NY prosecutors again weigh criminal case against Trump
NEW YORK — The Manhattan district attorney’s office has moved to jump-start its criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump, according to people with knowledge of the matter, seeking to breathe new life into an inquiry that once seemed to have reached a dead end.
Under the new district attorney, Alvin Bragg, the prosecutors have returned to the long-running investigation’s original focus: a hush-money payment to a porn performer who said she had an affair with Trump.
The district attorney’s office first examined the payment to Stormy Daniels years ago before changing direction to scrutinize Trump’s broader business practices. But Bragg and some of his deputies have recently indicated to associates, supporters and at least one lawyer involved in the matter that they are optimistic about building a case against Trump, the people said.
The renewed scrutiny of the hush money comes amid an intensifying swirl of legal and political drama around Trump.
On Friday, Merrick Garland, the U.S. attorney general, appointed a special prosecutor who vowed to proceed quickly with two federal investigations into the former president. It is unclear whether Bragg or the special counsel will ultimately seek charges against Trump, who just announced a third presidential run.
Also Monday, prosecutors in the Trump Organization’s criminal tax fraud trial rested their case earlier than expected, pinning hopes for convicting Trump’s company largely
on the word of two top executives who cut deals before testifying they schemed to avoid taxes on company-paid perks.
Allen Weisselberg, the company’s longtime finance chief, and Jeffrey McConney, a senior vice president and controller, testified for the bulk of the prosecution’s eight-day case, bringing the drama of their own admitted wrongdoing to a trial heavy on numbers, spreadsheets, tax returns and payroll records.
The Trump Organization’s lawyers opened their defense Monday by calling to the witness stand Donald Bender, a partner at Mazars USA LLP, who handled tax returns and other financial matters for Trump, the Trump Organization and hundreds of Trump entities since the 1980s.
Trump blamed Bender and Mazars for the company’s troubles, writing on his Truth Social platform last week: “The highly paid accounting firm should have routinely picked these things up — we relied on them. VERY UNFAIR!”
Bender’s firm cut ties with Trump in February.
As for the case in the Manhattan district attorney’s office, the hushmoney developments suggest the first signs of progress since Bragg took office at the beginning of
the year, when he balked at indicting Trump in connection with his business practices.
But in bringing the inquiry full circle to the hush-money payment, Bragg is focusing on an aspect of the investigation that previously failed to bear fruit.
Under Bragg’s predecessor, the district attorney’s office rejected the idea of focusing a case solely on the hush money, concluding, with the help of outside legal experts, that it would hinge on a largely untested and therefore risky legal theory.
To help build the hushmoney case, prosecutors are revisiting another strategy that has yet to work: pressuring Weisselberg to cooperate.
While Weisselberg has pleaded guilty to unrelated tax charges and testified against Trump’s company at its trial for the same tax crimes, he has not turned on Trump.
To ramp up the pressure, prosecutors are considering a new round of charges against Weisselberg. Those potential charges concern insurance fraud.
Weisselberg has knowledge of the hush-money
payment.