Longtime prosecutor Cynthia Alksne says new reporting suggests prosecutors in the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Jr. are having difficulty earning the cooperation of Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg.
"The Manhattan district attorney's office has informed Donald J. Trump's lawyers that it is considering criminal charges against his family business, the Trump Organization, in connection with fringe benefits the company awarded a top executive, according to several people with knowledge of the matter," The New York Times reported Friday. "The prosecutors had been building a case for months against the executive, Allen H. Weisselberg, as part of an effort to pressure him to cooperate with a broader inquiry into Mr. Trump's business dealings. But it was not previously known that the Trump Organization also might face charges."
"If the case moves ahead, the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., could announce charges as soon as next week, the people said. Mr. Vance's prosecutors have been conducting the investigation along with lawyers from the office of the New York State attorney general, Letitia James," the newspaper reported.
"Does that feel to you like they are having trouble flipping [Weisselberg]?" MSNBC's Joy Reid asked Alksne.
"They are definitely having trouble flipping him," Alksne replied. "I think this is — when I was in the Brooklyn's D.A.'s office, at some poiint we had a term for it which isn't very attractive, but it's a blank on the bar contest."
"They have been telling him for a long time, 'You have to flip.' And he has been telling them, 'I'm not going to.' And now the deal is, 'Show us what you've got.' So they are going to indict him," she predicted.
"This is real pressure to get him to flip," she said.
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