Alvin Bragg says grand jury on long recess. Weisselberg, meanwhile, fires his Trump Org lawyers

[Stinky The Clown]

Both events reported elsewhere here in DU's General Discussion and heard on cable news.

Coincidence?

Has Weisselberg flipped?

I have long thought it possible MFer's taxes were in the mix in the hush money grand jury. While we currently have zero information about the "why" of these two events, they would fit.

Anyhoo . . . . to quote Rachel Maddow, Watch This Space.

[NJCher]

1. heard a discussion this morning on

our local public radio, WNYC, that this should not be the first case in prosecuting trump. It sounds like Alvin Bragg has had a fortuitous development that's worth waiting for.

There are so many cases that one does have the luxury of choosing which should be first.

[jcgoldie]

7. You need to edit your title

[Qutzupalotl]

3. I bet Rikers sucks.

That would sure motivate me to get new lawyers!

Thanks for this, Stinky. I think you are onto something here. It's certainly a plausible explanation for these developments.

[ecstatic]

4. Are grand juries allowed to switch topics?

or look into everything that comes up?

[Stinky The Clown]

6. They often consider multiple unrelated cases. In all cases, they follow facts and evidence.

[Jarqui]

5. I think this has been underway for a while (as I've written before)

Trump tax returns got released - more evidence there.
Weisselberg & Trump org convicted of criminal fraud and tax evasion last fall. Bragg's office involved.
FBI raid of Mar-a-lago recovered documents NY AG had previously subpoenaed and been denied.
Bragg's office helps NY AG James with her $250 mil civil suit filed in Sept 2022
AG James makes criminal referral in Sept 2022 for insurance and bank fraud and complaint to IRS.

From that, they found out Weisselberg allegedly lied to them and they could pressure him into flipping completely. (NYT story Feb 2, 2023)

Jan 30, 2023 Stormy Grand Jury reconvenes per Bragg
Feb 2, 2023 NYT story that prosecutors are going after Weisselberg for lying to them in his partial immunity deal.
March 2023 Trump complains about them going after Weisselberg

Bragg's career is on the line and now, so is the safety of his family. He's leaving nothing to chance.
None of this is an accident.

If they flipped Weisselberg, that helped them with Cohen's credibility for the Stormy case.
Stormy's case would give them cover while they worked on Weisselberg for his safety on the bigger stuff.

With Weisselberg, he's worse than Gates was for Manafort. I followed that case closely. They nailed Manafort and got a bunch of Trumpers to convict him. Trump is in very deep similar shit now.
This financial crimes case against Trump could go from the weakest (Stormy) to the strongest (bank, insurance & tax fraud) of the cases out there in a state where Trump can't get a pardon.
Manafort got sentenced to a bunch of years in jail. Trump's crimes seem bigger, more frequent and worse.

Hopefully, Florida doesn't ban the biographies of Al Capone. Trump might find them more educational than his bedside copy of Mein Kampf

[Stinky The Clown]

8. Whoa! Thanks for all that. You wrapped it all up in a bow!

[Justice matters.]

14. K&R

OP deserving for Bookmarking and K&R potential!

[Jarqui]

9. A new article contradicts some of this report

Why the Trump Org suddenly Fired Its Jailed Money Man’s Lawyer
https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-the-trump-org-suddenly-fired-its-jailed-money-man-allen-weisselbergs-lawyer

In the article, Weisselberg denies Trump Org fired his lawyer.

This excerpt from the story:

But even though the corporate tax fraud trial is over, Weisselberg is still in hot water over the way he handled Trump Organization property appraisals. And that makes him a primary target for local New York County prosecutors, who would benefit from having a key witness testify about those details as they pursue yet another criminal case involving Trump.
...
But Bragg’s prosecutors are trying to get him to talk anyway.

According to two people familiar with the situation and one law enforcement source, prosecutors in recent weeks have discussed applying additional pressure to Weisselberg, who is currently behind bars in the dreaded New York City jail at Rikers Island until at least April.

