Donald Trump has racked up a number of ignominious firsts in American history, and now he will add another: the first ex-president to be charged with a crime.
Despite what the political prognosticators say, this is not unabashedly “good for Trump.”
No one, not even he, wants to go through a trial that dredges into their personal lives, and Trump does himself no favors by lashing out in violent and insulting language.
Independent voters may believe this is a politically motivated prosecution, but they’re also turned off by Trump wanting to turn it into another Jan. 6.
But make no mistake: It is a politically motivated prosecution.
Was District Attorney Alvin Bragg shamed by the ex-employee who wrote a book claiming he “dropped the ball” on Trump?
Is he worried about not being able to get a nice room at the Democratic Convention?
Either way, Bragg is inflating a minor possible crime into a felony so he can launch his own campaign for re-election.
How bad is the case?
Let us count the ways.
The key witness, lawyer Michael Cohen, is a congenital liar.
Precedent shows that in other similar cases, such as against one-time presidential candidate John Edwards, the defendants have been found not guilty.
Bragg’s own predecessor — and the feds! — declined to bring this case against Trump for six years.
Bragg is trying to convert a state-level misdemeanor, falsifying financial records, into a federal felony.
A less self-interested prosecutor would have dropped it and . . . we don’t know, gone after the scourge of gun violence or the shoplifting and robbing epidemic on New York’s streets?
Trump faces investigations that are, to our minds, far more serious: his actions on Jan. 6 and pushing for Georgia to “find votes” for him.
The Stormy Daniels case is a goose egg that just convinces America that our legal system is biased and politicized.
That Bragg couldn’t see that — or didn’t care — shows just how bad of a district attorney he is.
