Tag: manhattan

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Former DOD Special Counsel Says Manhattan DA Must Indict Trump

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Ryan Goodnan, a former Special Counsel at the Department of Defense, dropped a bombshell on CNN’s OutFront show(03/21/23 ), telling host Erin Burnett that contrary to popular belief, New York legal precedent does indeed dictate that Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg must bring criminal charges against former President Trump for falsifying of business records.

Goodman said that after analyzing cases going back 15 years related to falsifying of business records, there is already more than enough evidence to indict Trump. Put another way, regular people have been charged based on far less incriminating evidence.

Goodman specifically told host Erin Burnett(3:57): “What we did is we surveyed the last fifteen years of all the District Attorney offices across New York, and saw how many times they brought this particular charge–falsifying business records–and the conclusion is essentially, if the person’s last name was not Trump, he would be charged.”

Goodman then went on to point out specific examples of New Yorkers who have been prosecuted for falsifying business records, with far less evidence than the Manhattan DA’s office is known go have against Trump. The image below lists some of the cases Goodman cited.

Bottom line folks, despite all the lamentations by prominent Republicans, of former President Trump being a “victim” of a “weaponized” justice system, the evidence, as Ryan Goodman correctly illustrates, shows the complete opposite, and that is, any other similarly situated New Yorker would have been indicted already.

The real question is what valid excuse DA Alvin Bragg will offer to the public if his office decides not to indict former President Trump? Yours Truly will go out on a limb and say an indictment(s) from the Manhattan DA’s office is/are coming. Only question left is when it/they will come down.

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Trump’s Indictment Over Stormy Daniels Hush Money Scheme Imminent

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Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a former Chief Assistant DA at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office(under Cy Vance) dropped a bombshell on CNN’s OutFront show (03/13/23), telling host Erin Burnett that she expects former President Donald Trump to be indicted in Manhattan “in the next week or two”, for his role in the hush money case involving adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Interestingly, she added that Trump will also soon be hit with indictments from Fulton County Georgia(2020 election interference) and by the special counsel investigating the classified documents found at his Maralago residence.

Karen Friedman Agnifilo specifically told host Erin Burnett(0:49 ): “All indications are that he’s about to be indicted, I would say, in the next week or two.” She pointed to the statute of limitations, which is about to expire in May, as the reason why she believes an indictment from the Manhattan DA’s office is imminent.

As for other possible indictments against former President Trump, she said(  ): “I think you’re going to see Alvin Bragg, who’s the Manhattan DA, bringing the Stormy Daniels’ case first, then I think you’re going to potentially see the Fulton County Fani Willis in Georgia case, then I think[Special Counsel]Jack Smith is going to bring either the Maralago documents case and/or the Jan 6th insurrection.”

Crucially, even though former Assistant DA Agnifilo appears confident that an indictment against former President Trump by the Manhattan DA’s office is imminent, she told host Erin Burnett that given Trump’s litigious nature, it will be at least a year before we see a trial in the case. As host Erin Burnett correctly pointed out, a year from now, we’ll be in the thick and thin of the 2024 presidential nomination primaries.

Will the said indictment(s) from Manhattan DA’s office help or hurt Trump’s chances of securing the 2024 GOP presidential nomination? As Trump famously says, “We’ll see what happens.” The popular wisdom out there is that candidate Trump will benefit from any such indictments, but Yours Truly will go out on a limb and predict that if Trump is indeed criminally indicted, he will not, I repeat, not secure the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. You can take that to the bank.

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Will The Trump Family Be Hit With New York’s Racketeering Enterprise Charge?

Former President Trump addresses a rally in Sarasota, Florida(07/03/2021)

Investigative Reporter David Cay Johnston, an authority in all things Trump, dropped a bombshell on CNN’s Don Lemon show(07/05/21), telling fill-in host Laura Coates that he believed the Manhattan DA will ultimately hit Trump and members of his family with the racketeering enterprise charge, under article 460 of New York’s penal code. Johnston added that this charge could result in a 25 year prison sentence at New York’s notorious Attica prison. code. The full CNN segment is available here, but the relevant clip is below

David Cay Johnston specifically said: “I believe eventually Laura, and since I first said this about a year ago, a number of prosecutors have agreed with me, that the ultimate indictment here is likely to be a New York state racketeering enterprise charge, article 460 of the New York state penal code.”

