Little-Known Law New York Prosecutors Can Use to Impeach Donald Trump For Years To Come

The Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation into former President Donald Trump appears to be over, but little-known New York law is giving prosecutors time to build a better case against him and convince the new DA to hesitate to act — or wait until he takes his place.

New York law enforcement has five years from the date of the alleged crime to formally bring charges for most felonies, but under New York law § 30.10 (4)(a)(i) ), that clock stops for another five years when a defendant is an out-of-state. That 10-year grace period means Trump’s time in the White House and his post-presidential political exile at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida could bring prosecutors much more. more time needed.

According to sources familiar with the investigation, prosecutors reviewed thousands of spreadsheets and financial records from the Trump Organization and slowly built a case against Trump for allegedly inflated value. assets, lied to business forms, evaded taxes, cheated the bank and ran his company like a mob.

The same sources said the Manhattan district attorney’s team had been looking into using the state’s stopwatch measure in the Trump investigation.

New York law provides that “any period of time…during the defendant’s continuous stay outside of this state” does not count, up to a maximum of 5 years.

Adam Kaufmann, an attorney who has run the Manhattan DA’s investigative unit for three years, said he doesn’t recall ever relying on the clock pusher in his prosecutors’ cases. But he recognizes it as a useful tool — one that would have to appear on any Trump indictment to determine from the outset that any criminal charges were timely.

“You don’t often come across cases of white collars that are so…old. Kaufmann says you’re trying to achieve something more than five years ago that won’t happen as much.

However, he added, “it’s easy to prove he’s not in New York state. There will be records of where he has been practically every day for four years. “

This rarely used type of time machine has suddenly grown in importance.

Apparently DA Alvin Bragg Jr. will not sign the indictment against the former president until he can believe he has a stronger criminal case. Bragg’s refusal to file charges against Trump himself prompted two of the top prosecutors on the team, Carey Dunne and Mark Pomerantz, to resign in protest in February, citing Bragg’s reluctance in his resignation letter. surname. And several sources have told The Daily Beast that a lead prosecutor on the team, Solomon Shinerock, has become less involved in the investigation.

Under growing pressure, Bragg felt it wise last week to issue a statement assuring that the “investigation continues” and pledging to “make our findings public — even if they I conclude my work without charge or proceed with an indictment. ”

However, it is not clear if Trump’s lawyers are preparing for a cease-and-desist measure, likely from prosecutors hoping that their desire to impeach the twice-impeached former president exists. longer than Bragg’s tenure.

Five Trump advisers, including former and current attorneys, told The Daily Beast this week they weren’t aware of this confusing New York law, with some asking questions like, “How legal is that?” how?”

For more than a year now, Trump himself has privately told close associates that he expects his enemies to investigate or sue him “for the rest of my life,” according to three people who have heard him use this same phrase, including: most recently earlier this year.

“He joked that he was making boat payments to his lawyers, because of how ‘most investigated’ he is in the world,” one of these people remembers. again.

New York isn’t the only state with this type of disruption, known as “tolling.” Florida gives law enforcement an additional three years if the respondent is “repeatedly absent from the state.” In Georgia, the statute of limitations in civil cases can be paused indefinitely until someone returns.

And there’s a long history of how this has been used in New York. In 2019, a state court judge declined to bring charges against a doctor, Ricardo Cruciani, who was facing charges of drugging and raping his New York City patient last year. 2013. The judge noted the doctor spent most of the next few years in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Even so, Bragg’s prosecutors have limited time, no matter how you look at it.

Having singled out the Trump Organization and then-CFO Allen Weisselberg last summer, prosecutors convened a new grand jury in the fall for a new round of indictments. But the grand jury’s term expires at the end of this month.

Prosecutors could seek to extend or remove it and start over with a different set of jurors. But they will almost certainly then face charges that they shopped and misled the justice system. Plus, the DA’s office will have to bring back witnesses and hope they don’t change their story in a way that casts doubt on their testimony, several former prosecutors told The Daily Beast.

The former prosecutors also noted that using this smart time period for state statutes gives investigators the ability to track down more witnesses, review additional documents, and apply pressure. more force to oust Trump Organization employees against their bosses. And that, in turn, could help them convince their own boss through the indictment against Trump.

What remains unclear is how far prosecutors can reach.

If Manhattan prosecutors do end up hitting Trump on a tentative charge of forging business records, this legal pause button allows them to retrieve any financial documents he signed back in 2012. But if investigators prosecute a rare crime of corporate corruption, they’ll get five extra years that will allow them to dig even deeper – by 2007, according to a knowledgeable former prosecutor who asked to remain anonymous because of their potential connection to the Trump case.

Then there’s the issue of when the crime actually happened.

Unlike violent felonies that can happen at a specific time and place, financial crimes are understood as offenses that continue to happen — especially if fake documents are subsequently used. to get a bank loan or reduce taxes. As one former prosecutor pointed out, investigators could argue the 2016 tax relief Trump received by increasing the value of his Seven Springs woodland estate north of the City. New York based on documents he had approved years earlier.

As is evident in the current Manhattan DA case against Weisselberg and the Trump Organization, prosecutors are working on the theory that these financial crimes continue to occur for years. In that indictment, investigators cited a criminal conspiracy that allegedly lasted from March 31, 2005 until June 30, 2021, the day before he was charged.

New York County prosecutors working on the Trump investigation in a single position, began their effort after the Justice Department failed to do so.

The federal prosecutor Trump himself appointed to the Southern District of New York, which oversees criminal affairs in Manhattan, did not indict the president who placed him there. He probably couldn’t even if he wanted to; The Justice Department continues to abide by an internal memo that prohibits pursuing a lawsuit against a sitting president.

The team of local prosecutors, set up by the previous district attorney, Cy Vance Jr., pursued the Trump investigation even when they knew he was beyond their reach by staying in the White House. In fact, it’s one reason that Kaufmann teamed up with two other attorneys a few years ago to draft an amendment to New York law that would try to freeze the statute of limitations if a person (like Trump) is still allowed to stay. sheltered by their official position. , he told The Daily Beast. The effort ultimately went nowhere, but New York’s time-stretching offering essentially did the same thing.

However, even if prosecutors could technically go behind Trump years from now, that possibility could be unlikely. If Bragg ultimately chose not to indict Trump, four former prosecutors discussing the matter with The Daily Beast laughed at the idea that a new DA would pursue charges.

“It is hard to think that a new prosecutor would blow something up and start a full investigation when this has been going on for years, assuming that the decision not to prosecute is the last word of the prosecution. Bragg about it,” Kaufmann said.