Trump Attorney Demands Investigation of Manhattan District Attorney as Indictment Possibly Looms

Former President Donald Trump’s lawyer is calling for an investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office as prosecutors consider possible indictment of Trump over an alleged 2016 “hush” payment to an adult film star.

Joe Takopina, Trump’s attorney, accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his predecessor Cyrus Vance, as well as several prosecutors on their staff, of conducting a “politically motivated investigation” in a letter sent Friday to the Commissioner of the New York Department of Investigations. .

Prosecutors have “armed” their office, Takopin writes, “combing every aspect of President Trump’s personal and business life, going back decades, in the hope of finding some legal basis—however contrived, novel, or convoluted—to prosecute him. ”

A spokesman for Bragg declined to comment. Vance did not immediately respond to an email asking for comment.

The letter was sent days after Trump was called to testify before a grand jury investigating a $130,000 wire transfer to Stormy Daniels, an adult film star whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. Such invitations to the subjects of the investigation often indicate that the decision to collect the debt is close.

Tacopina told CBS News on Monday, “He will not be involved in this trial — a trial that we and most election law experts consider to be absolutely worthless from a legal standpoint.”

Former Trump “aide” and lawyer Michael Cohen admitted to arranging the payment days before the 2016 election, claiming that he and Trump believed it would harm Trump’s presidential campaign if Daniels went public with an alleged affair with a businessman-turned-politician.

Cohen cooperates with and encourages the investigation, and has had more than half a dozen hour-long meetings with prosecutors over the past two months. He is testifying before a grand jury on Monday, two people familiar with the matter confirmed.

Tacopina’s letter demanding an investigation contains extensive quotations from the memoirs of former Special Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Mark Pomeranz, who led the Trump investigation for a year starting in February 2021.

In his book, Pomeranz writes that the payment to Daniels was known internally as the “zombie case” because he was repeatedly left for dead before investigators revived him again.

Takopina accused Pomeranz in his letter of a “scorched earth” attempt to hold Trump accountable. However, Pomerantz did not work for the district attorney’s office for over a year. He resigned in February 2022, writing in his resignation letter that he believed newly elected District Attorney Alvin Bragg was reluctant to press charges against Trump at the time, and Pomerantz said that Bragg’s predecessor Cyrus Vance was ready.

Since then, Bragg has repeatedly stated that the investigation is ongoing.

A spokesman for Pomerantz declined to comment.

The letter claims that the resurrection of the money suppression case is the result of “political pressure.”

Leaving the DA’s office after Friday’s meeting, Lanny Davis, Cohen’s attorney, praised the prosecutors’ current efforts on the case.

“We were very impressed with the professionalism of this group of prosecutors,” said Davis, who at various times over the past two months called the investigation “meticulous” and “methodical.”

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