Joe Scarborough is right: The walls really are closing in in the Donald Trump hush-money case.
It’s just that they’re closing in on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, not the former president. Bragg’s case is collapsing just as he was on the brink of becoming the Democrats’ dragon slayer. The legal case was already flimsy even before his star witness was exposed to grand jurors as a sleazy liar. Now, even if he can eke out an indictment, Bragg’s prospects at trial look bleak.
A photo op of a once and possibly future president being perp-walked would be catnip for liberals and provide a sugar high for Bragg. Reminding everyone that Trump allegedly had a fling with a floozie in 2006 is fun for the folks who once seriously touted her old attorney Michael Avenatti for president. But what if the case goes forward, only to be tossed on summary judgment? Or if it goes the distance and Bragg gets his clock cleaned? Those are real possibilities, and either one would only burnish the legend of Teflon Trump. And Alvin Bragg would be telling Robert Mueller to hold his beer.
Many legal experts have deemed Bragg’s case a dud. He is trying to prove that Trump hid a $130,000 payment to former porn actress Stormy Daniels by having his lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, pay it and then bill him for legal services. That would be a misdemeanor at best, but Bragg is apparently trying to elevate it to a felony by claiming the payment was really a campaign expense, and not reporting it violated federal election law.
The problems with the case are many. For starters, as much as Democrats like to shriek with a straight face that “no one is above the law,” charging a former president and current White House candidate can’t be done lightly. Doing so on a seven-year-old misdemeanor regarding a 17-year-old rendezvous Trump denies ever happened is so weak it can only be viewed as politically motivated. Second, Bragg’s scheme to turn said misdemeanor into a felony requires him to prosecute a federal campaign violation, which is out of his legal lane. The Department of Justice, which would have jurisdiction, considered that case years ago and passed.
The prosecution of Trump on the Stormy Daniels hush money is absurd by pretty much every available legal theory. That’s why Trump should focus his fire on the Manhattan DA, not Ron DeSantis. pic.twitter.com/Z7LyOFzPo5
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) March 21, 2023
Bragg was ready to press on anyway, until Monday. That’s when a former federal prosecutor and onetime legal adviser to Cohen invited himself before the grand jury and proceeded to drop a grand piano on Cohen. Armed with documents, Robert Costello spent two hours telling grand jurors that Cohen is a liar and couldn’t tell the truth “if you put a gun to his head.” Then on Wednesday, a 2018 letter surfaced which detailed how Cohen had told his own lawyers at the time that he paid off Stormy Daniels with his own money and without Trump’s knowledge.
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Unlike in a criminal trial in which the Brady rule is in effect, Bragg was not required to tell grand jurors about evidence that undermines his case. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t find out about Cohen’s crooked character, directly from Costello and likely from reports Wednesday about the damning letter. By now, they may even know that Cohen went to federal prison for lying to Congress, among other things.
Bragg gave jurors the day off Wednesday, but he might have needed the downtime himself to think about his next step. Will it be away from the brink or right onto a rake? He should think carefully, because, you know, the walls are closing in.