Pirate's Cove

Democrats have been playing a very dangerous game in their attempt to Get Trump, one that could easily boomerang back on Democrat

Trump probe: law enforcement don’t expect arraignment until next week, virtual option off the table

Law enforcement officials met behind closed doors Monday to discuss the logistics of arraigning former President Trump following his possible indictment over hush-money payments made on his behalf during the 2016 presidential campaign.

A law enforcement source told Fox News Monday that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and different branches of law enforcement discussed the logistics of closing down streets and putting lights up with generators, extra barriers, and extra police.

The source said law enforcement does not expect the former president to be arraigned until next week as the Manhattan grand jury – which has been meeting secretly to hear evidence for weeks – has another witness on Wednesday. A virtual option was apparently ruled out as the District Attorney is opposed to it.

The source told Fox News that law enforcement is concerned about safety. If the former president does come up to Manhattan, there will be a major police presence and the area will get shut down. Trump has called on his supporters to protest ahead of a possible indictment.

Beyond whether this happens, will they overreach by going and arresting him, or, allow him to turn himself in? I really wouldn’t bet against the unhinged Trump Deranged to go perp-walk Trump.

The grand jury has been probing Trump’s involvement in a $130,000 payment made in 2016 to the porn actor Stormy Daniels to keep her from going public about a sexual encounter she said she had with him years earlier. Trump lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, through a shell company before being reimbursed by Trump, whose company, the Trump Organization, logged the reimbursements as legal expenses.

Federal prosecutors in the U.S. attorneys office for the Southern District of New York opted out of charging Trump related to the Stormy Daniels payment in 2019, even as Cohen implicated him as part of his deal. The Federal Election Commission also tossed its investigation into the matter in 2021.

This is the best they got? No one considered charging Bill Clinton over his hush money to Paula Jones. There’s also a big case issue on whether the statue of limitations has passed.

(MSDNC) The first problem, though not at all insurmountable, is that this is an old case. The actions giving rise to this case took place years ago. In fact, Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney, has already been sentenced to federal prison and served time for his part in this alleged conspiracy. Right before the 2016 presidential election, Cohen, through a shell company, paid Daniels $130,000 not to share her claims that she had had an affair with Trump. A hush money payment in and of itself isn’t illegal. The problem here was that it was done to influence the 2016 presidential election and should therefore be viewed as an undisclosed campaign contribution that was way over the applicable limit of $2,700 per donor per election.

Proving intent to defraud, if this is kicked up to a felony, will be a seriously difficult task, much harder than getting a far left grand jury to indict, especially when the feds have refused to indict. Back to the beginning of that piece

If the rule of law and the idea that no person is above the law mean anything, we must hold the man who tried to destroy our government from the inside to account; former President Donald Trump must face criminal indictment. But if New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicts Trump on charges related to his hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels, it could threaten every other investigation against him. That’s why, for some of Trump’s biggest critics, the prospect of an indictment related to the Daniels case leads to little but existential dread. That’s not because the facts show Trump engaged in no wrongdoing; quite the opposite. It is because of all the legal cases Trump faces, this one may be the hardest to prove.

If Trump successfully defends himself against an indictment for his role in the payment to Daniels, we can predict he will use it as vindication that any and all charges brought against him are merely so-called witch hunts. It doesn’t take much to imagine Trump’s ceaseless gloating about a loss by the New York prosecutors. And this could have a cascade effect, not only emboldening Trump’s false claims that he has done nothing wrong, but also making other prosecutors skittish about charging Trump in other cases.

It’s just going to look beyond partisan politics

(Breitbart) Andrew McCarthy, former chief assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, who has never been a fan of Trump’s, over the weekend blasted Bragg’s case against the former president as “nonsense” and a “blatantly partisan exercise of raw power.”

“This is a classic, invidious selective prosecution. It is being launched strictly for political purposes,” he wrote in a column for the National Review Online.

“It is hard to think of anything that will more rile up Trump’s base and anger other Republicans who, regardless of their distaste for Trump, will find this maneuver despicable,” he argued.

This is not going to go well.