Trump Attorney Decries Indictment as Political Prosecution, Says Arraignment Expected Early Next Week
By The Epoch Times - Gary Bai : March 31, 2023
Former President Donald Trump is set to be arraigned sometime “early next week” after a Manhattan grand jury voted for his indictment, Trump’s attorney Joseph Tacopina said on Thursday.
Joseph Tacopina says former president angry and disappointed over indictment but ‘ready to fight'
“We’re working that out—maybe Tuesday,” Tacopina, who has represented high-profile clients such as Michael Jackson and rapper Jay-Z, told The Epoch Times in an interview late Thursday.
“I’ve spoken to him,” Tacopina said when asked about Trump’s reaction to the indictment. “He’s angry, disappointed, but he’s ready to fight. He’s a pretty tough guy—his knees don’t buckle, so he’ll be ready to go.”
A grand jury on Thursday voted for Trump’s indictment, Tacopina confirmed with The Epoch Times. That makes Trump the first former president to face criminal charges in the history of the United States.
The indictment against Trump was a major development in a probe launched by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg into an alleged payment from Trump to adult entertainment actress Stormy Daniels. Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels, saying he’s a victim of extortion.
Legal experts have commented that the prosecutor’s criminal case likely centers on whether Trump documented that payment as false business records in the Trump Organization.
A spokesperson for the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement that it is now coordinating with Trump’s attorneys his “surrender to the Manhattan D.A.’s Office for arraignment on a Supreme Court indictment.”
The White House told The Epoch Times it has no comment on the indictment. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement: “Mr. Trump is subject to the same laws as every American.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) pledged to hold Bragg to account.
‘Days of Dictatorships’
According to Tacopina, Trump’s indictment echoes the means political opponents have used against each other under dictatorships.
“This harkens back to the days of dictatorships—Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and communist China—where you pick a political opponent you don’t like and you want to do away with him, you find a crime,” Tacopina said. “That’s what happened here.”
As an example of this political animus toward Trump, Tacopina cited former Manhattan Special Assistant District Attorney Mark Pomerantz’s account in his book “People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account.” The Manhattan DA’s office hired Pomerantz to assist in its probe of Trump’s finances in February 2021. Pomerantz resigned in February 2022 and published his book in February 2023 documenting the investigation into Trump.
“Pomerantz’s book basically laid that out—they said they hated Donald Trump—he would pay the prosecutor … for three years, scouring his records—personal records, business records—and they come up with absolutely nothing except this ridiculous [case],” Tacopina said.
J. Anthony Jordan, president of the District Attorneys Association of the State of New York, told media outlets in a statement in February that Pomerantz violated professional ethics “by writing and releasing a book in the midst of an ongoing case.”
“We’re indicting the former president United States of America, for the first time, on a civil confidentiality agreement that’s legal across the board in any state in this country, and nothing more,” Tacopina said. “And it’s really, really, really troubling to me.”
“It’s a very sad day for the United States of America because today’s the day, I believe, that the rule of law died,” the attorney said. “And it’s not something that anyone should be happy about, whether you’re aligned with the right or the left.”
That view is shared by Alan Dershowitz, professor emeritus at Harvard Law School, who characterized Bragg’s prosecution of Trump as politically motivated and the “weakest case” he has seen in his six decades of experience practicing criminal law.
“It’s very dangerous—it means that district attorneys can indict their own political enemies,” Dershowitz said in an interview with The Epoch Times late Thursday, noting that he predicted this outcome in his book, “Get Trump,” which describes a two-tiered system of justice singling out Trump.
“It really endangers the rule of law for all Americans: today, it’s Trump; tomorrow, it’s a Democrat; the day after tomorrow, it’s your uncle Charlie, or your niece, or your nephew,” Dershowitz added.
“In 60 years of practice, this is the worst case of prosecutorial abuse I have ever seen,” the scholar said. “What’s really unprecedented is not the indictment of a past president, but the indictment of a potential future president who was running against the head of the party of the man who indicted him.”
