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August 11, 2014
Former Manhattan prosecutor Mark Pomerantz spoke to "60 Minutes" on Sunday about his upcoming tell-all book People vs. Donald Trump. According to Pomerantz, former President Donald Trump could easily be prosecuted for many crimes that have been part of the discussion in the District Attorney's office.
DA Alvin Bragg previously said that he didn't see a pathway to charge Trump for anything involving the Trump Organization companies that skirted taxes by giving gifts to employees like cars, apartments in Trump Tower and even tuition funds for bookkeeper Allen Weisselberg's grandchildren.
There are questions about Trump's taxes in which he artificially inflated the value of assets to increase his value for bank loans. Then he falsely decreased the value for tax purposes. In the case of Mar-a-Lago, Trump inflated the value ten times.
Among the things Pomerantz details is that he thinks racketeering charges could be brought against Trump.
Trump is “guilty of numerous felony violations," he writes, noting it is a “grave failure of justice not to hold [Trump] accountable by way of criminal prosecution."
"New York State’s version of the federal racketeering statute, known as enterprise corruption, 'was an ideal vehicle for prosecuting Donald Trump and the Trump Organization,' the Times cites Pomerantz writes. Vance considered the idea "bold" but others were unconvinced, the book describes. Vance then planned to leave office and wanted to make a final decision of whether to prosecute Trump before leaving.
Speaking to CBS News, Pomerantz acknowledged that prosecutors often disagree with the decisions by the DA, but he said that this is a unique situation.
"Given all the evidence that we had, and that nobody said, hey, the guy's not guilty," said Pomerantz.
He went on to say that Trump's entire fortune and success are all based on "lies."
"The financial statements that he prepared were given to the banks and had to be given to the banks in order to get the loans that he got. So, he got hundreds of millions of dollars of bank financing in connection..." he explained.
He explained that Trump would tell his employees that he needed his value to be X and they would figure out how to ensure the number met that number. One property was said to be worth more than any property has ever been sold in the history of the United States, he said.
The Daily Show's Jordan Klepper revealed another of his videos on the show this week, but in a CNN interview with Jim Acosta, he exposed MAGA fans that were very confused at the latest event.
While there was the typical denialism around former President Donald Trump being out of office, what was dramatically different is that the attendees at the recent event couldn't understand why it wasn't a significant rally as it usually is.
"And what was it like? I mean when you were there. You know, Trump is talking about these smaller gatherings as if it's a plus. You know, we know Trump and how he likes large crowd sizes, and we don't need to go down that road, but what is your sense of how his campaign is shaping up so far?" asked Acosta.
"Well, it was interesting. You know, if you were expecting a spectacle, you weren't getting it there. It was confusing," said Klepper. "There were people who came assuming it was a rally. Other folks called it a rally. Others called it an intimate event. There were MAGA people who were disappointed it wasn't a big, giant, event. Some thought it was a reelection kick-off, some a reinstatement kick-off. Some a rifle t-shirt super sale. There's confusion in the air, which should be expected with a Trump campaign. I think overall, there's hope, at least interior-wise, that this is a new, better Trump 3.0. Something that should be underlined with this event is these ideas were coming from people who went inside, who were invite-only. So, the folks that we ended up talking to out here, most of them went inside, and they went inside because they're important enough to have invitations to be in the front row of this GOP discussion."
See the interview with Kelpper below or at the link here:
For days, former President Donald Trump and his allied Republicans have railed against President Joe Biden for not shooting down a Chinese spy balloon as it made its way across the United States.
According to the Pentagon, the balloon first came into the U.S. space in Alaska at the end of January, but Biden wasn't told about it until several days later. At that point, it was nearing Montana when Biden told the military to shoot it down when safe to do so.
They also announced Sunday that there were at least three incidents of spy balloons flying over the United States under Donald Trump's administration, which his aides have denied. The Pentagon came out with a clarification, saying that it wasn't caught at the time and only after the fact. There was no further elaboration.
Trump then claimed: "The Chinese would never have floated the Blimp ('Balloon') over the United States if I were President!!!"
So, it's unclear if the Pentagon or the White House will be willing to provide evidence or further information on the previous incidents.
But then Trump decided to backtrack on his idea that he would have shot the balloon down immediately.
"Who sends a Billion Dollar blimp, with the most sophisticated equipment in the World, and large enough to hold ten cars or 3 large buses, into a complex pattern over the United States, without it quite possibly being manned, such as the 'manned spacecraft?'" Trump asked.
The Pentagon announced last week that the balloon "has the ability to maneuver” and that it likely wasn't as sophisticated as something like a satellite would be.
Trump then came up with the idea of the negotiations: "China should have been called to ask. If 'no,' shoot it down, if 'yes,' negotiate the greatest deal EVER!"
He didn't elaborate on what that "deal" would be. The comments also come after Trump said he would have shot the balloon down by now.
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