Trump Charged With Conspiracy to Influence 2016 Election
Trump pleads not guilty to 34 Felony counts
The arraignment lasted 57 minutes — an unusually long time for a process that typically takes about 15 minutes. The prosecution took the opportunity to voice concerns about Trump’s comments predicting “death and destruction” if he were indicted. They also brought hard copies of the recent Truth Social post showing Trump holding a baseball bat beside a photo of District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s head.
In response, Judge Merchan reminded everyone to refrain from “escalating rhetoric” in the future. The judge did not issue a gag order, something he acknowledged would interfere with Trump’s First Amendment rights, but he did say that if Trump made further threatening comments, he would revisit the issue and perhaps impose additional restrictions on the defendant.
Meanwhile, the streets outside the courthouse overflowed with security personnel and police. Few protesters showed up, and the majority of those were not there to defend Trump — they were there to show support for the prosecution.
One sign showed a person throwing a swastika into a garbage can with the words “Never again” written on it. Another said, “Lock him up.”
Two Republican politicians braved the sea of secret service and police to show their support: Marjorie Taylor Greene and George Santos. Unfortunately, their shot at making themselves relevant in this historic moment didn’t go as planned. Greene could not be heard over the crowd’s chants, and the pro-justice protesters harassed Santos, so both high-tailed it back to Washington without fanfare.
Democratic Congressman Amaal Bowman, D-N.Y., made a memorable appearance, calling on Greene to go back to Washington and “do your damned job.” (This is the same member of Congress who so appropriately chastised other leaders of the Republican Party for their repeated failures to enact gun safety legislation in the wake of the most recent school shooting.)
As for Trump, what little we saw of him was marked by a decided slowness of both movement and cognition. He looked and moved as if he had been drugged. None of his usual bluster and bravado were apparent. He said nothing to reporters, though he did raise a fist at one point as he was caught on camera outside.
The indictment, in a nutshell
The indictment and the accompanying statement of facts are lengthy. The gist is that Trump committed 34 felony counts of business fraud as part of a conspiracy to influence the 2016 presidential election. The reason all 34 counts are felonies is because what would otherwise be a misdemeanor becomes a felony when committed in furtherance of another crime.
Regarding the felony “upgrade,” as it were, a quirk of New York state law is that you don’t have to spell out what the “other crime” is in an indictment — that information doesn’t need to be specified until later— and therefore, District Attorney Alvin Bragg chose not to elaborate on it at this time. But he said enough to give us a pretty good idea of where he’s going with this.
The reason it’s a conspiracy (or “scheme,” to use DA Bragg’s exact language) is because the plot Trump orchestrated involved several others.
What’s it all about, Alvin?
The story Bragg outlined in both the indictment and a pretty nifty flow chart he trotted out (presumably at least partly for the benefit of Trump, who, drugged or not, isn’t exactly a quick study) was straightforward.
Trump had a deal with former National Enquirer CEO, David Pecker, to pay Pecker for finding and quashing stories that might have made Trump look bad in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election.
Timing was everything
While Trump has claimed that the hush money paid to Stormy Daniels was to keep Melania from knowing about his extra-marital sex, it’s clear from the timing (Trump and Pecker didn’t make their deal until after the infamous Access Hollywood tape came out about a month before the 2016 election) that it was never about Melania.
At the time, many thought Trump couldn’t withstand another scandal. So he and Pecker made a deal. Pecker would find and pay off anyone with a story that could cost Trump the election.
Why 34 counts?
The 34 counts revolve around the bookkeeping done to hide the hush money payments. Of course, there wouldn’t have been an indictment if Trump had written checks to each of the people he bought off — who would have even known?
But what Trump did was direct his then-lawyer (Michael Cohen) and CFO (Alan Weisselberg) to devise a plan to falsify documents that would leave a paper trail — one that deceptively labeled the payments as legal fees paid to Michael Cohen for services rendered.
