But it isn’t the only legal case Trump is dealing with. There are at least three additional ongoing investigations that could result in further indictments.
Just a quick word on pardons before we dive into these cases. Only federal cases are subject to presidential pardons. The New York and Georgia cases are subject to pardons from the respective governors of those states.
New York Case
Trump was arraigned by Manhattan District Attorney (DA) Alvin Bragg on 34 counts of making false business entries in furtherance of some other, unnamed crime.
Let’s try to break it down. The fact that there are 34 counts means nothing whatsoever other than that the district attorney inflated one count into 34 counts.
That one count pertains to events in 2016, when Trump’s then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, allegedly paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in hush money, which was then repaid to Cohen by Trump. What Bragg did is divide the $130,000 repayment into 34 separate counts. The trick he used is that he charged each monthly payment as a separate offense, even though they all pertain to the same transaction.
He further subdivided each payment into three separate offenses, that being the invoicing, the entry into the business records, and the actual payment. By doing so, anyone, in theory, could create as many crimes as they want—and that’s exactly what happened, because the DA’s office knew that the media would run the “34 counts” headlines that would sound more impressive than if it were just one.
So then what about the substance of the charge, irrespective of whether it’s one or broken up into 34?
The charges of falsifying business records relate to bookkeeping records of an alleged hush money payment of $130,000 to Daniels. Bragg alleges that Trump “made and caused false” entries in the business records of enterprises “kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.” Trump is said to have done this with “intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission” of that crime.
The first problem is that because Trump was president at the time that this allegedly happened, it’s highly unlikely that he was in New York telling an accountant how exactly to file the entries.
Problem No. 2, which is a much bigger problem, is that in order for the false business records charge to be a felony, instead of just a minor slap on the wrist, it needs to be attached to another crime. But the DA hasn’t said what this other supposed crime is.
It’s unclear what law Bragg is talking about, but the Sixth Amendment guarantees defendants’ rights, including the right to be told the exact nature of the charges and evidence. That’s obviously not the case here.
In simple terms, it appears that Bragg made something up, without telling the public or the defendant what it is, in order to charge Trump with a felony, which he couldn’t have done without making something up.
In fact, as Bragg’s indictment admits, all checks that compose the $130,000 payment were from Trump’s personal money, not company money. In total, there were 11 checks, nine of which were personal checks and two that came from a personal revocable trust. Predictably, the media collectively misreported this fact, instead claiming that the money had come from The Trump Organization. So Bragg will need to explain how exactly he supposes that the transaction affected the business records of the company.
Then there’s the big picture, which is that the entire case is solely based on the say-so of a convicted perjurer, Michael Cohen. Cohen’s story has changed over time, from claiming that he paid Daniels out of the goodness of his heart without telling anyone to claiming that Trump masterminded everything.
Georgia Case
The next case we’re probably going to hear more about is the election interference case out of Fulton County, Georgia. Recall that there were allegations of all kinds of shenanigans in the county in the 2020 presidential election.More importantly, the entire conversation on Trump’s part is littered with references to how he was cheated in Georgia—allegations of false signature matching, forged ballots, ballot dumps, shredded ballots, removal of machines, and on and on. The point is not that Trump is right or not right about those claims, only that he explained why he thought that he had legally obtained far more than the missing 11,000 signatures.
Because of this, the whole case immediately becomes a farce because Trump was well within his rights to express his criticisms of what happened in Georgia. We also know that the jury foreperson in the Georgia case, who gave interviews on national television, appears unserious and influenced by bias.
Jan. 6 Investigation
That leaves the special counsel cases being investigated by Jack Smith. First, there’s the issue as it relates to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach.Trump has been acquitted by the Senate of inciting an insurrection, but this hasn’t stopped Smith from taking up the case.
Mar-a-Lago Documents Case
So that leaves only the Mar-a-Lago documents case.The fact that Trump had some documents at his home that he allegedly wasn’t supposed to have isn’t going to be a huge issue because President Joe Biden would have to be charged with the same offenses, given his own document scandal.
Trump has the added benefit of being able to claim that he had declassified the documents—which Biden, who was vice president at the time, can’t claim. It also can’t be an Espionage Act issue because the Espionage Act doesn’t prohibit the retention of classified documents.
So that leaves only one issue, which is a potential obstruction of justice charge. And this is the only issue that might have some legal teeth, most likely not for Trump but perhaps for one of his lawyers.
What happened was that the Department of Justice demanded—via subpoena—that Trump turn over any documents “marked” classified. Not classified documents but those marked classified. In other words, any documents that happened to have any classification markings on them, irrespective of their actual classification status, were covered by the subpoena. As we now know, not all such documents were turned over, and some were later found during the Aug. 8, 2022, FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago.
Did Corcoran throw Trump under the bus, like Michael Cohen did years earlier? Again, that seems very unlikely.
So there you have it. Those are the Trump cases that appear to not amount to much. However, given that this is Trump and the years of effort to target him, it wouldn’t be surprising if more cases pop up.
