One of the highest profile investigations into the former president appeared to stall on Wednesday, but several other inquiries are in progress around the country.
The abrupt resignation of the two prosecutors leading the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into Donald J. Trump leaves the future of the inquiry, which had been put on a monthlong pause, in doubt.
But that does not mean that the former president or his family business, the Trump Organization, are out of legal jeopardy.
In addition to the Manhattan criminal investigation — which resulted in criminal charges last summer against the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer — Mr. Trump and his business face civil and criminal inquiries into his business dealings and political activities in several states.
Mr. Trump and his family have criticized the Manhattan investigation, and the other investigations, as partisan or inappropriate, and have denied wrongdoing.
Here is where each notable inquiry now stands.
Manhattan Criminal Case
The Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, has said that his office’s investigation is ongoing and that it will continue without the two prosecutors. How it will proceed is unclear, though the investigation has already produced criminal charges against the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg.
In July, before Mr. Bragg’s election, the Manhattan district attorney’s office charged the Trump Organization with running a 15-year scheme to help its executives evade taxes by compensating them with fringe benefits that were hidden from authorities.
The office, then under Cyrus R. Vance Jr., also accused Mr. Weisselberg of avoiding taxes on $1.7 million in perks that should have been reported as income.
On Tuesday, lawyers for the company and for Mr. Weisselberg argued in court documents that those charges should be dismissed. The district attorney’s office will have a chance to respond before the judge overseeing the case decides whether to dismiss some of the charges.
The case has been tentatively scheduled to go to trial at the end of this summer.
New York State Civil Inquiry
The New York attorney general, Letitia James, had been working with Manhattan prosecutors on their criminal investigation. But she is also conducting a parallel civil inquiry into some of the same conduct, including scrutinizing whether Mr. Trump’s company fraudulently misled lenders about the value of its assets.
Ms. James, a Democrat who is running for re-election this fall, is expected to continue her civil investigation.
The inquiry is focused on whether Mr. Trump’s statements about the value of his assets — which Ms. James has said were marked by repeated misrepresentations — were part of a pattern of fraud, or simply Trumpian showmanship.
Last week, a state judge ruled that Ms. James can question Mr. Trump and two of his adult children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, under oath as part of the inquiry in the coming weeks.
The Trumps said they would appeal the decision. Even if their appeals are unsuccessful, it is likely they would decline to answer questions if forced to sit for interviews under oath. When another son of Mr. Trump’s, Eric Trump, was questioned in October 2020, he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against incriminating himself, according to a court filing.
Westchester County Criminal Investigation
In Westchester County, Miriam E. Rocah, the district attorney, appears to be focused at least in part on whether the Trump Organization misled local officials about the value of a golf course to reduce its taxes. She has subpoenaed the company for records on the matter.
But the Manhattan investigation, in which prosecutors had been bringing witnesses before a grand jury before pausing in mid-January, appeared to be more advanced.
Understand the New York A.G.’s Trump Inquiry
An empire under scrutiny. The New York State attorney general is currently conducting a civil investigation into former president Donald Trump’s business practices. Here’s what to know:
Georgia Criminal Inquiry
Mr. Trump himself is also under scrutiny in Georgia, where Fani T. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, has been investigating whether the former president and others criminally interfered with the 2020 presidential election.
After the election, Mr. Trump and associates had numerous interactions with Georgia officials, including a call in which he urged the secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to “find 11,780 votes,” the number of votes he would have needed to overcome the lead held in the state by President Biden.
It is the only known criminal inquiry that focuses directly on Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results. In January, Fulton County’s top judge approved Ms. Willis’s request for a special grand jury in the matter.
Washington D.C. Lawsuit
In January 2020, Karl Racine, the attorney general for the District of Columbia, sued Mr. Trump’s inaugural committee, saying it vastly overpaid his family business — by more than $1 million — for space at the Trump International Hotel during the January 2017 inaugural.
The lawsuit, which names the inaugural committee, the hotel, and the Trump Organization as defendants, is set to go to trial in September, after a judge ordered last week that it could move forward.
Mr. Racine’s office has subpoenaed a range of parties, including Melania Trump, the former first lady, and has questioned Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump and Thomas J. Barrack Jr., who chaired the inaugural committee.
Jan. 6 Inquiry
A House committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol — aided by more than a dozen former federal prosecutors — is examining the role Mr. Trump and his allies may have played in his efforts to hold onto power after his electoral defeat in November 2020.
While the committee itself does not have the power to bring criminal charges, it could refer the matter to the Attorney General Merrick B. Garland to prosecute them through the Justice Department.
Michael Rothfeld and Jonah E. Bromwich contributed reporting.
Source: Elections - nytimes.com