Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. (D) and New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) have been cooperating on the prospective Trump crime family prosecution. First stop in the two-year investigation appears to be the Trump Organization itself (Washington Post):
Prosecutors in New York have given former president Donald Trump’s attorneys a deadline of Monday afternoon to make any final arguments as to why the Trump Organization should not face criminal charges over its financial dealings, according to two people familiar with the matter.
That deadline is a strong signal that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. (D) and New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) — now working together, after each has spent more than two years investigating Trump’s business — are considering criminal charges against the company as an entity.
Questionable property vaulations, undocumented fringe benefits, possible tax evasion. Possible insurance fraud, falsification of business records. Presumably, like father, like son.
Trump attorneys met virtually with prosecutors on Thursday to try talking the city and state out of filing charges.
And what of Allen Weisselberg?
People familiar with the probe confirmed to The Washington Post that prosecutors were looking at charging the Trump Organization as an entity, as well as Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, following Weisselberg’s refusal to assist in the investigation.
[Trump attorney Ronald] Fischetti, who took part in the Thursday meeting, said Friday that prosecutors are going forward with a case against the company because Weisselberg wasn’t “cooperating and saying what they want him to say” with respect to whether Trump had personal knowledge about his CFO’s alleged use of cars, apartments and other compensation that prosecutors think may not have been reported properly to tax authorities, according to people with knowledge of the case.
“They’re looking at charging the corporation or corporations tied to tax charges,” Fischetti said Friday. “Donald Trump is not being indicted.”
He said that last part for his boss to hear.
Former Trump Organization vice president Barbara Res told CNN over the weekend Trump “deserves to go to jail” for his business practices:
“As far as Trump is concerned, if they were to get evidence against Trump it would be to the extent that nothing major has ever happened to my knowledge…. that he doesn’t know about,” Barbara Res told CNN’s, Jim Acosta.
She added that she knows Trump and she knows that “he’s very deliberate, very measured, and very vengeful, and he doesn’t follow the rules. He never did follow the rules.”
One month ago, gambling sites reported the betting odds were even that Trump gets indicted in 2021.
The sooner, the better. Trump has taken his white grievance tour back on the road. The fascist right is emboldened, even if suspended. Former attorney general Bill Barr is painting himself as principled when from his Senate confirmation hearings it was clear he was as slippery as the XL pipeline; then he covered for Trump with his Mueller report summary. New York state, at least, has suspended Rudy Giuliani’s law license. The quicker the hammer comes down on the rest, the quicker the country will begin to regain a sense that the law applies to everyone.
But until then, don’t hold your breath.