As Trump’s criminal trial in the so-called “hush money” case finally gets underway, I am answering some questions — with the perspective of my legal background — that may help some of you make counterarguments to any Trump-loving friends that you may have.
This case is not about “hush money”
This case is not about “hush money”: it is about election interference. Hush money — the money that was paid to Stormy Daniels — is just the vehicle for that election interference. In other words, Trump paid the hush money and falsified records in order to (1) influence the election by not letting the activity with Stormy Daniels to become publicly known, and (2) he tried to hide that campaign money was used to make those payments.
For those who believe that this case doesn’t mean anything, I will just point out that Michael Cohen was convicted of (or pled guilty to) a number of federal charges with respect to these hush money payments, and he did so on behalf of Donald Trump.
He fell on his sword.
For Donald Trump.
Cohen ended up serving over two years in prison or house arrest (the house arrest being a function of the Covid-19 pandemic).
If Michael Cohen can serve prison time because of what he did on behalf of Donald Trump, so can Donald Trump on behalf of his own actions.
The Timing of this case is the fault of Donald Trump
The Timing of this case is the fault of Donald Trump, not of Democrats. The fact that there are four criminal trials ongoing while Trump is running for President is not the fault of Democrats or anyone else. It is the fault of Donald Trump. Every reasonable person knows that Trump has — as he so often does — has been trying to run out the clock, with the hope that he can become President before he is convicted of any crimes. In that case he could simply have all of the federal cases dropped, leaving only the Georgia election interference case.
Absolute Immunity is not a question here.
Absolute Immunity is not a question here, because this all involves activity before Trump became President. Trump has, as most people know, a case heading up to the Supreme Court relative to his claim that he has absolute immunity for his actions as President.
Spoiler alert: he doesn’t.
That case will not impact this case, because all of the activity in the “hush money” case happened before Trump became President, and while he was still a private citizen. It doesn’t matter what the Supreme Court decides on the “absolute immunity” case.
This is not a “political prosecution”
Trump has long claimed that he is above the law, including his famous claim from 2016 that he could “shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any voters.” What Trump wants is political absolution, under which the fact that he is running for President would allow him to escape any legal consequences.
Again.
Trump had to be indicted by four separate grand juries, who found that he had committed an aggregate total of 91 crimes. If he weren’t running for President, he would already be in jail, waiting for his trials to start, which would be the case for anyone not running for President. (In case you don’t know, pre-trial detention is not the same thing as incarceration after conviction.) Again, as always, Trump is not fighting for your Republican friends, or anyone else; he wants special treatment exempting him from all the normal rules.