https://www.newyorker.com/news/news...ld-trump-jr-avoided-a-criminal-indictment/ampIn the spring of 2012, Donald Trump's two eldest children, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump, Jr., found themselves in a precarious legal position. For two years, prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney's office had been building a criminal case against them for misleading prospective buyers of units in the Trump SoHo, a hotel and condo development that was failing to sell. Despite the best efforts of the siblings' defense team, the case had not gone away. An indictment seemed like a real possibility. The evidence included e-mails from the Trumps making clear that they were aware they were using inflated figures about how well the condos were selling to lure buyers.
In one e-mail, according to four people who have seen it, the Trumps discussed how to coördinate false information they had given to prospective buyers. In another, according to a person who read the e-mails, they worried that a reporter might be on to them. In yet another, Donald, Jr., spoke reassuringly to a broker who was concerned about the false statements, saying that nobody would ever find out, because only people on the e-mail chain or in the Trump Organization knew about the deception, according to a person who saw the e-mail. There was ”no doubt" that the Trump children ”approved, knew of, agreed to, and intentionally inflated the numbers to make more sales," one person who saw the e-mails told us. ”They knew it was wrong."
In 2010, when the Major Economic Crimes Bureau of the D.A.'s office opened an investigation of the siblings, the Trump Organization had hired several top New York criminal-defense lawyers to represent Donald, Jr., and Ivanka. These attorneys had met with prosecutors in the bureau several times. They conceded that their clients had made exaggerated claims, but argued that the overstatements didn't amount to criminal misconduct. Still, the case dragged on. In a meeting with the defense team, Donald Trump, Sr., expressed frustration that the investigation had not been closed. Soon after, his longtime personal lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, entered the case.
Kasowitz, who by then had been the elder Donald Trump's attorney for a decade, is primarily a civil litigator, with little experience in criminal matters. But, in 2012, Kasowitz donated twenty-five thousand dollars to the reëlection campaign of the Manhattan District Attorney, Cyrus Vance, Jr., making Kasowitz one of Vance's largest donors. Kasowitz decided to bypass the lower-level prosecutors and went directly to Vance to ask that the investigation be dropped.
On May 16, 2012, Kasowitz visited Vance's office at One Hogan Place, in downtown Manhattan—a faded edifice made famous by the television show ”Law & Order." Dan Alonso, the Chief Assistant District Attorney, and Adam Kaufmann, the chief of the investigative division, were also at the meeting, but no one from the Major Economic Crimes Bureau attended. Kasowitz did not introduce any new arguments or facts during his session. He simply repeated the arguments that the other defense lawyers had been making for months.
Ultimately, Vance overruled his own prosecutors. Three months after the meeting, he told them to drop the case. Kasowitz subsequently boasted to colleagues about representing the Trump children, according to two people. He said that the case was ”really dangerous," one person said, and that it was ”amazing I got them off." (Kasowitz denied making such a statement.)
Vance defended his decision. ”I did not at the time believe beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime had been committed," he told us. ”I had to make a call and I made the call, and I think I made the right call."
Just before the 2012 meeting, Vance's campaign had returned Kasowitz's twenty-five-thousand-dollar contribution, in keeping with what Vance describes as standard practice when a donor has a case before his office. Kasowitz ”had no influence, and his contributions had no influence whatsoever on my decision-making in the case," Vance said.
But, less than six months after the D.A.'s office dropped the case, Kasowitz made an even larger donation to Vance's campaign, and helped raise more from others—eventually, a total of more than fifty thousand dollars. After being asked about these donations as part of the reporting for this article—more than four years after the fact—Vance said he now plans to give back Kasowitz's second contribution, too. ”I don't want the money to be a millstone around anybody's neck, including the office's," he said.
Kasowitz told us that his donations to Vance were unrelated to the case. ”I donated to Cy Vance's campaign because I was and remain extremely impressed by him as a person of impeccable integrity, as a brilliant lawyer and as a public servant with creative ideas and tremendous ability," Kasowitz wrote in an e-mailed statement. ”I have never made a contribution to anyone's campaign, including Cy Vance's, as a ‘quid-pro-quo' for anything."
