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NEW YORK – A six-month grand jury convened late last year to hear evidence against Donald Trump was due to expire this week, closing the chapter on a lengthy criminal investigation that appears to end without charges against the former president, people familiar with the matter he said.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D), who took office in January, inherited an investigation launched by his predecessor, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., who was convinced he was suing Trump for crimes involving the manipulation of property values. providing tax benefits or better interest rates on loans.
The grand jury was convened in November with a mandate to hear evidence against the former president. But the decision on whether to end the presentation and ask the commission to vote on the charges will ultimately fall on Bragg, who decided to stop the trial, according to people familiar with the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss information not has been declared publicly.
A key issue, some said, was Bragg’s concern about whether former Trump retainer Michael Cohen could be used as a witness.
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Bragg said he would announce when the investigation was over, noting that even after the special grand jury disbanded, other grand juries hearing a wide range of criminal cases in New York would be available to take action. if necessary.
Still, the expiration of the grand jury – and the departure in February of two senior prosecutors who said Bragg was delaying the investigation – makes any potential accusation against Trump seem unlikely, legal observers said. At the time Mark Pomeranz and Kerry Dunn retired, the grand jury had been inactive for weeks, with jurors being told to stay home, a person familiar with the matter said earlier.
Lawyers in the office of New York Attorney General Leticia James (D), who is a partner in the investigation, are skeptical that any criminal case will be filed, people familiar with the matter said. They also spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. A spokeswoman for James said the investigation was ongoing.
James is separately leading a civil investigation into Trump’s business practices, and a lawyer from her office signaled on Monday that a lawsuit could be filed. in that case soon. A judge has held Trump in contempt of court and fined him $ 10,000 a day for failing to provide the documents James was looking for, or for properly documenting the nature of the search for those records.
Trump’s lawyers are appealing both the order and the decision of New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoren to demand that Trump and two of his older children be removed from the Attorney General’s team.
On Friday, Engoron rejected Trump’s offer to purge the disrespect decision after he and his lawyers submitted sworn statements. The sworn declarations “do not specify” who carried out the searches of the requested documents, nor where and when the searches were carried out, the judge said. He called Trump’s two-paragraph oath statement “completely devoid of any useful details.”
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Trump has long argued that there was no illegal conduct – criminal or civil – related to the Trump Organization’s asset valuations. His legal team accused James of political revenge.
Asked to comment on the expiration of the grand jury, a spokesman for Bragg referred to his April 7 statement, which said in part: “New York County has large juries that meet all the time. There is no magic for all the previously reported [grand jury] dates. ”
People familiar with Bragg’s thinking said his hesitation to move forward was largely due to his lack of faith in Cohen, a former Trump lawyer and convicted felon. Cohen wrote a book about his life as a friend of Trump and often criticized the former president. He made it clear that he was ready to testify how the business is done in the Trump Organization, if a lawsuit is filed.
He says he met with investigators from the prosecutor’s office about a dozen times before Dunn and Pomerantz left, but no one on Bragg’s team has contacted him since. Pomerantz’s resignation letter, received from The Washington Post, echoed what Cohen said publicly about the nature of the evidence, including statements about Trump’s financial condition that were provided to creditors and other countries.
“Trump’s financial statements are false and he has a long history of fabricating information about his personal finances and lies about his assets to banks, national media, counterparties and many others, including the American people,” Pomerantz wrote.
Cohen pleaded guilty to tax evasion, campaign finance breaches and providing false information to a bank about his role in negotiating secret money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, allegedly on Trump’s behalf, during campaign in 2016. Trump said he was not involved in paying Daniels and denied having anything to do with it. Cohen also pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about his role in a Trump Organization project in Russia.
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Although the use of witnesses convicted of crimes, especially lies, can be problematic, it is not unheard of for prosecutors to do so, especially when they have few other ways to prove their case. Cohen’s sentence is complete, so prosecutors cannot offer him a benefit in exchange for his participation, which could boost his confidence in the jury.
Cohen said on Friday that he had provided reliable information about the investigation, adding that “Mr. Bragg’s decision not to prosecute or prosecute [Trump] is a mistake that will tarnish his time in office and career. “
The district attorney’s office is believed to have tried to ignore other Trump insiders, especially its longtime chief financial officer, Alan Weisselberg, who was indicted along with the Trump Organization in July on charges of tax fraud.
This indictment stems from the same criminal investigation that now appears to be coming to an end. He accuses Weisselberg of 15 years a scheme involving tax-free compensation, such as cars and apartments, for company executives.
Weisselberg showed no indication that he wanted to provide information about Trump to the district attorney’s office. He and the Trump organization can be sued later this year.
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