Trump’s lawyer calls for investigation of Manhattan prosecutors over possible indictment

Former President Donald Trump’s lawyer is demanding an investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office because prosecutors believe possible impeachment of Trump in connection with an alleged payment of “hush money” to an adult film star in 2016.

Joe Taccapino, Trump’s lawyer, accused Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg and his predecessor, Cyrus Vance, as well as several prosecutors on their staff, of conducting a “politically motivated investigation” in a letter sent Friday to the commissioner of the New York Department of Investigation. .

Tacopino wrote that prosecutors had “armed” his office by “looking into every aspect of President Trump’s personal life and business dealings, going back decades, in hopes of finding some legal basis — however far-fetched, novel or convoluted — to impeach him. responsibilities. ”

A spokesman for Bragg declined to comment. Vance did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

The letter was sent days after Trump was subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury investigating a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, an adult film star whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. Such invitations to the subjects of the investigation often indicate that a decision on indictment is imminent.

Taccapino told CBS News on Monday, “He will not be involved in this process — a process that we and most election law experts believe has absolutely no legal merit.”

Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, admitted that he arranged the payment days before The 2016 electionclaiming that he and Trump believed it would hurt Trump’s presidential campaign if Daniels went public with an alleged affair with the businessman-turned-politician.

Cohen is cooperating with and encouraging the investigation, and has held more than half a dozen hour-long meetings with prosecutors over the past two months. He is testifying before a grand jury on Monday, two sources familiar with the matter confirmed.

Tacopina’s letter demanding an investigation contains extensive quotations from a memoirs former Manhattan Special Assistant District Attorney Mark Pomeranz, who led the office’s investigation into Trump for a year starting in February 2021.

In his book, Pomerantz writes that the Daniels payout was known internally as the “zombie case” because it was repeatedly left for dead before investigators brought it back to life.

Tacopino accused Pomeranz in his letter of a “scorched earth” effort to hold Trump accountable. Pomeranz, however, has not worked for the DA’s office in more than a year. He resigned in February 2022, writing in his resignation letter that he believed newly elected U.S. Attorney Alvin Bragg was not ready to bring charges against Trump — and Pomeranz said Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus Vance, was ready .

After that, Bragg repeatedly said that the investigation was ongoing.

A spokesman for Pomerantz declined to comment.

The letter claims that the reopening of the Hush Money investigation was the result of “political pressure.”

Leaving the district attorney’s office after Friday’s meeting, Lanny Davis, Cohen’s attorney, praised prosecutors’ current efforts in the case.

“We were very impressed with the professionalism of this group of prosecutors,” said Davis, who at various times over the past two months called the investigation “thorough” and “methodical.”