(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The Indictment: Resources And Initial Thoughts [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-04 First, the indictment: s3.documentcloud.org/… The Statement of Facts laying out the scheme: www.manhattanda.org/… Some thoughts. Conspiracy is not directly alleged. However, the Statement of Facts uses the word “scheme” eight times. The Statement of Facts lay out three different hush money schemes. One a doorman who claimed Trump fathered a child. The other two being Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels. However, all the falsification of business records charges relate to falsification of business documents for Stormy Daniels. To be a felony the concealment of business records must be with an intent to conceal another crime. The indictment states that it was, but does not state what that other crime (or crimes) are. Prosecutor Bragg states that was not included in the indictment because it does not have to. It’s not an offense itself, but an element of additional intent. Bragg stated in his presser, and the Statement of Facts suggests, three potential laws: 1) Federal campaign finance law, 2) State campaign finance law, 3) State tax law. The specifics of that to include the specific statutes are not known. NY’s jurisdiction to enforce Federal campaign law is very much in question. The other two are a pig in a poke at this time. In a bad fact for Trump, Bragg alleges Trump tried to defer the hush money payments until after the election because then he would not have to make them. That's important. Because it proves the purpose of these payments was the election, that contrary to Costello's supposed testimony the payment would NOT have been made even without the election. Bottom line. Overall it is pretty weak sauce, at least in terms of pushing this to the felony level. That’s a high risk strategy that could be subject to dismissal, and even harder to convince a jury. Based on reviewing the allegations in the civil case by the NYAG Bragg had a much stronger case treating that conduct as criminal. To great controversy Bragg abandoned that case, and now appears to push this much weaker one. I think we would better direct our hopes to the cases being developed by Fani Willis and Jack Smith. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/4/4/2162077/-The-Indictment-Resources-And-Initial-Thoughts Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/