Prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office made some outrageous and ultimately false claims about former President Donald Trump during their opening arguments to jurors on Monday as his ‘hush money’ case began.
OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s own views.
During his opening statement, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s top prosecutor alleged that Trump “orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election” by paying adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about their alleged affair, which Trump has denied.
Matthew Colangelo, Bragg’s top prosecutor who delivered the opening statement on Monday, has a background in the Justice Department as a Biden appointee and is recognized as a lifelong left-wing activist, according to reports.
“The defendant, Donald Trump, orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election. Then he covered up that criminal conspiracy by lying in his New York business records over and over and over again,” Colangelo told jurors, according to AP.
Bragg indicted Trump last April on 34 felony counts related to ‘hush payments’ he made to Stormy Daniels.
Trump allegedly paid Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, hush money through his former attorney, Michael Cohen, to keep their alleged affair from being exposed by the National Enquirer.
The payments directed to Stormy Daniels did not originate from Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign funds. According to Trump’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, these payments were processed through internal business records without any tax deduction or obligation to report to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Also, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York examined the allegations and found no evidence of federal violations.
Despite this, Bragg’s charging documents lack clarity regarding the specific charges he aims to pursue against Trump. Bragg told reporters he doesn’t have to tell anyone what the underlying felony is.
Alvin Bragg, sometimes called “Fat Alvin”, built his case off of copying and pasting the same charge 34 times around “concealing another crime” in order to make it a felony but didn’t include the crime being covered up in the indictment because “the law does not so require” pic.twitter.com/6AOvqRkYv2
— ALX ?? (@alx) April 4, 2023
Meanwhile, the FEC in 2022 fined Hillary Clinton and the DNC $113,000 for lying about funding the fake Russia dossier. Her campaign fought the fine unsuccessfully; she was never charged with any campaign finance violations.