Prosecutors in charge of Trump criminal probe have resigned
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
NEW YORK (AP) — The two prosecutors in charge of the Manhattan district attorney's criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump and his business dealings suddenly resigned Wednesday, throwing the future of the probe into question just as pressure was building on Trump on several legal fronts.
A spokesperson for District Attorney Alvin Bragg confirmed the resignations of Carey Dunne and Mark Pomerantz, top deputies who had been tasked with running the investigation on a day-to-day basis. Both started on the Trump probe under former District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., and Bragg asked them to stay when he took office in January.
Dunne, the office's former general counsel, argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in a successful, multiyear fight for Trump's tax records. Pomerantz, a former mafia prosecutor, was brought out of private practice by Vance last year to add his expertise in white collar investigations and had been involved in questioning witnesses before the grand jury.
"We are grateful for their service," Bragg spokesperson Danielle Filson said. She declined to comment further, saying the investigation is ongoing.
The New York Times, citing sources, reported that the grand jury investigation had stalled, with no sessions in the last month, and that Dunne and Pomerantz quit after Bragg raised doubts about pursuing a case against Trump himself. No former president has ever been charged with a crime.
So far, the nearly three-year investigation has resulted only in tax fraud charges against Trump's company, the Trump Organization, and its longtime finance chief Allen Weisselberg relating to lucrative fringe benefits such as rent, car payments and school tuition.
Messages seeking comment were left for Dunne and Pomerantz.
Trump did not immediately respond to the news. In a telephone interview, his lawyer Robert Fischetti said: "I'm a very happy man. In my opinion, this investigation is over."
Fischetti said Bragg has not spoken to him about the status of the investigation or potential charges against Trump but, given Thursday's developments, the lawyer said it appeared that the D.A. had reviewed the case and signaled to his deputies he was not inclined to pursue an indictment.
"My client has done nothing wrong," Fischetti said.
The resignations were likely to further embolden Trump, a Republican who continues to tease another run for president in 2024, after several recent legal setbacks. Trump has repeatedly railed against the New York probes as baseless and politically motivated, saying in a statement last week that Democratic prosecutors were spending "historic amounts of time, energy, and money trying to 'get Trump.'"
But Trump's legal challenges continue. Last week, a judge in New York ordered him to testify under oath in a parallel civil investigation focused in part on whether his company misrepresented asset values, a judge in Washington, D.C. refused to dismiss conspiracy lawsuits trying to hold him liable for the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot and the National Archives revealed that classified information was found in 15 boxes of White House records taken to his Mar-a-Lago home.
Meanwhile, the Jan. 6 committee is continuing to investigate the insurrection, and what role Trump played in inciting it, and an investigation in Georgia is continuing into whether Trump broke the law by trying to pressure state officials to throw out President Joe Biden's 2020 election victory. A special grand jury is expected to be seated in May in that case and will work for up to a year.
The Manhattan D.A.'s office started investigating Trump in 2019, first examining hush-money payments paid to women on his behalf and then expanding into an inquiry into whether the president's company misled lenders or tax authorities about the value of its properties.
Just last month, Bragg said he was proud of the continuity that Dunne and Pomerantz had brought in running the high-profile investigation as he took over the D.A.'s office from Vance, who declined to run for re-election after winning the battle over Trump's tax returns.
"I do think the one continuity is the staffing and (Vance) brought on incredible lawyers to do it," Bragg said in a Jan. 20 question-and-answer session with reporters.
"And they've been dedicated and we've been working and keeping them in place and thinking about the kind of resources to continue the investigation in order to then be in a position to make" decisions on the direction of the probe, Bragg said.
Bragg, limited by ethics rules from discussing the case in detail, said at the time that he was getting up to speed on the Trump investigation and that he would "follow the facts." He didn't offer a timeline for a charging decision.
"It's a matter that's personally, as you would imagine, on my radar screen and that I'm mindful of and paying attention to," Bragg said.
Weisselberg, the only person charged in the investigation, has pleaded not guilty to charges he collected and failed to pay taxes on more than $1.7 million in off-the-books compensation.
On Tuesday, lawyers for Weisselberg and the Trump Organization filed court papers seeking to throw out the case. Weisselberg's lawyers argued the D.A.'s office was targeting him as punishment because he wouldn't flip on the former president.
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Associated Press reporters Jim Mustian in New York and Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed to this report.
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The moral of this story may be that there is a level that even lawyers won't stoop to.
I guess we can file this latest fishing expedition as case closed!
