Newsman: The Manhattan district attorney has been examining the far-flung Trump Organization’s banking, tax and insurance transactions with a focus on whether the company manipulated property values to obtain favorable loans and reduced tax rates. Prosecutors also have been weighing hush-money payments made to women on Trump’s behalf and how that money was documented.
The development suggests that the Manhattan district attorney’s office is poised to transition from collecting evidence to presenting what is likely a complex case to a grand jury, one that could result in the jury considering criminal charges.
There are currently five grand juries seated in Manhattan. It’s not clear how many special grand juries have been seated, but it is common that more than one can be seated at a time.
The use of a special grand jury suggests that Vance could be seeking to charge Trump, company executives or the company itself, according to former prosecutors in the office.
Former President Donal Trump said late Tuesday, “This is a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in American history,”
“This is purely political, and an affront to the almost 75 million voters who supported me in the Presidential Election and it’s being driven by highly partisan Democrat prosecutors. New York City and State are suffering the highest crime rates in their history, and instead of going after murderers, drug dealers, human traffickers, and others, they come after Donald Trump” he responded.
The district attorney’s office, led by Cyrus Vance Jr., has been investigating Trump, his real estate company and the company’s executives on multiple fronts, including by examining the former President’s tax returns, questioning perks the company gave employees and probing the manner in which the company accounted for reimbursements it made to Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen.
Prosecutors have also been closely examining the finances of Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, as well as benefits received from the company by him and his son Barry, a longtime employee of the Trump Organization, CNN has reported.
ABC was first to report on a witness being contacted. The Washington Post reported Tuesday that the grand jury Vance’s office has convened is a special grand jury. This type of grand jury is typically used to hear complex, long-term fraud and corruption cases. A special grand jury sits longer than a standard grand jury — usually three to six months, versus just one — and, if needed, the jurors can vote to extend its term even further.
Manhattan prosecutors pursuing a criminal case against former President Donald Trump, his company and its executives have told at least one witness to prepare for grand jury testimony, according to a source familiar with the matter — a signal that the lengthy investigation is moving into an advanced stage.
This week, Vance’s investigation appears to have entered a new and potentially ominous phase for the former president with the disclosure that a special grand jury has been convened to consider possible evidence of criminality by the president, his business associates or the company itself.
The move, first reported by The Washington Post, does not mean that criminal charges are assured or even imminent, but it marks a shift in the inquiry from a largely information-gathering stage to the presentment of possible evidence of criminal conduct. USA TODAY has not independently confirmed the The Post report.
The New York prosecutor won a major, public victory in February when Trump’s accounting firm was forced to turn over eight years of tax records as part of a protracted legal battle that ended at the Supreme Court.
The original investigation began after Trump’s former personal fixer Michael Cohen, who arranged the hush money payments, alleged in 2019 testimony to Congress that he and Trump repeatedly misled potential lenders and clients about the value of their properties and businesses in official documents.
Last week, New York Attorney General Letitia James, who had been conducting a civil investigation, announced that her office was joining forces with Vance, a move that not only will provide additional firepower, but also could broaden the existing investigation.
“We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigation into the organization is no longer purely civil in nature,” a spokesman for James said last week. “We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan (district attorney).”
“These are all signs of an active criminal investigation where prosecutors believe they definitely got a basis to move forward. They’re taking the kind of steps to move forward to finish that investigation, finish gathering evidence, bring people in, put them under oath,” said Randall Eliason, a George Washington University professor and former federal prosecutor in Washington.
“He’s got (Trump’s) tax returns,” he said of Vance. “Trump’s not president anymore, and things are moving forward.”
