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Levin writes: "When we last checked in with the Trump Organization and the Manhattan District Attorney's criminal case against it, things were looking pretty bleak for the ex-president's company."

Former President Donald Trump. (photo: Getty)
Former President Donald Trump. (photo: Getty)


Report: New York Prosecutors Are Full Steam Ahead Re: Taking Down the Trump Organization

By Bess Levin, Vanity Fair

22 August 21


Meanwhile the company is fighting to keep further evidence out of the Manhattan DA’s hands, presumably because said evidence makes it look really, really bad.

hen we last checked in with the Trump Organization and the Manhattan District Attorney‘s criminal case against it, things were looking pretty bleak for the ex-president’s company. For one thing, in July, the business and its CFO, Allen Weisselberg, were charged with a cornucopia of crimes, which they apparently kept track of with literal spreadsheets. For another, prosecutors reportedly also had evidence that Weisselberg’s son Barry had followed in his father’s footsteps re: dodging taxes with the help of the Trump Organization, raising the prospect that the elder Weisselberg might feel compelled to cooperate against Donald Trump to save his kid. Even without the pressure of his son potentially doing time, legal experts opined that Cyrus Vance Jr.’s office had an open-and-shut case against the longtime CFO. “The jury will hate [Weisselberg],” former federal prosecutor Cynthia Alksne told MSNBC. “He’s not going to have a jury of people who go to MAGA rallies, he’s going to have a cross section of people who live in Manhattan, who do pay Manhattan taxes, who don’t get free Mercedes, who don’t have somebody else paying for their children’s education and not have tax ramifications for that. So I think he will be a very hated defendant, Mr. Weisselberg, and I’m sure his defense attorneys have told him so.” And as former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara put it, “I am optimistic he’ll be convicted. The law is fairly clear on what is income & what is taxable. He’s a sophisticated executive; mistake is implausible. The company booked much of it as income. And juries hate rich tax cheats.” All of which, obviously, would be very bad, not just for Weisselberg himself, but for his employer and the ex-president.

Anyway, there’s been a lull in news re: the case over the last several weeks, though apparently things remain not great for Weisselberg, the company, and Trump! Per The Wall Street Journal:

Manhattan prosecutors are moving to advance their criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump’s business affairs, fighting with his company over evidence and continuing talks with the lawyer of a Trump Organization executive who hasn’t been charged, said people familiar with the matter. Manhattan prosecutors and Trump Organization lawyers appeared at a secret court proceeding with New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan last week to discuss a dispute over documents the Manhattan district attorney’s office has subpoenaed, the people said…The dispute is related to documents prosecutors have sought for their continuing investigation, the people said. While the scope of the evidence in question couldn’t be determined, it includes a broad swath of financial documents, according to the people.

Why would the Trump Organization be so loath to comply with the subpoena? We can’t say for sure, but it’s presumably not because the documents in question clear its good name.

In another sign of movement in the criminal probe, prosecutors have been holding talks with a lawyer for Trump Organization executive Matthew Calamari Sr., partly to determine whether his cooperation would be helpful, according to people familiar with the matter. The next public court appearance for the Trump Organization and Mr. Weisselberg is Sept. 20, court records show.

Earlier this month, lawyers for Mr. Weisselberg asked for additional information from prosecutors, including the names of others involved in the alleged crimes, according to court documents filed in the criminal case. Prosecutors said in a filing this week that the unindicted co-conspirator in the indictment was Jeffrey McConney, a senior finance official at the Trump Organization. They noted that they had provided Mr. Weisselberg with more than three million pages of materials, but said they weren’t required to disclose additional information…Since the indictment, prosecutors have continued to investigate cars and apartments given to other Trump Organization employees, including chief operating officer, Mr. Calamari Sr., and his son, Matthew Calamari Jr., the company’s corporate director of security.

As The Journal notes, the elder Calamari has lived in an apartment at Trump Park Avenue for years, and has driven a Mercedes leased through the company. His son lives in Trump Parc East, across from Central Park. Though the indictment against the company does not mention the Calamaris by name, it references two other employees who “received substantial amounts of compensation in the form of lodging in New York City and the payment of automobile leases.” In the case of Allen Weisselberg, prosecutors have accused him and the Trump Organization of a “15-year-long tax-fraud scheme involving off-the-books payments and perks like cars and apartments to employees at the company.” Weisselberg allegedly dodged taxes on $1.7 million in perks that should have been reported as income. As Carey Dunne, general counsel for the Manhattan district attorney, put it when the indictment was unsealed, “This was a sweeping and audacious illegal payments scheme.”

Weisselberg and the Trump Organization have pleaded not guilty. Alan Futerfas, a lawyer for the company, has insisted that the case is a politically motivated witch hunt against the ex-president. A lawyer for Barry Weisselberg did not immediately respond to the Hive’s request for comment. A lawyer for McConney didn’t respond to The Journal’s request for comment. Nicholas Gravante Jr., the Calamaris’ lawyer, told The Journal that he has had a series of meetings and calls with prosecutors in recent weeks and that “the D.A.’s office has asked reasonable questions and we are providing responsive information relating to my clients’ apartments.”

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