February 23, 2022
"The two prosecutors leading the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into former President Donald J. Trump and his business practices abruptly resigned on Wednesday…"
"... amid a monthlong pause in their presentation of evidence to a grand jury, according to people with knowledge of the matter, throwing the future of the high-stakes inquiry into serious doubt.
The prosecutors, Carey R. Dunne and Mark F. Pomerantz, submitted their resignations after the new Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, indicated to them that he had doubts about moving forward with a case against Mr. Trump, the people said.
Mr. Pomerantz confirmed in a brief interview that he had resigned, but declined to elaborate. Mr. Dunne declined to comment."
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82 comments:
I'm still shocked by all the constant reporting on Trump's suspected wrongdoing....and how they constantly fail to list out the epic number of investigations done into Trump and how they have failed to prosecute him or him family.
They found no evidence of any crime committed by PDT. They probably found incriminating evidence involving Clinton, the FBI and the Democrats involved with Clinton.
Bragg who is no closet Republican knows the case against Trump is all politics and no substance. Trump has the pocket and the meanness go after them for prosecutorial misconduct. The NY State AG isn't yet ready to throw in the towel on her ludicrous valuation nonsense.
Putin paid them all off. Obviously.
I’m sure the NYT will get to the bottom of this.
Or at least assemble the “best version” of The Truth before dissembling.
now they can go get paid to be CNN and MSNBC contributors.
Good. Are prosecutorial doubts a harbinger of sanity breaking out in Manhattan? Seems unlikely, but we can be hopeful, can’t we?
So are the two that resigned the corrupt bastards or the new guy?
The anit-Trump NYC establishment wanted Trump to be guilty of evaluation fraud on his properties. Here in King County, the K.C. assessor is responsible for establishing the assessed value of real property. The owner has no input on what that value is.
A bank making a loan on a property will appraise the property before it makes the loan. Again, the owner has no input except to object to the final value and order a reappraisal. Any bank who doesn't do its own appraisal and relies on the word of the mortgagee is running a slipshod operation.
The IRS has been auditing Trump's companies since Christ was a corporal. No federal indictments.
It's not surprising that the D.A. can't come up with an indictment. The D.A. is just a political hack.
Is there a better time for these two to cash-in on the 15-minutes of fame this witch-hunt affords them than to join a large, woke law firm?
Resigning before you bring a case to trail let's you tell everyone what a great case you had without having to prove it.
So was the case against Trump so poor that even Alvin Bragg balked at going forward? Or did Trump buy off Bragg with chump change? I wouldn’t count on the Times to figure it out.
The tax value is the value of land and buildings. The bank loan value is that plus the value of the ongoing business. They're quite different.
Damn! And just when the walls were closing in on Trump.
Trump seems to have this invisible barrier of protection around him. It reminds me of those verses in the Book of Psalms, about your adversaries falling into the traps they've laid for you. Again and again, the bullets bounce off of him. How many times have we heard, "This time we've got him!"? Somehow, he always escapes their clutches. It's to the point where I almost expect it every time.
I always laugh at charges of tax fraud against someone like Trump. I have no doubt his tax lawyers and accountants play the edges. But I also have no doubt they have plausible reasons for everything they do. And they are far more experienced than the folks investigating them.
I swear some people think DJT sits down with a copy of Turbo Tax in early April. Then he inflates the real numbers until he gets the results he wants.
The IRS has been auditing Trump's companies since Christ was a corporal. No federal indictments.
One of the funniest things about the whole Trump era is the fact that Trump may very well be the cleanest man in politics.
The only possible conclusion: Trump is not a ham sandwich.
I guess they need to find another form of harassment and/or threat.
Dems are pitifully desperate to nail something to Trump so that he doesn't run in 2024. Lots of establishment Republicans probably feel the same way.
I wonder what the next charge will be.
Once again another demonstration prosecutors should not have qualified immunity.
Problem is, even with a compliant grand jury- they were not investigating crimes. They were trying to find crimes. There's a significant difference between the two activities. And only one of them is legitimate.
We would have got him this time, if it hadn't been for those darn kids and that dog!!
Oft evil will shall evil mar.
Blogger rehajm said..."So are the two that resigned the corrupt bastards or the new guy?"
That's the first question that came to my mind.
My mature self wants to say, "Good. This was a witch-hunt all along."
My immature self wants to say, "Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha." Times a million.
Since my life is a war between these two selfs, I'll leave them both.
