Preet Bharara, former US attorney in the Southern District of NY, on Trump’s criminal exposure in New York.
I don’t know because I’ve not been in the grand jury, I’ve not interviewed the witnesses. Cy Vance doesn’t call me up and tell me stuff, but there is some signaling going on. Cy Vance is not running for reelection. Vance is, as they say, a lame duck. As a lame duck, he’s done certain things, including hiring an outside forensic accounting firm, which is not super unusual but it’s not that common. He’s done something else that is less common, which is hire an outside lawyer, Mark Pomerantz, who’s a very distinguished, well-respected lawyer in New York. I’m not going to put too much weight on it, but it seems like the kind of move you make when you believe that there’s going to be a charge or there’s a good likelihood of a charge, because it’s a pretty public thing to do. It also risks alienating people in your own office. It’s just a gut feeling that I have that taking these actions indicates to me that that office believes there’s a decent likelihood of a charge, and so that’s the one I’d be watching.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/05/preet-bharara-donald-trump-criminal-charges-rudy-giuliani-accountability.html
I am under the impression that tax lawyers in the real estate industry have the following “line:” if you use duplicate returns, it is clearly illegal — flashing one set of docs to the banks, and one set to the government. But if duplicate returns are not used, I’m not sure it’s easy to find exposure. It isn’t unrealistic, in tax circles (I am told), to valuate differently when asking for loans than when assessing tax, so long as the docs you use when assessing each are otherwise legitimate in what they purport to be. I didn’t practice tax or real estate law, so I am a little bit unsure. But I do know from tax lawyers that real estate valuation is a game — that is actually pretty clear in the industry.