Trump's Crimes & Investigations

[LFC]

The Manhattan DA's office just got their hands on a whole new pile of records from Weisselberg's ex-DIL.

Investigators from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office obtained financial records on Thursday from Jennifer Weisselberg, the former daughter-in-law of the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer.

The Washington Post reported that three boxes and a laptop computer were wheeled out of Jennifer Weisselberg’s apartment as part of a grand jury subpoena on Thursday morning.

The news comes after Jennifer Weisselberg, who got divorced from the son of the trusted Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg in 2018 after 14 years of marriage, said that she had seven boxes of financial records from both her ex-husband Barry Weisselberg and from his father Allen Weisselberg. Some of the records had been obtained through divorce litigation, the Post said.

Last month, Jennifer Weisselberg told NBC News that she had spoken with investigators from Manhattan district attorney’s office “multiple times.”

“My knowledge of the documents and my voice connect the flow of money from various banks and from personal finances that bleed directly into the Trump Organization,” she told the Post in an interview Thursday.

Weisselberg has held firm so far but they might be able to pressure him to flip if they're going to bury his son.

According to the Post, the subpoena specifically demands records related to the Trump Organization and Wollman Rink, the Central Park ice rink which has been managed for the Trump Organization by her ex-husband, Barry Weisselberg.

The move reinforces earlier indications that Allen Weisselberg, a long-serving top financial executive for former President Donald Trump’s business and the father of Barry Weisselberg, has become a central figure in the Manhattan prosecutors ongoing criminal probe into Trump and his family business.

Allen Weisselberg’s deep knowledge of the Trump Organization’s financial dealings could be particularly valuable to investigators in a far-reaching probe that has explored Trump and his company for possible bank and tax fraud.

The New York Times and the Washington Post reported last month that the Manhattan DA’s effort was likely part of a broader plan to flip Allen Weisselberg as a witness against Trump.

[goldenvalley]

I don't think it will work. My gut says he hates the ex daughter in law and doesn't believe anything in those records is very incriminating to his son.

[LFC]

Apr 9, 2021 15:56:54 GMT goldenvalley said:

I don't think it will work. My gut says he hates the ex daughter in law and doesn't believe anything in those records is very incriminating to his son.

Maybe he's more afraid of Putin than the Manhattan DA. Just sayin'.

[Deleted]

[LFC]

They're still squeezing Trump's CFO.

New York prosecutors may have located a fresh avenue for intensifying pressure on the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer in an effort to secure his cooperation in a probe into former President Donald Trump and his company: his grandchildren’s chic education.

The Wall Street Journal reported that prosecutors have subpoenaed a Manhattan private school for records related to the grandchildren of the Trump Organization’s CFO Allen Weisselberg.

According to WSJ, the subpoena seeks information from Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School — an elite Upper West Side school where his grandchildren are students.

Trump’s son Barron previously attended the school, which boasts annual tuition of more than $50,000 per year. Trump’s former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen also previously sat on its board, WSJ noted.

Jennifer Weisselberg — who is the ex-wife of Allen Weisselberg’s son and mother to the two children in question — told WSJ that she and her ex-husband Barry had never paid their children’s tuition.

More than $500,000 of the students’ tuition was paid for with checks signed by either Weisselberg or Trump. She understood the arrangement to be part of Barry’s compensation package for his work at the Trump Organization, she told the paper.

They had better have filed their federal gift tax forms correctly. The current qualified education gift exclusion is only $20,000 so wouldn't come even close to covering tuition. Over a dozen years of gift tax fraud might be tough to weasel out of.

[goldenvalley]

May 13, 2021 21:09:32 GMT LFC said:

They're still squeezing Trump's CFO.

New York prosecutors may have located a fresh avenue for intensifying pressure on the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer in an effort to secure his cooperation in a probe into former President Donald Trump and his company: his grandchildren’s chic education.

The Wall Street Journal reported that prosecutors have subpoenaed a Manhattan private school for records related to the grandchildren of the Trump Organization’s CFO Allen Weisselberg.

According to WSJ, the subpoena seeks information from Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School — an elite Upper West Side school where his grandchildren are students.

Trump’s son Barron previously attended the school, which boasts annual tuition of more than $50,000 per year. Trump’s former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen also previously sat on its board, WSJ noted.

Jennifer Weisselberg — who is the ex-wife of Allen Weisselberg’s son and mother to the two children in question — told WSJ that she and her ex-husband Barry had never paid their children’s tuition.

More than $500,000 of the students’ tuition was paid for with checks signed by either Weisselberg or Trump. She understood the arrangement to be part of Barry’s compensation package for his work at the Trump Organization, she told the paper.

They had better have filed their federal gift tax forms correctly. The current qualified education gift exclusion is only $20,000 so wouldn't come even close to covering tuition. Over a dozen years of gift tax fraud might be tough to weasel out of.