I think you have it backwards . it appears two prosecutors resigned because the district attorney was not forcefully enough pursuing the grand jury.
Yes, the Manhattan DA doesn't think there's a case, so he backed off.
So you would agree then that the two resigned prosecutors most likely believe that there is a case
I'm just laughing because Vics take away on the case was completely backwards
Lol .... your not the only one .... only we are not laughing at Vic’s position but rather at yours
One prosecutor may quit to pursue a better job
Two prosecutors quit it's a protest
Yes, I would really like to see that as well so I can stop laughing and tell John he might actually be right.
Yes John, but a protest over what? Both you and the article are speculating. Are those famous "sources" the same ones that were leaking information to the media that was completely false during the whole Trump Russian collusion investigation? Or are they the same "sources" screaming "There is nothing going on!" with the Durham or Hunter Biden investigations? Either way "sources" are not to be trusted on anything from the left unless they have names attached to them; and can be verified.
They better stay away from bed sheets, dark alleys and closets.
Does this mean that everything 'the Donald' claims is true?
I thought it kind of interesting to see this matter raised in this article about two who were prosecuting Trump suddenly deciding to quit.
Maybe Shakespeare had the right idea.
Is this a good time for lawyer jokes? Like this one...
Q: What do you call 500 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?
A: A good start.
Q: Did you hear about the research rats that refused to be experimented on because even rats have principles?
A: They were replaced with lawyers.
heard one similar after a high profile case recently , someone said even a chimp could have won that case , what made me spit out my beer was the reply , "Nah , even chimps have principles, they wouldnt have taken the case ".....
Q. What's the difference between a prostitute and a lawyer?
A. A prostitute can screw you only when you're alive.
As for those lawyers at the bottom of the ocean, why won't the sharks touch them?
Professional courtesy.
If I could have found a T-shirt that said the line from Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 2 "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers" I would have bought a couple in different colours and worn them all summer.
Given the day to day obsession with Trump from some, it's amazing this doesn't have 200 comments already.
Now that's there's actual news, no one wants to discuss it.
Nope, not here!
Give them time. Right now they are still running in circles and crying with their hair on fire. Eventually the normal people from the "Nuh uh" squad will show up and deflect and post memes.
They probably quit because they were being overworked with the shear volume of Trump criminality.
You do know they are lawyers right? They charge for their time. If that there was that much volume they never would have quit. Their billing departments might have quit from all of the extra work load; but the lawyers would be busy grinning all the way to the bank.
Overworked lawyers- that is a real oxymoron.
This case has always been more about creating anti-Trump Propaganda than prosecuting any real crime. I'd say this is just their latest ploy to keep it going, by having to replace the two prosecutors in charge they'll drag it out for another year or so under the pretext that their replacements need to familiarize themselves with the case and reinterview key witnesses before going forward. As for the two who resigned I'm sure they've been offered cushy positions somewhere as thanks for their service.
That case involved squeezing one person to say certain things. That was the whole ballgame.
Sometimes I wish they would find something and deny him a path to the 2024 nomination. That would leave all the gates open to DeSantis.
Great to know that tax evasion is not a real crime.
Unfortunately, they couldn't charge the man so many here hate with tax evasion. I'm sure they'll think of other crimes.
The president responded Wednesday by claiming that those significant losses were just a way to get out paying the federal government owed money for "sport."
I guess Trump’s own words need repeating:
The president responded Wednesday by claiming that those significant losses were just a way to get out paying the federal government owed money for "sport."
The right has just plain resorted to not believing anything that they don’t want to be true even when they openly admit to these things themselves.
What can one say ? we live in a world of morons.
I'll take the points. I don't really care.
That is very true for some, like you, that see one every morning when they look in the mirror.
So you are pissed that Trump is doing what every damn rich person does in the US (Including Democrat saints the Obamas and Clintons)? Or are you pissed Trump is boorish enough to admit it?
You guys are just all over the map on this, aren’t you? “It’s not illegal … it is illegal but every rich person does it … prove that he broke laws … etc etc.” Saying anything and everything to try and own the libs, no matter how ridiculous you look.
We can refute practically everything the left posts here.
Lol. In your mind, yes. In reality … rofl!
What you are suggesting then is that it’s fine for the IRS to go after the guy who can’t afford an army of crooked lawyers over something that is clearly against the law, but if they don’t go after the guy who does have the army of crooked lawyers that’s fine too.
You draw clear enough lines for anyone who is literate to read between.
Got a link for that?