New York
The New York Times reports, Prosecutors Investigating Trump Focus on His Finance Chief:
State prosecutors in Manhattan who are investigating former President Donald J. Trump and his family business are sharpening their focus on the company’s long-serving chief financial officer, asking witnesses questions about his dealings at the company, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The increased focus on the executive, Allen H. Weisselberg, could step up pressure on him to cooperate with the investigation if the prosecutors unearth evidence of wrongdoing on his part. He has served as the Trump Organization’s financial gatekeeper for more than two decades and could be a vital source of information for the government about the inner workings of the company.
In recent weeks, the prosecutors working for the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., have been interviewing witnesses who know Mr. Weisselberg and have asked at least one witness about Mr. Weisselberg’s sons, Barry and Jack Weisselberg, according to two of the people with knowledge of the matter.
Barry Weisselberg has been the property manager of Trump Wollman Rink in Central Park, and Jack works at Ladder Capital, one of Mr. Trump’s biggest lenders.
The district attorney’s office has not accused Mr. Weisselberg or his sons of any wrongdoing, and there is no indication that the sons are a focus of the investigation.
If the prosecutors were to secure Allen Weisselberg’s cooperation, it might provide a significant boost to the long-running investigation and deliver a blow to Mr. Trump, who has long depended on Mr. Weisselberg’s unflinching loyalty.
Prosecutors are examining, among other things, whether Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization falsely manipulated property values to obtain loans and tax benefits. For his part, Mr. Trump, a Republican, has repeatedly dismissed the inquiry as a politically motivated “witch hunt” and “fishing expedition” by Mr. Vance, a Democrat.
Mr. Weisselberg, 73, an accountant, began his career working for Mr. Trump’s father and has overseen the Trump Organization’s books for decades. He recently ran the business with Mr. Trump’s adult sons during the Trump presidency and remained loyal to the company even after his name surfaced during congressional and federal investigations into Mr. Trump or his business.
More recently, Mr. Weisselberg has become a figure of interest to the district attorney’s investigation, according to the people with knowledge of the matter. In addition to potential financial crimes, the investigation has focused on the possible role Mr. Weisselberg and other Trump Organization employees played in hush money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to two women who said they had affairs with Mr. Trump.
A spokesman for Mr. Vance declined to comment on the investigation. A lawyer for Allen Weisselberg, Mary E. Mulligan, also declined to comment, as did a representative of the Trump Organization.
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The prosecutors are examining whether the Trump Organization inflated the value of some of his properties to obtain the best possible loans while lowballing the values to reduce property taxes, people with knowledge of the matter have said. The prosecutors are also investigating the Trump Organization’s statements to insurance companies about the value of various assets.
The prosecutors have subpoenaed Mr. Trump’s two main lenders, Deutsche Bank and Ladder Capital, which are cooperating with the investigation. Ladder Capital sold its Trump Organization loans, along with others, to investors years ago and thus no longer owns them.
When Mr. Vance’s office opened its investigation more than two years ago, it began with an examination of the hush money payments. In particular, the prosecutors scrutinized how the company accounted for $130,000 it gave Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former fixer, as reimbursement for money he paid to buy the silence of one of the women, Stormy Daniels, a pornographic film actress who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump.
* * *
Testifying before Congress two years ago, Mr. Cohen pinned blame for the hush-money scheme on Mr. Weisselberg, who he said helped devise a strategy to mask the Trump Organization’s reimbursements to Mr. Cohen for his payment to Ms Daniels. The federal prosecutors who charged Mr. Cohen did not accuse Mr. Weisselberg of wrongdoing.
Georgia
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, Fulton DA’s investigation into Trump heads to grand jury:
Fulton County prosecutors are expected to appear before a grand jury this week seeking subpoenas for documents and witnesses related to their investigation of former President Donald Trump and some of his top associates for possible election fraud, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned.
Legal experts are split as to whether there’s a strong case to be made, but most agree Trump’s efforts to overturn Georgia’s election results merit greater scrutiny. Fani Willis, Fulton’s new district attorney, has said she’s prepared to follow the evidence wherever it leads.
Some believe the recording of Trump’s Jan. 2 phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger leaning on him to “find” the votes to reverse Joe Biden’s win is grounds to move forward.
“If there were a textbook (example of) how to commit criminal election fraud, this would be it,” said Atlanta attorney David Walbert, who has represented Fulton County and the state of Georgia in several elections and redistricting cases.
