This is a field day for Alvin Bragg
Even though New York Attorney General Letitia James is accusing the Trumps of criminally fraudulent activity, the case she’s brought against them is a civil one. That means the only possible consequences in this trial are financial penalties. Well, the only direct consequences.
Even as the Trumps each take the stand and testify in this civil trial, the testimony they’re giving is a matter of legal record. If Letitia James looks at this testimony and decides that it’s the basis for bringing criminal charges against one or more of them, she can turn around and bring those charges. But realistically, that task might more likely fall to Manhattan Attorney General Alvin Bragg.
Bragg has already brought financial criminal charges against Donald Trump and Allen Weisselberg, and Bragg keeps publicly insisting that his criminal probe is still ongoing. There have even been multiple stories in the media about Bragg bringing additional charges against Weisselberg and sending him back to prison, in the hope of pressuring him to flip on Trump.
It’s entirely possible that Bragg has in fact been waiting for James’ civil trial to arrive, so that he can use the Trumps’ testimony against them in any additional criminal charges he’s lining up. The Trump sons’ testimony has already gone poorly enough for them that legal expert Elie Honig is saying that Donald Trump Jr should have taken the fifth.
So we’ll see what additional criminal charges, if any, Alvin Bragg has up his sleeve. Right now he and his office must be having a field day, going over these testimony transcripts to see what he can use to bolster his criminal probe.
