Mueller lawyer lists questions about tell-all Trump book by former prosecutor Mark Pomerantz
Former Manhattan DA lawyer Mark Pomerantz will appear on two major outlets ahead of the publication of his tell-all book next week. Excerpts of the book have been reported over the past several days, attacking District Attorney Alvin Bragg for refusing to go after Donald Trump over a slate of crimes.
Pomerantz walks through the information he was able to gather from the investigations into Trump and dishes about the debates he had with former DA Cy Vance and new DA Bragg about Trump charges. After a successful case convicting Trump's companies of 17 charges, Bragg announced he would go after Trump personally, which he said he wouldn't do after taking over the office.
“After closely reviewing all the evidence from Mr. Pomerantz’s investigation, I came to the same conclusion as several senior prosecutors involved in the case, and also those I brought on: More work was needed,” Bragg said in a statement, according to The Newe York Times.
Meanwhile, there is a discussion about the fraud involved in the Stormy Daniels hush money payments.
All of it has prompted New York University law school professor and former senior Robert Mueller prosecutor Andrew Weissmann to ask questions about the details he's reading in the book.
"A question I have for Pomerantz: if the former DA, Vance, categorically approved charging Trump (as you said in your resignation letter which was leaked to the press), then why didn't you do so when Vance was in office?" Weissmann asked.
Pomerantz's story recalls Cy Vance coaxed him out of retirement to work specifically on the Trump case. He called the investigation "floundering" when he began but was able to hone in on the hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. That seemed too risky to prosecute, however, which is why he began to focus on the federal racketeering laws on the books.
Weissmann also said that Pomerantz claims "Bragg was slow to engage, but when did his transition team first ask to be briefed and when were they? Your book concedes they were excluded from a key 'summit meeting,' so how do you then fault them for not being up to speed?" He also wants to know why Bragg is getting all of the flack and not Vance.
At one point in the book, Pomerantz said that he pondered charging Trump as a "victim" of extortion, but the DA rejected the idea. Weissmann said that it's the right move and that it would make "no sense and smacks of reverse engineering charges."
Weissmann also wants to know where the feds are on charging Trump for tax evasion and financial fraud over the hush money payments. He also wants to know why Trump was never charged with the 10 obstruction charges the Mueller report outlined.
"The new Pomerantz book underscores again the lack of activity here," said Weissmann.
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