Longtime criminal defense attorney Don Samuel believes the matter isn’t cut-and-dried.
Pfft! Defense attorneys will excuse any behavior.
“You’ve got to prove not only that he encouraged the secretary of state to commit a crime, but that he did so willfully and aware that what he was doing was illegal,” said Samuel, whose high-profile clients have included football stars Ray Lewis and Ben Roethlisberger and attorney Claud “Tex” McIver. That “is kind of an uphill battle, it seems to me, when you’re surrounded by lawyers when you’re making the call.”
The Georgia statute at issue, § 21-2-604. Criminal solicitation to commit election fraud; penalties provides:
(a) (1) A person commits the offense of criminal solicitation to commit election fraud in the first degree when, with intent that another person engage in conduct constituting a felony under this article, he or she solicits, requests, commands, importunes, or otherwise attempts to cause the other person to engage in such conduct.
(2) A person commits the offense of criminal solicitation to commit election fraud in the second degree when, with intent that another person engage in conduct constituting a misdemeanor under this article, he or she solicits, requests, commands, importunes, or otherwise attempts to cause the other person to engage in such conduct.
(b) (1) A person convicted of the offense of criminal solicitation to commit election fraud in the first degree shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than three years.
(2) A person convicted of the offense of criminal solicitation to commit election fraud in the second degree shall be punished as for a misdemeanor.
(c) It is no defense to a prosecution for criminal solicitation to commit election fraud that the person solicited could not be guilty of the crime solicited.
(d) The provisions of subsections (a) through (c) of this Code section are cumulative and shall not supersede any other penal law of this state.
Below is Trump’s phone call to Secretary of State of State Brad Raffensperger to overturn the 2020 election results. There were other phone calls to state election officials and to other elected officials which were not recorded, but that will be investigated by prosecutors.
Fani Willis, an experienced prosecutor admired even by courtroom adversaries, said during a recent interview that she has no choice but to investigate.
“Nobody is above the law,” she said.
The investigation begins
Willis hasn’t said exactly what her prosecutors seek, but she sent recent letters to Gov. Brian Kemp, Raffensperger and other state officials last month directing them to preserve documents.
She indicated she’s investigating several state crimes, including solicitation of election fraud, making false statements to state and local governmental bodies, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of oath of office and involvement in violence or threats related to the election’s administration.
Racketeering laws are a preferred legal avenue for prosecutors going after the Mafia and other forms of organized crime. Willis used state RICO statutes in 2014 to secure guilty pleas from teachers and administrators involved in the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal.
A RICO case requires prosecutors show numerous criminal acts took place to achieve the same goal. Courtroom veterans were divided on whether the law applies here — and whether using RICO could aid or harm Willis’ efforts.
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Georgia State University law professor Clark Cunningham believes Willis has the makings of a “pretty compelling narrative of a conspiracy” that sought to prevent state electors from casting their votes for Biden.
Cunningham said the greatest risk may belong to Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, whose testimony before the Georgia Senate Judiciary Committee included debunked claims of machines flipping votes and mail-in ballot fraud. One of Willis’ letters announcing her investigation was sent to Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who presides over the Senate. Cunningham said that’s a clear indication Giuliani’s testimony is under scrutiny.
“There is a plausible narrative that Giuliani is the mastermind and Trump just followed his lead,” he said.
Please, “Rudy Giuliani” and “mastermind” should never appear in the same thought or sentence. Don’t make me laugh.
A RICO conviction in Georgia carries a five- to 20-year jail sentence. A first-degree conviction of criminal solicitation to commit election fraud carries one to three years’ imprisonment.
The process
Typically a grand jury meets, listens to a 20-minute or so overview from a prosecutor on the merits of their case and, almost always, issues an indictment. Samuel said Willis is likely to follow a federal model, where a grand jury will be impaneled for several months, meeting weekly to hear subpoenas for evidence.
John Banzhaf III, a professor at George Washington University’s law school, said contemporaneous notes taken from any of the people on the Trump-Raffensperger call and a separate conversation between the secretary of state and Trump ally U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), could emerge as crucial evidence.
“We consider something that somebody said at the time that something happened much more important than what they might say a week, a month or longer after they’ve had time to think it over,” said Banzhaf, who filed complaints asking Willis, the secretary of state’s office and two other state entities to investigate the Trump-Raffensperger call last month.
