A former Manhattan prosecutor has revealed that prosecutors once considered filing racketeering charges against former President Donald Trump.
Mark Pomerantz, who resigned last year in protest after prosecutor Alvin Bragg decided not to press charges against Trump, detailed his case against the former president’s allegedly corrupt business practices in his forthcoming book People vs. Donald Trump.
According to excerpts given to the New York Times and The Daily Beast, Pomerantz said his colleagues dug into all of Trump’s businesses, including his real estate empire, for-profit university and his family’s charitable foundation.
“In my legal career I’d only come across one other person who touched all of those foundations: John Gotti, head of the Gambino organized crime family,” Pomerantz wrote.
He added that to refute claims that Trump didn’t lie because he “believed in his own ‘hype’,” prosecutors would “need to show and emphasize that Donald Trump wasn’t legally insane.”
The Manhattan Attorney’s Office was working to bring charges against Donald Trump (pictured) on alleged business corruption charges, according to a former prosecutor
Mark Pomerantz, who resigned in protest last year after DA Alvin Bragg decided not to press charges against Trump, compared the former president to notorious Gambino crime boss John Gotti (pictured), a characterization slammed by Trump’s lawyers became
Pomerantz said that when the prosecutor’s office reviewed the case against the former president, “it debated whether Trump had been spewing bullshit about so many things for so many years that he couldn’t process the difference between bullshit and reality.” .
The attorney said he asked his colleagues, “Does Donald Trump have some sort of mental condition that made it impossible for him to distinguish between fact and fiction?”
And comparing Trump to the notorious mafia boss, Pomerantz wrote that the former president “demanded absolute loyalty and would go after anyone who got in his way.”
He also claimed that Trump “always seemed to be one step ahead of the law.”
The characterization was met with outrage from Trump’s legal team, and attorney Joe Tacopina threatened legal action against the former prosecutor if he publishes the book.
Tacopina told the Times that “inserting the name John Gotti is just another desperate attempt by Pomerantz to sell books.”
While the book reiterates claims that Trump fraudulently inflated his fortune while conducting business in New York City, it primarily focuses on the turbulent journey Pomerantz went through to build the case that was ultimately never pursued while he was in the prosecutor’s office.
Pomerantz claimed his work building a case against Trump had no support after Braggs became a prosecutor in 2022, and the attorney wanted to press charges, although he conceded to his new boss that they only had a 70 percent chance of success
The full details of the legal drama are highlighted in Pomerantz’s new book, People vs. Donald Trump
While working under former prosecutor Cyrus Vance Jr., Pomerantz had come out of retirement to lead the investigation.
Pomerantz pointed out that there are clear risks in pursuing money laundering allegations against Trump.
Instead, Pomerantz wrote that New York’s corruption-related racketeering statute was “an ideal vehicle for prosecuting Donald Trump and the Trump Organization.”
Though Vance was reportedly behind the new strategy, Pomerantz claimed the rest of the team was “not thrilled” and that support waned as Vance prepared to step down.
Pomerantz said he soon became a “raving maniac” for getting the Manhattan DA’s office to work with the DA’s office headed by Letitia James, who he says was “way ahead” of a similar one case against Trump.
By early 2022, Pomerantz admitted the case was not a sure thing and estimated her chances of success at about 70 percent, the Times reports.
Bragg eventually decided not to pursue the case and defended his decision ahead of the new book’s release.
“After carefully reviewing all of the evidence from Mr. Pomerantz’s investigation, I came to the same conclusion as several senior prosecutors involved in the case, as well as those I had consulted: more work was needed,” he said he in a statement.
“Our competent and professional legal team continues to follow the facts of this case, wherever they may lead, without fear or favor. Mr. Pomerantz decided a year ago to quit and sign a book deal,” he added.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is renewing his investigation into hush money payments to Stormy Daniels
The district attorney’s office has “launched” its investigation into former President Donald Trump’s role in a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Though Bragg didn’t press charges against Trump at the time, she has since “launched” a legal investigation into Donald Trump over hush money payments to a porn star who claims she had a one-night stand with the ex-president.
Alvin Bragg is set to investigate whether the illegal payment of $130,000 to Stormy Daniels just ahead of the 2016 presidential election could be linked to Trump.
The renewed push comes after Donald Trump’s company was fined $1.6 million last week for plotting to defraud tax authorities for 15 years by giving executives perks like cars, rent-free housing and Tuition fees granted for private schools.
A New York state judge issued the maximum fine on Friday after a Manhattan jury found two Trump Organization affiliates guilty of 17 criminal counts including fraud last month.
Trump was not on trial and denied any knowledge of illegal tax evasion by his executives.
In the case of Stormy Daniels, the prosecutor’s office had previously investigated the allegations, but attention has turned to the former president’s businesses.
Now that a successful verdict has been reached, the Office is once again focusing on Daniels.
She claims to have had a one-night stand with Trump at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe in 2016, shortly after Trump’s third wife, Melania, gave birth to the couple’s son, Barron. Trump denies having sex with the actress.
Subpoenas have been sent out again since the Trump Organization trial, reports the New York Times.
Although the information sought is unknown, this suggests the investigation into Trump is gaining momentum again.
New York Attorney General Letitia James called for Trump’s testimony in August — and just over a month later announced a lawsuit against the former president, three of his children and his company for inflating the value of his real estate
The case in the Manhattan Attorney’s office also comes as District Attorney Letita James advances her case against Trump and his companies.
James, a Democrat who struggled on promises to take on Trump and his companies, filed a $250 million lawsuit alleging he misled banks and lenders about his assets.
In video of the testimony for the case, Trump could be seen invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 400 times.
“This whole thing is very unfair,” Trump said in the statement about the summer. “Anyone in my position who doesn’t accept the Fifth Amendment would be a fool, an absolute fool.
“I respectfully decline to answer questions about the rights and privileges accorded to every citizen under the United States Constitution,” he added, claiming it was done on the advice of his attorney.
‘This will be my answer to all further questions.’