 pm ET. Joe Tacopina, Trump’s lawyer, remarked that “he will not be put in handcuffs. I’m sure they’ll try to make sure they get some joy out of this by parading him.” Trump will have secret service protection the entire time.

Before the indictment was announced, Trump’s legal team had expressed hesitation about Trump surrendering in person, suggesting that he’s allowed a quiet surrender, with a remote appearance instead. They have even referenced guidance from the secret service regarding potential security risks. However, Trump apparently rejected those ideas.

Reports in early March indicated that the former president rationalized that since he would have to surrender himself to authorities for fingerprinting and a mug shot at the courthouse anyway, he might as well turn it into a “spectacle.”

The indictment of a former US president is an unprecedented event in American history. It remains to be seen how the legal proceedings will unfold and what impact they will have on Trump’s political future.

According to the Guardian, Trump had rejected a remote approach, and told various allies over at the time that he didn’t even care if someone shot him because it would make him a martyr.

“Trump’s increasing insistence that he wants to be handcuffed behind his back for a perp walk appears to come from various motivations, including that he wants to project defiance in the face of what he sees as an unfair prosecution and that it would galvanize his base for his 2024 presidential campaign.”

After the indictment was announced, Don Jr slammed the move as “communist-level shit”.

WATCH:

WATCH: Bill Barr Rips Trump Indictment, Calls It A “Disgrace” And “Abuse” Of Legal System
By Paul Aubert, March 31, 2023

Bill Barr, the former United States attorney general, slammed Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg for leading the indictment of former President Donald Trump. On Thursday, the Manhattan grand jury voted to indict the former president.

Trump is reported to be facing 34 different counts related to business fraud.

On Friday, speaking with the former assistant US attorney of the Southern District of New York, Andrew McCarthy, Barr described the charges as a “political hit job.”

“It’s the archetypal abuse of the prosecutorial function to engage in a political hit job, and it’s a disgrace.”

“And legally, I think … from what I understand, it’s a pathetically weak case,” the former US attorney general added.

WATCH:



The case is “the epitome of the abuse of prosecutorial power to bring a case that would not be brought against anyone else. They are going after the man, not a crime. And the legal theory, frankly, is pathetically weak,” Barr contested.

It is reported the former president will appear in court on Tuesday, April 4th, at 2:15 PM EST. Trump refused a virtual appearance, the Guardian reported.

“Trump’s increasing insistence that he wants to be handcuffed behind his back for a perp walk appears to come from various motivations, including that he wants to project defiance in the face of what he sees as an unfair prosecution and that it would galvanize his base for his 2024 presidential campaign.”

Alvin Bragg Or Grand Jury Member Could Face 5 Years In Prison, Dershowitz Says
Carmine Sabia, April 1, 2023

If Alvin Bragg is looking for a felony in the case he has brought against former President Donald Trump he may want to look in the mirror, in his office or at his grand jury.

Legal scholar and famed attorney Alan Dershowitz said, in an interview and in an op-ed, that whoever leaked the sealed indictment is the person guilty of the only felony, in his opinion, in this case.,

“It is likely that a serious felony has been committed right under District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s nose and he is not investigating it. Under New York law, it is a felony to leak confidential grand jury information, such as whether the jurors voted to indict. The protection of secrecy is as applicable to President Trump as it is to anyone else,” the attorney said in an op-ed for The New York Sun.

“We know that the information was disclosed while the indictment itself remains sealed and before any official announcement was made or charges brought. It is unlikely that the leak came from the Trump team, which seemed genuinely surprised,” he said.

“The most likely, though uncertain, scenario is that a person in Mr. Bragg’s office or a grand juror unlawfully leaked the sealed information. That would be a class E felony, subject to imprisonment.

“It is possible of course that an investigation is underway, but it seems more likely that Mr. Bragg is too busy making up a crime against the man he promised in his campaign to get than investigating a real crime that took place on his watch,” he said.

Dershowitz said that it appears Bragg’s theory is that the former president should have disclosed why he paid for a non-disclosure agreement to adult film star Stormy Daniels which would defeat the purpose to the non-disclosure agreement.

“Why would Mr. Trump pay the money in the first place if he had to publicly disclose the embarrassing reason? Furthermore, no one in history has ever been indicted for listing ‘legal expenses’ for setting a potentially embarrassing payment of hush money,” he said.

