The Sixth Amendment guarantees defendants will be ‘informed of the nature and cause of the accusation’

Only feds can prosecute fed crimes any tying to fed crimes don’t hold water. also that would make any misdemeanor fraud non attachable to a federal crime hence no indictment 

Former President Donald Trump’s Sixth Amendment rights may have been violated when New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg refused to disclose the underlying crime the defendant intended to conceal through his alleged falsification of business records, legal experts opined Wednesday.

The Sixth Amendment provides in part for the right of a criminal defendant to “be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor…”

When questioned by a reporter as to what the underlying crime the indictment fails to name is, Bragg replied in New York State, he does not have to.

“The indictment doesn’t specify it because the law does not so require,” he told the journalist.

BRAGG SHOULD BE DISBARRED: LEVIN

Former President Donald Trump, left, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. (Shane Bevel/NCAA Photos via Getty Images | Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

On “Hannity,” Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett forcefully dismissed Bragg’s claim, saying he likely violated Trump’s right to know what he is specifically being accused of.

“He does [have to name it, via] the Sixth Amendment,” Jarrett said. “[The indictment] is therefore facially defective. It is deficient on its face and it would be susceptible to a motion-to-dismiss.”

Jarrett questioned whether Bragg slept through constitutional law in his studies at Harvard, envisioning the prosecutor working late one evening in New York City, mumbling that “I’ve got to get Trump — What crime? — What crime?” and that an office worker simply remarked, “Don’t say anything.”

Facsimile of the U.S. Constitution. (Fotosearch/Getty Images)

Jarrett recalled a warning from former Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, a Nuremberg Trial prosecutor, who said the “greatest danger to justice is an unscrupulous prosecutor who targets a person and then scours the law books to find an offense he can pin on that person.”

“That’s what Alvin Bragg has done,” he said.

Washington Times editor Charlie Hurt later added incredulously that Bragg’s charges amount to potentially more prison time — 136 years — than infamous Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff, who died at a Butner, North Carolina, prison in 2021, served.

“[T]his is such a circus — it’s so absurd. It’s so ridiculous. Alvin Bragg has so embarrassed himself, embarrassed to the legal profession that it really is going to, I think, set the tone for anything else any of these wacko, crazed, lunatic, left-wing, politicized Democrat DA’s want to do to try to destroy Trump,” Hurt said.

Former President Donald Trump. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Another Democratic prosecutor investigating Trump is Fulton County, Georgia’s Fani Willis. The case in the largest of a handful of counties the city of Atlanta comprises centers on allegations Trump violated the law when he asked Georgia Secretary of State Bradford Raffensperger to “find” a number of votes equal to what he needed to win the Peach State.

Trump is also under special counsel investigation after Attorney General Merrick Garland named now-former Kosovo War crimes prosecutor John “Jack” Smith to probe the discovery of classified documents at the former president’s Palm Beach home.

Trump also faces a civil suit in New York City from advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, who alleged the then-mogul sexually assaulted her at Bergdorf Goodman sometime in either 1995 or 1996.

In a January deposition transcript, Trump denied the incident, saying, “[Carroll] said I did something to her that never took place. There was no anything. I know nothing about this nut job.”

The Trump Indictment Is a Legal Embarrassment

By Jed Handelsman Shugerman

Trump pleads not guilty to 34 felony counts:

of falsifying business records linked to 2016 hush-money payments

Judge did not impose gag order

“Special Report” anchor Bret Baier reacts to the arrest of Donald Trump and discusses whether a gag order will be imposed on “America Reports.”

Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty in a New York City court Tuesday after being charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.

The charges, which are related to hush-money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign, came out of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s years-long investigation.

Bragg alleged that Trump “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.”

In 2019, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York opted out of charging Trump related to the payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. The Federal Election Commission also tossed its investigation into the matter in 2021.

Former President Donald Trump sits with his defense team in a Manhattan court during his arraignment on April 4, 2023, in New York City. (Seth Wenig / Pool / Getty Images)

Trump surrendered to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and was arraigned in court Tuesday afternoon after being indicted by a Manhattan grand jury last week.

The indictment was unsealed in court during Trump’s arraignment Tuesday before presiding trial Judge Juan Merchan. Trump was charged in a New York Supreme Court indictment with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.

Bragg is alleging that Trump falsified New York business records in order to “conceal damaging information and unlawful activity from American voters before and after the 2016 election.”

“During the election, TRUMP and others employed a ‘catch and kill’ scheme to identify, purchase, and bury negative information about him and boost his electoral prospects,” Bragg alleged. “TRUMP then went to great lengths to hide this conduct, causing dozens of false entries in business records to conceal criminal activity, including attempts to violate state and federal election laws.”

Former President Donald Trump makes his way inside the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse in New York on April 4, 2023. (Ed Jones / AFP via Getty Images)

According to New York state law, a charge of falsifying business records in the first degree alleges that the defendant committed a crime of falsifying business records with the intent to defraud. The intent to defraud would be an intent to commit another crime.

Trump pleaded not guilty. The judge did not impose a gag order.

The prosecution wants a trial in January 2024 – the height of the GOP presidential primary season. Trump’s defense wants to delay that as long as possible.

Bragg alleged that former Trump attorney, Michael Cohen, above, orchestrated the hush-money payments on Trump’s behalf. (AP Photo / Mary Altaffer / File)

According to the indictment, Bragg alleged that Trump, from August 2015 to December 2017, “orchestrated a ‘catch and kill’ scheme through a series of payments that he then concealed through months of false business entries.”

Bragg alleges that American Media Inc., the parent company of the National Enquirer, paid $30,000 to a former Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have a story about a child Trump had out of wedlock.

Stormy Daniels reacted to former President Donald Trump’s arraignment with an X-rated tweet. (Phillip Faraone / Getty Images / File | Seth Wenig-Pool / Getty Images)

Bragg also alleges American Media Inc. paid $150,000 to a woman who alleged a sexual relationship with Trump. It appears Bragg is referring to former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

DONALD TRUMP AND STORMY DANIELS: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Donald Trump and former Playboy model Karen McDougal

Trump “explicitly directed a lawyer,” an apparent reference to his former attorney, Michael Cohen, to “reimburse” American Media Inc. in cash, Bragg charged.

Cohen pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in prison for violating campaign finance laws related to the payments, among other federal charges. Cohen pleaded guilty to arranging the payments but maintains that Trump directed them.

Former President Donald Trump arrives at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City, April 4, 2023. (Thomas P. Costello / USA Today Network)

Bragg alleged that after the election, Trump reimbursed Cohen through a series of monthly checks “first from the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust – created in New York to hold the Trump Organization’s assets during TRUMP’s presidency – and later from TRUMP’s bank account. In total, 11 checks were issued for a phony purpose.”

