SEE YOU ON SATURDAY, TEXAS! šŗšøš¦
ā Dan
https://www.facebook.com/DanScavino
Dec 17 2019
3717
Q !!Hs1Jq13jV6 ID: 4e4d4a No.7538264 š
Dec 17 2019 17:03:45 (EST)
First indictment [unseal] will trigger mass pop awakening.
First arrest will verify action and confirm future direction.
They will fight but you are ready.
Marker [9].
Q
3716
Q !!Hs1Jq13jV6 ID: 4e4d4a No.7538263 š
Dec 17 2019 17:03:45 (EST)
First indictment [unseal] will trigger mass pop awakening.
First arrest will verify action and confirm future direction.
They will fight but you are ready.
Marker [9].
Q
Donald Trump Would Be the First President Ever Criminally Charged. Others Have Come Close Though
time.com/6264880/president-arrested-indicted-history-trump
March 21, 2023
''Donald Trump could make history once againāthis time as the first former U.S. president ever to be criminally indicted.''
A Manhattan grand jury could return an indictment as early as this week in a case involving his alleged hush-money payment to former porn star Stormy Daniels. Daniels says she and Trump had an affair; Trump denies this.
āLike all things with Trump, itās unprecedented,ā says Barbara Perry, a presidential historian at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia. President Ulysses S. Grant was technically the first President to be arrested for speeding on a horse and buggy in 1872. But the Trump case will go down in history as one of the biggest political scandals in American historyāeven if the charges relate to the seemingly mundane offense of bookkeeping fraud. Criminal history, as it pertains to U.S. presidents, is pretty brief.
In terms of the seriousness of the scandal, Perry argues the Watergate scandal is the closest parallel because it was the first time a President resigned. President Richard Nixon stepped down in 1974 after tapes revealed he participated in the cover-up of the 1972 break-in at a Democratic National Committee office in the Watergate complex. Several Nixon advisors, from the White House lawyer to the Attorney General, served prison time. While the Department of Justice initially argued that a sitting president couldnāt be indicted on a criminal charge, Nixon was not assured that protection post-presidency, so his successor Gerald Ford pardoned him. As Ford put it, āMy fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.ā But a Sept. 1974 Gallup poll reported 53% of Americans thought the pardon was the wrong thing to do, and itās one of the reasons Ford was voted out of office in the next election.
Connect the 'markers.'
https://thesoufancenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/TSC-White-Paper_QAnon_16April2021-final-1.pdf
https://twitter.com/VivaLaAmes11/status/1622062281507971072
āI actually am glad to see some of these people being arrested from the DC thing, because I think the prosecutions will really make a difference. I think it was a really unfortunate thing,ā - Ron DeSantis on J6 arrests
https://web.archive.org/web/20230104190636/https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2021/01/12/desantis-says-hes-glad-violent-trump-protesters-are-being-arrested/
DeSantis says heās āgladā violent Trump protesters are being arrested
web.archive.org/web/20230104190636/https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2021/01/12/desantis-says-hes-glad-violent-trump-protesters-are-being-arrested
He said he hasnāt seen āanything specificā regarding FBI warnings about armed mobs marching on state capitols.
By
Lawrence MowerTimes staff
Published Jan. 12, 2021|Updated Jan. 12, 2021
TALLAHASSEE ā Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday he was happy to see the arrests of violent supporters of President Donald Trump who invaded the nationās Capitol last week.
āI actually am glad to see some of these people being arrested from the DC thing, because I think the prosecutions will really make a difference,ā he said during a news event to tout Floridaās vaccine rollout in The Villages on Tuesday. āI think it was a really unfortunate thing.ā
But DeSantis appeared to brush off warnings from the FBI about armed Trump protesters marching on state capitol buildings across the country. Florida law enforcement officials said Monday they were werenāt aware of any credible threats directed toward Tallahassee or elsewhere in the state.
āI donāt know that Iāve got anything specific for it,ā DeSantis said when asked about the FBI warning.
