As the lawyers in former President Donald Trump’s falsifying records case, under the watchful eye of acting Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, work their way through the selection of an appropriately fair and impartial jury, both counsel and the public are mindful that the criminal charge of falsifying business records as a Class E felony is legally prosecutable only if the alleged falsification of Trump business records was engaged in to either commit or conceal another crime. The prosecutor’s duty to allege and prove that the Trump Organization’s business records were falsified to cover up another state or federal crime has state constitutional implications.
Article III, Section 16 of the state constitution states: “No act shall be passed which shall provide that any existing law, or any part thereof said act, or which shall enact that any existing law, or part thereof, shall be deemed applicable except by inserting it in such act.”
