Tag: New York

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Crime Donald Trump

Michael Cohen: I’ve Given Manhattan Prosecutors Everything They Need To Convict Trump

Wherever he looks, Donald Trump can see that various prosecutors are moving ever closer to indicting him.

Now that Trump is a former president, he no longer has the legal protections afforded a sitting president which prohibit the American head of state from being criminally indicted, tried, found guilty, and incarcerated.

His former attorney, Michael Cohen, has all sorts of evidence that he’s handed over to prosecutors in New York, and it’s more than enough to send the Donald away for a very long time, according to what he told CBS News recently:

“Cohen said he had been questioned by the state attorney general’s team and the district attorney’s office and claimed investigators are ‘well-prepared’ with their evidence to ‘move relatively quickly’ in their probes.
“‘I do believe that there is a mounting amount of evidence that they will be prosecuting upon,’ Cohen said. ‘Some of it of course is civil, and other parts of it are criminal.'”

Cohen, who was convicted on charges of fraud, campaign finance violations, and lying to Congress, was sentenced to three years in prison and released earlier this year when the COVID-19 pandemic began sweeping through U.S. prisons.

Does Cohen expect Trump might pardon him in an effort to keep him from cooperating further with investigators? Cohen said he’s “not interested” in any presidential pardon, and made clear that prosecutors are indeed focusing in on Trump’s finances:

“It has to do with his finances, it has to do with his tax returns, it has to do with his properties, it has to do with the personal financial statements that he had made and provided in order to obtain loans.”

Trump’s financial dealings have always been his Achilles’ heel, and considering all of the dirt Cohen likely has on the Donald, things are about to get very bad for the former president.

Here’s the Cohen interview, courtesy of CBS News:

 

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Crime Donald Trump The Trump Adminstration

New York AG Tish James Puts Trump On Notice About His Many Alleged Crimes

New York Attorney General Tish James has been on a roll lately when it comes to her ongoing investigation of Donald Trump and his many alleged crimes.

Not long ago, a judge in the Empire State ruled the Trump Organization has to turn over records involving a property that’s currently the subject of a civil investigation by the AG’s office, according to the Washington Post:

“The documents and communications at issue could help investigators answer questions about a conservation easement that was granted several years ago at the Seven Springs estate in suburban New York’s Westchester Country, a move that netted President Trump’s company a $21 million tax deduction. The materials, which Trump’s lawyers had sought to shield, include messages exchanged between an engineer and a land-use lawyer who worked on Trump’s behalf.”

Additionally, James released a letter she and 15 other state attorneys general had sent to White House Counsel Pat Cipollone before the Trump administration came to an abrupty end reminding the White House they were required to “preserve and maintain” all records — including tweets, notes from private conversations, and emails from private servers that might have been used to conduct government work:

“The Trump Administration shouldn’t have to be told that they need to comply with the law and keep all records of official business, but the last four years have shown that the president needs to be constantly reminded what the law is and how he must comply with it. Even the president’s tweets, the private conversations he had with Russian President Putin, and Ivanka’s private email server must be archived. Every bit of this information belongs to the American people and the White House cannot deprive the public of this information.”

The letter from James to the White House counsel is particularly important because it means that every member of the administration was been placed on notice: If you destroy anything at all, you will be a party to obstruction of justice, which just so happens to be a felony.

But the letter is even more significant because it makes clear that James and many of her associates in other states are actively investigating and could charge Trump and his associates with crimes they committed while conducting their “official” duties.

The biggest danger to Donald Trump has never been from federal charges or courts. It’s the states that will be handing down indictments against the president, his family, his business, and members of his administration. And no presidential pardon can exonerate any of the guilty parties. They will have to stand before the bar of justice and answer for their crimes.

Be afraid, Donald. Be very afraid.

 

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Crime Donald Trump

Manhattan DA Lining Up Witnesses To Testify Against Trump At Upcoming Trial: Report

Based on a new report from Bess Levin of Vanity Fair and confirmed by reporting from Reuters, it now appears that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. is moving along at a rapid pace with his investigation of failed, one-term former President Donald Trump and is lining up witnesses who will testify against Trump along with others who will help explain to a jury the exact crimes Trump and his company, the Trump Organization, may have committed.

