{"id":113472,"date":"2021-02-19T02:24:03","date_gmt":"2021-02-19T02:24:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?p=113472"},"modified":"2021-02-19T02:24:03","modified_gmt":"2021-02-19T02:24:03","slug":"trumps-former-fixer-cohen-interviewed-by-manhattan-das-office-and-newly-hired-litigator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/markets\/trumps-former-fixer-cohen-interviewed-by-manhattan-das-office-and-newly-hired-litigator\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s former fixer Cohen interviewed by Manhattan DA\u2019s office and newly hired litigator"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Reuters) – The Manhattan District Attorney\u2019s Office and a newly hired high-profile litigator interviewed Donald Trump\u2019s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, on Thursday, as part of a criminal probe of the former president\u2019s business dealings, said two people familiar with the investigation.<\/p>

FILE PHOTO: Michael Cohen, the former lawyer for U.S. President Donald Trump, arrives back at home after being released from prison during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York City, New York, U.S., May 21, 2020. REUTERS\/Brendan McDermid\/File Photo<\/figcaption>

The interview came after Mark Pomerantz, who has extensive experience in white-collar and organized crime cases, joined District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.\u2019s team investigating the Trump family business. Pomerantz started on Feb. 2 as special assistant district attorney, said Danny Frost, a spokesman for Vance.<\/p>\n

Pomerantz\u2019s hiring is part of a flurry of recent activity in Vance\u2019s investigation, including the issuance in recent days of roughly a dozen new subpoenas, according to the sources. One of those went to Ladder Capital Finance LLC, a major creditor used by Trump and his company, the Trump Organization, to finance the former president\u2019s commercial real estate holdings, the sources said.<\/p>\n

Vance\u2019s office has also conducted interviews with Ladder\u2019s staff, one source familiar with the matter said. Ladder did not reply to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

The district attorney\u2019s office has said little publicly about the probe, but noted in court filings that the investigation was focused on \u201cpossibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct\u201d at the Trump Organization, including alleged falsification of records, and insurance and tax fraud. It is the only known criminal inquiry into Trump\u2019s business practices.<\/p>\n

Separately, New York state Attorney General Letitia James is leading a civil probe into whether Trump\u2019s company falsely reported property values to secure loans and obtain economic and tax benefits.<\/p>\n

Both investigations are examining whether Trump\u2019s company placed artificially high values on several major commercial properties in documents used to secure favorable loan arrangements, while diminishing the value of those properties in filings used as a basis for calculating its tax bills.<\/p>\n

Ladder issued the loans on several of Trump\u2019s big commercial holdings, including a $160 million mortgage on the Trump Building, a skyscraper of corporate offices in Manhattan\u2019s financial district.<\/p>\n

Cohen\u2019s interview on Thursday with Pomerantz – his fifth with Vance\u2019s office – was not previously reported and it is unclear precisely what issues were covered. But it signals intense interest in Cohen\u2019s intimate knowledge of the financial affairs of the Trump Organization.<\/p>\n

Cohen declined to comment. A representative for Trump and a lawyer for the Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment. Frost, Vance\u2019s spokesman, declined to comment on areas of the inquiry beyond Pomerantz\u2019s appointment.<\/p>\n

In court filings, the Trump Organization has denied that the company inflated assets. Trump, a Republican, has described the New York investigations as politically motivated. Vance and James are both Democrats.<\/p>\n

Cohen, who describes himself as Trump\u2019s longtime, do-anything fixer, is in home confinement serving a three-year sentence on charges related to payoffs he made during the 2016 presidential race to buy the silence of two women who alleged they had affairs with Trump.<\/p>\n

Under a plea deal, Cohen cooperated extensively with prosecutors – an arrangement that also would help protect him against further prosecution for evidence he provides in the Vance probe.<\/p>\n

Vance opened the investigation in 2018 to examine the alleged hush-money payments. The probe has since expanded to include Trump\u2019s conduct as a private business owner and whether the Trump Organization engaged in criminal tax evasion among other charges.<\/p>\n

PROMINENT LITIGATOR<\/h2>\n

Pomerantz, 69, was chief of the criminal division in the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of New York from 1997 to 1999 and is now in private practice.<\/p>\n

As a private attorney, Pomerantz has regularly represented major companies and officials in state and federal prosecutions, including cases brought by the U.S. Department of Justice. He has handled matters involving charges of corporate misconduct, financial fraud, tax crimes and violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), a federal law used to prosecute organized crime and ongoing criminal activities.<\/p>\n

Pomerantz, who has taken a leave of absence from his law firm, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his involvement in the district attorney\u2019s investigation.<\/p>\n

Cohen, a potential high-profile witness for Vance, pleaded guilty in 2018 to charges in the hush-money case, as well as allegations of lying to Congress about negotiations concerning a proposed Trump Tower in Moscow, a project that never materialized.<\/p>\n

Trump and Republicans in Congress have sought to undermine Cohen\u2019s credibility by underscoring how he lied under oath. At his sentencing hearing, Cohen said he took \u201cfull responsibility\u201d for his actions, but said the payments were made \u201cin coordination\u201d and \u201cat the direction\u201d of Trump in an effort to influence the election\u2019s outcome.<\/p>\n

He also said Trump implicitly directed him to lie about the Moscow project. Trump accused Cohen of lying to reduce his prison time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Cohen may be more valuable than people are giving him credit for,\u201d said Daniel Alonso, Vance\u2019s top deputy from 2010 to 2014 and now in private practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe obviously has committed perjury. He has credibility issues. But the perjury he committed was allegedly at the behest of Donald Trump, at least tacitly. I don\u2019t think that calling Cohen a perjurer ends the story, because that opens the door to the explanation of why he perjured himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Reuters) – The Manhattan District Attorney\u2019s Office<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":113471,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23054],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nTrump\u2019s former fixer Cohen interviewed by Manhattan DA\u2019s office and newly hired litigator - Pre Coin News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/markets\/trumps-former-fixer-cohen-interviewed-by-manhattan-das-office-and-newly-hired-litigator\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump\u2019s former fixer Cohen interviewed by Manhattan DA\u2019s office and newly hired litigator - Pre Coin News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(Reuters) – The Manhattan District Attorney\u2019s Office\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/markets\/trumps-former-fixer-cohen-interviewed-by-manhattan-das-office-and-newly-hired-litigator\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pre Coin News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-02-19T02:24:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mediabest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/cnewsfotor11-10.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"mediabest\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/markets\/trumps-former-fixer-cohen-interviewed-by-manhattan-das-office-and-newly-hired-litigator\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/markets\/trumps-former-fixer-cohen-interviewed-by-manhattan-das-office-and-newly-hired-litigator\/\",\"name\":\"Trump\u2019s former fixer Cohen interviewed by Manhattan DA\u2019s office and newly hired litigator - 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