āIf anything is disorderly, weāre going to act very quickly,ā he said. āIf thereās any type of disorder, weāll have the reinforcements there.ā
Related: Florida monitoring calls for armed protests. āChatter doesnāt always stay chatter.ā
DeSantis, who owes his 2018 win in Floridaās GOP primary for governor to Trumpās endorsement, has danced around the issue of the presidentās loss in the November election. For his base, heās undermined the electionās legitimacy by urging Trump to āfight on,ā pushing lawmakers in other states to overturn the voting results and generally avoiding any acknowledgment of former Vice President Joe Bidenās victory.
Related: DeSantis and Bondi disappear as Trumpās election challenges grow desperate and chaotic
He said Tuesday that most of the people who attended the presidentās rally the day Congress was certifying the Electoral College vote were peaceful.
āThose folks who took it to the violent level, they need to be held accountable,ā he said. āIt was really, really a sad thing to see.ā
DeSantis used the incident to tout legislation that would create harsher penalties for people involved in āriots.ā The legislation was proposed last year in the wake of protests of police after George Floyd was killed during an arrest.
āI donāt care why youāre doing it. Youāre not doing it here,ā DeSantis said. āIf you riot, youāre going to jail, and youāre going to have to spend time in jail.ā
DeSantis also praised the restraint displayed by Capitol Police officers who tried to hold back the mob last week.
āI can tell you those Capitol Police, on the ground, that was a very difficult situation,ā he said. āAnd they could have done it in a way that you would have had huge number of people die as a result of that.ā
He added, āI think those guys deserve a lot of credit in a situation like that, to be able to steer a huge mob of people away from doing a lot of other people harm, so good on them.ā
He added, āI think those guys deserve a lot of credit in a situation like that, to be able to steer a huge mob of people away from doing a lot of other people harm, so good on them.ā
DeSantis, who served six years in Congress before becoming governor, noted that those officers saved the life of then-Republican Majority Whip Steve Scalise when a gunman opened fire during a Congressional baseball practice in 2017.DeSantis left the practice just before the shooting.
āThey saved Steveās life, and they saved a lot of other lives, so they have my gratitude for that.ā
https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2021/01/12/desantis-says-hes-glad-violent-trump-protesters-are-being-arrested/
DeSantis says heās āgladā violent Trump protesters are being arrested
tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2021/01/12/desantis-says-hes-glad-violent-trump-protesters-are-being-arrested
He said he hasnāt seen āanything specificā regarding FBI warnings about armed mobs marching on state capitols.
By
Lawrence MowerTimes staff
Published Jan. 12, 2021|Updated Jan. 12, 2021
TALLAHASSEE ā Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday he was happy to see the arrests of violent supporters of President Donald Trump who invaded the nationās Capitol last week.
āI actually am glad to see some of these people being arrested from the DC thing, because I think the prosecutions will really make a difference,ā he said during a news event to tout Floridaās vaccine rollout in The Villages on Tuesday. āI think it was a really unfortunate thing.ā
But DeSantis appeared to brush off warnings from the FBI about armed Trump protesters marching on state capitol buildings across the country. Florida law enforcement officials said Monday they were werenāt aware of any credible threats directed toward Tallahassee or elsewhere in the state.
āI donāt know that Iāve got anything specific for it,ā DeSantis said when asked about the FBI warning.
āIf anything is disorderly, weāre going to act very quickly,ā he said. āIf thereās any type of disorder, weāll have the reinforcements there.ā
DeSantis, who owes his 2018 win in Floridaās GOP primary for governor to Trumpās endorsement, has danced around the issue of the presidentās loss in the November election. For his base, heās undermined the electionās legitimacy by urging Trump to āfight on,ā pushing lawmakers in other states to overturn the voting results and generally avoiding any acknowledgment of former Vice President Joe Bidenās victory.
DeSantis and Bondi disappear as Trumpās election challenges grow desperate and chaotic
He said Tuesday that most of the people who attended the presidentās rally the day Congress was certifying the Electoral College vote were peaceful.
