Donald Trump is currently facing ongoing criminal investigations, but that’s not the full scope of the former president’s legal troubles. On the contrary, prosecutors in New York are reportedly considering charges against the Republican’s private business: the Trump Organization.
Yesterday, as the New York Times reported, the former president’s attorneys met with prosecutors in the hopes of persuading them not to move forward with possible indictments.
Lawyers for Donald J. Trump’s family business mounted a last-ditch effort on Monday to fend off criminal charges against the company, meeting with Manhattan prosecutors investigating whether it had awarded valuable benefits to a top executive without paying taxes, according to people with knowledge of the matter…. Meetings to discuss this kind of fallout of a criminal indictment, called collateral consequences, are routine in white-collar investigations and often indicate that charges are near.
The discussion, which comes on the heels of a similar meeting held last Thursday, was held over a video call. It lasted less than an hour.
According to the Times‘ report, defense lawyers “pointed to the harm that the business, the Trump Organization, could face if it were indicted, including damage to its relationships with banks and business partners.”
The former president, however, issued a written statement of his own on the matter, which was interesting for a couple of reasons. For example, Trump implicitly conceded in the long, rambling diatribe that he realizes his core business may soon face criminal charges.
But the Republican also tried to present some argument as to why this shouldn’t happen. Consider the first sentence from the statement:
“Radical Left New York City and State Prosecutors, who have let murderers, rapists, drug dealers, and all other forms of crime skyrocket to record levels, and who have just announced that they will be releasing hundreds of people involved in violent crime back onto the streets without retribution of any kind, are rude, nasty, and totally biased in the way they are treating lawyers, representatives, and some of the wonderful long-term employees and people within the Trump Organization.” The thrust of that 78-word sentence seems to be that New York prosecutors should leave the Trump Organization alone because there are so many other criminals for law enforcement to worry about. It’s akin to telling a state trooper who pulled you over for speeding, “But look at how fast all those other cars were going.” Trump went on to condemn “politically motivated” prosecutions — he was apparently indifferent to the irony — before adding that such a process will be “devastating for New York!” As Rachel responded on the show last night, “To be honest, I think New York will probably be fine,” no matter what happens in this matter. By all accounts, we’ll find out this week whether the Trump Organization will, in fact, be indicted. Watch this space.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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