Dick Morris: Trump is trapped

Apparently, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is planning indict Donald Trump on a charge he should know won’t stick. He dropped the case a few months ago and is only reopening it due to political pressure.

Andrew McCarthy, former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, writes in National reviewexplains why Bragg can’t win this case.

It is based on paying Stormy Daniels money for silence and on a non-disclosure agreement forbidding her from speaking in public.

But McCarthy notes: “While dating and a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is an interesting act in this saga, it is not a crime. Adultery is a moral evil, but not a crime. And while silence money is a pejorative term and the details of this case are sloppy, non-disclosure agreements are themselves perfectly legal and common in civil claims settlement.”

If Trump were to be charged, it would be for the more prosaic crime of falsifying business records. But in order for this to be criminally punishable, the prosecutor’s office would have to prove something that is obviously not true – that the protocols were falsified to hide another crime.

Obviously, any falsification was motivated by the desire to avoid political embarrassment and publicity. It is absurd to say that there is another crime lurking in the shadows.

So why is Bragg bringing up this case? We can only speculate about his real motivation.

But here’s my take: he’s setting a trap for Trump, hoping to push his buttons so hard and piss off his supporters so much that they’ll create a situation on January 6th so he can be accused of fomenting the riots.

Democrats are desperate. House committees close in on Bidens – Joe Hunter and the whole family. They need to change the subject, get the China payout scandal off the front page. So Bragg blames Trump.

Only a desperate roll of the dice can save the Democrats—and that’s the accusation.

America will see that any case based on Stormy Daniels is just a political ploy to try and stop Trump. But everyone knows he can’t be stopped. So Bragg thinks the next best thing to do would be to provoke a riot.

But Trump and his supporters won’t bite. Trump will go out of his way to call for peaceful protests and prayers for our democracy.

Which brings us to the statute of limitations. McCarthy explains that a felony of falsification lasts five years, while a misdemeanor only expires after two.

To avoid a two-year deadline that has clearly expired, prosecutors face the same stumbling block: proving that the fabrication was motivated by a desire to cover up another crime. To avoid a five-year statute, prosecutors had to prove that this was the case. Otherwise, their criminal prosecution is terminated after the expiration of the statute of limitations.

McCarthy concludes, “This is a really stupid case, and Bragg, who had already abandoned him once only to resuscitate him, has not yet crossed the Rubicon.”

And he might drown if he tries.

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