āThose folks who took it to the violent level, they need to be held accountable,ā he said. āIt was really, really a sad thing to see.ā
DeSantis used the incident to tout legislation that would create harsher penalties for people involved in āriots.ā The legislation was proposed last year in the wake of protests of police after George Floyd was killed during an arrest.
āI donāt care why youāre doing it. Youāre not doing it here,ā DeSantis said. āIf you riot, youāre going to jail, and youāre going to have to spend time in jail.ā
DeSantis also praised the restraint displayed by Capitol Police officers who tried to hold back the mob last week.
āI can tell you those Capitol Police, on the ground, that was a very difficult situation,ā he said. āAnd they could have done it in a way that you would have had huge number of people die as a result of that.ā
He added, āI think those guys deserve a lot of credit in a situation like that, to be able to steer a huge mob of people away from doing a lot of other people harm, so good on them.ā
''DeSantis, who served six years in Congress before becoming governor, noted that those officers saved the life of then-Republican Majority Whip Steve Scalise when a gunman opened fire during a Congressional baseball practice in 2017. DeSantis left the practice just before the shooting.''
āThey saved Steveās life, and they saved a lot of other lives, so they have my gratitude for that.ā
>Am I the only one that hears faggot when Ron talks?
https://youtu.be/Rq9VwhU_RV8
Join Elizabeth Kahn Kaplan, curator of the Three Village Historical Society exhibit, Spies! How A Group of Long Island Patriots Helped General Washington Win the Revolution, as she reveals how the five "Culpers" gathered information about British military activity on Long Island and in Manhattan and sent it to General Washington despite the constant danger.
To learn more about the original SpyMaster - George Washington or additional programs at the Spy Museum, visit - www.spymuseum.org
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/18/nyregion/trump-investigation-manhattan.html
Manhattan D.A. Recruits Top Prosecutor for Trump Inquiry
nytimes.com/2021/02/18/nyregion/trump-investigation-manhattan.html
February 18, 2021
As the Manhattan district attorneyās office steps up the criminal investigation of Donald J. Trump, it has reached outside its ranks to enlist a prominent former federal prosecutor to help scrutinize financial dealings at the former presidentās company, according to several people with knowledge of the matter.
The former prosecutor, Mark F. Pomerantz, has deep experience investigating and defending white-collar and organized crime cases, bolstering the team under District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. that is examining Mr. Trump and his family business, the Trump Organization.
The investigation by Mr. Vance, a Democrat, is focused on possible tax and bank-related fraud, including whether the Trump Organization misled its lenders or local tax authorities about the value of his properties to obtain loans and tax benefits, the people with knowledge of the matter said, requesting anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the investigation. Mr. Trump has maintained he did nothing improper and has long railed against the inquiry, calling it a politically motivated āwitch hunt.ā
In recent months, Mr. Vanceās office has broadened the long-running investigation to include an array of financial transactions and Trump properties ā including Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, various Trump hotels and the Seven Springs estate in Westchester County ā as prosecutors await a ruling from the United States Supreme Court that could give them access to Mr. Trumpās tax returns.
The prosecutors have also interviewed a number of witnesses and have issued more than a dozennewsubpoenas, including to one of Mr. Trumpās top lenders, Ladder Capital, the people with knowledge of the matter said.
In addition, investigators subpoenaed a company hired by Mr. Trumpās other main lender, Deutsche Bank, to assess the value of certain Trump properties, one of the people with knowledge of the previously unreported subpoenas said.
Months earlier, Mr. Vanceās office had subpoenaed records from Deutsche Bank itself, The New York Times previously reported. More recently, Deutsche Bank employees provided testimony to Mr. Vanceās office about the bankās relationship with the Trump Organization, a person briefed on the matter said.
Still, despite the burst of investigative activity, prosecutors have said the tax returns and other financial records are vital to their inquiry ā and the Supreme Court has delayed a final decision for months.
