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That left the way clear for Bragg to employ a creative interpretation of New York state law to go after the same conduct — and, hence, my anxiety. The grand jury charged Trump with falsifying business records in the form of phony invoices to reimburse Cohen for the hush money payments and accompanying documentation. Ordinarily, falsifying business records is a misdemeanor under New York law. But if the falsification is done with the intent to defraud and to conceal another crime, that can elevate it into a felony.

And what alleged crimes elevated Trump’s conduct from misdemeanor to felony? Bragg has identified three: the federal election law under which Cohen was convicted, a New York state election law that prohibits conspiring “to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office” through illegal means, and New York tax law because the payments to Cohen were “grossed up” so that Cohen could avoid incurring tax liability.

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In February, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan denied Trump’s motion to dismiss Bragg’s charges on the grounds that those crimes were insufficient to make a felony case; he dropped a fourth potential charge.

So, the case will go forward, starting Monday. But it’s not hard to imagine that jurors could balk — it just takes one to produce a hung jury — at shoehorning Trump’s payments to Daniels, however odious, into the tangential crime of falsifying business records, which was outlawed to ensure that New York citizens, businesses and investors could rely on the financial accuracy of corporations operating in the state. How were voters harmed by false bookkeeping entries they never saw?

Moreover, a key witness in the case, Cohen, is a serial, admitted and convicted liar, perhaps one reason federal prosecutors did not pursue the election law case against Trump in early 2021. Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about a Trump Tower project in Russia. When he tried to get his sentence reduced, prosecutors resisted, arguing he had lied to them in his interviews after promising to cooperate. Most recently, a federal judge, denying Cohen’s bid to be released from court supervision, said Cohen had admitted lying under oath when he pleaded guilty to tax........

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