“Nine of those checks were signed by TRUMP,” Bragg charged. “Each check was processed by the Trump Organization and illegally disguised as a payment for legal services rendered pursuant to a non-existent retainer agreement.”

“In total, 34 false entries were made in New York business records to conceal the initial covert $130,000 payment. … Further, participants in the scheme took steps that mischaracterized, for tax purposes, the true nature of the reimbursements.”

Opponents of former President Donald Trump protest outside the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in New York on April 4, 2023. (Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images)

The former president of the United States, who is also the leading Republican presidential candidate for 2024, was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury last Thursday after a years-long investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which began in 2019.

Trump was not handcuffed, as some are during an arraignment, after making arrangements with the DA’s office. Detectives within the office handled the arrest of the former president.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg speaks about Donald Trump’s arraignment on April 4, 2023. (Fox News)

TRUMP SAYS DA BRAGG’S ‘OBSESSION’ WITH TRYING TO ‘GET TRUMP’ WILL ‘BACKFIRE’ AFTER GRAND JURY INDICTMENT

The charges against the former president come after federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York opted out of charging Trump related to the Daniels payment in 2019.

Also, the Federal Election Commission in 2021 dropped its case on the same issue – examining whether Trump violated election law with the $130,000 payment made to Stormy Daniels – after it “failed by a vote of 2-2 to…find reason to believe that Donald J. Trump knowingly and willfully violated” federal election law.

TRUMP TARGETED: A LOOK AT THE INVESTIGATIONS INVOLVING THE FORMER PRESIDENT, FROM RUSSIA TO MAR-A-LAGO

“The People of the State of New York allege that Donald J. Trump repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal crimes that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election,” Bragg said in a statement after the arraignment.

“As the Statement of Facts describes, the trail of money and lies exposes a pattern that, the People allege, violates one of New York’s basic and fundamental business laws,” Bragg said. “As this office has done time and time again, we today uphold our solemn responsibility to ensure that everyone stands equal before the law.”

Trump has slammed the DA’s investigation and the indictment as “Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history.”

 

By Brooke Singman , Jake Gibson | Fox News

 

 

https://youtu.be/RaC_1VMBBH0

and ANYONE WHO LOVE THE LAW AND AN AWESOME PRESIDENT WILL LOVE OUR HUMOR DOWN BELOW

PLEASE LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE

Donald Trump indictment ignores this core legal principle

Trump’s indictment is a defining moment for many who have rationalized abuse of the criminal justice system

Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley says one of Trump’s lawyers was forced to leave his law firm for representing the former president on ‘America Reports.’

Oscar Wilde once said “The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself.”

With the release of the indictment of former President Donald Trump, Manhattan District Alvin Bragg has revealed himself as a follower of the Wilde school of legal thought. Bragg knew that he had no criminal case against Trump. However, after running on bagging Trump for some crime (any crime), Bragg knew that many would not care if he had a basis for a criminal charge. He would be lionized to be the first person to ever indict a former president in the blind rage against Trump.

After charging Trump with 34 counts, Bragg insisted that he will convict Trump of the “crime to promote a [political] candidacy through unlawful means.” He insists that he will prove “attempts to violate state and federal election laws.”

For months, many have raised objections to the effort of Manhattan District Attorney to use a flawed legal theory to essentially litigate a federal election violation that the Justice Department opted not to charge. This bootstrap theory has been widely criticized, but many in the media sought to cut off that debate by suggesting that Bragg might be basing his prosecution on some unknown crime. Last week, Michael Cohen’s attorney Lanny Davis went as far to “warn all the pundits and everyone speculating…that there are lots of facts, lots of documents, lots of evidence of multiple crimes.”

We now have the indictment, and it is basically what many of us anticipated. It is a series of stacked counts of falsifying business records for the purpose of influencing the election. The indictment seems to address the lack of legal precedent with a lack of specificity on the underlying “secondary” felony. Bragg has done nothing more than replicated the same flawed theory dozens of times. This is where math and legal meet. If you multiply any number by zero, it is still zero.

If the New York bench retains any integrity, this case will be thrown out as legally improper with an admonition to Bragg and his office for politicizing the criminal justice process. That, however, may be asking a lot of state judges who are elected on both the trial and appellate levels. They too may prove lawyers on the Wilde side.

The cost, however, to the legal system will be immense. In a single indictment, Alvin Bragg bulldozed any high ground that the Democrats had after January 6th. He has fulfilled the narrative of the Trump by supplying a raw and undeniable example of the politicization of the legal system. What is most shocking is that this attack on the rule of law was met with the rapturous applause of many, including lawyers and legal pundits. They not only will ignore the affront to the integrity of our legal system, but celebrate its demise.

Bragg himself threw a flag on effort to indict Trump being pushed by a lawyer brought in as a special assistant district attorney for that purpose. Mark F. Pomerantz and his colleague Carey R. Dunne resigned — and their resignation letter was then leaked to an eager media. Pomerantz then took a step that floored many of us: he wrote a tell-all book based on the still ongoing investigation.

However, Pomerantz admits that career prosecutors balked at his radical proposals to find a crime — any crime — to nail Trump. That included an entirely bonkers money laundering charge against Trump where he would be the victim of an extortion effort. In his book, Pomerantz admits that “many of the lawyers were relentlessly negative.” Some prosecutors were clearly so upset by his efforts that they “defected” from the team. He also admitted that Bragg told him “that the consensus among the group of prosecutors with whom he had been speaking was not to go forward.”

Despite objections from his colleagues who said he was undermining their efforts, Pomerantz published a book making the case against an individual who was not charged, let alone convicted. It was a grossly unprofessional and improper act. It also worked. Bragg caved to the overwhelming pressure that followed. If figures like Pomerantz was going to yield to temptation, why shouldn’t he?  After all, no one wants to be the last ethical lawyer when even one else is cashing in.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg speaks on Donald Trump arraignment April 4, 2023. (Fox News)

I remain hopeful that there remains a modicum of judicial integrity in New York to stand against this effort. However, this is a defining moment for many who have rationalized this abuse of the criminal justice system. For those attorneys, they have reached the point described by Robert Oppenheimer after the development of the atomic bomb. He stated “In some sort of crude sense which no vulgarity, no humour, no overstatement can quite extinguish, the physicists have known sin; and this is a knowledge which they cannot lose.”

The same is true for many in our profession. While some of us have warned that Mar-a-Lago could present a serious threat to Trump, we have warned that the Bragg prosecution is the denial of the core legal principle of blind justice. This expensive, drawn out effort would not have occurred for anyone other than Donald Trump. It is not just selective prosecution, it is exclusive prosecution for Trump and Trump alone.

