I'm still confused (Trump trial).

[Ms. Toad]

82. He was charged with violating a specific statute.

But that isn't what the question was in this thread. And the statute isn't specific as to the crime that elevates misdemeanor falsification of business records to a felony.

In this case, the grand jury (a) paraphrases the statute, (b) identifies the record falsified, without (c) suggesting what the underlying crime is that Trump intended to commit or conceal. So reading the charging document doesn't answer the question asked in this thread, since it offers no more clarity as to the elevating "other" crime.

I'm pretty sure Trump has preserved the argument both about the lack of specificity as to the "other" crime (jurors did not have to agree as to a single other crime) - and as to the concern that the jury could have (impermissibly in Trump's view) used a federal crime as the elevating felony. I'd expect to see both of those concerns raised on appeal. The fact that a grand jury passed on it won't make a bit of difference to the appellate court. A grand jury is filled with ordinary citizens who were called to serve on it in the same manner as jurors called to serve on a petit jury (a trial jury). They don't have any special knowledge of the law.