People vs. Donald Trump An inside account

Former federal prosecutor Pomerantz, who came out of retirement to assist Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance's investigation into Donald Trump, provides a thorough account of how the inquiry unfolded, and why it was put on hold when a new DA took office in 2022. Brought onboard in December 2020, Pomerantz worked pro bono to sort through a "long and unfocused laundry list" of issues identified by Vance and his team, including a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels and "the use of overstated financial statements and asset valuations" to obtain loans, to determine which, if any, should be prosecuted. He diligently explains the legal complications involved, including the lack of trustworthy eyewitnesses and "stalling tactics" by Trump. The biggest stumbling block, however, appears to have been a disagreement between Vance and incoming DA Alvin Bragg about whether the risk of losing a case against Trump was greater than the need to "vindicate the rule of law." Pomerantz builds a persuasive argument in favor of prosecution while acknowledging that Bragg's tenure would have been "defined and ruined" by a loss. Those hoping for juicy new details will be largely disappointed, but Pomerantz offers a unique glimpse into white-collar criminal prosecution. It's an eye-opening lesson in the many shades of the law. (Feb.)

A former federal prosecutor recounts the failed effort to bring charges against Donald Trump. "Over the months that I and others worked on the case, we developed evidence convincing us that Donald Trump had committed serious crimes," writes Pomerantz, who was brought out of retirement to help Manhattan's district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., investigate financial misdeeds. The author delivers a deep--and sometimes ponderously detailed--account of what that involved. One point was Trump's habit of valuing his properties high for the purposes of bank loans and low for the purposes of paying taxes: Whereas one at 40 Wall St. was valued at more than $527 million for a lender, Trump valued it at between $16 million and $19 million for taxes. To Pomerantz's chief associates, that "looked like fraud" and led the DA's office to the verge of filing criminal charges. They did not, in part because gaming numbers is a common ploy in New York real estate circles. On the matter of Michael Cohen's payout, on Trump's behalf, of hush money to Stormy Daniels "so that she would not disclose her alleged affair with Trump on the eve of the 2016 election," the legal reasoning gets complicated. The payout becomes illegal only if it's established that this disclosure is an act of extortion, while the demonstrated falsification of business records is only a misdemeanor in New York. In the end, the DA went after lesser players, including Cohen and Trump Organization finance director Allen Weisselberg, both of whom received prison sentences for their crimes. When Vance left office, his successor, to Pomerantz's great consternation, dropped the investigation because, the author suggests, he "had scant experience in leading or defending high-profile prosecutions." Pomerantz's dour conclusion for the moment is that "once again, Donald Trump had managed to dance between the raindrops of accountability." Yet, he adds, there are other legal avenues to take, so stay tuned. A convincingly damning case that dives deep into the tangles of both law and finance. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.