The former leader of the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into Donald Trump has pushed back against criticism that the details revealed in his new tell-all book will hurt any case brought against the former president.
“I think the criticism is unfounded,” Mark Pomerantz told Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press,” predicting that his book would “make no sense” for any prosecution.
Pomerantz’s book, «The People Against Donald Trump,» describes his work investigating Trump’s alleged financial crimes as a special prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney’s office. Pomerantz, a former federal prosecutor, was hired by former District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. to lead the investigation into Trump’s finances. The team successfully indicted the Trump Organization for fraud, but Pomerantz resigned a month into the term of new Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, when Bragg himself refused to greenlight a case against Trump.
Todd noted that many former prosecutors, including Andrew Weissmann, a member of special counsel Robert Mueller’s team and an MSNBC contributor, and former federal prosecutor Barbara McQuade, have said publicly that the revelations in Pomerantz’s book could hamper attempts to prosecute Trump and be armed. by Trump’s defense attorneys at trial.
The challenges to mount a jury trial “flow from the ocean of spilled ink about Donald Trump and his lies and what I believe to be his crimes,” Pomerantz responded. «I don’t think my book will make the slightest difference if there is a jury trial.»
Pomerantz said Trump’s defense attorneys would likely object to «everything under the sun» and predicted that the district attorney’s office will tell the court: «There is nothing in this book that should prejudice this prosecution. So the book has no sense, it doesn’t provide any kind of defense.’”
The Manhattan prosecutor’s office now appears to be moving forward with a potential prosecution of Trump over alleged hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels. Pomerantz noted that anything in his book about that case had already been in the public domain «for literally years,» via the media, former Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s book and the federal case against Cohen over the payments.
“I am as sure as I can that this is not going to compromise the prosecution,” Pomerantz said.
Pressed by Todd, Pomerantz also insisted that Vance had greenlighted an impeachment of Trump before leaving office at the end of 2021. Asked why no charges had been filed, Pomerantz said the case was not ready: «We couldn’t do it.» .”
Bragg, who took office in January 2022, said he and other prosecutors reviewed the case and determined it was not ready.