Manhattan prosecutors have also subpoenaed the Trump Organization for records related to tax deductions on millions of dollars in consulting fees, some of which appear to have gone to the former presidentās daughter Ivanka Trump.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/18/nyregion/trump-investigation-manhattan.html
Manhattan D.A. Recruits Top Prosecutor for Trump Inquiry
nytimes.com/2021/02/18/nyregion/trump-investigation-manhattan.html
February 18, 2021
As the Manhattan district attorneyās office steps up the criminal investigation of Donald J. Trump, it has reached outside its ranks to enlist a prominent former federal prosecutor to help scrutinize financial dealings at the former presidentās company, according to several people with knowledge of the matter.
The former prosecutor, Mark F. Pomerantz, has deep experience investigating and defending white-collar and organized crime cases, bolstering the team under District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. that is examining Mr. Trump and his family business, the Trump Organization.
The investigation by Mr. Vance, a Democrat, is focused on possible tax and bank-related fraud, including whether the Trump Organization misled its lenders or local tax authorities about the value of his properties to obtain loans and tax benefits, the people with knowledge of the matter said, requesting anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the investigation. Mr. Trump has maintained he did nothing improper and has long railed against the inquiry, calling it a politically motivated āwitch hunt.ā
In recent months, Mr. Vanceās office has broadened the long-running investigation to include an array of financial transactions and Trump properties ā including Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, various Trump hotels and the Seven Springs estate in Westchester County ā as prosecutors await a ruling from the United States Supreme Court that could give them access to Mr. Trumpās tax returns.
The prosecutors have also interviewed a number of witnesses and have issued more than a dozennewsubpoenas, including to one of Mr. Trumpās top lenders, Ladder Capital, the people with knowledge of the matter said.
In addition, investigators subpoenaed a company hired by Mr. Trumpās other main lender, Deutsche Bank, to assess the value of certain Trump properties, one of the people with knowledge of the previously unreported subpoenas said.
Months earlier, Mr. Vanceās office had subpoenaed records from Deutsche Bank itself, The New York Times previously reported. More recently, Deutsche Bank employees provided testimony to Mr. Vanceās office about the bankās relationship with the Trump Organization, a person briefed on the matter said.
Still, despite the burst of investigative activity, prosecutors have said the tax returns and other financial records are vital to their inquiry ā and the Supreme Court has delayed a final decision for months.
Manhattan prosecutors have also subpoenaed the Trump Organization for records related to tax deductions on millions of dollars in consulting fees, some of which appear to have gone to the former presidentās daughter Ivanka Trump.
The Trump Organization turned over some of those records last month, though the prosecutors have questioned whether the company has fully responded to the subpoena, the people with knowledge of the matter said.
Mr. Trump won an acquittal in his second impeachment trial last week, but remains the focus of at least two state criminal investigations. Besides the inquiry in Manhattan, prosecutors in Georgia are scrutinizing Mr. Trumpās effort to persuade local officials to undo the election results there. His departure from office has left him without the shield from indictment that the presidency provided.
The Manhattan district attorneyās office has not accused Mr. Trump of wrongdoing and it remains unclear whether Mr. Vance, whose term ends in January, will ultimately bring charges against Mr. Trump or any Trump Organization employees.
The Trump Organization declined to comment, but in the past, lawyers for the company have said that its practices complied with the law and have called the investigation a āfishing expedition.ā
Mr. Pomerantz, 69, was sworn in earlier this month to serve as a special assistant district attorney, according to Danny Frost, a spokesman for the district attorney, who otherwise declined to comment on the inquiry. Mr. Pomerantz will work solely on the Trump investigation.
The hiring of an outsider is a highly unusual move for a prosecutorās office, but the two-and-a-half-year investigation of the former president and his family business is unusually complex. And Mr. Vance, whose office has had a few missteps in other white-collar cases, had already hired FTI, a large consulting company, to help analyze Mr. Trumpās financial records.
Prosecutors are scrutinizing whether the Trump Organization artificially inflated the value of some of his signature properties to obtain the best possible loans, while simultaneously lowballing the property values to reduce property taxes, the people with knowledge of the matter said. The prosecutors are also looking at the Trump Organizationās statements to insurance companies about the value of various assets.
