It's happening. For all of you out there who despise Donald Trump and dreamed that one day the pain he has inflicted on others across America would come back to haunt him by leaving him a disgraced and penniless pauper—things are looking up.
It's hard to keep track of all the high-profile investigations, let alone the nascent ones. But it's the emerging inquiries that really stand to cross that "red line" Trump set for the special counsel investigation: his family and his family business, the Trump Organization.
Here's two developments to keep your eye on—one stemming from Michael Cohen's guilty plea and the other from a new subpoena of Cohen related to a civil lawsuit already filed by New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood.
First, Trump Organization and the people charged with running it in Trump's absence—Don Jr. and Eric Trump—are now tied to making faulty payments to reimburse Cohen for the hush-money deal he made with Stormy Daniels and some mystery payment of $50,000 for "tech services." Trump Org paid Cohen $420,000 in total. But here's where it gets interesting: the court documents filed by prosecutors Tuesday in the Southern District of New York refer to how “Executive-1” and “Executive-2” handled the first invoice received by Cohen around mid-February 2017.
Executive-1 forwarded the invoice to another executive of the Company ("Executive-2") the same day by email, and it was approved. Executive-1 forwarded that email to another employee at the Company, stating: ‘Please pay from the Trust. Post to legal expenses. Put ‘retainer for the months of January and February 2017’ in the description.'
“In truth and fact, there was no such retainer agreement, and the monthly invoices COHEN submitted were not in connection with any legal services he had provided in 2017,” prosecutors wrote in the charging documents. So these sham payments made through the Trump Org. and approved by two top executives (think potentially Don Jr. and/or Eric) were actually reimbursements to Cohen for hush-money payments during the 2016 election to defraud the American people.
In addition to following how that ongoing investigation unfolds, keep an eye on the New York State Attorney General's civil suit against the Trump Foundation, the family non-profit headed by then-board members Ivanka, Eric, and Don Jr. (all of whom are named defendants along with Trump).
According to the lawsuit, the Trump foundation’s board “knowingly permitted” it to be “co-opted by Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign.”
Though the lawsuit was filed in June, a new subpoena issued to Cohen Wednesday by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance could turn a civil inquiry into a criminal one depending on what it turns up. A Tax Department spokesperson told CNN they were working with the offices of the attorney general and the Manhattan district attorney "as appropriate" to determine if the Trump Foundation violated New York State tax laws. And this what the AG’s office said:
"As our lawsuit against the Trump Foundation illustrates, we will hold Donald Trump and his associates accountable for violations of state law, and will seek a criminal referral from the appropriate state agency as necessary," said Amy Spitalnick, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office.
In other words, criminal referrals could be made pursuant to evidence uncovered in relation to Cohen's plea deal.
In this case, Trump's "associates" likely consist chiefly of his three children.