In fact, says Fox News' Gregg Jarrett, the ultimate goal for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg when Trump is arraigned Tuesday may very well be nothing more than an "I told you so moment" for Bragg to present to campaign supporters.
In his 2021 primary campaign against Democrat Tali Farhadian Weinstein, Bragg bragged "It's a fact that I have sued Trump more than a hundred times. I can't change that fact nor would I. That was important work. That's separate from anything that the DA's office may be looking into now."
But there were no immediate "get Trump" results when Bragg took office after defeating Republican Thomas Kenniff, and he sought to reassure his base a year ago.
"Indeed, litigation involving the former president himself is not foreign to me," Bragg said. "As the Chief Deputy at the New York State Attorney General's Office, I oversaw the successful litigation against the former president, his family and the Trump Foundation."
But Trump remained mostly unscathed and free. Fox News legal analyst and commentator Gregg Jarrett told American Family Radio Monday that Bragg's decision to revisit the allegations that Trump paid hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels is nothing more than pandering to his people.
As Jarrett pointed out, Bragg's predecessor, Cyrus R. Vance, looked into the case but passed; and Bragg early in his time as DA ignored it too.
"He did drop the case immediately, but then a public pressure campaign led him to reverse course and he caved in, and he adopted this ludicrous legal theory to fulfill his promise to voters and to satisfy his party benefactors," Jarrett told show host Jenna Ellis.
"But most of all I think he wants to advance his own career. He's politically ambitious. I think he sees himself as the hero of the Democratic Party when in fact in the end I think he'll be the goat."
Jarrett, a former trial attorney, sees a simple process at Tuesday's arraignment with the standard filling out of forms, fingerprints and an appearance for a judge. He believes Trump, likely with pre-arranged bail, will be flying back to Florida in the afternoon.
Trump may have nothing to say upon his return to Mar-a-Lago as some believe a judge-imposed gag order is likely.
"DA Alvin Bragg has cobbled together a novel, if not bizarre, legal theory of intertwining offenses. It is doubtful that his case can withstand judicial scrutiny, assuming the judge who presides over the matter is objective and neutral." (Gregg Jarrett, in his April 2 column)
Media in a candy shop
Jarrett, whose frequent op-eds are featured on the Fox News website, noted the mainstream media has been cheering this on.
"They've been acting like giddy children in a candy shop," said Jarrett. "But these are the same knuckleheaded journalists who abandoned all fairness and objectivity and accuracy when they falsely accused Trump of colluding with Russia. They had no credible evidence. Their sloppiness and incompetence was breathtaking. This was a shameful act of media malpractice – and the scary part is, they're doing it all over again," he said.
Jarrett argued the case has required creativity to get this far, and he doesn't expect any surprises when charges are read.
"Based on the leaks of what's in the indictment, he [Bragg] had to contort the law and twist the facts to jam a square peg into a legal round hole. Even some die-hard liberals and notable Democrats are conceding that these charges are lame, and they grumble that the case is transparently liberal, which it is. They fret that a failed prosecution may result in a public backlash with severe political consequences for their party, the Democratic Party," Jarrett said. "The real wreckage falls on the public's perception of our legal system that's no longer fair. It's being weaponized to achieve a partisan purpose."
Read Jarrett's column:
Trump's indictment should be tossed out and never reach a jury
