Trump Has Made Politician ‘Sex Scandals’ Passé

Everyone hoping that the Manhattan District Attorney would finally take down Donald Trump was—let’s be honest—pinning their hopes on the notion that there would be a surprise dispositive smoking gun proving massive fraud. On Tuesday, those hopes failed to materialize.

When the indictment was finally unsealed, we were left with charges pretty close to what everyone was already predicting: a case that is largely about falsifying business records.

Most of the observers I saw were underwhelmed. “[District Attorney Alvin] Bragg explaining why it was vital to indict Trump frankly sounds like a sales guy on a pro forma call,” tweeted Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle during Bragg’s press conference. “He knows you’re buying, and so do you, but he’s gotta say something.”