Day-um Weisselberg's son did some high skill job like run the ice skating rinks in Central Park that Trump had an interest in...nice to have your daddy working for a guy who will spring for a fancy apartment and $50K a year private school for the kids. 

[LFC]

New York AG Joins Criminal Probe Into Trump Organization

Investigators from the New York attorney general’s office are now working alongside the Manhattan district attorney in its ongoing criminal fraud investigation into former President Donald Trump and his company.

The development was disclosed publicly after the attorney general’s office wrote to the Trump Organization telling it that information from its civil inquiry could now be used as part of a criminal investigation. Attorney General Letitia James will continue an ongoing civil probe that could result in a lawsuit or fines but recently informed Trump Organization officials of the criminal component.

“We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigation into the organization is no longer purely civil in nature,” Fabien Levy, a spokesman for James, said in a statement first reported by CNN. “We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan D.A. We have no additional comment at this time.”

The parallel investigations have been underway for more than year and James’s office will not be launching an independent criminal investigation.

[LFC]

They've been digging in to the taxes of the Trump Organization's CFO. There's some serious pressure being exerted and Weisselberg. He either cooperates or he trusts Trump to not throw him under the bus. I know what I'd be looking to do.

The New York attorney general’s office has reportedly been criminally investigating Allen Weisselberg the chief financial officer of the Trump Organization for months over tax issues.

CNN first reported the ongoing investigation. The New York Times confirmed similar reporting, referring to sources who said that the office of New York attorney general Letitia James had sent a letter to the Trump Organization in January notifying it that her office had opened a criminal investigation related to Weisselberg.

The investigation involving Weisselberg by James’s office, mounts additional pressure onto the trusted financial officer, who has worked for former President Donald Trump’s family business for decades.

Prosecutors in Manhattan district attorney Cy Vance’s office have also been digging into Weisselberg’s role at the Trump Organization, in a criminal inquiry into Trump and his company related to potential bank and tax fraud.

Both investigations have touched on benefits Trump’s company provided to some of its executives, including potential tuition payments to a flashy Manhattan private school for Weisselberg’s grandchildren.

[LFC]

Cy Vance has convened a grand jury.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has convened a special grand jury to hear evidence about potential charges in his investigation of the Trump Organization, the Washington Post reported.

Citing two anonymous sources, the newspaper reported that the grand jury has begun to meet recently, but did not specify a start date.

Vance has been investigating Trump for more than two years. A grand jury issued a subpoena for the former president’s tax returns in August 2019, which Trump successfully fought off until after the 2020 election.

During that time, Vance has suggested in public filings that bank, insurance, and tax fraud all may be focuses of the probe.

Trump's reaction is predictable. In terms of politics he's the worst of the worst soccer player who spends half of his time on the field holding his knee and rolling around, especially after he fouls somebody.

Ex-President Donald Trump on Tuesday night ranted about Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance reportedly convening a special grand jury to consider potential criminal charges in his investigation into the Trump Organization.

Trump’s statement, issued through his Save America PAC, on the development (which was reported by the Washington Post) claimed the reported grand jury was “a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in American history” and that “[n]o other president in history has had to put up with what I have had to.”

“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,” he fumed.

The former president suggested that the reported development in Vance’s probe was an attack against a potential Trump 2024 reelection bid, claiming that an unspecified poll had come out on Tuesday “indicating I’m far in the lead for the Republican Presidential Primary and the General Election in 2024.”

[Deleted]

May 26, 2021 13:43:12 GMT LFC said:

Cy Vance has convened a grand jury.

Trump's reaction is predictable. In terms of politics he's the worst of the worst soccer player who spends half of his time on the field holding his knee and rolling around, especially after he fouls somebody.

1. Rein in your anticipation. Don't be led down the garden path, once again.

2. Oh LFC! You're blowing up a 1% issue in football as if it's the entire game. You never have a take on the trapping, the passing, the dribbling, the positional play, the shots etc. It's like watching highlights on ESPN SportCenter and mistaking baseball to be an exciting game, instead of what it really is: 3 hours of steroid-raging men clubbing air standing in front of an imaginary hanging rectangle. 

[LFC]

May 26, 2021 14:39:18 GMT @probabilistic3 said:

2. Oh LFC! You're blowing up a 1% issue in football as if it's the entire game.

Nah, just reporting. I'm not optimistic in any way, shape, or form that Trump will be prosecuted, found guilty, and punished before he has a fatal Big Mac Heart Attack.

[Deleted]

May 26, 2021 14:45:22 GMT LFC said:

May 26, 2021 14:39:18 GMT @probabilistic3 said:

2. Oh LFC! You're blowing up a 1% issue in football as if it's the entire game.

Nah, just reporting. I'm not optimistic in any way, shape, or form that Trump will be prosecuted, found guilty, and punished before he has a fatal Big Mac Heart Attack.