The Trump Organizationās lawyers are likely to argue to prosecutors that it could not have duped sophisticated financial institutions that did their own analysis of Mr. Trumpās properties without relying on what Mr. Trumpās company told them. The companyās lawyers are also likely to emphasize that the practice of providing such differing valuations is widespread in New Yorkās real estate industry.
Deutsche Bank has said it is cooperating with the investigation. A spokesman for Ladder Capital, which securitized the loans years ago and thus no longer owns them, declined to comment.
Mr. Pomerantz, who has been helping with the case informally for months, has taken a temporary leave from the law firm Paul Weiss to join Mr. Vanceās office. Among other tasks, he will likely handle interactions with key witnesses.
Mr. Vance also retained veteran constitutional lawyers to work on the briefs filed in the 18-month legal battle over the officeās subpoena for Mr. Trumpās tax returns and other financial records, which has twice reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The case was argued by Mr. Vanceās general counsel, Carey Dunne, who is helping to lead the investigation.
The court could rule for a second time on the matter soon, potentially putting eight years of Mr. Trumpās personal and corporate tax records and other documents in the hands of prosecutors for the first time, a development that Mr. Vanceās office has called central to its investigation.
Mr. Pomerantz, a leading figure in the New York legal circles, clerked for Judge Edward Weinfeld in Manhattan and Justice Potter Stewart on the Supreme Court. He then became a federal prosecutor in the United States attorneyās office in Manhattan, where he rose to lead the appellate unit before leaving in 1982.
In private practice, he developed a specialty in organized crime and was involved in a 1988 case that helped determine the legal definition of racketeering. His former law partner, Ronald P. Fischetti, estimated they tried nearly 25 cases that involved organized crime in some form or another.
Mr. Pomerantz returned to the Manhattan U.S. attorneyās office to head the criminal division between 1997 and 1999, overseeing major securities fraud and organized crime cases, perhaps most prominently against John A. Gotti, the Gambino boss.
He later joined Paul Weiss, one of the best-known law firms in New York, where he defended Robert Torricelli, the New Jersey senator accused of campaign finance violations.
āHe worked both sides of the street, so heās not going to be biased by virtue of temperament,ā said Robert S. Litt, a former general counsel for the Director of National Intelligence, who has known Mr. Pomerantz since 1976.
David Enrich contributed reporting.
2 Prosecutors Leading N.Y. Trump Inquiry Resign, Clouding Caseās Future
nytimes.com/2022/02/23/nyregion/trump-ny-fraud-investigation.html
February 23, 2022
The two prosecutors leading the Manhattan district attorneyās investigation into former President Donald J. Trump and his business practices abruptly resigned on Wednesday amid a monthlong pause in their presentation of evidence to a grand jury, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The unexpected development came not long after the high-stakes inquiry appeared to be gaining momentum and now throws its future into serious doubt.
The prosecutors, Carey R. Dunne and Mark F. Pomerantz, submitted their resignations because the new Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, indicated to them that he had doubts about moving forward with a case against Mr. Trump, the people said.
Mr. Pomerantz confirmed in a brief interview that he had resigned but declined to elaborate. Mr. Dunne declined to comment.
Without Mr. Braggās commitment to move forward, the prosecutors late last month postponed a plan to question at least one witness before the grand jury, one of the people said. They have not questioned any witnesses in front of the grand jury for more than a month, essentially pausing their investigation into whether Mr. Trump inflated the value of his assets to obtain favorable loan terms from banks.
The precise reasons for Mr. Braggās pullback are unknown, and he has made few public statements about the status of the inquiry since taking office, but the prosecutors had encountered a number of challenges in pursuing Mr. Trump. Notably, they had thus far been unable to persuade any Trump Organization executives to cooperate and turn on Mr. Trump.
In a statement responding to the resignations of the prosecutors, a spokeswoman for Mr. Bragg said that he was āgrateful for their serviceā and that the investigation was ongoing.
