What are the chances that former President Donald Trump will be indicted this time in the case of making hush payments to Stormy Daniels? Slim to none.
Remember what happened with this investigation in the past. It led to Daniels getting legal advice from now ex-attorney Michael Avenatti.
That led to her losing her lawsuit against Trump and having to pay his attorney fees. That certainly does not bode well for another stab at this whole thing.
This case is back again in the public eye because the New York Times reported that criminal charges would “likely” be filed against the former president.
Here’s a telling exchange between CNN’s Anderson Cooper and NYT reporter Maggie Haberman:
ANDERSON COOPER: I mean, how do you expect him to react to this? Does it affect his campaign at all?
MAGGIE HABERMAN: So we don’t — we’re entering uncharted territory here. And I think it’s important to note about this case, as Kara said, this is a misdemeanor that they’re trying to push up to a felony. It’s an —
ANDERSON COOPER: Which is really kind of —
MAGGIE HABERMAN: Exotic, it’s an exotic case. And a judge could decide, no, we’re going to get back to a misdemeanor. That is difficult for a prosecutor when it’s a former president. I understand, you know, justice is supposed to be equal, you know, for all. But, you know, people take into consideration factors like this. I think we could see a rallying effect from his supporters. It could be that more people are turned off by this. I just don’t think we know. We know how he will use it, which is that he will say he’s being attacked and victimized. And we have seen that over and over again. We’re going to continue to.
ANDERSON COOPER: And, Maggie, I mean, it’s interesting because, you know, the same office was looking at other potential charges against the former president. The district attorney chose not to pursue those two of those prosecutors and resigned in the wake of that. And this is now what they have.
MAGGIE HABERMAN: Yeah, look, and what I think Michael Cohen would say as a witness and has said before is that he, you know, he lied on Trump’s behalf. And I think you would hear him say that in this case. You did have Alvin Bragg decide not to bring a prosecution against Trump in connection with his actual business despite proceeding against his business. And they got a conviction across the board in 17 counts in that case, I don’t know. It’s different when you’re prosecuting a faceless company than it is prosecuting a man. I do think it’s worth noting here, putting aside issues of Michael Cohen specifically, or that the prospective thinness of the case, takes it all together. It requires 12 people and it just takes one person to have reasonable doubt. And even in pretty progressive Manhattan, I think probably a defense lawyer could find one person. And that’s a risk here.
