New York Is Closing In On The Trump Crime Family, Georgia Could Open Criminal Probe

The New York Times reports, Legal Pressure on Trump Increases With Judge’s Order in Fraud Inquiry:

A New York judge on Friday increased pressure on former President Donald J. Trump’s family business and several associates, ordering them to give state investigators documents in a civil inquiry into whether the company misstated assets to get bank loans and tax benefits.

It was the second blow that the judge, Arthur F. Engoron of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, had dealt to Mr. Trump’s company in recent weeks.

In December, he ordered the company, the Trump Organization, to produce records that its lawyers had tried to shield, including some related to a Westchester County, N.Y., property that is among those being scrutinized by the New York State attorney general, Letitia James.

On Friday, Justice Engoron went further, saying that even more documents, as well as communications with a law firm hired by the Trump Organization, had to be handed over to Ms. James’s office. In doing so, he rejected the lawyers’ claim that the documents at issue were covered by attorney-client privilege.

The ruling was a fresh reminder that Mr. Trump — who left office about a week ago under the cloud of impeachment and who is headed for a Senate trial on a charge of “incitement of insurrection” after his supporters stormed the Capitol in a violent rampage — faces significant legal jeopardy as a private citizen.

The most serious threats confronting the former president include a criminal investigation by the Manhattan district attorney and the civil inquiry by the attorney general into possible fraud in Mr. Trump’s business dealings before he was elected.

Ms. James’s investigation began in March 2019, after Michael D. Cohen, the former president’s onetime lawyer, told Congress that Mr. Trump had inflated his assets in financial statements to secure bank loans and had understated them elsewhere to reduce his tax bill.

In early January, Michael Cohen says he’s cooperating with officials probing Trump and his family:

President Donald Trump former personal lawyer Michael Cohen said in a tweet on Friday that he is cooperating with officials probing the president and his family.

“I have been asked and have agreed to cooperate with multiple government agencies to provide testimony on the wrongdoing by #Trump and the #TrumpFamily,” Cohen wrote. “I am doing this in large part as #Trump and family have tried, and thankfully failed, to destroy America’s democracy.”

Investigators in Ms. James’s office have focused their attention on an array of transactions, including a financial restructuring of the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago in 2010 that resulted in the Fortress Credit Corporation forgiving debt worth more than $100 million.

Ms. James’s office has said in court documents that the Trump Organization — Mr. Trump’s main business vehicle — had thwarted efforts to determine how that money was reflected in its tax filings, and whether it was declared as income, as the law typically requires.

An analysis of Mr. Trump’s financial records by The New York Times found that he had avoided federal income tax on almost all of the forgiven debt.

Ms. James’s office is also examining whether the Trump Organization used inflated appraisals when it received large tax breaks after promising to conserve land where its development efforts faltered, including at its Seven Springs estate in Westchester County.

Accusing the Trump Organization of trying to stall the inquiry, lawyers with Ms. James’s office sought a judge’s order in August compelling the company to turn over documents related to the Seven Springs estate and other properties, and requiring the former president’s son Eric Trump, a company vice president, to testify in the inquiry. (Eventually, he did.)

In December, Justice Engoron ordered the Trump Organization to turn over to Ms. James’s office an engineer’s documents related to a conservation easement at the Seven Springs property.

Ms. James’s office is examining whether the easement is legitimate and whether an improper valuation of the estate allowed the Trump Organization to take a $21 million tax deduction it was not entitled to.

Lawyers for the company had tried to keep the engineer’s documents from investigators by claiming the materials were privileged because lawyers for the Trump Organizationrelied on them in valuing the property. Justice Engoron rejected that argument.

In the order issued on Friday, Justice Engoron again found that the Trump Organization lawyers had invoked attorney-client privilege for documents to which it did not apply.

Some communications that had been marked as privileged, he wrote, were “addressing business tasks and decisions, not exchanges soliciting or rendering legal advice.” He also said that communications related to public relations were not of a legal nature and that privilege was waived in some circumstances where third parties were involved in the discussions.

Justice Engoron did not specify in the order which documents were to be provided to Ms. James’s office, but he gave the Trump Organization until Feb. 4 to turn them over.

