Prosecutors Carey Dunne and Mark Pomerantz had been investigating whether Trump’s real estate valuation practices were fraudulent. Now they’re out.
Donald Trump may be about to escape legal peril yet again.
A long-running investigation into Trump’s business practices from the Manhattan district attorney’s office appears to have been derailed, as the two lead prosecutors, Carey Dunne and Mark Pomerantz, resigned Wednesday. A New York Times report suggests they did so because the new district attorney, Alvin Bragg, told them “he had doubts about moving forward with a case” against Trump.
The big question is why. Did Bragg legitimately conclude that the case against Trump, which he inherited from former district attorney Cyrus Vance, was weak?
Or did he get cold feet about taking on the powerful former president?
The Manhattan district attorney office’s investigation into Trump, briefly explained
This investigation dates back to 2019, and it has already resulted in some charges. Last July, prosecutors indicted the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, for tax fraud, alleging they hadn’t properly paid taxes on “fringe benefits” Weisselberg received as part of his salary. A trial on these charges is expected to begin later this summer.
But prosecutors were trying to make a broader case against Trump himself, on a different matter: his company’s real estate valuation practices. They had a theory, backed by copious public evidence and the testimony of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, that Trump overvalued certain properties when he sought loans and insurance policies, but undervalued those assets for tax purposes, so he’d owe less in property taxes. Prosecutors could have potentially charged him with tax fraud, bank fraud, or insurance fraud.
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