The real sleazy part of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s prosecution of former President Donald Trump for election interference isn’t what you think.

The sleaze factor isn’t the kind of work done by actress and director Stormy Daniels, the business of the National Enquirer, the allegations by model Karen McDougal that she had an affair with Trump, or the fact that celebrity lawyers arrange fees for their clients’ stories.

The real sleaze factor is how the media, some legal commentators, and Trump enablers keep describing the case as being about “hush money” and “porn stars”—which is wrong as a matter of legal analysis and troubling in its perpetuation of inequities in our society—and how Trump’s defense lawyers are trying to capitalize on those disparaging characterizations.

Media seeks to benefit from the potential clickbait value of these descriptions, while Trump enablers and his defense team hope the sleaze factor will help their defense by discrediting witnesses and testimony through a sort of slimed-by-association strategy.

Calling The People v. Donald J. Trump a “hush-money” case is simply wrong.

As many people—me included—have pointed out, there is nothing illegal about paying anyone for confidentiality or silence—it’s done all the time with non-disclosure agreements. In a sense, every therapist, doctor, and lawyer is “paid for silence” because the professions require keeping quiet about their patients and clients.

Former President Donald Trump attends his trial for allegedly covering up payments linked to extramarital affairs, at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City, on May 6, 2024.

This case is about falsification of business records with the intent to interfere in an election. Put simply, it’s a cover-up of illegal campaign donations.

The money paid to Stormy Daniels to help Trump’s campaign was allegedly covered up by listing it as payment for legal services to Trump’s former lawyer and self-styled “fixer” Michael........

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