New York City prosecutors gave Trump Organization attorneys until Monday afternoon to show why it shouldn’t face criminal charges for certain financial dealings, two sources told The Washington Post.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and New York Attorney General Letitia James have been working in tandem to investigate former President Donald Trump and his company for two years, and are now seriously considering charges against the organization.
Vance convened a jury earlier this year to consider charges, but no charges have yet been filed against Trump, the organization, or anyone else involved in the company. It is still possible that no charges will be filed.
The strongest scrutiny has been the focus on whether properties owned by the business were valued higher than they should have been, which provided tax advantages that could be considered fraudulent. There are also questions about whether taxes were properly paid on fringe benefits to Trump Organization employees, including CFO Allen Weisselberg.
Not convinced
Trump’s personal lawyers and lawyers for the Trump Organization met with prosecutors, including Vance, on Thursday afternoon to try to convince them not to file charges, but the meeting was apparently not enough to sway prosecutors from moving forward.
Trump lawyer Ronald Fischetti said after the meeting that the prosecutors may go forward with charges against the organization and Weisselberg because the CFO was not “cooperating and saying what they want him to say,” regarding whether Trump knew about Weisselberg’s alleged use of cars, apartments, and other forms of compensation that prosecutors do not believe were reported properly for tax purposes.
Trump has not had direct management of his company since he first ran for office in 2015, as it is held through a trust managed by his adult sons.
He called the investigation by prosecutors a “witch hunt” initiated by Democrats to keep him from seeking office in the future, Business Insider reported.
Trump defends company
“After hundreds of subpoenas, over 3 million pages of documents, 4 years of searching, dozens and dozens of interviews, and millions of dollars of taxpayer funds wasted, they continue to be ‘in search of a crime’ and will do anything to frighten people into making up the stories or lies that they want, but have been totally unable to get,” Trump said in a statement posted by his spokesperson on Twitter.
NEW! The New York HOAX is a continuation of the Greatest Witch Hunt in History! pic.twitter.com/fWe2XsZbpb
— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) June 28, 2021
“These Witch Hunters are relentlessly seeking to destroy a reputation of a President who has done a great job for this Country, including tax and regulation cuts, Border control, rebuilding the Military, and developing the vaccine in record time – thereby saving our Country, and far beyond,” he continued. “Washington, D.C. and ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court, should finally stop these vicious, angry, and highly partisan prosecutors. They are a disgrace to our Nation!
Only time will tell what happens, but many are of the opinion that prosecutors should have been able to make a case against Trump and his company by now if there existed a legitimate case to be made.
The post Trump Organization given deadline for final arguments against criminal charges first appeared on Conservative Institute.
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