Expected to surrender for his booking and arraignment to New York authorities Tuesday, April 4, 76-year-old President Donald Trump submits to the ultimate humiliation by 49-year-old Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg. Bragg picked up the moribund case from his predecessor Cyrus Vance Jr. when he took over the office Jan. 1, 2022. Vance left office deciding not to charge Trump with a variety of misdemeanors and felonies due to a lack of evidence. Bragg entered office when the Jan. 6 House Committee was in full swing, collecting cherry-picked evidence for a year-and-a-half to press charges on Trump for planning and orchestrating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection, as Democrats like to call it. So, during Bragg’s time in office, it’s likely he coordinated his independent investigation and possible indictment with members of the House Selection Committee.
Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina said Trump’s arraignment would be coordinated with the Secret Service, requiring more time to provide Trump the security needed to surrender to the New York Police Department then present to Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Juan Manuel Marchan for arraignment. Treating Trump like a common criminal doesn’t sit well with Trump’s supporters but, more importantly, the vast majority of Americans that see the current political abuse of the U.S. criminal justice system. Trump, after all, was subjected to four years of FBI and Special Counsel investigations accusing him of colluding with the Kremlin to win the Nov. 3, 2016 presidential election. Not one member of the Obama administration who authorized the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation of Trump and his 2016 campaign has been held accountable for abusing the criminal justice system to investigate Trump.
Before 72-year-old Atty. Gen. Bill Barr left office Dec. 23, 2020, he appointed 72-year-old former U.S. Atty. John Durham (R-Conn.) to investigate and charge individuals in the illegal FBI counterintelligence investigation into Trump and his 2016 campaign. Durham on Oct. 19, 2020 Durham was appointed Special Counsel to get to the bottom of the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into Trump and his 2016 campaign. Durham worked diligently but only got one conviction of former FBI Atty. Kevin Clinesmith, Jan. 29, 2021 for altering a document pertaining to former Trump campaign aid Carter Page, omitting that Page worked for the CIA. Durham could move up the chain to former CIA Director John Brennan or former FBI Director James Comey, both heavily involved in the counterintelligence investigation into Trump and his 2016 presidential campaign.
So when it comes to Bragg moving ahead with his grand jury to indict Trump for the Stormy Daniels AKA Susan Clifford, hush money payment, Bragg relies heavily on former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen, a disgraced, disbarred, former Trump personal attorney. Since coming out of prison for felony convictions on income tax evasion, wire and tax fraud and violating federal campaign finance laws, Cohen has sung like a canary, going after Trump with a vengeance. So, when it comes to Bragg deciding to move ahead with charges against Trump, he’s relied heavily on Cohen for direct testimony and evidence on Trump’s crimes. Braggs’s predecessor decided to not go ahead charging Trump for a slew of financial crimes due to a lack of evidence. So, Bragg, a partisan Democrat, with close ties to the Jan. 6 House Select Committee, has new evidence to charge Trump with some 30 legal crimes.
Trump’s defense team will no doubt subpoena all of Bragg’s text messages and emails since he took office Jan. 1, 2022, to show the extent of coordination with Democrat officials on-and-off the Jan. 6 House Select Committee. Since Trump left office, Democrats have done everything possible to charge Trump with a variety of crimes, ranging from his participation in planning and orchestrating the Jan. 6 Capitol riots to removing classified documents and storing them at his Palm Beach, Mar-a-Lago estate. House Republicans can subpoena Bragg’s communications since taking office Jan. 1, 2022. It’s entirely plausible he coordinated his Trump prosecution with the House Jan. 6 Select Committee, both working for the same end to prevent Trump from running for president in 2024. House Republicans, led by Judicary Chariman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), aren’t likely to get Bragg to respond.
Trump’s March 30 indictment took a lot of folks by surprise, since Bragg’s office announced March 29 that the grand jury would take off the month of April. Indicting Trump raises many red flags for the Manhattan DA, especially if he really has any new evidence against Trump, other than what’s been given to him by Trump’s once personal attorney, convicted felon Michael Cohen. Legal scholars worry about setting the precedent of charging a former president. But far more important than precedent is whether the criminal justice system has been weaponized for political purposes. Democrat and the press celebrate Trump’s indictment because they want to destroy him politically. Trump has lived with illegal investigations and fake charges for years, subjected to former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation ending with nothing. What makes anyone think Bragg’s case is any different?
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
