As Criminal Charges Loom, Donald Trump Is Not Mad Online. Do Not Put In The Newspaper That He Is Mad.

Since his message on Saturday in which he predicted the Tuesday arrest that never happened, the former president has posted or reposted more than 80 times on Truth Social, the Twitter clone he built after he was booted from that platform following the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. 

Most of Trump’s posts have involved him raging against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is overseeing the case against Trump, which is thought to be centered around his involvement in a hush money payment made to adult performer Stormy Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, who claimed she had an affair with Trump prior to the 2016 election. Trump has admitted to reimbursing his lawyer, Michael Cohen, for the payment, but has denied having sex with Daniels.

In a series of rambling, evidence-free posts that alternated between messages in lower case or capital letters, Trump attacked Bragg as a Democrat prosecutor who has pursued a political vendetta against him at the behest of more powerful liberals. 

“I FIND IT VERY HARD TO BELIEVE,” Trump wrote in one such post that is emblematic of how well he is taking all this, “THAT A RACIST,  SOROS BACKED D.A., WHO LETS MURDERERS, RAPISTS, AND DRUG DEALERS WALK FREE, AND WHO HAS PRESIDED OVER THE BIGGEST VIOLENT CRIME WAVE IN THE HISTORY OF NYC, IS USING THE POWER OF HIS OFFICE TO PERSECUTE, INDICT, AND PROSECUTE A FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA — FOR NO CRIME! THE WITCH HUNT NEVER ENDS, BUT WE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”

Trump has also repeatedly sought to link Bragg to billionaire George Soros, whose political donations are frequently the target of antisemitic attacks on the right, but whose ties to the DA appear to be weak.

Additionally, Trump has previewed an argument his lawyers are expected to make should he be charged: that any indictment would fall outside the statute of limitations on such a crime. “They are MANY years beyond the Statute of Limitations which, in this instance, is TWO YEARS,” he wrote Monday. “More importantly, THERE WAS NO CRIME!!!”

The expected charge against Trump — that he allegedly falsified business records to conceal another crime (in this case, a likely violation of federal election law)  — would typically have a legal deadline of five years from the date of the alleged conduct (i.e., 2016).

But prosecutors also have more time under the law to bring charges where a defendant “was continuously outside this state” like Trump, who spent years living at the White House and in Florida. 

Trump has also repeatedly attacked the nature of the case expected to be brought against him, highlighting on Wednesday an excerpt from a New York Times story that analyzed the untested legal strategy of mixing state and federal charges.

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