Former SDNY official demands federal criminal prosecution of Donald Trump
Donald Trump is in the process of being criminally indicted in New York for his many years of financial crimes, and he’s on a path to spending the rest of his life in prison. But should Trump also face federal charges for the crimes he committed as President?
Richard Signorelli, former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the SDNY, says yes. He tweeted this today:
Just a regular reminder that the SDNY, my former office, must prosecute Trump for the 2016 payoff to Stormy Daniels & for which Michael Cohen was convicted/imprisoned. This crime was directed & funded by Trump & was carried out for his benefit.
There is an abundance of evidence available to successfully prosecute Trump including willing witnesses (Stormy Daniels, Michael Cohen), a recorded audio tape of Trump discussing the payoff, documents, emails, bank records, & checks. No person should be above the law. Trump must be held accountable for this serious crime in a court of law.
It would be difficult to argue with a single word of that. Just because Donald Trump is already earmarked for prison for his crimes unrelated to the presidency, he shouldn’t be spared prosecution for his politics-related crimes, including campaign finance fraud, inciting an insurrection, and obstruction of justice.
It’s worth pointing out that different jurisdictions often take turns prosecuting an individual, rather than doing so simultaneously. Typically, the Feds go first with criminal charges, and then the state gets whatever is left over. In Donald Trump’s case, the Feds were blocked from going first because he was in office at the time, so New York is going first. We’d guess that even if the Feds pursue a criminal case against Trump, it won’t happen until at least after he’s been indicted in New York. But it needs to happen eventually.
