WASHINGTON – First indictment for Donald Trump’s empire, which so far had managed to dodge all criminal and civil proceedings, as well as two impeachment procedures. Manhattan District Attorney (Democratic) Cyrus Vance formalized the first charges after nearly three years of investigation, disputing a series of tax crimes against the former president’s holding company and his trusted lieutenant, 73-year-old CFO Allen Weisselberg, who himself spontaneously presented to the prosecutor’s office but entered in handcuffs in court declaring himself “not guilty” and “determined to fight the accusations in court”.
For now, no direct involvement of Trump or his family. It involves 15 counts, including the falsification of accounting documents, for a 15-year tax evasion scheme (from 2005 to June 2021) to reward Weisselberg (and other employees) “in the black”, with cash benefits without the payment of taxes, including expensive tuition for the child, leased cars and apartments, worth $ 1.7 million. The financial executive, also accused of aggravated theft and other crimes, faces up to 15 years in prison, while the Trump Organization, which controls hotels, resorts, golf clubs and properties around the world, risks fines and other penalties, as well as a damage to image that could undermine its relations with banks and business partners.
New York, the director of the Trump Organization is handed over to the authorities. “It’s all politics”
For the former president, on whom the developments of this and other investigations are looming, this is a bad blow, which could compromise his ambitions to remain on the political scene by maintaining control of the Republican party and perhaps reapplying for the White House in 2024. “No comment” for now from the White House. Instead, Trump’s reaction is angry: “The politically motivated witch hunt by the Democrats of the radical left continues, with New York now taking the baton”, he denounces referring to previous investigations that have targeted him and admonishing that the indictment “divides the country like never before”.
“It is not justice but politics”, also counterattacked the Trump organization, arguing that “Weisselberg is used as a pawn in an attempt to burn earth around the former president to damage him”. “The prosecutor is pursuing a criminal investigation linked to benefits granted to employees that neither the taxman nor any other prosecutor would dream of prosecuting,” accuses the holding. The suspicion is that the prosecutor intends to use the accusations to pressure the financial executive and induce him to cooperate, turning his back on the tycoon.
“This is only their first shot,” denounced his lawyer, Ronald Fischetti, hinting that the investigators want to cook Trump on a slow fire. Shortly after, Vance assured that “the investigation continues”.
If he were directly involved, he would be the first former president in American history to be indicted in a criminal investigation. If the investigation does not go further, it would be a bit like the mountain that gives birth to the mouse and would risk corroborating the suspicions that it is a political investigation. The investigation, which began in 2019, aimed to ascertain whether the group inflated asset values to obtain larger loans and, at the same time, underestimated assets in tax returns to reduce taxes. Among the hypotheses raised so far, banking, insurance and tax fraud, as well as the falsification of company documents. Crimes also investigated by New York prosecutor Letitia James, also a Democrat.
The sword of Damocles of other investigations also weighs on Trump’s head, and on his political future: from the pressure to overturn the vote in Georgia to the assault of Congress, which will now be investigated by a House commission appointed by speaker Nancy Pelosi, who included Congresswoman Liz Cheney, the tycoon’s beast. But in the meantime, the former president collects a victory: the ruling with which the Supreme Court confirmed the restrictions on the vote of one of the many republican states, that of Arizona. A decision that Joe Biden called “dangerous”, an “attack on the voting rights of minorities”.
.