The Manhattan District Attorney’s just-unsealed 34-count indictment again Donald Trump could see the former president in state prison for decades if found guilty.
“The defendant Donald J. 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,” says a statement-of-fact document released with the indictment from D.A. Alvin Bragg today after an arraignment of Trump.
“During and in furtherance of his candidacy for President, the Defendant and others agreed to identify and suppress negative stories about him,” the indictment reads. “Two parties to this agreement have admitted to committing illegal conduct in connection with the scheme.”
Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts of falsifying business records before leaving court immediately to return to his Florida residence. The next court appearance in the case is set for December 4 – which clearly is pushing this into the core of the 2024 election cycle.
The falsification counts in the Trump case are deemed felonies, an elevation from the usual misdemeanours for such crimes. However, the charges are all Class E felonies — the lowest category of felony offense under New York law, which carry a maximum prison sentence of four years per count.
All of which means Trump could be facing 136 years behind bars if found guilty on all counts for the criminal concealment. More realistically, if found guilty, the 76-year-old ex-POTUS would receive a much shorter sentence, after all the appeals are exhausted.
A fairly detail-free document, the white-collar indictment itself is resuscitation of checks written in alleged “catch and kill” payoffs to Stormy Daniels, former Playmate model Karen McDougal and ex-Trump Tower doorman Dino Sajudin to silence stories of affairs and illegitimate children. While the criminal charges look to be based on the $130,000 paid to porn star Daniels by then-Trump fixer Michael Cohen in exchange for her silence just before the 2016 election, the indictment overall lists off each and every business transaction and campaign contribution violation, which is how we get to the 34 counts.
Although the indictment itself is pretty dry, the statement of fact plants seeds of Trump himself directing the cover-up and payoffs, to the point where he seemingly was weighing the election odds and potential fallout.
“The Defendant directed Lawyer A to delay making a payment to Woman 2 as long as possible,” the statement of fact says of Cohen handing over money to Daniels, who says she had an brief affair with Trump in 2006.
“He instructed Lawyer A that if they could delay the payment until after the election, they could avoid paying altogether, because at that point it would not matter if the story became public. As reflected in emails and text messages between and among Lawyer A, Lawyer B, and the AMI Editor-in-Chief, Lawyer A attempted to delay making payment as long as possible.”
The payoff to Daniels became public in 2018. Trump always has denied any affair with Daniels, though he admits to meeting her – as photographs have proved.
All of which means that D.A. Bragg has unveiled a case with information that is several years old and well scrutinized – a fact that the defense will pound on about in the court of law and public opinion. Yet, corroboration always is key, and Cohen and former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker both testified before the grand jury in this matter.
Although the statute of limitations on felonies in the Empire State is usually five years, because Trump was in Washington, D.C., during his White House term and formally became a Sunshine State resident afterward, a pause was put in place. Also, during the height of the Covid pandemic, then- New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo hit the halt button on the statute.
After a travelogue media frenzy — the past 24 hours of Trump’s trip from Florida to NYC and into custody — the actual hearing on the 15th floor of the Manhattan Criminal Court started around 11:30 a.m. PT, a few minutes later than expected. Not counted as a crime in which bail is an issue, the much longer-than-expected session in front of New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan lasted until 12:25 p.m. PT.
With motions arguments to follow from the defense, Trump’s lawyers also have said they plan to file a motion of dismissal fairly quickly. Looking at the nearly three dozen counts in the indictment, that filing that could come as early as tomorrow, but more than likely will take at least a few days.