On 30 March 2023 a grand jury in New York City issued an indictment against former President Donald Trump. I will likely comment more in the future, but for now just a few short remarks.
Basically, in 2006, soon after his son Barron was born Donald Trump has an affair with porn actress Stormy Daniels. Personally, I think it is kind of sleazy - cheating on one's wife, especially right after she gave birth to one's child. But, obviously, this is not what Trump is charged with.
What he is charged with is paying her some 130,000 USD in the form of a settlement, taking the funds for that payment out of his 2016 Election campaign funds. The settlement was intended to convince Miss Daniels to keep mum about the affair which she wanted to make public as Trump started his Presidential campaign. If the funds came out of the election campaign, as some sources allege, that is illegal. Same for falsifying the records regarding their origin, which is also some of the allegations in the charges, according to some sources. At this point, the charges are sealed, so there is no way to know for sure what is in them. They are expected to be made public at Trump's public arraignment scheduled for 4 April.
So what do I think of that? I can definitely see one positive aspect to that: this is a milestone, this breaks a long term tradition of de-facto immunity for Presidents, ex-Presidents and likely a certain number of other high-ranking officials. This precedent is welcome, even if nothing comes of this - which is likely because these charges seem to be of rather insignificant nature.
Let us try to get some perspective on this situation. Trump is a billionaire. So for simplicity's sake let us consider the finances of someone who as an adult takes 30 years to generate the income of 1B USD. This translates to 33,333,333 USD in a year, or 91,324 per day, counting for a 365 day year. Thus, Trump is accused of misappropriating less than two days worth of his income.
For comparison's sake imagine that you make 20 USD per hour. Working 40 hours a week you make 800 USD per week and 114 USD per day. If you were to be accused of misappropriating less than 200 USD - would hat be a serious charge, indicating significant fraud on your part, or just a minor violation? You be the judge.
Now I am not expressing an opinion as to whether or not Trump is guilty as charged. I simply do not know enough to draw a conclusion on the matter. But I do believe the scale and significance of these charges themselves need to be viewed in proper context.
And, since big business can hardly be separated from big business, let us consider an episode that hardly drew anywhere close to the amount of attention the Trump indictment has received. In 2017 Citigroup, one of America's - and world's - major financial institutions had agreed to pay 97.4 Million USD to settle a criminal probe into what was at best negligence - and at worst active participation - in illegal movement of funds, also known as money laundering, my drug cartels. Though I do not possess solid proof I suspect politicians and various governmental operatives in many nations were also involved. So, while the Stormy Daniels story likely involves some corruption, it is small leagues in comparison to many other episodes that get far less publicity.
As always - do your own research, use your own brain, draw your own conclusions.
References
Indictment of Donald Trump -- (2 April 2023archive)
Citigroup Agrees to $97.4 Million Settlement in Money Laundering Inquiry
Michael Corkery and Ben Protess, The New York Times, 22 May 2017
Links
Follow the link below to see related publications and support this publication
Linktree