Donald Trump has operated like a mobster for decades, so it’s great that the first big criminal charges brought against him are of the “bookkeeping and tax fraud” variety. Now that the grand jury’s indictment has been unsealed, legal experts are getting a good look at the case DA Alvin Bragg has built against Trump. For one, most legal experts are impressed by how strong the case appears. Secondly, these are exactly the kind of charges a DA would bring against a mob boss or someone in charge of a crime syndicate. Yes, Trump is a serial sexual predator who incited a bloody insurrection aimed at subverting American democracy, but he also committed state tax fraud.

For weeks, observers have wondered about the exact charges the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, would bring. Accusing Mr. Trump of bookkeeping fraud to conceal campaign finance violations, many believed, could raise significant legal challenges. That accusation turned out to be a major part of Mr. Bragg’s theory — but not all of it.

“Pundits have been speculating that Trump would be charged with lying about the hush money payments to illegally affect an election, and that theory rests on controversial legal issues and could be hard to prove,” said Rebecca Roiphe, a New York Law School professor and former state prosecutor.

“It turns out the indictment also includes a claim that Trump falsified records to commit a state tax crime,” she continued. “That’s a much simpler charge that avoids the potential pitfalls.”

The indictment listed 34 counts of bookkeeping fraud related to Mr. Trump’s reimbursement in 2017 to Michael D. Cohen, his former lawyer and fixer. Just before the 2016 election, Mr. Cohen had made a $130,000 hush money payment to the pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels, who has said she and Mr. Trump had an extramarital affair.

Various business records concerning those payments to Mr. Cohen, an accompanying statement of facts said, falsely characterized them as being for legal services performed in 2017. For each such record, the grand jury charged Mr. Trump with a felony bookkeeping fraud under Article 175 of the New York Penal Law. A conviction on that charge carries a sentence of up to four years.

[From The NY Times]

Yeah, I believe this analysis. I think Bragg waited until he had all of his ducks in a row. Just the length of time he spent with grand jury shows me that he built the case methodically and he wanted the whole thing to be bulletproof. Speaking of, even if this case falls apart (which I don’t think it will), surely they would very easily be able to get Trump and his family on targeting the judge and DA Bragg with harassment and violence? Because that’s exactly what they’re doing.

I barely watched one full minute of Trump’s speech at Mar-a-Lago last night and it feels irresponsible to post the full video. The basic gist, from what I understand, is that Diaper Don is scared and rattled and spinning all kinds of conspiracies.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, cover courtesy of Time.