Who Will Be Indicted Next?

A week ago, former President Donald Trump was arraigned in New York. District Attorney Alvin Bragg campaigned on the promise that he would take down Trump, bringing a political purpose to the indictment and arraignment. The actions do not bode well for a republic that is declining.

Much has been written on the glaring legal deficiencies in the case. The basic crime was falsifying business records in the first degree, a misdemeanor crime that has a two-year statute of limitation under New York criminal law. Bragg elevated the thirty-four identical business entries into felonies without indicating the applicable reason, leaving everyone to guess that it has to do with the 2016 presidential election and the payment of “hush money” to porn star Stormy Daniels. Josh Hammer wrote the following in an article at The Daily Signal. 

Bragg’s theory appears to be that he can somehow evade this, and simultaneously enhance the misdemeanor to a felony, by proving – beyond a reasonable doubt, naturally – that Trump’s bookkeeping falsifications were done in furtherance of another crime. But Bragg, remarkably, has not said what that crime is.

It appears to be some amorphous combination of skirting federal campaign law and/or New York state election law, in the context of Trump’s successful 2016 presidential run. But the former has a five-year statute of limitations (thus also tolled) and is also well outside Bragg’s legitimate prosecutorial jurisdiction as a county district attorney, and the latter should not properly apply to a U.S. presidential candidate.

Moreover, even ignoring the dispositive statute of limitations and jurisdictional issues, the very thing Bragg would need to prove to a jury “beyond a reasonable doubt” to secure the felony enhancement – that Trump directed Cohen to make the payments with the specific intent to benefit his 2016 presidential campaign – is rebutted by Cohen himself, who has testified under oath that Trump requested the payments to be made furtively to spare his family personal embarrassment.

Bragg made a big mistake that may end his career. However, the deed has been done and cannot be taken back. The case may be dismissed before a trial could take place in late 2023 or early 2024. Nevertheless, other ambitious prosecutors are investigating Trump in other areas of the nation. Hammer indicated that indicting Trump – a former and defeated president of the opposite political party – makes America look like a Third-World banana republic and brings political ramifications to the 2024 Republican presidential primary.

With the precedent forever shattered, the onus now falls on the “deplorables” of the American Right to sober up and recognize that the United States is now at the point of no return when it comes to weaponizing governmental powers and partisan prosecutorial apparatuses to reward political friends and punish political enemies within the (sometimes highly debatable, as is the case here) confines of the rule of law.

There is simply no choice but for the Right, and for the Republican prosecutors in deep-red jurisdictions across the country, to prudentially and reasonably respond in kind, upping the ante further in the short-to-mid-term in an attempt to ultimately deescalate toward a long-term “mutually assured destruction” footing.

Surely there is some creative and ambitious right-wing prosecutor in the Oklahoma Panhandle or West Texas who would like to summon Hunter Biden or Anthony Fauci out to “flyover country,” right?

Sometimes, the only way out is through.

Bragg fell victim to Trump Derangement Syndrome and let his hatred for Donald Trump to override his good sense and legal training. However, he set a precedent that should not have been set. We should not be surprised if conservative attorney generals start indicting Democrats.