Tag: Trump crimes

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Crime Donald Trump

Manhattan DA’s Office Tells Trump’s Attorneys To Prepare For His Indictment

Attorneys for failed one-term former president Donald Trump have been informed by the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg that their client will be indicted and that the indictment may be unsealed soon.

The New York Times reports:

“The prosecutors offered Mr. Trump the chance to testify next week before the grand jury that has been hearing evidence in the potential case, the people said. Such offers almost always indicate an indictment is close; it would be unusual for the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, to notify a potential defendant without ultimately seeking charges against him. In New York, potential defendants have the right to answer questions in the grand jury before they are indicted, but they rarely testify, and Mr. Trump is likely to decline the offer. His lawyers could also meet privately with the prosecutors in hopes of fending off criminal charges.”

Bragg has been investigating Trump for hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels by his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, who has met with prosecutors in Bragg’s office on several occasions. Such payments are in violation of New York law.

The Times also notes, “The district attorney’s office has already questioned at least six other people before the grand jury, according to several other people with knowledge of the inquiry.”

Shortly after the Times report dropped, Trump’s legal team released a statement which reads:

“The Manhattan District Attorney’s threat to indict President Trump is simply insane,” said a spokesperson. “For the past five years, the DA’s office has been on a Witch Hunt, investigating every aspect of President Trump’s life, and they’ve come up empty at every turn — and now this.

“The fact that after their intensive investigation the DA is even considering a new political attack is a clear exoneration of President Trump in all areas. President Trump was a victim of extortion then, just as he is now. It’s an embarrassment to the Democrat [sic] prosecutors, and it’s an embarrassment to New York City.”

The disgraced ex-president is also facing indictment in the state of Georgia for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the Peach State.

 

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Crime Donald Trump Ivanka Trump The Trump Organization

Court Filing: Ivanka Tosses Daddy Under The Bus In Fraud Case

Perhaps hoping to avoid being thrown overboard by her father and others in the Trump Organization, Ivanka Trump is now making it clear in court filings that she intends to point the finger the failed former president in an effort to save her own skin.

A lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James accuses the Trump Organization and its top corporate officers — one of whom just so happens to be Ivanka — of bank and tax fraud and seeks civil penalties against the company and those in charge of it.

Now, however, Ivanka is asserting through her attorneys that she had nothing to do with any fraud and that “other individuals were responsible for those tasks.”

Erik Larson of Bloomberg reported on the filing from Ivanka’s attorneys.

NEW: Ivanka Trump joined her father and brothers in asking a judge to delay the Oct. 2 trial of NY’s fraud suit. Her lawyer said the case “is not simple” and that Ivanka has a “unique” defense because she left Trump Org. in 2017 and isn’t accused of lying about her dad’s finances

“The Complaint does not contain a single allegation that Ms. Trump directly or indirectly created, prepared, reviewed, or certified any of her father’s financial statements,” her lawyer said in a filing. The suit alleges “that other individuals were responsible for those tasks”

AG James believes that Donald Trump and the Trump Organization committed at least $21 million in tax fraud. She is seeking financial penalties against the company and to ban it from doing business in the state of New York ever again, a form of corporate death penalty that can be used by the state in extreme cases of bad behavior by a corporate entity.

The Trump Organization is headquartered in the Empire State and would likely be destroyed if James is successful with her lawsuit.

 

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Crime Donald Trump

New Batch Of Subpoenas From Special Counsel Have The Trump Team Worried: Report

The latest subpoenas from Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith for members of disgraced former president Donald Trump’s legal team should have those close to Trump very worried, according to a former federal prosecutor.

Glenn Kirschner spoke with MSNBC’s Yasmin Vossoughian Sunday afternoon and was asked about the fact that it now appears members of Trump’s legal team are becoming witnesses.

“It’s highly unusual, but it’s not unprecedented,” Kirschner noted. “There are times when prosecutors will investigate the mafia, mob organizations, and they will get to a point in the investigation when it looks like the attorneys representing the mobsters, the targets of the investigation, are complicit in the crimes of the organization and prosecutors do go after mob lawyers.”

Trump attorney Evan Corcoran is now being put under the microscope by the special counsel because he may have been part of the crimes committed by the former president, and means the crime-fraud exception would apply and invalidate attorney-client privilege.

“I think everyone is worried on Team Trump,” Kirschner explained. “I don’t fully understand why Mike Pence is unwilling to stand up for the people of the United States of America and talk about, for example, the pressure campaign that Donald Trump waged against him to get him to commit federal crimes. To violate the Electoral Count Act on Jan. 6 and obstruct Congress’ official proceeding certifying Joe Biden’s win. Mike Pence seems comfortable talking about it publicly when he’s trying to profit off of his book.”

