Reader: If you forget about all the media and opinion circus for a moment: How realistic are the 34 counts and how likely is it to lead to a conviction?

“Preliminary: I can’t take the seat of a judge or jury, so I wouldn’t imagine the possibility of his conviction. However, I can say something generally about the charges and how they are viewed by legal experts.”

“This week, prosecutors provided a list of 34 alleged crimes. These are payments made by Trump or his firm to his then-attorney Michael Cohen to repay Cohen the $130,000 provided to silence Stormy Daniels. These payments are entered on the books as costs of legal advice.”

Prosecutors say offering silent money and legal advice are not the same thing, so this is accounting fraud: forgery. That seems like a pretty obvious conclusion, and the likelihood of Trump being convicted of it increases exponentially. Trump fined.

Now things get more complicated. If it can be shown that the forgery was used to cover up another crime, then in theory it is a serious crime (which can carry a sentence of up to years in prison).

“Prosecutors appear to want to argue that Trump paid hush money to protect his political campaign (which would qualify it as a campaign donation) and then fraudulently concealed it.”

“It’s not yet clear exactly what path prosecutors will use to prove it. Chief Prosecutor Alvin Bragg spoke about New York State (election) and federal (election) laws, but didn’t go into further detail.”

Whatever the case, many legal experts say it will be a significant challenge for prosecutors to convince the judge and jury that the fraud charges merit such an ‘upgrade’ to serious crimes.