Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) first let it be known that they wouldn't be granting any deferential treatment to a sitting president when they implicated Donald Trump in a felony in a December 2018 court filing. In fact, it was the Southern District that dubbed Trump "Individual-1" in that filing. With respect to the hush money payoffs made by Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, to two women prior to the 2016 election, Cohen "acted in coordination with and at the direction of Individual-1," prosecutors wrote in a sentencing recommendation for Trump's notorious fixer.
It was extraordinary, even by the standards of Trump's era of corruption, for a president to have a division of his own Justice Department arguing that he had taken part in a criminal conspiracy to deceive the American people.
As the special counsel’s probe begins to wind down at some point, and the federal investigation in Manhattan moves forward, most observers expect SDNY prosecutors to continue being equally, if not more, aggressive. And whatever interference Trump and his aides have been running on the special counsel's investigation, almost none of it can be redirected at federal prosecutors in Manhattan. Trump, for instance, has indicated that he might try to limit disclosure of Robert Mueller's report by claiming executive privilege applies to parts of it. Trump even appointed a newly sworn-in attorney general who has expressed skepticism about releasing the report in its entirety.
But the Southern District investigation is like the Mueller probe on steroids, and with fewer restraints.
“When you combine their experience with the traditional independence of the southern district and the reputation it has, this is like another Mueller investigation going on,” former SDNY and Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman told Politico. In fact, SDNY has jurisdiction over Trump's family business and his political operation, since both of them are based in Manhattan. Plus, any claim to executive privilege does nothing to protect Trump in those settings. As Politico notes, SDNY's list of informants already includes the Trump Organization's longtime chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, American Media, Inc.'s CEO David Pecker, and former Trump deputy campaign manager and inaugural official Rick Gates.
The looming threat to Trump was once again stoked earlier this month when prosecutors in the Southern District subpoenaed documents from Trump's inaugural committee, which took in a record $107 million. Trump's inaugural festivities also featured a suspicious number of pro-Russian Ukrainian attendees who were keen to help Trump and congressional Republicans pound out a "peace deal" that would ease tensions between the U.S. and Russia over the latter’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
Whatever happens to the Mueller probe—regardless of how soon it wraps or whether the special counsel's full findings reach the public—the Southern District investigation promises to drag on into the foreseeable future. And some of the threads emanating from the Mueller probe will actually be teased out by Manhattan-based federal attorneys. It was SDNY prosecutors, for instance, who filled in the blanks around the hush money payments Cohen made after Mueller's probe gave rise to the FBI search warrant that originally unearthed evidence of those payments.
SDNY also has a notorious maverick streak, and some attorneys who cut their teeth there believe it might buck Justice Department protocol and indict a sitting president anyway. Certainly it approached that line with the court filing implicating Trump as an unindicted co-conspirator in the hush money payments.
“I’m thoroughly convinced the SDNY will make its own evaluation. They will not say that’s a department policy,” asserted Jon Sale, another former SDNY and Watergate prosecutor.
Trump’s new attorney general, William Barr, also suggested during his confirmation hearings that he was more apt to protect the SDNY probe.
“I would not stand by and allow a U.S. attorney to be fired for the purpose of stopping an investigation,” Barr said. Knowing Trump, Barr may get the chance to test that proposition.