All the president’s business dealings

Federal prosecutors have begun peeling back the layers of the Trump Organization

WASHINGTON — Even as Donald Trump rose from New York real estate mogul to U.S. president, the innermost workings of his namesake real estate and branding company stayed shielded behind the blacktinted windows of his eponymous Fifth Avenue skyscraper. Always run more like a family business than a blue-chip corporate empire, the private Trump Organization has operated free from the oversight of independent board members or pesky shareholders. But now that secrecy has cracked.

The plea agreement in federal court this week by Michael Cohen, who spent 10 years as executive vice president and special counsel at the Trump Organization, and later claimed to be Trump’s personal attorney, showed that federal prosecutors have excavated invoices, receipts, tax records, emails and other internal documents from Trump’s business. Federal prosecutors also made clear their willingness to squeeze friends of the president. They reportedly got David Pecker, a longtime Trump ally who heads the company that publishes the National Enquirer tabloid, to provide evidence in the Cohen case in exchange for immunity from criminal charges.

Now the question is how much further they will dig into the business dealings and personal scandals at a carefully guarded company that remains key to Trump’s narrative of personal success despite years of bankruptcies, lawsuits and other controversies. “The more you peel back, the more you’re likely to see irregularities that are worthy of investigation,” said Juan C. Zarate, a former Justice Department prosecutor who also helped pioneer tactics for tracking illicit, cross-border financial transactions during the George W. Bush administration.

Two federal investigations pose the greatest threat so far. The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan is prosecuting the case against Cohen. Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating whether anyone from Trump’s campaign — which was based at Trump Tower — conspired with Russians to interfere with the 2016 election.

Trump suggested last year he wouldn’t tolerate Mueller poking around in his business. “I think that’s a violation,” Trump told the New York Times. “My finances are extremely good, my company is an unbelievably successful company.” Trump has repeatedly raised the idea of trying to shut down the Russia investigation by removing Mueller. Following through might be feasible if Trump were willing to pay the political cost. He would have less ability, however, to shut down the Cohen investigation since it would require moving against the large and well established U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan.

Alan Garten, the Trump Organization’s top lawyer, said Thursday that “the company has been fully cooperative in the investigations.”

Trump has refused to release his tax returns to the public, and the company doesn’t disclose its annual revenue. But the perception of Trump as a titan of industry helped propel him to the White House, starting with his original announcement in the gilded lobby of Trump Tower. “I’m really rich,” he said. The Trump Organization has developed and run hotels, condominiums and golf courses around the country and overseas. Under lucrative licensing deals, Trump has also attached his name — a name that’s “as hot as a pistol,” he’s said — to real estate developments, bottled water, steaks and vodka.

Some of those ventures failed or faded, and Trump endured a string of bankruptcies when he ran aground in the casino business in Atlantic City in the early 1990s.

His struggles to resuscitate his company after that could provide ample avenues for investigators if they choose to pursue them. Trump found conventional sources of investment capital harder to tap, leading to perennial suspicions that he turned to money laundering or other improper sources of funds. He and his company have never been charged with a financial crime.

Trump was also willing to cut deals and do business with shady characters. One example is Felix Sater, who was a senior adviser to the future president and who pleaded guilty to stock fraud in 1998. Sater maintained an office in Trump Tower, brought prospective deals to Trump’s attention and accompanied two of Trump’s adult children to Moscow to look for business opportunities in 2006. Prosecutors who want to unravel Trump’s array of businesses may find a willing partner in Cohen. His lawyer, Lanny Davis, said Cohen would cooperate with ongoing investigations, including Mueller’s.

“If they find evidence of criminality, based on Cohen’s information, that predates Trump’s presidency and has to do with his business and his business dealings, they’re going to go where the evidence takes them,’’ said Bradley Simon, a former federal prosecutor in New York.

Cohen pleaded guilty to eight counts of tax evasion, bank fraud and campaign finance violations in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday. He specifically implicated Trump in his campaign finance violations, saying he had acted at the candidate’s direction in 2016 to pay $280,000 to Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, and Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress. Both claimed to have had extramarital affairs with Trump.During the court hearing Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Griswold said more documents — text messages, phone records and emails — would prove the campaign violations were undertaken “in coordination with the campaign or candidate for purposes of influencing the election.”

Trump’s children have held senior positions throughout the company, just as his daughter, Ivanka, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, do at the White House.

During a 2011 deposition in a lawsuit involving a Florida project, Donald Trump. Jr. said he wasn’t sure if there was an organization chart for the Trump Organization.

“Could I make one? Yes,” he said. “Is there one officially? Not that I am aware of. We kind of run a little bit like a mom-and-pop in that sense.”

DREW ANGERER/GETTY