Thread by @lawofruby

As others celebrated or denigrated news that the Manhattan DA is considering charges against Trump for his hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels, a wise colleague asked me an important question: How are those charges NOT time barred? 1/
nytimes.com/2022/11/21/nyr…

The answer is kind of amazing. Remember when, in 2019, Trump moved his permanent residence to FL, likely for tax purposes? 2/

nytimes.com/2019/10/31/us/…

In doing so, he might have saved himself some $$--but he also inadvertently pressed paused on the statutes of limitations for various New York crimes. How, you ask? 3/

New York's criminal code says that “[i]n calculating the time limitation applicable to commencement of a criminal action," courts may not include "[a]ny period following the commission of the offense during which (i) the defendant was continuously outside this state.” 4/

And New York's highest court clarified in 1999 that "continously outside this state" means “all periods of a day or more that a nonresident defendant is out-of-State." Those periods are then added up and any statute of limitations is paused, or tolled for that time. 5/

What does this mean for Trump? It means that as of ~Sept. 2019, the clock for any NY statute of limitations stopped ticking during any period of a day or more that he was NOT in New York. 6/

And as of Oct. 31, 2019, NBC News calculated that Trump had spent only 20 days at Trump Tower since his inauguration. If that pattern continued -- and Trump likely spent even less time in NY since -- the NYDA has *years* left to charge Trump. 7/

So it turns out time is on Alvin Bragg's side, not Trump's. So much for avoiding NY's reach. FIN