For those lawyers applauding this ignoble moment, this is our sin as a profession, and it is “knowledge which they cannot lose” in the years to come.

By Jonathan Turley | Fox News

Trump back in Florida after historic court date in NY

(WJW) — Former President Donald Trump’s Tuesday court arraignment was an unprecedented moment in American history.

On Tuesday afternoon, former President Donald Trump appeared in a New York federal courtroom to face 34 felony charges stemming from alleged hush money payments made on his behalf to an adult film star during the 2016 election.

It’s the first time a U.S. president has been charged in a criminal matter.

Trump’s attorney has said the former president’s legal team is expected to file a motion to dismiss the case.

6:45 p.m. Former President Trump’s plane touched down at Palm Beach International Airport. He is expected to deliver remarks from his Mar-a-Lago estate at 8:15 p.m.

5:30 p.m. After Trump appeared in court earlier Tuesday afternoon, the former president’s legal team spoke to reporters about the “insufficiency” of the case against him.

“Today’s unsealing of this indictment shows that the rule of law died in this country,” said attorney Joe Tacopina. “While not everyone is above the law, no one is below it, either. If this man’s name was not Donald J. Trump, there’s no scenario we’d all be here today … based on these charges.”

Tacopina summarized the case as “a state prosecutor prosecuting a federal election law violation that doesn’t exist, according to federal election officials.”

Watch video of the press gaggle on the steps of the courthouse:

5 p.m. GOP lawmakers came to the defense of former President Trump following his arraignment Tuesday.

“[Manhattan DA Alvin] Bragg’s entire career is about normalizing violent crime,” tweeted U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance. “Just crazy that he’s bringing this weak case in the middle of a presidential election.”

U.S. Rep. Max Miller, who represents part of Cuyahoga and Holmes counties as well as all of Medina and Wayne, said, “Equal justice under the law died today.”

“This is political persecution, period,” he tweeted.

Fourth District U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan said Americans are afforded equal justice under the law “unless you’re a Republican running for president.”

“When you drain the Swamp, the Swamp fights back,” he later tweeted.

4:30 p.m. “While we are living through the darkest hours of American history, I can say that at least for this moment right now, I am in great spirits,” reads a fundraising email from Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, sent shortly after New York prosecutors laid out the felony charges against the former president.

“Because my team showed me all of the support, the love, the prayers, and the donations YOU gave our movement while I was getting arrested and arraigned,” it reads.

Trump’s campaign claims to have raised $10 million since the first reports of his indictment.

Following his arraignment, Trump flew back to Florida from New York’s LaGuardia Airport. He is expected to touch down at Palm Beach International Airport at about 6 p.m.

The former president is expected to deliver remarks from his Mar-a-Lago estate at about 8:15 p.m.

4:15 p.m. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg addressed the charges against former President Trump at a Tuesday afternoon media briefing.

Prosecutors allege Trump and others schemed to purchase damaging information about the former president while he was running for the White House, beginning with an August 2015 meeting at Trump Tower. The falsified business records were made to conceal violations of election law in New York, said Bragg.

Two weeks before the 2016 election, Trump is accused of having his attorney Michael Cohen wire $130,000 to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. That payment was allegedly written off as a legal expense in 2017, and Trump “personally signed” the checks to Cohen made over nine months in 2016, Bragg said.

A grand jury in the New York court found 34 documents containing that “critical false statement,” leading to the 34 charges.

Bragg said the conduct is like many other white-collar criminal offenses which the office has prosecuted “time and time again.”

3:45 p.m. Former President Trump is due back in court in December, according to reports. Prosecutors are pushing for a January 2024 trial, but Trump’s legal team wants the trial pushed back.

Judge Juan Merchan did not issue a gag order against the former president, prohibiting him from speaking out about the case. But the judge did warn Trump against making inflammatory remarks that may incite violence or civil unrest, The Associated Press reported.

3:30 p.m. The motorcade carrying former President Trump has left the Manhattan courthouse following his criminal arraignment on 34 felony counts, and is headed to LaGuardia Airport.

Trump did not speak after leaving the courthouse, but is expected to deliver remarks later Tuesday, according to Fox News.

3:04 p.m. Former President Donald Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, according to The Associated Press. He has pleaded not guilty.

Under New York Penal Law, a defendant is guilty of the charge if they made or caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, or if they altered, erased or destroyed a true entry; omitted a true entry in violation of lawful duty; or prevented a true entry from being made or causing an omission.

Trump is alleged to have had sexual encounters with adult film star Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal, Nexstar reported. Michael Cohen, the Trump Organization’s former attorney, claimed he made hush money payments to the women at Trump’s direction — something Trump has denied.

2:47 p.m. Former President Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, according to reports.

2:30 p.m. Following his formal booking, former President Trump walked into the courtroom to face charges stemming from alleged hush money payments made to an adult film star during the 2016 election.

Former President Donald Trump sits at the defense table with his defense team in a Manhattan court, Tuesday, April 4, 2023, in New York. Trump is set to appear in a New York City courtroom on charges related to falsifying business records in a hush money investigation, the first president ever to be charged with a crime. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)Read More »

2:10 p.m. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg entered the courtroom where former President Donald Trump is expected to be arraigned, according to The Associated Press.

Trump himself has not yet been seen near the courtroom, AP reported.

2 p.m. Trump’s indictment in a Manhattan federal court is not his only legal entanglement.

He also faces a state and federal probes into his alleged interference in the 2020 election; two defamation lawsuits from a woman who alleges Trump sexually assaulted her in the 1990s; and a civil lawsuit against that also includes his business entities and his three adult children.

1:57 p.m. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre during a Tuesday briefing said President Joe Biden has been briefed on former President Trump’s arraignment, but that it’s not something he’s focused on Tuesday.

The White House said last week the president was not briefed in advance of the indictment.

1:42 p.m. People both for and against former President Donald Trump’s indictment gathered outside the Manhattan federal courthouse as he was scheduled to face criminal charges.

1:25 p.m. The motorcade carrying former President Donald Trump has arrived at the Manhattan federal courthouse. His attorneys arranged for his surrender, according to The Associated Press.

Read More

Moments prior, the former president posted to his social media platform Truth Social:

Heading to Lower Manhattan, the Courthouse. Seems so SURREAL — WOW, they are going to ARREST ME. Can’t believe this is happening in America. MAGA!

STATEMENT FROM FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP

Trump is expected to plead not guilty to criminal charges stemming from hush money payments to an adult film star during the 2016 election. The precise charges have yet to be revealed, as the indictment will remain under seal until the arraignment, but dozens of charges are expected, including at least one felony, according to reports.