Here is a comment I made at the NYTimes after reading the comments. You would think these people believe the banks are poor little widow ladies with no sense at all. Any lender is going to ask for supporting information that is the basis for a real estate valuation.
"After reading these comments, you would think people didn't read the article. This prosecution was a long shot from day 1. Anyone who has ever been involved with the valuation of property knows that you can find ten people who will give you ten wildly different estimates. And, more importantly, no one knows which one is right. You can make estimates based on revenues, debt, OPEX, etc until the cows come home. The only way to know what a property is truly worth is to sell it."
The Trump persecution helps Don. Maybe the DNC finally got the message.
Bragg is in enough political trouble already for refusing to prosecute serious crimes.
He does not need to get into even more political trouble right now for going along with malicious political prosecutions on behalf of Letitia James.
Both Bragg and James are examples of the possible consequences when Blacks get elected to top-level prosecution positions just because they are Black.
Somewhere Wile E. Coyote sneers as the antics of such amateurs as he waits for his package from Acme.
and how they constantly fail to list out the epic number of investigations done into Trump and how they have failed to prosecute him or him family.
Just wait until you see the interactive exhibit showing all the fruitless investigations at the Trump Presidential Library!
Using VR goggles, you can be with the FBI team and CNN camera crew as they enter his colon.
Trump is a promoter like no other. He is surrounded by an aura of hype. I guess some folks think that is illegal. Let's trot out a few proverbs of the marketplace:
You can't cheat an honest man.
If you are in a card game and you can't figure out who is the mark, look out! You are the mark.
No one knows who is swimming naked until the tide goes out.
The last eighth is the most expensive eighth.
Where are the customers' yachts?
You cannot make a good deal with a bad person.
Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.
When everyone who wants to sell has sold, that is capitulation. There are only buyers left.
Anyone who understands the above, understands Donald Trump's business career.
"One of the funniest things about the whole Trump era is the fact that Trump may very well be the cleanest man in politics."
He lacks the competence and motivation to be really evil. And I mean that as a compliment.
I didn't have that one on my Bingo card. :-D
This analysis seems spot-on: "It appears that these prosecutors wanted to go to trial no matter what, if only to hopefully damage Trump with years of bad headlines before a probable, not guilty verdict. That kind of lawfare is disgusting, and it’s everything that’s wrong with our judicial system."
Alvin Bragg has been bought.
Alvin Bragg has been bought.
Scanned the comments. I'm sure that Fearless Freder and Howard are preparing devastating responses.
The NYT finally discovers the problem with Soros prosecutors who are soft on crime.
Harassment can only go so far without any real crime.
Trump is a master of going right up to the line of illegality, dancing around in the gray zone, but never crossing into clearly illegal conduct. That’s what he did on January 6–fired up the crowd, sent them to demonstrate outside the Capitol, but also told them to be peaceful. I believe the evidence is that he was both surprised and pleased when he first heard the reports about the crowd invading the Capitol—he didn’t plan it, didn’t know it was going to happen, but was happy it did. On the valuation business, unless the prosecution had strong evidence that Trump lied to his appraisers about the material facts of the properties he was asking them to appraise, then they had nothing.
Pursuing Trump after letting Cuomo walk would look like partisan overkill?
I don't know. They probably don't care how they are perceived. Never mind.
How long before libs start calling for an investigation into the 2 prosecutors?
This goes to show that the case is a slam dunk, and these prosecutors are comfortable leaving it in the capable hands of their subordinates.
-probable spin from CNN and MSNBC
"So are the two that resigned the corrupt bastards or the new guy?"
None are corrupt, (as far as we know), but in this scenario, it is Bragg ("the new guy") who is the one responsible. "The two that resigned" are honoring their oaths as officers of the court.
The tax value is the value of land and buildings. The bank loan value is that plus the value of the ongoing business. They're quite different.
True.
The claim is Trump over valued the properties he was using as collateral is securing financing. Trump putting together a package of real estate properties, arrives at a number to cover the value of the loan.
I can see zero course of action by prosecutors to challenge any of the transaction. In my experience, the lender looks at the package and say, "great, I did my own valuation, it is 20% lower than yours, and I'll loan, 80% of my valuation.
Trumps numbers people know all of this and more than likely started with a 150 to 170% of the property needed to secure the loan. The Prosecutor also was challenging the value of Brand, associated with the properties. I have no idea how that can be challenged by the govt.
