Trump faces criminal civil investigation after the White House

Former President Donald Trump might have easily avoided his conviction during his second impeachment trial, but he could find it a lot more difficult to cover the various serious criminal and civil investigations he is now facing.

And at least one of those investigations has the potential for Trump to be sent to prison if convicted.

That would be an unprecedented event in American history, given that no ex-president has ever been charged with a crime, let alone imprisoned.

Trump, a Republican whose spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment, claims the investigations are politically motivated witch hunts by Democratic prosecutors.

But judges in two of those investigations have repeatedly ruled against Trump’s lawyers in disputes related to evidence.

Those statements underscore the criminal and civilian risk Trump faces, as well as the fact that on Jan. 20 he lost the protection from prosecution effectively conferred by holding the office of president.

“There are a lot of balls in the air in the potential criminal arena, and if I were Donald Trump I wouldn’t rest easily,” said Joseph Tacopina, a leading criminal defense attorney in New York City.

The most recent of the criminal investigations was launched in Georgia last week by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

Willis’s investigation centers on a phone call from Trump early January 2 to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

During that call, which was taped, Trump pressured Raffensperger, who is the highest-ranking election official in the state, to “find” enough votes for him to wipe out his election loss to Joe Biden in Georgia.

Willis plans to ask a grand jury next month to issue subpoenas in the investigation, which her office has said is monitoring possible violations of election fraud laws, as well as “ making false statements to state and local government agencies. , conspiracy, extortion “and other charges.

Trump had claimed without evidence for months that he had been defrauded from a second term by widespread voting fraud in favor of Biden.

Thousands of Trump supporters who believed that these lies revolted in the Capitol on January 6 rebelled on January 6 in a violent but failed attempt to get Congress to reject Biden’s victory. Trump was charged by the House of Representatives for instigating that riot with his allegations.

A Justice Department official said last month that while prosecutors are currently indicting people who have rebelled in the Capitol itself, “ we will continue to follow the facts and the law ” when looking at whether we Trump or whoever. of his allies with incitement.

Kentucky Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, who was one of 43 Republicans who voted in favor of Trump’s acquittal during his impeachment trial on Saturday, explicitly suggested in a post-verdict speech that Trump could be prosecuted for the riot.

McConnell voted for acquittal because, he argued, a former president cannot be tried for impeachment. But McConnell also said there is “no doubt” that Trump was “practically and morally responsible for provoking the” riot.

“He hasn’t gotten away with anything yet,” McConnell said. “We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil lawsuits. And former presidents are not immune to that existence [held] responsible by either. “

McConnell’s point was underscored by a civil suit filed in federal court in Washington on Tuesday by the NAACP and Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., Alleging that Trump, his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, and two far-right groups, the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, conspired to cause uproar in the Capitol.

“The uprising was the result of a carefully orchestrated plan by Trump, Giuliani and extremist groups such as the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, who all shared a common goal: intimidation, harassment and threats to stop Electoral College certification.” Biden wins the NAACP in a statement.

Trump spokesman Jason Miller said Trump “did not instigate or conspire on January 6 to instigate any violence in the Capitol.”

While the Capitol riot investigation and the Georgia probe are the most recent investigations, the most serious criminal case Trump is dealing with is likely the case that has been conducted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for several years.

DA Cyrus Vance Jr.’s probe originally seemed to focus on what appeared to be a relatively minor issue: whether Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, is properly listed in its financial books, money is silent on payments to two women who said they had sex with him.

Had the company not properly documented those payments in its records, it was possible that the Trump Organization could have escaped with a small civil fine, if at all.

One of those payments was made by then-Trump attorney Michael Cohen to porn star Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 presidential election.

The other payment was made by Trump-affiliated publisher of The National Enquirer to Playboy model Karen McDougal in the months leading up to that same election.

Trump, who has denied having sex with either woman, nevertheless refunded Cohen the payment. Cohen later pleaded guilty to federal crimes, including campaign finance violations related to disbursements to both women.

