Donald Trump has been arrested. A former President has been not just indicted but arrested, arraigned, the whole nine yards. We live in truly WILD times.
This all seemed both impossible AND inevitable. For those who have been paying attention this whole time, much of what Trump was charged with was common knowledge. After all, his former lawyer Michael Cohen went to prison for the hush money payments. Trump was listed in those legal docs as the man behind the scheme, “Individual-1” — but it was later confirmed it was the POTUS.
Related: Ivanka’s Hilariously Political Statement On Daddy’s Indictment
So what’s new?? Why are charges being brought now?? Well, first let’s let DA Alvin Bragg explain…
Bragg’s Breakdown
In a press conference following the arraignment, he explained to reporters why he’d originally hesitated to bring these seemingly obvious charges:
“The investigation in my view was not concluded into the conduct, in particular — that is the basis for the charges today. Since that time, we’ve had more evidence made available to the office and opportunity to meet with additional witnesses.”
Now he’s confident they can prove “34 false statements” Trump “made to cover up other crimes.” Why is it so important Trump be charged? After all, he’s well aware of the political firestorm this is causing. Bragg said first off:
“These are felony crimes no matter who you are. We cannot and will not normalize serious criminal conduct.”
It’s a really important point. A lot of critics of the decision to indict have said Trump is being prioritized as a target because he’s the former president. In a way, we agree. It’s crucial that the rich and powerful be deterred from committing crimes — especially when those crimes make you richer and more powerful! That’s the case being argued here, obviously, considering Trump allegedly committed these crimes to cover up campaign finance violations — and he won the 2016 election by the slimmest of margins. Saying he can’t be prosecuted just because he won gives any candidate carte blanche to commit crimes, to do whatever it takes to win. If winning is a get-out-of-jail-free card, why wouldn’t the most unscrupulous people run for office?
Bragg went on to explain the charges — that Trump lied over and over again about the payments to Cohen, saying they were for “fictitious” legal fees. The final lie, Bragg said, was “to the New York state tax authorities.” This is especially important in NYC, the DA said, because Manhattan is “the financial center of the world.” He noted how his office files hundreds of similar charges:
“At its core, this case today is one with allegations like so many of our white-collar cases: allegations that someone lied again and again to protect their interests and evade the laws to which we are all held accountable. We today uphold our solemn responsibility to ensure that everyone stands equal before the law, no amount of money and no amount of power changes that enduring American principle.”
See the full conference (below)!
A 3rd Hush Money Payment??
We just wanted to highlight something from Bragg’s breakdown of the accusations there. He said Trump and others engaged in “a scheme to buy and suppress negative information to help Mr. Trump’s chance of winning the election” — but it was the next part that jumped out at us:
“As part of this scheme, Donald Trump and others made three payments to people who claimed to have negative information about Mr. Trump.”
Sorry, wait, WHAT?! We’ve got porn star Stormy Daniels, Playboy playmate Karen McDougal — but who’s the third?? Initially we thought he might mean multiple payments to the same person, but he then clarified it was “three people”! Who is the other person who got a hush money payment?? Is there more coming out? Another mistress???
Unfortunately the indictment doesn’t even mention Stormy or Karen by name, so we have no idea who the third person might be. Huh.
Sullying The White House
Speaking of the indictment, there was one rather shocking thing, even to those who have been following all this…
According to the indictment, Trump continued to commit this criminal conspiracy in the actual freakin’ White House!
“In early February 2017, the Defendant and Lawyer A met in the Oval Office at the White House and confirmed this repayment arrangement.”
He had been POTUS for less than a month, and he was still (allegedly) working on the crimes that helped get him into office. Seriously, how can anyone not get why this needs to be prosecuted?? Y’all think this behavior should be excused? What stops someone from committing all manner of crimes to get elected? If we tell them all you have to do is win, why won’t they?? At this point we already know “the honor system” no longer applies.
How did Donald “TOTAL EXONERATION” Trump respond to hearing the case against him? We could have told you this days ago! It’s a song we know by heart we’ve heard it so many times. It’s like Call Me Maybe for criminal accusations!
Trump took to Truth Social and boasted:
“The hearing was shocking to many in that they had no ‘surprises,’ and therefore, no case. Virtually every legal pundit has said that there is no case here. There was nothing done illegally!”
We don’t know which legal pundits he’s talking about, but the case seems pretty darn solid to us.
Anyway, what do YOU think of the latest details about Trump’s alleged crimes??
[Image via MSNBC/Jimmy Kimmel Live/CNN/ABC News/YouTube.]