Could it possibly be true? The “tough on crime” Democratic Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. is actually about to take down New York’s last organized crime family, the criminal enterprise known as the Trump Organization?
Numerous news organizations have confirmed from leaks from Trump’s defense lawyers that charges are imminent against the Trump Organization as they try to get out ahead of the announcement and “message” Trump’s favorite phrase that it is a “witch hunt” and downplay the significance.
To paraphrase Joe Biden, “It is a BFD when a former president is under a criminal investigation.” It has never happened before. The closest we have come is the no contest plea by Vice President Spiro Agnew to a single felony charge of tax evasion. (Agnew took kickbacks from contractors during his time as Baltimore County Executive and Governor of Maryland. The payments had continued into his time as vice president).
The Washington Post reports, Trump Organization attorneys given Monday deadline to persuade prosecutors not to file charges against it:
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.
Earlier this year, Vance convened a grand jury in Manhattan to consider indictments in the investigation. No entity or individual has been charged in the investigations thus far, and it remains possible that no charges will be filed.
Oh please, prosecutors don’t give celebrity defendants a heads up like this unless they intend to file charges. What is the defense, “We’re just misunderstood. I’t’s not what it looks like“?
Prosecutors have shown interest in whether Trump’s company used misleading valuations of its properties to deceive lenders and taxing authorities, and in whether taxes were paid on fringe benefits for company executives, according to court documents and people familiar with the investigations.
Just like Mikey “the fixer” testified to Congress. He brought the receipts.
The two people familiar with the deadline set for Trump’s attorneys spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose private conversations. Under New York law, prosecutors may file charges against corporations in addition to individuals.
Last Thursday, lawyers working for Trump personally and for the Trump Organization met virtually with prosecutors to make the case that charges were not warranted. Meetings like these are common in financial investigations, allowing defense attorneys a chance to present evidence before prosecutors make a decision on whether to seek charges.
Thursday’s meeting was first reported by the New York Times.
Spokespeople for Vance and James declined to comment on Sunday, as did an attorney for Trump, Ronald Fischetti, and an attorney for the Trump Organization, Alan Futerfas.
People familiar with the probe confirmed to The Washington Post that prosecutors were looking at charging the Trump Organization as an entity [that means New York’s “little RICO Act”], as well as Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen “Specs” Weisselberg, following Weisselberg’s refusal to assist in the investigation.
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.
Apparently “Mafia Don” Trump has something on Specs Weisselberg if he is following the code of Omertà.
Trump still owns his businesses through a trust managed by his adult sons and Weisselberg. He gave up day-to-day management of the company while in the White House, but it is unclear what role he plays in the company’s operations now.
Trump’s business uses a web of hundreds of individual limited liability companies [a good indicator of money laundering], most of which are ultimately controlled by a trust whose beneficiary is Trump himself.
Last month, Trump called the investigations a “witch hunt” run by Democrats seeking to damage his future political prospects.
Dude, you’re like a broken record. People are tired of hearing this record skip.
In recent months, according to people familiar with the investigation, prosecutors began investigating Weisselberg’s personal finances, in the hopes that Weisselberg might be persuaded to offer testimony against his boss. But prosecutors have grown frustrated with what they see as a lack of cooperation from Weisselberg, according to a person familiar with the case. This month, Post reporters observed Weisselberg driving into work at Trump Tower — home to both Trump’s Manhattan apartment and his company’s headquarters office — on a day when Trump was staying at the tower.
If Trump is advising Specs Weisselberg not to cooperate – “you keep your mouth shut or you swim with the fishes” – this is witness tampering and witness intimidation, felony charges.
OK, the Godfather reference above is funny, but the New York DA may have another Trump insider who may actually be singing to the feds, Matthew “the squid” Calamari. You really can’t make this shit up. Tentacles of Manhattan DA’s Trump probe reach former bodyguard Calamari:
New York prosecutors involved in a sweeping probe of the Trump Organization are investigating Matthew Calamari, the former Donald Trump bodyguard who’s now a top executive at the former president’s company, a person familiar with the matter confirmed to NBC News.
The development was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, which cited people close to the matter who said Calamari, the Trump Organization’s chief operating officer, was being investigated over whether he received tax-free fringe benefits from the company.
NBC News has not independently verified the reason for the investigation and Calamari has not been charged with any wrongdoing. [if he is a cooperating witness, he will not be charged because he gets immunity under New York law].
Calamari and his son, Matthew Jr., have retained New York attorney Nicholas Gravante Jr., who once represented Joe Biden’s brother James and son Hunter in a civil case.
This is where you start hearing that annoying song from Disneyland in your head, “It’s a small world after all.” Oh, the irony.