In the long run, Kirschner predicted, Pence testify before Smith’s grand jury:

“I think Mike Pence will testify at the end of the day. There are several reasons why the executive privilege fails, and I also think the speech or debate clause privilege fails because no matter how you cut it, Mike Pence is not a legislator, and he wasn’t engaged in robust debate about legislation. So I think all privileges will fail, and Mike Pence will find himself inside the grand jury.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW1GjWGaJXw

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Crime Donald Trump

Jack Smith Has A ‘Killer Witness’ Who Can Send Trump To Prison For A Very Long Time

According to one of Donald Trump’s former assistants, the failed ex-president was so cavalier with who saw classified documents he kept at Mar-a-Lago in violation of federal law that he would write to-do lists on those files and give them to her.

ABC News reported Monday that Molly Michael has spoken with investigators working for Special Counsel Jack Smith, and what she had to say was terrifying.

Michael told investigators that — more than once — she received requests or taskings from Trump that were written on the back of notecards, and she later recognized those notecards as sensitive White House materials — with visible classification markings — used to brief Trump while he was still in office about phone calls with foreign leaders or other international-related matters.

The notecards with classification markings were at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate when FBI agents searched the property on Aug. 8, 2022 — but the materials were not taken by the FBI, according to sources familiar with what Michael told investigators.

Michael will make one hell of a “killer witness” for Smith at trial, according to former federal prosecutor Harry Litman, who told MSNBC host Chris Jansing :

“This playing around with notecards shows he’s cavalier, shows he’s very Trumpian. But what you read, Chris, is the real punch line. Knowing that the FBI wants to interview her, he said you don’t know anything about the boxes. And by the way, we know that is clearly a lie. It sounds like it anyway because she takes a picture and gives it to him. So, he knows, and the picture is in the indictment.”

Michael, who is identified as “Employee 2” in the federal indictment, is pure gold as a witness, Litman continued.

“She’s going to be a killer witness here. No deal, no ax to grind. In fact, was loyal to Trump. Goes to Mar-a-Lago with him after, and then finally leaves when she knows he’s basically breaking the law and obstructing justice. She gives absolute killer evidence about his trying to keep more than the boxes he had given up already to the FBI, and that’s why the search ensued. Very, very powerful witness, she’s going to be.”

A big problem for Trump, Litman noted, is that so many of the witnesses who have been loyal to him so far and refused to cooperate with Smith are now looking at massive legal bills they simply cannot hope to pay.

“For example, Jenna Elis, saying why is he not paying our fees? That’s exactly the kind of posture that is dangerous for Trump because if you are in financially dire straits, that is one real reason you would go to the prosecution and try to cooperate. One quick additional point about Molly Michael, by the way. She is present when Trump makes the statement to Evan Corcoran, ‘What if we told [the FBI] nothing? Could we just pretend there is nothing there?’ So, to the extent, he tried to make that a credibility battle between Corcoran, she is there to break the tie in a very persuasive fashion.”

 

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Crime Donald Trump Elections

Georgia Grand Jury Recommends Multiple Indictments In 2020 Election Fraud Case

A special grand jury impaneled in Fulton County, Georgia is recommending multiple indictments for crimes connected to the 2020 election that former president Donald Trump and his allies tried to have overturned.

The New York Times spoke with Emily Kohrs, who served as forewoman of the grand jury. While she refused to give the names of those suggested for criminal indictment because the full report remains under seal.

However, when Kohrs was asked if Trump was among those named, she responded:

“You’re not going to be shocked. It’s not rocket science.”

The Times also reports:

“The investigation in Atlanta has been seen as one of the most significant legal threats to Mr. Trump as he begins another run for the presidency. In November, the Justice Department named a special counsel, Jack Smith, to oversee two Trump-related criminal investigations. And last month, the Manhattan district attorney’s office began presenting evidence to a grand jury on whether Mr. Trump paid hush money to a porn star during his 2016 presidential campaign, laying the groundwork for potential criminal charges against the former president in the coming months.”

Kohrs also revealed that the grand jury made one of their main focuses the call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which he urged the election supervisor to “find” nearly 12,000 additional ballots that would allow the disgraced ex-president to declare victory in the Peach State.

And Kohrs added:

“I will tell you that if the judge releases the recommendations, it is not going to be some giant plot twist. You probably have a fair idea of what may be on there. I’m trying very hard to say that delicately.”

Another grand jury will have to formally indict anyone recommended by the special grand jury, which served as an investigative body to gather evidence and made suggestions to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.