“Thus, even the misdemeanor allegation involving false entries is unprecedented and represents selective prosecution. It is also almost certainly barred by the two-year statute of limitations. In order to elevate this bookkeeping case into a felony, Mr. Bragg must also prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the reason Trump made the false entry — if he himself did it — was solely as a campaign contribution to help him win his election,” he said.

What that means is that even if only part of the reason he made the payment was to protect his family from scrutiny or to protect his business interests there is no crime.

And if someone in Bragg’s office, or Bragg himself leaked the indictment they could face as many as five years in prison.

“If somebody on the grand jury, prosecutor or grand juror, leaked the fact that there was a vote to indict, that is a one – five year class E felony under New York,” he said on Fox News.

“Bragg now has a prima facia case that a crime has been committed right in his building, but as far as I know he’s not investigating it” he said.

“We don’t know who did the leak. It is conceivable it could have been done by somebody in the Trump administration but I doubt it because they seem to have been taken by great surprise so the most likely source of the leak is someone from within Bragg’s office or within the grand jury. That’s where the focus ought to be,” he said.



Prior to the indictment being leaked Dershowitz said that he believed Bragg could be disbarred for his case against Trump.

He appeared on the Fox News show “Sunday Morning Futures” with host Maria Bartiromo when he said that having Michael Cohen as a witness could damage the district attorney, Mediaite reported.

“I don’t think an indictment can actually come forward now after the comments made by [Robert] Costello,” the attorney said.

He said that “he has proved that the main witness is going to be a perjuring liar on the witness stand, and that puts the district attorney in a terrible position.”

“If he uses Cohen as a witness, he could actually lose his bar license. It’s unethical to put a witness on the stand who you know is lying, and he has to know that Cohen will be lying. Or he tries the case without Cohen, which would be very difficult, or he does the right thing: he drops the case,” he said.

BREAKING: Proof of Political Persecution Emerges, DA Bragg’s Chief of Staff Wanted Trump Banned From Office
By Chris, April 3, 2023

Jordan Stockdale, the Chief of Staff for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, has been caught endorsing tweets calling for the impeachment, removal from office, and future prevention of Trump from holding public office again.

As Chief of Staff for Bragg, Stockdale’s obvious bias against former President Trump should raise questions about both his and Bragg’s ability to perform their duties impartially. Many Republicans have voiced their concern about the partisanship and lack of objectivity from the Left during Trump’s witch hunt indictment.

Screenshots revealed that Stockdale was liking comments from Bernie Sanders, Hilary Clinton, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and many other left-winged members that were bashing Trump on Twitter.

Stockdale has since deleted his Twitter account.

Numerous tweets at
https://trendingpoliticsnews.com/breaking-proof-of-political-persecution-emerges-da-braggs-chief-of-staff-wanted-trump-banned-from-office-mace/

BREAKING REPORT: Trump To Be Charged With 34 Felony Counts, Won’t Be Handcuffed Or Take Mugshot
By Paul Aubert, April 3, 2023

Former President Donald Trump is reported to be charged with 34 felony counts related to the falsification of business records, a source told Yahoo News late Monday.

The source is someone who has been “briefed on the procedures for the arraignment of” Trump. The source told Yahoo the former president is not going to be put in handcuffs or have to take a mugshot.

“Trump will not be put in handcuffs, placed in a jail cell or subjected to a mug shot — typical procedures even for white-collar defendants until a judge has weighed in on pretrial conditions,” the Yahoo News article reported.

“Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, which has been consulting with the Secret Service and New York City court officials, concluded that there was no reason to subject the former president to handcuffs or a mug shot,” the article continues.

However, the source told Yahoo that it appeared “extremely unlikely” Trump would face jail time for such offenses.

“Under the New York State penal code, a conviction for the Class E felony of falsifying business records can result in a prison term of up to four years. But as a practical matter, that seems extremely unlikely. ‘No one gets jail time for that as a first offender,’ said a New York law enforcement official,” Yahoo explained.

Trump responded to the Yahoo report in a fiery Truth Social post. “Wow! District Attorney Bragg just illegally LEAKED the various points, and complete information, on the pathetic Indictment against me. I know the reporter and so, unfortunately, does he.”

“This means that he MUST BE IMMEDIATELY INDICTED. Now, if he wants to really clean up his reputation, he will do the honorable thing and, as District Attorney, INDICT HIMSELF. He will go down in Judicial history, and his Trump Hating wife will be, I am sure, very proud of him!”

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https://news.yahoo.com/trump-indictment-live-updates-ex-213743307.html

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