Former President Donald Trump is looking for “special treatment” that he does now not deserve, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg mentioned in a courtroom submitting Thursday opposing Trump’s try to disregard the felony indictment associated with the hush cost made to grownup movie actress Stormy Daniels.
Trump is charged with just about 3 dozen legal counts of falsifying industry information in reference to what the Manhattan district legal professional’s place of work known as “an expansive and corrupt criminal scheme” to hide harmful information from the general public forward of the 2016 presidential election.
Trump, who has pleaded now not in charge and denied all wrongdoing, is looking for to have the case pushed aside, calling it a “discombobulated package of politically motivated charges” that violates his due procedure rights and interferes along with his present marketing campaign to retake the White House.
In their new submitting, prosecutors argued the lifestyles of a political marketing campaign should not have any bearing at the felony prosecution.
“Defendant repeatedly suggests that because he is a current presidential candidate, the ordinary rules for criminal law and procedure should be applied differently here. This argument is essentially an attempt to evade criminal responsibility because defendant is politically powerful,” prosecutors mentioned.
“Courts have repeatedly rejected defendant’s demands for special treatment and instead have adhered to the core principle that the rule of law applies equally to the powerful as to the powerless,” they wrote.
The fees of falsifying industry information stem from per thirty days repayment bills to Trump’s former legal professional, Michael Cohen, who paid Daniels $130,000 to stay quiet a few long-denied affair she mentioned she had with Trump. Cohen pleaded in charge to creating an unlawful marketing campaign contribution and served time in jail.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg speaks right through a press convention following the arraignment of former U.S. President Donald Trump April 4, 2023 in New York City.
Kena Betancur/Getty Images, FILE
“Pursuant to his reimbursement agreement with defendant, Cohen submitted invoices to executives of the Trump Organization each month from February 2017 to December 2017 requesting ‘payment for services rendered’ pursuant to a ‘retainer agreement,’ although there wasno such retainer agreement and Cohen was not being paid for services rendered in any month of 2017,” prosecutors mentioned.
The Manhattan district legal professional’s place of work disputed the protection rivalry Trump had no intent to defraud, arguing Trump “knew that the business records at issue here contained false statements: there was no retainer; Cohen was not paid for services rendered in 2017; and defendant made and authorized the payments knowing that they were a reimbursement.”
Prosecutors additionally argued the entire association was once intended to “suppress information that could have affected his presidential campaign, and made false entries in the relevant business records in order to prevent public disclosure of both the scheme and the underlying information.”
The case is about for trial on March 25, regardless that the pass judgement on has mentioned he might be open to shifting it to steer clear of a struggle with U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., the place Trump is scheduled to face trial the similar month over his efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 election, culminating in the Jan. 6 assault at the U.S. Capitol.
Also Thursday, the DA’s place of work moved to quash a protection subpoena to Cohen challenging in depth information, emails, texts and contracts over a decade-long length.
Prosecutors in their submitting known as the subpoena “extraordinarily broad” and forged it as a fishing expedition for subject matter Trump may just use in his civil lawsuit towards Cohen, which Trump just lately dropped but additionally signaled might be revived.
“Rather than seek specific documents tailored to the determination of defendant’s guilt or innocence, the subpoena is a scattershot request for years and years of records that appears designed to ascertain the existence of evidence, fish for impeaching material, circumvent limits on discovery in this criminal case, and serve as discovery for the $500 million civil damages lawsuit defendant has promised to re-file against Cohen,” prosecutors mentioned in their submitting.
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