Trump is charged with 34 felonies, all regarding falsifying business records in relation to the Stormy Daniels hush money during several months in 2017.
I listened to D.A. Alvin Bragg's post-arraignment press conference. In his opening remarks Bragg stated that the other crimes that the hush money was intended to cover up included influencing the outcome of the 2016 election. He stated that the strategy went back to a conspiracy in 2015. In answer to a reporter's question he stated that the indictment did not specify which other crimes Trump allegedly committed "because New York statutes do not require the other crimes to be specified." Which is strange to me in my experience, but okay. But he had just said in his opening remarks that the other crimes included influencing the outcome of the 2016 election. Which raised in my mind the question of how hush money and falsifying in 2017 could influence an election in 2016.
He was asked by several reporters variations of "Why now?" He answered "new evidence" but I do not believe that there was a quantum or quality of "new evidence"; and he answered "We brought the charges when they were ready." A prosecutor does not have to answer a "Why now? question, the timing of charges is not an element of a crime that must be proven and is legally irrelevant unless it invokes the statute of limitations.