He's going to live to be 200 because he has special genes, if you remember.

[andydp]

May 26, 2021 15:02:39 GMT @probabilistic3 said:

May 26, 2021 14:45:22 GMT LFC said:

Nah, just reporting. I'm not optimistic in any way, shape, or form that Trump will be prosecuted, found guilty, and punished before he has a fatal Big Mac Heart Attack.

He's going to live to be 200 because he has special genes, if you remember.

Just like to point out this is being investigated by New York CITY, and not NY State.  So if he slimes out of one, NY State will take over. There would be city AND state tax issues to be looked at.  

As we have also seen, he will likely throw anyone uder the bus if it will keep him "safe".  Knowing that, anyone under investigation will think twice about their situation.

[goldenvalley]

At least on the civil side of the law Trump has been excellent at denying, delaying, and wearing down his opponents. He'll certainly try that in any criminal setting. My hope is that no competent attorneys will take him as a client, but then he can turn to Sydney Powell's level of competence. But I agree he'll do a Ken Lay and manage to die before he goes to jail.

[pnwguy]

May 26, 2021 15:32:38 GMT goldenvalley said:

But I agree he'll do a Ken Lay and manage to die before he goes to jail.

Then let's hope he is sentenced ASAP! 


Maybe we could go protest outside of his funeral like Westboro Baptists, with "God Hates MAGAts" signs.

[LFC]

Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance isn't running for reelection this year. TPM takes a look at the candidates looking to replace him and how they plan on approaching the Trump prosecution.

[LFC]

The Trump Org CFO has not flipped but the DA's office keeps increasing the heat.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office may be in the final stages of a criminal tax investigation into the Trump Organization’s longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, and there’s a chance he could face charges this summer, according to the New York Times.

People familiar with the matter told the Times that prosecutors have obtained Weisselberg’s personal tax returns amid ongoing efforts from prosecutors to secure the chief financial executive’s cooperation for a broader criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump and his company which has focused on potential financial crimes including bank and tax fraud.

According to the Times, in addition to Weisselberg’s tax returns, prosecutors from Manhattan district attorney Cy Vance’s office earlier this year also obtained his personal bank records.

Prosecutors at the district attorney’s office, according to the Times, have been looking into whether Weisselberg paid taxes on benefits Trump provided, including potential tuition payments for an upscale Manhattan private school for at least one of Weisselberg’s grandchildren.

A person with knowledge of the matter told the Times that prosecutors have also sought records for Mercedes-Benz cars leased for Weisselberg, his wife and other Trump Organization employees over the course of more than a decade. Prosecutors have also examined whether Trump provided Weisselberg with a Manhattan apartment, the Times said.

[LFC]

It looks like Vance is ready to file charges.

Attorneys for the Trump Organization are reportedly set to meet with Manhattan prosecutors on Monday, in what, according to CNN and the Washington Post, could be a final meeting before District Attorney Cyrus Vance files charges against the company.

Former prosecutors with the Manhattan DA’s office described the meeting to TPM as final opportunity to argue for why their client should not be charged.

“It’s a little bit for show,” Bennett Gershman, a professor at Pace Law and a former prosecutor in the office, told TPM. “Will they succeed? It’s almost a certainty that they won’t, in terms of changing the prosecutors’ minds.”

[goldenvalley]

I wonder if this is part of pressuring Weisselberg to cooperate. I remain doubtful that the big guy himself will ever be indicted for anything.

[jackd]

I agree. They may charge the company but not Da Man.

[LFC]

Jun 29, 2021 0:34:21 GMT jackd said:

I agree. They may charge the company but not Da Man.

I'll be satisfied if they maul the organization. That comes right out of his pockets.

[indy]

You know, it's very common for commercial loans to have a stipulation that the loans are due immediately if the company is criminally indicted. Not universal by any means, but fairly common. Wonder if some of the Trump Org loans have it.

[LFC]

Jun 29, 2021 13:55:31 GMT indy said:

You know, it's very common for commercial loans to have a stipulation that the loans are due immediately if the company is criminally indicted. Not universal by any means, but fairly common. Wonder if some of the Trump Org loans have it.

That may be true but then again...

[andydp]

Jun 29, 2021 0:34:21 GMT jackd said:

I agree. They may charge the company but not Da Man.

I also read a criminal charge may cost the Trump organization to lose their liquor licenses

[indy]

Jun 29, 2021 14:39:43 GMT LFC said:

Jun 29, 2021 13:55:31 GMT indy said:

You know, it's very common for commercial loans to have a stipulation that the loans are due immediately if the company is criminally indicted. Not universal by any means, but fairly common. Wonder if some of the Trump Org loans have it.

That may be true but then again...

True, they are not going to call the loan, but it does potentially give them an opening to renegotiate the terms and squeeze a little.