Two Manhattan District Attorneys who have been investigating Donald Trump’s business practices for several years abruptly resigned on Tuesday, leaving the case against the former president in limbo.
Carey R. Dunne and Mark F. Pomerantz submitted their resignations after the new Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, indicated that he had doubts about moving forward with the case.
The issue is whether Trump inflated his net worth to get favorable rates on real estate loans. After a flurry of activity in January at the Lower Manhattan courthouse where the grand jury was sitting, no witnesses have been called in about a month.
New York Times:
Without Mr. Bragg’s commitment to move forward, the prosecutors late last month postponed a plan to question at least one witness before the grand jury, one of the people said. They have not questioned any witnesses in front of the grand jury for more than a month, essentially pausing their investigation into whether Mr. Trump inflated the value of his assets to obtain favorable loan terms from banks.
The precise reasons for Mr. Bragg’s pullback are unknown, and he has made few public statements about the status of the inquiry since taking office. In a statement responding to the resignations of the prosecutors, a spokeswoman for Mr. Bragg said that he was “grateful for their service” and that the investigation was ongoing.
This wouldn’t be a case of another prosecutor smoothly sliding into place to replace Dunne and Pomerantz. They had worked on this complex case for years.
Time is running out for this grand jury, whose term is scheduled to expire in April. Prosecutors can ask jurors to vote to extend their term, but generally avoid doing so. They also are often reluctant to impanel a new grand jury after an earlier one has heard testimony, because witnesses could make conflicting statements if asked to testify again.
And without Mr. Dunne, a veteran of the office who has been closely involved with the inquiry for years, and Mr. Pomerantz, a leading figure in New York legal circles who was enlisted to work on it, the yearslong investigation could peter out.
It sounds like Bragg is throwing in the towel because “there’s no there there.” There are other criminal investigations of Donald Trump’s businesses going on, and perhaps Bragg decided to consolidate his resources in order to have a better chance against Trump in some other venue for some other crime.
Source: PJ Media