Willis will also likely seek evidence that can further flesh out the context surrounding Trump’s call to Raffensperger, said Noah Bookbinder, a former federal corruption prosecutor and president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, a Washington-based ethics watchdog group.
“What else was being written and said that would have affected the way those words came across to Secretary Raffensperger and his counsel and would help a judge and a jury understand what President Trump meant when he said those things?” said Bookbinder, whose organization sent a criminal complaint to Willis and the acting U.S. attorney general last month after the Trump-Raffensperger call.
Trump’s lawyers are expected to cite executive and attorney-client privilege, which could restrict the kinds of evidence that can be gathered and used. Many legal experts believe that executive privilege has expired now that Trump is no longer in the White House.
There is also the Crime Fraud Exception to attorney-client privilege.
“If anything, his duties as president would have been to properly protect and administer the election law of the United States,” Bookbinder said. “What he’s doing here is the opposite. He’s trying to overturn an election.”
Former DeKalb County District Attorney Robert James said Willis will be under immense pressure to “get this right.”
Even if Willis makes a compelling case, James said, “there will be a lot of people who won’t believe the president did anything wrong.”
Willis’ investigation runs parallel to state and local probes in New York focusing on Trump’s business dealings.
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THE STORY SO FAR
Fulton County DA Fani Willis announced on Feb. 10 that her office was launching a wide-ranging criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump.
The probe is centered on Trump’s Jan. 2 phone call to Brad Raffensperger in which he pleaded with Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s narrow victory in November.
Since then, Willis has indicated she’ll also examine a call between Raffensperger and Trump ally U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; the unusual removal of BJ Pak as U.S. attorney; and false claims made by Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani during a hearing before the Georgia Senate Judiciary Committee.
This investigation is just getting started. It’s going to take awhile.
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Reuters reports, “Georgia Prosecutor Probing Trump Taps Leading Racketeering Attorney”, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/georgia-prosecutor-probing-trump-taps-leading-racketeering-attorney_n_6043d4c0c5b660a0f388d591
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has enlisted the help of Atlanta lawyer John Floyd, who wrote a national guide on prosecuting state racketeering cases. Floyd was hired recently to “provide help as needed” on matters involving racketeering, including the Trump investigation and other cases, said the source, who has direct knowledge of the situation.
The move bolsters the team investigating Trump as Willis prepares to issue subpoenas for evidence on whether the former president and his allies broke the law in their campaign to pressure state officials to reverse his Georgia election loss. Willis has said that her office would examine potential charges including “solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies, conspiracy, racketeering” among other possible violations.
Floyd’s appointment signals that racketeering could feature prominently in the investigation. It’s an area of law where Willis has extensive experience – including a high-profile Atlanta case where she won racketeering convictions of 11 public educators for a scheme to cheat on standardized tests.
If she pursues racketeering charges, Willis will need to prove a pattern of corruption by Trump, alone or with his allies, aimed at overturning the election results to stay in power. While racketeering is typically pursued by prosecutors in cases involving such crimes as murder, kidnapping, and bribery, the Georgia statute defines racketeering more broadly to include false statements made to state officials.
“It’s not a stretch to see where she’s taking this,” said Cathy Cox, the dean of Mercer University’s law school in Macon, Georgia and a former Georgia secretary of state. “If Donald Trump engaged in two or more acts that involve false statements – that were made knowingly and willfully in an attempt to falsify material fact, like the election results – then you can piece together a violation of the racketeering act.”
Racketeering, a felony in Georgia, can carry stiff penalties including up to 20 years in prison and a hefty fine. “There are not a lot of people who avoid serving prison time on a racketeering offense,” said Cox.
Willis’ office has indicated it is also examining efforts to influence the election by Trump’s allies, including a November phone call made by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham to Raffensperger to discuss mail-in ballots; false election fraud claims made by Trump’s then personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, in testimony at state legislative hearings; and the abrupt removal of Byung J. “BJay” Pak, a U.S. attorney in Georgia who angered Trump by not doing enough to investigate his unfounded fraud claims.
UPDATE 3/9/21: CNN reports “NYC prosecutors’ probe into Trump finances expands to include millions loaned for Chicago skyscraper”, https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/08/politics/trump-chicago-subpoena/index.html
The Manhattan district attorney’s office subpoenaed documents from an investment company that loaned the Trump Organization millions of dollars for its Chicago skyscraper in a sign that the investigation into the former president’s finances continues to expand, according to people familiar with the investigation.
