On Tuesday at 1pm EST the rule of law in the United States was broken. The Manhattan DA indicted the first former President of the United States on 34 Felony counts of violating NY Penal Code 175.10. Several scholars have said that this is a attempt to bootstrap a federal charge to a state crime making a common misdemeanor a felony. I am going to break down the arguments and introduce a new one that the media seems to be missing. First a reading of what the statute states.
175.10 states “A person is guilty of falsifying business records in the first degree when he commits the crime of falsifying business records in the second degree, and when his intent to defraud includes an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof.”
All thirty-four counts read as follows with the date and check number being different “The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about February 14, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid, and conceal the commissioner of, made, and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to Wit, an invoice from Michael Cohen dated February 14, 2017 marked as a record of the Donald J. Trump revocable trust, and And maintained by the Trump organization.” Several problems arise with each count and to the defendant thereof.
The crime of which the defendant is charged with must have the crime in which this charged crime was in concealment thereof. Without the crime that was concealed this is a misdemeanor charge that is outside the statute of limitations.
The expected argument of Election meddling by concealing this alleged affair falls flat as well. The date of first offense is after Donald J. Trump took office and had his assets placed in a Trust and had no access to the daily goings on at the Trump Organization, or with the trust. This was something the democrats and republicans asked him to do. In fact all charges stemmed from the time he was in office not from before.
As Michael Cohen’s relationship to Trump was well know in the Trump Organization it can be reasonably be assumed that an invoice would have been paid out in accordance with every invoice that had arisen in the past. The potential of Michael Cohen being the states star witness is laughable at best. He is a convicted perjure that has zero credibility in regards to court proceedings.
The Statute of Limitations on most felony charges is five years in New York including the charges brought against Donald J. Trump. Even the last charge dated December 5, 2017 is outside the statute of limitations for this felony charge. The last day inside the charging scope would have been December 5, 2022.
This case is flimsy for many reasons all of which shown above destroy the credibility of the Office of District Attorney for Manhattan. Alvin Bragg must release the Bill of Particulars no later than thirty-five days after indictment by New York Law.