After he lost the 2020 election in historic fashion to President Joe Biden, failed, one-term, twice-impeached former President Donald Trump decided he wouldn’t return to New York, which had been his home for decades.
Instead, Trump took up residence at Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach, Florida golf resort.
But that change of residence may wind up biting Donald in a big way when it comes to the legal problems he’s facing from prosecutors back in the Empire State, according to Asawin Suebsaeng and Jose Pagliery of The Daily Beast:
“Law enforcement in New York has five years from the date of an alleged crime to officially file charges for most felonies, but under New York law § 30.10(4)(a)(i), that clock stops for up to five more years when a defendant is outside the state. That 10-year grace period means Trump’s time in the White House and his post-presidential political exile at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida may be gifting prosecutors much-needed extra time.”
Yes, by relocating Trump has added an additional five year timeframe for prosecutors, which is badly needed, especially for financial crimes involving a business empire as big and widespread as the ex-president’s. That gives those investigators a cushion that will allow them to take an even more extensive look at what crimes Trump and the Trump Organization may have committed.
Reportedly, investigators in New York are “poring over thousands of spreadsheets and financial records from the Trump Organization and slowly building a case against Trump for allegedly inflating property values, lying on business forms, dodging taxes, duping banks.”
There are currently two active investigations of Trump in the state of his birth. One is being conducted by the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and the other is a civil matter under the purview of New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Former Manhattan prosecutor Adam Kaufmann said he cannot recall when New York has used the obscure statute in the past, but added it’s easy to prove that it applies to Trump:
“You don’t often have white collar cases that are so… old. It just doesn’t happen that much that you’re trying to get something from more than five years ago. It’s easy to prove he was not in the state of New York. There’s going to be records of where he was physically located every day for four years.”
So while Trump may have decided to abandon New York out of spite, that one decision may wind up being what screws him in the end. How’s that for perfect irony?
