Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty on Tuesday after he became the first former American chief executive to be arrested and charged with a crime in a case involving alleged hush money paid to cover alleged affairs.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who charged Trump with 34 crimes, said Trump "repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election," the indictment says.
Among the charges is that he reimbursed his then-lawyer Michael Cohen for $130,000 after Cohen paid off porn star Stormy Daniels to keep an alleged affair with Trump secret. The payment was made "to prevent her from publicizing a sexual encounter with the Defendant," the indictment says. The payments were then covered up by falsifying records, according to the indictment. Although the falsification of records is a misdemeanor, the charge becomes a felony if it was done to cover up another crime – which Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg says happened.
"Why did Donald Trump repeatedly make these false statements?" Bragg said during a news conference. "The evidence will show he did so to cover up crimes relating to the 2016 election."
Bragg's indictment had plenty of critics on all sides of the ideological spectrum.
Former Trump administration official John Bolton – a frequent Trump critic – said Tuesday he was "extraordinarily distressed" by the lack of depth of the charges.
"I can come up with a very plausible reason why a person would have the intent of paying these hush money payments: He doesn't want his wife to find out about it," Bolton said on CNN. "... I think to the average juror, that's a pretty convincing argument."
Bolton added, "I think this is even weaker than I feared it would be. And I think it's easily subject to being dismissed or a quick acquittal for Trump."
“I’m extraordinarily distressed by this document," former Trump official John Bolton weighs in on former President Trump's indictment with CNN's @jaketapper. Watch: pic.twitter.com/LtYEWZJy88
— CNN (@CNN) April 4, 2023
Another Trump critic, U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), also was critical.
"I believe the New York prosecutor has stretched to reach felony criminal charges in order to fit a political agenda," Romney said. "No one is above the law, not even former presidents, but everyone is entitled to equal treatment under the law. The prosecutor's overreach sets a dangerous precedent for criminalizing political opponents and damages the public's faith in our justice system."
Jonathan Chait of New York Magazine – a publication frequently critical of Trump – argued that while a politician's "standing does not give them license to commit crimes, it also shouldn't expose them to criminal liability that a regular person would never face."
"The uncomfortable reality is that, while Trump may be a career criminal, he does not deserve to be prosecuted for this particular charge," Chait wrote. Referencing the hush money, Chat asserted, "Trump is in a position where an activity he could have done legally became a crime simply because he was a candidate for office. The entire scheme follows from his effort to cover up an alleged affair. That is the definition of being below, not above, the law."
Ian Millhiser of Vox wrote that there is a "serious risk that a New York judge will toss out the charges against Trump on technical legal grounds unrelated to the former president's actual conduct."
"Bragg … has built one of the most controversial and high-profile criminal cases in American history upon the most uncertain of foundations," Millhiser wrote. "And that foundation could crumble into dust if the courts reject his legal arguments on a genuinely ambiguous question of law.
Former U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, a Republican-turned-Independent who voted to impeach Trump, also criticized the charges.
"After reading DA Bragg's indictment of Trump and accompanying statement of facts, I'm stunned any prosecutor would move forward with this," Amash said. "It's even flimsier than we were led to believe. Thirty-four stacked counts, bootstrapped to an unstated crime, to manufacture felony charges."
After reading DA Bragg’s indictment of Trump and accompanying statement of facts, I’m stunned any prosecutor would move forward with this. It’s even flimsier than we were led to believe. Thirty-four stacked counts, bootstrapped to an unstated crime, to manufacture felony charges.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) April 4, 2023
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Joe Raedle/Staff
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
