Levin: There's No Underlying Crime Listed on Trump Indictment Because He Didn't Do Anything
Conservative commentator Mark Levin, who served in the Reagan Justice Department, argued Tuesday following former President Donald Trump’s arraignment hearing in New York that the indictment lacks an underlying crime.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg told reporters after the hearing that the case rests on Trump falsifying business records with the intent to conceal other crimes, which is a felony in New York.
However, the indictment does not list the other crimes.
In his remarks, Bragg cited a $130,000 payment then-Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 election, but nondisclosure agreements are not illegal. Daniels has alleged that she and Trump had a sexual encounter in 2006.
The DA indicated the payment that Cohen made and that allegedly was later reimbursed by the Trump Organization exceeded the federal campaign contribution limit and was made to “promote a candidacy by unlawful means” based on New York state law.
Alvin Bragg:
“The indictment doesn’t specify because the law does not so require” pic.twitter.com/YlklZoDyNJ
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) April 4, 2023
But the $130,000 didn’t go to Trump’s campaign, and the then-Republican presidential candidate could have had other reasons he didn’t want Daniels’ allegation made public besides the 2016 race.
“There has to be an underlying crime,” Levin told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “People are saying, ‘Well, what is it?’ I’m saying, ‘Well, what underlying crime did Donald Trump commit?’
“He didn’t commit any underlying crime, and he wasn’t charged with any underlying crime. He wasn’t charged with federal election violations even though that’s not the jurisdiction of the DA. There’s nothing here,” he added.
Levin contended that Bragg’s indictment is just the latest example of the abuse of government power designed to hurt Trump politically, including the Jan. 6 committee, “two phony impeachments” and the FBI’s search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home last summer.
Meanwhile, the Biden family receives no such aggressive prosecutorial treatment, despite documents found on Hunter Biden’s “laptop from hell” suggesting he, along with uncle James Biden and perhaps the president himself, received millions of dollars from interests connected to the Chinese Communist Party.
“What exactly did [Trump] do?” Levin asked. “So they have to concoct all these phony crimes because he didn’t do anything.”
“So the Manhattan DA should be disbarred, not only because of the way he campaigned. … This is crap that a pre-law student shouldn’t even put in front of a damn judge,” he said.
One of Bragg’s campaign promises when he ran for office was that he would go after Trump.
Levin commended the 45th president for his fighting spirit against radical leftists like Bragg.
“They are trying to destroy him, and you know what they’re going to do? They’re going to make a martyr out of him, because there’s nobody else that can stand up to this and withstand this day in and day out the way he does,” he continued.
“They’re going to make a martyr out of him for liberty,” Levin said.
Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy told Fox News host Neil Cavuto on Tuesday, “If the judge does his job right here, the case should be dismissed, and it actually should be dismissed quickly.”
He pointed out that a main function of an indictment is to “put a defendant on notice of exactly what he’s being charged with.”
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney @AndrewCMcCarthy joins Neil to discuss Former President Trump’s arraignment and charges pic.twitter.com/iVxg16tu2P
— Neil Cavuto (@TeamCavuto) April 4, 2023
Further, “it’s not a felony unless he was trying to conceal another crime, and if you don’t tell him what the crime is, how does that put him on notice and allow him to prepare his defense?” McCarthy asked.
Former congressman and federal prosecutor Trey Gowdy said on Wednesday, “Indictments are not supposed to be mystery novels. They’re actually supposed to put you on notice of exactly what the state says you have done.”
WHAT’S MISSING IN THE TRUMP INDICTMENT?@TreyGowdy joins @BillHemmer & @DanaPerino to break it down for us:
“Indictments are not supposed to be mystery novels. They’re actually supposed to put you on notice of exactly what the state says you have done.” pic.twitter.com/fU2lAqYRSu
— America’s Newsroom (@AmericaNewsroom) April 5, 2023
The Wall Street Journal also chastised Bragg, writing, “Here’s the big question that Mr. Bragg still hasn’t adequately answered: Where is the second crime?
“Recall that falsifying business records is a misdemeanor in New York. It’s a felony only if the books were cooked with ‘an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof.'”
“When Mr. Trump worked out this reimbursement arrangement with Mr. Cohen, what other crime was he allegedly trying to cover up?”
A version of this article originally appeared on Patriot Project.
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