BROOKLYN, NY - Many who have closely followed the persecution, er prosecution, of President-elect Donald Trump by rotund Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg have long tried to find out exactly what underlying crime Trump was charged with that elevated his 34 charges from misdemeanors to felonies.
This allowed Bragg to resurrect a misdemeanor falsification of business records case against Trump and drop the 34 felony charges against him.
A fascinating post in National Review contrasted the case against Trump with that against a man named Dominique Morgan, who identifies as a woman and who, according to the outlet, has “made a career drifting off activism related to that…lifestyle.”
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez has charged Morgan with the same offenses Bragg charged Trump with–23 counts versus 34 for Trump. However, Andrew McCarthy, former Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, noted one stark difference between the prosecutions of Trump and Morgan–Morgan at least knew the underlying crime he was charged with.
McCarthy explained that under New York law, falsifying a business record is a misdemeanor (Section 175.05 of the state penal law). It becomes a felony (under Section 175.10) “only if the fraudulent intent that spurred the falsification included ‘an attempt to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof.’”
This is where things get murky in the Trump case. Bragg never explained publicly, nor did he make the Trump defense team aware of the underlying crime that elevated the cases from misdemeanors (where the statute of limitations had expired) to a felony (which has a five-year statute of limitations).
According to McCarthy, “the other crime is critical: It makes the potential penalty up to four years’ imprisonment and extends to five years the statute of limitations for prosecuting the offense–compared with the misdemeanor offense, which carries a max penalty of just one year and has a tight two-year statute-of-limitations period beyond which the charge is time-barred.”
In other words, if Bragg didn’t work his magic, the statute of limitations passed, and he couldn’t charge Trump. In the case of Trump, he was only charged with the falsification of business records charges, while none of the “underlying” charges were filed.
In the case of Morgan, the Brooklyn DA, Eric Gonzales, did precisely what was required. The allegations are that Morgan converted $99,000 to his own use from the Okra Project, an advocacy group where he worked. When it was discovered that he “misappropriated” the $99,000, he falsely said he’d made bail payments for 23 individuals allegedly arrested in Nebraska and Georgia. Morgan was, therefore, charged with 23 first-degree business records counts in order to conceal the grand larceny.
In working with his attorney to establish a defense on the falsification charges, Morgan didn’t have to guess the underlying charges. They were spelled out for him, unlike in the case of Donald Trump. McCarthy notes that under the US Constitution and the New York Constitution, Morgan has been advised explicitly of what he is being charged with. In the case of a jury trial, they would have to find (without a reasonable doubt) that he committed grand larceny in order to find him guilty of first-degree business records falsification charges. That is called due process, a hallmark of our legal system. It is non-negotiable.
Donald Trump was denied his due process rights guaranteed under the US and New York constitutions. The indictment prepared by Bragg did not specify the underlying charges he allegedly committed or concealed by “falsifying” business records, a clear injustice.
Bragg attempted to use a federal campaign finance offense as the underlying charge, but Trump was never charged with that. In fact, the Federal Election Commission found that Trump did not violate their regulations. Furthermore, Bragg has no jurisdiction to charge federal campaign-related charges.
Bragg isn’t the only official to abdicate their authority. Anti-Trump Judge Juan Merchan permitted Bragg to spit on the law and the Constitution by creating his own standards for federal campaign law, McCarthy wrote, while also failing to instruct the jury on mens rea (wilfulness) in order to find a defendant guilty. Moreover, Bragg was allowed to present to the jury three different theories of the underlying crime (federal campaign finance, falsification of other records, possible tax crimes), however, Merchan also instructed the jury that they didn’t need to be unanimous on which underlying charge, again a violation of due process, McCarthy wrote.
Bragg and Merchan both spit on the legal system in an attempt to exact political revenge on Donald Trump. Why is it that Morgan, on trial in the same city but in a different judicial district, received his full due process rights from DA Gonzalez while Donald Trump got the shaft in Bragg’s Manhattan? As McCarthy writes, “If DA Bragg had a solid other crime, he would have charged it in the indictment, just as DA Gonzalez has done in Morgan’s case.”
Nearly all of Trump’s pending cases have been dismissed due to his election, and even though all were extremely weak at best, they weren’t as weak as the Manhattan business records case. McCarthy wrote, "Bragg should move to dismiss the case next Tuesday, when Manhattan prosecutors have been ordered to advise Judge Merchan of their views on how, or whether, the case should continue.”
It would be a straightforward decision if Bragg or Merchan were competent and interested in upholding their oaths of office. However, their actions in allowing this case to proceed to this point show a disappointing lack of competence and respect for the law.
Comments
2024-12-03T17:37-0500 | Comment by: Art
Let's face it, Bragg is attacking Trump for two reasons: 1. Trump changed from the Democratic to the Republican Party and exposed the Democratic Party as the Marxist anti-American bunch they are--he's the first influential person to openly do so. 2. Trump removed his company HQ from NYC as well as his own residence, taking with him hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars in tax revenue and starting a move by many other very rich people and large businesses.