1:10 p.m. Former President Trump has departed Trump Tower for the Manhattan federal courthouse where he is expected to surrender. He posed briefly for cameras, pumping his fist.

The historic arraignment of a former U.S. president on criminal charges drew hundreds of onlookers, protesters, journalists and politicians, The Associated Press reported.

1 p.m. A former Florida state lawmaker who droved to New York for Trump’s Tuesday arraignment pledged his continued support for the former president, The Associated Press reported.

“It’s a bad day for America, one of the worst days in American history,” said Anthony Sabatini, chair of Florida’s Lake County Republican Party.

12:30 p.m. Former President Trump is expected to leave Trump Tower at 1 p.m. to surrender at the Southern District federal courthouse ahead of his 2:15 p.m. arraignment.

He is not expected to make a public address following his court appearance, a member of Trump’s legal team told NewsNation.

11:30 a.m. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) showed her support for the former president at a rally in a park near the New York City courthouse where Trump is expected to be arraigned.

Greene thanked “patriotic Trump supporters,” calling Republicans “the party of peace,” while calling Democrats “the party of violence,” according to The Associated Press.

She was later escorted away by city police moments after arriving, according to WPIX.

Supporters gathered Tuesday morning, AP reported. Anti-Trump protesters later joined, carrying a large banner that read, “Trump Lies All the Time.”

10 a.m. Gov. Mike DeWine, speaking Tuesday on former President Trump’s criminal charges, said: “No one can be happy to see an ex-president of the United States indicted.”

DeWine on Tuesday visited schools in Warrensville Heights and Akron to observe classroom activities, according to his office.

“The system will work, this country will survive and we will move on,” said DeWine.

9:00 a.m. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg arrived at court Tuesday morning in New York ahead of former President Donald Trump’s arraignment, according to the Associated Press.

5:00 a.m. We won’t be able to see exactly what happens during the arraignment because a judge decided late last night to not allow cameras in the courtroom because of the media frenzy that it would cause.

Overnight: The former president spent the night in Trump Tower before he will head to a Manhattan courtroom to face more than 30 charges, including at least one felony.

Below is a timeline of when the former president is expected to appear in court:

After the arraignment Trump will head back to Mar-a-Lago where he is expected to address his indictment around 8:15 Tuesday night. Although it is possible the judge could issue a gag order in the case.

Trump’s legal troubles stem from a $130,000 “hush money” payment to silence porn actress Stormy Daniels about an alleged affair.

Prosecutors claim the payments were illegal because they were connected to his 2016 campaign for president. Trump has repeatedly claimed the indictment is part of a “witch-hunt.”

Monday, April 3, 2023

Trump gave a brief wave as he entered Trump Tower in Manhattan on Monday afternoon.

Trump arrived at New York’s LaGuardia airport on his private 757 jet, walked off, and jumped into his motorcade, which took him through the city.

A huge group of Trump supporters, as well as opponents of the former president, gathered.

by: Danielle Langenfeld, Jessica Dill, Justin Dennis

A Terrorist to the US Constitution and a Nazi to our Political System. He should be disbarred!

How we got here: Former President Donald Trump indicted

NEW YORK – A New York grand jury that voted to indict former President Donald Trump on charges involving payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter has refocused attention on the Manhattan district attorney steering the case. Alvin Bragg’s decision to convene the grand jury early this year led to the first criminal charge against a former U.S. president.

Here’s what you need to know about Bragg:

Who is the Manhattan district attorney?

Alvin Bragg became Manhattan’s first Black district attorney in 2022, following his election in November 2021.

As district attorney, what is Bragg’s job?

The office prosecutes nearly all criminal cases in Manhattan, staffed by about 500 lawyers. The district attorney also is a key political figure, overseeing cases that often involve defendants with immense wealth, fame and influence.

Manhattan district attorney is one of the most high-profile prosecution jobs in the world, dramatized on TV shows like “Law & Order” and “Blue Bloods.” Robert M. Morgenthau, who held the job for 35 years, was the model for the fictional character Adam Schiff on “Law & Order,” one of the series’ original leads played by actor Steven Hill.

The office has a budget of about $150 million and has used a separate $800 million forfeiture fund bankrolled by Wall Street settlements for grants to criminal justice and community organizations and big initiatives, such as testing backlogged rape kits.

Are district attorneys elected?

Bragg is one of five elected district attorneys in New York City — one for each of the city’s five boroughs. Bragg won a tough Democratic primary and then the general election to become Manhattan’s district attorney. He took over for retiring District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.

Bragg is just the fourth elected district attorney in Manhattan in the last eight decades. Frank Hogan served for 31 years. Robert Morgenthau was in office for 34 years, until he was 90. Vance retired at the end of 2021 after 12 years.

What is Bragg’s legal background?

Bragg’s career includes time as a federal prosecutor, an assistant attorney general for the state of New York and a civil rights attorney who represented Eric Garner’s mother as she pressured New York City officials for more accountability against the officers and commanders involved in her son’s 2014 death by a police chokehold.

Bragg’s campaign included promises to change the culture of the office and allied him with other progressive prosecutors aiming to eliminate cash bail.Shortly after taking office, he released a public memo promising the district attorney would no longer prosecute some low-level misdemeanor crimes.

Bragg, who grew up in Harlem, graduated from Harvard Law School.

How was Bragg involved with the Trump indictment?

Bragg inherited a yearslong grand jury investigation into hush money paid on Trump’s behalf during his 2016 presidential campaign.

After taking office, Bragg slowed down his office’s move toward an indictment against Trump and said he had concerns about the strength of the case. That sparked a public protest by two prosecutors who were leading the investigation and resigned.

But Bragg convened a new grand jury early this year after successfully convicting Trump’s family company for tax fraud. He called that result a “strong demarcation line” for proceeding with other parts of the probe.

In general, the grand jury process is seen as extremely favorable to prosecutors.

Proceedings are closed to the public and there is no judge. Prosecutors call and question witnesses and grand jurors — people drawn from the community — can ask questions. Grand jurors can either agree there is enough evidence to issue an indictment, find there is not enough evidence or tell the prosecutor to file lesser charges. source

Related to Trump’s Indictment : 

Can Donald Trump still run for president despite indictment?

Why was Trump indicted? What to expect in New York hush money case

Who is Alvin Bragg? What to know about the Manhattan district attorney

We as a Nation Must Learn about Political Oppression and Protect Trump! Justice is Alvin Bragg being Disbarred

Alvin Bragg Parents & Ethnicity:- Alvin is an American lawyer along with being a democratic politician from the state of New York. He was elected on 2 November 2021 as the new York County District Attorney. He has become the first African-American and the first person of color elected to that office. He served as a chief deputy attorney general at New York State Attorney General’s Office from December 2017 to December 2018.

