New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office announces that staff are now assisting Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance’s criminal probe of the Trump Organization. The news comes after the AG’s office, which was already engaged in a civil investigation of the company, found evidence of a possible crime.

Vance’s office is investigating whether Trump, his family, and/or other executives intentionally inflated the value of Trump properties to qualify for loans and lowered property values to limit tax payments.

The announcement is initially misunderstood as a new criminal investigation into the Trump Organization, but the AG’s office is simply lending support to the DA’s office and naming staff “special assistant district attorneys.”

This announcement was not merely stylistic, however. It represents a serious commitment by James to go all in on the DA’s criminal investigation. James is a politician who holds elective office, and her high-profile announcement ensures that she will share in the credit or the blame for the outcome of this investigation… The fact that James was willing to stick her neck out and join the criminal investigation in a very public way suggests to me that her team believes the DA’s criminal prosecution will ultimately achieve some measure of success.

Politico

The Manhattan DA’s office has already obtained millions of pages of documents and likely subpoenaed current and former employees.

Two days later, the Attorney General’s office announces a new criminal investigation into Allen Weisselberg in connection to his personal taxes. Weisselberg is the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer and has been a public target of Cy Vance’s investigation.

The Trump family is painting the investigations as a corrupt and desperate attempt to find crime where there is none.

External Sources

Politico (Archived)

CNBC 1 (Archived)

CNBC 2 (Archived)

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