Time is running out for this grand jury, whose term is scheduled to expire in April. Prosecutors can ask jurors to vote to extend their term but generally avoid doing so. They also are often reluctant to impanel a new grand jury after an earlier one has heard testimony, because witnesses could make conflicting statements if asked to testify again.
And without Mr. Dunne, a high-ranking veteran of the office who has been closely involved with the inquiry for years, and Mr. Pomerantz, a leading figure in New York legal circles who was enlisted to work on it, the yearslong investigation could peter out.
The resignations mark a reversal after the investigation had recently intensified. Cyrus R. Vance Jr., Mr. Braggās predecessor, convened the grand jury in the fall, and prosecutors began questioning witnesses before his term concluded at the end of the year. (Mr. Vance did not seek re-election.)
1/
In mid-January, reporters for The New York Times observed significant activity related to the investigation at the Lower Manhattan courthouse where the grand jury meets, with at least two witnesses visiting the building and staying inside for hours.
The witnesses were Mr. Trumpās longtime accountant and an expert in the real estate industry, according to people familiar with the appearances, which have not been previously reported. Mr. Dunne and Mr. Pomerantz also made regular appearances at the courthouse.
An Unprecedented Event: If Donald Trump is indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, this week will be unlike any other in American political history. Hereās what to know.
Preparing for an Arrest: Ahead of the likely indictment, New York officials are making security plans as some of Trumpās supporters signal that they intend to protest.
G.O.P. Braces: Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida broke his silence about Trumpās expected indictment, as Republicans weighed whether to heed the former presidentās call to protest and Trumpās allies on Capitol Hill rallied around him.
2024 Campaign: Trump strengthened his political position in recent weeks, but an impetuous response to his potential indictment could alienate voters he will need to win back the White House.
The burst of activity offered a sign that Mr. Bragg was forging ahead with the grand jury phase of the investigation, a final step before seeking charges.
But in recent weeks, that activity has ceased, and Mr. Dunne and Mr. Pomerantz have been seen only rarely.
The pause coincides with an escalation in the activity of a parallel civil inquiry by the New York state attorney general, Letitia James, whose office is examining some of the same conduct by Mr. Trump and is also participating in the criminal inquiry.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for Ms. Jamesās office said of the criminal inquiry, āThe investigation is ongoing, and there is a robust team working on it.ā
Ms. James, who last week received approval from a judge to question Mr. Trump and two of his adult children under oath, has filed court documents describing a number of ways in which the Trump Organization appeared to have misrepresented the value of its properties.
She concluded that the company had engaged in āfraudulent or misleadingā practices, and although she lacks the authority to criminally charge Mr. Trump, she could sue him.
Mr. Braggās office must meet a higher bar to bring a criminal case. And for his part, Mr. Trump has disputed the notion that he inflated his property values or defrauded his lenders and has accused Mr. Bragg and Ms. James, both Democrats who are Black, of being politically motivated and āracists.ā
āIāve been representing Donald Trump for over a year in this case, and I havenāt found any evidence that could lead to a prosecution against him, or any crimes,ā said a lawyer for Mr. Trump, Ronald P. Fischetti. āI hope Mr. Bragg will now look again at all the evidence in the case and make a statement that he is discontinuing all investigation of Donald Trump.ā
2/
As Mr. Braggās grand jury presentation has come to a halt, another serious criminal inquiry into the former president has been gaining steam. In recent weeks, a judge has approved the convening of a grand jury for an investigation into Mr. Trumpās attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia.
Another criminal investigation, in New Yorkās Westchester County, is examining Mr. Trumpās financial dealings at one of his companyās golf courses.
The Manhattan investigation, which proceeded in fits and starts for years, was the most developed of the three criminal inquiries into Mr. Trump. It resulted in the indictments last summer of the Trump Organization and its long-serving chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg, on separate tax-related charges.
After announcing those charges, the prosecutors zeroed in on a subject that has spurred much debate over the years: Mr. Trumpās net worth.
