The Washington Post reports that things are heating up in Cyrus Vance Jr.’s investigation of the Trump Organization:
Investigators from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, acting on a grand jury subpoena, took possession of financial records Thursday morning from the apartment of Jennifer Weisselberg, the former daughter-in-law of a top Trump Organization officer.
Jennifer Weisselberg was married to Barry Weisselberg — the son of Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg — from 2004 to 2018. She has previously said that she had seven boxes of financial records from both her ex-husband and his father, some of which were obtained through divorce litigation. On Thursday, she loaded three boxes and a laptop computer onto a valet cart and wheeled them from her building to a black Jeep waiting outside.
This isn’t a shock since it’s been known for a while that Vance is coming after Allen Weisselberg. Previously, however, it was assumed that the immediate target was Allen’s son, Barry. The idea being that if Allen won’t flip to protect himself perhaps he’ll do so keep his son out of prison.
Yet, this reports states that some of the subpoenaed items are bank records for accounts held jointly by Allen and Barry, so it could be that this adds to the criminal liability the Trump Organization CFO is facing. That’s important because the elder Weisselberg was granted limited immunity for his testimony in the prosecution of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.
It’s also important to remember that there must be a reason the grand jury wanted to see these bank statements. It appears that the Trump Organization probably violated tax laws by giving non-salary compensation to one or both of the Weisselbergs, and it could be that the easiest way for them to avoid accountability is to cooperate in the broader investigation into the former president’s financial dealings. I know I wouldn’t do jail time to protect Donald Trump, would you?
Its these subtle details of the house of crime that Donald Trump represents that is the most confounding aspect of living in his moment of history.
If this were a run-of-the-mill RICO case against an organized crime family, or a cartel, this father and son and daughter-in-law would have to be in hiding. But with Trump, you have a man that models himself after gangsters, acts with the impunity of a crime family head, but lacks the how-should-we-say “killer instinct” or cunning to meet this problem in the manner he clearly aspires to. And I’m in no way trying to imply that this is in anyway surprising, after observing this exact behavior as president, but wow.