Alvin Bragg’s Parents (Father & Mother), Siblings

In this paragraph, we will read about Alvin’s father & Mother. He was born to Alvin Sr. ( Father ) and Sadie ( Mother ). His parents’ professional details are not known.

Alvin Bragg Ethnicity, Nationality

Alvin Bragg Wiki, Age, Biography

Alvin is well known as an American lawyer and Democratic politician. He is better known for his birth name Alvin Leonard Bragg Jr. He took birth in Harlem, New York, United States on 21 October 1973.

Alvin is 21 years as of 2022. He has American nationality. He completed his high school study at Trinity School. He received his Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School. He completed his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in 1995.

Alvin Bragg’s Wife, Children

Alvin Bragg is a married man. His wife’s name is Jamila Marie Ponton. He got married to her in 2003. This couple is blessed with 2 children whose names are not found yet.

Alvin Bragg Height, Weight

Alvin Bragg Career & Early Life

Alvin started his career as a Law Clerk with Hon. Robert P. Patterson, Jr. in September 1999 in Southern District of New York but left this job in September 2000.

He was the associate at Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello PC from 2000 to 2003.

Bragg was the Assistant Attorney General at the Office of the New York State Attorney General from 2003 to 2006 in New York, New York.

He was the chief of Litigation & Investigations at New York City Council from 2006 to 2009.

Alvin served as an Assistant United States Attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice from 2009 to May 2013 in New York, NY.

He served as an executive Deputy Attorney General for social justice at New York State Attorney General’s Office from June 2013 to December 2017j.

Bragg served as a chief deputy attorney general at New York State Attorney General’s Office from December 2017 to December 2018.

He has been serving as a candidate for Manhattan District Attorney since June 2019 in New York.

Alvin has been serving as the visiting professor and co-director of, the racial justice project at New York Law School since January 2019. source

Alvin Bragg Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube

FAQ About Alvin Bragg

Q.1 Who is Alvin Bragg?

Ans. Alvin is an American lawyer along with being a democratic politician from the state of New York.

Q.2 What is Alvin Bragg’s Age?

Ans. Alvin Bragg’s age is 48 years old as of 2022.

Q.3 Where does Alvin Bragg Lives?

Ans. Alvin Bragg lives in Central Harlem, New York City.

Q.4 Who is Alvin Bragg’s father?

Ans. Alvin Bragg’s father’s name is Alvin Sr.

Q.5 Who is Alvin Bragg’s Mother?

Ans. Alvin Bragg’s mother’s name is Sadie.

A grand jury in New York announced Thursday an indictment against Donald Trump, the first criminal case ever brought against a former U.S. president.

The indictment is an extraordinary development after years of investigations into Trump’s business, political and personal dealings. Trump is currently ramping up to regain the White House in 2024 while simultaneously battling other legal problems.

A Manhattan grand jury has voted to indict Donald Trump on charges involving payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter, his lawyers said Thursday, producing the first criminal case against a former U.S. president and a jolt to Trump’s bid to retake the White House.

Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing and has repeatedly attacked the investigation, called the indictment “political persecution” and predicted it would damage Democrats in 2024.

The indictment is an extraordinary development after years of investigations into his business, political and personal dealings. It is likely to galvanize critics who say Trump lied and cheated his way to the top and embolden supporters who feel the Republican is being unfairly targeted by a Democratic prosecutor.

In a statement, his lawyers, Susan Necheles and Joseph Tacopina, said: “He did not commit any crime. We will vigorously fight this political prosecution in court.”

Yes, Trump can still run for president

Nothing in the U.S. Constitution prohibits candidates with criminal records from holding office.

The only qualifications needed to run is to be at least 35 years old and be a natural born citizen who has lived in the country for at least 14 years.

However, according to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, a person who has engaged in an insurrection or rebellion against the United States, cannot hold office unless overcome with a two-thirds vote from Congress.

Minutes after the indictment was announced Thursday, Trump released a lengthy statement calling it the next step in a campaign from the left “to destroy the Make America Great Again movement.”

“The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to ‘Get Trump,’ but now they’ve done the unthinkable – indicting a completely innocent person in an act of blatant Election Interference,” Trump’s statement said.

Trump accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of “doing Joe Biden’s dirty work, ignoring the murders and burglaries and assaults he should be focused on.”

Alina Habba, an attorney for Trump, said the former president is a victim “of a corrupt and distorted version of the American justice system and history. He will be vindicated.”

An indictment wouldn’t stop Trump from continuing his campaign. There is no prohibition against running while facing criminal charges — or even following conviction. Indeed, convicted felons have run for president before, including from behind bars.

How will this impact his chances of winning in 2024?

Trump faces other potential legal perils 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 district attorney in Atlanta has for two years been investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to meddle in Georgia’s 2020 vote count. And a U.S. Justice Department special counsel is investigating Trump’s storage of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida and his efforts to reverse his election loss.

Politically, Trump allies believe the case actually will benefit the former president in the short term by energizing his base in a competitive Republican primary, and would provide another boost later on if it ultimately fails to yield a conviction.

“The prosecutor in New York has done more to help Donald Trump get elected,” says Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., echoing other GOP officials, who have also argued the probe will likely help Trump in the short term, even if it could prove damaging in a general election.

“It boggles the mind to think that we have an ex-president on the eve of being indicted still the frontrunner for the Republican Party in 2024,” said presidential historian Douglas Brinkley weeks before Trump was indicted. “You would have thought (potentially) being arrested would have been a disqualifying factor in presidential politics. But Trump constantly surprises people by his devious and inappropriate behavior that he transcends by turning it into being a victim of a witch hunt.” source

Can Trump still run for president if indicted? Convicted? How indictment could affect 2024

Donald Trump has become the first former president to face criminal charges in U.S. history, indicted in New York for the role he played in paying hush money to a porn star.

The historic indictment raises many questions as the country barrels toward the 2024 presidential election, in which Trump is the leading candidate for the Republican nomination.

Whether the indictment will help or hinder Trump politically is yet to be seen, though early fundraising numbers suggest the charges have mobilized his base. But experts say legally, the indictment changes little for how the former president can proceed in his bid for the nation’s highest office.

Can Trump still run for president if indicted? Convicted?

“Absolutely,” said Jessica Levinson, founding director of Loyola Law School’s Public Service Institute.

The Constitution lays out the exclusive qualifications to run for the presidency, she said.

