Former President Donald Trump and his allies are trying to compile together a list of all the public figures who have said anything critical about Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's legal case against him, reported Maggie Haberman for The New York Times on Thursday.
This comes, she reports, as Trump's inner circle gears up for "political war" against the prosecutor in the likely event he is indicted.
"It is unclear what data points, if any, the Trump team plans to point to beyond Mr. Bragg’s party registration in order to make a case that the district attorney is part of a broader political conspiracy against the former president," reported Haberman. "It is also uncertain whether Mr. Trump will add lawyers to his legal defense team or bring on a communications adviser to play a more traditional role of responding to what will be a crush of media questions related to a potential indictment."
"Mr. Trump’s two allies said his campaign was adding staff members, particularly to focus on pushing out their message and their attacks on the prosecutors. In addition, the campaign has been putting together a database listing everyone — members of Congress, legal experts, media figures — who have cast doubts on the strength of the district attorney’s case, the allies said," said the report. "Specifically, his campaign team plans on trying to connect Mr. Bragg’s investigation into Mr. Trump to President Biden, who is expected to seek re-election. The Justice Department has spent months investigating Mr. Trump in separate inquiries into his possession of hundreds of classified documents at his private club, Mar-a-Lago, and his efforts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election."
Bragg's case centers on an alleged falsified business record stemming from Trump facilitating a $130,000 hush payment through his former attorney, Michael Cohen, to adult film star Stormy Daniels to cover up an affair between the two of them.
Trump is facing a number of other criminal probes, including an elections investigation in Georgia and two separate federal cases — one on the January 6 attack and preceding plots, and one on the classified document stash at Mar-a-Lago — being overseen by special counsel Jack Smith.
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