Cohen, who was in prison, has been working with Vance’s investigation since 2018.

And the investigation, court records and news reports suggest, has only gotten bigger since then.

Last August, a lawsuit by Vance indicated the investigation could be about “insurance and banking fraud committed by the Trump Organization and its officials.”

A month later, another filing from Vance suggested the investigation could also face Trump for tax crimes.

Cohen had testified before Congress in early 2019 that Trump had improperly inflated and deflated the value of his real estate assets for tax and insurance purposes.

Vance’s filings appeared to refer to that testimony, and one filing explicitly noted that The New York Times reported that Trump was guilty of “dubious tax schemes, including cases of outright fraud,” in the 1990s.

Shortly before Christmas, the Vance researchers asked for data from three towns in Westchester County, New York, as part of the probe. The data pertains to Trump’s 213-acre Seven Springs Estate site, which spans those cities.

And the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that Vance’s office is also looking forward to loans Trump has taken out on Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue and three other properties in Manhattan: 40 Wall Street, the Trump Plaza apartment building and the Trump International Hotel and Tower. .

At the same time, Vance is waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether to hear an appeal from Trump on a grand jury subpoena for years of his income tax returns and other financial records, which the prosecutor is looking for as part of his investigation.

The Supreme Court last summer rejected Trump’s argument that the subpoena, which had been issued to his accountants, Mazars USA, was barred because of his status as president at the time. But the Supreme Court said Trump could bring new arguments against the subpoena to a U.S. district court in Manhattan.

However, those arguments were quickly dismissed by that judge and then by a panel of judges from the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.

Trump then asked the Supreme Court in October to hear his appeal against those dismissals. But the court has yet to say whether it will.

Gerald Lefcourt, a Manhattan criminal defense attorney, said, “It is very strange that the Supreme Court has taken so long” to decide whether to take the case, especially given that it has previously ruled on other arguments related to the summons.

“When are they going to rule?” Lefcourt asked rhetorically.

If the Supreme Court rejects Trump’s request, Vance, whose office has declined to comment on the nature of his investigation, would quickly get the tax returns and other data.

But because this data is expected to be voluminous, it may take several months to sift through it and determine whether it would provide evidence of criminal charges.

Tacopina, the other criminal defense attorney, said Vance’s persistence in seeking out Trump’s tax returns – which the former president has voluntarily refused for years – may be a sign of how strong the prosecutor thinks his case is.

“Cy Vance is fighting way too hard to drop this case,” said Tacopina. “He seems to be up to something.”

While Vance awaits the Supreme Court’s decision, New York Attorney General Letitia James is conducting a civil investigation into Trump and his company, the focus of which partially overlaps with the criminal investigation.

James’s investigation has been ongoing since 2019, but only came to light in August with a lawsuit over the answers her investigators sought from Eric Trump, Donald Trump’s second-eldest son, who along with his brother Donald Trump Jr. runs the Trump organization. .

James’s office has said it is investigating how Trump valued certain real estate assets, including the Seven Springs Estate, as well as properties in Manhattan, Chicago and Los Angeles.

A big question regarding the Seven Springs real estate is whether the site’s valuation was grossly high to claim a $ 2.1 million tax deduction for donating an easement in 2015.

Eric Trump, after initially agreeing to an interview by James’ investigators, later got back from that deal, the AG said. Eric Trump then tried to postpone the interview until after the presidential election.

James then asked a judge to force Eric to adhere to the interview, which the judge did in September.

James went on to call the statement a “big win,” which “makes it clear that no one is above the law, not even an organization or person named Trump.”

Eric Trump, for his part, said at the time, “The New York Attorney General has called my father an ‘illegitimate’ president and has promised to take him down while she is running for office. Her actions since then show a continuing political vendetta and attempt. to interfere in the upcoming elections. “

Eric was interrogated under oath by James’ investigators in early October.