Former President Donald Trump called for the resignation of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for allegedly “illegally” leaking the points of indictment to the media.
An exclusive report from Yahoo News on Monday said that the former president “has been charged with 34 felony counts for falsification of business records, according to a source who has been briefed on the procedures for the arraignment of the former president”:
The charge of falsification of business records is normally prosecuted in New York state as a misdemeanor. But Bragg’s office bumped up all the charges to Class E felonies — the lowest level of felonies in the New York State penal code on the grounds that the conduct was intended to conceal another underlying crime, according to the source.
Under the New York State penal code, a conviction for the Class E felony of falsifying business records can result in a prison term of up to four years. But as a practical matter, that seems extremely unlikely. “No one gets jail time for that as a first offender,” said a New York law enforcement official.
The evidence for the underlying crime that escalated Trump’s alleged misdemeanors to felonies is still not clear and won’t be until the indictment is unsealed on Tuesday. But it is believed to relate to the payment of $130,000 in hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels during the closing weeks of the 2016 election to conceal an extramarital encounter with Trump.
Shortly after the report went live, the former president posted on his Truth Social account that Bragg “illegally” leaked the indictment and should resign.
“Wow! District Attorney Bragg just illegally LEAKED the various points, and complete information, on the pathetic Indictment against me. I know the reporter and so, unfortunately, does he,” the former president wrote. “This means that he MUST BE IMMEDIATELY INDICTED. Now, if he wants to really clean up his reputation, he will do the honorable thing and, as District Attorney, INDICT HIMSELF. He will go down in Judicial history, and his Trump Hating wife will be, I am sure, very proud of him!”
“D.A. BRAGG JUST ILLEGALLY LEAKED THE 33 points of Indictment. There are no changes or surprises from those he leaked days ago directly out of the Grand Jury. No Crime by Trump. What a MESS. Bragg should resign, NOW!” he said in a subsequent post.
As Breitbart News reported on Monday, the former president’s court appearance will be a “spectacle,” complete with a (sans handcuffs) perp walk and mugshot.
“Trump was offered a chance to surrender ‘quietly’ and be arraigned over Zoom, according to a law enforcement official involved with some of the planning, told Rolling Stone; however, the former president instead wanted to have a ‘midday, high-profile’ at the Manhattan courthouse,” said the report.
“The law enforcement official acknowledged that this would be a ‘nightmare’ for the Secret Service because they could only strongly suggest what the former president should do at his arraignment and not order him around,” it added.
EXCLUSIVE: Trump is demanding a high-profile surrender to NY authorities. “He wanted a perp walk, he wanted daylight hours,” one source tells @RollingStone . “He wants to get out of the vehicle and walk up the stairs.”https://t.co/CxcFY16W96
— Noah Shachtman (@NoahShachtman) April 3, 2023
Related: Donald Trump Leaves Mar-a-Lago to Fly to NYC for Arraignment
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