Opinion: Are Trump’s legal fortunes finally looking up in New York City? – By Glenn Kirschner (MSNBC) / March 6, 2022
Just when it seemed as if the investigative circle was tightening around Trump, something of a legal bombshell dropped.
Since leaving office, former President Donald Trump has been the target of a series of court cases — almost all of them civil lawsuits filed for a dizzying array of alleged transgressions, from defamation to inciting an insurrection. But one of the most closely watched matters is a criminal case brought by the Manhattan district attorney’s office — a case in which both the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, have been indicted for an alleged 15-year-long criminal scheme to defraud in the first degree, among other charges.
The New York prosecution seemed, at least to me, to be moving steadily in the direction of a possible indictment of Trump himself. Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars, recently severed its relationship with the Trump Organization and disavowed the accuracy and reliability of the last 10 years of accounting work it did for Trump. Moreover, as recently as January, The New York Times reported that a number of witnesses had been seen at the site where the Manhattan grand jury convenes, including Trump’s lead accountant and an expert in real estate practices.
In the related civil fraud investigation of Trump and his organization being conducted by New York Attorney General Leticia James, a judge rejected Trump’s attempt to avoid a deposition, ruling that Trump, Don Jr. and Ivanka all must testify. In an eye-popping order, New York Judge Arthur Engoron noted that he had personally reviewed “thousands of documents” that had been subpoenaed as part of James’ investigation, adding that the state attorney general has a right to question Trump under oath when her investigation “uncovers copious evidence of possible financial fraud.”
