The District Attorney’s Question

It goes without saying that fair elections are the basis of a fair democracy. If candidates are allowed to cover up their own scandals and wrongdoing, democracy is compromised. There is a sense that the indictment of former President Donald Trump on charges alleging he paid hush money to cover up extramarital affairs addresses just such questions.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is leading the prosecution, contends that Trump, was a candidate in the 2016 presidential election, conspired with close associates, fearful that discovery of past scandals would prove a disadvantage in the election. The crux of Bragg’s case is that Trump made large hush money payments as part of an unlawful scheme.

The indictment charges Trump with 34 felony counts related to unlawful acts as part of the scheme, and I understand that Bragg is also raising the question of whether Trump unlawfully “conceal[ed] damaging information and unlawful activity from American voters before and after the 2016 election.”

Bragg, a 49-year-old Black man born in Harlem, New York, studied at Harvard Law School, where he served as editor of the Harvard Civil Rights–Civil Liberties Law Review, the school’s law journal that deals with civil and human rights issues. Black people in the United States have a long history of leading civil rights movements.

After Trump was indicted and claimed he was completely innocent, Bragg’s office received credible death threats and packages of white powder.. Though the motives are unclear, it is bizarre that some people have reacted this way to an indictment that entails lawful due process.