Something to remember regarding Trump’s fraud case: the felony was not bullshit accounting to pay off Stormy Daniels. That would have likely been a misdemeanor. What made this a felony–according to twelve ordinary citizens, not wine moms, neoliberal thinktankers, or ‘pedophiles’*–was that this was in service to another crime (boldface mine):

Under New York law, falsification of business records is a crime when the records are altered with an intent to defraud. To be charged as a felony, prosecutors must also show that the offender intended to “commit another crime” or “aid or conceal” another crime when falsifying records.

In Trump’s case, prosecutors said that other crime was a violation of a New York election law that makes it illegal for “any two or more persons” to “conspire to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means,” as Justice Juan Merchan explained in his instructions to the jury.

What exactly those “unlawful means” were in this case was up to the jury to decide. Prosecutors put forth three areas that they could consider: a violation of federal campaign finance laws, falsification of other business records or a violation of tax laws.

Jurors did not need to agree on what the underlying “unlawful means” were. But they did have to unanimously conclude that Trump caused the business records to be falsified, and that he “did so with intent to defraud that included an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof.”

Republicans are going to attempt to confuse the issue by claiming this was about the tawdry sexual encounter, when it was about fraud in order to gain political power.

This was a political crime, just (ironically) not as sexy as the others.

*Which in conservative speak is anyone they don’t like.