A Trumped-up Charge?
By JOONYOUNG HEO ‘25
Ava Zhao / The Exonian
For the first time in American history, a former President was indicted earlier this month by a grand jury in New York. Donald Trump, in a flurry of media coverage, flew to New York on April 3 to face 34 felony charges. He has since denied all charges — and, as with many political controversies of late, it has left the country sorely divided. Whether the Democrats will come to regret this indictment remains the big question.
To say the least, the nature of these charges is unusual. All 34 criminal counts concern “falsifying business records” in the first degree, and they stem from a hush-money payment (amounting to $130,000) from former Trump attorney Michael Cohen to Stormy Daniels, the notorious pornographic film actress. Cohen’s money itself is not the issue; Trump is accused of paying him back and recording it as reimbursement for his legal counsel, violating tax and election laws.
“But even Democrats would have to admit — at least in prosecuting such a public figure as Donald Trump — that seven years seems a bit of a stretch.”
The average Trump critic may find it difficult to believe that, out of everything on the former president’s track record, this is what Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg decided to chase. Yet the timeframe is even stranger. The Stormy Daniels hush-money incident transpired during the 2016 election. On principle, of course, justice served later is far better than justice never served, and the statute of limitations, making criminal charges irrelevant after a while, technically does not apply because Trump has been living out of state. But even Democrats would have to admit — at least in prosecuting such a public figure as Donald Trump — that seven years seems a bit of a stretch.
Further, the man leading the investigation might have questionable motives. Bragg was sworn into office on Jan. 1, 2022, and he has since built a reputation for being soft-handed. In just his first week, he asked prosecutors to reserve jail or prison time for “only the most serious offenses” unless explicitly outlined in the legal code. That memo, which followed a significant boost in murders and shootings in New York, drew harsh criticism from both sides of the political aisle. Since then, Bragg has devoted himself to taking Trump to court. As critics put it, he placed so much of his attention on one man that he forgot to crack down on state criminals, revealing a miserly hand in the number of his prosecutions. It is impossible to see this indictment as entirely free of political design.
Then, Trump’s indictment is not a purely judicial move uninformed by the game of politics, no matter how many times Bragg publicly states that “everyone stands equal under the law.” This has little to do with whether or not Trump is guilty — he certainly could be — but more with analyzing the right motivations behind these charges. So what might they be?
The easiest answer is to attack Bragg as a Trump hater. This is what some conservative media outlets have been busying themselves with. In this narrative, Manhattan’s District Attorney is a staunch anti-Republican to the core and only the latest mouthpiece of the vicious liberal agenda to unseat another right-leaning politician. By the time this trial ends, in this version of Bragg’s perfect world, Trump would be in handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit. This may be an extreme explanation, but we cannot rule out possibilities.
More moderate voices have taken a similar approach by emphasizing Bragg’s political leanings. He likely disagrees with much of Trump’s politics, and he could be looking to harm the former president’s bid in the upcoming 2024 election. The hope would be that a formal indictment will alienate a large chunk of his supporter base, obstructing Trump’s shot at winning the Republican nomination and facilitating a win for blue in a year. That seems logical enough; if a politician is hauled to the courtroom, the public will be much less inclined to support him at the polls.
Yet, if Bragg has been working toward this second explanation, he will probably be disappointed. First, a clean record is far from a prerequisite for running for president in the U.S. Constitution. Socialist Party candidate Eugene Debs, for instance, went for the nation’s highest position for the fifth time while imprisoned in 1920. Moreover, states cannot enforce their own restrictions on presidential candidates. Directly barring Trump is off the table completely.
Second, this incident is more likely to help his candidacy than to hurt it. This is not Trump’s first altercation with the law, of course. Granted, the formal indictment is unprecedented, but the majority of his supporters will remain as they have been — firmly behind him. Especially now,
“It’s a convoluted train of thought, but the game of politics often calls for extreme measures.”
when Trump had begun to lose some of his bases by prioritizing personal grievances over national concerns, the image of insolent Democrats and their witch-hunt has greatly stimulated those on his side. At the very least, the media coverage he gets is much stronger than in previous years. Trump himself has done his best to garner attention and monetary support. In Mar-a-Lago, Florida, he told an eager crowd just after the indictment was announced, “The only crime that I have committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it.” He has been successful in his efforts, claiming to have received millions of dollars in donations following New York.
There is still another option, though the probability is low. Bragg’s long-term plan could be to help Trump in the 2024 election. He wouldn’t want to see Trump back in the White House, so this is where things get complex. It is said that President Joe Biden, who will likely run for a second term, believes Trump is the easier Republican to defeat in a general election than Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Under this theory, Bragg is prosecuting Trump to indirectly boost his support base, with which he might beat out DeSantis in the Republican primaries and subsequently hand Biden his second electoral win. It’s a convoluted train of thought, but the game of politics often calls for extreme measures.
These are all possibilities. Trump is not due in court again until December, so very little is set in stone. Even setting aside the 2024 election and Bragg’s motivations, it cannot be disputed that this indictment will have far-reaching implications for the future of politics. Whatever the outcome, the next few years are far from decided.