Prosecutors issued the grand jury subpoena to Fortress Investment Management late last year, the people said, as part of their wide-ranging investigation into former President Donald Trump and his company.
Investigators’ interest in how Trump and his company treated the Chicago loan is an expansion of an inquiry that encompasses multiple aspects of the Trump business.
Prosecutors are examining whether the company misled lenders or insurance brokers about valuations for certain properties. They are also investigating fees paid to consultants and a conservation easement taken on a New York family estate called Seven Springs.
By 2012, Fortress subsequently forgave more $100 million of the loan, which, including interest and fees, was worth about $150 million, according to court filings. The forgiveness was done to secure a partial re-payment of about $45 million at a time when the real estate market was suffering from the financial crisis.
Prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance’s office are looking into whether Trump and the Trump Organization recorded the loan forgiveness as income, as required by the Internal Revenue Service, and paid the appropriate taxes, the people say.
New York Attorney General Letitia James first raised questions about Trump’s handling of the Fortress loan last fall when her office disclosed in a court filing that it was investigating whether Trump and the Trump Organization recorded the forgiven amount as income and paid taxes or whether there was some explanation as to why that wouldn’t be required.
The attorney general’s office said at the time that information about the transactions was “significant” to its civil investigation.
The Washington Post adds, “In Trump probe, Manhattan district attorney puts pressure on his longtime chief financial officer”, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/weisselberg-investigation-vance/2021/03/03/84a9f3d6-7c25-11eb-a976-c028a4215c78_story.html
The Manhattan district attorney is delving deeply into the personal and financial affairs of the chief financial officer for former president Donald Trump’s company, probing the extent of Allen Weisselberg’s loyalty to Trump and scrutinizing a Trump-owned apartment once occupied by Weisselberg’s son, according to people familiar with the investigation.
This questioning is now led by a former mob prosecutor, Mark F. Pomerantz — an attorney who prosecuted Gambino crime family boss John Gotti’s son in the 1990s, and one person familiar with the investigation said it is aimed at “flipping” Weisselberg — attempting to turn one of Trump’s longest-serving and most important aides into a witness against him.
Vance’s focus on Weisselberg has included questions related to two of his adult children, a tactic that could be an effort to increase pressure on the elder Weisselberg. One of Weisselberg’s sons also works for the Trump Organization, where he manages the company’s Central Park ice rinks. Another Weisselberg son works for a company that has extended loans to the Trump Organization.
“Allen is in charge of everything,” said one former Trump employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, as did several people familiar with the investigation.
Typically, efforts to flip witnesses have two parts: First, prosecutors work to build evidence that a witness may have their own legal liabilities. They then try to convince the witness to save themselves by turning on a higher-up.
In this case, prosecutors have scrutinized Weisselberg’s work in helping to assess the value of Trump buildings as the company sought to obtain loans or property-tax reductions, people familiar with the investigation said. They have also asked about a Trump-owned luxury apartment where Weisselberg’s son Barry lived for several years. The exact nature of Vance’s interest in the apartment is not known, but if Barry Weisselberg, who manages Trump’s ice skating rinks, got the apartment rent-free, that might be considered a fringe benefit of his job and subject to income tax.
Two people with knowledge of the district attorney’s probe said the team has also been analyzing the finances of the cash-only skating rink where Barry Weisselberg works.
At the same time, investigators have asked detailed questions about Allen Weisselberg’s financial history and his feelings about Trump, according to people familiar with the investigation.
It is unclear what testimony, if any, Allen Weisselberg has provided to Vance’s office.
In the past, however, Weisselberg has provided testimony to government investigations into Trump’s financial dealings.
In 2017, Weisselberg spoke to investigators for a New York attorney general investigation of Trump’s charity, the Donald J. Trump Foundation. He told them that the charity’s board never met, that the charity had “no policy” for determining whether its spending followed nonprofit laws, and that the charity had been co-opted by Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, in violation of a ban on mixing charities and politics.
The attorney general later used Weisselberg’s testimony against Trump, in a lawsuit that ended with a New York judge ordering Trump to pay a $2 million penalty.
And Weisselberg also accepted a deal from federal prosecutors focused on Cohen’s hush-money payments, in which Weisselberg testified about others in exchange for immunity for himself. Prosecutors were interested in the Trump Organization’s reimbursement of Cohen for the hush-money payments.