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Now that former President Donald Trump has been charged with a 34-count indictment for paying hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, what are the legal ramifications of the charges, and can the 45th President still be allowed to make a run for the White House? ABC News legal analyst Royal Oakes spoke on 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program about where Trump goes from here.
”On Tuesday he will be arraigned,” Oakes told Riedel and newsman Joe Bartlett, sitting in for a vacationing Berman. “He’ll probably go in the back door about six or seven in the morning, so nobody will know, then there will be the mugshot and the fingerprinting, and then a few hours later there will be the arraignment hearing where the charges will be read.” That’s when we will all learn what charges have been leveled against Trump, including whether he is charged with a misdemeanor or a felony.
Beyond that, Oakes stressed, nobody really knows what to expect when Trump returns to Manhattan, least of all Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. “It can be pointed out that Alvin Bragg is going where no D.A. has gone before. Cyrus Vance passed up on it, the DOJ passed up on it, the Federal Election Commission didn’t even go after him, so there are a lot of questions about whether or not he is weaponizing the legal system.”
Perhaps most surprising, according to Oakes, is that Trump’s chances of reclaiming the Oval Office might not be derailed if he is eventually found guilty on the charges. “What really would be weird is, if Trump were to be convicted, he could still run for and win the presidency. A Stormy Daniels conviction wouldn’t bar him; only an espionage or an insurrection conviction would bar him.”
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