Trump's hush money case began in 2016 — but the fraud against America continued through the 2020 election: expert
Former Justice Department official Mary McCord connected the dots between Donald Trump's hush money payments in 2016 to the attacks on the American democracy in 2020.
Speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace, McCord cited the first two paragraphs of the "Statement of Facts" published by the D.A.'s office, "paint[ing] this as part of a scheme to influence the 2016 election. And if we start back in 2016 with a scheme to influence the election, and then we think about where we have come since 2016, including the 2020 election, the ongoing scheme to override the will of the people, even in if 2020 election, I think this is just the beginning of the painting of a picture over a series of years of Donald Trump's attempts to undermine democracy, attempts to undermine the rule of law, attempts to avoid accountability. I think what the world saw is that this is a man who is finally being held to account."
The graphs that she cites outline the "scheme" that includes ongoing work with AMI (the parent company of the National Enquirer) to help defraud the American people for an election. So, while critics call it nothing more than a "trivial" porn star case, McCord argued that this is part of a larger issue and pattern of behavior for Donald Trump.
"From August 2015 to December 2017, the Defendant orchestrated a scheme with others to influence the 2016 presidential election by identifying and purchasing negative information about him to suppress its publication and benefit the Defendant’s electoral prospects," the statement of facts reads. "In order to execute the unlawful scheme, the participants violated election laws and made and caused false entries in the business records of various entities in New York. The participants also took steps that mischaracterized, for tax purposes, the true nature of the payments made in furtherance of the scheme."
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Wallace said that what she has heard about the probe is about a cover-up in a country that has a history of political coverups dating back to Richard Nixon. And because Nixon never saw any accountability, it has made these issues a lot easier to ignore.
It made Wallace wonder with all of these witnesses made available to the DOJ, why they never re-examined the case.
"You know, that remains a question that there's a lot of speculation about, and I that can't answer, and I don't know whether any of it had to do by the time we had a change in administration, we also had the January 6th insurrection," said McCord. "The justice Department focusing huge amounts of resources, not only on the individuals who violently assaulted the Capitol, but working their way up from there. And certainly, we're seeing that now with Jack Smith's investigation. I don't know if they thought kind of going back into history to a case that was an older case would subject them to criticism about being overly political, and they wanted to keep their eyes focused on the more recent, more violent crimes."
She went on to say, "this effort to influence elections started before 2016. It continued to 2020 and it's continuing today. And it's going to continue into the 2024 election. We have to be vigilant and talk about those efforts, and hopefully he will be held accountable. Not just for this but so many other things that are being investigated right now."
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