Ivanka Trump is the next place the district attorney will likely look: Former federal prosecutor
Former federal prosecutor Cynthia Alksne told MSNBC viewers Monday that the next person that the Manhattan District Attorney's office will likely look to is Ivanka Trump.
It's a comment that Trump biographer Michael D'Antonio also made Sunday, saying that the Trump daughter made some of the same moves that CFO Allen Weisselberg made when allegedly dodging paying his taxes and getting off-the-books benefits.
"This is an opening salvo," Alksne explained to MSNBC's Alicia Menendez. "Ordinarily or quite often, New York State indictments are not as detailed as this. The prosecutors went to an amazing amount of effort to show Weisselberg, 'We have everything we need.' They're really not only pressuring him to flip, but the amount of detail in this indictment tells me they're trying to tell other people you have got to flip because we have everything."
Her comment is similar to other former prosecutors who observed that the paperwork available to implicate Weisselberg is considerable.
"We have the double books," Alksne explained. "We know what you told your tax accountant was a lie. We know that we're going to be able to prove these cases. So, I think it's a stair-stepping, like anything, in forms of an indictment. So, first, it's Weisselberg, and there are a lot of other people mentioned, individual number one, or person X signed, or person Y signed. Those people who were mentioned in the indictment, I would expect they're next, and then it builds and builds."
NBC News reporter Tom Winter reported last Thursday that his sources indicated that the "unindicted individual" cited in the documents is not former President Donald Trump, a rumor that was quickly spreading across Twitter at the time.
"I would focus it on the kids," said Alksne. "I would focus it — apparently, they've had some testimony by the controller in the State of New York. That means they've essentially given him immunity. I would focus on the kids. My guess is [Matthew] Calamari is kind of easy picking, and there are similar ways to give money for the kids. We've heard a lot of this reporting about Ivanka Trump getting consulting fees, or things she may or may not have done. That looks to be the like the next place. We'll just have to see."
"The other person who I think is in peril is Ivanka Trump," D'Antonio said. "One of the things that Allen Weisselberg is in trouble for is taking money as a contractor and then claiming self-employed status so that he can get some of the retirement benefits that the tax code allows for self-employed people. Well, we know that Ivanka Trump got quite significant sums paid to her as nonemployee compensation. That freed the Trump Organization from paying part of her taxes, and it put her in a status that I think the IRS would have lots of questions about. So, these folks don't know how to play the game straight. I think everything they do is crooked."
Tweeting about the former president's daughter, Michael Cohen also predicted that if Ivanka is indicted that he'll throw her under the bus.
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