The charges against former president Donald Trump in his New York hush money case are almost never brought in other circumstances, according to The New York Times.
In the past decade, just two other felony cases have been brought in Manhattan indicting defendants for falsifying business records without another crime, the NYT reported Tuesday. Trump was indicted last April in the case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on 34 counts of falsifying business records stemming from alleged hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Falsifying business records is typically a misdemeanor, but Bragg was able to charge them as felonies using the reasoning that they were done to hide another crime, though he did not bring charges for the other crime, the NYT reported. Most felony charges brought for falsifying business records include another crime, according to the NYT. (RELATED: Trump Suing Judge Overseeing Hush Money Case In Bid To Delay Trial: REPORT)
NYT: ‘So the hush-money case it is. Some legal experts initially deemed it shaky, largely because Bragg failed to specify the underlying crime that Trump intended to commit. Though the crime of falsifying business records is nominally a misdemeanor, the Manhattan district…
— Byron York (@ByronYork) April 9, 2024
The trial for Trump’s case is currently set to start on April 15.
Trump took action on Monday against Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the case, to lift his gag order and change the venue of his case, according to CBS News. Merchan issued the gag order against Trump in March, but expanded it after Trump criticized his daughter on social media for her work at the political consulting firm Authentic Campaigns, Inc.
Trump is separately asking Merchan to recuse himself from the case. In a filing Monday, Bragg said Trump’s motion was “nothing more than his latest effort to delay the forthcoming trial.”
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