Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen predicts more indictments
NEW YORK (AP) — New York prosecutors have charged the Trump Organization with a 15-year tax scheme in which the company and its CFO Allen Weisselberg allegedly avoided paying taxes, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said.
Vance’s office didn’t accuse former President Donald Trump himself but noted in court papers filed Monday that other charges could follow.
The charges were announced as Trump continues to weigh a return to politics after losing the last presidential election. In a statement Monday, Trump accused prosecutors of “prosecutorial misconduct” and said he’s being “unfairly attacked and abused,” repeating his false claim that he’s the victim of a “witch hunt.”
Cohen, Trump’s former attorney and fixer who himself pleaded guilty in 2018 to campaign finance violations and other crimes, predicted in a tweet Monday that Weisselberg won’t be the only one indicted.
“I don’t believe for one second that Weisselberg will be the only one indicted,” Cohen wrote. Cohen, who has been cooperating with prosecutors, has previously suggested that Trump himself could face charges.
Weisselberg and attorneys for the Trump Organization pleaded not guilty in a Manhattan courtroom where the case was formally lodged.
The former president’s ex-lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, faces legal troubles as well. Last week, Cohen filed a lawsuit accusing Giuliani of defamation after Giuliani said during a podcast last year that Cohen lied under oath. Cohen also in separate filings is trying to pare back a 2018 conviction he said was fueled by a desire to hurt Trump.
Cohen has been urging Weisselberg to cooperate with prosecutors, but Weisselberg hasn’t committed to that.
The charges could signal an escalation of Vance’s investigation and potentially put pressure on Weisselberg to cooperate.
Trump has decried recent efforts to investigate him as politically motivated.“A highly partisan and politically motivated prosecution,” he has called it, accusing prosecutors of harassing him and his company.