Investigators are looking into the possibility of pursuing a second criminal case against Weisselberg, this time accusing him of insurance fraud, according to two of those sources. As the New York Attorney General’s Office laid out in a parallel investigation that resulted in a civil lawsuit filed last year, the Trump Organization got approval from Zurich Insurance Group to obtain surety bonds—the kind that guarantee work will be performed on a business project. However, state investigators claim that Weisselberg lied to a Zurich underwriter by turning over financial statements that purported to show property appraisals were done by an outside firm—when they weren’t.

“Weisselberg’s representations to Zurich’s underwriter… were false,” the lawsuit states. “The Trump Organization did not retain any professional appraisal firm to prepare any of the valuations used for the statements; instead, the valuations were prepared by Trump Organization personnel, contrary to what Zurich’s underwriter was expressly told and believed.”

New York AG Letitia James’ investigators argue that, had Zurich known the truth, it would have given the Trump Organization a deal on less favorable terms—or questioned its relationship with the company altogether.

Manhattan DA investigators are now dangling that over Weisselberg’s head, adding additional stress to his final weeks at Rikers, according to two sources.

That is consistent with a NYT Feb 2, 2023 story
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/02/nyregion/trump-weisselberg-fraud.html

The potential charges, which prosecutors conveyed to the former executive’s legal team this week, center on insurance fraud and could lead to a significant prison sentence for Mr. Weisselberg, who is 75.

AG Letitia James filed her civil action in Sept 2022. Manhattan DA's had been involved and assisted AG James a year or more before DA Bragg replaced DA Vance. So DA Bragg has known about Weisselberg's lies in the Zurich insurance scam since early last fall.

Convince me that Bragg just decided to bring this up with Weisselberg "now"... again, from above: "Manhattan DA investigators are now dangling that over Weisselberg’s head". I think the timing portion is BS. They would be all over that long before "now".

NYT had that pressure Weisselberg story two months ago. So that part of the Daily Beast story is old news and inaccurately reported as "now". They're not going to dance long - either he flips or they nail him and send him back to Rikers for a longer time.

It doesn't matter which attorney Trump Org or Weisselberg hires. It doesn't change the evidence they have of that crime Weisselberg is alleged to have committed (and Cohen maintains they committed those types of crimes). I strongly suspect that changed Bragg's position on the Stormy case - which allowed them to reconvene as Weisselberg is the new corroborating evidence of what happened AND he can help them pin a financial felony crime on Trump to elevate Stormy from a misdemeanor to a felony. AND he can help them nail Trump - which is the other case they've been meeting about on Thursdays including tomorrow.

That's my interpretation of this story.

[GoCubsGo]

10. I'm betting that's part of it.

Some of it is likely just a break for Easter. But, I wouldn't be at all surprise if this is another part of it. Not to mention that Trump has been threatening the DA and others via social media. I'm thinking Bragg is getting his ducks in a row to add more charges related to that. He's also handing Trump more rope with which to hang himself, because as we all know, Trump can't help himself. Trump always makes things worse for Trump. He's going to keep committing crimes. Granted, at some point, he needs to be charged for them.

[Jarqui]

11. I don't feel much different this morning

Bragg declined the Stormy case last year. And he declined aspects of the Trump investigation.
ex NY State prosecutor Pomerantz's book and interviews lay that out.

There were two key problems with the Stormy case according to Pomerantz.
1. It relied heavily on a felon convicted of lying - Cohen
2. It needed a related felony to lift the Stormy payoff misdemeanor to a felony. The only one that seemed plausible to pursue was a Federal campaign finance felony that would require a precedent to lift a state misdemeanor to a felony in conjunction with a federal felony as opposed to a state felony. There were Trump felonies at the state level alleged by AG James but they lacked witnesses needed to cut through the complex bookkeeping in court.

Something changed Bragg's mind.
Some wondered if it was Pomerantz's book. But the book didn't solve the issues with the case. If it did anything, it laid them out for all to see.

Weisselberg flipping solves both problems with the Stormy case.
1, He shores up Cohen as a witness (though they also have Pecker, Stormy's & McDougall's lawyer, Stormy & McDougall)
2. He helps the felonies AG James referred to Manhattan prosecutors at the state level so they don't need to achieve a precedent of tying to a federal FEC felony.

