On Monday, the Manhattan district attorney’s office suggested they were investigating President Donald Trump and his company for possible bank and insurance fraud.
What We Know:
- A new federal court filing, from district attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., argues that Trump should have to comply with a grand jury subpoena seeking his personal and corporate tax returns for the past eight years. Vance and Trump have been fighting over the subpoena for his tax records for over a year, with Trump attempting to block the access to his tax records. The case went up to the Supreme Court, which ruled last month in favor of the subpoena.
- Before now, it appeared the DA was mostly focused on the hush-money payments made prior to the 2016 presidential election to two women who claimed to have had an affair with Trump. Trump has asked a judge to declare the new subpoena invalid.
- The original investigation into the hush-money payment now appears to be a part of a smaller investigation regarding the filing of false business records. The newly announced investigation, which appears to have gone on for the past 2 years, could lead to charges of bank or insurance fraud, both felonies.
- While the new filing didn’t explicitly identify what was under the prosecutors’ scrutiny in the grand jury inquiry as by law it’s conducted in secret, it said that there were “undisputed” assertions in earlier court papers and several news reports about Trump’s business practices showed that “the office had a wide legal basis for the subpoena”. The filing read, “in light of these public reports of possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization,” a subpoena is warranted. The new filing works to combat an amended lawsuit that Trump’s lawyers submitted last week saying Vance’s subpoena for tax documents from the president was “overbroad” and brought in bad faith.
- In the filing, prosecutors cited news articles to support their case including one that concluded Trump illegally inflated his net worth to lenders and investors. Another article was the congressional testimony of Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, who said Trump previously committed insurance fraud. Trump, and his team of lawyers, continue to deny any wrong-doing.
- When asked about the investigation at a White House Briefing, Trump said “It’s a terrible thing that they do,” referring to Democrats. “It’s really a terrible thing.” He also referred to the investigation as a “continuation of the worst witch hunt in American history”.
- A lawyer in Vance’s office, Carey R. Dunne, accused Trump and his team of lawyers of intentionally dragging out the investigation and legal fight in order to protect himself from a criminal investigation. “What the president’s lawyers are seeking here is a delay,” Dunne said, that the longer Trump fights the case, the chance the statute of limitations can expire which would effectively grant the president immunity. “Let’s not let delay kill this case,” Dunne argued.
Both a spokesman for Vance’s office and Trump’s lawyers declined to comment on the investigation.
