Business Insider
A top prosecutor who abruptly left the Manhattan DA’s office said in his resignation letter there’s ‘no doubt’ that Trump committed ‘numerous’ felonies
- A former top prosecutor from the Manhattan DA’s office said in his resignation letter that Trump is guilty of “numerous” felonies, NYT reported.
- Mark Pomerantz and Carey Dunne, who were leading the DA’s Trump probe, abruptly resigned last month.
- Dunne and Pomerantz planned to charge Trump with falsifying business records, per NYT.
One of the two top prosecutors who suddenly left the Manhattan district attorney’s office last month said in his resignation letter that he believes former President Donald Trump is guilty of “numerous” felonies, The New York Times reported.
“The team that has been investigating Mr. Trump harbors no doubt about whether he committed crimes — he did,” the prosecutor, Mark Pomerantz, said in his resignation latter, according to The Times.
Pomerantz and Carey Dunne, the other senior prosecutor who was leading the DA’s criminal investigation into the Trump Organization’s business dealings, resigned in February after the new district attorney, Alvin Bragg, expressed doubts about moving forward with a case against the former president.
Pomerantz said in his resignation letter, dated February 23, that Trump was in fact “guilty of numerous felony violations” and that it would be a “grave failure of justice” to not hold him accountable for his actions, according to The Times.
The report said that Pomerantz and Dunne had planned to charge Trump with falsifying business records, which is a felony in the state of New York.
But Bragg’s reluctance to pursue a criminal case against Trump, and Pomerantz and Dunne’s subsequent resignations, has thrown the fate of the longrunning criminal investigation into disarray.
A spokesperson for the DA’s office previously told Insider that “the investigation is ongoing” and “we can’t comment further.”
The DA’s office has fought to keep the resignation letters of Pomerantz and Dunne from becoming public.
The letters “reflect internal deliberations and opinions about an on-going investigation,” a records official told Insider in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.”Further, the documents reference matters attending a grand jury proceeding, which is exempt from disclosure.”
The DA’s office previously indicted the Trump Organization and its longtime chief bookkeeper, Allen Weisselberg, on 15 felony counts. Trump has not been charged with a crime.
The first round of charges stemming from the inquiry, brought against the Trump Organization and Weisselberg, zeroed in on alleged tax-evasion schemes. But the investigation later shifted to focus on whether the Trump Organization, and Trump himself, artificially inflated or deflated the value of assets for loan and tax purposes, respectively.
The DA’s investigation had recently homed in on whether Trump exaggerated his financial net worth when applying for loans. His longtime accounting firm, Mazars USA, cut ties with him earlier in February after determining, based on revelations from a separate civil investigation by the New York attorney general’s office, that ten years of his financial statements “should no longer be relied upon.”
Related:
Manhattan prosecutor who resigned says Trump guilty of felonies
Reuters
Manhattan prosecutor who resigned says Trump guilty of felonies – New York Times
March 23, 2022
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – One of the prosecutors who had led a New York criminal probe into Donald Trump and his business practices said in a resignation letter last month that the former president was “guilty of numerous felony violations,” the New York Times reported on Wednesday.
Mark Pomerantz, who resigned on Feb. 23 after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had indicated to him he had doubts about pursuing a case against Trump, also said it was “a grave failure of justice” not to hold Trump accountable, according to the Times.
“The team that has been investigating Mr. Trump harbors no doubt about whether he committed crimes – he did,” Pomerantz wrote, according to the Times, which published what it said was the letter.
In the United States, criminal defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Bragg’s predecessor Cyrus Vance had said in court filings that the office was investigating “possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct” at the Trump Organization, including tax and insurance fraud and falsification of business records.
Pomerantz did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters. Ron Fischetti, a lawyer for Trump, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither the Trump Organization nor its lawyer Alan Futerfas immediately responded to requests for comment.
The Times quoted Fischetti as saying charges against Trump were not warranted and applauding Bragg for not pursuing the case.
Another prosecutor, Carey Dunne, resigned on the same day as Pomerantz. Bragg, who took office on Jan. 1, was not confident the prosecutors could demonstrate Trump had intended to inflate the value of his real estate, the Times reported.
A spokeswoman for Bragg, Danielle Filson, told the Times the investigation was continuing.
A civil investigation into Trump and the Trump Organization is being conducted by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Trump has previously denied wrongdoing and said the state and city investigations were politically motivated.
(Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Mary Milliken, Noeleen Walder and William Mallard)