Opinion by Jason Willick: How “no one is above the law” became anti-Trump sloganeering
) his indictment in 2023 would have been time-barred. And even when a case isn’t technically time-barred, prosecutors generally prefer fresh cases to avoid open-ended inquiries and because evidence and recollections erode over time.Second, other prosecutors declined to pursue the case against Trump — not just the famously aggressive U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, but New York City’s previous district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., a Democrat.
Fourth, the indictment would seem to transform a hypothetical federal offense into a state crime under a New York business-records law. According to this procedural jujitsu, Trump committed a state felony by marking the payments as legal expenses to conceal a federal campaign expense. Prosecutors prefer not relying on such convoluted constructs, which are vulnerable on appeal.
The strongest argument for the former president’s indictment is Michael Cohen — Trump’s erstwhile lawyer, who pleaded guilty in federal court in 2018 to white-collar crimes including a campaign-finance offense for his role in paying off Daniels. “No one is above the law” as applied to Trump makes most sense relative to Cohen: Why should the servant be punished if not the principal?
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