With elected Republicans working so feverishly to distract public attention from their complicity in the Jan. 6 Trump insurrection, who is left to run interference for the former, would-be-future president who inspired it?
The prosecutorial heat on Donald Trump is turning up, and not just in Manhattan and the state of New York (Reuters):
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has enlisted the help of Atlanta lawyer John Floyd, who wrote a national guide on prosecuting state racketeering cases. Floyd was hired recently to “provide help as needed” on matters involving racketeering, including the Trump investigation and other cases, said the source, who has direct knowledge of the situation.
The move bolsters the team investigating Trump as Willis prepares to issue subpoenas for evidence on whether the former president and his allies broke the law in their campaign to pressure state officials to reverse his Georgia election loss. Willis has said that her office would examine potential charges including “solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies, conspiracy, racketeering” among other possible violations.
Trump faces civil and criminal probes from five independently elected investigators “from Georgia to New York to Washington,” CNN reported last week:
And the former President’s actions on his way out of office, including his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results and to stir up his supporters with baseless claims of fraud until they stormed the US Capitol on a harrowing January day, have only added to his legal problems.”
It’s never happened in our history but every single one of these prosecutors and attorneys general has more than sufficient predication to investigate what they’re investigating,” said Daniel R. Alonso, who was a top deputy to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance from 2010 to 2014.
Vance too has retained expert help in investigating Trump and the Trump Organization in an insurance and tax fraud investigation. Vance last month hired Mark Pomerantz, a former federal prosecutor with expertise in white-collar and organized crime. His investigation will accelerate now that the U.S. Supreme Court in February ruled Vance could obtain “eight years of Mr. Trump’s federal income tax returns and other records from his accountants” Trump had long fought to keep secret. New York Attorney General Letitia James is also investigating Trump and his company for possible financial crimes.
Vance has turned his attention to the Trump Organization’s longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg. Pomerantz, the mob prosecutor, is expected to lead questioning designed perhaps to get the CFO to flip on Trump:
Typically, efforts to flip witnesses have two parts: First, prosecutors work to build evidence that a witness may have their own legal liabilities. They then try to convince the witness to save themselves by turning on a higher-up.
The person with knowledge of the case said investigators were trying to “cast a wide net . . . looking to shake the tree a little bit.”
In this case, prosecutors have scrutinized Weisselberg’s work in helping to assess the value of Trump buildings as the company sought to obtain loans or property-tax reductions, people familiar with the investigation said. They have also asked about a Trump-owned luxury apartment where Weisselberg’s son Barry lived for several years. The exact nature of Vance’s interest in the apartment is not known, but if Barry Weisselberg, who manages Trump’s ice skating rinks, got the apartment rent-free, that might be considered a fringe benefit of his job and subject to income tax.
[…]
A person familiar with thinking at the Trump Organization said company executives are confident their practices for assessing the value of property fall within industry norms for New York City. The person also said there is broad confidence in Weisselberg’s loyalty.
One might wonder then why Trump is making his first return to his Manhattan penthouse since leaving the White House, although the Associated Press explains his visit “does not appear connected to either of the investigations.”