Trump’s lawyers would have us believe that today’s indictment is about nothing more than paying off a porn star, but that’s ridiculous. Nobody cares who Trump had sex with as long as it was consensual. The crimes Trump was indicted for have nothing to do with extramarital sex; they have everything to do with the cover-up.
Moreover, the cover-up (in three separate cases) was designed to keep the American people from knowing the full truth about Trump’s character before they cast their votes in 2016.
What stories did David Pecker shut down to help Trump win in 2016?
There were three stories Pecker “handled” for Trump. The first involved a Manhattan doorman who was trying to sell a story about an illegitimate child Trump had with another woman — not Stormy Daniels, not Karen McDougal (the two women we’ve already heard plenty about), but another woman Trump had sex with and who apparently gave birth to his lovechild. According to the indictment, Pecker paid the doorman $30k to keep the story quiet. (The story was later found to be false, but the doorman got paid anyway.)
Then Pecker made a deal with Karen McDougal (woman #1) to buy her story. I won’t go into detail about it here, but if memory serves, McDougal thought the money she got was for a story that would be published in the Enquirer—it wasn’t. Instead, it was bought as part of the “catch and kill” strategy that had worked so well for Trump in the past.
Finally, we get to Stormy Daniels (woman #2), the most well-known of the three. In this case, there is evidence pointing to an attempt by Trump to delay the payment to her until after the election, with the idea that once the election was over, he wouldn’t have to pay her. (A little detail that puts the lie to the notion that it was done to keep Melania from knowing about it.)
In all three cases, various entries in Trump’s business documents mischaracterized the payments as legal expenses paid to Michael Cohen. The payments were also made in installments over nine months — every false accounting entry is a separate felony count.
Finally, at least one shell corporation was set up to hide or disguise the payments. The documentation around these payments will serve as evidence in the upcoming trial.
The Trump team responds to the charges
Trump’s lawyers have already tried to tell us that nobody other than Trump would have been charged with these crimes, but that’s not true. Bragg made clear in his public remarks following the arraignment that these cases are the “bread and butter” of the white crimes division in New York state. He said his office has charged others with similar crimes “hundreds of times.”
As for Trump’s big presser, which was scheduled to be held at Mar-a-Lago after he returned to Florida this evening, MSNBC chose not to broadcast it. Instead, they promised to monitor it for newsworthiness, saying they would let us know if they believe he said anything worthy of note — he didn’t.
Still, I was curious. How would Trump fulfill his promise of a post-indictment speech without violating Judge Merchan’s instructions? Finally, when I saw the speech on the internet, I got my answer.
The speech was nothing but a reprisal of his greatest hits. He revisited his impeachments, the Russia investigation, the Hunter Biden laptop story, and the stolen election. After about five minutes, I stopped watching.
I don’t know if he even mentioned the indictment — but I’m guessing he didn’t. His lawyers probably realized it would be difficult to avoid trouble unless he steered clear of the subject entirely, and for once, he may have followed their advice.
*Update: I just watched Inside Politics on MSNBC — looks like Trump is even dumber than he looks. He not only called the judge and his family “Trump-hating” and said the judge should be recused, but he said DA Bragg’s indictment of him is criminal and Bragg should be the one indicted. I wonder what the judge will do now?
So now, we wait
The next public hearing won’t be until December 4 of this year. In the meantime, evidence will be shared with Trump’s attorneys, who will have the opportunity to build their defense. It will need to include more than a blanket statement about what a disgrace it is for Trump to be indicted in the first place. But to date, that’s all we’ve heard.
So the next time somebody tries to tell you that it’s a disgrace for DA Bragg to bring charges against a former president for his sexual indiscretions, here’s what you can say to them:
The disgrace is not the indictment of a former president. The disgrace is the criminal activity of Donald Trump that made this indictment necessary.
You may recall that Trump once famously said he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and wouldn’t lose any voters. But now that we know Trump can’t even pay off a porn star without getting arrested, he should probably think twice before pulling out a gun.