https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-manhattan-d-a-s-trump-organization-case-ends-with-a-whimper/
Allan Weisselberg, the 75-year-old former chief financial officer for the Trump Organization, is pleading guilty to the fairly piddling tax-fraud charges on which he was indicted by the office of Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg last July. The case was always obviously not about Weisselberg or the accused crime, but about showing some progress against Donald Trump and either (1) obtaining Weisselberg’s cooperation against Trump or (2) punishing him for not cooperating. Under the plea deal, Weisselberg is likely to spend only a few months in prison, and he will not cooperate.
What does this all mean? For Bragg, it likely means that his office is closing up shop on an overreaching, overzealous, overpriced witch-hunt of an investigation, and putting his resources to some better use. Some diehard enthusiasts of the perennial “walls are closing in on Trump” narrative note that Weisselberg may now be unable to invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege against testifying, but how far does that get anyone? If Weisselberg were questioned about matters other than the small-beer tax issues he’s pleading to, he could still invoke the privilege unless granted immunity — but then, he could have been given immunity a long time ago if he was seen as an enthusiastic cooperator. The most that is likely to be accomplished would be to compel him to testify in the civil proceeding pursued by the New York attorney general’s office, but the exposure in that case does not present a realistic path to sending Trump to prison or making it impossible for him to run for office again. Anything else is noise; voters already assume that Trump is the kind of guy who cuts every corner on his taxes and in his business accounting that he can get away with. And Weisselberg is highly unlikely to be in position to incriminate Trump on anything bearing on the 2020 election or January 6.
Yet again: Maybe the legal system can finally find a silver bullet against Trump. But it still does not look that likely.
Let’s review why the collapse of the Manhattan D.A.’s case was inevitable. In March, the New York Times published the resignation letter from special assistant D.A. Mark Pomerantz to Bragg arguing for prosecuting Trump. As Charlie Cooke explained at the time, it is shameful in our system of justice to have a prosecutor do this kind of hit-and-run public argument where he accuses someone of a crime without even detailing the charges or walking through the supporting evidence, let alone making his case to a jury of the defendant’s peers. But taking the letter at face value, here is what Pomerantz said:
I believe that Donald Trump is guilty of numerous felony violations of the Penal Law in connection with the preparation and use of his annual Statements of Financial Condition. His financial statements were false, and he has a long history of fabricating information relating to his personal finances and lying about his assets to banks, the national media, counterparties, and many others, including the American people.