We all know Barr and Trump are feuding and that Barr doesn't exactly care for Trump, but Barr still thinks the charges are B.S.
Bill Barr has twice been the United State Attorney General and he spent years running the Office of Legal Counsel. For those who do not know, the OLC is where all Federal prosecutors go when they have legal questions. The OLC is the end all be all to U.S. Law. Plainly stated, Bill Barr is arguably the foremost expert on our laws and probably has the most tangible experience of anyone in dealing with them.
Now many people take issue with the "bootstrapping theory". Many are worried about the statute of limitations. Some are taking issues with the idea of bringing weak charges against a Presidential candidate. But Bill Barr seems to have a more fundamental problem with all of this.
He doesn't believe that Trump actually falsified records according to the New York law.
Now that doesn't mean that Barr suggests that Trump Accountants openly reported the non-disclosure agreement.. He understands that the NDA was grouped in with larger legal payments. He understands that the NDA was likely concealed purposely. But what he suggests is that the New York law requires that someone actually be "defrauded" or otherwise harmed by the manner in which these records were booked. He questions who was harmed and in what way? Bragg doesn't seem to address this condition.
The most common reasons why people are charged with falsifying records are tax related. Either they are inflating value, deflating value, hiding income, creating losses that don't exist or such things that can affect their taxes. Not applicable in this case. Or they might be falsifying records during the sale of something, overinflating the value with dishonest accounting that defrauds a buyer, or underreporting the value of the sale to save on sales tax. Nothing here was being bought or sold.
Ultimately, there needs to be is a victim of some sort.
Someone that has been defrauded or harmed.
So who is the victim in this case?
That is an interesting question raised by a pretty rock solid legal expert who has no good reason to help Trump's cause. I wonder if this will be an angle pushed by the Trump legal team in challenging the charges. If I were them... I would listen to what Bill Barr has to say.
A quick note on Judge Merchan. He has overseen the other Manhattan investigations into the Trump Organization. His daughter, Loren Merchan, is a Democrat operative described as a “Partner and President at Authentic, a digital consulting and fundraising company working with Democratic and Progressive campaigns.” She has worked on behalf of Adam Schiff and Kamala Harris – and Joe Biden.
To summarize, Trump faces: prosecution by a politician who campaigned for his imprisonment; a judge with familial ties to Biden/Harris; a jury pool comprised of ~86% Biden voters; and a potential trial that will coincide with the GOP primary.
Make no mistake - this is an abuse of prosecutorial authority, the takedown of a political opponent more typical of third-world…
Apparently the judge's daughter also worked for Adam Schiff. Friggin amazing.
Re: that 8:1, that's why the fact that much of NY is actually republican makes no difference.
Apparently the judge's daughter worked for the Biden campaign. And NYC is 8:1 dem to republican. But I'm sure Trump will get a fair trial.