Michael Cohen sits right in the middle of things….
While federal prosecutors said Trump directed Cohen’s hush-money payments, they never brought an indictment against Trump alleging campaign finance violation crimes.
In his memoir, Geoffrey Berman, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York at the time, wrote that his office “continued to pursue investigations related to other possible campaign
Trump, though, was still in office and had presidential immunity. The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel has long held that it would be unconstitutional for the department to bring an indictment against a sitting president. Special Counsel Robert Mueller wrote in the report for his investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign’s links to Russia that the policy prevented him from even considering the option.
When Bill Barr took over as attorney general in 2019, Berman wrote in his book, he tried to get Cohen’s conviction reversed.
“Was he trying to ensure that no other Trump associates or employees would be charged with making hush-money payments and perhaps flip on the president?” Berman wrote. “Was the goal to ensure that the president could not be charged after leaving office?”
While Barr’s attempt to throw out Cohen’s guilty plea was unsuccessful, federal prosecutors in Manhattan still never ended up bringing charges against Trump after he left office….
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But just because a federal prosecution wouldn’t go forward didn’t mean a local district attorney couldn’t take on the case.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg convened a grand jury in mid-January of this year to consider an indictment against Trump.
Since then, a steady stream of witnesses has met with prosecutors, including Trump advisors Hope Hicks and Kellyanne Conway.
DA Bragg turned down efforrs to purse the case at first…
But he has sbeen hounded by several prosocutors that left his office and the media…
CyVance Jr. who was asked to drop the original case that Bragg brought back and won against the Trump Organization, Not Trump.?..
Give Bragg cover fire in his interview with Chuck Todd at NBC….
….
The reason the Manhattan DA’s office waited so long to bring the case to court….
According CyVance Jr. the Manhattan DA back in 2018 to 2020?
The US Attorney for the South District asked Vance to ‘stand down’ on their case….
They did so on the Trump case…
But once Trump became President and Bill Barr became Attorney General later?
And the pandemic hit and slowed EVERYTHING?
Michael Cohen , would be charged and plead guilty to charges in the case….
Vance talked to NBC’s Chuck Todd today…..
CYRUS VANCE, JR.:
Well, I do not know if this guy’s case is airtight or not. I know that the D.A.’s office has extremely experienced and seasoned lawyers. The charges that might be involved here are certainly well within their experience level and their trial experience level. The quality of the evidence, again, we must relate to. But when you look back on the investigation, Chuck, I mean, one has to remember that we went to the Supreme Court twice, our office, in order to get the financial documents, which were finally released to us by the Supreme Court. And that resulted in an indictment of the Trump Organization, as well as the CFO, the Trump Organization being, in effect, an alter ego of the president. Life continued after that event. The case was tried. It was a very strong case. The court imposed a fine. But the world didn’t stop because the Trump Organization was indicted by our office.
CHUCK TODD:
Why didn’t you charge the hush money case? Why didn’t you ever charge it in 2018, 2019, 2020?
CYRUS VANCE, JR:
Well Chuck, I don’t want to get into the deliberations that might be covered by grand jury material, but it’s – but as I believe you know, I was asked by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District to stand down on our investigation, which had commenced involving the Trump Organization. And as, you know, as someone who respects that office a great deal, and believing that they may have perhaps the best laws to investigate, I did so. And I was somewhat surprised after Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty that the federal government did not proceed on the areas in which it asked me to stand down. By that time, we were also well on our way in a financial investigation that ultimately led to subpoenas, which the president himself published in a lawsuit he filed against me and the office, and ultimately that long but, you know, successful journey to the Supreme Court. And for those who think this is about politics, I think it’s important to remind folks that the review of the president’s objections to our seeking his tax and other financial records were reviewed by two separate district courts, two separate courts of appeal, and twice by the United States Supreme Court, all of whom who found no evidence that politics was motivating our actions….