As you’ve probably heard by now, Donald trump has a lot of legal issues, which is unfortunate for him given that legitimate lawyers don’t want nothing to do with him and had it not been for the fact that the Republican Party had already decided to let him get away with inciting a violent insurgency, he would almost certainly have been convicted in his second impeachment trial. (In fact, one of the lawyers on his dream team suggested the Justice Department should arrest him if they thought he had committed a crime.) Currently, the ex-president is the accused in about 29 chases, according to The Washington Post, although probably more worrying for him are the criminal investigations he is at the center of, especially the one conducted by the Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. Over the past several months, the prosecutor has hired the lawyer who put John Gotti and other white-collar criminals behind bars, allegedly worked to overthrow the longtime CFO of Trump Organizations and, most importantly, secured the much wanted tax from Trump. returns, documents that the Queens-born real estate developer has gone to great lengths to keep a secret that some people have felt they contain extremely compromising information. Now, Vance’s office has taken the next step in its criminal investigation: finding people who can explain to a jury why Trump is a potential con artist.

Reuters reports that investigators “scan millions of pages of newly acquired files in an attempt to identify witnesses who can bring documents to life for a jury,” according to people familiar with the matter. Some of the people who are supposed to testify are already well known and probably include the 45th President’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, who has met prosectors eight times. (In February 2019, Cohen Recount lawmakers that Trump has regularly inflated and deflated his assets “when it served his purposes”, whether to reduce taxes or obtain loans. Last year he noted in an interview that Trump should go to jail for 360 years.) Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization employee who described himself as “”eyes and earsIn the company and would apparently know if his boss had committed fraud, whether of a banking, insurance or tax nature. But according to journalists Jason szep and Peter Eisler, “A growing universe of people, institutions and agencies is being scrutinized” by the Vance team. By Reuters:

Prosecutors are seeking to gather information and testimony from bankers, accountants, real estate consultants and others close to the Trump Organization who could provide information about its transactions, according to interviews and court documents. The process of identifying all witnesses and targets could take months. “The next phase is to identify targets” for subpoenas and testimony, said a person familiar with the matter…. Vance investigators need insiders who can provide the narrative behind any conflicting numbers in Trump’s financial records and testify to Trump’s knowledge and intent, former white-collar fraud prosecutors have said . “Even in the most heavily document dependent case, you need witnesses to tell the story,” said Reed Brodsky, long-time white-collar defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor.

Several potential key figures in Vance’s investigation are current or former employees of outside companies – from financial and real estate consultants to legal advisers – with in-depth knowledge of Trump’s transactions, according to court documents and the two people familiar with the investigation. Some have held crucial roles for many years, such as Mazars’ chartered accountant Donald Bender. His signature is on the income tax returns of the Donald J. Trump Foundation, which was dissolved in 2018 after an investigation by the New York attorney general found that the organization had embezzled charitable funds. Trump was ordered to pay more than $ 2 million in damages.

In addition to real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield, who worked for years for the Trump Organization and valued a property that Trump used to obtain a tax easement – a ProPublica tool describe as “a very abusive deduction exploited by wealthy investors” that cost the US Treasury billions of dollars – Vance spoke and asked Ladder Capital Corp for records. and Deutsche Bank AG, two of the former president’s biggest creditors. (Trump currently must Deutsche Bank some $ 340 million and there is no love lost between it and the German lender, which could grab on the properties he was using to personally guarantee his loans.) But according to Reuters, Vance’s investigation “will likely rely heavily on Trump’s closest associates – people who can answer the key question of what Trump was thinking when he made the financial claims currently under review. “

Only a select group of Trump confidants can answer this question of state of mind, which is central to proving criminal intent. Among them is Weisselberg, 73, who started working for Trump’s father, Fred, in 1973. Legal experts and a source close to the investigation say prosecutors’ apparent goal is to convince Weisselberg to cooperate. Weisselberg’s adult sons, who worked for the Trump Organization, are also coming under scrutiny. The other son worked for Ladder Capital, although there is no evidence that he was involved in Ladder’s loans to Trump.

Jennifer weisselberg-the former wife of Allen’s eldest son, Barry weisselberg– told Reuters she had spoken five times with Vance’s office since November. The day after the first interview, she said, DA investigators visited her to collect tax and financial records for her and her former husband. She acknowledged that prosecutors have expressed interest in an apartment in a Trump-owned apartment building where she and her former husband have lived rent-free for seven years – an arrangement that could have legal implications if it were to be. compensation not correctly declared in income tax returns…. Jennifer Weisselberg said she believed her stepfather would never willingly testify against Trump. She contemplates Allen Weisselberg only toppling if he or his sons are prosecuted. But no one, she said, knows more about Trump’s finances.