Subject: Re: Trumpers walk out on Trump
please state exactly what element of Federal election law that Trump violated and the specific act on Trumps part that proves he did it.

There are four possibilities, all stated by Bragg, but it's true that we don't yet know which one (or several) will be used here. I agree that this is subtle "deep in the legal weeds" stuff, that I don't fully appreciate, which makes me wonder how the entire jury is going to be convinced.

Shortly before the 2016 election, Michael Cohen, Trump's lawyer, paid Daniels $130,000 to keep her from talking about the alleged affair. In a 2018 plea agreement, Cohen, who will be the main prosecution witness in Bragg's case against Trump, accepted the Justice Department's characterization of that payment as an illegal campaign contribution. But Trump was never prosecuted for soliciting or accepting that purported contribution. Nor was he prosecuted for later reimbursing Cohen in a series of payments.

There are good reasons for that. The question of whether this arrangement violated federal election law hinges on whether the hush money is properly viewed as a campaign expense or a personal expense. That distinction, in turn, depends on whether Trump was motivated by a desire to promote his election or by a desire to avoid embarrassment and spare his wife's feelings.

In any event, the statute of limitations for federal election law violations is five years, and Bragg has no authority to prosecute people for such crimes. Bragg instead charged Trump with covering up his reimbursement of Cohen by disguising it as payment for legal services. Trump did that, according to the indictment, through phony invoices, checks, and ledger entries, each of which violated Section 175.05 of the New York Penal Law, which makes falsification of business records "with intent to defraud" a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum fine of $1,000 and/or up to a year in jail.
...
Under Section 175.10 of the penal code, that offense becomes a Class E felony, punishable by up to four years in prison, when the defendant's "intent to defraud includes an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof." The indictment, which was unveiled in April 2023, charges Trump with 34 counts under that provision but does not specify "another crime." A month later, Bragg's office suggested four possibilities:

- The Federal Election Campaign Act
- Section 17-152 of the New York Election Law
- Sections 1801(a)(3) and 1802 of the New York Tax Law
- Sections 175.05 and 175.10 of the New York Penal Law

For more details, see https://www.yahoo.com/news/alv...