Two-Tiered Justice System: The Biden Campaign-Finance Investigation That Wasn’t

Elected progressive Democrat Alvin Bragg, Manhattan’s district attorney, has indicted Donald Trump in one of the most truly ridiculous, nakedly partisan prosecutions of all time. Not only can Bragg not prove a federal campaign-finance offense; as a state prosecutor, he would have no jurisdiction to prosecute a federal-law violation even if he had the proof.

Nevertheless, Bragg is upset that Trump, the Dems’ arch-nemesis, did not disclose prior to the 2016 election that he’d green-lit hush-money payments to two women who (quite credibly) claim to have had extramarital liaisons with him a decade earlier. Mind you, hush-money payments are perfectly legal — they are often part of what’s known in the law biz as “non-disclosure agreements,” a staple of litigation settlements. Furthermore, even if they had been campaign expenditures (and, as a matter of law, they were not), federal law would not have required disclosure until 2017 — i.e., after the election. Naturally, none of this mattered to Bragg, who campaigned for office by touting the more than 100 lawsuits he’d filed against Trump as a state-government lawyer (much like his , who campaigned vowing to use the state attorney general’s power against Trump, ). Bragg has used the hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels as the predicate for a false-bookkeeping case against Trump, a misdemeanor which the DA has .

Elected progressive Democrat Alvin Bragg, Manhattan’s district attorney, has indicted Donald Trump in one of the most truly ridiculous, nakedly partisan prosecutions of all time. Not only can Bragg not prove a federal campaign-finance offense; as a state prosecutor, he would have no jurisdiction to prosecute a federal-law violation even if he had the proof.

Nevertheless, Bragg is upset that Trump, the Dems’ arch-nemesis, did not disclose prior to the 2016 election that he’d green-lit hush-money payments to two women who (quite credibly) claim to have had extramarital liaisons with him a decade earlier. Mind you, hush-money payments are perfectly legal — they are often part of what’s known in the law biz as “non-disclosure agreements,” a staple of litigation settlements. Furthermore, even if they had been campaign expenditures (and, as a matter of law, they were not), federal law would not have required disclosure until 2017 — i.e., after the election. Naturally, none of this mattered to Bragg, who campaigned for office by touting the more than 100 lawsuits he’d filed against Trump as a state-government lawyer (much like his fellow elected New York progressive Democrat Letitia James, who campaigned vowing to use the state attorney general’s power against Trump, and is now doing just that). Bragg has used the hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels as the predicate for a false-bookkeeping case against Trump, a misdemeanor which the DA has abusively inflated into 34 felony counts.

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.