Washington – Ronald Fischetti, a lawyer representing former President Trump in his case with New York prosecutors, expects the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office to initiate criminal fees against Trump, the Trump Organization, in the coming days, but told CBS News that they do not provide for fees that oppose the former president himself.
In a virtual meeting with prosecutors Thursday morning, Fischetti said he had asked Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. for the main points of the fees under consideration.
“I in particular asked, ‘Are any of those accusations similar to Donald Trump’s?’And not the answer,” Fischetti told CBS News on Tuesday.
The Trump organization’s legal team anticipates that the company will be charged with tax crimes similar to alleged non-payment of taxes on andArray by adding cars and apartment buildings provided to employees.
“They didn’t use the word ‘benefits’ or anything like that, yet they alleged extraordinary benefits that were awarded to some of the other high-ranking people in the Trump organization,” Fischetti said.
During last Thursday’s meeting, prosecutors let Trump and his company get the clear impression that they planned to set tariffs in the coming days, perhaps this week. company workers: they can simply give prosecutors influence to ask for adjustments at the corporate point or impose fines as a component of a negotiated settlement.
According to resources close to the conversations between the legal teams, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office gave defense attorneys until last Monday to dissuade prosecutors from filing fees contrary to the company, which oversees the former president’s genuine estate and business assets.
Attorneys for the Trump organization plan to promptly dismiss the case in court if fees are set through the grand jury, according to those familiar with the defense team’s legal strategy. The legal team believes the risk to the Trump organization represented through the lawsuit. is disproportionate to the alleged misconduct, and believes that prosecutors would not find that the control of the company – the former president added – had express knowledge of the additional benefits that are granted to employees.
“The district attorney has had all those years, all this time to conduct this investigation from the most sensible to the deepest,” Fischetti told CBS News. He then added: “And what they filed this indictment they told us would be benefits for some unnamed employees. For cars, apartments and I don’t know what else. “
Fischetti added that he believed the district attorney’s workplace “had no evidence” that looked like the Trump Organization was concerned about what he called “this minimal tax evasion through individuals, which has never been charged and has never been prosecuted through the IRS. “
“We intend to win,” Fischetti said.
Keir Dougall, a CBS News legal associate and former federal prosecutor, said it would be difficult for Trump Organization lawyers to convince a court to dismiss possible fees on the grounds that such prosecutions are rare.
“Let’s say those rates have rarely, if ever, been set, this is not a defense,” Dougall told CBS News. “This statement in itself is not a defense. a selective and discriminatory prosecution, lawsuits, however, this type of request is incredibly difficult to win ».
Bennett Gershman, a former prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for six years and now a law professor at Pace University, said it’s not typical to sue for alleged non-payment of taxes on benefits and benefits, but said the investigation is unique.
“We’re not talking about your typical case. You’re talking about Donald Trump and the Trump Organization and you’re looking to turn a key witness who so far is reluctant to cooperate,” Gershman told CBS News, referring to Allen Weisselberg, the Trump’s lead monetary officer for the organization, which has been under scrutiny by prosecutors in recent months. “Prosecutors use all the means of tension at their disposal, all the ammunition at their disposal. It’s still the beginning of the game, we’re just at the beginning. “
The district attorney received years of tax records from the former president in February after a long legal war that reached the Supreme Court. Investigators at new York’s Attorney General’s Office, which works with the Array Attorney General’s Office, received testimony from several high-ranking Supreme Court leaders. the Trump Organization.
The imaginable fees were first reported through the New York Times.
At last week’s meeting, according to Fischetti, prosecutors did not call Weisselberg through a call, and no other users stood out. The defense suggestion also noted that there is no mention of the allegations made through M. ‘s former lawyer. Trump, Michael Cohen, or through adult movie star Stormy Daniels, who claimed he had had an affair with Trump before he took office, a claim the former president denied.
Mary Mulligan of Weisselberg declined to comment on CBS News.
According to Fischetti, the defense team kicked off the assembly with Vance’s office, who called prosecutors “very polite,” though the discussion has become heated.
“They listened very carefully, because they are very kind,” Fischetti said. “Sometimes they were given a little bit of competition. Back and forth. But it’s still planned. “
Although no fees have been set, Trump issued a lengthy Monday night, denouncing prosecutors as “witch hunters” who are “rude, petty and totally biased in the way they treat lawyers, representatives and some of the glorious other workers within the Trump Organization. “
If the Trump Organization were indicted, Dougall said the company could face negative business consequences of an indictment and that the Trump Organization’s environment could worsen if convicted.
“The threat is that the investigation will continue, that other people will turn around and that prosecutors will solve the challenge that prosecutors have in organizational matters: they can link wisdom and direct participation in the crime allegedly opposed to the organization, they can link that Lead directly to the head of the organization, Trump or someone at the top. ” Said.
Dougall, however, claimed that any grand jury review of fees opposing Trump turns out to be “a way forward, if that happens at all. “
New York’s Attorney General’s Office launched a civil investigation in 2019 after Cohen testified before Congress and detailed allegations of wrongdoing through the Trump Organization. price of other assets to reduce the tax liability. The workplace said in May that it was investigating the Trump Organization as a “criminal. “
Vance has been conducting a criminal investigation since 2018 and first focused on Cohen’s secret cash bills during the 2016 presidential crusade in Daniels. evasion.