DA ‘eyed’ Trump and kids in condo probe
Manhattan prosecutors tried to build a criminal case against President Trump before weighing charges against his eldest son and daughter over the Trump SoHo condo project, sources said Wednesday.
Assistant district attorneys in the Major Economic Crimes Bureau pressed for evidence against Trump during a series of meet- ings in late 2010 and early 2011, according to sources close to several disgruntled apartment buyers.
Every discussion “was Donald Sr., Donald Sr., Donald Sr.,” one source said.
But prosecutors never got any evidence, and a Wednesday report said they also dropped a related August 2012 investigation into whether Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump misled potential buyers.
That move followed the settlement of a civil fraud suit over Trump SoHo sales, and a meeting between Manhattan DA Cy Vance and Marc Kasowitz, the elder Trump’s longtime lawyer, according to the report by ProPublica, WNYC and the New Yorker.
Kasowitz later gave Vance a $31,993 political donation, the report noted. Vance returned the money last week, his campaign spokesman said.
A spokeswoman for the DA’s Office declined to comment. Trump Organization exec Alan Garten said any suggestion that President Trump “was at any point a focus or subject of any investigation is categorically untrue.”