Former President Donald Trump's hush money case will likely be the first to go to trial under Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the Washington Post reported. However, Bragg may be headed for disaster as he has recently lost credibility with another high-profile case in the city.
The former president is facing four separate criminal cases. Most experts agree that Bragg's case, which involves alleged hush money paid to a porn star in 2016, is, at best, a joke and, at worst, a baseless witch hunt.
Another one of Trump's trials over his involvement in the alleged Jan. 6 "insurrection" has been postponed, making Bragg's case the first. The trial is expected to begin in March and will make history.
This will be an unprecedented prosecution of a former president and current 2024 presidential candidate, but it will be over ridiculous charges. "This was the first indictment of Trump, but quickly became seen as the runt of the litter, compared to bigger, more consequential cases," criminal defense attorney Ronald Kuby told the news outlet.
The longtime attorney believes the fact that it's a "garden-variety fraud case" could help move it forward. "Unlike the D.C. case, this does not involve any question of presidential immunity," Kuby pointed out.
"Unlike the Florida documents case, this does not involve the lengthy proceedings that are needed in cases where classified information is at issue, and unlike the Georgia case, it is not a sprawling indictment of 18 people — there’s one defendant. And the evidence that has been made publicly available is compelling," Kuby continued.
Kuby's optimism is not matched by former federal prosecutor Robert Mintz, who is now in private practice, and his belief that Trump will prevail. Mintz believes it "is somewhat of a worst-case scenario for prosecutors" as they move into uncharted waters.
They run the "risk of potentially handing the Trump defense team an early win on legal sufficiency grounds that plays into the defense claims that all of these prosecutions are politically motivated and may spill over to damage the credibility of the other criminal cases in the minds of the public," Mitz lamented. Bragg's zeal to charge Trump may ultimately be the case's undoing.
The former president is facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records for paying $130,000 to former porn star Stormy Daniels. Bragg has also piled on intent to "commit another crime or to aid or conceal" one, as well as New York election law violations.
However, the whole case is on shaky ground as this matter was investigated before Trump took office the first time. Agents and federal prosecutors declined to charge Trump with any crime because of the difficulty of corroborating any of the information.
Bragg has hung his reputation on this case, and it may blow up in his face at a time when he's similarly dropped the ball in another. Recently, group of illegal immigrants gang-assaulted officers in the New York Police Department and skipped town after being let out without bail.
"First of all, this is a man who doesn’t know anything about prosecuting crime," Judge Janine Pirro said of Bragg on Fox News's The Five Monday. She later pointed out that Bragg came out after the story made national headlines and claimed they "don’t tolerate assaulting police officers" but declined to mandate bail "to make sure that we charge the right people at the right crime" in the group.
Pirro chaffed at that flimsy excuse. "Are you stupid, Alvin Bragg? You charge him with gang assault. That means that they are complicit," Pirro said.
Bragg is one of the many leftists attempting to get to Trump using ridiculous legal tactics. However, his incompetence and lack of credibility will serve Trump well, as he'll likely walk scott-free.