There are three requirements:

• Natural-born citizen.
• At least 35 years old.
• Resident of the U.S. for at least 14 years.

“That could be because the founders just didn’t envision that we would have people who are facing indictment and potentially conviction running for the highest office in the land,” she said.

In fact, the former president has said he does not plan to drop out of the 2024 race despite his legal problems.

“I won’t even think about leaving,” Trump told reporters before a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in March.

“Probably, it’ll enhance my numbers.”

What is an arraignment?:What the legal proceeding means following Trump’s indictment

Why was Trump indicted?

The charges against Trump have not been made public. But the New York grand jury was investigating the former president for a $130,000 payment he made just before the 2016 election to silence adult film star Stormy Daniels about an earlier affair.

Trump has denied the affair and any wrongdoing, calling the investigation a politically motivated “witch hunt” and urging his supporters to protest his treatment. Trump lawyer Joseph Tacopina called the indictment a “political prosecution” and said Trump’s team would fight it in court.

How does a grand jury work?

Grand juries decide whether a prosecutor’s evidence provides probable cause to issue an indictment, according to Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute.

Usually made up of 16 to 23 people, grand juries meet in private as an investigative body independent of a prosecuting attorney or judge. A district attorney shows the grand jury evidence and asks jurors to consider certain charges, David Weinstein, a former federal and state prosecutor, told USA TODAY.

Then the jury votes in secret on whether enough evidence exists to charge someone with a crime. If the majority of the jury believes a person committed a crime, it returns with an indictment. If it does not, the person is not required to plead to a criminal charge and there is no trial.

To be a grand juror in New York, where Trump was indicted, a person must be a U.S. citizen, at least 18 years old, a resident of the county to which they’re summoned to serve and able to understand and communicate in English. A person can’t have a felony conviction.

What is a grand jury?:What to know about the jury that voted to indict Trump.

What law is Trump accused of breaking?

The exact charges Trump faces are still unknown. But the grand jury’s investigation gives some insight into the law or laws the former president may have broken.

Public information from witnesses who have been debriefed by prosecutors and provided testimony to the grand jury indicate that the investigation’s main focus has not strayed far from the payment Trump made to Daniels ahead of his 2016 campaign.

The hush money payment could be used to build a case for falsifying business records and violating campaign finance law.

“The crime here appears to be the falsification of business records to conceal the hush money payments by falsely describing them as legal fees,” said Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney and now law professor at the University of Michigan. “The crime becomes a felony if it covers up another crime.”

Is hush money legal?

A hush money payment itself is not illegal, according to Levinson and McQuade.

“In this case, it appears that Stormy Daniels sold the rights to her story about an alleged affair with Trump to the National Enquirer, giving it exclusive rights to print it,” McQuade said. “The National Enquirer chose to never print the story. As long as Daniels got paid, there is no crime in that contractual arrangement.”

How will Trump’s indictment affect the 2024 presidential race?

Legally, not much. But politically, it could be a different story.

Trump indicted after Manhattan DA probe for hush money payments

The charges against Trump relate to payments made to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election

Former President Donald Trump has been indicted as part of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office’s years-long investigation, possibly for hush money payments.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has been investigating Trump for hush money payments made leading up to the 2016 presidential election.

TRUMP INDICTMENT: LIVE UPDATES

Hush money payments made to both McDougal and Daniels were revealed and reported by Fox News in 2018. Those payments had been investigated by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York and by the Federal Election Commission.

Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York opted out of charging Trump related to the Stormy Daniels payment in 2019, even as Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen implicated him as part of his plea deal. The Federal Election Commission also tossed its investigation into the matter in 2021.

“This evening we contacted Mr. Trump’s attorney to coordinate his surrender to the Manhattan D.A.’s Office for arraignment on a Supreme Court indictment, which remains under seal,” a spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said in a statement Thursday. “Guidance will be provided when the arraignment date is selected.”

Trump reacted to his indictment, slamming Bragg for his “obsession” with trying to “get Trump,” while warning the move to charge a former president of the United States will “backfire.”

Former U.S. President Donald J. Trump at a rally in Arizona. (Brandon Bell)

“This is Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history,” Trump said in a statement. “From the time I came down the golden escalator at Trump Tower, and even before I was sworn in as your President of the United States, the Radical Left Democrats – the enemy of the hard-working men and women of this Country – have been engaged in a Witch-Hunt to destroy the Make America Great Again movement.”

“The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to ‘Get Trump,’ but now they’ve done the unthinkable—indicting a completely innocent person in an act of blatant Election Interference,” he said. “Never before in our Nation’s history has this been done.”

Trump attorney Alina Habba said Trump “is a victim of a corrupt and distorted version of the American justice system and history.”

“He will be vindicated,” she said.

TRUMP SAYS ‘ILLEGAL LEAKS’ INDICATE HE’LL BE ARRESTED TUESDAY April 11th 2023

Bragg, when he took over as district attorney in January 2022, stopped pursuing charges against Trump and suspended the investigation “indefinitely,” according to one of the top prosecutors who resigned from the office in protest.

Prosecutors Mark Pomerantz and Carey Dunne, who had been leading the investigation under former DA Cyrus Vance, submitted their resignations after Bragg began raising doubts about pursuing a case against Trump.

Trump, earlier this month, cited reports, which were based on what he called “illegal leaks,” that suggested he could be arrested on Tuesday, March 21. Trump posted about those reports on his TRUTH Social, leading the House Judiciary Committee to intervene, demanding Bragg testify before the panel.

Republican lawmakers and allies of Trump blasted the investigation as a political prosecution and a “weaponization” of the office of the district attorney.

Bragg, last week, claimed that Trump “created a false expectation” that his arrest was imminent, citing the former president’s TRUTH Social post, and slammed the committee for making an “unprecedented inquiry into a pending local prosecution.”

“The Letter only came after Donald Trump created a false expectation that he would be arrested the next day and his lawyers reportedly urged you to intervene,” Bragg wrote in a letter to the committee. “Neither fact is a legitimate basis for congressional inquiry.”

Last week, Robert Costello, a former legal advisor to Michael Cohen, testified before the grand jury last Monday that Cohen was a “serial liar,” and testified that Trump did not know about the payments made by Cohen to Daniels.

Bragg then canceled grand jury proceedings related to the Trump probe on Wednesday and Thursday.

Sources, at the time, told Fox News Digital that there was “major dissension” within the district attorney’s office. One source claimed the district attorney is having trouble convincing the grand jury on potential charges due to the “weakness” of the case.