Last year, the Times reported the existence of the criminal investigation into the Trump SoHo project. But the prosecutor's focus on Ivanka and Donald, Jr., and the e-mail evidence against them, as well as Kasowitz's involvement, and Vance's decision to overrule his prosecutors, had not previously been made public. This account is based on interviews with twenty sources familiar with the investigation, court records, and other public documents. We were not able to review copies of the e-mails that were the focal point of the inquiry. We are relying on the accounts of multiple individuals who have seen them.
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The New Yorker: How Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump, Jr., Avoided a Criminal Indictment
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Widdle Puppy
Banned
Like father like son and hot daughter
TheOfficeMut
Unconfirmed Member
Fucking Vance. Ill admit that Im not sure whether the allegations could be considered criminal, but fucking Vance. Now I have less faith that hell do anything if Mueller asks him to press charges. Hopefully a case such as Muellers would be too big to ignore.
They could find video evidence of Ivanka and Jr committing a murder and even if their dad wasn't President they'd still find a way to get off scott free.
Rich & powerful people almost never see the inside of a prison.
I mean, you like what you like, but still - aren't there plenty of hot chicks who aren't sociopaths?
Curious Puppy
Banned
From one Puppy to another... nah man.
That makes her hotter. It's like a dangerous animal, way more exciting than a docile one.
This isn't just something white people do, stop being racist.
You need to learn what racist actually means.
Dredd97
Member
racism is a two way street surely...
As I told the other guy, learn what the word means. Merely mentioning a race doesn't make anything racist.
Wut. Calling out rich white people for getting away with horrible stuff isn't racist, it's just pointing out that they use their money and privilege to escape punishment.
boiled goose
good with gravy
Probably old enough to vote for trump 🙃
Pai Pai Master
Banned
It has been really frustrating to see Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush, among others, get so defensive when people talk about the shortcomings of their reporting on the Trump campaign.
Pointing out reality isn't racist. Rich White people DO get away with things others, like me, would do hard time for.
It seems you read it like "only White people that are rich are horrible people", I'm just not sure why you read it that way.
This family is scum. Even if they get away with out doing time, I hope their empire becomes toxic once Trump is out of office.
Byakuya769
Member
How can you dig into this when the political story of the century needs reporting on!?! Those emails weren't gonna report on themselves.
Electric Eye
Banned
Guys chill out if you keep pointing out truths you might trigger preezy into becoming a kekistan nazi or something.
PoorChoices
Member
I don't know what's worse: The fact that they basically used scare tactics to stop lawsuits, or that this doesn't even surprise me.
Chmpocalypse
Blizzard
Good job! With one idiotic comment you've successfully ensured no one will ever take anything you have to say seriously.
ManDudeChild
Member
I'm surprised at this point, since EVERYONE knows the Trump family's MO, that someone hasn't entrapped them. At this point it should be like shooting fish in a barrel.
OG Shaka Zulu
Member
Man of God will surely set his kids straight!
Random Painted HIghway
Member
Disgusting, but not surprising. Cant imagine how many cases this family has bought their way out of over the years. I experienced this exactly once as a prosecutor, someone pulling rank on me after a chat with a donor defense attorney on a sex crimes case. I cant prove exactly what went down, but I can read between the lines on things. I quit a few months later when I found another job, nothing more demoralizing than realizing youre getting played. Good thing mueller is working on this and the ny ag can handle state level charges, hopefully at least on the latter part.
BlueTsunami
there is joy in sucking dick
I mean why wouldn't this shit family not attempt all these things they've done when they can buy a DA? The Mueller investigation does feel like all the chickens coming home to roost but it still remains to be seen of it'll reach Donald.
Look who else bribed donated to a Cyrus Vance campaign!
🤔🤔🤔
http://www.ibtimes.com/political-ca...00-manhattan-da-after-he-declined-file-sexual
🤔🤔🤔
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