According to Levin:

“In the last several months, the D.A. has brought on the attorney who put John Gotti and other white-collar criminals behind bars, has reportedly been working to flip the Trump Organizations longtime CFO, and, most crucially, obtained Trump’s much sought-after tax returns, documents that the Queens-born real estate developer has gone to such extreme lengths to keep secret that some people have gotten the impression they contain extremely incriminating information.

“Now, Vance’s office has taken the next step in its criminal investigation: finding people who can explain to a jury why Trump is a possible crook.”

Specifically, Vance is looking for bankers, bookkeepers, and real estate experts who can help shed light on how Trump may have broken the law by inflating the value of his real estate holdings in order to get large loans from banks while simultaneously devaluing those same properties when paying taxes on them. Those two acts alone would constitute bank and tax fraud.

Prosecutors in Vance’s office also hope to present witnesses who have first-hand experience working on deals made by Trump to explain documents and how that data proves specific criminal acts by the former president and his company.

There’s also the matter of Trump’s tax returns, eight years of which Vance obtained thanks to a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court. It has long been believed that those returns are the Rosetta Stone that will unlock the secrets of how Trump has shifted and hidden money over the decades in an effort to skirt accountability and give the illusion that his net worth is larger than it actually is. Those returns may also contain proof of financial ties to countries and entities in nations hostile to the United States such as Russia and China.

And don’t forget about Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, who is expected to be a star witness against his former client:

“As for Cohen, whose credibility will surely be challenged by whatever lawyers Trump manages to scrounge up, said that “unfortunately for Trump, I have backed up each and every question posed by the district attorney’s office [with] documentary evidence.” If Vance’s team can corroborate Cohen’s testimony, Brodsky told Reuters, that would be “very powerful before a jury.” The government, he said, “loves people who plead guilty to crimes, take the stand and say,…‘I participated in a crime with that person sitting right there at the defense table, Donald J. Trump.'”

Evidence and witnesses are the key to any criminal case. It sounds like Vance has plenty of both, which is very bad news for Donald Trump.

 

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Crime Donald Trump

Trump Organization Insider Is Cooperating With Prosecutors – Says She ‘Refuses To Be Silenced’

As prosecutors in New York continue to look into Donald Trump and the Trump Organization’s finances, one man has moved into the spotlight and could play a key role as investigators move forward and grand juries prepare to hand down indictments.

 

Allen Weisselberg has been Chief Financial Officer of the Trump Organization for decades, and reportedly “knows where all the bodies are buried.” Will Weisselberg try save his own hide and that of his two sons and cooperate with prosecutors? That remains to be seen, but a person close to him is indeed talking with investigators and is making it clear she won’t be silenced, Business Insider reports:

“An attorney representing the former daughter-in-law of the Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg says she’s cooperating with prosecutors conducting an inquiry into Donald Trump’s finances and ‘refuses to be silenced.’

“‘Jennifer Weisselberg is committed to speaking the truth, no matter how difficult that may be,’ her attorney, Duncan Levin, told Insider in a statement. ‘She will continue to cooperate fully with the various law enforcement agencies that are investigating her ex-husband’s family and the very powerful interests they represent.’

“‘Jennifer refuses to be silenced any longer by those who are conspiring to prevent her from sharing what she has learned over the past 25 years,’ Levin added.”

Weisselberg’s former daughter-in-law has certainly been in a prime position to know exactly what goes on inside the former president’s business dealings, as she was married to one of his sons, Barry, until 2018, when they divorced. And she also knows Donald Trump:

“The couple received an apartment as a gift from Trump when they married in 2004, but Barry Weisselberg may have skipped out on paying taxes on it by categorizing it incorrectly in his tax filings, according to Bloomberg News. That apartment — as well as other numerous financial entanglements between the Weisselberg and Trump families — appear to be at the center of the effort to flip Weisselberg into cooperating.”

How close could Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance be to filing criminal charges against Trump and his corporation? According to Daniel R. Alonso, a former top Vance deputy:

“I’m sure he is absolutely pressing to have a decision made on whether to prosecute anyone, whom to prosecute, and for what charges, by the end of the year.”

Everywhere he turns, Donald Trump can see his freedom slipping away. About the only option he has now is fleeing to a country that doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the United States. That list is limited, and only one nation — Russia — seems the least bit likely to be of interest to the Donald. Problem is, even Putin may not want anything to do with Donnie anymore.