What is in the Trump indictment?
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Whatever you think of Trump, the indictment reeks. The fact that it's been sought is plainly and outrageously political, no matter how hard certain media outlets gaslight. With the caveat that it's currently sealed, and we haven't seen all of its substance, it's thus far been widely and rightly seen as a profoundly feeble case, with even the New York Times conceding that the legal theory behind it rests on a novel, "untested," and "risky" bank shot, requiring a convoluted effort to upgrade a possible misdemeanor into a low-level felony -- all spearheaded by a partisan ideologue who's notorious for downgrading criminal charges. Given the reality that the feds looked at this exact same set of facts and declined to pursue charges, even as they're coming after Trump from other angles, says it all. This is a deep blue city prosecutor weaponizing the law against a prominent member of the opposing party. It's an abuse of office. A former president has never been indicted in this country. This is very much not the way to make that history.
Politically, this is helpful to Trump, certainly in the near term. The party has been rallying around him every since this plot line developed, pushing him into the middle of the spotlight, where he likes to be. No one else is getting any oxygen. The base smells another (in this case, particularly rancid) witch hunt. Trump's current and expected primary opponents are issuing statements against Alvin Bragg's overreach. And that's not all. Because Bragg went first -- with three other grand jury probes into Trump looming -- the anti-Trump legal adventure starts on its weakest possible footing. It will now be easier for Team Trump to dismiss any future developments as "here we go again" piling on. They could say that the weird, fame-seeking grand jury foreperson in Georgia proves how politicized that process was. They could also reasonably question how charges could be brought against Trump on the classified documents matter, given the sitting president's problems on that front (to say nothing of the uncharged but illegal Hillary emails fiasco). There would be at least some, if not a lot of, truth to these points.
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It is hard to find reports supporting this charge. Most prosecutors avoid such a weak case against someone with the resources to defeat the charges.
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