One could have wished for a better criminal charge for Donald J. Trump: inciting the storming of the Capitol in Washington. Attempted election rigging in the state of Georgia. Tax evasion in New York. The list of failures is serious and almost endless.

The first charge, however, brought by New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg, sounds comparatively banal: paying $130,000 in hush money to a porn star so that the age-old affair from 2006 would not become public before the November 2016 presidential election. A violation of the New York state campaign finance law.

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