'Conspiring to corrupt': Legal experts unpack the 'seriousness' of Trump hush money case

20 February 2024

On Monday, March 25, jury selection will begin in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr.'s criminal case against former President Donald Trump — who, Bragg alleges, falsified business records when hush money payments were made to adult film star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 campaign.

Bragg's prosecution, in media reports, is often described as a "hush money case." But in a guest essay/op-ed published by the New York Times on February 20, three legal experts — Norman Eisen, Joshua Kolb and former federal prosecutor Barbara McQuade — lay out some reasons why the "seriousness" of Bragg's case goes beyond hush money payments.

"The charges brought by Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, have been overshadowed by the three other criminal prosecutions of Mr. Trump," the attorneys explain, "but the 34 felony counts constitute a strong case of election interference and fraud in the place where Mr. Trump lived and conducted business for decades…. The salaciousness of the details in Mr. Trump's case obscures what it is actually about: making covert payments to avoid losing an election and then further concealing it."

Eisen, Kolb and McQuade add, "Indeed, that is how Mr. Bragg has described the case, that it is 'about conspiring to corrupt a presidential election and then lying in New York business records to cover it up.'"

The legal experts note that "alleged election interference might have altered the outcome of" the United States' 2016 presidential election.

"Coming, as it might have, on the heels of the 'Access Hollywood' disgrace, the effort to keep the scandal from voters may have saved Mr. Trump's political prospects," Eisen, Kolb and McQuade argue. "The charges against Mr. Trump are also a deterrence against business fraud and a support of legitimate business in Manhattan."

Read Norman Eisen, Joshua Kolb and Barbara McQuade's full New York Times essay/op-ed at this link (subscription required).

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