They have questioned whether Mr. Trump defrauded his lenders ā sophisticated financial institutions like Deutsche Bank ā by routinely inflating the value of his assets, The Times has previously reported.
In particular, the prosecutors have focused on annual financial statements Mr. Trump provided to the lenders, scrutinizing whether he overvalued his various hotels, golf clubs and other properties to score the best possible loan terms.
Mr. Trumpās accounting firm, Mazars USA, compiled the statements based on information provided by the Trump Organization, leading the prosecutors to question whether the company had given its accountants bogus data.
Early this month, Mazars notified the Trump Organization that it would no longer serve as its accountant and that it could no longer stand behind a decade of Mr. Trumpās financial statements.
Mazars said it had not, āas a whole,ā found material discrepancies between the information the Trump Organization provided and the true value of Mr. Trumpās assets.
But given what it called āthe totality of circumstancesā ā including its internal investigation and Ms. Jamesās court papers ā Mazars instructed the company to notify anyone who had received the statements that they āshould not be relied upon.ā
Even with the retraction from Mazars, a criminal case would likely be difficult to prove. The documents, known as statements of financial condition, contain a number of disclaimers, including acknowledgments that Mr. Trumpās accountants had neither audited nor authenticated his claims.
And the prosecutors would have to show that Mr. Trumpās penchant for hyperbole crossed the line into criminality, a tall order when it comes to something as subjective as property values. A case like this might hinge on the testimony of a Trump insider, but the prosecutors have not persuaded Mr. Weisselberg to cooperate with the investigation, depriving them of the type of insider witness whose testimony can be crucial to complicated white-collar criminal trials.
Another challenge is that Mr. Trumpās lenders might not appear to a jury to be sympathetic victims. The lenders, which made millions of dollars in interest from Mr. Trump, conducted their own assessments of his assets.
Still, the prosecutors had been moving forward.
In the fall, Mr. Vance convened what is known as a special grand jury, a panel of 23 Manhattan residents, chosen at random, to hear complex cases like the one involving Mr. Trump. Over the course of months, the jurors were expected to meet to hear testimony from witnesses and examine other evidence put forward by the prosecutors.
Special grand juries last six months, and at the end of these presentations, prosecutors typically direct the jurors to vote on whether there is āreasonable causeā to believe that the person could be guilty. While it is not a foregone conclusion that a grand jury will indict the target of an investigation, such panels routinely vote to bring the charges that prosecutors seek.
Late last year, the grand jury heard testimony from Mr. Trumpās accountant at Mazars about Mr. Trumpās annual financial statements, The Times previously reported. Soon after, the prosecutors questioned two editors for Forbes Magazine, which has estimated Mr. Trumpās net worth over the years for its billionaires list.
The accountant testified again last month, people with knowledge of the appearance said.
A day later, the prosecutors questioned a real estate expert who specializes in property valuation, according to people with knowledge of that appearance. The witness works for the consulting firm FTI, which the district attorneyās office hired in 2020 to help analyze Mr. Trumpās financial documents.
3/4
In the days after this testimony, the prosecutors lined up at least one other witness to appear before the grand jury. But late last month, they postponed the testimony, according to one of the people with knowledge of the matter.
If Mr. Bragg ultimately closes the investigation, he could face political fallout in Manhattan, where Mr. Trump is generally loathed. And the district attorney has already had a rocky start to his tenure, after a memo he released outlining policies for the office was met with furious pushback from local officials, small businesses and the public.
Mr. Bragg ā who was sworn in on Jan. 1 ā is a former federal prosecutor and veteran of the New York State attorney generalās office, where he oversaw civil litigation against Mr. Trump and his administration under Ms. Jamesās predecessor.
He cited those cases often while running for district attorney in part to indicate his experience with high-profile litigation, saying that he had sued Mr. Trump more than 100 times.
The district attorneyās criminal investigation into Mr. Trump began in the summer of 2018 under Mr. Vance, who initially looked into the Trump Organizationās role in paying hush money to a pornographic actress who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump.
