‘This is a flawed case’: Legal expert throws cold water on New York prosecutor’s rumored plan to impeach Trump while explaining why prosecution would likely fail
The case against Donald Trump over secret payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels in the build-up to the 2016 presidential election is “misguided,” a legal scholar has said.
Jonathan Turley, a criminal defense attorney and Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case is unlikely to succeed.
Turley was responding to Trump’s claim Saturday that he will be arrested Tuesday of next week following a lengthy investigation by Bragg’s office into the $130,000 paid to Daniels.
But Turley also said Trump must “cover up any inflammatory rhetoric” after the former president called for protests amid the impending charges. Trump had announced that he would be arrested in a matter of days, adding “PROTEST, TAKE BACK OUR NATION!”
Trump could be charged with falsifying business records in connection with payments to his former attorney, Michael Cohen, who served jail time after pleading guilty to using campaign finances in connection with Daniels. The former president could also face charges related to violations of electoral law.
Constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley of George Washington University said the charges Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is expected to bring against Donald Trump are “wrong.”
Turley said: ‘This is a flawed case if it is based on a state charge that effectively prosecutes federal election violation. That federal case was thrown out by the Justice Department. There are also statute of limitation questions that could come into play.
‘Bragg can look forward to highly motivated judges and juries in New York. However, the novelty and questions in this case would present difficult appellate problems for the prosecution.’
Federal prosecutors reportedly did not consider charging Trump for the payments while he was still in office due to guidance from the Justice Department that a sitting president cannot be indicted.
They revisited the matter after he left the White House, but chose not to seek impeachment because the issue seemed “trivial and outdated” after the January 6 riots and scrutiny over Trump’s role in causing it, a CNN legal analyst book. Elie Honig said.
Trump’s claim Saturday that he will be arrested imminently comes more than six years after his lawyers paid Daniels a total of $130,000 to keep quiet on the matter. Trump denies the affair and any wrongdoing.
Trump claimed on his Truth Social account that the Manhattan district attorney’s office will arrest him in a few days, calling the investigation “corrupt and highly political,” calling the alleged hush money payment an “old and old fairy tale.” completely discredited.”
He would become the first former president to face criminal charges. His post came hours after it was claimed that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg planned to indict Trump next week.
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, responded to the development on Saturday by saying that if impeached, Trump would be “re-elected with a landslide” in the 2024 presidential election.
Stormy Daniels was awarded $130,000 from Trump’s lawyer to keep quiet about an alleged affair
Donald Trump denies affair with Stormy Daniels. The former president’s attorney, Michael Cohen, served time in jail after pleading guilty to using campaign funds in connection with Daniels and another woman who allegedly had an affair with Trump.
Last week, the former president and 2024 hopeful was invited to testify before a Manhattan grand jury, and his mediator and former attorney Michael Cohen testified Monday.
Cohen served jail time after pleading guilty in two criminal cases, one of which involved the use of campaign funds in connection with Daniels and another woman who allegedly had an affair with Trump.
He said he had been acting on his orders and that the bribes were supposed to keep love stories out of the public eye ahead of the 2016 election. Trump has admitted reimbursing Cohen
Daniels met with prosecutors Wednesday to answer more questions about the case, and his attorney, Clark Brewster, said he would also be available as a witness in the future, if necessary.
Cohen has also indicated that he has given the grand jury damning testimony implicating Trump. He testified for three hours on Monday.