And Weisselberg obviously helps NY State prosecute Trump for his other financial crimes identified by AG James. And maybe helps the IRS who Trump confirmed were after him.

Something of substance changed. Weisselberg flipping explains all of it.

One other very notable pattern:
Before Michael Cohen and Cassidy Hutchinson flipped, they fired their lawyer being paid for by Trump - like Weisselberg did. (The media is behind on this. Weisselberg fired these lawyers a while ago. From Daily Beast article “Mr. Weisselberg’s decision to change lawyers was entirely his own, a decision which I understand Mr. Weisselberg made in consultation with his family after the conclusion of the trial.” Weisselberg pleaded guilty in August 2022)

Another notable pattern possibly broken:
Trump has been strangely quiet. They were posting about it on Truth Social last evening. Trump likes to get out in front of stories ... or kill them quickly .... I wondered about a crazy 2 am posting. But all I see and hear are crickets.

It is possible something else is happening with Weisselberg. If I had to bet on it, I'd bet that Weisselberg flipped.

[Scrivener7]

12. This is being wildly misinterpreted. Gravante, his former attorney, was

being paid by the Trump Org, but was not liked by the Trump Org because he wouldn't throw his client under the bus to make the Trump Org look good.

So it was the Trump Org, who was paying the bill, and not Weisselberg himself, who cut Gravante loose.

It seems as if Weisselberg is dependent on the Trump Org to pay for his lawyers and happened to get a good one who actually defended him and not the company, and the Trump Org didn't like that.

So if anything, this change to a lawyer who is presumably more willing to throw Weisselberg under the bus for the benefit of the Trump Org makes it much LESS likely that Weisselberg is flipping.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-the-trump-org-suddenly-fired-its-jailed-money-man-allen-weisselbergs-lawyer

For months, the Trump Organization paid New York City lawyer Nicholas Gravante to represent Weisselberg. But according to two people familiar with the situation who spoke with The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity, Gravante wasn’t “Trumpy” enough to keep onboard.
- snip -
Trump associates were bitter about Gravante’s decision to have Weisselberg meet with Manhattan prosecutors to prepare his testimony for that trial, a move they saw as being too friendly with law enforcement. This source added that Trump Organization lawyers were bothered by that arrangement and convinced Eric Trump—the Trump son who is now the executive vice president of the Trump Organization—to cut Weisselberg’s lawyer loose. The other two sources who confirmed Gravante’s departure from the case also said he was not viewed as a Trump ally.

[Jarqui]

13. Another note on this

Weisselberg gets out of Riker's on April 19, 2023
https://a073-ils-web.nyc.gov/inmatelookup/pages/home/home.jsf

The Daily Beast article:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-the-trump-org-suddenly-fired-its-jailed-money-man-allen-weisselbergs-lawyer
identifies Weisselberg's new lawyer as Seth L. Rosenberg and says “Mr. Weisselberg’s decision to change lawyers was entirely his own, a decision which I understand Mr. Weisselberg made in consultation with his family after the conclusion of the trial.”

Here's Seth's bio
https://www.martindale.com/attorney/seth-l-rosenberg-464028/

For more than twenty-five years Seth L. Rosenberg has specialized in defending white-collar criminal cases and litigating complex civil disputes.
...
At Clayman & Rosenberg LLP Seth has represented individuals and institutions in state and federal criminal investigations throughout the United States, and defended them against a wide range of charges including securities fraud, financial and health care fraud, embezzlement, money laundering, political integrity issues and many others. He also has appeared before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Election Commission and other regulatory bodies.

Let's recap for a second:
Wesseilberg, according to Riker's inmate records, gets out of jail on April 19, 2023
He's done with his 15 crimes that he pleaded guilty to.

So after that case and 15 convictions and after Trump org was nailed for financial crimes, why does Weisselberg still need a criminal lawyer specialized in white collar crime?

It's a rhetorical question.

He's still got a criminal problem hanging over him so those actions corroborate the media report that Bragg pressured him to flip.