How the Presidential Candidate Has Manipulated the Legal System
By: Weston Tregay
Thirty-four. That’s how many different charges that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted Trump with all the way back in March 2023. Since his conviction by jury trial, Trump has been able to push the sentencing all the way to after the election on November 26th, which begs the question: What was he convicted for and how was he able to prolong this sentencing for so long? Despite overwhelming evidence that Trump falsified business records, a series of delays continually pushed back the case, and now the United States has a convicted felon running as a candidate in a presidential election.
The prosecution’s case convincingly focused on the payments that Trump made under false entries in the Trump organization’s financial records. The prosecution found evidence that Trump had made several payments to several women he allegedly had affairs with, including Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels. Trump bought the rights from Ms. McDougal and paid off the publishing company to bury evidence of the affair. Because this story, coming at the peak of the 2016 Trump campaign, had the potential to harm his candidacy, Trump used illegal payments to “catch and kill” Ms. McDougal’s defaming story.
Trump carried out all of this negotiation through Mr. Cohen, then the Trump Organization’s vice president, who would become a critical witness for the prosecutors later on in the trial. Cohen involved himself in the Trump campaign’s second scandalous story regarding porn star Stormy Daniels. When Daniels stated that Trump had an affair with her, Mr. Cohen spoke out, confessing that he had in fact paid Daniels to stay quiet. The Stormy Daniels payment amounted to a violation of laws barring the falsification of business records. If Trump clearly has concrete evidence against his case, then, trial should not still be ongoing. Trump’s imprisonment seemed imminent when the jury after a long trial convicted Trump guilty of all 34 charges. However, Trump, extremely conscious of the consequences of his sentencing on the upcoming November election, succeeded in getting his hearing moved to July 11th conveniently after the pivotal election date through a legal maneuver that surrounded petty concerns regarding the Supreme Court’s recent decision on presidential immunity.
After a trial full of convincing evidence and being found guilty of criminal charges, Donald Trump is the GOP candidate for the presidency. However, our legal system is going to let him run for president once again. The extra scrutiny that Trump would garner through these huge cases could sway voters and possibly an election.
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