Former President Donald Trump teased his political future during a speech to North Carolina Republicans on Saturday, but he also grappled with the ongoing criminal investigation of his business by the State of New York.
“You know what? It’s a disgrace to our country,” Trump said to his supporters. “It’s prosecutorial misconduct. They’re in search of a crime. It’s a fishing expedition.”
For Trump, it’s the continuation of the five-year “witch hunt” and “hoax” his political opponents used to attack him since he first took office.
Armed with information about the president’s business after combing through his tax returns, the team of prosecutors is reportedly pressuring top officials in the organization to give up information incriminating Trump.
“They’ve gotten millions of pages of documents,” Trump griped, and added, “They’re going through every deal I’ve ever done, millions and millions of pages. If there’s a comma, mistake, if there’s a misspelling, it’s problems.”
A day earlier, the Manhattan district attorney subpoenaed a financial executive for the Trump organization senior vice president and controller Jeffery McConney to testify before the grand jury.
Investigators also focused their attention on Chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, another longtime financial executive for the organization.
With the prosecution pressing Weisselberg and McConney, allies of the president are signaling concerns the prosecutors may be drawing closer to announcing a criminal investigation.
In May, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the direction of the investigation was “in a criminal capacity” and was working with Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. on the case.
“We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigation into the company is no longer purely civil in nature,” spokesperson Fabien Levy said in the statement. “We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan DA. We have no additional comment at this time.”
Manhattan’s district attorney Cyrus Vance also announced a special grand jury for the investigation, expected to be impaneled for six months to hear evidence about Trump’s business, according to the Washington Post.
Old characters from Trump’s past who already turned on the president have resurfaced for a renewed investigation into the president including his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who met repeatedly with the Manhattan District Attorney on his case.
Porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims she had a one-night stand with Trump, also expressed her interest in testifying for the case during an interview Monday with CNN.
“I have not been called to testify yet, but I’ve been very forthcoming since the beginning of all this that I would love nothing more than my day in court and to give a deposition and to provide whatever evidence that they need from me,” Daniels said.
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