Prosecutor who brought down John Gotti interviews Michael Cohen in Manhattan DA's Trump probe

Daily Kos Staff

Friday February 19, 2021 · 2:48 PM PST

2021/02/19 · 14:48

NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 16: Michael Cohen, longtime personal lawyer and confidante for President Donald Trump, leaves Federal Court after his hearing at the United States District Court Southern District of New York April 16, 2018 in New York City. Cohen and lawyers representing President Trump are asking the court to block Justice Department officials from reading documents and materials related to his Cohen's relationship with President Trump that they believe should be protected by attorney-client privilege. Officials with the FBI, armed with a search warrant, raided Cohen's office and two private residences last week. (Photo by Yana Paskova/Getty Images) — Michael Cohen, longtime personal lawyer and fixer for Donald Trump, leaves Federal Court after his hearing at the United States District Court Southern District of New York April 16, 2018 in New York City.

If you're longing to see Donald Trump in an orange jumpsuit, here's some news that might grab ya, so to speak: The Manhattan DA investigating Donald Trump hired the veteran prosecutor who brought down Gambino mob boss John Gotti, and he has already interviewed Trump fixer Michael Cohen.

Reuters reports that Mark Pomerantz, an expert in litigating white-collar and organized crime cases, was brought on by Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance in early February to assist his office with the criminal investigation of Trump and his family business for financial fraud. Vance's office has issued about a dozen new subpoenas in the case in recent days, a sign the probe is heating up. One recipient of such a subpoena was Ladder Capital Finance LLC, a frequent creditor of both Trump and the Trump Organization. Cohen's interview on Thursday was the fifth time he has spoken to Manhattan DA prosecutors, but it was the first interview conducted by Pomerantz.

Pomerantz is perhaps best known for successfully prosecuting a sweeping racketeering case against Gotti in the late '90s when he was running the criminal division in the Southern District of New York. In his private practice, Pomerantz has also defended a number of high-profile white-collar clients against state and federal prosecutions.

The Manhattan DA probe began as a query into hush-money payments that Cohen made to two women who had consensual affairs with Trump. It was a case in which Trump infamously turned up as "Individual-1" in court filings made by federal prosecutors, implicating Trump as a co-conspirator in a crime for which Cohen ultimately did jail time.

But Cohen also possesses intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the Trump Organization. During congressional testimony in 2019, Cohen accused Trump of misrepresenting his financial assets to both banks and the IRS, inflating and under-reporting them respectively in order to secure loans and pay fewer taxes.

The addition of Pomerantz is just the latest sign that Vance's office is pursuing a sweeping case against Trump that, according to its own court filings framed as involving potentially "extensive and protracted criminal conduct.”

Vance has previously secured financial records from Trump's chief lender over the past several decades, Deutsche Bank, and he also hired the Washington-based forensics accounting firm FTI Consulting Inc.

Prosecutor who brought down John Gotti interviews Michael Cohen in Manhattan DA's Trump probe

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