Imagine that one of your loved ones was kidnapped and held for ransom, and then you paid the ransom. Then, a lunatic District Attorney turns around and charges you with kidnapping for rescuing your loved one. That’s a pretty close analogy for what’s happening to Donald Trump with this Stormy Daniels nonsense.
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg is pushing forward and trying to indict a former president after some con artist whore tried to extort his presidential campaign for money. Fortunately, it looks like Bragg’s case has now flown off the rails completely.
Trump was originally supposed to be indicted on Tuesday of last week, and then arrested on Wednesday. That obviously didn’t happen. After Michael Cohen’s attorney Robert Costello testified before the grand jury last Monday, everything fell apart for Alvin Bragg’s case. At least that’s how it looks from the outside.
The indictment still hasn’t arrived, and Bragg told the grand jury to not report for duty last Thursday. If anything were going to happen by this point, it would have happened. Reports indicate that Bragg is now considering bringing Michael Cohen or someone else back in to rebut the incredible testimony from Cohen’s attorney.
The only thing that we can conclude from this is that something has gone really haywire for Bragg’s case. He appears to have been trying to claim that Donald Trump paid off Stormy Daniels (real name Stephanie Clifford).
Attorney Robert Costello testified to the grand jury that Donald Trump, the Trump Organization, and the Trump 2016 campaign never paid Stormy Daniels a dime. Michael Cohen took out a home equity line of credit and paid her $130,000. Donald Trump, the Trump Organization, and the Trump campaign never reimbursed Michael Cohen for this.
Costello also testified that he had notified the Federal Election Commission back in 2018 that the payment was not a campaign contribution to Trump, nor was it a campaign expenditure. It was completely and entirely a deal between Cohen and Stormy Daniels. Period. That was good enough for the Federal Election Commission to close the case. Even if the Trump campaign had been found guilty of using campaign funds to pay off Stormy Daniels, the worst-case scenario would have been that the campaign would have to pay a fine.
We know all of this because Michael Cohen signed a waiver releasing Costello from attorney-client privilege. Costello’s testimony is what probably threw a monkey wrench into the case. Prosecutors are not required to show a grand jury any exculpatory evidence. That’s how the system works. They show you the evidence and witnesses that law enforcement has gathered, and then the grand jury votes on whether there’s enough evidence to indict someone and send the case to trial.
Costello, who is the real hero in all of this, deliberately revealed the above exculpatory evidence to the grand jury. That’s why Alvin Bragg is reeling the grand jury was not even brought in last Wednesday or Thursday to hear any more about the case.
Bragg is now outrageously claiming that he will not report to Congress to testify, despite being called in by three separate House committees. House Republicans want to put Bragg under oath and determine just how much the Biden White House has been involved in all of this. Everyone knows this leads back to Joe Biden.
That’s why Joe Biden has steadfastly avoided saying anything about the case, and why the media won’t ask him about it. If Biden says anything, then the game is up. Everyone will know it’s an entirely political prosecution that’s not based on the rule of law.
Bragg then went so far as to blame Donald Trump for the hot mess he’s made of the case. He says that Trump falsely “spread rumors” that he was going to be indicted and arrested. If that were true, then why did Bragg dismiss the grand jury for the rest of the week after Costello testified?
Anyone who has ever served on a grand jury can tell you that something has gone seriously haywire here. Prosecutors don’t just pump the brakes like Alvin Bragg is doing unless there’s a problem. This case is entirely fake from top to bottom, and it’s only going to end one way for Alvin Bragg – and that’s in a humiliating defeat.
There are 23 jurors on Bragg’s grand jury, and at least 12 of them would have to vote to indict Trump. How bad is Bragg’s case if he can’t get 12 jurors in deep blue New York to vote for indictment?