‘His Knees Don’t Buckle’
Clark Neily, senior vice president for Legal Studies at the Cato Institute, says Trump differs from other defendants in that the former president won’t cave to coercion maneuvers from prosecutors.
When a federal prosecutor has a strong motivation to convict a defendant, Neily explained, the strength of the prosecutor’s case, including the strength of the legal theory and evidence, has little import on the equation.
“Because nearly everybody can be coerced into pleading guilty in our system,” Neily told The Epoch Times in an interview earlier this month. “The amount of pressure that prosecutors can bring to bear on ordinary defendants to plead guilty is beyond anything, I think, that ordinary people can imagine, and that even includes threatening to indict a defendant’s family members simply to exert plea leverage on the defendant.
“I don’t think that will work with Donald Trump.”
“Because I think they’re unwilling to put on public display such nakedly thuggish tactics,” Neily said. “I don’t think Donald Trump can be induced to plead guilty, because I think he’s got the resources and the platform and the mindset to resist those efforts.”
Tacopina said his defense team would execute “every punch we have” against the prosecution.
“With every stop along the way, we are going to pull out the muscle,” the attorney said. “There’s nothing in our arsenal we will leave unused because this is an outrageous case.”
“It’s gonna be challenged on a legal basis, on a factual basis,” the attorney added. “If it gets to trial, obviously, the credibility of their incredible witnesses will also be challenged.”
Earlier in the month, Tacopina filed a formal ethics complaint (pdf) with the New York City Department of Investigation (DOI), the city government’s watchdog. The scope of the DOI’s investigations includes misconduct, waste, fraud, abuse of authority, and unethical conduct, and its investigations are confidential.
“The Department of Investigation is looking into Mr. Bragg,” he said in an interview with The Epoch Times on March 24.
Next Steps
Following normal procedures, Trump would appear at the Manhattan district attorney’s office at an agreed-upon time for booking, which includes being fingerprinted, having his mugshot taken, and being read his Miranda rights.
It is unclear, as of writing, what exact special accommodations will be made for Trump during processing for security considerations.
He would later be arraigned in a courtroom, which typically occurs within a few hours. During this process, Trump’s defense team would be handed the physical copy of the indictment, and Trump is expected to plead not guilty. Trump would then be released on his own recognizance, as New York law bars prosecutors from seeking bail for nonviolent felony charges.
While Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has announced in response to Trump’s indictment that his office will not assist in any extradition of Trump, a Florida resident, to New York, that should be of little consequence considering Trump’s team is planning to cooperate with the indictment process.
Trump, meanwhile, blasted the indictment in a lengthy statement.
“This is Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history,” he wrote in a statement published on Truth Social on Thursday. “From the time I came down the golden escalator at Trump Tower, and even before I was sworn in as your President of the United States, the Radical Left Democrats—the enemy of the hard-working men and women of this Country—have been engaged in a Witch-Hunt to destroy the Make America Great Again movement.
You remember it just like I do: Russia, Russia, Russia; the Mueller Hoax; Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine; Impeachment Hoax 1; Impeachment Hoax 2; the illegal and unconstitutional Mar-a-Lago raid; and now this.”
Dershowitz said he believes that Trump could be convicted by a jury during his trial but that the verdict would be reversed on appeal.
“I don’t think that Trump can get a fair trial in New York,” he said, noting the predominately Democrat population in New York.
“Then, it will be reversed on appeal, but by that time, we’ll be deep into the [2024 presidential] election cycle,” Dershowitz added.
Trump vowed on March 4 to stay in the presidential race regardless of if he is criminally charged.
“Oh, absolutely, I won’t even think about leaving,” Trump told reporters at the Conservative Political Action Conference, in response to a question on the matter. “Probably, it’ll enhance my numbers, but it’s a very bad thing for America. It’s very bad for the country.”