The Seven Springs estate is also now at issue in the long-running inquiry being conducted by the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., as first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Prosecutors involved in the inquiry, the only known active criminal investigation of Mr. Trump, have subpoenaed records related to the Westchester property, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mr. Vance’s investigation has largely been stalled since last fall, when Mr. Trump sued to block a subpoena for his tax returns and other records, sending the bitter dispute to the U.S. Supreme Court for a second time. A ruling is expected soon.

NBC News reminds us:

Trump and his family have already faced intense scrutiny over their business dealings. In 2019, a federal judge ordered Trump to pay the $2 million in damages after the Trump Foundation, which was also managed by his three eldest children, admitted in a settlement that the president personally misused foundation funds to help his 2016 presidential campaign, among other abuses.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is also continuing to move forward with its criminal investigation of Trump and his business operations. In addition, a pair of House Democrats have asked FBI Director Christopher Wray to open a criminal probe into Trump after a leaked phone call showed him pleading with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to overturn his state’s election. (See below).

He also faces the possibility of federal tax investigations and an array of issues involving the Trump administration — from his administration’s child separation policy to possible conflicts of interest and potential violations of campaign finance law.

Reuters reports in an Exclusive: Georgia election board member to seek state AG probe of Trump:

The lone Democrat on Georgia’s state election board plans to introduce a motion next month urging state attorney general Chris Carr [a Republican] to open a criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 election results.

The plan by David Worley has not been previously reported. The proposal follows other calls for an investigation into a phone call Trump made to pressure Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to overturn the election results based on false voter fraud claims.

The motion, which Worley plans to present on Feb. 10, would also urge a criminal probe by Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat who has said she would “enforce the law” in relation to Trump’s call.

[The election board’s Worley needs the support of at least two Republicans on the five-member board to pass his motion calling for investigations. One Republican member is Raffensperger, whose office declined to comment on how he might vote – or whether he would recuse himself because he was on the call with Trump.

Another Republican board member, Matthew Mashburn, told Reuters it would be “premature” to comment on how he would vote but that it’s the board’s duty to “make sure the elections are as fair and transparent and accurate as possible.”

The other two Republican board members, Anh Le and Rebecca Sullivan, did not respond to requests for comment. If the motion fails to reach a majority, Worley said he would send the matter directly to Willis and Carr himself.The board’s requests for investigations have no force of law, but they carry weight with prosecutors. Mashburn said he has never seen the attorney general or district attorney refuse to investigate a case referred by the election board.]

Jeff DiSantis, a spokesman for Willis, declined to comment on the possibility of a criminal probe. The attorney general’s office declined to comment on whether it would investigate but said the election board has the authority to report violations to the AG for prosecution.

* * *

Legal experts and attorneys said Trump’s calls may have violated at least three state criminal laws: conspiracy to commit election fraud, criminal solicitation to commit election fraud, and intentional interference with performance of election duties. The felony and misdemeanor violations are punishable by fines or imprisonment.

* * *

In addition to the calls for Georgia state investigations, two Democratic members of the U.S. Congress – Kathleen Rice, of New York, and Ted Lieu, of California – asked in a Jan. 4 letter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for a criminal probe into Trump’s call to Raffensperger.

The calls for investigations are one illustration of the legal perils facing Trump since he lost the constitutional protections that shield sitting presidents from prosecution. Trump now faces nearly a dozen legal battles, including a criminal probe by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance into his business dealings and several civil lawsuits.

PRESSURE ESCALATES IN GEORGIA

In Georgia, Fulton County’s newly elected district attorney, Willis, has held internal discussions about launching a criminal probe to investigate Trump’s alleged election interference, according to people familiar with the matter.

Such an investigation could take several months before a grand jury decides whether the evidence supports criminal charges. Willis would likely assign a specialized team, possibly including outside counsel, to focus exclusively on the high-profile case, said Joshua Morrison, a former Fulton County senior assistant district attorney who used to work with Willis.

“That team will do nothing but work this case,” he said.

Legal experts say Georgia prosecutors could have a strong enough case to move forward with a criminal probe.

The best part is, there is no presidential pardon for these state crimes. So if “Mafia Don” Trump gave himself and his crime family a “secret” pardon, it has no effect.

Time for everyone to get fitted for their orange jumpsuit.