Thread by @EpochTimes

The politicized indictment of former President Trump was the latest in a yearslong effort to target him that began with the 2016 Clinton campaign’s false Russia collusion plot.

Trump is dealing with at least 3 more ongoing investigations. theepochtimes.com/analysis-a-clo…

In addition to the #NewYork case, there’s a case in #Georgia being pushed by a local prosecutor, Fani Willis.

There are also 2 federal cases involving special counsel Jack Smith: one about Trump’s alleged wrongdoing on #Jan6, and the other about Trump's handling of documents.

A quick word on pardons before we dive in: only the 2 federal cases are subject to presidential pardons. The New York and Georgia cases are subject to pardons from the respective governors of those states.

𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐘𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐞
@ManhattanDA inflated 1 count into 34 counts of making false business entries.

Bragg charged each payment as a separate offense, even though they all pertain to the same transaction. He further subdivided each payment into 3 separate offenses.

Problem #1 with that is since Trump was president at the time that this allegedly happened, it’s highly unlikely he was in #NewYork telling an accountant how exactly to file the entries.

Problem #2, a much bigger problem, is that in order for the false business records charge to be a felony, instead of just a minor slap on the wrist, it needs to be attached to another crime.

But @ManhattanDA does not say what this other supposed crime is.

The alleged fraud is bootstrapped onto a mysterious underlying crime that remains unspecified.

In simple terms, it appears Bragg made something up, without telling the public or the defendant what it is, in order to charge Trump with a felony.

Then there’s Problem #3. Bragg claims that the business records are Trump Organization records.

But Trump handed over the reins of his company to his sons before he became president. And the entries were made on Trump’s personal ledger–not the Trump Organization’s ledger.

Then there’s the big picture, which is that the entire case is solely based on the say-so of a convicted perjurer, Michael Cohen.

Whatever the truth, it’s not a crime to pay someone hush money, nor is it a crime to use your personal funds to give someone like Cohen money.

𝐆𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐚 𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐞
The next case we’re probably going to hear more about is the election interference case out of Fulton County, #Georgia.

Recall there were allegations of all kinds of shenanigans in the county in the 2020 election.

Trump, probably unwisely, called the @GaSecofState Brad Raffenperger to demand that the situation be fixed.

Given that Trump lost #Georgia by only about 11,000 votes, Trump’s efforts were understandable. But they backfired when Raffensperger had the conversation recorded and then leaked the tape.

While it’s true that Trump, likely unwisely, used the loose term, “I just want to find 11,780 votes,”  the media never mentions that the statement was immediately followed by the words “which is one more than we have because we won the state.”

Because of this, the whole case immediately becomes a farce because Trump was well within his rights to express his criticisms of what happened in #Georgia.

𝐉𝐚𝐧. 𝟔 𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
While Trump has been acquitted by the Senate of inciting an insurrection, this has not stopped special counsel Jack Smith from taking up the case.

However, it’s difficult to see any crime in what Trump did on #Jan6.

The #Jan6Committee already dug into every possible angle on this, but came up empty-handed.

Whether you agree with Trump or not, his speech before the events at the Capitol is constitutionally protected.

Trump did not incite imminent violence. He said the exact opposite: “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

𝐌𝐚𝐫-𝐚-𝐋𝐚𝐠𝐨 𝐃𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐞
The fact that Trump had some documents at his home that he allegedly wasn’t supposed to have isn’t going to be a huge issue because President Biden would have to be charged with the same offenses.

Trump has the added benefit of being able to claim that he had declassified the documents—which Biden, as vice president, cannot claim. It also can’t be an Espionage Act issue since the Espionage Act does not prohibit the retention of classified documents.

That leaves only 1 issue, which is a potential obstruction of justice charge.

This is the only issue that might have some legal teeth, most likely not for Trump but perhaps for one of his lawyers.

What happened was that the DOJ demanded—via subpoena—that Trump turn over any documents “marked” classified. Not classified documents, but marked classified.

Any documents that happened to have any classification markings on them, irrespective of their…

…actual classification status, were covered by the subpoena.

As we now know, not all such documents were turned over and some were later found during the Aug. 8, 2022, FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago.

So Jack Smith is reportedly trying to tie that failure to Trump. Now did Trump personally tell his lawyers not to turn everything over as per the subpoena?

Anything is possible, but that does seem like a pretty big stretch.

So there you have it. Those are the Trump cases that appear to not amount to much.

However, given that this is Trump and the years of effort to target him, it wouldn’t be surprising if more cases pop up.

/END/

Full article: theepochtimes.com/analysis-a-clo…