(Source: APD News)
According to Business Insider, US President Trump is worried about the prospect of prosecution by New York authorities after he leaves the White House.
On Wednesday, local time, Trump said in a speech: “Now I heard that those who failed to catch me in Washington sent every message to New York so that they could catch me in New York. It is not me that they want to defeat, but us. We must not let them do this.”
Trump will face a series of legal issues at the federal and state levels after leaving office on January 20. New York State Attorney General Letitia James is conducting a civil investigation into the Trump Organization’s business practices, while the Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. stated in court documents that “the President and his company can be Bank fraud, insurance fraud, criminal tax fraud and falsified business records”.
Trump may be less worried about federal lawsuits and investigations. According to The Times, the president is discussing with advisers whether to pre-pardon the eldest three of his five children (ie Donald, Eric and Ivanka), son-in-law Kushner, and private lawyer Zhu Liani.
In addition, Trump may also grant himself an amnesty, or leave the White House before Biden takes office, so that interim President Pence will pardon him.
However, it is worth noting that the presidential pardon power only applies to federal crimes and cannot protect someone from investigation and prosecution by state and local prosecutors. This also explains why Trump expressed concern in his speech on Wednesday.
Alan Dershowitz, Professor Emeritus of Harvard Law School, believes that “Trump will not face any risk at the federal level because Biden will not waste important political capital and resources on hunting Trump. “, but “New York authorities will spare no effort to hunt him down.”
While Trump was worried that he would be prosecuted by New York authorities after he stepped down from office, according to CNN, US prosecutors recently subpoenaed Ivanka for his 2017 inauguration misuse of funds.
The 2017 presidential inauguration ceremony was held at Trump Hotel. The former vice chairman of the Presidential Inaugural Committee, Rick Gates, reached an agreement with the Trump Hotel general manager and Trump’s family to pay $175,000 a day for the committee to book a four-day hotel. But the committee’s event planner opposed the deal and accused the price of at least twice the market price.
In January 2020, the Washington, DC Attorney General’s Office sued President Trump’s Inaugural Committee, accusing him of misusing more than $1 million to “overpay” the venue fees for the 2017 presidential inauguration. In the past few weeks, investigators have successively called many witnesses.
Ivanka responded on social media: “This week, I spent more than 5 hours testifying at the Democratic Party’s office in Washington, D.C., and they questioned the room rate charged by the Trump Hotel at the inauguration. I shared with them. I sent an email from 4 years ago. In the email, I instructed the hotel to charge a’fair market price’.”
Ivanka also believes that the investigation “is yet another politically motivated act of retaliation and a waste of taxpayers’ money.”
In fact, this is not the first time Ivanka’s name has been mentioned in a lawsuit related to his father’s management or company transactions. As part of the Mueller investigation, Ivanka was linked to the failed “Trump Tower Moscow”. Last year, the FBI investigated her international business dealings.
The president’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, said last month that he believes Ivanka will advance to prison than her father. He said: “I believe Trump will go to jail. If Trump does not go in, he will push one of the children in. It may be that Donald Jr. will go ahead of Ivanka, and Eric will go ahead of Ivanka. And Ivanka will go in before Trump because he is such a person.”
In addition, unlike outside speculation, Cohen believes that Ivanka will not want to show her political ambitions after Trump leaves office because she has “too many scandals that she does not want to be released.” He said: “It’s not difficult to say’I’m doing this, I’m doing that’, but it’s difficult to expose your entire life and let the media scold you.”
