May, 24 2022, 01:58pm EDT
Government Watchdogs Advocate for Transfer of Criminal Investigation of the Trump Organization to NY Attorney General
The three-year criminal inquiry into the Trump Organization’s financial crimes was suspended indefinitely when Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg took office in January.
WASHINGTON
Nonprofit advocacy organizations Free Speech For People and Daily Kos have launched a petition urging New York Governor Kathy Hochul to reassign the suspended criminal investigation of the Trump Organization to the Office of the New York Attorney General or to another District Attorney's Office in the state.
Since 2019, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office has gathered incriminating evidence of numerous financial crimes committed by the Trump Organization, including tax and bank-related fraud. Investigators have shown that the Trump Organization consistently inflated the values of Trump's properties to obtain favorable loans and lowered them to reduce taxes.
The decision by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who came into office in January of this year and took over the three-year investigation into Trump's financial crimes, to suspend the inquiry indefinitely led to fierce public backlash. Veteran New York prosecutor and former Special Assistant District Attorney Mark Pomerantz resigned from his post in February over the decision, stating:
"The team that has been investigating Mr. Trump harbors no doubt about whether he committed crimes -- he did...In my view, the public interest warrants the criminal prosecution of Mr. Trump, and such a prosecution should be brought without any further delay."
"It's clear that Bragg is unwilling to hold Trump and his allies accountable for defrauding the U.S. government and will continue to block prosecutors in his office from doing so despite the clear evidence that Trump and his associates committed these crimes," Free Speech For People said in a statement. "This matter must be handled by the New York Attorney General or by another District Attorney in New York State."
"Both in the years leading up to his presidency, and while in office, Donald Trump committed a plethora of crimes -- chief among them defrauding the U.S. government. If Trump and his allies are to be held accountable for the financial crimes they've committed, the criminal inquiry into their fraudulent activity must continue," said Daily Kos communications director Carolyn Fiddler. "Daily Kos urges Gov. Hochul to reassign the suspended criminal investigation into Trump and his associates to the Office of the New York Attorney General or to another district attorney's office in the state."
Governor Hochul has the authority to supersede a district attorney's handling of a case, as established by the New York Court of Appeals.
Free Speech For People is a national non-partisan non-profit organization founded on the day of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. FEC that works to defend our democracy and our Constitution.
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