Trump’s Strange “Revelation” – Manhattan Criminal Case “Dropped”; But It Increases His Risk, and Could Slash His Fundraising Potential
Trump’s Strange Statements
WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 26, 2023) – While flying back from his first presidential rally, Donald Trump made strange statements about his possible indictment in Manhattan by DA Alvin Bragg, claiming that “they’ve already dropped the case, from what I understand,” and “the case is over.”
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But regardless of the veracity of this claim or prediction, it seems a strange one for the former president to raise, suggests public interest law professor John Banzhaf.
The law professor, who filed the criminal complaint which triggered the criminal investigation of Trump in Georgia, had also previously provided a legal analysis of the Bragg's criminal case based upon hush money paid to porn star, and concluded it was the weakest of the four possible indictments against Trump.
As reported: "Manhattan’s has been called a zombie' case against Trump because it has been stumbling alone for some 7 years, notes Banzhaf, who also played a role in obtaining special prosecutors for former president Richard Nixon, and for finally bringing former Vice President Spiro Agnew to justice."
Trump's new statement that the Manhattan case has been "dropped" and "the case is over" is quite strange - aside from the fact that he has also claimed to have no knowledge regarding it - for at least two reasons, says the activist law professor.
First, although Bragg is, in a hypothetical ideal world, supposed to base all his decisions on a dispassionate and unbiased determination of the law, he is of course human, and also a politician with political ambitions.
For those reasons, Trump's statement is likely to anger him, and therefore make him more likely to prosecute if the decision is a close one. After all, Bragg certainly would not want to become known as the chickensh*t prosecutor who backed down because Trump made threats and called him names.
For a political point of view and considering the "optics" of suddenly appearing to back down, Bragg is more likely to plow ahead even with a case he might believe is weak. After all, he can also tell the public that he tried - indeed, he was the first to try - and he simply was not able to win with one of more hidden Trump supporters on the criminal jury, Banzhaf suggests.
Second, many media reports claim that Trump has been enjoying amazing fundraising success from his claim that he was about to be indicted in Manhattan. His supporters, as well as those who might simply fear civil unrest if it occurred, were sending their hard earned money to Trump because he claimed that his arrest was imminent.
If he now convinces most of these people that “they’ve already dropped the case" and that "the case is over," these two strong incentives to send him money disappear, and he may not actually face a new legal threat, from which he can raise more money, for weeks if not months, and possibly even never.
Therefore, says Banzhaf as a former very successful fundraiser, it would be strange to admit that this threat - the "villain" in fundraising parlance - now longer exists, and thereby give up a prime argument for people to urgently send him all the money they can.
So this latest pair of statements is strange, even by Trumpian standards, suggests Prof Banzhaf.
