Freebird!

With apologies to Lynyrd Skynyrd!

If I leave here tomorrow, would you still remember me?
For I must be traveling on now
‘Cause there’s too many places I’ve got to see

But, if I stay here with you, girl
Things just couldn’t be the same
‘Cause, I’m as free as a bird now
And this bird you cannot change, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
And the bird you cannot change
And this bird you cannot change
Lord knows I can’t change

While that 1973 classic was written about a girl that the singer was leaving, a lot of it can be applied to Donald Trump these days. He had predicted that he would become the very first former president indicted for crimes and arrested. And he predicted that arrest would have happened yesterday. It still may happen today, but for the moment, as this is being written, he is indeed a free bird.

Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, has a lot to explain one way or another on the whole Grand Jury thing with Trump. He’s been interviewing witnesses regarding Trump’s alleged payout to porn star, Stormy Daniels. If he goes through with the indictment and the arrest, Bragg, a Soros backed DA, will be under intense scrutiny personally and professionally. There are those in his own party that, even though they hate Donald Trump, don’t want to see him indicted. That’s for several reasons.

First of all, there are some very serious charges possibly pending up the road against Trump. There’s the whole January 6th thing that the special committee of the House put together and recommended to the Department of Justice that charges be filed against Donald Trump for enticing rioters to take over the Capitol Building. Then you’ve got the whole FBI Mar-A-Lago raid, though that is seeming less and less probable now that if you charge Trump, you’re going to have to charge Mike Pence (who supposedly didn’t even know he had the documents in the first place), and sitting President Joe Biden for the exact same crime of taking top secret documents.

Then let’s get into the whole statute of limitations things. The alleged payout to Daniels happened back in 2015 or 2016, when Trump was running for president the first time. New York’s Criminal Procedure Law says there is a two year statute of limitations on misdemeanors, and a five year statute of limitations on most felonies except for rape or murder. So, Bragg’s charges and this whole charade may be thrown out of court on day one if Trump is indeed indicted.

Next, you have the charge itself. It’s not illegal, even in New York, to pay hush money to someone. So, even if Trump did it, Bragg is going to have to prove that it’s against the law. He plans to say the money was paid out of campaign donations, not Trump’s personal account. That would also be an easy thing to prove. And apparently, Trump then-attorney, Michael Cohen was the one that paid Daniels, not Trump. Yes, Trump is said to have reimbursed Cohen for the payment, but does that mean he paid him out of campaign funds, or out of his own personal funds. It will make a difference.

Then there is the public’s reaction. Trump is betting on the fact that if he is charged, he can play the victim, and that will spark protests and increase his chances of getting the GOP nod for the presidency. Most pundits feel that he would be in a better position if he were indicted. It would bring out the voters that felt that he got railroaded and we need to do something to curtail the left’s multiple over-reaches since Biden took over as president.

Finally, and I think this is exactly why the Democrats that are not in favor of this one going forward, is it would be yet another chapter in what I refer to as the “Harry Reid Rule”. While Reid was Majority Leader in the Senate, he pulled a lot of strings to allow Bobo Obama’s nominations for federal judges to go through. He got it passed that it only took 51 votes to pass, not the normal 60. That came back to bite Democrats in the backside when Donald Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court, and Mitch McConnell, then Majority Leader got the Reid Rule extended to Supreme Court Justices. It’s also what allowed Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett to get to the high court.

And that is exactly what could happen again. If Bragg goes through with this, what would stop someone else somewhere else from doing the same thing to say, Joe Biden when he leaves office? Or maybe Hillary Clinton? Or Bobo Obama? There is always a quid pro quo possibility in these things.

I think Trump is hopeful that he DOES get indicted and charged. He WANTS to go and have the perp walk, and have his mug shot taken and get finger printed. Nothing would make him happier. It would cause Republicans to rally around him, even as they have started to splinter their support of him. And it would strike fear in the hearts of Democrats who, let’s face it, would rather run against God Himself, then to go up against an angry and vengeful Donald Trump. Oops. Gotta go. My popcorn is done!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!