A months-long federal investigation into whether Trump organization officials violated campaign finance laws appears to be coming to a close without a single charge being filed, according to CNN, citing people familiar with the matter.
New York federal prosecutors have been investigating whether company executives broke the law, “including in their effort to reimburse Michael Cohen for hush-money payments he made to women alleging affairs with his former boss, President Donald Trump,” according to the report.
In recent weeks, however, their investigation has quieted, the people familiar with the inquiry said, and prosecutors now don’t appear poised to charge any Trump Organization executives in the probe that stemmed from the case against Cohen.
In January, one month after Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison, prosecutors requested interviews with executives at the company, CNN reported. But prosecutors never followed up on their initial request, people familiar with the matter said, and the interviews never took place.
Meanwhile, there has been no contact between the Manhattan US Attorney’s office and officials at the Trump Organization in more than five months, one person familiar with the matter said. –CNN
While the case has not been formally closed, it has gone about as cold as one can get.
Launched in the wake of former Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s guilty plea on eight counts, two of which included campaign-finance violations for ‘fixing’ payments to two women who alleged affairs to Trump, prosecutors said in court filings that he was reimbursed by the Trump organization. A total of $420,000 was authorized in payments to Cohen to cover the payoffs, tax liabilities and a bonus. Company executives falsely recorded those payments as legal expenses, according to prosecutors.
In late February, Cohen testified before Congress, implicating several Trump Organization executives whom he said knew about financial misstatements and were involved in reimbursing him for the hush-money scheme. He provided lawmakers with copies of signed checks from Donald Trump Jr., the President’s son who is now executive vice president of the company, andAllen Weisselberg, Trump Org’s chief financial officer. Weisselberg had received immunity to testify before a grand jury in the Cohen case. –CNN
Yet despite Cohen’s testimony and several months of investigation, this story appears to be yet another failed “gotcha” from the resistance.
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