The Epoch Times - Gary Bai
"This Is Political Persecution": Trump Rages, DeSantis 'Won't Extradite', McCarthy Cries 'Injustice' Over Indictment
By ZeroHedge - TYLER DURDEN - FRIDAY, MAR 31, 2023 - 07:35 AM
Update (2040ET): According to Trump's attorneys he is expected to be arraigned as early as Tuesday, the NY Times gleefully reports.
* * *
Update (1827ET):
Trump has responded to the lawsuit, saying in a statement: "This is Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history."
Full statement:
‘This is Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history. From the time I came down the golden escalator at Trump Tower, and even before I was sworn in as your President of the United States, the Radical Left Democrats - the enemy of the hardworking men and women of this Country - have been engaged in a Witch-Hunt to destroy the Make America Great Again movement. You remember it just like I do: Russia, Russia, Russia; the Mueller Hoax; Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine; Impeachment Hoax 1; Impeachment Hoax 2; the illegal and unconstitutional Mar-a-Lago raid; and now this.
‘The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to ‘Get Trump,’ but now they’ve done the unthinkable - indicting a completely innocent person in an act of blatant Election Interference.
“Never before in our Nation’s history has this been done. The Democrats have cheated countless times over the decades, including spying on my campaign, but weaponizing our justice system to punish a political opponent, who just so happens to be a President of the United States and by far the leading Republican candidate for President, has never happened before. Ever.
“Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who was hand-picked and funded by George Soros, is a disgrace. Rather than stopping the unprecedented crime wave taking over New York City, he’s doing Joe Biden’s dirty work, ignoring the murders and burglaries and assaults he should be focused on. This is how Bragg spends his time!
“I believe this Witch-Hunt will backfire massively on Joe Biden. The American people realize exactly what the Radical Left Democrats are doing here. Everyone can see it. So our Movement, and our Party - united and strong - will first defeat Alvin Bragg, and then we will defeat Joe Biden, and we are going to throw every last one of these Crooked Democrats out of office so we can MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley opined on the indictment in a Thursday interview with Fox News.
"Bragg reportedly has secured his indictment. He has made history, but it is an inglorious moment where even some on the left have criticized the effort. This is a patently political prosecution. Bragg and NY AG James ran on bagging Trump. This has fulfilled that pledge but, if the indictment follows the course described in coverage, it is deeply flawed theory. We will have to wait to see the indictment. ...The objection is not to the prosecuting of a misdemeanor but the reported effort to extend the statute of limitations under an unprecedented bootstrapping theory. We have not heard of an alternative criminal theory.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, meanwhile, has issued a statement condemning the "weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda," adding that Florida "will not assist in an extradition request given the questionable circumstances at issue with this Soros-backed Manhattan prosecutor and his political agenda."
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has weighed in as well, tweeting; "Alvin Bragg has irreparably damaged our country in an attempt to interfere in our Presidential election.
"As he routinely frees violent criminals to terrorize the public, he weaponized our sacred system of justice against President Donald Trump."
The President of El Salvador chimes in;
Tucker Carlson opines;
* * *
A Manhattan Grand Jury has voted to indict former President Donald Trump over hush money paid to former porn star Stormy Daniels, according to the NY Times, citing four people familiar with the matter.
The still-sealed felony indictment, which comes as 2024 campaign season comes into focus, makes Trump the first former president in US history to face criminal charges.
The exact charges are not yet known, however the Times expects them to be announced in the coming days by the Manhattan district attorney's office. Prosecutors working for DA Alvin L. Bragg will ask Trump to surrender and face arraignment on said unknown charges.
[U]nlike the investigations that arose from his time in the White House, this case is built around a tawdry episode that predates Mr. Trump’s presidency. The reality star turned presidential candidate who shocked the political establishment by winning the White House now faces a reckoning for a hush money payment that buried a sex scandal in the final days of the 2016 campaign.
