How an Old Affidavit Could Undercut Trump’s Future Defense in the Stormy Daniels Case

In “How an Old Affidavit Could Undercut Trump’s Future Defense in the Stormy Daniels Case,” (The Daily Beast, March 21, 2023), founder and former New York prosecutor Emily Bradford discusses the element of intent in New York’s felony falsifying business records statute.

“When you get to the felony level, you have the additional intent to commit or conceal another crime on top of that. So it’s a harder charge to prove, because it has so many elements to it,” Bradford told The Daily Beast. “In my experience, it’s almost always a charge you bring with an underlying crime.”

Bradford speculated that one way Bragg could get there would be not to attach Trump’s false statements to furthering another crime that he himself committed, but to furthering the crime Cohen was already convicted of.

“If they were going to trial on this, they would have to prove that the false business records were in furtherance of another crime. Nothing in the false business records statute suggests that you couldn’t do that with a federal crime,” Bradford said. “You would still have to present evidence of the crime, of course, and you would have to prove an intent to actually commit or conceal that crime.”

“A step in furtherance of Cohen’s payment,” she added, “could arguably be creating the false business record.”

To read the full article, click here (may require account): How an Old Affidavit Could Undercut Trump’s Future Defense in the Stormy Daniels Case.