The latest attempts to pin criminal charges on former US president Donald Trump echo the prosecutions of the US Capitol protesters, an attorney has said.
Trump supporters turned out to protests across the US on Tuesday, the day New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg was expected to issue an arrest warrant for the former leader for alleged misuse of election campaign funds in 2016.
But Bragg — a Democrat whose election campaign was bankrolled by billionaire regime-change funder George Soros — is still waiting on a grand jury to decide whether any charges are justified over the claim by Trump's jailed former lawyer Michael Cohen, who said he was the go-between for a payment to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an alleged affair with the then-presidential candidate.
Ed Martin told Sputnik that Bragg was relying on the same legal gambit used to jail Capitol occupation protesters like Jacob Chansley for sentences of up to years.
"No matter what you think, it's amazing that Trump makes the world revolve around him," Martin said.
The attorney pointed out that what Trump was accused of was only a misdemeanour under US law, but that Bragg was seeking to bump it up to a felony charge on the grounds that it furthered another crime.
"It's a business records problem, a misdemeanor. It should be a civil action," Martin said. "And then he's saying, but he did it to cover up an FEC, federal elections commission, crime and therefore we turn it."
Martin pointed out he has represented some of those on trial over the January 6 2021 protest at the US Capitol Building over the confirmation of Joe Biden as president-elect — and that they have also been charged as felons over minor offences.
There are "probably about two dozen people who did nothing except misdemeanors," he explained. "They were trespassing, vandalism."
"These aren't the ones that hit a cop. You hit a cop, you got a bigger problem. I understand that and I agree," Martin said. "But these other ones just did misdemeanors. And then they were charged with what's called obstruction of official proceedings, a felony, which has never been used."
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