For Trump, bad things come in threes

If you’re a superstitious person, then maybe you’re familiar with the notion that bad things happen in threes. For example, you might get a flat tire, then spill coffee all over yourself, and then sprain your ankle — all on the same day.               

Or, if you’re former President Donald Trump, you might get arrested on state-level charges, then grapple with a major setback in a federal investigation, and then be forced to face the specter of an ongoing fraud investigation, all in the same week.

Trump’s Bad Thing No. 1 is federal. We learned Wednesday afternoon that former Vice President Mike Pence will, in fact, testify before the special counsel’s grand jury investigating Jan. 6. (Trump — and Pence himself — had tried and failed to block that testimony. But in a statement, an aide said Pence will comply with a subpoena.) We already know a lot about what Pence was doing in the Senate that day: evacuating the building, fielding urgent phone calls from a loading dock and presumably trying to ignore the chants outside of “Hang Mike Pence.” But the fact that his conversations with Trump are now fair game, legally speaking, is a huge deal here.

Trump’s Bad Thing No. 2 involves the Mar-a-Lago documents case. It’s already clear that Trump considers Jack Smith’s special counsel probe a pretty bad thing. A week ago, at his post-arraignment rally, Trump was fixated on that investigation. He called Smith a “radical-left lunatic” and a “bomb thrower.” And he made a public spectacle of wrestling with his potential guilt. “We were negotiating in very good faith,” he proclaimed, “to return some or all of the documents that I openly, and in very plain sight, brought with me to Mar-a-Lago from our beautiful White House just as virtually every other president has done in the past.”

Subtle!

Compounding this, we now know from reporting last week that the Justice Department is focusing in on Trump’s alleged obstruction down at Mar-a-Lago, and that unnamed Secret Service agents connected to Trump may have to testify. New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman claimed Trump is “particularly spooked” that his attorney, Evan Corcoran, was also recently ordered to testify. Corcoran is someone who, like Pence, was in the room where it happened. Multiple times. And he has now said what he knows, under oath.

And then there is Trump’s Bad Thing No. 3. This one involves Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s indictment. There is something laid out in the DA’s statement of facts — the document accompanying the indictment — that has left me with more questions than answers. It concerns former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg — who will very soon be released from Rikers Island after pleading guilty to a decadelong tax fraud scheme.

By way of a recap: In exchange for a lighter prison sentence in the tax fraud trial of the Trump Organization last year, Weisselberg testified, pleaded guilty and helped Manhattan prosecutors secure a guilty verdict against the Trump Organization. Which is all to say, Weisselberg is a very important character in Trump World. He also worked for the Trump Organization for nearly 50 years.

The previous Manhattan DA, Cy Vance, was scrutinizing Weisselberg in connection with fraud claims levied at Trump and his organization by Michael Cohen. And that vast criminal probe appears to still be open. The New York Times reported in February that prosecutors were dangling more charges against Weisselberg in an effort to get him to cooperate in Bragg’s hush money payments case.

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Trump indictment blows up claim that hush money was to protect Melania April 5, 2023 / 01:58

This larger fraud investigation is arguably a much broader and more consequential investigation than the hush money payments case. It involves allegations that Trump and his business inflated and deflated assets in order to get more favorable insurance and mortgage rates. And Weisselberg’s potential criminal exposure here remains a key concern. As reported on “Alex Wagner Tonight” via WNBC, Weisselberg has parted ways with the lawyers who represented him during the Trump Organization investigation. He reportedly has a new lawyer, someone who is probably not being paid for by the Trump Organization.

But if Weisselberg is getting out of prison in two weeks, why does he need a new lawyer?

That news stuck out to me because in the federal probe into the hush money payments, Weisselberg was granted immunity in exchange for his grand jury testimony. (This is the case that resulted in Michael Cohen going to prison, not the Manhattan case kicking off now.) 

But as part of Bragg’s case against Trump, we learned the deeper extent of Weisselberg’s alleged role in that hush money scheme. The DA lays out in detail that Weisselberg was involved in discussions about how much money to pay Stormy Daniels — and how to pay her. Prosecutors allege that Cohen spoke to Weisselberg about “how to set the whole thing up,” and that Weisselberg played an integral role in figuring out how to reimburse Cohen. Remember, Weisselberg may have secured immunity on the federal case, but he has no immunity with Manhattan prosecutors.

So could Bragg use Weisselberg’s alleged involvement in the hush money scheme as leverage to get him to cooperate in the other, broader and (we think) ongoing criminal investigation into Trump World? Because that would be very problematic for Donald Trump. 

Problematic on the level of his vice president and his lawyer testifying about him under oath. 

As they say: Bad things happen in threes.

This is an adapted excerpt from the April 5 episode of “Alex Wagner Tonight.”