Again, I see nothing that the Government has jurisdiction to investigate.
It's all so stupid. You'd think that if there was anything out there that could harm Trump they way the Left wants it would have come to light back in 2015. They haven't been able to even turn up an unpaid NYC parking ticket from the 1980's!
>>He lacks the competence and motivation to be really evil. And I mean that as a compliment.
So, you believe that competence is required to be really evil? History disagrees with you, as does the daily police report from just about any major city in America.
Are we shocked?
It was always a nothingburger hoping to be a somethingburger.
But Hillary... now there is a case with a smoking gun!
One of my first cases as a young lawyer was second chair on an eminent domain trial. The local irrigation district wanted to take over an investor owned water utility that served 250,000 people or so spread over 3 municipalities. We represented the owners of the utility.
A water utility is what appraisers call "special purpose property". Among other things that means that water utility systems don't trade very often and so you can't use comparable sales to set a value.
One of our expert witnesses came from Wisconsin. He was a Member of The American Appraisal Institute and so had "MAI" behind his name. . He was a nice guy who had a lot of experience with valuing special purpose properties. But he joked that the initials MAI stood for "Made As Instructed". And in that particular case, depending upon which expert witness you listened to, and which method of valuation they chose, there was a 400% spread between the low appraisal and the high appraisal of the property. The trial was before a judge and took 8 months of testimony. On final appeal of the trial verdict the parties essentially split the baby and settled on the middle valuation.
Most of Trump's properties were large commercial real estate buildings of various types--office towers, hotels, casinos. You can expect wide ranges in appraisal value. You can't tell what such properties are really worth until someone buys them. At best an appraisal is an educated guess.
I think the new District Attorney in New York realized he had a loser of a case here--Trump is not some penniless chump who can't hire decent and expensive lawyers.
Tax law is complicated. Real estate tax law is exponentially more complicated.
The average reader does not know what is legal, illegal, or a matter of headline with twisted descriptors.
But it can make a fuss with the voters.
I think the two lawyers who resigned should be investigated for racism. Bragg is a POC and they don't want to associate with him? For shame!
Blogger gadfly said...
Alvin Bragg has been bought.
2/23/22, 3:57 PM
Blogger gadfly said...
Alvin Bragg has been bought.
2/23/22, 3:57 PM
--
That's the ticket!
That's the ticket!
NY federal prosecutors in Roger Ng trial: Hold our beer. . . .
Trump is a fraud fraud fraud!
But please - ignore all Biden and Pelosi family illegal grifting.
Sounds like Bragg in a very short time paused the Grand Jury. After more investigation as to what evidence has turned up, (zero) shut down the case before a judge got a look at it and tossed it lack of, well, evidence. The two prosecutors wanted to take the known loser case to trial, just to bloody the Trump name. The new DA would not let his reputation be smeared with a weak case of lawfare.
Trump is right...again. A witch hunt.
Don’t worry Rachel Maddow has taken a leave of absence from MSNC and she will be on the case. She’s like a bulldog with a bone and she’ll never let it go..
Bombshell!
Good Luck Rach!
I think the new District Attorney in New York realized he had a loser of a case here--Trump is not some penniless chump who can't hire decent and expensive lawyers.
========
also whatever was decided in this case would be precedent for all others in NY
reality bites real estate or other way round
Putin threatened them by inferring he would send John Wick by, "wit a FUCKING PENCIL".
Mr Wibble, "Cleanest man in politics"? What a low bar.
'Alvin Bragg has been bought.'
With what? A few cases of Twinkies?
That I can believe...
To list just a few:
The Muller/Russiagate Investigation didn't get Trump.
Impeachment #1 didn't get Trump.
Impeachment #2 didn't get Trump.
Now the Manhattan DA won't get Trump.
Not even Maxwell Smart would believe he "missed it by this much!"
There is a term used to describe people who keep doing the same thing, over and over, this time expecting different results. It seems to fit those with TDS quite well.
gadfly opines that Bragg has been bought.
Hmmm. Lefty Democrat lawyer.
Knowing lefties, Democrats, and lawyers the way I do, I'd say that's a good theory.
The resignations were a way to smear Trump without having to prove anything in court, and as we can see by some of the comments, it seems to be working.
I hope gadfly is gonna be ok.
There is a term used to describe people who keep doing the same thing, over and over, this time expecting different results.
Ummmmm.........Software Engineers??.......cuz I'm really well acquainted with one. I see him in the mirror when I shave.