Johnston then went on to describe what racketeering is, saying even though many in the public think of it as exclusively applying to the mafia, and other organized crime syndicates, it can also be applied to Trump Org, et al. He said, “Racketeering is running what appears to be a legitimate business that’s really a criminal organization who’s primary purpose is breaking the law. While we think of this in terms of mafia, it applies absolutely equally to people who cheat on taxes, who cheat insurance companies, banks, file phony business records, which in New York is a crime that can get you 25 years in Attica.”

David Cay Johnston has been spot-on on almost every piece of reporting he has done over the years, on Trump and his family . Will he be proven right again on the racketeering enterprise charges against the Trump family? Only time will tell, or as Trump famously says, “We’ll see what happens.”

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Why Did Manhattan DA Give Trump An Easy Out Over His Tax Returns?

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance (L)

NBC News reported on October 21, 2019 that prosecutors from Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance’s office had “struck a deal” with President Trump’s lawyers not to enforce subpoenas requesting 8 years of Trump’s tax returns until the U.S. Supreme Court had a take on the issue–either decides the case on its merits or declines to hear it. This “deal” between Cyrus Vance’s office and the President’s lawyers came after a U.S. District Judge ruled in favor of DA Cyrus Vance, ordering Mazars, the accounting firm holding the requested tax returns to release them to Manhattan prosecutors.

On November 4, 2019, a federal appeals court(2nd circuit) affirmed the decision of the district court, essentially dismissing Trump’s appeal and ordering Mazars to release 8 years of Trump’s tax returns to Manhattan prosecutors. What now remains between the public(represented by DA Vance) getting a chance to see Trump’s tax returns possibly before the end of 2019 is this “deal” which Yours Truly argues is an easy out by DA Vance to Trump–a point that is totally lost to the mainstream media.

Here’s why DA Vance’s “deal” with Trump’s lawyers is an easy out. DA Vance has been quoted by several mainstream media outlets as saying that his entire criminal investigation into Trump rests on information that can only be provided by the tax returns his office is currently seeking. Reasonable people will therefore agree that if Trump’s tax returns are so crucial to DA Vance’s case, he should never have “struck a deal” with Trump’s lawyers after the U.S. District Court ruled in his favor. He should have gone for the kill–enforce the subpoenas.

Enforcing the subpoenas would have put Trump’s lawyers on major defense both at the federal appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court. At the U.S. Supreme Court it would have been much easier given the huge public interest in the case, the fact that it is a criminal proceeding, and the fact that it involves President Trump, for DA Vance to request the high court for an emergency declaration–one that would have highly likely been handed down before the end of 2019. Yours Truly wrote and tweeted about this very topic which coincidentally, was echoed by Fox News’ legal eagle Judge Napolitano.

For the record, prosecutors are accorded tremendous discretion over how they decide to proceed with their various cases and like all human beings, are prone to making wrong judgement calls. DA Cyrus Vance however has a recorded history of going easy on the Trumps which is why Yours Truly takes great issue with this “deal” his office struck with Trump lawyers, a deal that significantly weakens their winning hand. You will remember the same DA Vance, presented with overwhelming evidence of criminal wrongdoing by Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump, Jr, still made the shocking decision not to file criminal charges against them.

Bottom line folks, even though this is lost to the mainstream media, Manhattan DA Vance did not need to “strike a deal” with Trump’s attorneys after his District Court win. His office held all the cards at that point. Any serious prosecutor presented with the same situation would have gone for the kill–enforce the subpoenas and then ask for an emergency declaration from the Supreme Court. As Judge Napolitano correctly pointed out, we could have secured Trump’s tax returns before Christmas 2019. Now thanks to DA Vance’s bogus “deal” we have to wait until June 2020—an unnecessary delay which only favors Trump. Its about time Democrats and the mainstream media start calling out DA Vance for his peculiar softness towards the Trumps. Better yet, it’s about time Manhattan elected a fair and impartial DA who would pursue rich criminals with the same vigor they pursue poor ones.

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