Hello it’s the weekend. This is The Weekender ☕️

It’s odd that the hush money case made it as far as it did.

Alvin Bragg always seemed mercurial in his willingness to pursue it; the facts of the case all dealt with conduct around the 2016 election and the ensuing first months of Trump’s presidency. The charges weren’t the most serious, nor were they the most ambitious: the Smith and Georgia January 6 cases went to the heart of Trump’s 2020 coup attempt; Smith’s classified records case focused on a clear-cut instance of criminality.