Former US President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the Waco Regional Airport. Photo / Getty Images
Former US President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the Waco Regional Airport. Photo / Getty Images
ANALYSIS:
The decision to charge Donald Trump will add rocket fuel to his campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
For months he will be able to accuse Democrats of weaponising the legal system, and a mugshot could become the most effective fundraising tool he has ever had.
Even before Trump had his collar felt, Republicans of all stripes were already rallying behind him, condemning a potential prosecution as politically motivated.
Republican-led committees in Congress are launching investigations into Alvin Bragg, the prosecutor bringing charges over a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
As Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator and Trump ally, put it: “The prosecutor in New York has done more to get President Trump elected than any single person. Bragg, you have helped Trump, amazingly.”
Meanwhile, many Democrats, rather than feeling triumphant at the prospect of seeing Trump in handcuffs, are now urging Bragg to “step back from the brink”.
Why has prosecutor resurrected ‘zombie case’?
The scenario might be different if Bragg had a stronger case to bring.
But the hush money payment has been repeatedly kicked into touch by other prosecutors for the last seven years.
It was so dead that, when Bragg recently resurrected it, other prosecutors called it the “zombie case”.
A frustration for Democrats is that Trump has other legal entanglements which, it is widely believed, could carry a greater chance of conviction.
Former US President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the Waco Regional Airport. Photo / Getty Images
Chief among them is an investigation in Georgia into Trump’s involvement in attempts to overturn the 2020 election result.
Prosecutors there are considering charges of racketeering and conspiracy but will take time to reach a decision.
The case has done little to disperse Mr Trump's ardent supporters. Photo / Getty Images
One senior Democrat said: “Lawyer after lawyer will tell you this [the hush money payment] is the weakest case out there.”
Bragg, 49, would doubtless say that no one is above the law, which must be prosecuted to the letter, without fear or favour.
He came into office on Jan 1, 2022 announcing he would not prosecute some crimes, including resisting arrest, trespassing and, in some cases, prostitution.
Trump’s supporters are asking why the District Attorney is not going after those offenders, and instead targeting a Republican ex-president for an obscure financial misdemeanour.
David Urban, a former Trump campaign adviser, said: “Why, seven years later? I think if you’re going to indict the president, you better be able to convict the president. The DA should look deep in the mirror and ask himself that question.
“If the DA swings and misses here, any subsequent indictments on more serious crimes may be overlooked by the Trump base.”
The case against Trump
Bragg’s inquiry centres on the $130,000 ($207,000) paid before the 2016 election to stop Daniels from going public about an alleged affair, which Trump denies.
Alvin Bragg, Manhattan's district attorney. Photo / AP
Regardless of what Bragg’s motives are, it will be easy for Trump to portray himself as a victim of political “persecution”, engendering sympathy from otherwise unsupportive moderate Republicans.
A recent Quinnipiac poll showed 93 per cent of Republicans believe the case against Trump is politically motivated.
The poll also showed 70 per cent of independents, and even 29 per cent of Democrats, believed that.
