Trump Organization Could Face Criminal Charges in D.A. Inquiry An indictment of the Trump Organization could mark the first criminal charges to emerge from an investigation by the Manhattan district attorney into Donald J. Trump and his business dealings. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/25/nyregion/trump-organization-criminal-charges.html The Manhattan district attorney’s office has informed Donald J. Trump’s lawyers that it is considering criminal charges against his family business, the Trump Organization, in connection with fringe benefits the company awarded a top executive, according to several people with knowledge of the matter. If the case moves ahead, the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., could announce charges against the Trump Organization and the executive, Allen H. Weisselberg, as soon as next week, the people said. Mr. Vance’s prosecutors have been conducting the investigation along with lawyers from the office of the New York State attorney general, Letitia James. The criminal charges would be the first to emerge from Mr. Vance’s long-running investigation into Mr. Trump and his business dealings, and raise the startling prospect of a former president having to defend the company he founded and has run for decades. While the prosecutors had been building a case for months against Mr. Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, as part of an effort to pressure him to cooperate with the inquiry, it was not previously known that the company also mightface charges. Prosecutors recently have focused much of their investigation into the perks Mr. Trump and the company doled out to Mr. Weisselberg and other executives, including tens of thousands of dollars in private school tuition for one of Mr. Weisselberg’s grandchildren, as well as rents on apartments and car leases. Prosecutors are looking into whether those benefits were properly recorded in the company’s ledgers and whether taxes were paid on them, The New York Times has reported. Mr. Trump’s lawyers met on Thursday with senior prosecutors in the district attorney’s office in hopes of persuading them to abandon any plan to charge the company, according to several people familiar with the meeting. Such meetings are routine in white-collar criminal investigations, and it is unclear whether the prosecutors have made a final decision on whether to charge the Trump Organization, which has long denied wrongdoing. It would be highly unusual to indict a company just for failing to pay taxes on fringe benefits, said several lawyers who specialize in tax rules. None of them could cite any recent example, noting that many companies provide their employees with perks like company cars. Still, an indictment of Mr. Trump’s company could deal a significant blow to the former president just as he has flirted with a return to politics. The Trump Organization is inseparable from Mr. Trump, acting as the corporate umbrella for a portfolio of hotels, golf clubs and other real estate, most of which are branded with his name. It is unclear whether Mr. Trump will ultimately face charges himself. The investigation, which began three years ago, has been wide-ranging, examining whether the Trump Organization manipulated the value of its properties to obtain favorable loans and tax benefits, people with knowledge of the matter have said. The inquiry is also examining the organization’s statements to insurance companies about the value of various assets and any role that its employees — including Mr. Weisselberg — may have played in hush-money payments to two women during the 2016 presidential campaign. Mr. Trump has derided the investigation by Mr. Vance, a Democrat, as a politically motivated “witch hunt.” He unsuccessfully tried to fight a subpoena from Mr. Vance’s office seeking eight years of his personal and corporate tax returns, a fight that twice reached the United States Supreme Court. A spokesman for the district attorney’s office declined to comment on Friday. A lawyer for Mr. Weisselberg, Mary E. Mulligan, also declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the Trump Organization could not immediately be reached for comment. The meeting on Thursday between Mr. Trump’s lawyers and the prosecutors, held on a video call and lasting more than an hour and a half, was arranged by Ronald P. Fischetti, a personal lawyer for Mr. Trump. Mr. Fischetti is a former law partner of Mark F. Pomerantz, a former federal prosecutor and defense lawyer whom the district attorney’s office enlisted to help lead the inquiry into Mr. Trump and hisbusiness. At least one representative of the New York attorney general’s office also attended the meeting. Ms. James’s office had been conducting a civil inquiry into some of the same issues that the district attorney’s office is examining, but joined Mr. Vance’s criminal investigation in recent weeks. In the coming days, Mr. Trump’s lawyers plan to continue to try to persuade prosecutors not to charge the company, according to a person briefed on the matter. Companies, even private ones like the Trump Organization, are subject to criminal prosecution, and can face fines and other penalties if they are found guilty. Charges also can threaten an organization’s relationships with banks and business partners and cause lasting reputational damage. The indictments could increase pressure to cooperate on Mr. Weisselberg, who could seek to cut a deal with prosecutors to testify against Mr. Trump in exchange for leniency. Mr. Weisselberg’s intimate knowledge of the Trump Organization — he has worked at the company for decades and was one of the top executives when Mr. Trump was in the White House — would make his cooperation an enormous asset to investigators looking at all aspects of the company. Because of that, he has been a central focus of scrutiny in the district attorney’s investigation, with particular attention paid to the benefits that he and his family received. In general, those types of benefits are taxable, although there are some exceptions, and the rules can be murky. Mr. Trump depends heavily on Mr. Weisselberg, who has continued to work at the Trump Organization while under investigation. In his book “Think Like a Billionaire,” Mr. Trump credited Mr. Weisselberg for doing “whatever was necessary to protect the bottom line.” And few things grate at Mr. Trump like the prospect of disloyalty. Close allies have turned on him in the past, including his former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, whom Mr. Trump has labeled a “rat.”
[So if you and your family leave the country, and don't immediately return, you will catch another charge.]
I've said it before and I will say it again... Nothing will come of this. By the time anything may start to show a glimmer of traction in courts, Trump will be prez again in 2024, and there we go again with immunity. Guys, give it up. Yer just wasting taxpayer money on this shit. Tax returns, anyone? Nope, nowhere to be found.
Quite possible knowing the depth of stupidity of voters who's main obsession in life is following Hollywood.