Denying The Denials

"[You are acceding to pressure from] left-wing activists and former prosecutors in your office."

Moreover, you are apparently attempting to upgrade a misdemeanor charge to a felony using an untested legal theory."

Republican Jim Jordan James Comer, Bryan Steil letter to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg

 "It's a very sad time for America to go through what we're going through now. People are being divided, and they think that justice might be biased."

"We have to make sure that we wait to see what comes out next week, and I hope they do their job. And I’ve said this, no one's above the law, but no one should be targeted by the law, especially through the political process."

"So we'll just wait and see next week. I hope they are very thorough."

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va

New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg had been investigating former President Donald Trump for alleged hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. (Shane Bevel/NCAA Photos via Getty Images | Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The disintegration of non-partisan cooperation and mutual respect in the United States is continuing on its dysfunctional trajectory with the historic indictment proceeding apace of a former president, one who foresees no impediment in his fraught position as the Republican candidate challenging the Democratic incumbent for the presidency in 2024. The more he portrays himself as an innocent who is being relentlessly pursued in a partisan vendetta, the greater his public appeal to Republican voters in a polarized country.

Prosecutions await Donald Trump at both the State and Federal level. In New York -- politically and legally dominated by Democrats -- the former President, detested by as many as admire and support him, will face a weighted partisan divide where every state judge with the potential to hear his case was elected on a partisan vote. "It would take a lot of courage for a judge to apply the law fairly and potentially ignore the voters desire for vengeance", Henry Olson wrote in the Washington Post.

In some arcane cases prosecutors are known for a tendency to expose jurors to a plethora of charges to present an aura of suspicion that with anyone who might have criminally offended the law in so many ways, there must be fire to cause the smoke alerting justice to wrongs that require righting. In the subtle influencing of jurors this produces the belief that with so many criminal charges the defendant must surely be guilty -- of something. Making conviction on one or a few of the charges a likelihood waiting to happen.

The current prosecution is that of a $130,000 payoff to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to prevent a scandal prior to the 2016 presidential election; "hush money" to ensure the woman was silent about an affair with Trump. The money, according to Trump, was meant to put a halt to "false and extortionist accusations". The payment itself is not illegal but the breaking of campaign finance laws relating to the payout makes it a problem of criminal intent.

Falsifying business records is also a criminal event and the hush money had been recorded as "legal fees". Still not a felony in New York, unless it can be linked to a plan to shield discovery of a true crime; possible violation of campaign finance laws. The letter forwarded to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, responsible for prosecuting the charges, criticized him as well for pursuing a claimed federal campaign finance violation federal prosecutors had refused to prosecute.

The case rests solely on the evidence given by onetime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, the go-between who handed the hush money to Daniels and for which he was later reimbursed partially by the Trump organization. Brag is viewed as a crusading Democratic district attorney who has targeted Trump and who boasted of his success in going after Trump during his campaign for election to the district attorney position.

Depending on the testimony of Michael Cohen, once Trump's trusted personal lawyer. to now sink the man he worked for will be a tricky sleight-of-hand operation. How credible can a man be who has spent time in prison for admitting to breaking campaign finance laws, along with tax evasion and fraud. A man who first denied paying Daniels, then denied being reimbursed, denied Trump was involved with the payment, all of which denials were subsequently backtracked. Denying the denials.

Donald Trump addressing supporters during a rally in Waco, Texas, in March.   Credit...Christopher Lee for The New York Times