Donald Trump looks to have dodged a bullet in 2020 when discussions were underway, and then set aside, by the New York attorney general’s office to file racketeering charges against him.
According to leaked documents that came to light last week, there were serious discussions about filing “enterprise corruption" charges against Trump that could have led to a mandatory one year in jail with the potential to expand to 25 years.
As the Daily Beast is reporting, those plans were allegedly waylaid "by state offices under the administration of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo" which refused to hand over Trump's tax information.
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As the Beast's Jose Pagliery reported the leak contained, "... a memo circulated at the AG’s office in 2020 that outlined exactly how to go for the jugular by indicting Trump for essentially running a mob, according to emails reviewed by The Daily Beast."
"The AG’s office ultimately rejected the notion of going solo with an indictment alleging what New York laws call 'enterprise corruption.' Instead, as previously reported, it loaned two of its lawyers to the Manhattan DA’s office, which already had an ongoing criminal investigation," Pagliery wrote. "The move made sense, according to legal experts who have closely watched this unfold. The DA has clear jurisdiction over local crimes, while the AG would need special permission from the governor."
According to the report, one prosecutor floated the idea of going after the former president as if he was a mob boss.
In the memo written by senior counsel John Oleske, he explained, "There is already more than enough evidence for a [New York State] prosecutor to pursue grand jury investigations and potential indictments against Trump, his 3 oldest children, and other key associates (eg Guiliani) for enterprise corruption."
The Beast report notes that "Oleske floated the idea of pursuing a single overarching case with criminal charges against Trump and his lieutenants for faking business records, insurance fraud, mortgage fraud, perjury, money laundering, and tax fraud — many of which would later resurface in subsequent criminal indictments and a civil lawsuit, but notably broken apart into smaller standalone cases."
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