Even though Donald Trump is blessedly not in office, one of his longstanding traditions continues, that of the Friday bombshell news dump. If Manhattan D.A. Cyrus Vance moves forward with criminal charges next week, those will be the first to come out of his long term investigation. Also, this is the first time indictment of the Trump Organization has been discussed. This is yuuuge. New York Times:
The Manhattan district attorney’s office has informed Donald J. Trump’s lawyers that it is considering criminal charges against his family business, the Trump Organization, in connection with fringe benefits the company awarded a top executive, according to several people with knowledge of the matter.
If the case moves ahead, the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., could announce charges against the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg, as soon as next week, the people said.
An indictment of the Trump Organization could mark the first criminal charges to emerge from Mr. Vance’s long-running investigation into Mr. Trump and his business dealings, and raises the startling prospect of a former president having to defend the company he founded and has run for decades.
While the prosecutors had been building a case for months against Mr. Weisselberg as part of an effort to pressure him to cooperate with the inquiry, it was not previously known that the company also might face charges. […]
Mr. Trump’s lawyers met on Thursday with senior prosecutors in the district attorney’s office in hopes of persuading them to abandon any plan to charge the company, according to several people familiar with the meeting. Such meetings are routine in white-collar criminal investigations, and it is unclear whether the prosecutors have made a final decision on whether to charge the Trump Organization, which has long denied wrongdoing.
It would be highly unusual to indict a company just for failing to pay taxes on fringe benefits, said several lawyers who specialize in tax rules. None of them could cite any recent example, noting that many companies provide their employees with perks like company cars.
Still, an indictment of Mr. Trump’s company could deal a significant blow to the former president just as he has flirted with a return to politics.
The sound you hear way off in the distance is of Trump hurling a coffee pot at the wall and screaming WITCH HUNT! Vance’s investigation has been going on for three years now. The slower they go, the more the eyes get dotted and the tees get crossed. Carry on, Mr. Vance, carry on.
I hope they have a whole lot more than the very common practice of providing an employee with an untaxed company car.
paying tuition for a kid (also an untaxed benefit), housing, a few other things.
Remember that this is also pressure to get Weisselberg to tell them all he knows about the former guy’s business.
What I mean to say is I hope they have a whole lot more than employment perks.
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