Manhattan DA Bragg’s Probe Against Trump on Criminal Charges Wanes
By: Hadassa Kalatizadeh
Less than two months into his reign as Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg has altered the course of the investigations against former President Donald J. Trump. For some three years, former long-time Manhattan DA Cyrus R. Vance Jr., had worked on the inquiry. Following months of deliberation, Vance had decided to move toward a criminal indictment of Mr. Trump.
As reported by the NY Times, after Bragg took on the position, prosecutors, Mark F. Pomerantz and Carey R. Dunne, met with him on Jan. 24 with a detailed strategy seeking to prove that Mr. Trump knew his annual financial statements were untrue. They needed the DA’s approval to seek charges fast. The grand jury hearing evidence against Mr. Trump was due to expire in the spring, so time was running out.
The meeting didn’t go exactly as the prosecutors had planned. Mr. Bragg and his senior aides had serious doubts, and were poised with tough questions. They pounded Mr. Pomerantz and Mr. Dunne asking how they could prove that Mr. Trump’s intended to break the law by inflating the value of his assets in the annual statements—an element which would be necessary in winning the case. After all, the case threatened to be the first in history to criminally charge a current or former United States president.
Since then, the investigation into the finances of Mr. Trump has come to a subtle halt. Furthermore, late last month both prosecutors Mr. Pomerantz and Mr. Dunne resigned, as a result of Mr. Bragg’s unwillingness to move forward with the charges. Mr. Dunne said he felt he needed “to disassociate myself with this decision because I think it was on the wrong side of history.”
Mr. Bragg maintains that the inquiry is ongoing, but the wheels seem to have stopped spinning. As per the Times, Mr. Bragg, whose office is conducting the investigation along with lawyers for NY’s Attorney General Letitia James, was concerned about the challenge of proving that Mr. Trump had intent to criminally falsify his business records. He was reportedly also worried about the risks of relying on Trump’s former lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, as a key witness.
Mr. Bragg’s decision not to pursue the case unless additional evidence is found, seems void of any fondness for the real estate mogul’s presidential legacy, but rather his hunch that the case would not hold up in a court of law. Mr. Trump famously avoids email, and has cultivated deep loyalty among employees, making it unlikely for new evidence or witnesses to pop up in the case. Also, Braggs has other pressing issues on his plate, including skyrocketing crime and criminal justice reform laws.
