Politics - News Analysis

Trump Gets Even More Bad News About His Hush Money Trial, ‘It’s Very Unlikely He’ll Get an Acquittal’

Trump’s criminal charges in New York have always been the weakest of the four. Technically, the charge is actually a misdemeanor. I am publishing the law here as set out by The Missouri Independent because, well – when the Missouri Independent is your best source, the issue has not been discussed enough. Just know this going into the trial:

Legal experts have noted a major challenge facing Bragg: In New York state, falsifying business records on its own is a misdemeanor, not a felony. But it becomes a felony if the falsification was done to conceal another crime.

Bragg alleges that Trump intended to conceal state and federal campaign finance violations. The payments, prosecutors allege, were illegal and unreported donations to Trump’s campaign, because if Daniels’ story became public, it could have damaged Trump’s image when voters went to the polls.

See? Now Bragg is mixing state crimes with federal crimes, and though that isn’t illegal, you always want to stay in your lane, if you know what I mean. This should give Trump a yuge advantage. The D.A. has to prove two crimes to get one guilty verdict. That’s normally bad.

But experts think that Trump’s goose is cooked and it gets down to this… Some jury candidates lie.

I defer to none in my faith in juries. They take their work damned seriously. But the higher the profile of the case, the more people who want on and the more willing they are to lie.

According to Syracuse law professor Greg Germain states:

The D.A. is going to have a much easier time than Trump. It’s going to be very difficult for Trump to find jurors from the Manhattan jury pool who are likely to side with him, as Manhattan voters are overwhelmingly Democratic and quite liberal,”

Yeah. There is that, for sure.

Donald Trump appears ahead of the start of jury selection at Manhattan Criminal Court on April 15, 2024 in New York City. Former President Donald Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first of his criminal cases to go to trial. (Photo by Jabin Botsford-Pool/Getty Images)

But in 99% of cases, that wouldn’t matter because jury duty truly does bring out the best in people. They take their jobs seriously and are honest… except in the most high-profile cases where some might have an agenda.

As another expert, Joyce Vance, wrote in Newsweek:

It is very unlikely that Trump will get an outright acquittal. That would require every juror to find he isn’t guilty, which is very unlikely unless the prosecution has an unexpected flaw in their proof. It’s far more likely Trump’s lawyers will be looking for a holdout juror they can get past the prosecution,”

Well, I am nowhere near as good an attorney as Joyce Vance, but I think his best shot is a mistrial due to a prosecution error.

Think about it. Trump’s defense lawyers are going to turn this trial into the biggest zoo-break ever. The crazier the trial, the more likely a prosecutor is going to make a mistake, resulting in a mistrial. Then there is the decision as to whether to try him again based on your own mistake?

It is his best shot, in my not-so-humble opinion.

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Jason Miciak is Executive Editor at Political Flare and an Editor at Large at Occupy Democrats. He can be reached at [email protected] and @JasonMiciak, but will not be in a Manhattan Courthouse this week. 

meet the author

Jason Miciak is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is originally from Canada but grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He now enjoys life as a single dad raising a ridiculously-loved young girl on the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He is very much the dreamy mystic, a day without learning is a day not lived. He is passionate about his flower pots and studies philosophical science, religion, and non-mathematical principles of theoretical physics. Dogs, pizza, and love are proof that God exists. "Above all else, love one another."

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