What, you didn’t actually think it was all going to just go away, didja?

Trump indicted after Manhattan DA probe for hush money payments
The charges against Trump relate to payments made to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election

Former President Donald Trump has been indicted as part of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office’s years-long investigation, possibly for hush money payments.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has been investigating Trump for hush money payments made leading up to the 2016 presidential election.

These include the $130,000 payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, and the $150,000 payment made to former Playboy model Karen McDougal, Fox News Digital has learned.

Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York opted out of charging Trump related to the Stormy Daniels payment in 2019, even as Cohen implicated him as part of his plea deal. The Federal Election Commission also tossed its investigation into the matter in 2021.

Trump reacted to his indictment, slamming Bragg for his “obsession” with trying to “get Trump,” while warning the move to charge a former president of the United States will “backfire.”

Thou fool. Wanna bet?

Trump, earlier this month, cited reports, which were based on what he called “illegal leaks,” that suggested he could be arrested on Tuesday, March 21. Trump posted about those reports on his TRUTH Social, leading the House Judiciary Committee to intervene, demanding Bragg testify before the panel.

Republican lawmakers and allies of Trump blasted the investigation as a political prosecution and a “weaponization” of the office of the district attorney.

Which, of course, is exactly what it is. And it won’t matter a damned bit, not even slightly. In any totalitarian dictatorship, being right is NOT conducive to happiness, longevity, and prosperity. Quite the opposite, actually.

Last week, Robert Costello, a former legal advisor to Michael Cohen, testified before the grand jury last Monday that Cohen was a “serial liar,” and testified that Trump did not know about the payments made by Cohen to Daniels.

Bragg then canceled grand jury proceedings related to the Trump probe on Wednesday and Thursday. 

Sources, at the time, told Fox News Digital that there was “major dissension” within the district attorney’s office. One source claimed the district attorney is having trouble convincing the grand jury on potential charges due to the “weakness” of the case.

Uh huh. And yet.

Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 through his own company and was later reimbursed by Trump’s company, which logged the payments as “legal expenses.” McDougal received $150,000 through the publisher of the supermarket tabloid the National Enquirer.

The Trump Organization “grossed up” Cohen’s reimbursement for Daniels’ payment for “tax purposes,” according to federal prosecutors who filed the 2018 criminal charges against Cohen for the payments. 

Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing with regard to the payments made to Daniels and McDougal, and has repeatedly said the payments were “not a campaign violation,” but rather a “simple private transaction.”

“I recently became aware that certain news outlets are alleging that I had a sexual and/or romantic affair with Donald Trump many, many, many years ago. I am stating with complete clarity that this is absolutely false,” Daniels wrote. “My involvement with Donald Trump was limited to a few public appearances and nothing more.”

Daniels wrote in the letter that when she met Trump, he was “gracious, professional and a complete gentleman to me and EVERYONE in my presence.”

“Rumors that I have received hush money from Donald Trump are completely false,” the letter read. “If indeed I did have a relationship with Donald Trump, trust me, you wouldn’t be reading about it in the news, you would be reading about it in my book. But the fact of the matter is, these stories are not true.”

But in March 2018, Daniels changed her story. During an interview with CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” Daniels claimed she had a one-time, unprotected sexual encounter with Trump.

I’m sure his future cellmate will be happy to hear alllll about it. Free advice to Trump Jr: Watch your ass, son, the Power will be setting its sights on you next.

Update! DeSantis smacks ‘em down, and hard.

DeSantis Fires Back At Manhattan D.A. Over Trump Indictment

“The weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda turns the rule of law on its head,” DeSantis said in a statement. “It is un-American. The Soros-backed Manhattan District Attorney has consistently bent the law to downgrade felonies and to excuse criminal misconduct. Yet, now he is stretching the law to target a political opponent.”

“Florida will not assist in an extradition request given the questionable circumstances at issue with this Soros-backed Manhattan prosecutor and his political agenda,” DeSantis added.

Good on ya, Gov. The people that don’t much care for or trust DeSantis—which, as y’all know already, I am NOT among ’em—will remain unmoved by this, I imagine, and that’s fine. Far as I’m concerned, though, DeSantis owes Trump not one damned thing, particularly after Trump’s recent foolhardy cooperation with the Vichy GOPers and other conniving swine who have all too successfully tried to drive a wedge between the two men so as to effectively defang both at once.

Nonetheless, I am happy to see this, especially the bit where Da Guv explicitly refuses to play along with the Soros criminal conspiracy by just lying supinely back and yielding up Trump into their filthy hands. Better yet if he’d tossed the FBI out of his State on their sorry asses prior to the bogus Mar A Lago raid, natch, but I can also see how that might have been too far a leap for any career-minded politician with a careful eye on his own polling and future prospects, even Ron The Great, to make.

Such actions are going to have to be taken soon enough, certainly, but HOW soon really amounts to a judgment call, if only in purely practical terms. So while I don’t necessarily agree with the decision, I can understand DeSantis’s reticence at the time and under the circumstances.

The time is nigh upon us when that final fuse that blows the whole powderkeg sky-high will be lit, no doubt about it. Even so, it speaks well of Ron DeSantis that he was sober and level-headed enough to not let himself be stampeded into striking the match prematurely, by anybody. Sour, pipsqueak-nobody bloggers like me can afford to be reckless, and loudly so, about such matters. People in DeSantis’s position, with actual lives at stake, really can’t. I get that, truly I do.

Schismatic update! Bill is skeptical.

It all boils down to what “not assist” means.

At any rate, it appears that DeSantis cannot actually block the extradition from being carried out, but it would take a federal court order to make it happen, I think.

I included Bill’s supporting link, for the obvious reason. Should DeSantis follow through on it—which may not be necessary anyway, given Trump’s previous declaration that he would surrender himself peaceably to the malificent “proper authorities”—it will mark the official filing of suit for national divorce, a step from which there’ll be no walking back. We’ll find out soon enough, I reckon.