Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. Were Close to Being Charged With Felony Fraud

The following article by Jesse Eisinger and Justin Elliott with ProPublica and Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz with WNYC was posted on the ProPublica website October 4, 2017:

Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr., arrive at the 58th presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2017. (Win McNamee/Pool via Bloomberg/Getty Images)

This article is a collaboration between ProPublica, WNYC and The New Yorker and is not subject to our Creative Commons license.

In the spring of 2012, Donald Trump’s two eldest children, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr., found themselves in a precarious legal position. For two years, prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office had been building a criminal case against them for misleading prospective buyers of units in the Trump SoHo, a hotel and condo development that was failing to sell. Despite the best efforts of the siblings’ defense team, the case had not gone away. An indictment seemed like a real possibility. The evidence included emails from the Trumps making clear that they were aware they were using inflated figures about how well the condos were selling to lure buyers. Continue reading “Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. Were Close to Being Charged With Felony Fraud”

Trump’s Russia Lawyer Isn’t Seeking Security Clearance, And May Have Trouble Getting One C

The following article by Justin Elliott and Jesse Eisinger was posted on the ProPublica website July 11, 2017:

Marc Kasowitz speaks to the press on June 8, responding to the testimony of fired FBI Diector James Comey. Credit: Jim Watson, AFP, Getty Images

The ongoing investigations into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia involve reams of classified material. Yet Marc Kasowitz, the New York lawyer whom President Donald Trump has hired to defend him in these inquiries, told ProPublica through a spokesman that he does not have a security clearance — the prerequisite for access to government secrets. Nor does he expect to seek one.

Several lawyers who have represented presidents and senior government officials said they could not imagine handling a case so suffused with sensitive material without a clearance. Continue reading “Trump’s Russia Lawyer Isn’t Seeking Security Clearance, And May Have Trouble Getting One C”