Probably, this case was for signing the loan applications with an FDIC insured Bank. Since DJT usually had loans that waived personal liability so banks relied solely on collateral validation. That means his total assets were never an issue. But the loan Apps probably still had questions as to that figure. If he was effectively running a bankrupt business, then loans would seldom be approved.
The NYC investor community are not in favor of DAs using this tool especially on loans that were paid off. They would all go to jail if it is taken seriously.
I'm old enough to remember back in Aught-16, when the Dems were all "Trump is a crook--he has four hundred [or was it four thousand, or four hundred thousand?] lawsuits against him and his companies in the courts now!"
I wonder how those turned out.
The prosecutors, Carey R. Dunne and Mark F. Pomerantz, submitted their resignations after the new Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, indicated to them that he had doubts about moving forward with a case against Mr. Trump, the people said
How shitty does your case have to be, that a far Left Soros DA won't keep it going?
They want Trump to run. They're even saying that they need someone like him to run - see other Althouse posts. And some great brain among the Dems at last realized that prosecuting Trump to stop him from running might stop him from running. So they stopped prosecuting him to stop him from running because they wanted to stop stopping him from running. They believe they can bring back the glory and the dream if they can just get Trump back to hate instead of having Joe Biden to shame them.
gadfly said...
Alvin Bragg has been bought.
Yep, he was bought by Soros.
Now, please explain why Soros is pro-Trump. This should be really funny
Robert Cook said...
"So are the two that resigned the corrupt bastards or the new guy?"
None are corrupt, (as far as we know), but in this scenario, it is Bragg ("the new guy") who is the one responsible. "The two that resigned" are honoring their oaths as officers of the court.
If teh two who resigned were interested in "honoring their oaths as officers of the court", they would have dropped the case over a year ago
"There is a term used to describe people who keep doing the same thing, over and over, this time expecting different results. It seems to fit those with TDS quite well."
*********
Yes. They're called Democrats.
The average citizen without Trump's resources would have been railroaded. DAs have too much power.
Trump was a NY Democrat for most of his life. When he ran for president as a republican, he became an apostate, a traitor to his former NY associates.
That is the basis of their hatred for the man, and why they continue to pursue him. They need to reread Moby Dick and pay attention to the ending this time.
Glenn Greenwald made an interesting point on Ingraham tonight. To paraphrase, the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a direct result of the absence of a diplomatic relationship between the US and Russia for the last 5 years, Greenwald didn't say it out loud, but the implication was that the Hillary Russiagate accusations made it politically impossible for Trump to conduct normal discourse with Putin.
Progressives have lied for over 6 years about Trump. They perpetrated a Coup against him. They belong in prison, and I only wish we had Republicans with balls instead of squishes that will get in, and forget all the damage Progressives have done to the country and they will go along to get along instead of putting the corrupt in prison where they belong for what they did to our country.
Greenwald didn't say it out loud, but the implication was that the Hillary Russiagate accusations made it politically impossible for Trump to conduct normal discourse with Putin.
@Rt41Rebel, makes sense to me.
All pretty disgusting. Is there anyone anywhere who thinks that these investigations would be happening if Trump had not been their political enemy? According to the article, at least four different investigations.
To paraphrase a pundit, the walls are always closing in on Trump, yet somehow always trap. liberals
"Are you tired of winning yet?", and he's not even still president. Trump, you magnificent bastard!
Political volatility, market dynamics, personal assessments, and taxation priorities, reduce appraisals to opinions that are valid in a limited frame of reference (i.e. narrow scope). It’s not surprising that any criminal case built on unstable and shifting sands, with probable political motives, would be shutdown for the sake of avoiding irreconcilable, disparate rulings over a diverse and inclusive field.
I suspect that Bragg recognized that the case is a loser, but as long as jeopardy doesn't obtain, he and any future DA can go back to that well and harass Trump as long as he's alive. He's slow walking it because that is the most damaging thing he can do to Trump.
I'm curious if taxing authorities didn't put in a call to the DA, noting that if all the property evaluations were lowered, they would owe the Trump Corporation money. They wouldn't find that acceptable to achieve victory in what really looks to be an attempt to give Trump a black eye about what he is really worth. A corollary to that might be the introduction of all the disputes between the taxing authorities and the Trump organization about the values. Anybody who has dealt with property evaluation knows the number is always a compromise between what you think it is worth and what the taxman thinks it's worth.
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