Trump claims Manhattan DA Bragg has ‘already dropped the case’ against him
Former President Donald Trump claims that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has “dropped” an investigation into him over the “hush money” payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Trump, 76, made the assertion while speaking to reporters on his jet Saturday night after a campaign rally in Waco, Texas, .
“I think they’ve already dropped the case,” Trump said. “It’s a fake case. Some fake cases, they have absolutely nothing.”
Trump didn’t say what led him to believe he was off the hook.
A spokesperson for Bragg, a Democrat, declined to comment Sunday on Trump’s remarks but pointed to an unrelated Saturday statement that referred to the Daniels hush money probe as “an ongoing matter.”
Trump’s remarks came a day after he sparked controversy with a social-media post that showed him aiming a baseball bat at Bragg’s head.
They also came a week to the day after he wrongly predicted he would be arrested on March 21, leading to a surge in donations and his standing in the polls.
A Manhattan grand jury has been hearing evidence since late January in connection with the $130,000 that former Trump lawyer and ex-con Michael Cohen paid Daniels shortly before 👍the 2016 election to keep quiet about her alleged affair with Trump a decade earlier.
Trump has denied cheating on his wife Melania Trump with Daniels, whose reaꦑl name is Stephanie Clifford.
Bragg is reportedly planning to seek an indictment against Trump partly for allegedly falsifying business records by writing off the payment as legal f♋ees to Cohenꦡ.
That offense would ordinarily be a misdemeanor under state law, but Bragg is considering a novel legal theory that would elevate it to a felony on the grounds that it allegedly was committed in furtherance of violating federal campaign finance ꦚrules, according to the New York Times.
During his Saturday night chat with reporters, Trump attacked Cohen, who testified twice before the grand jury earlier this month and is expected to be the prosecution’s star witness if the case were to go to trial.
Trump said he believes that his ally, lawyer Robert Costello, had effectively rebutted Cohen’s testimony when Costello appeared before the grand jury last week, the said.
Trump also reportedly pointed to a 2018 letter that surfaced last week and showed that Cohen’s lawyer told federal election officials, “Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed Mr. Cohen for the payment directly or indirectly.”
Cohen changed his story six months later when he pleaded guilty to a laundry list♒ of federal crimes that included making an excessive campai⛄gn contribution to Trump by paying Daniels.
The grand jury is reportedly scheduled to reconvene Monday to consider the Trump case.
