Subject: Re: Guilty on all counts
There’s a lot of pundits who didn’t bother to learn the details of the case (and that includes Dersh, sadly) who went out and spouted a lot of nonsense about weaknesses that didn’t really exist. So, had they given a more accurate assessment, the public would have a better understanding of the trial.

Oh, there were plenty of wrong things about the trial. I'm using Andy McCarthy as my source:

https://www.nationalreview.com...

The main issue: Trump violated FECA's campaign contribution limits and campaign reporting requirements. Never mind that's not Bragg's jurisdiction and as the friggin' candidate he can donate whatever he wants to his own candidacy. But Bragg alleges this huge conspiracy between Trump, Cohen and David Pecker.

What are the odds the 3 of them are even thinking about FECA in 2016? Or how about 2017 when Trump was already President? That's one of the stupidities of all this.

What does the FECA law state? It states that the defendants have to violate the law willfully. Did Bragg ever prove that? No.

It's even worse:
Yet, Merchan has enabled Bragg to fill this gaping hole in his case with improper evidence, namely, the federal guilty pleas of Michael Cohen to FECA crimes, and the fact that Pecker entered a non-prosecution agreement with the Justice Department — after which AMI paid a fine to settle the FEC probe.

So Merchan allows a lot of supposed "evidence" into his jury instructions that's...not really evidence at all. Stormy's testimony? Cohen's legal history? Irrelevant to Trump's guilt or innocence. In fact there was zero evidence Trump violated FECA, but Merchan let the jury think that Bragg actually proved something he didn't.

But it gets even better!
He has blandly instructed them that it is unlawful for a person to “willfully” make or cause the making of contributions that exceed FECA limits. (Jury Instructions at pp. 31, 44.) But he hasn’t instructed them on what “willfully” means.

I doubt Trump ever heard of FECA before this trial started. So where's the intent? It's a part of the FECA statute. Can't convict someone without it, yet here we are.

Then we get to the payment. Trump's payoff to Daniels was not illegal. There are many reasons why one would pay somebody off that aren't campaign expenditures - Cohen's own testimony said he did it to protect Melania.

But the jury never heard any of that, because Merchan refused to allow the defense's witness to testify to any of the particulars of the law. Yeah, yeah, yeah you said witnesses can't testify to the law but they CAN testify to particulars. But why did that matter?

But here’s the thing: The defense needed — I believe, was entitled to call — a witness to explain that “irrespective” concept to the jury. Trump’s lawyers tried to call former FEC commissioner Bradley Smith to do just that, but Merchan refused to allow it. As a result, not only were jurors deprived of an expert witness’s explanation of a key concept in the case; they received, in effect, incorrect instructions from Cohen and Pecker. Those prosecution witnesses did not testify about what a campaign expenditure is as an objective legal category, as Smith would have. Instead, they explained what they claim subjectively to have been thinking when they negotiated and paid for the NDAs.

So the prosecution got to have their witnesses describe what they thought was a crime but the defense wasn't allowed an expert witness to the contrary. How nice for the prosecution.

Andy sums it up
This prosecution is outrageous not just because Bragg purports to enforce federal law despite his lack of authority to do so. It is outrageous because Bragg and Merchan are making up their own version of federal campaign law — a version that steers the jury toward convicting Trump.

Merchan and Bragg controlled the trial, misled the jury, and got the outcome they wanted.

Plenty of reasonable people can look at this farce and conclude that Alvin Bragg - a man who charges crime victims for defending themselves and routinely downplays real felonies - engaged in lawfare to bring down the Bad Orange Man.