Reached by NBC News on Tuesday, Gravante declined to comment, as did Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance’s office, which is leading the investigation into the former president’s company.
Vance has been investigating a variety of allegations of financial improprieties against Trump’s company for about two years. Court documents show that Vance is probing “possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization,” which could include falsifying business records, insurance fraud and tax fraud.
The probe appears to have sharpened in recent months, with investigators from the New York attorney general’s office joining Vance’s team. The AG’s office has been criminally investigating the personal taxes of Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, an official close to the investigation told NBC News last month. Weisselberg’s lawyer has declined to comment on the investigation.
The DA also reportedly convened a special grand jury to begin hearing evidence in the case last month, which legal experts called a sign that charges could be imminent.
I may finally get to break out that bottle of champagne that I have been saving for just this moment. I know that I will be watching the “breaking news” segments from the cable jockeys this evening.
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Washington D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine may also be closing in on “Grifter Barbie,” Ivanka Trump. David Corn reports at Mother Jones, “Documents Show Ivanka Trump Didn’t Testify Accurately in Inauguration Scandal Case”, https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/06/documents-show-ivanka-trump-didnt-testify-accurately-in-inauguration-scandal-case/
The inauguration probe was launched last year by Karl Racine, the attorney general of Washington, DC. He has alleged that Trump’s inauguration committee misused charitable funds to enrich the Trump family. As Racine put it, the lawsuit maintains “that the Inaugural Committee, a nonprofit corporation, coordinated with the Trump family to grossly overpay for event space in the Trump International Hotel… The Committee also improperly used non-profit funds to throw a private party [at the Trump Hotel] for the Trump family costing several hundred thousand dollars.” In short, the attorney general accused the Trump gang of major grifting, and he is seeking to recover the money paid to the Trump Hotel so those funds can be used for real charitable purposes.
During a December 1 deposition—in which she swore to tell the truth—Ivanka Trump, the eldest daughter of Donald Trump who was an executive at the Trump Organization before becoming a White House adviser to her father, was asked if she had any “involvement in the process of planning the inauguration.” She replied, “I really didn’t have an involvement.” Ivanka testified that if her “opinion was solicited” regarding an inauguration event, she “would give feedback to my father or to anyone who asked my perspective or opinion.” And that was as far as her participation went.
But this wasn’t accurate, according to the documents, which indicate she was part of the decision-making for various aspects of the inauguration, including even the menus for events.
[David Corn breaks down a series of emails].
[D]uring her deposition in the inauguration case, Ivanka Trump downplayed her relationship with Winston Wolkoff. She described Winston Wolkoff as “a person I knew in New York who does events,” adding, “I didn’t know Stephanie Winston that well. I just knew she was very good at planning. I just knew her in that capacity.” Winston Wolkoff, she said, was no more than “an acquaintance.” But emails between her and Winston Wolkoff obtained by Mother Jones indicate that in previous years, Ivanka Trump and Winston Wolkoff had been friends. In 2012, Ivanka emailed Winston Wolkoff, “Jared and I are having a few friends over for dinner next Monday night (Nov 12th) and would love to have you and David join us. It will be a very casual, small group and I promise good food and conversation. If not, let’s catch up soon.” In another email exchange, the two women texted about family matters when they set up a lunch date.
But Ivanka Trump may now have reason to distance herself not only from the messy inauguration scandal but also from Winston Wolkoff, who became something of an internal whistleblower. During the planning process, Winston Wolkoff raised an important matter within the PIC: whether the Trump Hotel was overcharging Trump’s inauguration committee. (This matter is at the heart of Racine’s lawsuit against the Trump Organization and the PIC.) The first cost estimates were high, and Ivanka Trump interceded to obtain a better rate. But Winston Wolkoff believed this new estimate—$700,000 for meeting and banquet rooms reserved for four days—was still twice the market rate. On December 17, 2016, she emailed Gates, Ivanka Trump, and others to express her concern. “Please take into consideration,” she warned, that the PIC’s spending would eventually be audited and this deal with the Trump Hotel would “become public knowledge.” Winston Wolkoff is now a lead cooperating witness in Racine’s lawsuit against the Trump Organization and the PIC.
In her own deposition in the inauguration scandal case, Winston Wolkoff testified that she was worried “it would look [that] members of the Trump family or the Trump Organization or the Trump Hotel financially profited from the inauguration.” During that deposition, she was asked whether it seemed “improper” to her that Ivanka Trump was “involved at times in decision-making about some of the events that were part of the inaugural festivities.” She replied, “I think it was questioned…It was out of the ordinary.”