After 16 days of lawyers questioning witnesses and presenting evidence, today prosecutors for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg will argue to the jury of five women and seven men in a courtroom downtown that Donald Trump knowingly and willingly committed 34 felonies.
The alleged crimes have nothing to do with Trump cheating on his wife with porn actress Stormy Daniels. That the single assignation in Lake Tahoe on July 13, 2006 occurred when first-time mother Melania was home in New York with infant Barron, who would celebrate his four-month birthday four days later, adds to the tawdriness, but not the legal exposure.
The first crime, as the assistant district attorneys will explain, was when Trump henchman Michael Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 in exchange for her keeping quiet. The money was wired on Oct. 27, 2016, 12 days before the Nov. 8 election and 20 days after the notorious “Access Hollywood” tape came out with Trump bragging about freely groping women.
Already wounded by his own voice and image on video, Trump had every reason to prevent Daniels from telling of their tryst which could torpedo his campaign and he conspired with Cohen to silence Daniels with the cash payment. Such a large sum meant to influence an imminent election was a federal campaign finance felony that Cohen would later plead guilty to and serve prison time for. Keep that Cohen crime in mind.
Trump’s crimes, according to the DA, would come after he was in the White House and he was repaying Cohen. In the ledgers of his real estate business, the Trump Organization, Trump had 34 times caused to have entered falsehoods that the money being sent to Cohen was for “legal expenses.” They were not “legal expenses.” Lying on business records in New York is a misdemeanor, but if it is done to further another crime, the misdemeanor becomes a felony.
Remember Cohen’s felony? Putting it together with the rigged books, you get 34 felonies by Trump from the fake notations listed in the records. If the money to Cohen was designated as “Stormy payoffs” there would be no lie and therefore no crime.
So Trump’s nature for him to lie about everything is what may finally sink him. Decades ago, Trump used to call reporters at this paper and elsewhere, falsely claiming to be PR man John Miller or John Barron, peddling some pro-Trump gossip. That may have been the origin of the name of Barron that would be bestowed on his youngest child.
These lies about the Cohen repayments are not the worst of Trump’s alleged crimes, like trying to overturn a fair presidential election in several states or subverting the certification by Congress or attempting to keep classified documents even when the federal government tried to recover. Those offenses go to his abuse of power when he held the highest office in the land.
At issue today and to be adjudged by the Manhattan jury this week are mundane lies by Trump, but they go to everything that Trump has been doing for nearly 78 years. He has always been a liar and a cheat and a charlatan, a nice word for a con man. That is his charm and his roguish appeal.
It’s fine for the host of a cheesy reality show, but it’s a terrible fit for a president.
