The Michael Cohen investigation has broken the dam on implicating not only Trump, but his companies and charities as well. Remember that Cohen was Trump's personal lawyer for a very long time, and that includes being Trump's legal eagle behind all of his business ventures involving the Trump family. It's these ventures, specifically Trump's charity outfit, the Trump Organization, that has caught the eye of NY state prosecutors in the wake of the Cohen plea.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office is considering pursuing criminal charges against the Trump Organization and two senior company officials in connection with Michael D. Cohen’s hush money payment to an adult film actress, according to two officials with knowledge of the matter.
A state investigation would center on how the company accounted for its reimbursement to Mr. Cohen for the $130,000 he paid to the actress, Stephanie Clifford, who has said she had an affair with President Trump, the officials said.
Both officials stressed that the office’s review of the matter is in its earliest stages and prosecutors have not yet made a decision on whether to proceed.
State charges against the company or its executives could be significant because Mr. Trump has talked about pardoning some of his current or former aides who have faced federal charges. As president, he has no power to pardon people and corporate entities convicted of state crimes.
The Trump Organization recorded the reimbursement as a legal expense. But Mr. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s longtime fixer, said on Tuesday that he paid Ms. Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels, to buy her silence during the 2016 campaign. Federal prosecutors have said the reimbursement payments were for sham legal invoices in connection with a nonexistent retainer agreement. Mr. Cohen, who pleaded guilty to federal campaign finance charges, did no legal work in connection with the matter, prosecutors said.
“On its face, it certainly would be problematic,” said one of the officials familiar with the district attorney’s office review, noting that listing the reimbursement as a legal expense could be a felony under state law.
The billion-dollar questions are "who are the two senior company officials" and "will they be prosecuted", and the best part of all of this is that many of the Trump Organization's "senior company executives" are in fact Donald Trump's kids.
Wouldn't that be something?
Now, it's entirely possible that the two executives could be former Trump Organization executive VP Jason Greenblatt, who ran the outfit's day-to-day operations, and Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, who has been Trump's money guy for decades. In a lot of ways, these two would actually be worse for Trump than his kids, because unlike Trump's useless and greedy kids, Greenblatt and Weisselberg actually know where all of the Trump money laundering bodies are buried.
But guess what happened this morning?
Allen Weisselberg, President Trump’s longtime financial gatekeeper, was granted immunity by federal prosecutors for providing information about Michael Cohen in the criminal investigation into hush-money payments for two women during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to people familiar with the matter.
Mr. Weisselberg was called to testify before a federal grand jury in the investigation earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal previously reported, citing people familiar with the investigation.
The decision by prosecutors in the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office to grant immunity to Mr. Weisselberg escalates the pressure on Mr. Trump, whom Mr. Weisselberg has served for decades as executive vice president and chief financial officer of the Trump Organization. After Mr. Trump was elected, he handed control of his financial assets and business interests to his two adult sons and Mr. Weisselberg.
So if Weisselberg's not one of the two "senior company officials" in the Trump Organization that's facing prosecution, then who is? The only reason he gets immunity is if he can provide information on a bigger fish. Above Weisselberg, all the bigger fish are named "Trump".
It's open season, folks. The Trumpies could argue that Cohen was only going down for the Stormy Daniels payouts and campaign and tax fraud. But Weisselberg cutting a deal means he has direct information of immense value on a much larger crime.
Stay tuned. I bet we find out what that crime is, and that it was committed by a Trump.
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