When about two dozen New Yorkers went to court in Manhattan this week to complete their work on the grand jury, the case against the man who would be the most prominent defendant in the world was no longer before them.
This man, Donald J. Trump has faced potential criminal charges from the grand jury this year for his business practices. But in the weeks since Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg stopped presenting evidence to jurors about Mr. Trump, new signs have emerged that the former president will not be indicted in Manhattan for the foreseeable future – if at all.
At least three of the witnesses who were central to the case have either not heard from the district attorney’s office for months or have not been asked to testify, according to people familiar with the matter.
In recent weeks, a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, who played a key role in the investigation, has stopped focusing on a potential case against Mr Trump, others familiar with the investigation said, a move that followed his resignation earlier this year. of the two senior prosecutors leading the investigation.
And other prosecutors working on Trump’s investigation have abandoned the “military room” they used to prepare for the presentation of their grand jury earlier this year, people said, leaving behind a large office and conference room. 15th floor of the District Attorney’s Office in Lower Manhattan.
The expiration of the grand jury at the end of the month did not prevent prosecutors from getting another jury, but events underscored Mr Trump’s reduced ability to face charges against Mr Bragg, who along with several other prosecutors had concerns about proving case. Some people close to the investigation believe that it will not lead to charges against the former president unless a witness cooperates unexpectedly – a long chance in an investigation that lasts more than three years.
Mr Bragg’s prosecutors have issued several additional subpoenas in recent weeks, indicating that they are still investigating, but have not found a new way to bring charges against Mr Trump. Previously undeclared subpoenas, people familiar with the matter say, seem to be focusing on the same topic that has long been the subject of investigation: whether Mr Trump misplaced the value of his assets in the annual financial statements.
The subpoenas suggest that instead of pursuing a new theory of the case, Mr. Bragg is looking at additional entities that received Mr. Trump’s financial statements while he was seeking loans and pursuing other businesses, and that prosecutors are looking for potential victims of the previous President.
One of the summons went to a large financial institution that may have received Mr. Trump’s financial statements. A second subpoena sent to the Trump Organization largely followed an earlier request to the company for records related to the value of his property. And the third went to the New York agency that tracks municipal providers, including Mr. Trump, who has been doing business with the city for years, running a golf course in the Bronx and an ice rink in Central Park.
In an interview this month, Mr Bragg said his prosecutors were questioning new witnesses and examining additional evidence. He declined to give details, citing the grand jury’s secrecy law, but said the investigation should be allowed to proceed.
“It’s in the process of working,” Mr Bragg said, adding later: “We have experienced prosecutors who work every day. It will not be on the timeline. “
But appointing a new grand jury can create challenges for any potential case. Mr Trump’s lawyers could argue – and the judge may agree – that prosecutors are inappropriately looking for a more favorable group of jurors.
It will also take time to prepare a new presentation of evidence and months to present the case to the jurors.
Mr Bragg’s office does not have unlimited time to blame Mr Trump. Witnesses could forget key information. Prosecutors will also face a deadline to file charges within five years of committing crimes, although there are some exceptions that extend the deadline. And if Mr Trump announces his next presidential candidacy, Mr Bragg is likely to face political pressure not to press charges against a leading White House contender.
But even as the criminal investigation fades from public view, New York Attorney General Leticia James appears ready to take action against Mr Trump as part of his investigation into whether he falsely overestimated the value of his assets in the annual financial statements – the same behavior at the center of the criminal investigation.
At a court hearing Monday – during which a judge admitted Mr Trump’s contempt of court for failing to fully comply with a summons to archiving by Ms James – a lawyer from her office said the chief prosecutor was likely to take action against the former president. near future. As her investigation is a civil one, Ms. James can file a lawsuit, but not a criminal one.
Mr Trump has long denied wrongdoing and accused Ms James and Mr Bragg, both black and Democrat, of being politically motivated “racists”. If he is eventually tried or charged, his lawyers are likely to point to the disclaimer that his financial statements were not audited by his accountants and that they were provided to complex financial institutions that conducted their own due diligence.
Ms. James’ office is also involved in the district attorney’s criminal investigation launched by Mr. Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., more than three years ago.
In December, Mr. Vance ordered the two senior prosecutors leading the criminal investigation, Mark F. Pomerantz and Kerry R. Dunn, to present evidence to a grand jury to prosecute Mr. Trump.
But when Mr Bragg took office this year, he and several aides expressed concern about the gravity of the case, asking if they could prove Mr Trump’s intention to break the law. Other prosecutors at the office have expressed similar concerns, said people familiar with the matter. In the last months of Mr Vance’s term, three assistant district attorneys have stopped working on the investigation, worried about how fast it is going and what they say are gaps in the evidence against the former president.
Eventually, Mr Bragg decided to suspend the grand jury’s presentation, which led to the departure of Mr Dunn and Mr Pomerantz, who said in their resignation letters that they believed Mr Trump was “guilty of many crimes. “
Just weeks after they left, Solomon Shinerock, one of the team’s key prosecutors, stopped investigating Mr Trump. Mr Schinerock, who has been a leading assistant district attorney in the investigation for years, withdrew in part because it appeared to be ending, said two people familiar with the investigation.
The Daily Beast first reported that Mr Schinerok was no longer actively involved in the investigation.
Although Mr. Shinerock is not investigating Mr. Trump, he is still working on a Trump-related case. In July, Manhattan prosecutors filed charges against the Trump Organization and its longtime chief financial officer, Alan H. Weisselberg, accusing them of a long-running tax evasion scheme.
Trump’s investigations
Map 1 of 6
Many inquiries. There have been many investigations and investigations into his business and personal affairs since former President Donald Trump left office. Here is a list of those that continue:
Mr Schinerock is playing a central role in preparing for this process and, given this role, is attending meetings to discuss Mr Trump’s investigation, said a person familiar with the meetings.
In an interview this month, Mr Bragg said no one had left Trump’s team after Mr Dunn and Mr Pomerantz. Asked to clarify his remarks this week, Mr Bragg’s spokeswoman stood by them, saying he had a “dedicated team working on the alleged tax case and the Trump investigation”.
The team is led by Susan Hofinger, an experienced prosecutor appointed by Mr Bragg to head the service’s investigative department.
Spokesman Daniel Filson said in a statement that the team included “lawyers who have worked on the case for years and qualified new prosecutors with decades of experience and fresh eyes.”
She declined to say how many prosecutors and other officials have been assigned to the team investigating Mr Trump, but said he was “actively investigating unexplored roads”.
In the early days of Mr Bragg’s term, key members of Trump’s team took over a conference room on the 15th floor as they continued to present evidence of the former president to a grand jury. But after the resignations of Mr. Pomerantz and Mr. Dunn, the team abandoned this room – an indication, veterans of the office say, that the case will not be referred to a grand jury any time soon. The team members now sit in offices at the Bureau of Serious Economic Crimes.
Mr Bragg told his staff that the investigation could continue if new evidence is found or if a Trump Organization insider decides to stand up to the former president, people familiar with the talks said. Under Mr Vance, prosecutors spent months trying to secure Mr Weiselberg’s co-operation and were unsuccessful.
Mr Pomerantz and Mr Dunn have considered accusing Mr Trump of the crime of falsifying business records, a low-level crime. Asked if he was still considering the allegation or allegations that Mr Trump may have overestimated the value of his assets in his financial statements, Mr Bragg said prosecutors were looking at new evidence and seeing how it fit into the big picture.
But Mr Pomerantz warned in his resignation letter that …
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