The two prosecutors heading up the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation of Donald Trump resigned unexpectedly Wednesday after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg expressed doubts about moving forward with a case against Trump. This makes it the umpteenth such investigation of Trump to fall flat.
As the New York Times reports:
The unexpected development came not long after the high-stakes inquiry appeared to be gaining momentum and now throws its future into serious doubt.
The prosecutors, Carey R. Dunne and Mark F. Pomerantz, submitted their resignations because the new Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, indicated to them that he had doubts about moving forward with a case against Mr. Trump, the people said.
Mr. Pomerantz confirmed in a brief interview that he had resigned but declined to elaborate. Mr. Dunne declined to comment.
The Times — appearing baffled, frustrated, and unable to imagine that there simply may not be a case against the former president — lays the blame for the stalled investigation partly on Bragg for what the liberal news organ describes as his lack of “commitment to move forward.” The Times also blames “trump Organization executives” for refusing “to cooperate and turn on Mr. Trump.” As the Times article states,
Without Mr. Bragg’s commitment to move forward, the prosecutors late last month postponed a plan to question at least one witness before the grand jury, one of the people said. They have not questioned any witnesses in front of the grand jury for more than a month, essentially pausing their investigation into whether Mr. Trump inflated the value of his assets to obtain favorable loan terms from banks.
The precise reasons for Mr. Bragg’s pullback are unknown, and he has made few public statements about the status of the inquiry since taking office, but the prosecutors had encountered a number of challenges in pursuing Mr. Trump. Notably, they had thus far been unable to persuade any Trump Organization executives to cooperate and turn on Mr. Trump.
Unlike other investigations targeting President Trump, the Manhattan D.A. investigation is not about Russia or insurrection or mean tweets; this investigation is focused on Trump’s business practices; namely, did he inflate the value of his assets to defraud his lenders?
This investigation was launched by the Manhattan district attorney’s office while Clinton comrade and globalist insider Cyrus Vance sat in the big chair in that office. A grand jury was impaneled to hear evidence and Vance was determined to see Trump indicted. But that was then and this is now.
In November, Bragg was elected district attorney in Manhattan. And while he is the first black person to hold that office, the liberal media found themselves torn as to how to report on his victory. Competing values often cause cognitive dissonance. Liberal media would naturally want to make a big deal out of Bragg’s skin color — but at the same time, they would want to find an anti-Trump angle. The New York Times found an awkward balance, reporting, “Alvin Bragg Wins, Becoming First Black D.A. in Manhattan” with the subhead reading, “A former federal prosecutor, Mr. Bragg will take over an office that has brought charges against the family business of former president Donald J. Trump.”
The dream of Vance and Company began to fall apart after Bragg’s election as Manhattan D.A. As quoted from the Times above, prosecutors “have not questioned any witnesses in front of the grand jury for more than a month.” And now, the two leads in the prosecutorial investigation have turned in their papers. And while neither of those prosecutors have made statements as to their unexpected resignations, Bragg’s office released a statement saying that he was “grateful for their service” and that the investigation was ongoing.
But as the Times points out, it has been more than a month since the grand jury has heard from witnesses and the clock is ticking on this grand jury. Special grand juries are impaneled for a six-month term, And as the Times reports,
Time is running out for this grand jury, whose term is scheduled to expire in April. Prosecutors can ask jurors to vote to extend their term but generally avoid doing so. They also are often reluctant to impanel a new grand jury after an earlier one has heard testimony, because witnesses could make conflicting statements if asked to testify again.
And without Mr. Dunne, a high-ranking veteran of the office who has been closely involved with the inquiry for years, and Mr. Pomerantz, a leading figure in New York legal circles who was enlisted to work on it, the yearslong investigation could peter out.
And while the investigation had been appearing to gain steam — and despite the Times’ claim that it could peter out — it had already begun to peter out. Even the Times reported that though a previous “burst of activity offered a sign that Mr. Bragg was forging ahead with the grand jury phase of the investigation” that had already begun to change. And “in recent weeks, that activity has ceased, and Mr. Dunne and Mr. Pomerantz have been seen only rarely.” The resignations of Dunne and Pomerantz are the effect of the failed investigation, not the cause. Like rats jumping off a sinking ship, the two lead prosecutors know to get out.
With the investigation losing all the steam it had gained, it takes on the hue of just another witch hunt against the man who has — so far — survived every attempt on the part of the establishment to bring him down.
But while President Trump has kept on keeping on, so have the witch-hunters. While grand juries are rarely extended beyond their six-month term, the stakes are high in this investigation, and it would not be surprising to see this becoming one of those rare instances. Even if this grand jury runs out the clock and is disbanded, there will almost certainly be something else for the establishment to use as a pretext for another investigation.
After all, President Trump appears to be setting the stage for a run at a second term as their least-favorite president.
