In a rare public statement, Alvin Bragg denied that the three-year investigation was over or that his jury term expiring this month would impede his office’s ability to prosecute.
Citing confidentiality rules, the district attorney said he could not discuss details of the investigation, but vowed to make the findings public when it was over.
“In recent weeks, the Manhattan Attorney General’s Office has been repeatedly asked if our investigation into former President Donald J. Trump, the Trump Organization, and his leadership is continuing,” Bragg wrote.  “Is.”
The Democratic confirmation of the investigation was part of a double dose of bad legal news for Trump on Thursday.
It was shortly after the New York Attorney General’s Office asked a judge to despise Trump and impose a $ 10,000-a-day fine on him for failing to meet the March 31 deadline to submit documents to a parallel political inquiry.  Trump makes a summons to testify in this investigation, but not a summons that requires him to provide documents.
“Instead of obeying a court order, Mr. Trump is trying to avoid it,” said Attorney General Letitia James.
Trump accused James of being a “Democratic Party” and described her efforts to impose sanctions on him as “continuing the biggest witch hunt of all time.”
“I have been researched by Democrats more than Billy the Kid, Jesse James and Al Capone combined,” Trump said in a statement.  “This has been happening for years and in all cases, I was innocent.  ”
Bragg’s statement that Trump’s investigation was still active marked his first public comment on the issue, as the two men who led it, Mark Pomerandz and Carey Dunn, resigned on February 23 in a dispute over its direction. case.
Pomerans, a former mafia prosecutor, wrote in a resignation letter that he believed Trump was “guilty of many crimes” but that Bragg, who inherited the investigation when he took office in January, decided not to prosecute.
Pomerandz said in a letter published last month by the New York Times that there was “sufficient evidence to substantiate Mr. Trump’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt” over allegations that he falsified financial statements to secure loans. and decorate his image as a wealthy businessman.
“I believe that your decision not to prosecute Donald Trump now, and based on the existing records, is wrong and completely contrary to the public interest,” Pomerandz wrote.
Bragg’s silence after the resignations and the publication of Pomerantz’s letter on March 23 gave rise to a narrative that the investigation was essentially dead.
Following the departure of Pomerantz and Dunne, Trump’s lawyer, Robert Fischetti, told the Associated Press: “I’m a very happy person.  In my opinion, this investigation is over. “
Pomerantz and Dunne launched the investigation under former prosecutor Cyrus Vance Jr.
Pomerandz wrote that Vance asked them to file charges against Trump and other defendants “as soon as possible,” but Bragg came to a different conclusion after examining the evidence.
Vance and Bragg are Democrats.  No former president has been charged with a crime.
In a statement Thursday, Bragg sought to reverse the story by warning Trump that it was not over, reassuring his supporters, who backed him in part because he vowed to continue the investigation into the former Republican president.
Bragg said a team of “dedicated, experienced career prosecutors” was working on the investigation, led by Susan Hoffinger, the head of the investigation department, and that they were “documenting, questioning witnesses and investigating previously uninvestigated evidence”.
“In the long and proud tradition of prosecutions in the Manhattan DA Office, we are thoroughly investigating and monitoring the events without fear or favor,” Bragg said.
So far, the three-year investigation has only led to allegations of tax fraud against Trump’s company, the Trump Agency, and its longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weiselberg, for lucrative marginal benefits such as rent, car payments and tuition.  They have pleaded not guilty.
Weisselberg’s lawyers filed court documents in February asking a judge to dismiss his case, arguing that prosecutors had targeted him for punishing him for not telling the former president.
Trump cited potential dangers from the criminal case as he appeals the decision, which requires him to take an oath of allegiance to questions in James’s political inquiry.
Trump’s lawyers argue that James, who commissioned two lawyers to work on the criminal case, uses the pretext of civil testimony to circumvent a state law that prohibits prosecutors from summoning someone to testify before a criminal court without them. give immunity.
James, a Democrat, said her research revealed evidence that Trump may have been questioning the value of assets such as golf courses and skyscrapers in his financial statements for more than a decade.
Bragg said his career and prospects have been shaped by “high-profile, complex investigations,” including a lawsuit he oversaw while he was deputy attorney general at his office that led to the closure of the Trump charity for allegedly using it. to promote its policy.  and business interests.
“Prosecutors who perform their duties can not and do not only pursue cases that are ‘slam dunks,'” Bragg wrote.  “On the contrary, every case must be heard for the right reason – that is, as required by justice.  “I have done this throughout my career, no matter how easy or difficult a case may be.”
A large jury convened to investigate Trump last fall did not meet regularly for several months and its term is expected to end soon, but Bragg said there are juries sitting in Manhattan all the time and “there is no magic at all before.” reported dates. “
“In the meantime, we will not discuss our research steps.  Nor will we discuss issues of the big jury “.  wrote Bragg.  “In short, as we said before, the investigation is ongoing.”
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Associated Press reporter Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.