Back in the spring of 2012, Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. were on the verge of being indicted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, which had been building a criminal case for misleading possible buyers of Trump’s SoHo hotel and condo. Sales on the condo were incredibly sluggish, and evidence used for a possible criminal indictment of fraud was based on emails that the two oldest Trump children had sent in which they admitted they used inflated numbers to claim the condos were selling well in the hope that would convince gullible investors to lay down their money.
According to a new report from ProPublica:
“In one email, according to four people who have seen it, the Trumps discussed how to coordinate false information they had given to prospective buyers. In another, according to a person who read the emails, they worried that a reporter might be onto them. In yet another, Donald Jr. spoke reassuringly to a broker who was concerned about the false statements, saying that nobody would ever find out, because only people on the email chain or in the Trump Organization knew about the deception, according to a person who saw the email.”
However, before the indictment could be handed down, longtime Trump attorney Marc Kasowitz made a $25,000 campaign donation to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.’s reelection campaign. Not long afterwards, Vance dropped the case against the Trump children, overruling numerous prosecutors in his own office.
According to two people, Kasowitz later bragged that he had been able to get Ivanka and Junior out of trouble with his actions. He also referred the case as being “very dangerous” and said that it was “amazing I got them off.”
As for the Manhattan District Attorney, Vance defends his actions, saying:
“I did not at the time believe beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime had been committed. I had to make a call and I made the call, and I think I made the right call.”
Vance did later return the campaign contribution. However, just six months later Kasowitz gave yet another donation and helped raise even more money for Vance, which ProPublica says totals more than $50,000.
Notified about the second contribution, Vance promised he would be returning it as well, commenting:
“I don’t want the money to be a millstone around anybody’s neck, including the office’s.”
For his part, Kasowitz says he never gave the money to Vance in an attempt to influence the case against the Trump children:
“I donated to Cy Vance’s campaign because I was and remain extremely impressed by him as a person of impeccable integrity, as a brilliant lawyer and as a public servant with creative ideas and tremendous ability. I have never made a contribution to anyone’s campaign, including Cy Vance’s, as a ‘quid-pro-quo’ for anything.”
Interesting how justice can be forestalled when you have enough money, isn’t it?
This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org