PJ Media readers will no doubt remember that in all 34 counts against Donald Trump for bookkeeping allegations, not one alleges that the former president has ever committed one act of conspiring to break the law. That’s because the conspiracy has never been alleged. But that’s not what the jurors are seeing in the courtroom.
This week, prosecutors put bankers and Stormy Daniels’ and Kathryn McDougal’s lawyer on the witness stand in an attempt to knit a net of treachery, hoping to ensnare Trump in a guilty verdict in this Hush Trump trial. Trump is the only one who may not speak publicly about this duplicity lest he upset the judge, resulting in fines or jail for breaking his unconstitutional gag order.
On Thursday, he faces yet another contempt hearing to hear if he’ll be fined or jailed for breaking the gag order again. If Trump can post news stories and be found guilty of contempt, a First Amendment outrage, then you can bet he’ll be fined or jailed for some of the other four alleged gag order violations.
As lawyers Laura Ingraham, Andy McCarthy, and others have noted, prosecutors are attempting to try Trump for something they’ve never alleged in writing. They hope that the jury, on which two lawyers sit, will be beguiled into finding Trump guilty of the 34 misdemeanors because of a shiny object over there.
In short, prosecutors have conspired to create a conspiracy without charging Trump with conspiracy.
Ingraham told her audience recently:
[Former DOJ executive-turned Manhattan prosecutor Matthew] Colangelo is trying to convince the jury that the case is about a criminal conspiracy and a cover-up. Trump, David Pecker, and Michael Cohen, former Trump attorney, formed a conspiracy, he argued, to influence the election. Well, this guy’s a piece of work. Colangelo should be sanctioned for trying to argue that there’s a conspiracy here when he never charged Trump with a conspiracy. You can’t prove this case without proving the facts on federal election law. And this is not a big revelation to any of you, but state courts have no jurisdiction over federal election law matters. I think it’s becoming clear to all of you now.
In a recent piece at National Review, Andy McCarty concluded that the jury will buy this shiny object because the fix is in. He argues that this evidence should never have been admitted into this trial.
As you consider all of this, try to remember: Trump is not charged in the indictment with a conspiracy to steal the 2016 election by violating federal campaign law. He’s charged with falsifying business records in 2017, months after the 2016 election. As Manhattan DA, Bragg could not have indicted Trump for conspiring to violate federal law. The business-records charges in the indictment relate only to the reimbursement of Cohen for paying Stormy Daniels — they have nothing to do with payments to McDougal and Trump doorman Dino Sajudin that Bragg is touting. Under long-standing legal principles, moreover, Cohen’s guilty plea to federal campaign crimes and the Pecker/AMI non-prosecution agreements and FEC fine are not admissible evidence against Trump.
Furthermore, McCarthy industriously supports the argument that Bragg doesn’t have any jurisdiction over federal law. In this case, Bragg’s jerry-rigged conspiracy allegation contends that the 34 misdemeanors he’s alleged magically became felonies because the former president broke federal law. Bragg is invoking power from the state statutes, but the statutes pertain only to state laws. Bragg’s hoping to fool the jury and has already sold the judge on the notion that Bragg can tie the misdys to FEDERAL LAW.
Related: Trump Is Gagged, but Only NOW Does the Judge Wag a Limp Finger at His Trial’s Biggest Trash Talkers
Yet, Colangelo charged in opening statements that “This case is about a criminal conspiracy and a cover-up.” And that by so doing, “Donald Trump orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election…” which is another thing they never charged.
There’s a conspiracy going on here, alright. Judge Juan Merchan, District Alvin Bragg, the former DOJ executive Matthew Colangelo, and the guy who wrote a book about how to cobble this case together, Mark Pomerantz, Bragg’s new DA special assistant, conspired to Get Trump before the 2024 election.