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As the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office ramps up the criminal investigation into Donald J. Trump, he has stepped out of its ranks to enlist a prominent former federal prosecutor to help him examine the company’s financial transactions. former president, according to several people familiar with the matter. .
Former District Attorney Mark F. Pomerantz has extensive experience investigating and defending white collar and organized crime cases, bolstering the team of Prosecutor Cyrus R. Vance Jr. examining Mr. Trump and his company family, the Trump Organization.
The investigation by Mr. Vance, a Democrat, focuses on possible tax and bank fraud, including whether the Trump organization has misled its lenders or local tax authorities about the value of its properties for get loans and tax benefits, people with knowledge. of the case said, requesting anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the investigation. Mr Trump has maintained that he had done nothing wrong and has long denounced the investigation, calling it a politically motivated “witch hunt”.
In recent months, Mr. Vance’s office has expanded the long-standing investigation to include an array of Trump financial transactions and properties – including Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, various Trump hotels and the Seven Springs estate. in Westchester County – as prosecutors await a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that could give them access to Mr. Trump’s tax returns.
Prosecutors also interviewed a number of witnesses and issued more than a dozen New subpoenas, including to one of Mr. Trump’s main lenders, Ladder Capital, those familiar with the matter have said.
In addition, investigators subpoenaed a company hired by Mr. Trump’s other main lender, Deutsche Bank, to assess the value of certain Trump properties, one of those with knowledge of the subpoenas said. previously reported.
Months earlier, Mr Vance’s office had assigned cases to Deutsche Bank itself, The New York Times reported. More recently, Deutsche Bank employees testified at Mr. Vance’s office about the bank’s relationship with the Trump organization, a person briefed on the matter said.
Yet despite the explosion of investigations, prosecutors have said tax returns and other financial documents are essential to their investigation – and the Supreme Court has delayed a final decision for several months.
Manhattan prosecutors have also subpoenaed the Trump Organization on files relating to tax deductions on millions of dollars in consulting fees, some of which appear to have been paid to the former president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump.
The Trump Organization turned over some of those files last month, though prosecutors questioned whether the company had fully responded to the subpoena, people familiar with the case said.
Mr Trump secured an acquittal in his second impeachment trial last week, but remains at the center of at least two state criminal investigations. In addition to the investigation in Manhattan, prosecutors in Georgia are examining Mr. Trump’s efforts to persuade local officials to overturn the election results in that country. His departure from office left him without the shield of impeachment that the presidency provided him.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has not charged Mr. Trump with wrongdoing, and it is still unclear whether Mr. Vance, whose term ends in January, will ultimately lay charges against Mr. Trump or employees. of the Trump organization.
The Trump organization declined to comment, but in the past lawyers for the company have said its practices are in accordance with the law and have called the investigation a “fishing expedition.”
Mr Pomerantz, 69, was sworn in earlier this month to serve as special deputy prosecutor, according to Danny Frost, a spokesman for the district attorney, who otherwise declined to comment on the investigation. Mr. Pomerantz will only work on the Trump investigation.
Hiring a foreigner is a highly unusual decision for a prosecution, but the two-and-a-half-year investigation into the former president and his family business is unusually complex. And Mr. Vance, whose office has had a few missteps in other white-collar cases, had previously hired FTI, a large consulting firm, to help him analyze Mr. Trump’s financial records.
Prosecutors are investigating whether the Trump organization has artificially inflated the value of some of its signature properties to get the best possible loans, while simultaneously reducing property values to lower property taxes, people familiar with the matter said. the question. Prosecutors are also reviewing the Trump Organization’s statements to insurance companies about the value of various assets.
Lawyers for the Trump organization will likely argue to prosecutors that it could not have fooled sophisticated financial institutions that did their own analysis of Mr. Trump’s properties without relying on Mr. Trump’s company told them. Lawyers for the company are also likely to point out that the practice of providing such different valuations is prevalent in New York’s real estate industry.
Deutsche Bank said it was cooperating with the investigation. A spokesperson for Ladder Capital, which securitized the loans years ago and therefore no longer holds them, declined to comment.
Mr Pomerantz, who has helped in the case informally for months, took temporary leave from the Paul Weiss law firm to join Mr Vance’s office. Among other duties, he will likely handle interactions with key witnesses.
Mr. Vance also retained the services of senior constitutional lawyers to work on briefs filed during the 18-month legal battle over the subpoena for the office for Mr. Trump’s tax returns and other financial records, which reached twice the Supreme Court of the United States. The case was argued by Mr Vance’s attorney general, Carey Dunne, who is helping with the investigation.
The court could soon rule a second time on the matter, potentially putting Mr. Trump’s personal and corporate tax records and other documents in the hands of prosecutors for the first time, a development that Mr. Vance called the center. his investigation.
Mr. Pomerantz, a leading figure in New York legal circles, has been a clerk for Justice Edward Weinfeld in Manhattan and Justice Potter Stewart on the Supreme Court. He then became a federal prosecutor in the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan, where he headed the appeals unit before leaving in 1982.
In private practice, he specialized in organized crime and was involved in a 1988 case that helped determine the legal definition of racketeering. His former law partner, Ronald P. Fischetti, estimated he has tried nearly 25 cases involving organized crime in one form or another.
Mr Pomerantz returned to the US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan to head the Criminal Division between 1997 and 1999, overseeing major securities fraud and organized crime cases, possibly especially against John A. Gotti, Gambino’s boss. .
He then joined Paul Weiss, one of New York’s best-known law firms, where he defended Robert Torricelli, the New Jersey senator accused of campaign finance violations.
“He worked both sides of the street, so he won’t be biased because of his temper,” said Robert S. Litt, former general counsel to the director of national intelligence, who has known Pomerantz since 1976.
David Enrich contribution to reports.
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