Cohen, in 2018, was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to federal charges, including tax evasion, lying to Congress, and campaign finance violations. Cohen pleaded guilty to arranging payments to Daniels and McDougal to prevent them from going public with alleged affairs with Trump, which Trump has repeatedly denied.

Cohen has said Trump directed the payments—which the former president has denied for years.

Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 through his own company and was later reimbursed by Trump’s company, which logged the payments as “legal expenses.” McDougal received $150,000 through the publisher of the supermarket tabloid the National Enquirer.

The Trump Organization “grossed up” Cohen’s reimbursement for Daniels’ payment for “tax purposes,” according to federal prosecutors who filed the 2018 criminal charges against Cohen for the payments.

Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing with regard to the payments made to Daniels and McDougal, and has repeatedly said the payments were “not a campaign violation,” but rather a “simple private transaction.”

Michael Cohen, former attorney to President Donald Trump, pleaded guilty to federal charges in 2018. (AP Photo/Kevin Hagen, File) (AP )

The payments to Daniels were first revealed in January 2018 in a Wall Street Journal report that said Cohen and Daniels’ lawyer negotiated a nondisclosure agreement to prevent her from publicly discussing the supposed sexual encounter with Trump.

At the time, though, Cohen, Trump, and even Stormy Daniels denied the arrangement.

In January 2018, Cohen said the alleged encounter between Daniels and Trump was a rumor that had circulated “since 2011.”

And in a letter dated Jan. 10, 2018, obtained and reviewed by Fox News, Daniels also denied the allegations.

“I recently became aware that certain news outlets are alleging that I had a sexual and/or romantic affair with Donald Trump many, many, many years ago. I am stating with complete clarity that this is absolutely false,” Daniels wrote. “My involvement with Donald Trump was limited to a few public appearances and nothing more.”

Daniels wrote in the letter that when she met Trump, he was “gracious, professional and a complete gentleman to me and EVERYONE in my presence.”

“Rumors that I have received hush money from Donald Trump are completely false,” the letter read. “If indeed I did have a relationship with Donald Trump, trust me, you wouldn’t be reading about it in the news, you would be reading about it in my book. But the fact of the matter is, these stories are not true.”

But in March 2018, Daniels changed her story. During an interview with CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” Daniels claimed she had a one-time, unprotected sexual encounter with Trump.

Meanwhile, as for the McDougal payment, David Pecker, the former CEO of American Media Inc., testified before the Manhattan grand jury Monday. It was at least the second time he has appeared before the panel as part of Bragg’s Trump investigation.

American Media Inc. is the parent company and publisher of National Enquirer. The company allegedly bought McDougal’s story from her, in which she claimed a past affair with then-candidate Donald Trump, for $150,000 in September 2016—weeks before the 2016 presidential election.

Donald Trump announces 2024 re-election run for president

Federal prosecutors in SDNY decided in 2018 not to bring charges against American Media Inc. for spending $150,000 to buy, then conceal, McDougal’s story.

At the time, American Media Inc., “admitted that its principal purpose in making the payment was to suppress the woman’s story so as to prevent it from influencing the election.”

The charges against the former president come after the Federal Election Commission, in 2021, dropped its case on the same issue— examining whether Trump violated election law with the $130,000 payment made to Stormy Daniels, after it “failed by a vote of 2-2 to…find reason to believe that Donald J. Trump knowingly and willfully violated” federal election law.”

Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump, who sit at the heart of a potential historic first indictment against a former U.S. president. (AP)

The investigation into Trump was opened in 2019 by then-Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance. The probe was focused on possible bank, insurance and tax fraud. The case initially involved financial dealings of Trump’s Manhattan properties, including his flagship Fifth Avenue building, Trump Tower, and the valuation of his 213-acre estate Seven Springs in Westchester.

The investigation, last year, led to tax fraud charges against The Trump Organization, and its finance chief Allen Weisselberg.

https://www.youtube.com/live/KAwM4g_MVRA?feature=shareMANHATTAN DA’S OFFICE ‘ASKED FOR A MEETING’ WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT AHEAD OF POSSIBLE TRUMP INDICTMENT

Weisselberg was accused of collecting more than $1.7 million in off-the-books compensation, including apartment rent, car payments and school tuition.

Weisselberg, who pleaded guilty last year, was sentenced in January to five months in prison and five years of probation. His testimony last year helped convict the Trump Organization of tax fraud.

Meanwhile, the charges against Trump come amid a separate, special counsel investigation into his alleged improper retention of classified records from his presidency at his Mar-a-Lago home.

Last August, the FBI, in an unprecedented move, raided Trump’s private residence at Mar-a-Lago in connection with an investigation into classified records the former president allegedly took with him from the White House.

Attorney General Merrick Garland (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Attorney General Merrick Garland later appointed Jack Smith as special counsel to take over that investigation, and the Justice Department’s investigation into the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021 — specifically whether Trump or other officials and entities interfered with the peaceful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election, including the certification of the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6, 2021.

The charges against Trump also come while New York Attorney General Letitia James continues her years-long civil investigation into the Trump Organization to find out whether Trump and his company improperly inflated the value of assets on financial statements in order to obtain loans and tax benefits.

our 2 favorites Brooke Singman , Marta Dhanis | source

The whopping outrage in Trump’s indictment

Bragg’s indictment of Trump is a classic abuse of power

Much ink has already been spilt on the egregious heap of due process violations Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has piled up in his prosecution of former President Donald Trump.

There is the fact that he is better understood as an elected progressive Democrat who won office in the Big Blue Apple by vowing to leverage his power against the Democrats’ arch nemesis, not as a good faith law-enforcement official who takes seriously the duty to ensure equal protection of the laws to all Americans.

There is his invocation of trivial business-records misdemeanors against a partisan foe at the same time he is refusing to enforce felony offenses against hardened criminals who prey on New Yorkers.

There is his apparent attempt to transmogrify misdemeanors into felonies by alleging a federal campaign finance violation that he has no jurisdiction to enforce, and that the federal prosecutors and regulators who do have jurisdiction declined to prosecute due to lack of evidence.

But let’s hone in on newly emerging prosecutorial misconduct.

If reporting is accurate — and note that the reporting is based on information from Trump lawyers after Bragg’s office advised them of the indictment — then the district attorney has charged a whopping 34 counts against Trump. Thirty-four counts … in a case, again, that federal prosecutors decided wasn’t worth charging at all.

Several members of the NYPD enter Trump Tower in New York on Friday. Former President Donald Trump was indicted Thursday by a Manhattan grand jury, a historic reckoning after years of investigations into his personal, political and business dealings and an abrupt jolt to his bid to retake the White House.  (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston)

This is a classic abuse of power. Unscrupulous prosecutors will sometimes camouflage with quantity their case’s lack of quality.

