LOS ANGELES.–On his first day of his hush money trial, 77-year-old President Donald Trump listened to 50-year-old District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s prosecutors accuse him of criminal conspiracy. Hyping Trump’s case to jurors, Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo made his case sound the same as the Russian hoax conspiracy where 63-year-old former FBI Director James Comey accused Trump of colluding with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election. Jurors must have been struck with the ominous tone set by Colangelo. “This was a planned, coordinated, long-running conspiracy to influence the 2016 election, to help Donald Trump get elected through legal expenditures to silence people who had something bad to say about his behavior, using doctored corporate records. It was election fraud pure and simple,” said Colangelo. Colangelo sounds like the late Sen. John McCain (R-Az.), former CIA John Brennan and Comey all accusing Trump of criminal conspiracy.
Jurors know the history with Trump that after a 22-month, $40 million investigation headed by former FBI Director and Special Counsel Robert Mueller, all of prosecutors’ claims were debunked. Mueller found that Trump did not commit criminal conspiracy with the Kremlin. But if you listened to Mueller’s former lead prosecutor Andrew Weissmann Trump was guilty of criminal conspiracy with the Kremlin. Now Colangeo has Trump to make a mountain out of a molehill, accusing Trump of criminal conspiracy in U.S. election law. Colangelo can’t change his case now, insisting Trump tried to influence the 2016 presidential election. Trump paid some unknown woman, adult film star Stormy Daniels, to stop spreading false rumors about him that they had a tryst in 2006. Colangelo committed to the jury Trump’s alleged motives, to win the 2016 presidential election.
Colangelo didn’t tell jurors an equally plausible, less sinister and logical explanation that he wanted to spare his wife, Melania, and family any embarrassment from a women’s false accusations. Instead of asking jurors to hear all the evidence, Colangelo acted like it’s an open-and-shut case involving election fraud. “It was election fraud, pure and simple,” Colangelo told the jurors. Colangelo said nothing to jurors about the possibility that Trump tried to spare his wife and family embarrassment from fake accusations by an unknown woman, Stormy Daniels. “So, what do we gotta pay for this, 150?” Trump asked his former Atty. Michael Cohen. How does that question have any bearing on a criminal conspiracy, other than satisfying an extortion claim by some unknown, publicity-and-cash-seeking woman?
Colangelo told jurors that the payment to Daniels was part of a larger conspiracy between Cohen and National Enquirer publisher David Pecker. “Those men . . . struck an agreement at that meeting together, they conspired to influence the 2016 presidential election,” Colangelo said, giving jurors his best shot. What are jurors supposed to think about Colangelo ominous conspiracy that involved some unknown woman claiming Trump had an one-night stand with her in 2006.? Can you imagine jurors listening to Colangelo accusing Trump of some monstrous conspiracy when it was simply some crackpot accusing a famous person in order to extort money, something celebrities go through all the time. Bragg now has to live with his theory of the case that Trump paid off Daniels only to help his 2016 election, where it’s perfectly reasonable to spare his wife and family public humiliation.
Bragg argues that Cohen already pled guilty to election fraud violations in whatever plea deal the DA made to reduce his time in jail for income tax evasion, illegally selling taxi medallions, bank and wire fraud and host of other felonies. But the fact that Cohen pled guilty already to election fraud doesn’t mean the charges had any merit, only part of his plea agreement. “President Trump did not commit any crimes. The Manhattan DA’s office should never have brought this case,” Trump defense Atty. Todd Blanche told the jury. “Trump is innocent,” said Blanche, letting jurors know that there’s another way to look at the case. Blanche has already taken aim to jury of Bragg’s star witness, disbarred, convicted felon Michael Cohen, letting the jury know early on that the prosecution’s star witness is previously jailed ex-convict, not to be trusted.
Any jury hearing the case against Trump must be thoroughly baffled at the contrasting pictures given by the prosecution and defense. When Colangelo says, “It was election fraud pure and simple,” jurors know on Day One it was anything but “pure and simple.” Prosecutors wants jurors to believe the case against Trump was all about election fraud when, in fact, a crackpot woman accused the former New York celebrity of a one-night stand back in 2006. Jurors start to wonder why they’re deliberating over an alleged affair that happened 10 years before Trump ran of president. Yet the Manhattan DA is fixated on one woman’s unverified rumor about the former president back in 2006. “Unbeknownst to President Trump, in all the years Cohen worked for him, Mr. Cohen was also a criminal,” Blanche told the jurors. How could any juror believe anything Cohen says about Trump?
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.