Mr. Trump has consistently denied all wrongdoing and attacked Mr. Bragg, a Democrat, accusing him of leading a politically motivated prosecution. He has also denied any affair with the porn star, Stormy Daniels, who had been looking to sell her story of a tryst with Mr. Trump during the campaign. -NY Times
The move also comes just before the grand jury takes a one-month break until late April.
Interestingly, as The Epoch Times' Jack Phillips reported, this month-long delay came after an attorney in former President Donald Trump’s orbit who testified in front of a Manhattan grand jury earlier this month believes that there has been a shift in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against the 45th president.
“Well, I think I got through to them, because [Monday] I understand they called back another witness by the name of David Pecker, who used to run the National Enquirer,” Costello, a former Michael Cohen attorney, told Newsmax on Tuesday.
“Basically, what they’re doing is really gerrymandering this,” he said of Bragg’s probe into Trump.
Costello said he had represented Cohen, himself a former Trump lawyer, and told reporters last week that he does not believe Cohen is a credible witness against Trump.
Sounds like that wasn't the case.
The prosecution's star witness in the case is former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who paid Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about sleeping with Trump. Cohen said that Trump directed him to buy her silence (contrary to a 2018 letter from his lawyer claiming the opposite), and says that the Trump organization helped cover it up.
The case brought by Mr. Bragg, a Democrat, is far from a sure bet. Mr. Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr., and federal prosecutors each passed on charging Mr. Trump in a stand-alone case related to the hush money. If the case goes to trial, a conviction would almost certainly require a jury to credit the testimony of former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who has faced his own legal troubles and pleaded guilty to an array of federal felonies in 2018. Among them was a campaign-finance offense for the porn-star payment, as well as charges of lying to a bank and to Congress. -WSJ
Meanwhile, this didn't age well...
Did Alvin Bragg just make Trump into even more of a martyr?
As Techno Fog writes via The Reactionary...
The indictment is an absolute scandal, the banana republic on parade, the prosecutor using the weapons of his office to attack his political opponent.
Bragg and his predecessor’s slow-walking of the investigation, with its inception by Manhattan DA goes back to 2019, evidences both the dubious nature of the case against Trump and the political motivations for prosecuting Trump. Theoretically, this should be a simple case. Yet the investigation went on for nearly five years, despite what they’ve possessed: overzealous prosecutors who wanted to charge Trump with racketeering, the cooperating witnesses, the likely millions of pages of materials from the Trump Organization.
Now suddenly, the insanely pro-criminal Manhattan DA, who demanded his prosecutors reduce charges for violent criminals, is prioritizing law and order. It’s hard to believe there are legitimate reasons – for prosecutors, that means seeking justice – for that transformation. Why bring the case now? It’s the start of the 2024 presidential campaign season.
You can’t help but think of the political calculations that went on in Bragg’s head. Not only does he benefit personally, now elevated to a liberal folk hero after being the prosecutor to finally get Trump (a campaign promise he keeps), but this throws a grenade into the Republican race. Will the GOP base rally to Trump? How will the other candidates respond?
And what will this do for the undecideds and the independents and the swing voters – those who are essential to victory in 2024?
Some of those questions will be answered in the short term. Some of them won’t be answered until election day, assuming Trump gets the GOP nod.
That’s because the case won’t go away. It’s illegitimate and political, but it’s here to stay for the time being. Don’t be surprised if the trial date is set for the first half of 2024. And don’t understate the danger to Trump, who will face a jury of Biden voters. Biden won Manhattan 86.7% to 12.3% according to the New York Times. The jury of Trump’s peers will be friendly to the prosecution. That’s all the Manhattan DA might need to secure a conviction. Trump could very well win on appeal but the damage - which carries national repercussions - might already have been done.
And that’s the whole point of this dirty scheme.
TRUMP INDICTMENT – LIVE: TRUMP ‘WON’T TAKE PLEA DEAL’ AS HE HEADS TO NEW YORK (video)