In an indictment unsealed Tuesday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Trump with 34 felony counts for falsifying New York business records through a “catch and kill” scheme designed to conceal damaging information and unlawful activity before the 2016 election.

The crux of the case centers on $130,000 in hush money payments that Trump’s then-fixer Michael Cohen made to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Prosecutors also outlined a $30,000 payment to a former Trump Tower doorman “who claimed to have a story about a child Trump had out of wedlock.”

And they referenced a separate $150,000 payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal to silence her about an alleged affair prior to the 2016 election. Prosecutors said the latter two payments were facilitated by American Media Inc., which owns and operates the National Enquirer tabloid.

There’s no state law that prohibits hush money payments. But Bragg said Trump falsified business records by concealing monthly reimbursement payments he made to Cohen as checks for legal services.

By itself, falsifying business records is a misdemeanor under New York law. Bragg charged Trump with more serious felony counts by arguing the records were falsified to cover up other crimes.

“Why did Donald Trump repeatedly make these false statements?” Bragg said. “The evidence will show that he did so to cover up crimes relating to the 2016 election.”

Although the indictment doesn’t specify which additional crimes, Bragg said Trump violated New York election law and federal campaign finance law. .

Trump defiant in Mar-a-Lago speech

Hours after leaving the New York City court, Trump returned to his resort in Palm Beach, Florida where he delivered a speech listing multiple grievances from Tuesday’s arrest and last year’s FBI search at Mar-a-Lago over classified records to President Joe Biden’s son and losing the 2020 election.

“This fake case was brought only to interfere with the upcoming 2024 election and it should be dropped immediately,” he said.

Even some of Trump’s biggest critics were quick to question whether Bragg presented enough new information to warrant the charges.

“I believe President Trump’s character and conduct make him unfit for office,” Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who voted to remove Trump from office during the ex-president’s second impeachment trial, said in a statement.

“Even so, I believe the New York prosecutor has stretched to reach felony criminal charges in order to fit a political agenda.”

John Bolton, Trump’s former national security advisor-turned-critic, questioned whether Trump’s hush payments represented a campaign contribution or expenditure under federal law.

“Speaking as someone who very strongly does not want Donald Trump to get the Republican presidential nomination, I’m extraordinarily distressed by this document,” Bolton said in an interview on CNN. “I think this is even weaker than I feared it would be. And I think it’s easily subject to being quickly dismissed.”

All eyes on Alvin Bragg

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg will arguably be as much the center of attention in this case as Trump.

“We cannot and will not normalize serious criminal conduct,” he said, defending bringing the case forward at a news conference after Trump appeared in court.

The district attorney said a “trail of money and lies exposes a pattern” that violates New York’s basic and fundamental business laws.

For Republicans, Bragg will be a lightning rod for their assertions that this case is at best a campaign promise and at worse a political persecution.

During the 2021 campaign for Manhattan district attorney, for instance, Bragg reportedly reminded voters that he sued the Trump administration “more than a hundred times” in his old job as assistant New York attorney general.

Democrats, meanwhile, have largely emphasized how the justice system needs to play out without prejudice or favor.

Others have called attention to how Bragg, who is Black, has faced a barrage of death threats and racists email messages since the indictment was handed down by a grand jury.

Hours before Trump arrived to turn himself in, throngs of foes and fans had assembled at small a park near the courthouse.

Protesters display a banner criticizing former President Donald Trump outside the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse in New York City on April 4, 2023.

Among them were two polarizing Republican lawmakers, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, of Georgia, and George Santos, of New York, who joined the pro-Trump side that was waving flags and blowing whistles.

“The government has been weaponized against him,” Greene said. “I’m here to protest  and use my voice to take a stand. Every American should take a stand.”

-usatoday