
Two Questions about New York Criminal Trial of Donald Trump
(posted 5/13/2024) - I have two main questions about the New York Criminal Trial of Donal Trump. I have not found any of the news media directly addressing these obvious questions - so I post them here for posterity (hoping for clarification in the fullness of time).
It would appear that there are two possible findings in fact and in law that a judge and jury might make regarding this case. If there is insufficient evidence to find Mr. Trump guilty of falsifying business records to cover up a crime (or attempted crime) can the judge direct the jury to consider the misdemeanor charge of falsifying business records which is much more clearly supported in evidence? The maximum sentence for this is 1 year in prison and $1K/guilty verdict.
Can a jury be directed to decide if a felony or misdemeanor has occurred and render a verdict so constrained? Since the prosecution is persuing a felony charge they must describe a felony crime that the business records attempted to hide (even if that crime was unsuccessfully executed). The only crime that appears to have been adjudicated is that committed by Michael Cohen, for which Mr. Trump was an unindicted co-conspirator as I recall. I have seen no reporting that the prosecution has made the case that Mr. Trump falsified his business records in an attempt to hide Mr. Cohen's crime(s).
What they seem to be pushing is the idea that Mr. Trump falsified business records to avoid public reporting of payments to hide a sexual liaison that might affect his chances of winning federal election. I frankly don't understand the prosecutor's strategy since Mr. Trump was listed as unindicted co-conspirator to an actual crime (federal election interference in 2016).
I await the final arguments and hope my confusion will be resolved as to both the initial criminal act and jury instruction for deliberation (misdemeanor or felony).
update PS - Specifically, prosecutors say Trump violated Section 17-152 of New York state election code, which says it's a misdemeanor to "conspire to promote or prevent the election of any person to public office by unlawful means."
"Through these false business records, the defendant intended to make sure that nobody learned about the Stormy Daniels payoff and the illegal election fraud scheme launched at the Trump Tower meeting in 2015," prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said in opening statements.
So, it appears the prosecution argument is that a state law defining misdemeanor criminal intent to hide information from New York voters was elevated to a felony crime when Mr. Trump falsified New York business records to hide said misdemeaner? Still don't know why they didn't instead cite the federal felony committed by Cohen at the behest of Mr. Trump -- which seems a much easier thing to prove. Perhaps something to do with the federal vs. state charging?