WATCH: Turley says there are ‘a number of flaws’ in the case for Trump’s arrest
Heather Hunter
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Constitutional attorney Jonathan Turley said Saturday that the legal efforts by the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has “a number of flaws” and that he is “outside of his lane” in preparing to arrest former President Donald Trump next week for paying $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016.
Turley explained the legal ‘flaws’ in the Manhattan DA’s case
“Bragg is outside of his lane, but in this case, he’s on a completely different highway,” Turley said to the hosts of Fox and Friends Saturday.
TRUMP SAYS HE EXPECTS TO BE ARRESTED NEXT WEEK IN STORMY DANIELS INVESTIGATION
“This is an effort by a state official to effectively prosecute a federal crime, a crime that the Department of Justice decided not to prosecute,” he said.
The George Washington University Law School professor said that prosecutors have to “show that that money was paid with the election solely in mind.”
“There’s obviously a lot of different reasons why a married man would want to hush up a scandal with a former stripper. And that’s the problem that they had in the John Edwards case — that was a much stronger case. The Department of Justice went all in, and they lost,” Turley said.
He explained how these are “very difficult cases” to win, and it “raises obvious questions” for the Manhattan district attorney to take a case to court that the DOJ declined to do.
In a Saturday morning post on Truth Social, Trump warned that he expects to be arrested Tuesday in Manhattan and called the Manhattan District Attorney’s office “corrupt and highly political.”
Turley went on to explain that “there are a number of flaws in this case” to attempt to indict the former president.
“It is based on Section 175 dealing with falsified business records. They need to actually federalize the case in the sense of hooking into that alleged federal violation. The reason is — I think Bragg is out of time. The statute of limitations is about two years on this offense,” the constitutional lawyer explained.
Turley added, “That has already run. You can extend it to five years if you connect it as a felony to another crime. Even at five years, I’m not sure the time has not run out, is so there’s going to be some intense challenges here.”
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The professor cautioned that despite the “flaws” of the case, the former president is going to find himself in “one of the worst jury pools.”
“Even if he’s convicted, there are going to be significant appellate challenges and reviews. I think we have to be careful not to just assume in the most inflammatory way that the rule of law is dead,” he said.