OPINION:
Alvin Bragg’s 34-count indictment of former President Donald Trump is even worse than the conservative talking heads feared (“’Revenge politics’: Trump indictment threatens to ignite a new age of political retribution,” web, April 6).
It blows a single transaction into 34 counts and alleges payments to Michael Cohen in aid of another crime without identifying that crime.
Worse, it alleges facts that are legal on their face. It says Mr. Trump made a number of payments to Michael Cohen to reimburse him for an eve-of-election payment to Stormy Daniels to hush up an alleged affair between Ms. Daniels and Mr. Trump. The Supreme Court has held that a candidate for office has a constitutional right to use unlimited personal funds to fund his campaign. The worst that can be said here is that Cohen advanced funds — the payment to Ms. Daniels — in aid of Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign for president with the understanding, express or implied, that he would be repaid.
Mr. Trump’s payment is not a crime because he had the right to spend without limit on his own campaign. Cohen’s payment to Ms. Daniels was in effect a loan from Cohen to Mr. Trump. It cannot be illegal to lend money to be used for a lawful purpose.
JIM DUEHOLM
Washington
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