The inquiry grew out of a federal case against Mr. Trumpās former fixer, Michael D. Cohen, who pleaded guilty to arranging the hush money and said he did so at the direction of Mr. Trump.
The focus of the investigation shifted after Mr. Vance, in 2019, subpoenaed Mazars for copies of Mr. Trumpās tax returns. Mr. Trump sued to block the subpoena, sparking a bitter 18-month legal battle that saw the former president take the case to the United States Supreme Court, where he lost twice.
Mr. Dunne, who served as Mr. Vanceās general counsel and stayed on to help Mr. Bragg with the Trump investigation, argued the case before the Supreme Court. And around the time that the prosecutors received Mr. Trumpās tax documents, Mr. Vance recruited Mr. Pomerantz, a prominent former prosecutor and defense lawyer, to help lead the investigation.
The prosecutors turned their attention to Mr. Weisselberg, pressuring him to cooperate. But he refused, and in July, they announced an indictment against him and the Trump Organization.
The indictment accused Mr. Weisselberg and the company of a 15-year scheme to pay for luxury perks for certain executives, like free apartments and leased Mercedes-Benzes, off the books.
Mr. Weisselberg pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers filed court papers this week seeking to dismiss the charges. A judge has tentatively scheduled a trial for late summer.
Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
4/4
Avenatti Targeted in Person by QAnon, the Crazy Pro-Trump Conspiracy Theory
thedailybeast.com/avenatti-targeted-in-person-by-qanon-the-crazy-pro-trump-conspiracy-theory
July 30, 2018
Disinformation
IRL
Police are investigating a man photographed outside the office of Stormy Danielsās attorney after āQ,ā the theoryās leader, sent followers there.
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast
Stormy Danielsā lawyer Michael Avenatti is the latest target for supporters of the pro-Trump conspiracy theory QAnon, with police investigating a manās appearance near Avenattiās office after the building was mentioned in QAnon posts.
QAnon believers claim that a series of cryptic clues posted to internet forums 4Chan and 8Chan are coming from a high-level Trump administration insider, describing a world where Trump has teamed up with the military to take on a global cabal of powerful elites, celebrities, and pedophiles.
āQ,ā the online poster whose messages make up the basis of the QAnon theory, targeted Avenatti on Sunday by posting a link to Avenattiās website and pictures of his Newport Beach, California, office building.
āBuckle up!ā the post, made on 8Chan, read.
About 45 minutes later, Q posted a picture of a man standing in the street near Avenattiās office. The man, who has his back to the camera, is holding what appears to be a cellphone in one hand and a long, thin object in the other.
We are trying to identify the man in this picture, which was taken outside my office yesterday (Sun) afternoon. Please contact @NewportBeachPD if you have any details or observed him. We will NOT be intimidated into stopping or changing our course. #Basta pic.twitter.com/YIKS6D0Grq
ā Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) July 30, 2018
Avenatti said that the man in the picture might be holding a shank.
āThatās not a set of keys,ā Avenatti told The Daily Beast. āIt also looks like heās wearing a toupee of some sort. And not a very good one, I might add.ā
A few minutes after posting the picture of the man, Q posted again, saying the manās appearance at Avenattiās office meant that a āmessageā had been sent.
A spokesperson for the Newport Beach Police Department said police are investigating the manās appearance near Avenattiās office: āWeāre just looking into what is categorized as suspicious circumstances.ā
Avenatti, who shot to prominence in the media after he started representing Daniels in her lawsuit against Trump, told The Daily Beast that the number of threats against him has quadrupled since he was mentioned in the QAnon posts on Sunday.
āI consider my new prominence among these conspiracy theorists to be a badge of honor, because it shows that many consider me to be a threat to this president, as they should,ā Avenatti said.
If the man outside Avenattiās office is linked to QAnon, it wonāt be the first time one of the conspiracy theoryās believers have taken action in the real world. In June, an armed QAnon adherent allegedly blocked a bridge near the Hoover Dam with an improvised armored truck. Now facing a terrorism charge, the man has attempted to send Trump and other politicians letters filled with QAnon slogans from jail.