First the Trump Organization, now Trump
“The new charges against Trump aren’t so much unprecedented, as they simply charge Trump’s biological person with the same crimes for which his corporate persons have already been convicted,” writes Marcy Wheeler:
Paying his former sex partners to hide from voters that he cheated on Melania is not, itself, illegal.
Having corporations pay sex workers for the purpose of benefitting a political campaign is.
The National Enquirer paid to silence Karen McDougal ahead of the 2016 election; Trump paid off Michael Cohen who paid off Stormy Daniels through the Trump Organization. Trump might have paid off Daniels out of personal funds, but no.
Trump’s eponymous corporate persons have already been found guilty of serving as personal slush funds. In 2019, he admitted the Trump Foundation had engaged in self-dealing. And last year, a jury convicted Trump Organization of compensating employees via untaxed benefits rather than salary.
The new charges against Trump aren’t so much unprecedented, as they simply charge Trump’s biological person with the same crimes for which his corporate persons have already been convicted.
But there’s more history here, too. On multiple occasions, agents of Donald Trump reportedly engaged in further attempts to cover-up this cover-up.
Trump or his agents attempted to cover up his 2016 election cheating six times. Wheeler details them at emptywheel.
There’s a lot of shite being written about how the indictment of a former President — for actions that stem from cheating to win — will test democracy.
But Trump’s serial cover-ups of his own actions in this and other matters already threaten democracy.
Who’s on 2nd?
Trump’s reflexive cheating finally caught up with him. If the “cheapskate billionaire” relies on his usual stable of third-rate, sycophant lawyers to defend him, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg will make the charges stick, whatever they are.
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy. And he deserves far more than falsified business records charges. Those are on the way.
Waiting on you, Fani Willis and Jack Smith.