When serious crimes have been committed, prosecutors do not need to run up the score with a high number of counts. A single charge, or a handful of them, provides the court with more than enough years of sentencing exposure. Once convicted, a serious criminal in that kind of case will be incarcerated for a very long time — even for life.

By contrast, if prosecutors do not have evidence of a serious crime, by loading up an indictment with dozens of charges, they can try to signal to the eventual trial jury that the defendant must be guilty of something. They hope the jurors will assume that, even if the evidence doesn’t seem strong, the government wouldn’t have alleged so many crimes unless the defendant was a truly diabolical criminal.

This is a significant enough due process abuse that, in federal law, the Justice Department has guidance directing prosecutors not to engage in it:

In order to promote the fair administration of justice, as well as the perception of justice, all United States Attorneys should charge in indictments and informations as few separate counts as are reasonably necessary to prosecute fully and successfully and to provide for a fair sentence on conviction.To the extent reasonable, indictments and informations should be limited to fifteen counts or less, so long as such a limitation does not jeopardize successful prosecution or preclude a sentence appropriate to the nature and extent of the offenses involved.

If Bragg is indicting 34 counts over this nonsense, it’s because he doesn’t have one count he would be indicting if he were doing his job right.

By Andrew McCarthy | Fox News

Former AG Barr says Trump indictment designed to spoil GOP’s shot at the White House in 2024

Barr called the indictment a ‘pathetically weak case’

Former Attorney General Bill Barr said Friday that he suspects Democrats are pushing the indictment of former President Trump to help him win the 2024 Republican nomination in the hopes that Trump’s legal baggage will sink him in the general election.

“I think the impetus is really to help Trump get the nomination, focus the attention on him for two years, have this thing swirling around, plus whatever else comes which I think will be damaging to whoever gets the nomination,” Barr, one of Trump’s attorneys general, said Friday at the National Review Institute Ideas Summit.

Barr generally dismissed the Trump indictment as a politically motivated event.

TRUMP TO BE ARRAIGNED TUESDAY WITHOUT HANDCUFFS, SOURCES SAY

Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“And it’s a disgrace if … it turns out to be what we think it is. Politically, it’s going to be damaging, I think, to the Republican Party, simply because, I think, it’s a no-lose situation for the Democrats,” he said.

“And legally, I think … from what I understand, it’s a pathetically weak case,” Barr added.

Barr appeared along with Andrew McCarthy, a former U.S. Assistant Attorney for the Southern District of New York and senior fellow at the National Review Institute.

Trump was indicted after Manhattan District Attorney Alivn Bragg had been investigating Trump for hush money payments made leading up to the 2016 presidential election.

RON DESANTIS SAYS HE WILL REFUSE ANY EXTRADITION REQUEST AFTER TRUMP INDICTMENT: ‘QUESTIONABLE CIRCUMSTANCES’

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg ((Photo by ALEX KENT/AFP via Getty Images))

Bragg has been investigating the $130,000 hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and the $150,000 payment made to former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

TRUMP INDICTED AFTER MANHATTAN DA PROBE FOR HUSH MONEY PAYMENT

Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York opted out of charging Trump related to the Stormy Daniels payment in 2019. The Federal Election Commission also tossed its investigation into the matter in 2021.

Donald Trump is the first former president to be indicted on criminal charges. ( SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images))

Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing with regard to the payments made to Daniels and McDougal, and he has repeatedly said the payments were “not a campaign violation,” but rather a “simple private transaction.”

He is expected to be arraigned in court on Tuesday, a law enforcement source has told Fox News.

Former President Donald Trump said leaks indicate that he will be arrested on Tuesday next week after reports said the Manhattan District Attorney’s office is preparing to issue an indictment for alleged hush money payments Trump made as a presidential candidate in 2016.

On Saturday morning, Trump posted about the possible indictment on Truth Social, indicating that he will be “ARRESTED ON TUESDAY.”

“NOW ILLEGAL LEAKS FROM A CORRUPT & HIGHLY POLITICAL MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEYS OFFICE, WHICH HAS ALLOWED NEW RECORDS TO BE SET IN VIOLENT CRIME & WHOSE LEADER IS FUNDED BY GEORGE SOROS, INDICATE THAT, WITH NO CRIME BEING ABLE TO BE PROVEN, & BASED ON AN OLD & FULLY DEBUNKED (BY NUMEROUS OTHER PROSECUTORS!) FAIRYTALE, THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!,” Trump wrote.

A Trump spokesperson echoed the former president’s social media post, saying, “There has been no notification, other than illegal leaks from the Justice Dept. and the DA’s office, to NBC and other fake news carriers, that the George Soros-funded Radical Left Democrat prosecutor in Manhattan has decided to take his Witch-Hunt to the next level.”

“President Trump is rightfully highlighting his innocence and the weaponization of our injustice system. He will be in Texas next weekend for a giant rally. Make America Great Again!” the spokesperson added.

MANHATTAN DA’S OFFICE ‘ASKED FOR A MEETING’ WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT AHEAD OF POSSIBLE TRUMP INDICTMENT

Former President Donald Trump is accused of making illegal hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016 to prevent her from disclosing her 2006 sexual liaison with Trump.  (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Towards the end of the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen sent $130,000 to Daniels to prevent her from disclosing her 2006 affair with Trump. Trump reimbursed Cohen through installments. (Reuters)

NEW YORK PROSECUTORS SIGNAL TRUMP MAY FACE CRIMINAL CHARGES FROM STORMY DANIELS SCANDAL

A court source told Fox News Digital that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office will meet with law enforcement to “discuss logistics for some time next week, which would mean that they are anticipating an indictment next week.”

The potential indictment stems from the yearslong investigation surrounding Trump’s alleged hush money scandal involving porn star Stormy Daniels. Toward the end of the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen sent $130,000 to Daniels to prevent her from disclosing her 2006 affair with Trump. Trump reimbursed Cohen through installments.

TRUMP ATTORNEY CALLS OUT ‘COMPLETELY WEAPONIZED’ LEGAL SYSTEM AS MANHATTAN DA WEIGHS INDICTMENT

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg will reportedly bring charges against Trump in connection to his Stormy Daniels scandal.  (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)

In a lengthy statement to Fox News Digital, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung blasted the investigation as a “witch hunt” and accused Bragg of being in the pocket of President Biden and “radical Democrats.”

“President Donald J. Trump is completely innocent, he did nothing wrong, and even the biggest, most Radical Left Democrats are making that clear,” Cheung said.

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Reached for comment Friday, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office would neither “confirm or comment” on the impending indictment.

By Chris Pandolfo | Fox News