Donald Trump brandishes a baseball bat while pursing his lips in a gesture of going to hit it hard. He does it before the chief prosecutor of Manhattan, the Democrat Alvin Bragg, his number one enemy since a few days ago he indicated his possible intention to criminally charge him with a $ 130,000 bribe to the porn actress Stormy Daniels to buy his silence after an extramarital relationship .
The image of the bat pointing at Bragg, a photomontage, was published by the former president on his network, Truth Social, within a battery of insulting and threatening messages against the prosecutor, whom he called "animal" while warning of "death and destruction” that an accusation against him would bring with it. While the grand jury that should guide Bragg's decision met again yesterday to continue evaluating evidence before voting on it, Trump's publication aroused harsh criticism and complaints from American jurists. Even the ultra leader's lawyer, Joe Tacopina, rejected the bravado of his client.
A group of more than 175 former federal prosecutors published an open letter against what they interpreted as an attempt to intimidate their colleague in New York and "incite violence." Other legal professionals were more forceful. Law professor and author of the book on corruption Big dirty money, Jennifer Taub, reproduced Trump's inflammatory message against Bragg on her Twitter account and commented: “This threat is obstruction of justice and a dangerous call for violence. Everyone has to report it." And the also lawyer and former diplomat Norm Eisen recalled that "threatening a prosecutor is a crime in New York."
The ex-president's lawyer, Joe Tacopina, opined that the montage with the photo of his patron holding a bat in front of Bragg "was an unwise publication" which, however, he attributed to "one of Donald Trump's employees on social networks" who spread the message “and quickly removed it when he became aware of the rhetoric” (threatening) of the message. To get out of the way, Tacopina stressed: "I am not my client's consultant on social networks."
Bragg's office has also received "several hundred threats" in recent days, some of them fatal, according to the New York police. The chief prosecutor wrote an e-mail to department officials to thank him for their resilience in the face of such threats, as well as pressure from the media for information on what constitutes a secret investigation.
The 23 members of the grand jury studying the case resumed the sessions on Monday that could lead to a vote in favor of Trump's accusation, an accusation that he himself had predicted dramatically for last Tuesday, between calls on his followers to demonstrate against his " detention". The ad turned out to be a fake that in the judicial media was considered a possible intimidating maneuver to stop what would be the first criminal charge against a president or former president of the United States.
In their session yesterday, the grand jury took a statement from former editor of the National Enquirer tabloid, David Pecker, who had already testified in January. A close friend of the then presidential candidate, Pecker would have helped Trump avoid publishing compromising stories for him. In Daniels' case, the Enquirer editor would have helped curb his attempts to go public with his history with the Republican; first, notifying her friend and, finally, arranging for the candidate's lawyer, Michael Cohen, to reach an economic agreement with her.
The company that owns the National Enquirer, American Media Inc., acknowledged in 2018 that two years earlier it had paid $150,000 to a former Playboy magazine model, Karen McDougal, to prevent her from recounting her own alleged affair with the tycoon shortly before the 2016 elections.
The main charge in the Daniels case refers to a false documentary to cover up the payment of the bribe to the actress, also during the 2016 presidential campaign, through the payment of $130,000 already acknowledged by former lawyer Michael Cohen.
Said cover-up for falsehood would be a minor crime, punishable by one year in prison, which, however, would be aggravated and carry up to four years if, as has been pointed out, it was linked to an illegal payment with electoral funds; that is to say, a payment with money destined to promote the vote for Trump... or, what is the same but by default, to avoid a punishment of the voters for some sin of the candidate.
Trump, of course, denies everything. The same as when he instigated the assault on the Capitol, when he took hundreds of secret papers to his house or when he deceived the tax authorities in his private business. “They have nothing. I have not done anything wrong ”, repeats the former president.
