Former President Donald Trump’s attorney has called for an investigation into the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which prosecutors are considering Trump’s possible indictment regarding the 2016 Hash Money payment to an adult movie star.
Trump attorney Joe Tacopina accused Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, his predecessor Cyrus Vance Jr. and several prosecutors on their team of conducting a “politically motivated investigation,” in a letter sent Friday to the New York Department’s commissioner. investigation.
Attorneys general have “weaponized” their offices, Tacupina writes, “delaying every aspect of President Trump’s personal life and work, for decades, in hopes of finding a legal basis — no matter how far-fetched, new, or complex — to pursue it.”
A Prague spokesman declined to comment.
“It is difficult to argue that previous investigations have been politically motivated,” Vance said in an email to CBS News.
“The Supreme Court of the United States has rejected — twice — the former president’s argument that the investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office was politically motivated,” Vance said, adding that the office’s investigation had previously led to the indictment and conviction of the former. trump. The financial director of the organization. officer and two companies.
The letter was sent days after Trump was called to testify before a grand jury investigating the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, a porn star whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. Such calls to people under investigation often indicate that a charge is imminent.
“He will not participate in this action — one that we and most election law experts believe has no legal basis,” Tacobena told CBS News on Monday.
Former Trump attorney and attorney Michael Cohen admitted to orchestrating the payment in the days leading up to it 2016 electionsClaiming that he and Trump believed it would hurt Trump’s presidential campaign if Daniels went public about an alleged affair with the businessman-turned-politician.
Cohen is cooperating and encouraging the investigation, and has held more than six lengthy meetings with prosecutors over the past two months. Two sources familiar with the matter confirmed that he was testifying before the grand jury on Monday.
Tacopina’s letter calling for an investigation contains numerous quotes from A.S note By Mark Pomerantz, a former special assistant to the Manhattan District Attorney who led the office’s investigations of Trump for a year from February 2021.
Pomerantz writes in his book that the payment made to Daniels was known internally as the “zombie case” because he was repeatedly left for dead before being revived by investigators.
In his letter, Tacopina accused Pomerantis of trying to “scorch the earth” to impeach Trump. However, Pomerantz has not worked in the district attorney’s office in over a year. He resigned in February 2022, writing in his resignation letter that he believed newly elected DA Alvin Bragg was not ready to sue Trump at the time — Bragg’s predecessor was Cyrus Vance, Pomerantz said.
Bragg has said repeatedly since then that the investigation is still ongoing.
A spokesman for Pomerantis declined to comment.
The letter claims that the re-launch of the financial “silence” investigation was the result of “political pressure”.
After the district attorney’s office left after Friday’s meeting, Lani Davis, Cohen’s attorney, praised the efforts of current prosecutors in the case.
“We have been very impressed by the professionalism of this group of prosecutors,” said Davis, who has repeatedly described the investigation over the past two months as “meticulous” and “methodical.”
