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That someone almost surely includes longtime Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, who basically ran the joint under Trump’s guidance for decades. According to former Trump fixer Michael Cohen, all roads lead back to Weisselberg, and he will almost surely flip on Trump in order to save himself and his sons, who also have legal exposure through their ties to Trump and his family business.
In fact, we have already gotten a glimpse of the drama to come if the main players in the probe turn on each other. In a transcript released earlier this year of a deposition conducted by the District of Columbia Attorney General’s Office for a separate probe, Ivanka Trump couldn’t exactly recall what role Weisselberg played at the company.
Asked who Weisselberg was, Ivanka responded, “He is the — I would have to see what his, his — I don’t know his exact title but he’s an executive at the company.”
Weisselberg has worked at Trump Org since the 1970s and Ivanka has served as executive vice president of the company since 2005. But when an attorney general is investigating potential criminal misuse of inaugural funds, Ivanka suddenly develops dementia at the ripe old age of 39. Rough go.
So it appears the knives will be out on both sides. Former Melania Trump friend Stephanie Winston Wolkoff on Monday told MSNBC’s Ari Melber, “This family is going to pretend that it all had to do with Allen, and that Allen was in charge of everything, Allen was responsible, and they’re all going to flip against Allen.”
So at some point, we will likely be privy to a dazzling legal spectacle brought to you courtesy of Trump, his family, and some of his closest associates over the years. Vance’s term ends in December and, while he may not serve as DA long enough to see a prosecution through to completion, he will almost certainly want a chance to finalize any indictments before he leaves office.
Of course, the Manhattan DA’s case is just one of more than a dozen ongoing civil and criminal investigations of Trump. Just Security has a handy Trump litigation tracker in case you need a refresher.
But the bottom line is that so-called “Teflon Don” can no longer use the Oval Office to shield himself from a bevy of probes that have been piling up at his doorstep for years. That all became very real this week with news of Vance’s grand jury.
What also became very real is the likelihood that the heart of any case against Trump, the Trump Org, Trump family members, or Trump associates will serve as a backdrop to next year’s critical midterm elections. Congressional Republicans—who chose to strap themselves to a human time bomb rather than reconstitute their party—could spend the better part of 2022 beating back questions about their support for Trump and whether they continue to view him as the standard-bearer of their party.
In fact, GOP incumbents and candidates could be forced to either embrace an indicted ex-president who sullied the Oval Office or face the wrath of a self-obsessed man who would gladly sink the entire Republican Party on the way to trying to save himself from abandonment, humiliation, and any potential criminal prosecution.
You gotta hand it to GOP minority leaders Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell—their exercise in craven sycophancy is coming up roses.
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