I'm afraid the left is whistling through the appellate graveyard. There are a lot of legal holes in this prosecution. The gloaters will feel kinda silly when the case is thrown out. Hopefully, it will be after the election, but the fact remains that the voting public does not regard paying off a blackmailer as a crime, no matter what statute can, maybe, be made to say it is.

There's likely to be crow on the menu for those who are crowing now. A bit of circumspection is in order; the Michael Myers of politics is not dead yet.