The volume on Elise Stefanik’s outrage is always turned up to 11, even when the issue is as mundane as whether schoolchildren should drink sugary milk.
That strategy keeps the North Country congresswoman in the spotlight and boosts her fundraising. But the always-crying-wolf approach dampens the impact of her fury when something truly momentous happens — such as the criminal indictment of a former president.
Stefanik is outraged? Oh. What else is new?
“The shameful arrest of President Trump is an unprecedented and chilling chapter in the left’s weaponization of the justice system against their leading political opponent,” Stefanik fumed in a rant, err, statement Tuesday. The Republican also said that “Trump will defeat this latest witch hunt” and retake the presidency.
Keep in mind that Stefanik has called for the arrest of Andrew M. Cuomo and often makes reference to “the Biden crime family.” She’s hardly an impartial arbiter of legal impropriety, in other words, and seems fine with “weaponizing” the justice system so long as its targets belong to the opposing party.
But I generally agree with Stefanik about the dangers of Alvin Bragg’s prosecution of Trump, which feels reckless. Even many Democrats worry that the unprecedented case appears untested, underwhelming and flimsy, which may explain why the Manhattan district attorney larded up the indictment with 34 counts that all charge the same crime.
“Pretty bare bones,” is how Albany Law School professor Vin Bonventre described the filing, adding that it “tells us virtually nothing except that Donald Trump falsified records.”
And since falsifying records is only a misdemeanor, Bragg will have to prove the books were cooked in service of a second crime to justify his assertion that Trump committed a felony. “There’s got to be more to come,” Bonventre told me.
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