Indictment could be 'almost a death blow' to Trump Organization: Impeachment counsel

Attorney Daniel Goldman, who rose to prominence as staff counsel to House prosecutors during Donald Trump's first impeachment trial explained why an indictment against the Trump Organization could force the company into bankruptcy.

"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."

Goldman explained the significance of the reporting during a Friday appearance on MSNBC.

"It's interesting to me — and it doesn't seem to be coming from the Manhattan DA's office — but it's interesting and not surprising they would approach the Trump Organization to tell them that they're considering to charge them, because that would be almost a death blow to the Trump Organization," Goldman said.

"Every single bank would call their loans if the Trump Organization is indicted. No bank will ever do business with an indicted company and there's no way the Trump Organization has enough capital to pay off all their loans. So they would be in default of their loans and would almost certainly have to go into bankruptcy," he explained.

"That's a huge step and there are all sorts of protocol and there's all sorts of evaluation that any prosecutor's office would do before they did that. In this case, New York state has a memo with five factors and without going through all of them, none of the factors really favor the Trump Organization. So it's not surprising they would approach them with a heads up and perhaps engage in settlement negotiations to avoid indictment," Goldman said.

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