Trump hush money case: The merits and the politics
Prosecution of former President Donald Trump for alleged hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels might be far from an open-and-shut case.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office has not yet brought charges against Mr. Trump, and the parameters of such a legal proceeding and facts involved are not yet clear. But Mr. Trump’s weekend social media claim that he expects to be arrested this week, and his appeal for supporters to “protest,” has reinforced a sense in Washington that the looming indictment of a former U.S. chief executive would mark a leap into an unprecedented and unpredictable national political future.
Some experts question whether the Manhattan case is strong enough to justify the first criminal indictment of a former U.S. president. It is relatively complex, and prosecutors may have to rely on an untested legal theory to raise the
