Trump charges rarely pursued as ‘top count’ in NY: report

The charges filed against Donald Trump in Manhattan are rarely the most serious counts brought against white-collar defendants in New York and seldom result in a felony conviction, a report said Wednesday. 

Trump was hit with 34 counts of felony falsifying business records with intent to commit or conceal another crime, which carry a maximum of four years in prison for each count. 

But it’s rare for state prosecutors to pursue indictments that list the charge as the so-called “top count” or only rap, according to data reviewed by the Times Union. 

While the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has filed the felony charge 117 times in the 15 months since Alvin Bragg has been in office, they have pursued it as the top count in just a handful of cases, according to the report. 

The newspaper reported there have been “roughly eight times” in the past “few years” when the Manhattan DA has prosecuted it as the top or only count. 

The most common result in cases that include felony falsification of business records is a guilty plea to disorderly conduct, a violation, the Times Union reported. 

At a press conference after Trump’s arraignment Tuesday, Bragg said his office has a long history of white collar prosecutions and called the charge filed against Trump the “bread and butter” of his prosecutors’ related work. 

From 2019 to 2021, the Manhattan DA filed 168 counts of felony falsification of business records against 34 defendants or companies, including against the Trump Corporation and the Trump Payroll Corp. 

A grand jury indicted Trump on the 34 counts for allegedly illegally reimbursing Michael Cohen for hush money payments he made ahead of the 2016 election, including to porn star Stormy Daniels. 

Trump allegedly concealed the payment as a legal expense. Bragg alleges Trump did so as part of criminal conspiracy to undermine the 2016 election by hiding his affair, while also evading New York state taxes.